Chapter 34: Toward the Snow-Covered Wall (1)
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“Ugh….”
My whole body felt sore, as if I had been beaten with a blunt weapon.
Despite opening my eyes, my vision was blurred.
I couldn’t even think about moving my body—there wasn’t even enough strength to twitch a single finger.
‘I somehow survived, but my condition is a complete mess.’
I muttered blankly to myself and recalled the last scene that remained in my memory.
Ian breaking through the defense of the holy artifact, and my Combination Strike.
Garrison being slammed into the forest.
And then….
“…How am I even alive right now?”
As I retraced my memories and recalled the situation at the time, I forced myself to sit up.
‘That bastard priest wouldn’t die from just one hit. There must’ve been a follow-up attack.’
I was desperately trying to hold together my confused thoughts when—
“Um, are you conscious now?”
A voice reached me—unfamiliar, yet clear.
As I adjusted my blurry vision, the scenery of where I was lying finally came into view.
Creak…. Creak….
The sound of trees groaning in the blizzard, lanterns warming the cold air, a campfire.
And even the faint scent of herbal tea drifting through the room.
“This is…?”
“Th-the Northern Great Wall t-temporary infirmary.”
The clear voice answering my question slowly approached.
The herbal scent that had been faintly lingering around the room drew closer.
“C-can you get up?”
“Ah, yes. Just a moment….”
While replying to the voice, I looked out the window.
A forest entirely swallowed by a snowstorm.
It was a high vantage point, as if looking down from a watchtower.
“Agh?!”
The instant I tried to sit up, searing pain shot up my spine.
“A-are you okay?! As expected, you’re still not fully recovered…!”
“No, it’s fine.”
Gritting my teeth, I swallowed the pain and rose from the bed.
A sensation of aching all over my body.
Still, it was actually a blessing in disguise.
The fact that pain remained meant my senses were still intact.
‘At least nothing’s crippled…. It’s a miracle this is all it came to.’
My body, which hadn’t circulated mana cycles during childhood, could be likened to a completely clogged waterway.
In other words, injecting Ian’s mana into it was like pouring an ocean into a blocked channel.
If I hadn’t expelled the incoming mana quickly, my entire body would’ve been reduced to rags.
“Hoo…!”
After taking several deep breaths, the pain subsided somewhat.
More precisely, my body was probably adapting.
In the meantime, the voice that had come to my side offered me a teacup.
“H-here. This should help if you drink it….”
“Thank you.”
Judging by the situation, the owner of the voice was the healer who had treated me.
Accepting the steaming teacup, I offered a polite bow.
“Does it hurt?”
“I’m fine. I don’t even know how to thank you….”
As I said that, I raised my head to look at the face behind the voice.
The pale skin characteristic of northerners and slender arms.
Eyes gleaming black like obsidian.
Wavy bob-cut hair reflecting the same shade.
A gentle-looking girl was staring at me with her eyes wide open.
‘A healer at the Great Wall…. She’s awfully young.’
As I thought that while looking at her face, which seemed one or two years younger than mine—
The girl who had handed me the teacup stood there as if dazed, staring blankly at my face.
“…Is something wrong?”
“Ah! N-no! It’s just, um….”
She flinched at my question, clearly at a loss for words.
That was when—
“Pion, I brought the firewood you asked for.”
Along with the sound of a wooden door opening, a familiar voice reached my ears.
“Uncle.”
“What, you’re already awake?”
Ian spoke as he looked at me, dry branches slung over his shoulder.
“What exactly happened? And what about Garrison…?”
“Is that all you have to say to your lifesaver?”
Ian said that with a grin as he set the firewood down from his shoulder.
“My lifesaver?”
“Yeah, you ill-mannered brat.”
Saying that, Ian walked over to me.
And then….
Thwack-!
“Agh!?”
A clear snapping sound rang out as a dull impact struck my forehead.
“I carried you on my back all the way to the Wall for three whole days, and you can’t even say thank you to your uncle?!”
“Puhaha!”
Seeing Ian speak like that with a deeply sulky expression, laughter burst out of me.
Looking at that carefree face, it finally sank in that I had survived.
“You say he’ll keep an eye on me—just hearing that sends chills down my spine.”
While the healer named Pion stepped out to make her report,
I finished the last sip of tea as I listened to what had happened after I lost consciousness.
“At least he won’t come charging at you screaming that he’ll kill you the moment he sees you anymore. Right?”
“But he’s still an unstable element. We need separate countermeasures.”
Saying that, I propped my chin on my hand.
The reason Ian was protecting me was because of a mission assigned by Heinkel.
After spending time at the Wall, I would have to restrain Garrison with my own strength alone.
‘In the worst-case scenario, Arin….’
I recalled the first time Garrison had come to kill me.
He was a Proxy who didn’t stop even when Heinkel blocked him, yet the moment Arin appeared, he abandoned the attack.
But if I did that, then that girl….
“Tsk.”
I roughly clicked my tongue and shook my head.
She was indeed the strongest asset I possessed right now, but Arin’s power belonged to an unknown, uncharted domain.
If I forced its use, I couldn’t even begin to guess what might happen.
‘Then there’s only one method left.’
My gaze deepened as I recalled my fight with Garrison.
A secret art formed through coordination between two swordsmen whose mana was synchronized.
I couldn’t use it in my current state, but there was a possibility of putting it to use.
‘I need to increase the number of Death Knights by one.’
Unlike me, an undead equipped with an artificial mana circuit could reproduce that technique.
Adjusting mana wavelengths at will wasn’t impossible either—it would just require future research.
‘An independent undead like Rudel won’t work.’
As I set my research goal, countless summoning circles and contract inscriptions I had created so far came to mind.
‘Using Hector, who’s currently available, as a reference, but putting more emphasis on precision control….’
Rune arrangements, research plans to artificially regulate mana wavelengths, and finally, the blueprint of the undead I would create.
There was a mountain of work to do, yet I didn’t feel stifled.
The two months I’d been given were perfect timing.
Ideal for starting new research.
‘And if it’s this place in particular…. finding materials will be easy too.’
Thinking that, I looked out the window.
Beyond the iron curtain that encircled the continent lay a land of extreme cold, formed of harsh coniferous forests and glaciers.
At the far end stood the residence of the Necromancer Akimond—the Ice Castle.
“I need to meet the person in charge.”
“What, now?”
“Yes. The sooner, the better. Even a little faster….”
That was when I was saying so to Ian.
“…What is it, why’d you stop mid-sentence?”
“Shh.”
Cutting off Ian’s complaint, I tilted my ear toward the window.
Click, click.
Footsteps drawing steadily closer to this place.
They weren’t those of soldiers or sentries, but of knights.
“…Is it true?”
“It’s information gathered by the watchers. Not only is the form alien, but the numbers are more than five times as many….”
As the footsteps drew nearer, voices reached us.
Faint voices buried beneath the sound of wind and all kinds of noise.
They were sounds too subtle to detect unless one had lived on this snowfield for a long time.
“Report it to the captain. For now, keep this matter confidential.”
“Understood.”
A hardened voice came from outside the door.
At the same time, the door to the temporary infirmary burst open.
“Lord Klein Leinrant.”
Entering the infirmary were two knights clad in cold-weather fur cloaks.
“When you first arrived, I feared the worst, but I’m glad to see you’ve recovered.”
The leading knight with earth-colored hair spoke to me.
Black leather armor and fur.
It was attire closer to that of a hunter than a knight.
‘The Big Raven Knights.’
I murmured inwardly as I looked at their faces.
A knight order belonging to the Leinrant family, tasked with defending the Wall.
Knights of extreme cold who roamed the snowfields, making companions of the harshest land on the continent.
“It’s a bit late, but welcome to the Northern Great Wall.”
Without the slightest change in expression, the two knights bowed to me.
“I am Boran, vice-captain of the Big Raven Knights who guard the Wall.”
The emotionless knights paid their respects to me.
Knights clad in black garments in which no metal could be found.
The only thing that shone was the silver emblem embedded in their shoulders.
“Welcome, you say….”
Fixing my eyes on that emblem—also their pride—I echoed the word.
In place of the bowed knights, the image of a crow with its wings spread glared at me.
As if to say that this was not my place.
“Thanks to you, the young lord has recovered. You’ve worked hard, Pion.”
“Ah! N-no…. I just….”
Boran patted the shoulders of Pion, who had drawn them up tightly, praising the healer named Pion.
She seemed unaccustomed to praise, her face flushed bright red, but she didn’t look displeased.
A gentle smile, like that of a father looking at his daughter.
Watching them, I sighed inwardly.
‘They’re completely different when dealing with outsiders.’
The Big Raven Knights, who had steadfastly guarded this place since the day the Wall was built.
To them, a sudden arrival from the main house would be closer to an unwelcome guest.
‘All the more so if they’ve heard the rumors swirling around me.’
I recalled the true nature of this fortress—the greatest reason this Wall existed.
Starting from the Ice Castle, an army of undead that had poured forth.
The northern wraiths that ravaged the continent went feral with Akimond’s death.
An army without a captain was nothing more than a rabble.
The headless undead were swiftly defeated one by one in the Alliance’s counteroffensive.
‘Still, they couldn’t have been completely exterminated.’
Recalling the faces of the undead I had created, I let out a bitter chuckle inwardly.
Two hundred years had passed since I fell—the very one who had started the war.
Yet even after all that time, the undead who had not lost their resentment continued to charge toward the Wall.
Their sworn enemies were Akimond’s undead invading the Wall.
And I was a Necromancer who commanded the very same kind of undead.
“I’ve confirmed the orders properly.”
Looking at the document bearing Heinkel’s signature, Boran asked me,
“According to Pion, you should recover in about three days.”
“That’s what she said.”
If they were treating me like an unwelcome guest, there was no need for me to bow my head first.
When I replied in an equally stiff voice, the knight standing behind Boran furrowed his brow.
“…Understood. I’ll report it that way to the captain.”
“No, I’ll deliver the orders myself. I should greet my superior as well….”
Since I had been assigned to sentry duty, the knight captain was, by all rights, my superior.
I was just about to rise from my seat when—
Click.
Along with the sound of scabbards striking buckles, two additional knights stepped in and blocked my path.
“In your current state, not yet fully recovered, we cannot allow you to go outside.”
As Boran said that and gestured, the two knights blocking me reached out toward me.
“That’s some pretty excessive meddling, isn’t it?”
Thud!
This wasn’t a situation where I could afford to be looked down on.
I grabbed the sword lying at the side of the bed, scabbard and all, and struck their hands away.
“Oh my, how fierce?”
Ian shrugged his shoulders as if he found the scene amusing.
‘Since he’s an outsider, it’s none of his business, huh?’
Local knights blocking the young lord of the main house.
In a normal noble family, it would’ve been grounds for outrage—but unfortunately, I had no allies here.
“We only seek to ensure your safety, my lord. Please understand.”
At Boran’s words, the knight behind him showed the sword at his waist.
If I resisted any further, they would subdue me by force.
They hadn’t drawn their blades, but it was clearly a standoff.
“Haa….”
Looking at their fierce expressions, I let out a sigh.
‘I wanted to keep things amicable since we’re from the same house, but so much for that.’
A blatant overreach and a test of dominance.
If I tolerated this, I wouldn’t be able to move a single step here.
I had to share meals under the same roof for two months—I couldn’t live that stifled.
“Who dares spout such nonsense about whose safety?”
Having made my decision, I took off the fur cloak I was wearing.
A hard move had to be met with a hard move.
Thinking that, I opened my mouth toward Boran.
“The second young lord of Leinrant, Klein Leinrant, commands you.”
The uniform of the Leinrant family, hidden beneath thick leather, was revealed.
The emblem signifying a member of the main house shone from my chest.
“Call everyone above you and below me here right now, you bastard.”
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