Chapter 18

I Became a Newbie Favored by the Transcendents Chapter 18

‘Damn.’

It had been about 30 minutes since I set off toward the snowy mountain with the princess slung over my shoulder.

I had finally run into an unexpected problem.

“This is fucking hard to walk through.”

The violently raging blizzard itself wasn’t much of a problem.

It interfered with my vision, but as long as I kept the right direction while walking, there was little chance of getting lost.

The unexpected obstacle was the snowfield.

...It kept getting deeper and deeper.

When I first started, it came up to my shins, but now it had risen to just below my knees.

At this point, there was no way it wouldn’t cause serious problems with movement.

‘What am I, some guy who just came out of circumcision surgery?’

Shuffle, shuffle.

With half my lower body buried in snow, I ended up walking in a ridiculous posture.

Each individual snowflake was also thick, making even walking difficult.

But there was another truly fatal problem caused by the snowfield.

[‘Penalty: Elemental Resistance -20%’ is currently applied.]

[You are more susceptible to ‘Status Abnormality: Frostbite.’]

[Take shelter in a place filled with warmth.]

“Damn national penalty.”

Apart from the mobility issue, damage was accumulating on my body in real time.

Of course it was, with a third of my body buried in freezing snow.

To make matters worse, the Elemental Resistance reduction penalty made me more susceptible to frostbite.

What about the ‘Explorer’s Ring’?

The ring only let me adapt to the cold. It wasn’t an item that made me immune to the cold.

In other words, regardless of the fact that I didn’t feel cold, stacks of frostbite were still steadily accumulating on my body.

‘This is bad.’

Did I come in too empty-handed?

If I had known this would happen, I would have brought insulation material or at least a frostbite-removal potion.

I searched through the gallery shop in case there was anything useful, but there wasn’t really anything that could help.

There was one insane item called ‘Hedaquaniel’s Wings’ that attached wings to your back...

But it was far too expensive for the number of points I had right now.

‘Magic would’ve been fucking useful at a time like this.’

If I had something like fire magic, I could melt the snow while walking... wait.

Melt the snow?

An idea suddenly flashed through my mind.

Wooooooong―!!

I vigorously released Divine Power.

Then.

“Oh!”

It melted.

The heat of Divine Power melted the snowfield like midsummer sunlight, revealing firm, flat ground that was easy to walk on.

“This was it.”

If I walked while releasing Divine Power, I wouldn’t have to walk while buried in the snow.

Good, let’s keep this up all the way to the summit of the snowy mountain where the temple is.

...My bold resolution was crushed about ten minutes later.

“Huff, gasp...”

My body felt as heavy as soaked cotton.

This time, my pace slowed not because of the snowfield, but because I was completely drained.

Well, of course.

It would be stranger if I didn’t get tired while moving with Divine Power constantly being released.

But if I lowered the output of Divine Power to something moderate, the snow wouldn’t melt.

‘Fuck, what do you want me to do?’

Like the system said, the best option seemed to be warming myself for a while in a place filled with warmth.

But where the hell would I find something like that here?

If my Divine Power bottomed out like this, I’d collapse from exhaustion.

But if I reduced the Divine Power output, the snow wouldn’t melt.

And if I stopped using Divine Power altogether, the snow was now piled as high as my waist, making my movement speed slower than a turtle.

‘Wow, this Gate isn’t easy.’

Yeah, things had been going too smoothly until now.

It was about time a difficult Gate showed up.

Still, what should I do?

Put the option of melting the snow with Divine Power on hold.

With the snowy mountain still far away, if I tried forcing my way through this deep snow with my bare body, there was no way I’d clear it in time.

That was when it happened.

‘Come to think of it, I only need to make the situation easier to walk through somehow, right?’

Then couldn’t I release Divine Power only from my lower body, the part directly buried in the snow?

As long as I could melt the snowfield and keep walking, that was enough.

“...But can I even do that?”

Concentrating Divine Power, which normally flowed throughout my entire body, into only one specific area.

It was a technique I had never tried before, and I wasn’t even sure if it was possible the way I imagined.

For now, let’s try.

I stopped walking for a moment and sharpened all my senses.

Leave the upper body alone.

As a result.

“It works?”

...I managed it so easily that it was almost anticlimactic.

I simply pushed the Divine Power flowing from my upper body into my lower body, then adjusted the finer output, and it wasn’t particularly difficult.

Thanks to that, my Divine Power consumption dropped by half, making me far less tired than before.

The snowfield melted with every step I took.

I strode forward along a path that was practically no different from flat ground.

I did have to keep my nerves constantly focused since I needed to concentrate Divine Power only in my lower body.

[You have trained your Divine Power sensitivity.]

[Your ‘Divine Power’ stat increases by 1!]

“Oh.”

Even a stat-increase message I hadn’t expected appeared.

Apparently, honing my sense for regulating the flow of Divine Power had even led to an increase in my ability score.

‘My stats go up just from walking?’

Huge win.

______________

“Mm...”

A faint groan escaped between the lips of the Sixth Princess—Helena Iris.

Her hazy consciousness returned for only a moment.

But when she realized her vision was swaying at regular intervals, her eyes snapped open.

‘I’m moving?’

I just woke up, so how?

It was immediately afterward that she realized someone had slung her over their shoulder.

“H-Hans?!”

“Seriously, yelling right into someone’s ear out of nowhere.”

The moment Helena fully came to her senses, her memories returned.

Right, this Hans bastard suddenly struck the back of my neck and knocked me unconscious.

A sudden wave of rage surged up.

“Y-you hit me!”

“You said your legs hurt and you were tired, so I let you get some sleep.”

“Stop spouting nonsense, you insolent fool! An escort knight assaulting a princess? If Father finds out about this, you’ll be executed! Executed!”

“Guess the kid’s father has quite the temper.”

But Junbeom didn’t care.

Once he cleared the Gate, this role-play would end anyway, so what was there to fear?

“Eek, did you seriously eat something wrong... Put me down this instant!! I’m not some sack of grain!”

“You clearly told me to put you down first.”

Junbeom threw Helena onto the snowfield.

Poof!

Helena sank into the deep snow in the shape of a person.

“...”

At this point, even Helena, who had been unable to contain her anger, couldn’t help but panic.

What’s wrong with Hans?

Hadn’t his personality changed as if he had become an entirely different person?

Normally, he was obedient, and if she so much as stumbled, he acted like the world had ended. Why was he suddenly like this?

“Mmff. Mmffmm.”

But there was a more urgent problem than that.

The snow was so deep that she couldn’t properly move her body.

She somehow managed to stand up, but ended up in the bizarre state of being buried in snow up to her neck.

In the end, Helena’s eyes filled with tears as she let out a sobbing plea.

“H-help me...”

“...”

Hans—no, Junbeom—lamented as he watched Helena constantly changing her attitude.

‘This Gate really isn’t easy!’

The terrain conditions were already shitty, and now he had to take care of this problem child too.

At this rate, the road ahead looked bleak.

Princess or whatever, he didn’t really care, but first he had to correct that problem child’s attitude.

“Your Highness. Let’s make one promise from now on.”

“I said help me! Why are you talking about promises!”

“If you don’t like it, I’ll leave you behind.”

“...Let me hear it first.”

“Until we reach the temple, please keep quiet.”

“...”

Hearing Hans warn her in a murderous voice, Helena doubted her ears.

“Y-you, you, you...”

“I’ll escort you quickly and accurately to the destination. If the snow is difficult to walk through, I’ll carry you from time to time. In return, Princess, please show me the proper respect as well.”

“R-respect?”

“It means respect me.”

Junbeom naturally possessed the ethical sense that children shouldn’t be hit.

But if she kept showing problem-child behavior when he was trying to help, even he couldn’t guarantee how he would react.

‘H-he’s serious. This bastard.’

And fortunately(?), Junbeom’s intent was conveyed perfectly to Helena.

The atmosphere really did feel like she might get hit if she pushed her luck.

Before being a proud princess, Helena was still just a fifteen-year-old child.

Overwhelmed by the presence of someone much larger and stronger than herself, she finally lowered her eyes.

“V-very well...”

“Excellent answer.”

Yoink!

Junbeom grabbed Helena by the back of the neck and pulled her out of the snow like uprooting a radish, then slung her over his shoulder again like before.

Traveling like this would be much faster.

Helena also quietly kept her mouth shut without making any particular complaint.

Her dignity as a princess was in tatters, but it was also true that this was comfortable.

Step, step.

In the awkward silence, only the quiet sound of footsteps crunching through the snow echoed.

Once she kept her mouth shut, Helena suddenly found herself thinking about many things.

She glanced at Hans’s face as he silently pushed forward through the blizzard.

‘...Hans may have spoken carelessly, but it’s true that I was rude first.’

Even if it was his duty, he was a man who willingly accompanied her on this difficult journey for her sake.

The only person who had gone along with her stubbornness.

And she had threatened someone like that by asking whether he wanted to be executed.

Right now, there was no one else besides Hans who could lead her to the temple.

Feeling slightly guilty, Helena cautiously asked.

“Hey, Hans. Um, you know... Are you not tired?”

“Not really.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard. You can put me down. The snow is deep, but I don’t think it’s so bad that I can’t walk on my own.”

“Let’s just keep going like this.”

“Eek, I was worried about you, and this is how you respond! Stop being so stubborn―.”

She was about to say that.

But when Helena belatedly looked toward Hans’s feet, her eyes widened in surprise.

Wooooooong―

Looking now, golden energy was flowing from both of Hans’s legs and melting the snow.

“H-Hans? What’s that coming out of your legs?”

“My legs? Ah, this?”

Even if he said Divine Power, she probably wouldn’t understand.

“It’s mana.”

“...But it’s gold?”

“Mana can be gold-colored too, can’t it?”

It was a complete nonsense answer without any logic behind it, but Junbeom didn’t care much.

Helena didn’t press him further about the color either.

Not because she simply accepted it, but because there was something even more shocking than the color of the mana.

“H-how can mana come out only from your legs?”

“Huh? Well, because I’m controlling the mana so it only comes out through my legs?”

“...Since when?”

“Since you were sleeping so soundly, Your Highness.”

“...”

Helena was left speechless.

Concentrating mana into only one specific part of the body and maintaining it for a long period of time was an extraordinary feat.

Even freely controlling a ball that stayed still required considerable effort.

So how difficult would it be with mana that never stayed fixed and constantly moved?

Yet Hans was performing the advanced technique of freely adjusting the flow of mana according to his will as easily as eating cake.

He didn’t even look particularly tired.

Helena was also a mage, so she understood just how absurd what Hans was doing really was.

‘Controlling mana as if it were an extension of one’s own body is something you only see from mages of the Sixth Circle or higher...?’

The Hans Helena knew wasn’t anywhere near that level.

In a different sense, Hans was beginning to look like a lunatic to her.

“...Hans, just what the hell are you?”

“? Didn’t you promise to respect me?”

“N-no. I didn’t mean it like that!”

_____________

After that.

After walking for half a day straight, I was finally able to reach the foot of the snowy mountain.

But the temple that was our destination was at the summit.

In other words, the real beginning started now.

Fortunately, the snow on the mountain path wasn’t deep enough that I needed to release Divine Power.

The princess also climbed down from my shoulder and walked uphill on her own feet.

“Look there, Hans.”

There was a cave in the direction the princess pointed.

Her eyes sparkled as she looked up at me while pointing at the cave.

What an easy-to-read problem child.

Hmm, it was getting dark anyway, and I was a little tired too.

After extending my senses and confirming there was no one inside the cave, I said.

“Let’s rest there for today and leave tomorrow.”

“Ahh! A wise decision!”

The princess ran toward the cave as if she might fly from joy at finally being able to rest.

Even though she had spent most of the time riding on my shoulder.

Swallowing a sigh, I gathered a few branches and headed to the deepest part of the cave.

Then I tried to start a campfire with the branches.

‘...No, it definitely worked in documentaries.’

I vigorously rubbed the pieces of wood together, but not even a wisp of smoke appeared.

Well, obviously?

The wood was wet from the snow, so it wouldn’t catch fire easily.

Just as I was wondering whether I should simply endure the chill and sleep anyway.

“Move aside, Hans. I shall do it.”

The princess approached the firewood.

Fwoosh!

She raised a flame at her fingertip and lit the fire in one go.

‘This brat was a mage?’

No, more importantly, if you could do this, why were you just standing there while I struggled with those branches?

The princess wiped the sweat from her forehead and said.

“Whew, now we can finally warm ourselves.”

“Amazing, Your Highness.”

“R-really? Hmph, well, it’s nothing special...”

Even while saying that, the corners of her mouth curved upward in a pleased smile.

But that smile disappeared quickly.

As she sat with her knees drawn together facing the campfire, a bitter look appeared on the princess’s face.

“No matter what, Hans, you truly are the only one who praises me.”

“...?”

No, why did she suddenly switch into depression mode?

“If it were Father or my elder sisters and brothers, they would probably say this right now. ‘You call yourself a direct descendant of the Iris family, yet you sweat just from lighting one spark?’”

“Hmm.”

“I too am ashamed of myself, a disgrace to the family. But these years of humiliation will soon come to an end.”

The firelight from the campfire faintly lifted the shadow hanging over Helena’s face.

“As long as I safely inherit the ‘Immortal Loop’ in the temple, no one in the family will ever consider me a disgrace again!”

“...”

Hearing that, I could roughly guess the background setting.

So there was a mage family called ‘Iris’ in this world, and she was the sixth daughter of that family.

But judging by all the talk about being a disgrace to the family, it seemed she had no talent for magic.

So the princess was desperately struggling to earn her family’s recognition.

‘And the method is to go to the temple and inherit something called the Immortal Loop. Is that roughly the story?’

And I was the escort knight who had to protect that princess.

I understood that much.

But what was the ‘Immortal Loop’?

‘From the context, it’s clearly something that can make even an untalented mage exceptional.’

More information was always better, so should I ask?

But right now, that would be difficult.

[An enemy harboring killing intent exists nearby.]

[The power of ‘God-King Style Sword Forms’ increases slightly.]

Because someone was coming.