Chapter 242 : May the Blessing of Snow and Ice Be with You

At dawn, before the sun had even risen.

I yawned and came down to the first floor.

There, Sir Monde, Sherwood's reliable reinforcement, was sitting at a table with a gloomy face, waiting for us.

"Well, who do we have here? Isn't it my partner, Sir Monde?"

Sir Monde glared at me.

I gave him a grin and ordered breakfast from the innkeeper, who had woken up early as I had requested the day before.

To run around all day, one must first have a hearty breakfast.

"You too?"

Monde reluctantly nodded.

I ordered Monde's meal and the meals of the other members who hadn't come down yet, then sat down across from him.

Then, I greeted Sir Monde, who was sipping strong liquor from the morning, with a cheerful morning greeting.

"Did you sleep well?"

"...No."

"Oh dear. It seems you couldn't sleep because you were so excited."

Sir Monde, who was fiddling with his glass, flinched and glared at me.

"...Excited? You're excited to go out into that white hell beyond the barrier?"

"Sir Monde. Sleep is a restorative. Even if you're going on a picnic outside the barrier. If you don't get enough sleep, you can't play with the magical beasts with a sound mind, can you?"

Sir Monde drained his glass and looked at me with a very displeased expression.

"You look excited."

"Of course. How could I not be excited? We're going on a thrilling journey beyond the unknown land that no one has ever been to. You can't predict what will happen. What if we're suddenly attacked by an A-rank magical beast? What if the ground suddenly gives way and we fall into a bottomless crevice? Just thinking about it is thrilling."

Monde sighed and gently shook his head.

"...This guy was also from Sherwood."

"What do you mean?"

"Let me switch teams. I can't do it with you. I'd rather go with the golden-eyed kid."

"Not a chance. You can't even do sign language."

"Shit. Still better than you."

Monde muttered a curse and drained his glass again.

Then, he pointed to one side and said, "I brought supplies."

"Supplies?"

When I looked where Sir Monde was pointing, a pile of thick cloaks that looked warm just by looking at them was piled up on the table.

They seemed quite thick, looking like a pile of fur blankets.

The place we were going was a white land of death, all frozen white, where life could not survive.

The cloaks were all pure white, which would serve as camouflage in the white land and make us less conspicuous, but it also looked like they would get dirty easily.

"His Grace the Duke sent them. He said they have heat-retaining magic woven into them."

"Oh."

"He said they make sure to have them wear these when sending out reconnaissance teams beyond the barrier. Otherwise, they freeze to death or their movements become sluggish and they get killed by magical beasts."

"That demonic swordsman guy didn't wear anything like that."

"That guy is half an ice mage. He must have had some way."

"Aha."

Creeak—

As I was chatting with Sir Monde, the sound of old wooden planks bending was heard, and one by one, the Sherwood members began to come down the stairs to the first floor.

Sorrow came down the stairs calmly with eyes that sparkled like blue crystals.

Dofang didn't use the stairs, but yawned and dropped lightly from the railing.

Schmidt came down the stairs, holding the still-sleeping Linda in his arms.

...Even the way they came down was varied.

What a bunch of unique individuals.

One by one, they sat around the dining table, and soon the food we had ordered came out.

The hot meat soup seemed to warm us up from the inside.

While eating, Sorrow spoke to me with a particularly motivated face.

"When do we leave?"

I looked out the still-dark window and answered.

"When the sun rises and the darkness begins to break."

"I see."

Then, Sorrow spoke to Sir Monde.

"It's been a while. Is Lyle doing well?"

Sir Monde replied in a very unmotivated voice.

"He's probably doing well. Unlike me, who has to go out beyond the barrier at dawn, he's probably sleeping in a warm bed with a woman by his side in some inn. Damn it."

"..."

Sorrow looked at the dejected Sir Monde for a moment, then silently focused on his meal.

I looked at his blue eyes and asked.

"And Hartz?"

"Still sleeping."

"Aha."

I had forgotten.

He was a guy who slept a lot.

Dofang, who was still yawning and eating his soup, chuckled as he looked at Linda, who was dozing off in front of her food.

Then, he grabbed the swaying grass-green head before it could fall into the soup.

"Little sister. Are you sleepy now?"

Linda opened her sleepy eyes drowsily.

"Hmm...?"

Seeing that, Dofang chuckled again.

"This one seems to be a Sherwood member through and through. To be so relaxed right before going out beyond the barrier."

I took in the two of them and pondered the words Dofang had used to call Linda.

"Little sister...?"

Dofang, still holding Linda's head, looked at me.

"If she's your little sister, she's my little sister too. Besides, isn't she also from Sherwood? She's a little sister, right?"

"Hmm."

Come to think of it, that was right.

I was just a little surprised because at some point, they had naturally become close.

Shushruta had made various efforts to blend into Sherwood, such as gathering information on the members, but in contrast, Linda had closed the distance without much effort.

"But is she older than Siri?"

"I wonder. I don't think she knows either. It seems she doesn't really count her age."

"Is that so?"

Just then, Schmidt, Linda's picnic partner, pulled his chair closer to Linda, took her spoon, and started putting soup into her mouth.

"Oof..."

Dofang smiled and said in a gentle tone.

"Little sister. I know you're sleepy, but you have to eat. So you won't get tired on our picnic."

Dofang held her head, and Schmidt fed her soup.

Schmidt on the left, Dofang on the right.

Looking at it like this, she was nothing short of Sherwood's precious little sister who needed a lot of care.

Had this one also blended into Sherwood at some point?

Linda, who had become a full-fledged member of Sherwood while I wasn't looking.

In a way, that was amazing.

I finished my meal faster than the others, then took the beef jerky I had asked the innkeeper for in advance.

As I was doing a final check before leaving, the darkness outside began to lift.

As soon as I saw that, I left the inn.

"I'll be out first, so I'll see you outside."

After saying that, I slowly walked the streets, breathing in the cold air.

"Haaa..."

As I was stretching and walking, the Heavenly Demon spoke.

[My disciple.]

"Yes, Master."

[What if the magical beasts come rushing in while you're on reconnaissance?]

"You don't have to worry too much about that."

The interval between monster waves was at least a week, and at most two weeks.

Meaning, it would take at least a week for them to gather again.

In order to come rushing in like a wave, they also needed to gather a certain amount of numbers.

[But many of your predictions have been wrong, haven't they? You said it would start later.]

"...That's true."

It usually started in the dead of winter when it was coldest, but this time it had started earlier.

But even so, the second wave wouldn't come rushing in the very next day.

And even if it did, there was no way we wouldn't see such a huge scale, so we could just run to the barrier.

[Hmm. Come to think of it, that's right.]

The Heavenly Demon was convinced.

[But why do they come in groups? As if someone had ordered them to.]

"That's a very mysterious thing... no one knows."

The people of the north now considered the monster wave as a natural phenomenon, like an earthquake or a tsunami.

Why, why did they come in groups every winter?

The reason was unknown, but since it came like a phenomenon every year, they just prepared for it.

And so, I answered the Heavenly Demon's questions one by one and walked toward the barrier that was waiting for me.

As I approached the barrier, a soldier on guard duty spotted me and greeted me.

"Hello."

"Good morning."

"Not so good. Sir Ashuban, is that you?"

"That's right."

The soldier in the fur coat stared at me.

"Are you leaving now?"

"That's right."

"...Aren't you cold? It looks like you'll freeze to death as soon as you go out."

"I beat the cold a long time ago."

"I see. And the others?"

"I just came out first for a walk."

The soldier nodded as if he understood, then gestured to the people behind him.

The other two soldiers who were waiting for his command placed their hands on the wall.

A faint light flickered where they placed their hands.

A part of the wall slowly faded, and soon a passage large enough for one person to pass through appeared.

It was amazing no matter how many times I saw it.

It was like seeing a mirage.

Was this the ancient magic inscribed on the wall?

But I didn't show it on the outside like a country bumpkin.

As I walked past the soldiers and into the passage, I said in an indifferent tone.

"Well then, take care."

The soldiers bid me farewell.

"Please be careful."

"May the blessing of snow and ice be with you."

As the wall was thick, the passage was not short either.

It was like a small cave.

As I walked through the rather dark cave, I soon reached the end.

Just then, as if the dawn was breaking, light was beginning to fill the outside.

When I came out of the long passage of the night, it was a snowy landscape.

In the midst of the pure white, the gently falling snowflakes greeted me.

Seeing that the wind was calm, I thought it was a good time to leave on a journey.

"Haaa..."

When I let out a long breath, a hazy white breath scattered.

I decided to enjoy the leisure of walking around for a while before the others came.

As I was walking in front of the wall, watching the sky break, the remnants of the battle from the previous day were still scattered everywhere.

They seemed to be the ones that were deemed not marketable and left behind.

As I was looking around and walking, I noticed a presence rustling on one side.

"..."

I strode over and spoke to the madman in the black robe who was fiddling with a magical beast from the early morning.

"What are you doing?"

The man turned to me.

He smiled brightly, as if he were happy to see me.

"Ah, Sir Ashuban! We meet again."

"So we do."

The weirdo I had seen the day before, who was fondling the balls of a magical beast.

It was the black mage, Adrian.

"What are you doing so early in the morning?"

"I received a reconnaissance mission. And you?"

"Ah, I was also diligently researching to be of help."

"So early in the morning?"

"Haha, I couldn't just stand still when such good specimens were waiting for me outside. Besides, as time passes, the spirit weakens and the vessel becomes faint, so I have to hurry as much as possible."

"I see."

I didn't quite understand what he was saying, but I understood that this guy was a mage crazy about research and that he had to hurry to use black magic.

"But aren't you cold?"

He was wearing a single black robe, and it didn't seem to be performing one of the functions of clothing, which was to provide warmth.

"Ah, it's fine. When my hands feel like they're going to freeze, I go inside the barrier for a while and warm myself by the bonfire the soldiers have prepared. At least I won't freeze to death, haha."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course."

"...Even if it's not the time for a monster wave, a curious magical beast might visit from time to time, so be careful."

"Hahaha, of course."

As I was chatting with Adrian for a while, a passage appeared in the wall again, and voices were heard from it.

The Sherwood members must have finally arrived.

As I naturally watched the place, I saw Dofang cautiously sticking his body out.

Dofang, who was looking around, soon spotted me and gestured.

"Little brother! Come here for a moment! We have a guest!"

"A guest?"

As Dofang said, I got up from my seat and went back into the passage...

"Hmm?"

Not only the other Sherwood members and Sir Monde, who were wearing the white cloaks they had been supplied with.

A fat snowman was smiling brightly and looking up at me.

"...Lily?"

The Heavenly Demon laughed lowly.

[The princess has come to see you off.]

It was the princess, who had bundled up so much she looked like a fat snowman.

The duke had given a strict order that she would never be allowed beyond the barrier, so what was she doing here?

Come to think of it, that was probably why she couldn't come out of the passage and had called me.

I asked Lilia.

"What are you doing here?"

"To cheer you on!"

"Cheer me on?"

"Yes! I told you. The reason I came to Tundra."

"...?"

"To boost morale!"

A laugh escaped me.

Did she really wake up so early in the morning, fighting off the sleep that was weighing down her eyelids, just to cheer me on?

The princess gestured, and I went to her and held out my hand.

Princess Lilia held my hand tightly with both of hers and looked up at me.

"Hero. Please be careful. Ketel is watching over you, so I don't need to worry, right?"

I gave her a grin.

"Of course."

"Do your best! Although I can't go with you, I'll be cheering for you from here!"

As she said that, she squeezed my hand tightly.

For some reason, it felt like a warm energy was being transmitted through her hand, and I really felt energized. How strange.

From the side, Sir Monde chimed in with a sullen tone.

"Princess. What about me?"

"Sir Monde, you take care of yourself. And don't hold the hero back."

"..."

Then, she whispered in a small voice that only I could hear.

"This is how he works hard."

"Aha."

What a wise princess.

(End of Chapter)

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