Chapter 73

"No people? What does that mean?"

They had definitely seen blue-gray lights coming from this direction earlier.

If so, there should be at least one person who lit the fire.

He went directly into the ger to examine the interior.

The inside of the ger, lined with thick cloth to block the cold, was just wide enough for a family of four to lie down.

A small brazier in the middle of the room, a pot, and various household items scattered here and there.

From just looking at this, it seemed as if some family had been living normally and had just stepped out temporarily.

"Your Grace, what are you looking at?"

"It's strange that there are no people. We saw lights until just now, and there are still belongings left here."

Had all the village residents gone somewhere?

But there were too many suspicious aspects for that to be the case.

Russel poked his head in, looked around, and then shrugged.

"I see. As Your Grace said, it seems like the people have disappeared entirely. Moreover, it looks like quite some time has passed, doesn't it?"

"A lot of time has passed? You mean they've been gone for a long time?"

"Do you see that open door in the firebox where you put firewood? There's no ember, and there's even frost on the legs. That means it hasn't been used for a long time. People living in such a cold place couldn't go without using fire."

Russel winked at him and went inside to rummage through the clothes sprawled on a high bed.

Unable to wait outside, Amelia and Leandros also slipped in.

"Then where did the lights come from..."

"Your Grace, why don't we rest first?"

Russel came back carrying an armful of something and dumped it on the floor.

"It seems like a house without an owner, so let's borrow it for a while."

"Is this okay?"

"Why wouldn't it be? All things in the world were originally created by God. So the owner of this house and we are religious siblings."

He only showed his Holy Knight Order side at times like this.

But there was definitely a need to rest.

Given the situation where they couldn't tell if it was day or night, they had to be especially mindful of their physical strength.

Moreover, the winter clothes prepared at the ducal residence couldn't withstand the cold of the north.

In the end, they waddled around wearing several layers of thick, cold clothes each as they tidied up the interior.

They also found several pieces of frozen, cut fish in a dented metal pot attached outside, and they had to boil it with snow.

Amelia seemed to find the bland fish soup somewhat nauseating, but they had no choice.

They should be grateful just to be able to warm their insides in such severe cold.

After somehow filling their stomachs, they all gathered in one place and decided to catch a bit of sleep.

With the fire lit in the fireplace, the interior became warmer than expected, making them drowsy.

While secretly wiggling his itchy frozen toes, he tried to think about what to do next, but he couldn't resist drowsiness.

Just a little sleep, and then he would think about it...

"Your Grace."

"Gasp!"

Leandros was right in front of his nose.

Had he overslept again?

As he hurriedly got up, Leandros spoke in a low voice.

"I apologize for disturbing your rest. I found the light we saw before coming to the village, and I thought we might need to track it."

"The light? That blue one?"

"Yes. I just looked around outside, and the light was faintly visible from outside the village."

Outside.

As he stepped out of the ger with his heavy body, the chilly air immediately whipped his face.

As Leandros had said, far away, within the field of vision that was neither dark nor bright, something was swaying.

It was definitely a blue-gray light.

But, something was a bit...

"...I don't think it's a lamp held by a person. I might be the only one who thinks this, but... doesn't it look like it's dancing?"

"It could appear that way. What would you like to do?"

The flame itself was swaying and moving.

It blazed fiercely, then vanished as if extinguished, and then moved elsewhere.

If that was a lamp's flame, its owner must be twirling the lamp like a play-with-fire.

Who could it be, appearing and disappearing like a phantom over the snow plain?

He blew the horn hanging around his neck briefly, and a black horse appeared silently from behind the ger.

The majestic horse was breathing, but not even its breath was visible.

"We might be able to confirm its identity if we go see."

"Will Your Grace accompany us as well?"

"Yes. I'm curious."

Sleigh neighed loudly and leaped onto the snow plain, which was heavily frozen.

At the same time, the pale fire also began to flee into the snow fog.

It was an unbelievable speed.

Was that a person? Or something else?

Gritting his teeth and lying flat on Sleigh, he tracked the light, but the more they chased it, the further it fled.

"Sleigh! Don't lose it!"

Sleigh roared.

For a moment, the air pressure hitting his body intensified, and Leandros's shouting voice was drowned out by the fierce sound of the wind.

With a single leap covering an enormous distance, Sleigh, carrying them, blocked its path.

As they barely raised their heads and saw the identity of the light, they couldn't say a word.

It was a human.

A typical northerner, dressed in northern attire.

The completely disheveled hair seemed to have been untrimmed for quite some time.

Holes were poked through the clothes, and the filling stuffed inside was pouring out. The gloves on the hands also had holes, and through those holes, jet-black fingers protruded.

However, these weren't the reasons they were speechless.

The person was entirely ablaze.

Literally, from the person's bare feet to around the waist, a pale fire was blazing.

The fire wasn't hot, nor was it red or brilliant.

It only scattered the cold of the north to everyone.

His bloodshot eyes trembled unstably.

"Excuse me."

"Nafshaka-taflahruum! Nafshaka-taflahruum!"

A sharp, terrible cry.

Leandros blocked in front of him on the horse.

But the man, ignoring them, tore at the skin of his face and shouted.

"Helm tafka nafshaka taflahruum! The Lord of the Extreme Realm says, donotprovokeMyangeryourofferingsarenotmeantforMesacrificeyourheartsandreviveastheicyhostdeathwillvanishbeyondeternityandblessedareyouinMynamewiththeacquisitionofwisdomofallthingsrelinquishyourhumnityandshowcompassiontothingsthatareevil."

"Your Grace, I don't think we can have a proper conversation."

"Ahahaha, uhuhuhu, hehe."

At Leandros's words, the face of the man who had been laughing insanely split.

What flowed from between it was not red blood but a new blue flame.

He pointed both hands, with black fingers protruding, towards them.

"Maknati nelam, His prophet shall descend upon this land! When those ominous stars find their orbits, the story shall begin! You shall be immortal until that day!"

Prophet, stars, orbits.

He laughed insanely and then started running again.

Blue flames enveloped his blackened, frozen bare feet.

The dancing flames distanced themselves in the blink of an eye.

The place where he had stood was covered only with translucent ice, without even footprints.

A round ice left on the white snow plain.

"Just now, what was that?"

Leandros muttered.

But he couldn't answer his soliloquy.

Ice. The Lord of the Extreme Realm. Maknati nelam, Nafshaka taflahruum,

Cold flame.

Blue-gray, infinitely burning cold fire and a crazy person...

"Your Grace?"

Thoughts connected into one.

There was a pit in the north too.

A pit made in anticipation of the descent of an ancient god.

And the being expected to descend into the pit was probably...

"Leandros, let's go back right now. There was something in the village. We missed it."

Clearly an ancient god called the 'Lord of the Extreme Realm'.

Cold flames that freeze everything,

It had to be Aphoom-Zhah.

* * *

When they returned to the ger in the village, there was chaos.

Amelia and Russel, who had woken up, had apparently discovered that they had disappeared without a word.

"Your Grace, where on earth did you and senior Leandros go! You should have at least said something before leaving!"

"Th-that's right, w-we were w-worried."

The two of them ran over to pour out their complaints, but they stopped speaking when they saw his expression.

"Your Grace, did something happen in the meantime?"

"We went to investigate the blue flames, but something is strange. I think we need to investigate the village. Everyone get dressed and come outside."

A few minutes later, fully equipped, they decided to split up and look around the village.

They were to look for anything suspicious: strange patterns, statues, or bizarre language inscriptions.

They also agreed to share immediately if they found anything even slightly suspicious.

They were in the midst of searching their assigned areas.

During this, Amelia, who was coming to the area he was in charge of, caught his eye.

"Amelia. What brings you here? Did you find something?"

"Y-Your Grace. C-come and t-take a look, I th-think you need to s-see this."

The place she led him to was what could be called the center of the village.

At the edge of the small central clearing, there was a tall pillar, as if for making wishes.

A very old cloth was wrapped around the top of the pillar and continued to flutter.

And behind that pole, a tent.

That tent was clearly larger than the other tents and was decorated with patterned cloth.

They promptly entered the tent that looked important to anyone who saw it.

As soon as they entered, they were greeted by the chill characteristic of a house without people.

Unlike other houses where furniture and tools essential for living were scattered, here there were only things dried and bundled together, and various hunting tools hanging abundantly.

A unique house from any perspective.

But what actually caught his eye was the map hanging on the wall.

Pins were stuck on a map hanging as a large tapestry.

It seemed that branches had been sharpened, painted with red pigment, and inserted between the interwoven threads of the map tapestry.

"I-it looks like a m-map of the north. I d-don't know why it's m-marked like this. B-but I thought we m-might need a n-northern map too."

Amelia suddenly popped up behind him.

"You startled me!"

"S-sorry... I s-said I just c-came in."

"No, it's my fault for not hearing. But is this really a map?"

There seemed to be some pattern to the pins stuck in the map that depicted only the north.

Slightly above the center of the north was the Margrave's castle.

Five wooden fragment pins encircled it.

Those pins divided the north into five zones.

What could this mean?

"Can you tell where we are?"

"M-maybe this y-yellow wooden f-fragment? It's the o-only one this b-big."

The yellow wooden pin caught his eye.

The yellow pin was in the territory of the red pin located at the 5 o'clock position when centered on the Margrave's castle.

It felt unsettling.

The north split into five pieces.

A village where people had evaporated in the bitter cold.

The only one they met was a burning madman.

His fingertip slowly pointed to the Margrave's castle.

"What's this black mark?"

"Th-there aren't such m-marks anywhere else."

Other regions only had markings indicating mountains or plains.

Why was only the Margrave's castle painted black like this?

Amelia, who was looking at it closely, muttered.

"I-it looks like a b-big hole is d-drilled only here."

A hole?

"That's it!"

"W-what?"

"This is a hole. This is a pit! The castle is in the middle of the pit. The northern pit is formed around the castle!"

Amelia looked back and forth between him and the map, dumbfounded.

But there was no time to resolve her doubts.

If Aphoom-Zhah had descended into the castle's pit, they had to send him back urgently.

They couldn't just watch the north end up like this because of Yurik's manipulations.

"Amelia, draw the map from the tapestry. Include our position and the location of that red wooden fragment."

"Y-yes!"

After the investigations of the others were roughly completed, they thoroughly searched all the houses in the village and completed reorganization.

Even after leaving the village, they could see several more villages or hamlets.

But they weren't much different from the first village.

There were no residents, and only structures with cloths tightly wrapped around tall pillars stood desolately in each village.

After resting more than thirty times, and waking up fourteen times after falling asleep, they finally reached the location where the red wooden fragment was pinned.

To a place where white snow had fallen and frozen over a stone city where everything had turned to ruins.