'Curse this life, curse this damned duty, curse this accursed camp!'
Uriel's mood couldn't be any more foul than it was right now.
Soaked from head to toe in the thin mist that would emerge every single day precisely an hour before sunrise, he continued to pour his complaints out in his head while gritting his teeth in reality as he continued on the path along the forest's edge.
'This is what I get for being diligent? This is my reward for working so damn hard?!'
Resisting the desire to just slam his fist into the nearby tree, Uriel had no other choice but to grit his teeth even harder.
Acting up while on camp patrol duty was one thing… But acting out while accompanied by one of the camp's higher officers?
For his career in the knights, this was a massive no-go zone.
"There's nothing better than this cold mist to wake a man up in the morning, isn't it?"
Oblivious to the inner struggle of his subordinate, Castor, the academy delegate superintendent to the camp, smiled as he raised his face, seemingly in a bid to expose it even more to the bone-chilling cold moisture in the air.
"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm not yet mature enough to appreciate it," Uriel admitted, squeezing his hands and buttocks down in a bid to stop as much warmth from seeping through his wet clothes to the outside.
"That's…" Castor glanced over his arm, only to smile gently before shaking his head. "That's understandable. I used to hate this duty with a passion back in my days. But you see…"
This middle-aged, perfectly built man shook his head with an annoying degree of profundity written all over his face.
"Once you grow up and get past your most energetic period of life, waking up…"
The man stopped for a moment, both his voice and his steps as he looked even further up than before.
"Once you reach a certain age, you will forget what it means to wake up well-rested. But wake up, you must, so finding those small, clever ways to make the mornings more bearable is going to become your favorite pastime."
Grinning from ear to ear, Castor chuckled a little, only to then shake his head again.
"But I guess it would be too much for me to assume you can appreciate it at your age. And seeing how you cannot even hold your shivering down…" He paused for a moment, only to shake his head for the third time before waving his hand in the air.
"How about you go and run for a bit? Doing so should warm you up, and you could finish the patrol route a bit faster to go get proper warmth back in your shed."
Uriel's eyes widened a bit with excitement born from those suggestions.
'Wait, can I really?'
Was it a trap? Was it a test? Or maybe… those were the genuine feelings of the camp's superintendent?
Uriel's position in the knightling camp was out of the ordinary… and the young man knew it better than anyone else.
He didn't belong to those peasants trying to earn their qualifications to join the academy, but he was no ordinary knight-to-be either. Instead, following only the courses of his own choosing, he would stay in the camp for many times longer than any other cadets, helping out with its organization and administration in exchange for the chance to learn from the very best.
While the path Uriel took was uncommon, it wasn't unheard of either. And while he was one of the fortunate few field noble designates, he couldn't really afford to make mistakes.
'The moment I stumble, there's a whole bunch of potential designation candidates ready to snatch this role from me,' Uriel thought, gritting his teeth from both the annoyance and the freezing cold, only accentuated by the moisture of the mist and the sharp winds rushing towards the forest, only to then slam into the trees and make the woods' direct perimeter all the worse to endure than the rest of the camp.
But…
Reason told Uriel to just clench his jaws, pray to the heavens, and endure the bone-chilling cold.
But something as lofty as reason paled when faced with the immediate desire to find some warmth!
"Thank you for your consideration, sir," Uriel stood at attention as he bashed his closed fist into his chest. "I will be going, then!"
By all means, this was a stupid idea.
To split up a two-man patrol unit meant going against all the treaties describing the very role of this scouting-slash-patrolling formation.
'Heck, knowing when following the treaties is necessary and when it is not is also a part of my training regime, isn't it?'
Finding just the right excuse, Uriel nodded his head to Castor to show his respect before taking a deep breath… and then taking off, using the warmth of actually pushing his muscles to slowly thaw the ice that seemingly took over his insides.
At first, running through the cold morning mist only made Uriel feel all the worse. But after a few tens of steps, the first signs of warmth started to finally appear as his muscles worked overtime to keep him going.
'This is starting to feel nice,' Uriel smiled at his own thoughts, finally able to put aside his hate of this accursed duty…
Only to stop right in his tracks when his senses rang for an alarm.
'Something… is not right…'
Rather than making a full stop, Uriel distanced himself away from the line of the trees, still making the slightly exaggerated movements of a rushed sprint while actively slowing himself down as he raised his awareness to its limits.
'There!'
His eyes snapped to the source of his unease, a small, bundled-up figure of one of the cadets, resting his back against a random tree while hot steam continued to rise up from him, thawing out the morning snow forever persisting within the forest's undergrowth.
Hot steam that only made it all the easier to notice all the dark blood covering the cadet from head to toe, as if he literally bathed in a monster's blood.
'A murder?!' Only coming to a stop once he found a tree wide enough to fully hide him away from the other party's view, Uriel calmed his breath down.
Now that he just managed to work out some sweat, stopping and letting the mist cool him right back down was a recipe for spending the next two weeks to a month in the infirmary tent. And the sight of that bloodied cadet only served to drive the nail for why the patrol units always consisted of, at the very least, a two-man cell.
'I really shouldn't have split away,' Uriel cursed under his breath, daring to take a slight, careful peek from beyond the tree.
Thankfully, the cadet didn't move.
He just sat down under the tree, breathing deeply while keeping his eyes shut, as if the presence of the monsters of the camp's forest was not something he would ever be concerned with.
'Maybe he's just resting? But why would he…'
Uriel squinted his eyes… only for his face to then turn still.
'Wait, isn't that the guy that didn't even bother checking how many score tokens he would get?!'