Chris

    "Come on! Come on! Come on!" Austin pleaded like a petulant child, "Just one more time!"

    I sighed heavily, "Austin, I already know where we are and exactly how close we are." I pointed to a grouping of trees that had marks on them, "We''re only a few miles away."

    Austin followed my finger and his face scrunched up at seeing the markings, "You don''t know that those are ours. They could be made by beasts?"

    I gave him a deadpan look without responding to that idiotic suggestion.

    "Fine, but just one more time for fun." He changed gears.

    "Alright," I huffed. It was easier to placate him sometimes than it was to argue with him. Surprisingly, I had the same policy with Little Anna. Those two were more alike than they realized.

    This wasn''t the first time Austin asked for a ''boost'', nor would it be the last. We''d done it a few times already, and both of us knew the drill by now. After agreeing, Austin went loping off into the woods and stopped a good distance away while I readied myself.

    "I''m not using [Fury] this time!" I yelled. He''d managed to convince me that, for science, using my boosting skill was necessary. In reality, he just wanted to go a little higher.

    Austin didn''t argue and instead started running at me. It wasn''t his top speed, but it was still a decent clip. If he went too fast, I wouldn''t be able to launch him at the right time.

    I was already bent down slightly and had my hands cupped in front of me, ready to receive him. His foot hit the mark, and I saw and felt him tense. As his leg extended to leap off my hands, I lifted with all my Strength and sent him soaring into the air.

    What used to be a fun trick in our Grandfather''s pool turned into a way to launch him skyward. His own strength combined with mine let him reach truly ridiculous heights.

    His figure flashed with a bright light, and two wings flashed into being on his back. After his evolution, they were more substantial than before, looking nearly entirely lifelike, getting a boost from furthering his Rank.

    He''d also spent a great deal of time Purifying and Strengthening his Bloodline, which also made his wings have more substance. When he first evolved back to E-rank, they were mostly hollow and there for decoration.

    That wasn''t the case anymore.

    A few people watched the man launch himself into the air with my help, but most had grown used to it by now. This wasn''t the first time he''d done it. Nor was it the first couple.

    He was ''scouting'', if anyone asked, and said that ''getting the lay of the land is important.''

    I knew he was mainly doing it because he found gliding back down fun, not because it was a good scouting tactic. I had to admit that it was, though. The height and his Bloodline allowed him to see a lot further than what he could on land.

    He was also the one to finally alert us that Frostheim was in sight.

    We''d known we were getting close as the surroundings had become familiar, but he was the first to see home in the distance.

    After reaching the apex of his assisted jump, Austin flattened out and started gliding off toward the city. I doubted we''d see him again as he flew much faster than our caravan. His wings didn''t flap as he wasn''t strong enough yet to fly, but they were more than enough to see him glide off into the distance.

    It wasn''t that much longer until we could see the Walls ourselves. A wave of relief flushed through everyone now that we were finally back. Some of that relief was for being home, while some was because of the hard pace I''d put everyone through.

    The horses and bison would need some love, but I''d have Sarah tend to them. They''d be in for a few days of rest before anything more was asked of them. They deserved it.

    I finally felt some of my frustration ease when the gates finally came into view, but not as much as I expected. There was still much to do. The Memorial Service still needed to be planned, and those still wounded needed-

    Take a breath.

    I sincerely hoped Abigail was on top of things as she usually was. It was just so depressing going around to make sure all of the Ice was still in good shape. I used to have to perform the task every day and fill them with mana so the Ice didn''t melt, but now that it was Winter, it was only required once every few days.

    I was mostly checking for cracks or blemishes, where the Ice grew instead of melted, but it needed to be done nonetheless. On every 345 of them. 315 were killed during the battle, and a further 30 succumbed to their wounds or infection.

    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    All of them were in need of a send off and even though it was the last thing I wanted to do as I finally arrived, I also couldn''t keep tending to them. It always made me angry.

    Crowds quickly formed after we had been spotted, and it felt like everyone in the City was out to greet us. It reminded me of the time we returned from the Demons.

    There were tears of joy. Tears of sadness. Families embraced while others stood over chunks of Ice.

    I didn''t want to be a part of it and made my exit only after saying a few words. Praise mostly, as that was all I could give them now. I also reminded everyone to choose how we would send them off.

    A few had written down their preferences, but there were still some that had to have their next of kin decide. Fools thought that their death wasn''t in the cards, and now they would have to settle for whatever their family picked.

    My Family was waiting as we passed through the Inner Wall and the reception was much the same as the Outer one, if only smaller. Sam was devastated as she stood over what was left of Alice and so were the rest of the family.

    Sam lost another child, and it was already rare to see her smile. Ashley had grieved for her sister during the trip back, but seeing her Mother like that, she broke down yet again.

    Mitchell lost both a wife and a sister, and he''d long run dry of tears. Even Vincent, with his usual quiet presence, shed a few at seeing Alice''s body.

    I stood in silence and watched.

    The next few days felt both quick and slow at the same time.

    We took the first day to rest and give those who needed it time. Then, when the sun rose on the day following our return, we met atop the Hill.

    Words were said and stories were told as two more were lowered into the ground. Alice was placed next to her Father and Brother, while Allison was placed next to where Mitchell would eventually go.

    Having to plan out where people were placed was not something fun.

    After we were finished, or as finished as we could be, I moved on to the others. There were still 345 to go and I needed to be a part of every one. They had fought for me, and not sending them off personally was wrong.

    Pyres were set for those who wanted to be sent off through fire. Graves were dug for those who wished for burial. Even small rafts were made for those wanting to go in the Viking Way.

    For some reason, that was growing in popularity since the first time we did this after the Demons.

    Hah! I laughed at myself depreciatively, how far have we fallen that I notice the rising popularity of specific Funerals.

    The services took the entire day, and some were even done during the night. Delaying until the next day felt wrong, and I was going non-stop from one place to the next.

    It wasn''t until the third day after our return that the opportunity to catch up was available, but I put it off. Work was the last thing I wanted to do, and no one could make me.

    Abigail tried to get me caught up with everything that happened, talking about the Merchants opening for business, the things she''d bought from them, and the state of our treasury, but I wanted none of it.

    I just wanted to be alone.

    Even going into my Forge, where it was coldest inside the Castle, didn''t deter the woman. It wasn''t until I fed my Spirit Fire so full of Mana that Frost started to build on the papers she was holding that she got the picture. Her body would have started freezing if she hadn''t been using her own mana to ward off the Cold.

    I had moved my bed of ice into my Forge, and it was upon it that I tried to rest. Winter, my Spirit Fire, and the Bed of Ice were all not enough as I couldn''t bring myself to finally rest.

    It was frustrating. I kept seeing scenes I didn''t want to. People who lie bleeding out. Faces screwed up in pain that would stay that way.

    I''d distracted myself with travel and books, but the time had come. It was destined to eventually, no matter how much I tried to push the feelings away. And boy, did I try.

    I wished my Father were here. He''d know what to say to pull me out of this funk.

    But he wasn''t.

    A third day passed before I pulled myself together. My sleep was fitful, but it would have to do. I couldn''t keep putting everything off forever.

    "Sophia!" I called through the closed door loudly.

    I heard her jump from across the hall and rush through her office to my door. My perception wasn''t the best, but I heard her chair fall over, her door slam open, and her feet rush across the hall.

    Not even a few seconds after my call, the woman was standing at the door waiting for my orders. She was bundled up in thick layers of fur from head to toe, but she never complained about the cold.

    "Can you grab Abigail for me, I''m ready," I said while getting up. There was a stack of papers on my desk that I could use to get a base view of everything before Abigail arrived to lay things out for me.

    Sophia nodded wordlessly and ran off throughout the Castle. I lost track of her through my Aura after she exited the front door. My Aura was the only reason I knew she was there to begin with.

    The papers detailed all that had happened while we were gone for several months, and I dove into them while I waited. We initially left in April to make it there in time for the ''test'' and only just returned at the end of December.

    Eight months was a long time to be away, and a lot had happened. Most of the papers were written in Sam''s blocky handwriting. She was one of the few people I knew who used all caps when handwriting things.

    The newer papers were written in Abigail''s hand.

    The harvest was detailed down to the fraction of a bushel. Yield per acre, time of harvest, and skills used on each crop. It was remarkably detailed. The time from planting to harvesting was most important. With how short the last frost of the year to the first frost of the next one was, there were a few crops that hadn''t been harvested in time.

    I didn''t wish to know how much wheat every Farmer we had at our disposal grew personally, but what all of them managed to grow together. The current capacity of our granaries was another that I had to scan through to check.

    Everything was looking good. Better than good. With the experience of having done it twice already, our yields were improving. We had more than enough to last us through the Winter with enough extra to begin booze production.

    The first few ales would be terrible, but I was more than ready to have beer production up and started. It''d been too long since you could sit down and enjoy a nice cold brewski.

    A knock alerted me to Abigail''s arrival, and I knew I would soon be getting a much more detailed briefing. She looked slightly haggard from all the work she''d had to catch up on.

    "Well, hit me with it." I opened the floor to her and settled in.

    I knew this would take a while.