Chapter 61

Chapter 61

Lich

In the snow-covered mountains, where the snow fell so fiercely it was hard even to secure one’s vision, two men dressed in thick layers were struggling forward.

—Crunch.

At that moment, the man leading the way stopped, turned back to look at the man following him, and opened his mouth.

“Hey, recruit. Why did you choose Polrwin of all places? Do you have a grudge against the demons like the others?”

The man said this while sweeping snow from his beard.

At that, the younger-looking man behind him smiled bitterly.

“Is there anyone in Polrwin who has no ties to the demons?”

“Hmph. True enough. The only ones still left here are bastards itching to see black blood.”

The man in front answered like that, turned his back, and began stepping through the snow again.

“...Your parents died?”

“Yes.”

At his question, the man behind him gave a rather dry answer.

“Where did you say you were from?”

“A village called Palakebus.”

“Palakebus... That’s quite close to here... Then you joined the patrol squad for nothing. You must have seen snow until you were sick of it.”

“I said I knew the surrounding geography a little...”

“Heh, stupid bastard... If you had acted like you couldn’t do anything in moderation, you could have stood on that wall rubbing your hands together and killed time instead.”

He snorted, then lifted his head and lamented as he looked at the snow falling without pause.

The young man watching him from behind seemed to have something he was curious about and began asking questions.

“I heard you participated in the war too, squad leader.”

“I did.”

“Then have you seen the Black Blood who are supposed to come this time?”

“...I happened to see them a few times in passing. I don’t know them personally. That aside, young ones these days sure are interested in Black Blood.”

“They’re strong and... cool, aren’t they? Haha.”

At the young man’s answer, the squad leader began recalling the war from ten years ago.

Back then, he had not had this long-grown beard.

“At first, I wondered why they were even dragging academy students whose hair had barely dried into the war... but they were the kind who deserved a nickname like that.”

“Were they really covered head to toe in black blood?”

“Don’t even ask.”

The squad leader shook his head as he spoke.

The sight of those three returning, their eyes empty after who knew how many hours of battle, covered in black blood, still remained vivid in his memory.

They were having such a conversation when it happened.

—Vwoooom.

A massive airship passed over them through the snowy mountain with a roar.

It was the airship of Innocence Academy, which was scheduled to come to Polrwin for a field trip this time.

“An airship... Come to think of it, the academy’s coming for a field trip this time, and it looks like they dumped the work on the new recruits. Thanks to that, you’ll be busy even when we return to the fort.”

“I was hoping I might exchange even a few words with the Black Blood... I’m worried I won’t have time because of that work.”

“Hmph... From what I hear, those three are close to the commander, so they’ll be going somewhere separately. If you want to try talking to them, you’d better find them before that.”

“...Thank you for the good information, squad leader.”

The young man smiled at the squad leader’s kindness.

“Let’s work.”

Leaving those words behind, the squad leader silently stepped through the thick snow.

The young man also followed his footprints.

In the middle of that, the young man’s eyes caught sight of an enormous lump of ice halfway up the mountain.

“By the way, squad leader, what is that huge lump of ice?”

Perhaps he could not understand how ice could rise like that no matter how much snow fell.

The young man pointed at the ice and asked the squad leader.

Then the squad leader turned his head, followed the direction the young man was pointing, and opened his mouth.

“That... is a grave.”

“A grave? Whose grave?”

“A lich. Have you heard of a lich?”

“A lich...”

“You could call it one of the final destinations of foolish black mages. That is the grave of one that ran wild in the North several decades ago.”

“...Why did they kill it in such a way?”

“Who knows. Maybe there wasn’t anyone nearby at the time who could handle divine power. Without divine power, liches are fairly hard to kill. How easy could it be to kill someone who’s already dead one more time?”

“But in the end, it died.”

“...There may not have been any paladins, but there was an Aisin. If you approach that ice, you can see the lich’s form. It’s a strange expression to use for a lich, but it looked as if it had been frozen alive.”

At the squad leader’s answer, the young man finally let out a hum of understanding and nodded.

One of the continent’s four elemental families.

The Aisin family of water freely handled not only water magic, but freezing magic as well.

The ice created when someone from the Aisin family killed the lich had maintained its shape until now.

Watching the young man nod in silence, the squad leader clicked his tongue.

“Tch, are you scared? Afraid a black mage who already died twice several decades ago will come back to life?”

“Come now, squad leader... There’s no way it will come back to life. I was only curious.”

“I even hit it with a hammer as a joke, but it didn’t budge. That’s when I thought, as expected of Aisin. The location of that ice is marked on the map too, so it’d be good to remember it. It’ll be useful when you need to find your way later.”

“Yes. I will be sure to remember.”

After giving a concise answer to the squad leader’s words, the young man immediately took a map from his backpack and looked over it.

When the squad leader turned his gaze ahead once more, the young man stopped looking at the map and directed his eyes toward the lump of ice.

“The commander will be away...? And with Black Blood, at that?”

Having obtained good information, the young man wore a fishy smile.

The young man already knew what that lump of ice was, and he knew of the lich’s existence as well.

He even knew how to break that ice and awaken the lich.

He had merely been waiting for the right time.

“For Demon God Helgenas.”

The young man recited those words inwardly.

For what purpose he had entered Polrwin.

Why he intended to awaken the lich.

...Why he, a human, worshiped the Demon God and the demons.

No one in Polrwin knew.

***

The airship arrived safely in the North without any particular incident.

While I was talking with Eisel, our conversation was cut off by the airship’s horn announcing our arrival.

The conversation with her had been trivial, just like last time, but even after such a conversation, I often felt a warm softness.

Soon, I disembarked from the airship and stood on the snow-covered ground.

Yuri and Eisel, who got off after me, approached.

Just as Edward had said, the North was giving off a biting cold.

Above all, it was snowing.

But because it was closer to a blizzard, it was not exactly a pleasant sight.

To begin with, it was hard to see ahead.

In the distance, along with a towering wall, the fortress “Polrwin” could be seen faintly.

There was not enough space to land inside the fortress, so the airship had landed on a wide flat plain near it.

Then I saw Lucia, excited by the snow, bouncing among the students, and Amon grabbing the back of her neck.

[ It is snowing every time I come to the North. Does this ever stop...? ]

Since Sierra no longer needed to cling to me, she floated in the air and looked down at me.

The fiercely falling snow passed through her body.

Judging by Sierra’s words, she too seemed to have visited the North while she was alive.

“Whew...”

Yuri, standing beside me, breathed out hot mist.

Behind Yuri, Eisel kept her usual sullen expression, but even a regressor could not help the cold, because her nose had turned a little red.

The students who had gotten off the airship waited for a while near the airship.

The students were each wearing thick clothing, but most of them were shivering from the cold.

Among them were those whose teeth were chattering.

What was fortunate was the existence of the “Curtain of Night.”

As a coat, the Curtain of Night was faithfully carrying out its duty of blocking the cold.

It had not been made with the North’s cold in mind, but in any case, whether as an item or as clothing, its performance was excellent.

After a time of endurance, the headcount finally ended, and only then were the students able to begin walking toward the fortress.

“Zeto, no matter how I think about it, isn’t being hot better than this? Like the sauna that time.”

While walking in line with the moving students, Yuri spoke to me.

Just as I was about to answer her, Eisel, who had been walking quietly, reacted first.

“Sauna?”

“Yeah, yesterday, Zeto and I went to the sauna.”

“You two went to a sauna together...?”

“No, Kaen went with us too.”

“Kaen?”

“Yeah, the one who sparred with Zeto before...”

As she spoke with Yuri, Eisel’s doubts kept growing.

From my perspective, there was no room to insert myself into their conversation.

“It... was a little embarrassing, but it was quite a fun experience. It would have been nice if Eisel had come too. Should I have called you...?”

“No. I don’t particularly like sweating.”

“I-I see... I don’t like it that much either...”

In the end, their conversation was wrapped up by Eisel’s firm answer.

Yuri seemed slightly uneasy at Eisel’s knife-sharp response.

“Let’s forget the memories of the sauna...”

Even as it was, ever since then, whenever I saw Yuri, the sight of her wearing only a single towel kept stirring through my head.

I said nothing and somehow emptied my mind of stray thoughts as I continued walking.

Then, because I kept feeling some strange energy, I glanced to the side...

“...”

...Eisel was staring holes through me.

There was no emotion on her face.

She was simply watching me in silence with her eyes wide open.

“Is she angry...?”

Did Eisel perhaps want to go to the sauna too?

I could not tell whether the chill that came over my body was because of the cold in her gaze or because of the North’s cold.