On that day, the weather was beautiful and clear.

The brilliant sunlight shining down upon your skin, and the wind that gentle brushed past your cheeks felt pleasant. It was a picturesque scene of a beautiful late autumn weather. Jake released a dull yawn *fuahh*.

Although recently there has been some disturbing rumours floating about, this town that was on the outskirts of the country was peaceful to a disgusting degree. However, he in fact extremely liked this aspect of the town.

「Sup, Jake. How you doin?」

His co-worker, Mack, calls out to him as he climbed the watchtower.

「Just like usual. The weather is clear, and I feel great, there are no abnormalities today」

「I expected as much」

Mack faces towards Jake before flumping himself heavily down on the floor of the watchtower, he then took out a pack of cards from within his breast pocket.

「Wanna play some poker?」

「Sounds good to me」

Being on watch duty, they often had free time. Mack easily shuffles the cards and distributed five pieces.

「It would be pretty good if we could get some sort of goblin attacks sometimes, don’t you think?」

「That’s true ey」

Mack pulled out a single copper coin from his bosom as he pointed his thoughts out.

Giving feedback and agreeing with Mack, Jake also pulled out a copper coin from his bosom, however within his own mind, he actually wished for it to continue being this peaceful. He did not welcome any sort of disturbance. If he was to express his true feelings, he would want to spend the rest of his life in peace similar to a plant that grew in peace.

「I’m gonna change 3 cards」

Mack throws three of his cards, and pulled another three cards from the pile.

In other words, it could be assumed that his original hand was a single pair. Even if his cards are improved by the exchange, the probability is that he probably got three of a kind now. Looking at the cards in his own hands, Jake showed a broad grin on his face. His hands were already a flush to begin with.

「I’m not going to swap out any of my cards」

「Hou, you seem pretty confident. .... Raise」

Mack places another copper coin on top of the table.

「Raise」

Jake follows suit and then adds an additional two copper coins, then Mack’s expression changed.

「.....I raise again」

Mack instantly increased his raise and put an additional three copper coins. Did he really have such a good hand? Jake started to analyse Mack’s expression. Jakes current hand was a flush, and his highest card being a king. The only thing that can beat this combination is either a full house, four of a kind or a straight flush. The fact that Mack exchanged three cards, it was highly unlikely if not impossible for him to obtain that kind of hand.

「That’s fine with me, I’ll follow」

Jake proceeds to add another two copper coins and then opens his cards one by one.

「I have a king flush. What about you?」

Mack’s eyes were wide open as they filled with astonishment.

「Oi, you’ve gotta be kidding me....」

He released a voice of despair filled with hopelessness. The cards drips down and falls out of his hand.

「Oi oi, just cause you lost in a card game, you don’t need to make that kind of face man. Is that how badly you needed the money?」

As if he didn’t hear what Jake just said, Mack had his eyes wide open. Jake looked at Mack’s cards.

「What?! You got a full house!?」

The cards that Mack dropped were two aces and then three eights, it was a full house. It is a value that is above Jake’s flush. However, as if his delights were short lived, Mack looked upwards and stood up as his gaze fixated on the outside.

「What the hell is that....?」

Following his gaze, Jake instinctively mutters out. Following Mack’s gaze, faraway into the distant horizon, there was hundreds of monsters marching in a row towards the town.

The alarm bell in the town started to ring and harsh voices started to echo in the surroundings.

「It’s monsters! hundreds of monsters are coming to attack us!!」

To the sound of the bell, Mack screamed at the soldiers who had been gathered under the watchtower.

「Did you say monsters? What are they, goblins?」

The soldier down below didn’t feel the sense of urgency as he casually asked back. Jake started to join in as he raised his voice.

「Not only goblins, Orcs and even Ogres are lined up in a formation! You need to wake up all the adventurers sleeping at the inns, or the town will be ruined!!」

「Are you sure your aren’t making a mistake? I’ve never heard of a goblin and ogre peacefully walking side by side you know?」

Ogre’s are human-eating cannibalistic creatures that were ferocious and brutal. It wasn’t limited to just humans, as long as it moved, an ogre would attack it and eat it for dinner. Goblins were creatures that looked like delicious desserts in the eyes of Ogres. Even the orcs, there has never been a case where they attacked in cooperation with other races in order to invade a human settlement.

「As if I’d make a mistake in identifying what a goblin or ogre looks like?! Because it’s such an unexpected situation, I’m telling you that you soldiers wouldn’t be able to handle it alone!! Just frickin listen and wake up those good-for-nothings sleeping in the inn!!」

While he was now in this respectable occupation of being a watch guard, in the past Jake had actually been one of those adventurers who had to face life-or-death crisis every single day. During those times, he obviously came across orcs and or ogres, even if his physical condition may have declined due to the lack of activity, he was still very confident in the clarity of his eyes. His former adventurer’s intuition was sounding a huge alarm bell that told him he needed to do everything in his power to alarm the town.

During his active days as an adventurer, his intuition had never failed him even once. Even now, Jake still believed in himself.

「What is that?」

Along with Mack muttering, Jake turns around, and that’s when he saw this small demon flapping Hits wings with a *pitter patter* as it flew towards here. He had also seen one of these before. This was an Imp. Those imps were waving some sort of a flag as it fluttered in the air, and Jake’s had this worst premonition of what was about to occur.

「Wait, Don’t shoot it down!」

He stopped the soldiers who immediately armed their bows, and received the flag like thing from the imp. As he expected, this was a letter. He didn’t sense any hostile actions coming from the imp, and after it sent the letter to Jake, the imp returned to where the monsters were encamped outside.

「Call the mayor. Also call out the chief of the soldiers.... along with the head of the merchant guild」

Jumping down from the watch tower, Jake shouted to the soldiers. Although the tower was at a considerable height, this level of altitude was nothing to Jake who had honed his bodies lightness skill and dexterity.

「The Magician Aur has sent a declaration of war」