Chapter 43

Ice Castle, My Longed-For Home (2)

Bang!

With the creaking sound of an old wooden door opening, several snowflakes drifted through the dust-filled room.

"Ugh~! Why is it the same temperature inside as it is outside?!"
"The First Young Master checked this place once, and nobody's come back since. Isn't it obvious?"

Unlike me, shivering from the cold, the watchers spoke calmly.

The interior was filled with a chilling air, as though nobody had entered for a very long time.
A large emblem of the Great Crow Knights hanging in one corner declared that this place belonged to the knight order.

"You arrived faster than expected."
"This is Watch Post 671."
"Huuuh...!"

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 we crossed the wall and headed north.
Now that I'd finally arrived at the last outpost, I could at last release the breath that had been lodged in my throat.

"I-I feel like I'm gonna die...!"
"You're awfully weak for someone so young."
"You're completely different from your older brother."

Unlike me, the two watchers hadn't even broken a sweat as they set down the luggage they'd carried on their backs in one corner of the post.

"Hey, don't you think it's unfair to compare me to Delline no matter what?"

When I asked that with narrowed eyes, the watchers merely shrugged as if to say, What do you want us to do about it?

No, seriously, our specialties are completely different, aren't they?
He's a knight, and I'm a necromancer.
Just because I know how to swing a sword a little doesn't mean you should treat me like an actual knight.

I wanted to complain with all my might, but in the end, I could only let my shoulders droop.

The apprentice knight emblem hanging from my collar.
Even if I was just a rookie, I was still officially a member of the knight order, so exceptions weren't tolerated.

This damned family.

"Well, considering your age, you actually kept up pretty well."
"I think staying around the First Young Master is warping our sense of normal."

The watchers nodded as they looked over my frail body.

'Which means these guys used to travel with Delline...'

"Delline followed along way better than me?"
"No, it's beyond that."

Answering my grumbling question, the watchers spoke with exhausted expressions.

"We're the ones who nearly die trying to keep up with the First Young Master."

I fell silent.

From what I'd seen over the past three days, the watchers' stamina was no joke either.
A nauseating feeling rose from my stomach as my mind reeled.

"Ugh... my knees go weak every time I think about it."
"No kidding."

Ignoring me completely, the watchers frowned while staring out the outpost window.

'A lot happened, but... we finally made it.'

After barely steadying my breathing, I followed their gaze outside.

"Nothing's changed."
"Hm?"
"Just talking to myself."

I brushed off the question and took in the nostalgic scenery.

The dark clouds that had never disappeared in the 200 years since the Archimond Incident.
Blocking the sunlight, the clouds cast shadows that formed a line dividing the snowy fields from the frozen plains beyond.

A boundary made of shadow.

The two divided regions held completely different colors of light, as though they belonged to separate worlds.

"You should reconsider while you still can."
"Honestly, it's hard to believe necromancers crossed over there."

The watchers' voices, joking only moments ago, turned serious.

'Which means even they're afraid of it.'

Everything we'd crossed so far had been snowy plains.
Though buried beneath eternal snow, there was still land, and trees, and life.

Unlike the snowfields shining white under sunlight, the gloomy frozen plains wrapped in shadow displayed an overwhelming presence.

But even nature's final mercy ended here.

This place where the watchers and I had arrived was marked on northern maps as the "Exploration Limit Line."
The moment one crossed this outpost and headed farther north, they would enter a world where not a single person on the continent had ever set foot.

"No. I have to go."

Unlike the watchers, however, my expression remained calm as I stared at that domain.

"There's something there I absolutely have to bring back."

Seeing my determination, the watchers merely shrugged as though they had nothing left to say.

"Well, if you put it that way, we don't have a choice. We'll explain how to use the equipment."

The watchers pulled several mechanical devices from their packs and spread them out across the table in the center of the outpost.

A signal flare launcher and single-person camping equipment.
How to light charcoal made from conifer trees.
Basic methods for determining direction.

As experts in snowfield exploration, their explanations were concise and precise.

"...That should cover everything we needed to tell you."
"Must've been rough, going through all this trouble for me."
"It's our job. What can we do?"

The watchers didn't bother denying it.

If three days passed after my departure without any contact, they would begin a search mission to rescue me.

"Still, staying here until I come back is gonna drive you crazy, right?"

Thinking that, I pulled out five gold coins from inside my coat and handed them over.

"Whoa, gold coins!"

The watchers' previously gloomy faces instantly brightened.

'If things go wrong, I might need their help. This much investment is necessary.'

Watching their visibly improved expressions, I thought to myself.

Two armed groups protected the wall.

The Great Crow Knights, who guarded the barrier at the edge of the continent.
Their driving force was honor.
The pride and sense of duty that came from defending the continent's front lines.

'...They call it honor, but to me it just looks like insanity.'

Unlike them, the watchers who were born and raised in the settlements were driven by survival.

To put it bluntly: money.

The high salaries paid to watchers were what motivated them.

"I heard merchants come by once a month. Use this to buy yourselves drinks or something. Split it however you want."

When I added that, the watchers' eyes sparkled.

'As expected, money works better than praise or fancy words.'

Some people might look down on them as materialistic, but from my perspective, this was far preferable.
At least it was rational compared to knights who lived and died for some vague concept called honor.

"Hey, isn't this like three months' worth of pay?"
"We couldn't even dream of this when the First Young Master came around."
"Pfft!"

Hearing them casually gossip about Delline made me burst into laughter.

"Honestly, my brother really is stingy about this kind of thing."
"Can't deny that."

As the heir to the ducal house, Delline inspected the wall once every six months.
And every time, the watchers who had to make the exhausting journey all the way here would grumble under their breath.

"'As a knight, not a single coin should ever be wasted!' He says that all the time, right?"

"Ah! Exactly that!"
"Does he act like that back at the main house too?!"

I exaggeratedly shivered as I mimicked him, and the two watchers burst into loud laughter.

"He's not wrong, but don't you think he's way too inflexible?"
"And since the Young Master himself never spends money either, we can't even complain..."

Once you establish a common enemy, camaraderie naturally forms.

By the time I'd gotten noticeably closer with the two watchers through our conversation, the sunlight had already disappeared behind the clouds, and deep darkness had settled over the land.

"If things get dangerous, fire the signal immediately!"
"Got it—!"

Shouting back toward the distant watchers, I stepped onto the frozen plains.

Kuuuu—

A bizarre sensation of something seeping into my body.

An ordinary human would have felt fear here, or at least stopped to question the strange sense of déjà vu.
But I was different.

I was the one who had created this space.
The only human who knew exactly what this eerie sensation truly was.

'From here onward, this is no longer the world of the living, but the world of the dead.'

Thinking that, I stretched out my hand.

Black demonic energy spread outward in response to my gesture.
Far denser than anywhere else, it wrapped around my body and carved black runes across my skin.

"Do not be wary. I am one of your kind."

The moment I murmured those words toward empty air, the alien sensation that had been seeping into me gradually faded away.

The energy that connected the living and the dead: demonic energy.

By cloaking myself in it and adjusting the wavelength of my soul, I could walk this land as one of them.

But those who could not...

"AAAGH! AAAAAGH—!"

I turned toward the scream.

A man laughing, crying, and grimacing all at once as he stumbled across the snowfields.
The moment I saw the black robes he wore, I immediately stretched out my hand and summoned Skeletons.

'A necromancer from the cult. Did he get separated?'

The two Skeletons raised their bows and aimed at the man.

But the man seemed completely unaware of my existence, wandering aimlessly while muttering incomprehensible nonsense.

"Hehehe! No! It wasn't me! I'm not the one who killed—!"
"Fire."

Fwoosh!

At my brief command, black arrows tore through the air, and the man's body collapsed lifelessly on the spot.

Thud!

I approached the limp body sprawled like a puppet with cut strings and frowned as I examined his condition.

"What an idiot. You came here without even doing basic research?"

I kicked over the corpse and checked his face while muttering to myself.

To think he didn't even know how to synchronize soul wavelengths.
The fact that creatures like this wandered around calling themselves necromancers was genuinely pathetic.

Still, thanks to that, I'd gained an unexpected harvest.

After confirming the two penetrating wounds in his chest, I smiled in satisfaction.

"Good. The brain's still intact."

Saying that, I infused demonic energy into the corpse that hadn't been dead for long.

Crack! Craaack!

I forcibly seized the soul trying to leave the body and bound it back into the corpse, restoring its functions.

"Guh...?!"

Blood poured from his mouth as his eyes reflected my figure.

The eyes of the dead saw not the body, but the soul.

"Ah...!"

The necromancer recognized who I was, and his eyes filled with shock.

"What's wrong?"

I looked at the necromancer shaking his head while staring at my blackened face.

"The one you've dreamed of so desperately has personally appeared before you. So why are you trembling like that?"

At my question, the necromancer frantically shook his head.

"T-That's not true at all! To think I could behold the great you in person— how could I possibly...!"
"Really...?"

Tilting my head to the side, I crushed the soul that was trying to continue speaking.

"Kgh?!"

— You may think that, but I don't.

The voice of the dead.

A necromantic command flowed forth, an absolute authority over undead—especially the undead I had summoned.

— I don't even want vermin like you speaking my name. I don't even want to talk to you.

"Kkh...! Gghhh...!"

Unable to speak, the necromancer thrashed around in panic.
As I tightened my grip on his face, agonized groans escaped him.

— So don't say a word.

Every moment I looked at that face, rage boiled up inside me.

The maggots of the continent who stained its steel by using my name.

— I'll just look through your head myself.

I could feel the horror in his expression gradually replacing the shock.