🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 75
The moment she took a step, her surroundings changed. The snow stopped falling—or more precisely, it didn’t fall beyond the border she had just crossed. Ingram’s words suddenly came to mind.
An abnormal climate.
“…So it’s a magical beast that causes snowstorms.”
There were some beasts that attacked using powers resembling magic. That usually happened when they had accumulated a great amount of mana—meaning, they had absorbed a great deal of life force.
Silia turned to look at the person who had just pulled her to safety. He was taller than her, wrapped in layers of thick fur coats—
“Huh.”
“Oh.”
Both made similar sounds of surprise at the same time. Behind him, a group of villagers dressed in unfamiliar clothing came rushing toward them.
“Are you all right, Your Highness?”
“Hey.”
Silia abruptly reached up and yanked back the hood hiding the man’s head. Golden hair spilled out.
Grabbing the back of Crondel’s head tightly, Silia said,
“Explain. Now.”
“…That’s what happened.”
“Unbelievable.”
Just as the crown princess had said, Crondel had snuck out in secret. He’d wanted to come see Silia but had kept his distance because of his sister’s watchful eyes. Then, he said, he’d suddenly gotten the urge to explore this area—before the snowstorm hit.
“And then you ran into the beast?”
He nodded. After slaying several beasts, he lost his way and eventually stumbled upon this border village where they now stood.
“These people… they seem to know you’re a prince.”
“No, not exactly. I never told them who I was, but, um…”
Crondel looked oddly bashful—unlike his usual self.
“What is it?”
“…They said I looked like a prince and started calling me that.”
“…Pfft.”
“Don’t laugh. It’s embarrassing enough saying it out loud. Anyway.”
Crondel lowered his voice.
“The people here… even though they’re technically citizens of the kingdom, they aren’t treated like it.”
His expression darkened.
“The nobles don’t bother coming out this far. And since it’s right on the border, people think of them as half foreigners. The land’s barren, the mines are poor, so no one even bothers to check on them.”
“So that’s why Ingram called them savages.”
Silia remembered his confident, careless words. She looked over at the people whispering in the distance. Apart from their thicker, rougher clothes, they didn’t seem any different from her own people.
“You couldn’t return right away because…”
“The snowstorm, right?”
“There’s more to it. I haven’t managed to convince them yet.”
“Convince them of what—”
“Your Highness. Thank you.”
A calm voice came from nearby. A woman with a cloth tightly tied around her forehead stepped forward. The pattern on her headband was more ornate than the others’. Judging from how the villagers regarded her, she was the chief of this border village.
She spoke quietly.
“Thanks to you, we were able to slay many beasts. But now, the two of you must go.”
Silia spoke first, before Crondel could respond.
“Why?”
“We already told His Highness… we have something important to do. As things stand, we can’t subdue the beast.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“This beast has been appearing here for a long time. We’ve always used the same method.”
A long time. Even if the kingdom didn’t know, the northern nation across the border often faced beasts.
Since this was a border area between them, the beasts must have been crossing over for quite some time.
The woman’s face hardened as she led them outside. A cart was waiting there—filled with people sitting silently. Their faces were pale and resigned. The sick.
At that moment, Silia understood.
“You use living sacrifices. You choose the ill.”
“Once we offer them, the beast stays away for a while. When it returns, we offer another….”
“That’s not a real solution.”
“I know.”
Her voice trembled faintly—tinged with anger.
“But we have no proper weapons or soldiers.”
It was true. The village looked desperately poor—houses patched with planks, people wrapped in rough furs. They were using all their strength just to survive the harsh environment.
“I’m the only one who knows a little of what you call magic—or sorcery. No one else can wield a sword properly. No one protects us. Outsiders like you only visit out of curiosity, then leave. There’s nothing here worth staying for.”
“…”
“We’re used to being ignored.”
Those words stirred an old memory. When Silia and her father had struggled under debt and begged for help, no one came to their aid. A few nobles she knew had looked on with pity—and that was all.
I hate getting involved in complicated affairs.
Even so, she looked straight into the woman’s eyes—tired, resigned, worn.
The same eyes she’d once had in her previous life.
“I’ll bear the sin for this. That’s what the village chiefs have always done. I don’t want to do it, but words from outsiders don’t help. You’ll leave soon enough anyway.”
The next moment, Silia placed a hand on her shoulder.
“About that beast.”
“Yes?”
“Not the small ones—the huge, screaming one.”
The woman’s eyes trembled faintly. Silia asked again to make sure.
“That’s the real cause, isn’t it?”
“…It is.”
“Then.”
Silia abruptly climbed into the cart and told the sick to get down.
“Let’s go.”
“…Silia!”
“You stay here.”
Crondel’s expression froze—but then he climbed up beside her.
“I’m coming too.”
“I said stay.”
“No.”
That was a surprisingly firm refusal coming from Crondel.
“Fine, do what you want.”
Silia turned to the stunned village chief and nodded slowly.
“Let’s go.”
The rattling cart stopped at a low snow-covered hill with a single tent pitched at the top. Silia took the furs the villagers had given her and went inside, lying down. It was more comfortable than expected. Crondel hesitated at the entrance.
“I’ll stay outside.”
“It’s freezing out there. I might be fine, but you won’t be.”
“It looks cramped inside.”
“If that’s the problem, I’ll go out instead.”
As she began to rise, shedding the furs, Crondel flinched and rushed inside.
“Just stay put.”
“Then you stay too. Unless you want to freeze to death.”
Crondel’s eyes trembled before he quietly lay beside her. It was almost funny—he hadn’t minded when the two of them nearly caused a scandal before, yet now he was all awkward about sharing a tent.
He whispered, trying to break the tension.
“It’s warmer than I expected.”
“The tent’s under a protection charm. It’s similar to magic, but they couldn’t manage enough power to fight beasts.”
“…How long do you think they’ve lived like this?”
Instead of answering, Silia thought back to the borderlands of her previous life—the Death Zone that had fallen to beasts after the Great War. If there was anything useful she could recall…
Ah. Maybe that could work.
Still, she muttered absently,
“You should worry about yourself instead.”
Lying back on the soft furs, staring at the ceiling, she spoke with her eyes closed.
“Once you get back, do you think your sister will just sit quietly? You’re lucky if she doesn’t kidnap you again.”
“To be fair, she didn’t exactly kidnap me last time.”
“So you went willingly, then—”
Silia turned to look at him. Crondel’s pale blue eyes had grown calm.
“You went with her? Why?”
“Well… staying put would’ve been dangerous.”
“So you let yourself be taken to a place like that?”
“She probably hired a mage to help somehow.”
“Or she could’ve broken your mana circuits completely.”
“…If that kept others safe.”
Silia instinctively grabbed his collar, ready to shake him.
“What kind of reasoning is that?”
Crondel sighed.
“You’d probably make the same choice.”
“Me?”
“You try to handle everything alone.”
“That’s different.”
“Is it? Someone who insists on facing everything by themselves—if they knew their power could hurt others, would they ask for help, or would they isolate themselves and try to fix it alone?”
“…”
“Either way, I thought it was safer that way. If I hadn’t gone, my mana circuits could’ve become a real disaster. Even now, I’d make the same choice.”
“You’d just let your sister drag you off?”
“I hope it never comes to that… but if there’s no other way—”
He didn’t finish the sentence, but Silia understood. Tightening her grip on his collar, she said,
“Don’t just let them take you. Fight back.”
“…”
“Resist. Do something. Don’t let others control you.”
It was both a very Silia-like thing to say and also ironic—since she herself had been dragged along by others’ will for most of her life. Even so, she spoke with conviction.
“Don’t take every blow without fighting back. Do something. It’s not your fault.”
Just as it hadn’t been her fault that she’d survived and endured all this, it wasn’t Crondel’s fault that he’d been born with that unstable mana.
Crondel nodded slowly.
“Okay. I will.”
His warmth beside her was tangible. Somehow, it felt comforting—almost too much so.
Am I getting too comfortable?
She suddenly thought of the companions she’d left behind in the snowstorm. The people who had been with her. Ozka would have followed her retreat signal and her order to withdraw within thirty minutes. Flir, too. Thinking they were safe, she felt relieved. If something had happened, it would’ve been disastrous.
Whoooosh. The wind howled outside, but the tent remained warm and still. Two steady breaths filled the small space.
Rustle.
“…Ah.”
Some time must have passed—they’d both fallen asleep. It was getting darker outside. Silia quietly pulled out Periot (her weapon). The cause of her awakening was clear: a sharp, ominous presence approaching from outside.
She knew immediately what it was.
“I was disappointed I missed you earlier.”
Throwing the tent flap aside, she saw it—
A massive, bear-shaped beast.
