"Oh? Quite brave, aren’t you?"

Phield laughed.

"Of course I am. In a little over a year, I’ll be an adult. I’m going to become a lady knight."

Alexia proudly puffed out her chest. Judging from her figure, she looked nowhere near adulthood, but that did nothing to stop her confidence as she placed her hands on her hips.

"So I need to start getting real combat experience now."

"Youth really is full of energy."

Phield suddenly realized that he himself had only recently become an adult as well.

Maybe because he had been teaching them for so long, he sometimes ended up with the strange illusion that he was already an old man.

"Put away your little nail clipper. That thing would barely tickle a corrupted corpse."

Phield handed Alexia a crossbow.

"Use this instead. It packs a lot more force."

"My lord, I want to slash things, not shoot arrows."

The girl pushed the crossbow away without hesitation and bluntly refused.

Phield looked her up and down in surprise, roughly comparing her height.

"With your build, though, that might be difficult."

"I have teammates to help me, right Sarah?"

Turning toward her best friend, Alexia’s sky blue eyes were filled with expectation.

"Dear Sarah, help hold the corpse down for me."

"What?" Sarah quietly took two steps backward and awkwardly quoted reason at her.

"Refusing to use a crossbow when one is available is the behavior of an unintelligent person. I refuse to assist someone who has lost their rationality."

"Then... Lumi."

Alexia turned toward the catgirl Lumi.

"Meow meow meow, I have no idea what you’re talking about."

Lumi stared at the ground beneath her feet with an expression of complete innocence.

"Wow, the earth really is huge."

"A bunch of traitors."

Alexia helplessly covered her face.

Female friendship really wasn’t reliable at all. Phield couldn’t help being amused by them.

"Forget it. I’ll help you myself."

Phield let out a light whistle. The two remaining corrupted corpses in the distance immediately twisted their heads around and charged over while baring their rotten teeth.

With one clean motion, Phield chopped off the head of one corpse, then lifted his leg and kicked the other directly in the abdomen.

Even without using mana, the strength of a second tier knight was enough to cripple a corrupted corpse with a single kick.

"Crack!"

The sound of bones shattering rang out as the corpse collapsed onto one knee.

Phield strode forward, chopped off both of the corpse’s hands, then smashed all of its teeth apart.

"Alright. The rest is up to you."

"Huh? This isn’t challenging anymore."

Alexia complained resentfully.

"Try it first before talking big."

Phield had no intention of letting an accident happen.

After taking the longsword from him, Alexia immediately spun it with a flourish.

"I’ve trained really hard this whole time. A mere corrupted corpse is nothing to me."

The territory’s lessons included more than literacy. The children also learned combat skills directly from the military.

After speaking, she gripped the sword tightly with both hands. The constant movement of her throat made it obvious that she wasn’t nearly as calm as she pretended to be.

"Die!"

Holding the sword level like a cavalry lance, Alexia charged forward with all her strength.

The blood of the Sacred Griffin Empire flowed through her veins. A bloodline that loved battle and violence. An almost frenzied excitement surged from deep within her heart.

But corrupted corpses weren’t straw dummies from a training field.

Alexia’s thrust missed completely, and she slammed directly into the corpse’s chest.

The moment she looked up, she saw the corpse’s pale white eyeballs, its horrifying face hanging with rotten flesh, and the foul blood constantly dripping from its hollow mouth.

The sight nearly made Alexia wet herself from fear as icy terror shot straight to her head.

"Bang!"

The corrupted corpse wildly swung its arm and smashed its elbow against Alexia’s head.

"That hurts!"

Tears instantly welled up in Alexia’s eyes. She clutched the swelling lump on her head with her left hand and cried out in pain.

Fortunately, Phield had already cut off the corpse’s hands. Otherwise, that strike would have left claw wounds instead of blunt trauma, and without immediate treatment, it would likely have been fatal.

"Rip!"

As the corpse clawed forward like a mad dog, its elbow caught on Alexia’s white dress. The girl desperately tried to retreat, causing the skirt to tear straight down the middle and expose her snow white legs.

"???"

Phield was stunned.

Why did this development suddenly feel so wrong? It almost felt like some sort of defeat scene was about to begin loading.

Thankfully, Alexia successfully pulled away. Panting heavily, she raised her sword and slashed viciously at the pursuing corpse.

The battle between the girl and the corpse quickly turned into an intense back and forth exchange.

Several times during the fight, both Phield and Tisiana nearly intervened, but ultimately restrained themselves.

"Pshhk!"

As the girl gradually adapted to the corpse’s attack patterns, she sidestepped one of its lunges and drove her sword violently into the back of its head, the blade piercing all the way through one eye socket.

The corpse twitched twice as disgusting thick blood poured from the wound before finally collapsing motionless.

"Huff... huff..."

The girl looked like a mud covered monkey by now. Her breathing sounded like a broken bellows. After taking a long time to recover, she finally raised a cheerful victory sign.

"I did it."

"Well done. I believe you’ll become the pride of Nightfall Domain."

Phield never hesitated to give praise where it was deserved.

"Now go clean yourself up. Don’t accidentally swallow any corrupted fluids."

"Yes!"

After Alexia changed clothes and washed her face and hands clean, the group resumed their journey.

After traveling for quite some time, they finally arrived at the only iron mine in Nightfall Domain.

This was the place Rosalia once used to hide the key. Since it was located far from the manor, Phield previously lacked the strength to secure it, leaving this critical resource point abandoned until now.

"We need iron more and more now, whether for weapons or production."

Phield sighed helplessly as he thought about the outrageous prices of equipment outside the territory.

Mana slowly spread outward from his body. He could clearly sense the rich veins of high quality iron ore surrounding them. Once mining began, it would greatly accelerate the territory’s industrial development.

"This place is too far from our territory. It’ll take at least two months before our sphere of control can fully extend here."

The moment he finished speaking, their conversation alerted the corrupted corpses within the mine, and they came roaring out toward the group.

"May you finally rest!"

Tisiana’s wings slashed through the air as sharp feathers shot forward at incredible speed and pierced the charging corpses.

The holy light contained within the feathers erupted instantly, igniting the corpses into blazing white fireballs.

"Nicely done."

Phield gave Tisiana a thumbs up before riding his horse onto a nearby slope.

"We don’t have time to proceed step by step anymore. We’ll directly establish a combined mining and scouting outpost here. We’ll use the same method as the salt mine. The mined ore will be stockpiled on site, and we’ll send transport caravans periodically to retrieve it."

"That’s extremely dangerous."

Tisiana looked deeply worried.

At salt mines, workers could escape into mountains or underground shelters if a corpse tide appeared. But this place was completely flat, and the mine required permanent management personnel.

She flew back to Phield’s side.

"The moment corrupted corpses discover your mining teams, they’ll be devoured immediately. But if we station large military forces here like we did at the salt mine, what about Starnight City and the manor?"

The more their forces spread out, the thinner their defenses became.

"Exactly. So for now, we can only secure the resource point itself. We’ll transport slaves here first to construct a wooden fortress. Once it’s completed, we’ll assign a Divine Chosen to garrison it."