Reaching the frozen peak, I do not need to worry about landing this ship. Due to the amount of mana that flows through a ship only a fool would allow the thing to be active near their defensive formations.

That is about the quickest way to screw with the formations of a defensive structure. Even I can imagine quite a few methods of causing havoc if the ship was under my control. Heck, I don't even need to do much. Just aim the failing propulsion formation right into their defensive walls. I am sure that something will be broken in the process, whether it be the wall or the ship and everything will explode. Well, we would end up dying in the process though.

Regardless, the threat posed by the formations means that the instant that we entered into the range of the frozen peak, complete control of the ship was taken by the formations mages that the frozen peak has. (Bad formation mages are still formation mages.)

I can resist such a control, but doing so would be considered to be an act of war. Right now, that is something that is neither good for me nor for the black mountain. It is still a very icky and uncomfortable sense, to give up control of your formation in that way. More skilled mages tend to be gentler, if they feel like it.

That is why, all the people of the troop and the scholars are waiting here in the boarding room for our entry into the frozen peak. As for what the boarding room will open into is my primary worry at the moment. It could lead to a troop of armed soldiers or a trap or something that I cannot even imagine.

Right now I have no work to do other than to ponder on the greeting that will be given to us. Honestly, thinking about it is about the stupidest way to spend my time but what can a man do.

I am sure that I won't be killed. There are not many forces in the continent that are able to afford provoking the black mountain in such a manner but that does not change the fact that this trip could be very uncomfortable.

All this doesn't change the fact that my heart is beating when the ship is landing. I almost don't notice the ship crashing into our landing. That is what happens when the suspension formation is not working properly. It is considered to be very dangerous to leave the formation like that, but what can I do. It is not like the greatest of suspension formations will be able to smoothly land a crashing ship that has lost its propulsion formation. I know of empires that would kill for such a suspension formation. It would reduce their costs so much.

The door to the ship opens up and I look outside. I feel two things the instant that I leave the safety of the ship. The first is the bone chilling cold that I feel the instant that my skin hits the outside. Well, at the moment I am wearing nothing more than my usual work clothes (my best ones.) under which I have the vine armor. Well, I have to admit that I have seriously underestimated this chill. I could channel mana to feel better, but that would be a sign of weakness. I can't afford that in our first meeting.

The second thing is much harder to describe. It would be accurate to call it a pressure, I guess. I think this is what a sheep feels when it looks at a dragon. I can feel my mind enter into a state of mindless panic almost like I am a stranger looking at myself. I have to reign in this feeling. If I do not do that I am sure that I would be running away at this very instant or I will just curl up into a ball.

The source of this pressure would be the man that is standing in front of me. He is an old man, thin enough that he more closely resembles a skeleton than a living person. Still, only a fool would consider the man to be weak. He is such a powerful man, that the head office has a detailed record on him. Otherwise, this far north even the black mountain does not like to maintain records. Other than his raw power though, I do not know much about the man. I am not allowed to read the record they have on this man. That is enough to tell you how important they consider the man.

“Young Captain, I greet you. It is rare for us to see such a young talent so far away from the center of the continent", the commander begins.

The instant that he speaks the illusion breaks. the intense feeling of fear that I experienced looking at him disappears like snow in the sun. Now the fear I feel is that of a man trying to impress his superior. The only thing is that the cost of failure here is death.

"I bow down to you, commander.", I begin, trying my best not to keep my fear from showing on my face as I bow as is customary with this bunch. These are very particular people. "I apologize for the pitiful state that you have found us in. It has not been easy for us to make our way to this place at the best of times and right now it is the onset of winter. I had assumed people were exaggerating when they told us the danger of winter here. My overconfidence has caused us to suffer."

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"That certainly seems to be a mistake from our side as well and as the commander, I will apologize to you. We should have been more hospitable and sent a couple of people to welcome you. Sadly even we are restricted by the onset of winter", the commander spoke, leaving me to wonder what hidden trap lay in this apology. If only I could gather my thoughts, I am sure that I would find it. That is a task for later. "for now, let us forgo much more serious talks. It is bad luck to stand too long at the door. you seem to be exhausted, so we shall speak again later."

Saying that the old man disappeared as quickly as he appeared. For an instant, I had the feeling as if a massive weight was released from my body. One that I did not even know I was carrying. I can feel my thoughts slow down as if I have spent the last couple of hours working on a particularly hard formation.

Two soldiers were standing at attention to the side, who took us to our quarters. A male and a female soldier, with strength roughly equivalent to me. Maybe I can hold my own against them, but that would require me to go all out and I would have to reveal the vine armor. Killing the two, would certainly put me at risk but would also mean the death of the troop. They don't even need to try that hard to kill only three soldiers.

“What shall I address you as?“ I speak, bowing to them in a manner that would be considered polite. Everything feels a bit dreamy right now if I am honest.

“You can call us as guards.“, speaks the female soldier, in a tone that clearly conveys their hostility.

“Right now, you will have to give up all your weapons. You shall be placed under guard by us both until the commander deems it so.“, speaks the male soldier.

Normally, I would give at the very least lip service to this man and look like I was more resistant to them. I am after all supposed to be a representative of the black mountain after all. The black mountain would not like to look like cowards.

Now, meeting the commander I do not have any particular inclination to do that. So I quietly give up my weapons, though I leave my formation on me. It would be stupidity to expose such an ace and I will eat my boot, if the snowwinders have enough mana sensitivity to sense my weapon. Well there is the commander.

Thus we begin to make our way into the frozen peak. My first review of the frozen peak is how ordinary it looks. The place looks like about any fort that I have seen near my home.

Well, I am sure that I won't be escorted to any place that would be remotely interesting in this trip. The snowwinders would be quite careful with both us guards and the scholars. After all, they have to make sure that we don't learn anything about the frozen peak.

You see, the combat troops of the black mountain must maintain clear and well-maintained records. This is especially true during any mission. Let's just say if one of these bastards were to assassinate me tomorrow, we will need to know who to kill. The logs are our best method of doing that.

This information contains nearly every bit of information that a person is observing. From the behavior of the servants to the many habits of the guards. Every single piece of information is taken in and analyzed by the black mountain. They can make use of small information like this to predict almost all of our ally's intent.

You never know which place you might end up needing to take over, so any information is welcome. You have the obvious information such as the defenses and the troop placements. even petty information such as the sleep schedule of the people, the places of rest or even the kind of street food that the people will eat. (You would be surprised just how much the poison mages can do with such information.)

To explain this thing particularly well, one cannot forget about the Iron Forest. The Iron Forest was one of the last centers of power for the druids. Iron Forest and its legendary iron wall can be considered to be the toughest nut that the legion had to crack in the Druidic campaign. The place managed to survive the siege of a general and his soldiers for two years. Even after that period, it did not seem close to falling. If anything, it was the troop that was suffering heavy losses.

The reason that it was destroyed was from the log of a soldier known as Albert. He noticed the fact that the soldiers of Iron Forest had a habit of watering the iron wall to realize that it was a tree. Then it did not take long for our formation masters to figure out what they needed to do. A lot of poison to the roots and the iron forest became a part of history.

I have a personal reason to tell this story. since it was from this place that we managed to acquire a majority of the druidic spells that the black mountain has records on. It is these spells that my master specializes in and what I am preparing to specialize in. They have one of the most unique formation systems in the continent. It would be a pity to lose it.

Returning back to the frozen peak, all I can tell is that we have been taken somewhere deep inside the fort. I cannot tell the route that we have taken other than the fact that it is a confusing mess of twists and turns.

Maybe the logs of one of the other soldiers might shed a better light, though I wouldn't expect too much from them too. It is just a part of working with forts. I wouldn't be surprised if the other side had formations in place to prevent people from being able to remember the path being taken.

I am sure that we are being taken to an observation room. Every fort has one. A room that seems ordinary, even comfortable. Most of them are fit even for a king. Yet as the name suggests, the room is fitted with surveillance formations throughout the entire thing. I am sure that the snowwinders will be knowing everything that we shall be doing in the room.

Well, this is a part and parcel of dealing with semi hostile forces. We are not in the dungeons at the very least. I am sure a fort like the frozen peak would have plenty of those too and they certainly are not going to be comfortable. If I resisted, it would have been quite easy to end up there as well.