## Chapter 802 – Winter in the Capital

Since we already have a map, we can return to the city quickly.

Those ice monsters spawning from the walls are a bit annoying, but even if those bastards attack from the rear, it won’t be much of a problem. In about two days, my stamina will be back to normal anyway.

We can break through and return easily.

“However… this is just a guess, but I don’t think killing those ice monsters is going to do us any good.”
“It won’t do any good?”

Risha said that.

“It’s not certain, so I need to investigate further. But in my opinion, those monsters are being regenerated by the power of this ice maze. I suspect that unless we destroy the root cause, it will be useless.”

Ah.

Since it’s Risha’s conjecture, it must be true.

“Risha is right. The magical energy feels strange… There isn’t much change whether they approach or not. I think they’re being absorbed back into the maze when they die. That’s why they don’t leave behind any essence or loot.”

Winia’s words added credibility. It’s almost beyond my common sense, but I can believe it.

“So, the absorbed essence is turning back into ice soldiers?”
“Yeah. Exactly.”

Winia answered, confirming Claudia’s statement, and Risha nodded.

I had similar thoughts… Let me think for a moment.

“…”

Killing them is pointless as long as we’re in the ice maze… But isn’t that too much of a cheat? If that’s possible, they could create a permanent kingdom of ice spirits in this land.

It would be impossible to break through an endless army. Such an unlimited force is a disaster.

If something like that were possible, the human world would have been destroyed many times over. So, it can’t be that absurd, and there must be some limitations. Risha probably knows that too.

Infinite power can’t exist.

“That’s unusual. Still, it can’t be endless. One way or another, it will be depleted if we keep destroying them. Hmm…”

Claudia said that and seemed to think for a moment before continuing.

“I’ve experienced something similar before.”
“What?”
“Huh?”
“Claudia?”

Before?
Is she talking about when we were in the desert?

All eyes were on Claudia at those words. As expected of a half-elf who has lived for over a hundred years! She must know something! We listened intently to Claudia’s story.

“It was a story from when I was living in the Shurrdic Great Desert. I went to explore the ancient king’s underground tomb, and when I reached the end, the tomb suddenly started operating.”

The tomb operating was a bit hard to understand. But I couldn’t interrupt, so I tried to understand as best as I could.

“As soon as it started, there was a big tremor, and then soldiers made of sand rose up. No matter how many times we knocked them down, they kept regenerating, and we almost got into trouble.”

Sand soldiers that keep rising no matter how many times you knock them down? That’s something that would only happen in the Great Desert. And it’s somewhat similar to the current situation.

“Because of that, our escape route was blocked. So, we ran deeper inside, and eventually found the golden coffin containing the ancient king’s mummy.”

Claudia almost got into danger, so my fists started to tremble… Anyway, the golden coffin was the problem?

“Did you destroy the golden coffin?”
“Uh… no. Not that.”

She shook her head at my question.

—Poke.

Winia poked my thigh once, as if telling me not to interrupt. She seemed quite focused on the story.

“The problem was the strange golden mask that the king’s mummy was wearing. The warlock who came with us said that was the cause. So, we destroyed it right away. Then the sand soldiers who were chasing us turned back into sand.”
“Ooh.”

The golden mask was the source of the power. Unless that golden mask was destroyed, the sand soldiers would have regenerated countless times.

Maybe this ice maze is similar.

“And at the moment we destroyed the golden mask.”

Claudia’s story wasn’t over yet.

“I found out when the warlock went crazy and screamed. The mask was a medium for drawing power from another world.”
“W-what? Another world?”
“Yeah. It was probably an ancient artifact from a distant time. The warlock who told me that eventually went completely insane. Maybe her mind couldn’t handle witnessing another world.”
“…”

Silence fell as Claudia paused.

The warlock went completely insane, what kind of story is this?

It felt like I had heard a scary ghost story.

“Katt. I think Mama was okay because she didn’t have the same magic eyes as that warlock.”
“…”

My heart sank for a moment.

“Uh? No, Katt. Why are you frozen? Hehehe, it’s okay. It was a long time ago.”

Claudia smiled as if trying to ease my mood when I stiffened.

“No… Why did she go crazy? What world did she see?”
“Who knows?”

Claudia shrugged and continued.

“Anyway, isn’t it possible that this ice maze is also being maintained by drawing power from another world? Risha? You talked about the spirit realm before we came, right?”
“…I did.”
“Just like the border with Pandemonium has recently become thinner, maybe the border with that spirit realm has also become thinner? That’s why a high-level spirit using the power of that realm can do something like this.”

Listening to her, I started to think that Claudia’s words made sense. Even if we put aside the story of the warlock who went crazy, if the troops in this ice maze are being maintained by using the power of another world, we might mistakenly think it’s infinite until they use up all the power from that world.

“Hmm… That’s plausible.”
“Oh… The Great Desert story is interesting too. I was listening purely out of interest. The tomb of an ancient king…”

Karin and Liz nodded.

“The Great Desert seems inhuman too…!”
“Spirit realm… spirit realm…?”

Hilde tried to tear her hair out, and Aria tilted her head.

“Aria? Is something bothering you?”
“Uh… it’s nothing. I thought I was about to remember something, but I’m not sure.”
“Is that so? If it seems important, let me know when you remember it later.”
“Okay.”

Is Alaune reacting to the word spirit? Anyway, Claudia continued.

“Of course, I don’t know the details. I just heard it from that warlock back then, and it’s just a guess based on my experience. Risha probably knows more about this, right?”
“…”

Risha closed her eyes for a moment and touched her lips.

“…There isn’t any concrete data about the spirit realm, but I think it’s possible. Spirit realm, spirit realm… If that turns out to be true, I might become the first official discoverer.”

Her voice sounded like she was thinking deeply.
Risha isn’t sure either.

“But I don’t know much about the spirit realm either, so I can’t say it’s true. But if we can specifically uncover this…”

Risha trailed off.

I can tell what she’s thinking even if she doesn’t say it.

I don’t know what the spirit realm is, but if we can uncover the source of this magical phenomenon, it will definitely be useful. It’s something that any magician would be interested in, and Risha has the ability to manipulate things that pique her interest.

Maybe we can use this phenomenon.

“I’m kind of thinking about that. Am I not a witch? This kind of thing greatly piques my interest.”
“As expected of our Risha the Witch.”

Risha smiled faintly.

“Well, anyway, it’s a chance to find treasure.”

Karin said as if it was an opportunity.

“We have to get our hands on this faster than anyone else. I’d be very upset if the Knights took the lead, wouldn’t I? It might be a little dangerous, but the spirit realm? If it’s the essence of Arquina using the power of that spirit realm, even I, who don’t have much knowledge of magic, know that it would be damn expensive.”
“Yeah. Karin is right. If there is such a thing, it would be beyond rare… We really couldn’t put a price on it.”

Winia looked expectant.

“More than anything, we can’t just stand by and watch this inhuman thing happen! Although it doesn’t seem like demons are involved, spirits are similar to demons! It sounds nice, but you can call them demons without any problem. Anyway, we must defeat the spirits!”
“I’m okay too. It’s not hard at all.”

With Hilde and Aria’s words, we stood up again.

“Then let’s look around for about a day and then retreat. If we’re not going to do it all today or tomorrow, we’ll have to take a longer view.”

Then let’s stay up all night and move. The lighting isn’t a problem anyway. We’ll go as far as we can and then return to the city.

* * *

In the end, we explored for another day, but we didn’t find anything.

We just smashed a lot of ice monsters and made a detailed map. As expected, there were no problems retreating, so we quickly returned to the city and rested well.

While resting, I did some investigating around the area, and I heard that one regiment of the Royal Knights, led by the Night General, had already arrived and was marching towards the Ice Palace.

One regiment of the Royal Knights consists of three battalions.

Apparently, two battalions are attacking, and one battalion is stationed in the city as a reserve force. Of course, the Master Knight himself is at the forefront of the Knights.

As Karin said, the division commander brought a regimental commander under him and came in person. Anyway, that kind of story was rampant in the city.

And one piece of information I found out was that there are occasional hollows in the maze, like the place where we found the monument. If you occupy those places and wait, you’ll be rewarded when you encounter the marching Knights.

It seems they’re trying to conquer the ice maze a little faster by spending money. And this means that the ice maze is intertwined like an ant nest.

That’s all I could find out.

What can we do in this situation?
I just bought more necessary supplies and set off again the next day.

Of course, the ice monsters and Naiads had respawned, but we advanced without hesitation, destroying them with the map. We arrived back at the place where we had decided to retreat the day before yesterday.

“What is that?”

This time, ice monsters that I had never seen before started to appear.

—Clatter, clatter.
—Clatter, clatter.
—Clatter, clatter.
—Clatter, clatter.

They were moving like a trained army. No, that’s not all. Their shapes were somehow familiar.

“…Royal Knights? Karin.”

I looked at Karin next to me and asked.

“Doesn’t that look a bit like the Knights’ armor?”
“Uh… I think so?”

The ice warriors that appeared this time resembled the Royal Knights. Their appearance is quite similar. The style of the armor, and even the swords, were like imitations… They were taking on that appearance.

It was like looking at an elaborate ice sculpture. It’s so similar that I’d want to put one in my backyard if I had one.

“Did they imitate the Knights?”
“Maybe!!! The ice monsters ate the Knights and stole their appearance!!!”

Hilde made a fuss, but it seems more likely that they imitated them, as Winia said earlier. Is it tactically better to imitate the opponent’s appearance when creating troops?

Then it will be more difficult.

—Whoosh!

It was at that moment. The ice knights, who had been walking in formation from the other side, suddenly scattered and started charging towards us as if trying to deploy a crane wing formation.

“Are they even imitating tactics!!!”
“It seems Arquina’s head is quite sharp.”

—Crackling!!

Rishades Beam was fired, and the ice knight in front was shattered to pieces. But because they were scattered, the damage was limited to that one bastard.

As we had always done, we formed a formation with Claudia and Karin in the front line, and Risha, Winia, Hilde, Aria, and Liz in the rear.

This is the most efficient.

The firepower is concentrated in the rear, and Liz can protect the magicians. We’re always like this when we fight. Anyway, we in the front line immediately charged towards the ice knights.

—Clang!!

Collision.

“Ooh!”

—Grind!!

The skill of the ice knight who is now facing my ice sword is, to put it nicely, not bad. It’s just at the level of a scrub knight. Maybe even better. These guys don’t have any vital points, and their bodies are solid ice, so they’re even harder.

—Clang!!!

So, as soon as our swords met, I kicked the bastard’s chest and sent him flying, and then punched the tip of the sword of the bastard who was coming in from my side with a thrust, as if he was aiming for a combined attack, turning the ice sword into dust.

No matter how much they imitate the Royal Knights, this is a complete pushover.

“Come on.”

But does this mean that we have to smash these ice knights in the hundreds if we want to get to the palace? And when we get there, there will be even stronger guys?

This is going to be a tough one.