Chapter 43: Ice Castle, My Longed-For Home (2)
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Chapter 43: Ice Castle, My Longed-for Home(2)
Bang!
With the creaking sound of an old wooden door, several snowflakes swirled inside the dust-laden room.
“Ugh~! Why is the temperature inside the same as outside?!”
“The First Young Master hasn’t been here even once since he last looked around, so isn’t that only natural?”
Unlike me, who was shivering all over from the cold, the watchers continued speaking calmly.
It felt as though no one had entered for a long time—the interior was filled with a chilling air.
The emblem of the Big Raven Knights hanging in one corner declared that this place was a knights’ building.
“You arrived faster than expected.”
“This is Watch Post No. 671.”
“Hoo…!”
The moment I heard the number I had dreamed of, the strength drained from my legs on its own.
It had already been three days since I crossed the wall and headed north.
Having reached the final watch post, I could finally let out the breath that had risen all the way to my throat.
“I-I think I’m going to die…!”
“You’re still so young and already struggling with this?”
“You’re completely different from your brother.”
And unlike me, two watchers who hadn’t even disturbed their breathing unloaded the baggage they were carrying onto one side of the post.
“Hey, don’t you think it’s too much to compare me to Delain no matter what?”
When I asked with a glare, the watchers just shrugged as if to say, what do you want us to do?
No, in the first place, our fields of expertise are different, aren’t they? He’s a knight, and I’m a Necromancer.
Just because I knew how to use a sword a bit, how could they treat me the same as a full-fledged knight?
I wanted to complain with all my might, but in the end I had no choice but to let my shoulders slump.
The emblem of an apprentice knight hanging on my collar.
Even if I was a rookie, I was still clearly a member of the knights, so exceptions weren’t tolerated.
This damn household of mine, seriously.
“Well, if you really think about it, you did keep up pretty well for someone your age.”
“After going around with the First Young Master, our sense of standards feels like it’s getting warped.”
The watchers nodded as they spoke while looking at my frail body.
‘Which means these guys are people who used to move around with Delain….’
“Delain followed along even better than me?”
“No, not just that.”
The watchers answered my sulky question with expressions that said they were fed up.
“The First Young Master actually makes us suffer like crazy just trying to keep up with him.”
“…….”
I was left speechless.
From what I had personally seen over the past three days, the watchers’ stamina was no joke either.
As my head went faint, I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat.
“Ugh…. My knees go weak every time I hear this.”
“Tell me about it.”
As if I didn’t even exist, the watchers narrowed their brows while looking at the scenery spreading out beyond the watch post window.
‘There were many twists and turns, but still…. I’ve arrived.’
After barely steadying my breathing, I too followed them in looking out the window.
Unlike the snowfield glittering pure white under the sunlight, a gloomy ice plain draped in a layer of shadow was displaying its overwhelming presence.
“Nothing’s changed.”
“Pardon?”
“Just talking to myself.”
Brushing off the question, I took in the longed-for scenery with my eyes.
Those dark clouds that had never disappeared over the course of 200 years since the Akimond Incident.
The clouds blocking the sunlight cast a shadow, drawing a line that split the snowfield and the ice plain that had continued until now.
A boundary made of shadow.
The two divided spaces seemed like different worlds, each holding a different kind of light.
“You should reconsider, even now.”
“To be honest, it’s hard to believe that Necromancers crossed over there.”
The watchers’ voices, which had been joking just moments ago, turned serious.
‘That means they feel fear too.’
Up until now, the places we had passed through were snowfields.
Though they were covered in perpetual snow, there was still land, and trees grew there—a land with life.
But the last mercy of nature ended here.
This place where the watchers and I had arrived was a point that reached the ‘exploration limit line’ based on the northern map.
The moment one crossed this watch post and headed north, it meant entering a world where no one living on the continent had ever set foot.
“No. I have to go.”
Unlike the watchers, my expression as I looked at that domain was calm.
“There’s something I absolutely have to bring back from there.”
Seeing me speak that way, the watchers shrugged as if they had nothing more to say.
“If you put it that way, there’s nothing we can do. We’ll explain how to use the equipment.”
As they said that, the watchers took out several mechanical devices from their packs and laid them out on the table in the center of the post.
A signal flare launcher and single-person camping equipment.
How to light a fire using charcoal made from conifers, and even basic methods of determining direction.
As experts in snowfield exploration, their explanations were concise and precise.
“…With this, we’ve conveyed everything we needed to.”
“Thanks to me, you’re going through hardship you never signed up for, right?”
“It’s work. That’s all.”
The watchers didn’t bother denying my words.
If there was no contact even after three days had passed since I left, those accompanying me had decided to set out to search for me.
“Still, if you’re stuck waiting here until I come back, you’ll get restless, right?”
Thinking that, I took out five gold coins from my pocket and handed them over.
“Huh?!”
“Wow, gold coins!”
The watchers’ expressions, which had been subdued just moments ago, instantly brightened.
‘If things go south, I might need their help, so this level of investment is necessary.’
Looking at the visibly changed faces of the watchers, I thought that to myself.
Two armed groups guarding the wall,
The Big Raven Knights who guarded the wall at the edge of the continent.
Their guiding principle was honor.
Pride and a sense of duty in guarding the continent’s front line.
‘…Honor sounds nice, but to me it looks like a mental illness.’
Unlike them, the guiding principle of the watchers who were born and raised in settlements was survival.
To put it bluntly, economic power.
The high salary paid to watchers became their driving force.
“They say a peddler comes once a month, so use that to buy some alcohol or whatever. Split it or not, do whatever you want.”
When I added that, the watchers’ eyes sparkled brightly.
‘As expected, money beat praise or fancy words any day.’
Some might look down on it and call it vulgar, but from my standpoint, this was far better.
It was far more rational than knights who lived and died over something vague like honor.
“Hey, isn’t this about three months’ worth of our pay?”
“Back when it was the First Young Master, we couldn’t even dream of this.”
“Pfft!”
Hearing what was basically backtalk about Delain made laughter burst out of me without realizing it.
“Well, it’s true our brother is really stingy when it comes to things like this.”
“Honestly, that’s spot on.”
As the heir of the ducal family, Delain inspected the wall once every six months.
Each time, complaints spilled out of the mouths of the watchers who had trudged all the way here along this grueling path.
“‘As a knight, you mustn’t waste even a single coin!’ He says that all the time, right?”
“Oh! Yes! That exactly!”
“Is he like that even back at the main house?”
When I exaggeratedly shuddered, the two watchers burst into loud laughter.
“It’s not wrong, but isn’t he way too inflexible?”
“And since he himself never spends money, we can’t even complain….”
Once a common enemy was established, a sense of camaraderie naturally formed.
While I chatted animatedly with the two watchers, who had grown noticeably closer, the sunlight disappeared beyond the clouds and deep darkness settled in.
“If it gets dangerous, signal right away!”
“Got it-!”
I shouted toward the watchers visible in the distance and stepped into the ice plain.
Kuuu-!
A bizarre sensation of something seeping into my body.
If I were an ordinary human, I would have felt fear here, or hesitated once more due to a sense of déjà vu.
But I was different.
As the very person who had created this space, I was the only human who knew exactly what this strange sensation came from.
‘From here on, this is not the world of the living, but the world of the dead.’
Thinking that, I stretched my hand forward.
Black demonic energy extended outward in response to my gesture.
More densely than anywhere else, it rose up and wrapped around my body, engraving black runes all over me.
“Do not be wary. I am one of you.”
When I intoned those words toward the empty air, the alien sensation that had been seeping into me gradually subsided.
The energy that mediated between the dead and the living—demonic energy.
If I wrapped myself in it and adjusted the wavelength of my soul, then in this place, I could walk as one of them.
But those who could not….
“Aaagh! Aaaagh-!”
I turned my gaze toward where the screams were coming from.
A man running across the snowfield while laughing, crying, and grimacing all at once.
Seeing his black robe, I immediately extended my hand and summoned skeletons.
‘A Necromancer from the Order. Did he fall behind?’
Two skeletons raised their bows and aimed at the man.
Yet the man seemed not to notice my presence at all, wandering aimlessly and muttering incomprehensible words to himself.
“Heehee! No! It’s not me! I didn’t kill…!”
“Fire.”
Fyu-pyuk-!
With the short command, black arrows cut through the air, and the man who lost his life collapsed on the spot.
Thud!
I approached the man lying limp like a puppet with its strings cut and frowned as I checked the condition of his body.
“Idiotic. You really thought you could come in here without even doing prior research?”
I muttered while kicking his corpse aside and checking his face.
To think he didn’t even know how to match the wavelength of his soul.
The reality of such people parading around calling themselves Necromancers was newly deplorable.
Still, it was also true that thanks to that, I had gained an unexpected windfall.
After confirming the two penetrating wounds in his chest, I smiled in satisfaction.
“Good, his brain is still intact.”
Saying that, I breathed demonic energy into the corpse that hadn’t been dead for long.
Crunch! Crack!
I forcibly seized the soul that was trying to leave the flesh, possessed it into the dead body, and restored its functions.
“Guh?!”
The eyes of the man who spat out blood reflected my form.
What was reflected in the eyes of the dead was not the flesh, but the soul.
“Aah…!”
The Necromancer’s eyes, having realized who I was, were dyed with shock.
“What is it?”
“…!”
I spoke while looking at the Necromancer shaking his head as he stared at my blackened face.
“The one you’ve dreamed of seeing has personally appeared before your eyes—so why are you trembling like that?”
At my question, the Necromancer hurriedly shook his head.
“N-not at all! To have met the great you in person, how could I possibly…!”
“Is that so…?”
Tilting my head to the side, I suppressed his soul as he tried to say more.
“Ghk?!”
You might think that way, but I don’t.
The Voice of the Dead.
A command of death flowed out—an absolute authority over the undead, especially those I had summoned.
I don’t even want my name spoken by vermin like you, nor do I want to converse with you.
“Ghk…! Guhhh…!”
Unable to make a sound, the Necromancer struggled in panic.
As I grabbed his face and increased the pressure, a pained groan escaped him.
So say nothing at all.
Every time I looked at that face now, rage surged up.
The maggots of the continent that had proliferated by selling my name.
I’ll just look into your head myself.
I could feel the horror-filled expression on his face slowly changing into pure terror.
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