Chapter 243 : May Death Pass You By

The princess held each of the other Sherwood members' hands tightly, telling them to do their best.

A smile bloomed on everyone's lips except for Sir Monde's, and the atmosphere became much warmer.

A situation where strength truly surged.

If they ran with this warm energy in their hearts, even the blizzard beyond that barrier would not dare to invade.

As I watched the princess's waddling back as she walked away after completing her mission, a laugh escaped me.

The Heavenly Demon's laughter followed.

I'm telling you, this old man has a soft spot for kids.

Behind her, a knight with a rather sharp aura, as if assigned by the duke, was walking like a shadow.

The dejected Sir Monde looked at the backs of the two who were getting farther away with a wistful gaze.

"That's my spot..."

I patted the gloomy Sir Monde's shoulder and cheered him up.

"What's the big deal? That guy is much more knightly and better."

The delinquent Sir Monde glared at me.

Then, he threw the extra white fur cloak he was holding at me.

It was the supplies the duke had sent.

I caught it in a daze.

"Hmm?"

It was much lighter than I had thought.

It looked incredibly heavy at a glance, so I thought my movements would be sluggish, but with this weight, I didn't think I had to worry about that.

It was no ordinary item.

But still, I didn't need it.

This body had reached the state of being impervious to heat and cold.

No cold or heat could dare to invade.

Sir Monde said.

"Just wear it without talking. Hero or not, you'll freeze to death out there without it."

It seemed he thought I had forgotten to wear it.

I had left it behind on purpose. It was just cumbersome for me.

"I don't need it."

"You don't need it?"

"This body is impervious to heat and cold. The cold can't extinguish the passion in my heart."

"...You madman. Do as you please."

But I had already brought it. How annoying.

How should I deal with this?

The Heavenly Demon offered a solution.

[You can give it to your friend.]

"Friend?"

[The one who is shivering in the cold outside.]

Come to think of it, there was a madman outside who was shivering in the cold and engrossed in his research.

"Aha. But why a friend?"

[Why? Have you heard the saying, 'birds of a feather flock together'?]

"No."

[It means that similar people tend to hang out together.]

"..."

I immediately came out of the passage.

I approached the man who was fiddling with a magical beast in the snow and threw the cloak over his head as he was squatting down.

The black mage, Adrian, who had been ambushed by the cloak, turned to me with the cloak over his head.

"Oh. What is this?"

"It's a cloak."

"A cloak?"

"I picked it up on the way."

Adrian fumbled with the cloak and put it on properly, then exclaimed in admiration.

"Ooh! This is incredibly warm! And it's not heavy at all! It's like a feather!"

"That's good."

"Thank you, Sir Ashuban. With this, I can stay outside the barrier for a long time. This will be a great progress in my research!"

"Is that so?"

"Haha, of course! Sir Ashuban, you are truly a gift sent to me by Ketel! Ah, I apologize if that sounded rude. It just means that it's that meaningful to me. Ordinary people don't want to talk to black mages."

"Not at all. No need to be rude."

"Then I'm glad."

"Then I'll be going."

"Yes! Please be careful! May death pass you by!"

When I came back after giving the cloak to Adrian, Sorrow, who had been watching blankly, asked.

"Who was that?"

I turned to follow Sorrow's gaze, and Adrian, who was excited, was giggling and fiddling with the corpse of the magical beast even more enthusiastically.

"A mad black mage."

"...So it seems. A wicked deathly energy is shimmering."

"You can see that?"

"I can. The acrid deathly energy, the death qi, is unusually thick. I heard there was an outstanding black mage in the Red Mage Tower, and it seems to be him."

"Outstanding?"

"Yes. The fact that he wasn't kicked out of the Red Mage Tower despite being a black mage is proof of that. Black mages are shunned even among mages."

"Hmm."

"Outstanding mages usually have a peculiar mental world. They're all eccentrics."

Just then, Adrian's laughter, "Hahaha!", was heard as if something was amusing.

Laughing like that among the corpses of magical beasts with their limbs cut off, he looked somewhat eerie.

"...I see."

I nodded and turned my gaze to Sorrow.

Sorrow, who had been staring blankly at Adrian, noticed my gaze.

"...? Why are you looking at me?"

"Just because."

"..."

Dofang chimed in, pretending to know.

"Ah, I've heard of him too. Adrian, the black mage of the Red Mage Tower. He has quite a few nicknames. He's also called the Cursed Sorcerer of the Abyss, the Corpse Artist, the Coordinator of Bones and Shadows, and the Aesthete of Death. They're quite cool nicknames. It seems mages are good at naming things."

"What's that?"

Dofang shrugged.

"I wonder. I've only heard about it."

I gently shook my head and walked out toward the white land spread out before me.

"Let's go for now."

"But little brother, do you really not need a cloak? Aren't you cold?"

"I told you I'm fine."

I decided to answer with my actions.

Thump!

I kicked off the ground and went ahead first.

Thump-thump-thump!

The others immediately followed.

We ran through the blizzard that was getting rougher and rougher as we ran, across the white land.

I explained as I ran.

"Gentlemen. Our mission is not to subjugate magical beasts, but to reconnoiter. Keep that in mind."

The highly motivated Sorrow replied with his blue eyes shining.

"But there's no reason to go out of our way to avoid them, is there?"

"Do as you please. The judgment is up to each of you. But don't forget the purpose of this mission. Reconnaissance, not magical beast subjugation. Got it?"

The others nodded.

This mission was a dangerous one where even Sherwood could lose their lives if they made a mistake, so I repeatedly warned them and raised their awareness.

"The top priority is to return safely. The mission comes after that. Got it? If you think it's dangerous, get out unconditionally."

No matter how many times I warned them, it wasn't enough.

Because life and death are separated in an instant.

Death always lurks behind the bush called carelessness. With its eyes shining.

"As you can guess, this reconnaissance mission is to grasp the approximate scale of the enemy. We need to grasp their scale so we can deal with them flexibly."

And how do we grasp that scale?

It's simple.

"We just need to confirm the ones that are B-rank or higher."

Because those are the truly dangerous ones.

C-rank and below magical beasts can be dealt with just by the magic cannonballs and crossbows fired from the top of the barrier.

But from B-rank, it's not that easy.

Even if you manage to deal with a B-rank magical beast, an A-rank is out of the question.

Imagine a swarm of guys like the Hydra I fought.

The thought alone is dizzying.

How on earth could you deal with them with just magic cannonballs and crossbows?

At that point, the knights have no choice but to step in.

No matter how sturdy the wall is, if a group of A-rank magical beasts comes rushing in and starts ramming it with their immense power, you can't guarantee that it won't collapse.

A-rank magical beasts can destroy an ordinary wall on their own.

"And among them, if there's an A-rank, make sure to count them. Don't miss a single one."

Those who heard my explanation nodded.

"Alright, that's all. Don't be late for dinner."

At my words, the others split off to the sides.

Sorrow ran off to the right without a word, and Dofang waved and followed him.

"See you later, little brother."

Schmidt and Linda, who was sleeping soundly on his back, also branched off to the left.

Schmidt gave a simple hand signal as he ran.

—See you later!

I maintained my speed and ran toward the north, where the white mountain range was faintly visible.

I glanced back and saw Sir Monde following me with a look of someone who would rather die.

"Sir Monde."

Sir Monde looked at me.

"I'm going to increase the speed. Can you keep up?"

"More than this?"

"Yes."

"Hey, hero. You seem to be mistaken about something. This isn't a race. We have to run for hours at this speed to get to that far place. And we also have to conserve our stamina in case a magical beast suddenly pops out."

"Of course. I said that considering that."

Sir Monde's expression crumpled as if he had eaten shit.

"Sir Monde. If you're having a hard time, just say so."

"You son of a..."

"Alright, let's go!"

Whoooosh—

The wail of a ghost echoed in my ears.

I was engulfed in the wind of the Fleeting Shadow Steps and quickly shot forward.

"Hahahaha!"

The refreshing wind brushed past my hair.

I could hear Sir Monde muttering curses from behind.

Toward the huge mountain range whose shape was faintly visible beyond the blizzard, the two figures ran across the white land.

* * *

The white world beyond the barrier was a very barren place, just as I had heard.

The further north we went, the harder it was to find a single blade of grass.

All that was visible was the endless white mountain range that shimmered faintly like a mirage in the distance, and the ceaseless, howling blizzard.

Everything was buried in snow, all white.

I felt like I finally understood why it was called the white hell.

And yet, the truly strange thing was that the magical beasts were the only inhabitants of this place.

They were wandering around the white hell like idle loafers.

Where on earth did these guys come from?

I didn't know much about the ecology of magical beasts, but the most plausible hypothesis about their origin was the animal infection theory.

The theory that contaminated mana infects animals and transforms them into magical beasts.

The reason why the appearance of magical beasts was particularly frequent in the Maia Kingdom compared to other places was often cited as the high level of mana contamination. And that was also why the land was so barren.

But how should I explain this?

There were so many magical beasts roaming around, even though it was hard to find a single blade of grass, let alone an animal.

It was something I couldn't understand at all.

Since I couldn't figure it out by thinking about it with my head anyway, I pushed aside the question that was stealthily clinging to me and focused on the mission.

I moved, killing my presence as much as possible, and observed them.

As a result, I was able to find another strange point.

They would wander around here and there like bored loafers and sometimes run into each other.

They would growl at each other and have a war of nerves, but they wouldn't actually fight.

The higher the rank of a magical beast, the higher its intelligence.

From C-rank and above, you start to see guys who are so smart that they are called cunning.

If those guys had done that, I would have tried to understand, but these were just small fries who didn't look very smart at a glance.

So, seeing the D-rank and below guys do that not just once or twice, but several times, a question began to sprout.

It was as if they had made a peace treaty among themselves.

We wandered around the white mountain range and observed the magical beasts.

Then, we found a large cave under a valley where we could avoid the wind, and we decided to rest there for a while and have lunch.

Sir Monde, who had been panting and following me, collapsed as soon as he reached the cave and caught his breath.

"Hey, I told you to say something if you were having a hard time."

Sir Monde glared at me with a face full of fighting spirit.

"Hah... hard? Who?"

"..."

Even though he was out of breath, Sir Monde would rather die than admit that he was having a hard time.

In a dangerous place where he could die at any moment, Sir Monde was being pointlessly proud.

Was he so upset that the princess had told him not to hold me back before we left?

First, we decided to make a bonfire for our meal.

Come to think of it, there was no wood to burn, so I was at a loss for a moment, but at the Heavenly Demon's boast that there was nothing the Blue Flame couldn't burn, I tried lighting a fire on the ice.

And it lit!

Sir Monde stared at the blue flame burning the ice with a dazed expression.

"...What in the world is this?"

A fire that burns ice?

I was also at a loss.

But since I had no way to explain it either, I just ignored it, took out some beef jerky, warmed it up gently, and chewed on it.

Sir Monde, who had been staring blankly at the blue bonfire for a moment, followed my lead and put the beef jerky in his mouth as if he were eating to live.

I chewed on the beef jerky and got lost in thought.

I quietly counted the number of B-rank magical beasts I had found on my way here.

A total of eight.

I had found eight B-rank magical beasts just on my way here.

Even in Maia, where the appearance of magical beasts was relatively frequent, wasn't this a bit much?

Even when wandering around the Maia Kingdom, it was extremely rare to encounter a B-rank magical beast.

You had to be incredibly unlucky to encounter one, and the chances of encountering one were even rarer. That's what B-rank magical beasts were.

And yet, in this white hell, I had found eight of them in just half a day.

The number of C-rank and below magical beasts I had found was countless.

"..."

I could feel the reality of the worst monster wave in history on my skin.

The only good thing was that I hadn't seen any A-rank magical beasts yet...

Grrr.

A presence was felt from outside the cave.

The Heavenly Demon laughed slowly.

[A guest has arrived.]

When I looked at the entrance of the cave, a huge magical beast was sticking its head into the cave.

(End of Chapter)

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