Chapter 127 – The North (11)

“Dad!”

When I returned to my room, Alice and Lorena hugged me tightly. The two of them finished taking a shower, so they were dressed lightly, and the room was full of smoke because the heating was turned on. I said while hanging the coat I wore outside on a hanger.

“Okay, did something go wrong?”

“I asked people here, and they said they saw someone going to a place called Poive.”

I laughed at her words. Seeing me smile, Alice said.

“Dad? What’s the matter? Do you know what Phoebe is doing?”

“I don’t know. I’m just laughing because I remembered a funny story I just met with a friend.”

Lorena asked, her eyes twinkling as the story in issue #5 came up.

“Evan, what is that No. 5 person doing? It looked very strong.”

“It’s just that he’s someone who works under a knight. They said it was like a hunter.”

“If the people who work under a knight are like that, how strong can a knight be?”

Lorena said that and tilted her head. I listened to her and said:

“Well, let’s see if I work under the knight commander.”

I didn’t want to know who Number 5 was working for. If it’s a character who has to fight with us later, it’s going to bother me for nothing. It is better not to know the story of the murdered person. I threw myself on the bed and said.

“Alice. So, how do I get to that place called Phoebe?”

“Huh. I asked the innkeeper. They said I had to leave the wagon here and rent a dog sled. It’s a bit far and rough, so there’s no separate transportation, and it can only be reached by sledding.”

“Renting must be expensive.”

“Here’s the bill.”

Alice handed me the bill. The amount was set at several times the cost of renting a regular wagon. When I saw the amount, I frowned at her in surprise, and Alice said with a carefree face.

“If all the dogs come back alive, they give you a 40% discount there, and if you return the wagon in good condition, you get an additional 30% off there.”

“Then you won’t get your money back.”

At my words, Alice said:

“Ah, what’s the matter? Nothing happened to me coming this far.”

The look on her face as she said that made it seem like she was trying to shake off her sinisterness. Lorena looked at the mountain range with peaks sharp like beasts’ teeth.

“Will it really be all right to cross the snowfields with no transport and no people in the north now? If something goes wrong, we might all have to walk.”

“Hey!”

Lorena sneaked behind me as Alice raised her voice. I pulled Lorena into a hug and stretched her other arm over her Alice. As if trying to annoy Lorena, Alice got up and quietly slipped into my arms as I reached out to her.

“Let’s go to sleep. Go to bed and leave tomorrow.”

“It will be cold tomorrow…”

Alice trembled as if she already felt the cold. Lorena nodded her head too and crouched down on her body. The two of them were already fighting the invisible cold. I was dumbfounded and laughed.

“Uh? Too bad! Evan. I’m really cold…”

When Lorena heard her laugh inside her and smirked at her, I hugged her tighter and said,

“If I hug you like this, why are you so angry? Huh?”

“Ah, that’s true, but…”

“What is it, Dad hug me too. Me too.”

Let me hold Lorena tight. Alice dug into my arm with a dissatisfied expression. I hugged them tightly, and soon they fell asleep, separated from each other, sweating profusely from the heating.

******

The chill of winter in the north seeped in as if flesh were being sliced ​​through, even when wearing thick clothes. Alice and Lorena were chugging along with me clinging to them, and large, thick-haired dogs pulling our sled.

“Ah, ah, ah, Dad! Gee, ge, really! If you go over this mountain! Is that person there?”

“That, that, that, right? Huh? Eh, eh, Evan?”

The two, ordinary humans who had never lived in the North before, were having a hard time adjusting to the sudden murderous cold. I hugged them tightly and comforted them.

“It will be right.”

I didn’t believe that No. 5 was really talking about a tanner. As much as I know about No. 5, No. 5 knew who I was. Even as we talked casually, we understood that our goals overlapped. I clicked my tongue in the bitter foreboding that we would become enemies the next time we met No. 5, but I saw a village that was shining like the eyes of a giant in the distance.

The village in the winter mountains was like a lighthouse on the sea. Dozens of twinkling eyes imitated stars, and warm smoke rose up for passers-by. Lost men changed the course of the wagons, and hounds chased the smell of food across the snow.

When I turned my head, it seemed that all sides were filled with pure white fog. The snowflakes that had been blowing little by little right after we set off became a fierce blizzard from the time we started moving away from the village, and now the whole world was literally dyed white.

The shadows of the trees and the rocks were indistinguishable, and even the road was dyed white, so I couldn’t tell if I was on the right path. My ears were deafened by the sound of the stormy wind, and my face was red from the cold wind hitting the snowflakes.

Alice was crouched in the carriage with her head down, her face hurt, and Lorena was still scanning her surroundings, holding her sword with one hand. White frost clung to her face like a beard.

I said pointing to her face.

“It looks like a beard.”

“Huh?”

But with her ear plugs on and Valley screaming, she couldn’t hear me. I told her again.

“It’s like a beard!”

“You said you went swimming?”

The snowfield is a barren place where jokes don’t work. I just had to feel the coldness of this merciless earth with my own body. How cold and dry people will live in this land where even the least communication is cut off.

While Lorena was on guard, I continued to hold on to the sled I was not used to.

“Quaaaaa!”

A beast howled in the blizzard. Lorena, shivering from her cold, frowned at her, grabbing her sword and repositioning her. I grabbed the reins of the sleigh and looked around. Alice looked at me, blinking her eyes, not understanding the situation.

“Oh, Dad? What, what, what?”

“Alice. Something is coming.”

Lorena trembled and raised her sword halfway. The blade, which ate plenty of cold air, was shining bright blue. I felt a movement spinning around our sled at a terrifying speed. In the crevices of the shadows of trees and rocks, bipedal beings hovered around us, drawing closer and closer.

Every time they broke through the blizzard and approached, there was a disparate crash in the wind. It was the sound of thick bodies colliding with snowflakes as they regurgitated the rapids of the mighty snow. Clearly even in the wind, something was running toward the carriage from all sides.

Something that was neither a tree nor a rock swelled up like a puffer fish and jumped out of the snow. Huge arms and fierce eyes, sharp teeth protruding out of the mouth and a long snout,

“Lorena! Left!”

At the same time as my cry, Lorena’s sword lit up. A solid silver line flashed on the sleigh for an instant, like sparks. The beastman’s body, which had risen to attack us, was cut into two pieces and rolled on the floor. Lorena gripped her sword and looked all around her.

“Evan! You have to keep driving!”

You can’t stop sledding. No matter how fast I was, I couldn’t get out of this snow field faster than a dog sled, and I had no idea how many beastmen there were. If the carriage overturned here, it would be difficult to protect Alice.

“Quaaaaagh!”

Another beastman was cut in half and flew into the air. As if a newspaper delivery boy had been run over by a wagon, the bodies of the prisoners continued to fly high into the sky. The beastmen, who had tried to ambush us several times, finally began to change their strategy.

“Uh?”

The beastman, running at a speed similar to that of the sled, raised her claws and struck the sled dog. The sled dog, whose stomach skin was torn off, fell on its side and rolled, and other dogs began to fall one after another as the dog’s leg got caught. The dogs tangled in each other, the lines tangled, and finally the sled overturned as the cart trampled on one of the fallen sled dogs.

“Fuck!”

I hugged Alice tightly and winked at Lorena. Lorena and I jumped off the overturning sled at the same time and rolled in different directions. My vision dimly saw Lorena holding her sword in her stance.

Then, Alice, who had been lowering her head because her face hurt a moment ago, was looking around in confusion as she couldn’t grasp the situation.

“What, what? Dad? What is this?”

“It’s a prisoner.”

“What?”

“Fucked!”

Along with my answer, large beastmen appeared from all sides. Lorena slashed off one of the beasts that had attacked her and was running toward me. Alice was stunned to see the beasts, and she clung to me.

“Mom!”

I clenched my fists. The prisoners were looking at me with strange expressions, but judging from the fact that they focused on my body and face, I had a strong feeling that I would be fucked if I got caught by these bastards.

“Fuck… !”

I’ll just stay at home.