Poet knight: Yohan falkvo Yelhan

All roads lead to Yos-ho

As George was approaching the village, there was a noticeable change in plant coverage that was hard to tell from the vantage point. The various knee-high grass was replaced by an even shorter plant lifeform that remotely resembled sweet potato plants. It seemed that there were other plants growing too, but were way too far gone from what the young mage had previously known. There was also no recognizable grain plants in the observable farm area. 

Most villagers were finishing their work in the field, while others were busy at home. There were, however, some people in distinctive red-ish gray robes, that George noticed entering and leaving a large building closer to the edge. They didn't seem to engage much in village's life, but they were almost constantly on lookout for any danger. 

The yound mage observed the village from a distance as the sun was setting, until he noticed that one of the people in robes gestured for him to come closer. With apparently nothing to lose either way, he complied, and when he got closer, the robed guy stated: "If you thought you were invisible, you were wrong. Don't even try to just so obviously spy on our village without any consequences. No sane non-mage would be carrying a fullmetal spear with themselves, but you're obviously a Shift-tier or below, so you couldn't have conjured such a spear. Come with me and I'll ask some questions in private".

George followed the robed guy into the building that now was confirmed to belong to the "guardians" of the village and into a small chamber, and sat down where the robed guy told him to. The "guardian" immediately started asked: "Why did you come here?". "This was the closest inhabited place to the Ice Dome Mountain", George answered, well understanding that he won't lose anything if he tells the truth, leaving the guardian thinking for a while. 

"What were you doing on Mt. Skyfrost?", the guardian asked, unable to contain his interest. Everyone who had even a bit of knowledge about Yos'ho knew how the highest mountain for hundreds of kilometers away was called. There were no other mountains as far as the eye could see, especially those that had ice on them, so Mt. Skyfrost was the "guardian"'s only guess. And no one the "guardian" knew was aware about its internal structure. Even less that there was some kind of dome in or around it. 

Maybe the guest said that metaphorically because it filled the neighboring soil with ice-like substance that in small amounts was a good fertilizer. In any case, no one had set foot on it in the last 500 years because of the hostile cold on its slopes. Even Bishop-tiers that came to explore the mountain got frozen to death in seconds after touching its ice, despite many layers of quality heating equipment and warm clothes, so no one could reliably explore it.

On the other side of the conversation, George was intrigued by small piece of information the "guardian" told him, but still answered the question: "So it's called Mt. Skyfrost... Anyway, once I went on a camping trip into the woods. On one day, I set up my tent and went to sleep, and the next thing I remember  was that I was in the same tent, but covered with blue frost, and my clothes and sleeping bag were soaking wet and my head was fuzzy. I don't remember much about what was before that".

The "guardian" needed time to process what the guest had told him. It seemed that the guest was either an unrivaled actor on the whole Yos'ho or an actually outstanding mage, because the . His enlightenment level was no higher than Shift, but he said that he managed to make his way down to the surface from a high place on Mt. Skyfrost or even some hidden chamber inside of it, since explorers have never encountered any tents on the mountain. Soon, the "guardian" told the guests to continue, and listened the remainder of the story.

"This story is too incredible to be made up", the "guardian" concluded, and then offered George to join the Crimson Shard Order. Before giving a definitive answer, George asked about the specific rules he would need to follow once a member of the order, upon which the "guardian" started explaining the rules. Surprisingly, the order rules were pretty unrestrictive, as the order members only needed to protect vassal settlements, wear their uniform, and constantly improve their magic arts. The new members needed to learn by assisting the already established members until they are considered good enough to participate in the order's activities on their own. Seeing absolutely no downside to it, George agreed to the offer.