EP.151 North, Huildam (上)
Below the Kurakt Mountains.
A snowy field adjacent to a nearby village.
“The wind is really nice in the north.”
Raniel muttered with his back turned.
Every time she took a step, there was a sound like a crunching sound.
“Is not it? It’s cool, moderately cool… and I think the falling snow is quite pretty. huh. yes.”
Sabak, Sabak.
The sound of stepping on snow continued, but Raniel hardly moved forward. She circled around the same spot.
“This is a superb view. What could be more spectacular? If it is beautiful to look at, it is a superb view. In that sense, the north is a good place for sightseeing. really.”
Stop.
I guess I went around the same spot three times?
Raniel raised his head. She looks at the person standing at the center of the circular footprints.
“Yes, please keep talking. Seniors.”
Tracker, Kalt.
An old subordinate looking at him with wide eyes.
The eyes were so wide that if a priest of the church were here, he would mistake them for undead or something and inadvertently cast a purification spell on them.
“hmm···.”
Looks almost like an undead.
Raniel smiled awkwardly, looking at his former subordinate who had become very gaunt while he had not seen him. I felt a little guilty when I saw Kalt’s sloppy appearance.
‘I think I need to at least comfort you.’
Raniel puts the words together in his head.
This is Raniel, who has been running a party for a long time. He clearly remembers offering a word or two of encouragement to a disappointed Kyle.
‘Think positively.’
Raniel nodded slightly and opened his mouth.
“So that’s what I’m saying.”
“Yes, senior.”
“I’m telling you to bleed your face. How about thinking positively that this has already happened? It would be nice to think of it as a vacation and sightseeing trip. is not it?”
Kalt’s expression hardened a little.
Even if something is said with good intentions, it doesn’t always turn out to be a good thing. tourism. Kalt’s eyebrows twitched at those words.
‘···tourism? that is?’
What comes to Kalt’s mind is the difficult journey he went through to reach the North. Very far from recreation.
‘There are no carriages going north in a hurry, and the snow storm has gotten worse and all the roads have been ruined.’
So how do you get there?
Kalt comes from a battlefield soldier. Kalt, who had once immersed himself in the battlefield, was able to immediately find the answer.
‘March through a blizzard.’
March without stopping.
March with less sleep.
A march of walking, walking, and walking again.
‘It was a tiring journey. Very much.’
In the process, Kalt had a moment to reflect on his past experiences on the battlefield, and it was not a very pleasant experience. never.
“It’s tourism…”
Kalt laughed.
A smile appears on the lips, but the eyes remain unchanged. Because of that, Kalt said with a very creepy laugh.
“Seniors.”
“···huh.”
“What is all this?”
Kalt pointed in front of him.
Raniel glanced away. Kalt glanced at the snowy field with wide eyes.
Sword marks made in a messy manner.
An altar placed in the center of the sword mark.
The body has been removed, but small traces still remain.
“I didn’t do this.”
“···Then what is that again?”
This time, he points to the snowy mountain in front of him.
There is a large hole in the ridge. It is a hole so large that it can be seen from far away. It seems like they made an effort to cut it into the shape of a cliff to prevent damage to the bottom, but its size is unusual.
“Uhm…”
Raniel pursed his lips.
After a moment of silence, she opened her mouth.
“That is…”
“yes.”
“It’s true I did it. That’s true, but it’s not my fault. really. Sword Demon, that crazy bastard…”
“Seniors.”
Kalt muttered helplessly.
It was a voice dripping with fatigue.
“Why are you doing this to me, really…”
However, at this time, Kalt does not yet know.
There are still many more surprises ahead.
——————
faqwiki.us
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
What you are facing now is just the tip of the iceberg.
“There’s something I haven’t told you yet…”
Raniel snapped his fingers.
It looks as if he is giving orders to someone. There is one person who follows that command. Kalt’s complexion turned pale when he saw that.
With a thud, Kalt hit me on the forehead.
“What is this…”
A lament that was almost like a moan echoed in the snowy field.
2.
After hearing my explanation, Kalt was silent for a while. He closed his eyes and seemed to be thinking about something. After some time passed, Kalt opened his eyes.
“Sure, I needed to stop by.”
“It’s a difficult problem to explain in words.”
“Honestly, it’s hard to say anything about this time. “It’s a little unclear whether I should see this as an accident or a good thing.”
Kalt had a very subtle expression.
The gaze is directed towards the sword spirit standing in the snowy field. Draka, deprived of self-consciousness, is like a doll. A doll that faithfully follows orders.
“You said it was a doll that follows orders.”
“Because it is a subordination contract.”
“I don’t really know what the deal is. “I don’t know, but one thing is certain…”
Kalt laughed bitterly.
“It seems like a spell that could be banned.”
“i think so too. Even after doing it, I still feel a bit uncomfortable. “I feel like I did something I couldn’t do.”
“Senior, what is there to be uncomfortable about? “The Sword Demon himself wanted that… In fact, it might be better this way.”
This side is better.
It was a sentence with multiple meanings.
“Whoa…”
Kalt sighed and continued speaking.
“···Certainly, sword masters are an important human resource for the Knights. Since you are also retired from the front line, each and every Adept is very precious.”
“I guess so.”
“Because of that, there was a strong tendency to tacitly condone the Sword Demon’s atrocities… but I guess there’s no need to do that anymore.”
Kalt’s eyes turn to Draka’s waist.
There is a knife there. This is the sword that Draka always wore. The sheath containing the broken blade shook in the blowing wind.
Broken blade.
It was a sword that resembled the current Draka.
“This would be better for the knights. “It is the same not only from the perspective of the Knights Templar, but also from the perspective of humanity.”
But, said Kalt.
“In my personal opinion, I think it might have been better to die.”
“Because that’s the kind of contract it was in the first place.”
That is why it is called a punishment worse than death.
Because it is a contract that completely tramples on human dignity.
“It was a long talk. “I also feel a bit complicated.”
“It’s worth it.”
It is a feeling that cannot be summed up in one word.
I had similar thoughts as Kalt, so we looked at the Draka and snow fields for a while without saying anything. The incongruous contemplation did not last long.
Because both I and Kalt had a lot of work to do.
Kalt began erasing traces of the altar and the vicinity, and I re-engraved Draka’s command authority into the circuitry.
『The change in the contract has been confirmed.』
Although the process of signing a subordination contract was difficult, once it was signed, it was a surprisingly generous contract. It’s hard to believe that it was a contract that stars interfered with.
Thanks to this, the work was completed quickly.
I infused mana into the completed circuit.
“The person in command was limited to Uncle Heinkel. “There is no need to create multiple permissions.”
“I will tell the knight commander.”
That’s how the case comes to an end. The journey in the north was also slowly coming to an end.
3.
Hameln village near the Kurakt Mountains.
A funeral was held for the residents of Hameln who were killed by the Holy Knights. The joint funeral led by the Grand Duke of the North took a slightly different form.
“I do not receive any help from any priest.”
The Grand Duke, Erijl, declared so.
Although he does not believe in God, he borrowed the power of a priest when holding a funeral. But not in this case. Since this was an incident involving the Delohim Church, their power should not have been borrowed.
“It is an insult.”
The North originally did not believe in God, but this incident sparked even greater distrust in the North. The joint funeral followed the old Northern format.
The recovered remains are cremated and scattered on the snowy mountain.
However, not all the powder is blown away by the wind.
A handful of powder is buried in the snow.
There are no grand tombs.
Only the weapons they used during their lifetime or the things they cherished remain as tombstones.
“The North is the land of warriors.”
All of them are brave warriors who survived by fighting against a harsh environment. Even if they die of old age or illness, the history of their resistance remains.
“That’s why I respect brave warriors.”
An old man who reached the capital through a blizzard.
A brave warrior who announced the attack on the village.
The Archduke buried the handful of bone fragments he left behind with his own hands at the warriors’ shrine. Lark, who was standing nearby, placed the weapon the old man used when he was alive in place of the tombstone.
A brave warrior from Hameln.
Iron Man, Tugalite.
His name is engraved on the old man’s blade.
Eryahl, Rak, and the warriors pay homage to the brave warrior. The funeral ends with him. The North returns to normal again.
The land of warriors, the North.
Warriors do their part to survive in a harsh land. As always.
* * *
“Whoa…”
Lark took a short breath and changed his clothes.
I felt a little itchy because I was wearing clothes that didn’t suit me. Going out to a formal event is still unfamiliar to Lark. He never gets used to it.
“Hmm.”
After changing his clothes and wandering around the room, Lark opened the door and went outside. He walked aimlessly through the corridors of Midnight Castle.
‘I feel fine.’
I’m thinking about going for some training.
How far did you walk like that? Suddenly, a familiar figure appears in Lark’s field of vision.
“Professor Rania?”
Fluttering gray hair.
She turns around at Lark’s call. Blue eyes look at Lark. It was a face I hadn’t seen in quite some time in La Crosse, which had been busy preparing for a joint funeral and being called to various places.
“Are you feeling okay?”
Lark nodded to Rania’s question.
“Professor Rania too…”
Did anything happen?
As he was about to ask such a cliché question, Lark closed his mouth. The professor in front of him didn’t seem like anything special would happen. Isn’t he the person who defeated even the great swordsman with his bare hands?
‘···superman.’
When I think of that topic, something comes to mind.
Lark was silent for a moment. As he was thinking about his words, Rania tilted her head and asked.
“Why, do you have something to ask?”
“hmm···.”
Lark paused for a moment.
“There is one thing I want to ask you.”
“What?”
Lark asked a question.
That’s a question I’ve had since I first visited Aplia, even before school started. Lark finally got that question out of his mouth.
“Professor… what on earth do you do?”
A wizard who freely manipulates balance.
A battle mage more perfect than anyone Lark had ever seen.
A wizard who can fight hand-to-hand with the infamous Hound.
These are the things I have seen through Lark’s eyes so far.
There is a doubt that has begun to sprout within. It came to the North and degenerated into something close to certainty. More precisely, due to an incident I saw a few days ago.
‘A wizard who overwhelms even the swordsman.’
As far as Lark knows, there is only one such wizard.
“if···.”
Lark is trying to say something.
Just before uttering her guess and turning it into certainty, Rania opened her mouth. She interrupted Lark.
“Until there.”
Rania put her index finger in front of her lips.
“It would be better to keep the gossip to yourself.”
“···yes?”
“Otherwise, someone scary will come looking for you?”
dread?
This is the moment when Lark tilts his head.
“Who is the scary person?”
A voice came from behind Lark.
Lark turned his head back. There stood the hound he had once seen. He slightly bowed his head to Lark.
“This is Kalt from the Hounds. Nice to meet you, Confucius. “It won’t be your first meeting.”
“Uh, um…”
“I didn’t mean to, but I think we’ll see each other often from now on. Please be kind to me.”
Do you see me often?
Lark blinked, feeling an inexplicable eerie feeling. The Hound bowed his head to Lark, said something to Rania, and disappeared beyond her hallway.
After he disappeared, Rania opened her mouth.
“Who am I, you asked?”
Lark nodded slowly.
A breeze came in from the slightly open hallway window. Rania’s hair was blowing in the wind.
“well···.”
She said, brushing her shaking hair.
“First of all, I’m a professor at Aplia Academy.”
Aplia’s professor.
“I plan to teach you and remain as a professor until you graduate from Aplia.”
So, what happens after you graduate?
Lark didn’t bother to ask that.
Instead, Lark asked a different question.
“someday.”
Lark asked.
“Can I stand next to you, professor?”
A wizard standing far, far away, beyond the wall.
Can you stand next to him?
Rania answered Lark who asked that question.
“We have to make it stand.”
As Rania, not Raniel.
“Because that would be the role of an educator.”
As a professor at the Academy, she speaks.
Rania smiled faintly. Squinted blue eyes look at Lark. Lark reads the expectations contained there. Having read it, Lark nods his head.
A wind blew from the open window.
The wind that blew was cool.
The northern wind was cool, as always, but not so cold that it made me shiver. It was a moderately cool breeze that was good for moving the body.
“I’ll try my best.”
In the end, that was all Lark could promise.
Rania laughed inadvertently at that answer.
‘I wonder if someone is a rival.’
It was the same answer as Belnoa.
Rania nodded with satisfaction, picturing in her mind the two who looked so similar even though they did not look alike.
“okay.”
The journey in the north also comes to an end.
It was a journey that saw a forgotten past and ended a long, bad relationship. If I think about it, it seems like I spent more time as an gray mage in the North than as Rania, a professor at Aplia.
‘So, for the last time…’
It would be better to send it like a professor.
Rania pointed out the window with her finger.
“Speaking of which, do you want to go and finish training?”
She said that with the same smile as always. Lark looked at her for a moment, then nodded her head. With a slightly wry smile.
“Yes, Professor Rania.”
