Arden’s eyelids slowly opened.
Feeling drowsy, he awoke on a bed.
“Where am I...?”
It was a house made of brick.
After collapsing on the plain, he appeared to have been brought straight to a nearby village.
“How many days have passed...?”
Arden muttered in a half-asleep voice as he slowly raised his upper body.
His body felt stiff, as though he had been lying down for a long time.
Crack.
When Arden turned his head, he saw a fireplace whose embers had not gone out and a rocking chair swaying faintly.
However, no one was sitting in it.
It seemed the owner of the room had stepped out for a while.
“More importantly, where is Kamer...?”
Arden got out of bed and took one step, only to frown as dizziness washed over him.
At that moment, the door opened and a familiar woman with red hair entered.
It was Kamer.
The moment she saw Arden, she immediately rushed back out.
“Wait a moment!”
She was in such a hurry that the pounding of her footsteps echoed throughout the room.
With a faint smile, Arden sat on the edge of the bed and waited.
How much time passed like that?
Kamer, who had hurried away, returned with an old man.
The old man pushed up the glasses resting on the bridge of his nose and looked at Arden.
For an instant, blue light rippled across his black eyes, but Arden did not notice. He was more exhausted than he had thought.
“Hmm...”
The old man gave Arden a quick look-over before speaking.
“You’re fine now. Get your things together. A lad who has places to be should not be lying around here, should he?”
“...!”
Arden’s eyes widened.
It was a manner of speaking he had occasionally heard whenever he went down to the village while living at the orphanage.
Of course, no one used it in that village anymore.
The Emperor had standardized the language, and it had naturally faded away after the village chief passed on.
Perhaps that was why Arden found it nostalgic and nodded.
“Yes, and... thank you for treating me.”
“Do not thank me. Go thank Dylan. He is the one who saw to everything.”
“Dylan...?”
As Arden blinked at the unfamiliar name, Kamer explained.
“He’s a Holy Knight like you. He carried you all the way to Karhel and even hired the most expensive healer in the city for you. He said there are no priests here.”
“Ah... Have I been lying here for several days?”
“Three days. Let’s go now. Mr. Dylan asked me to bring you over as soon as you woke up.”
Three days...
He had been bedridden for quite a while.
The backlash from the power he had used then appeared to be severe.
More importantly, where were his belongings?
Arden looked around and asked,
“My things...”
“Here.”
When Arden looked for his bag, Kamer brought it in from outside.
Meanwhile, the old man handed Arden warm water.
“You’ll be thirsty after just waking up.”
“Thank you.”
Arden bowed his head and drank the water.
It was pleasantly lukewarm, so it went down easily.
“Ahh.”
After wiping away even the water running down the corner of his mouth, Arden slung his bag over his shoulder.
At the old man’s urging to go quickly, he left with Kamer.
For a moment, the cold cut into his skin, but he quickly grew accustomed to it.
“It’s close, so we’ll be there soon.”
Kamer said as she entered an alley layered with snow.
Arden nodded and quietly followed behind her.
After walking for about five minutes...
“Here it is.”
Kamer stopped in front of an enormous inn.
It seemed the Holy Knight called Dylan was staying there.
When Arden opened the door and entered, he saw people wearing familiar emblems on their chests.
They were Holy Knights.
When they saw Arden, they grinned.
“Looks like you are fully recovered.”
“Old Man Hans is skilled, at least. The Healer beside you must have helped too.”
“Whatever the reason, it is a relief.”
“Indeed, it is. And do not just stand there. Come sit with us. We have something to discuss. Oh... will soup do for food?”
Surprised for a moment by their unexpectedly friendly reception, Arden took an empty seat and answered.
“Yes, I think soup will be fine.”
“Very well. Cook! Bring us another bowl of soup!”
“Yes, I will have it out shortly.”
“Make it generous! The young man has not eaten for days.”
“Yes, yes, of course. Do not worry.”
The cook, who had poked his head out, went back inside to make the soup.
The man who had watched him turned around and looked at Arden.
“Well... Kamer may have told you beforehand, but allow me to introduce myself first. I am Dylan. And you must be Arden.”
“Yes, Mr. Dylan. Thank you for treating me.”
Arden had roughly guessed that the man before him was Dylan.
“Do not trouble yourself over that. Helping the injured is what a Holy Knight should do, is it not? And do not be so tense. As I said, I only called you here to talk for a moment.”
“Talk?”
“Yes. First... allow me to express my gratitude. If you had not been there, the north would have suffered damage close to total devastation.”
“What?”
Arden frowned at the word devastation and asked again.
Dylan nodded and continued.
“Forty-four creatures descended from the Snowy Mountains this time. Considering that around ten to fifteen descend each year, that is four times as many.”
“...”
“You know as well as we do what happens every year with merely ten to fifteen of them.. This time, the north nearly vanished. ...Well, enough preamble. Let us get to the point.”
With that, Dylan took out a scroll from within his robes and handed it to Arden.
“This is...”
“It came from the Temple.”
Nodding at the explanation, Arden unfolded the scroll.
He slowly read what was written inside.
“Hmm...”
After finishing it, Arden carefully set the scroll down.
Dylan asked,
“Have you read it all?”
“Yes.”
The scroll instructed them to form an expeditionary force of Holy Knights and knights.
The reason was to find out what was happening in the Snowy Mountains.
Dylan rolled the scroll back up, placed it in his robes, and said,
“Now that you have read it, I will be direct. Would you go to the Snowy Mountains with us? We need your help.”
“The Snowy Mountains...”
“Even if it is not as great as that sword strike from before, your strength will be a great help.”
He had intended to accept the offer anyway, but a thought suddenly came to Arden.
What if the horde of creatures had not all descended yet?
What if there were even more than the creatures that had descended first?
Their numbers had suddenly increased fourfold, so it was not entirely impossible.
If that happened, not only this place but even Balkan would be in danger.
He had to prevent that at all costs.
Having reached a decision, Arden spoke.
“I’ll go.”
“You have my sincere thanks.”
Dylan sprang to his feet and clasped Arden’s hand.
“I will gather the members at once. Rest well in the meantime. We will be leaving soon.”
“Yes.”
The moment Arden nodded, the soup arrived.
It was piled high with meat, yet there was not a trace of gamey smell.
Arden swallowed the saliva that had gathered in his mouth and lifted his spoon.
He needed to fill his stomach first. After three days without food, his stomach was churning.
***
One week passed in no time.
Time flew by.
Dylan worked tirelessly to gather those who would travel to the Snowy Mountains, while Arden began exercising to restore his condition.
“Whew.”
As he was cooling down his thoroughly heated body, Kamer came in.
She tossed Arden a towel and asked,
“Is your training going well?”
“I just finished.”
“Oh, right... Where will you go after you return from the Snowy Mountains?”
“Further south. I am going Beyond the Continent. There is something I need to find.”
“B-Beyond the Continent?”
Kamer asked back, flustered by the answer she had not expected. She knew what kind of place Beyond the Continent was as well.
Thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—had crossed over, but none except the Emperor had returned alive.
However, Kamer did not ask why he was going there. Arden was entitled to a secret or two that he could not speak about.
Instead, she continued calmly.
“Then I cannot go any farther with you. You will leave as soon as you come back from the Snowy Mountains, right?”
“Yeah. I probably will.”
“...So this is where we part. Thank you for saving me then. If it were not for you... Ugh, I do not even want to think about it.”
Kamer shook her head as though she were sick of the thought.
“If you ever have time, come to Liam Village at the western edge. That is where I live. It is a little far, but you will not regret it.”
“All right. I will stop by sometime.”
“You have to. I need to repay you.”
“Okay.”
The moment Arden smiled faintly, a familiar man entered the courtyard in front of the lodgings.
It was Dylan.
He was armed, as though all preparations had been completed.
“We leave now. Everyone has gathered.”
“Yes. Please wait just a moment.”
Arden rose, gathered his belongings, and went outside.
“Follow me.”
“Yes.”
Arden tightened the straps of his bag against his body and followed Dylan.
Kamer stood still and waved to the two of them.
Arden returned the wave lightly before joining the crowd.
After walking for a while, they reached the entrance to the village.
“We have arrived. This is the young man from before, Arden.”
Returning to a businesslike tone, Dylan said this as he lightly patted Arden’s shoulder.
The four Holy Knights and two knights who had prepared in advance nodded and welcomed Arden.
“What a relief!”
“We are not simply going there to die after all. What a relief.”
The two knights, in particular, reacted strongly.
It was their first time seeing Arden since the battle on the plain, and the power he had displayed then was beyond imagination.
“Hello.”
Arden looked them over and naturally joined the formation.
‘Just as I thought.’
As Arden had expected, there were fewer people than he had thought going to the Snowy Mountains.
Perhaps because the purpose was not subjugation, they seemed to have formed a small party.
It was only natural. A small group was more convenient for moving without being discovered.
“Then we will depart.”
A moment later, Dylan stepped forward.
The other eight, Arden among them, slowly followed behind him.
Fortunately, it was not snowing.
At this pace, they seemed likely to reach the Snowy Mountains before the end of the day.
Encouraged by the somewhat hopeful situation, they began to speak one by one.
“It is nice that it has not been snowing lately.”
“That is true, and we might actually make it back home.”
“Indeed. Thanks to the boy named Arden, I may get to see the daughter I left at home. What a relief.”
Then...
A blond Holy Knight in gleaming white armor approached.
He draped an arm around Arden’s shoulders and spoke.
“Do not keep so quiet. Everyone is nervous, that is all.”
“Ah.”
Only then did Arden look around and nod. As the man had said, he could see that everyone was tense to some degree.
“Even if it is only a search, one wrong move is enough to get you killed. That is why everyone is like this.”
“...Yes.”
“Well, we might as well talk a little ourselves.”
The man patted Arden’s shoulder and continued.
“We met in the inn’s dining hall that day. Do you remember me?”
“Of course.”
“Good. That is a relief. Call me Kane.”
“Hello. I am Arden.”
Kane gave a quiet chuckle at Arden’s somewhat awkward introduction and waved a hand.
“Enough, enough. Are we strangers who need formal greetings? We shed blood together on the battlefield, right? Anyway, that is not the point. You look young. How old are you?”
“I’m seventeen.”
“Seventeen?”
Perhaps Kane’s voice was rather loud, because everyone turned to look at Arden.
They had expected him to be young from his boyish face, but seventeen was beyond even their expectations.
Most people entered society only once they turned twenty.
Unless they were orphans or had grown up in an orphanage, they would still be under their parents’ care at that age.
‘Is he from a fallen noble house?’
‘He seems to be from that sort of background.’
The two knights, who did not know Arden’s circumstances, had no choice but to think so.
Judging by Arden’s appearance, he did not seem to be an orphan.
‘So he is the hero written about in the Grand Epic after all.’
‘Heroes truly are different from the moment they are born.’
Of course, the Holy Knights who knew that Arden was a hero thought somewhat differently.
Even that answer was wrong, though.
“We will stop for a moment. I can see something over there.”
Just as their tension had eased somewhat, Dylan stopped walking.
He then pointed in one direction.
GROOOAN...
There was a creature known as a Frost Giant.
The problem was that its frost-covered white upper body had been separated from its lower body.
It was still alive, but only barely.
For a moment, silence fell.
Kane was the one who broke it.
“Someone cut that giant in half? This is insane.”
He came forward with a frown.
However, because the giant was not dead yet, he did not come too close.
He studied the giant from a distance beyond even the reach of its outstretched arms.
Then he added an explanation.
“And judging from these wounds, it was completely one-sided... The giant got its ass kicked the entire time. Hah...”
Arden nodded at his words as well. The giant’s hands and teeth were in relatively good condition for it to have fought desperately.
That meant it had been beaten down the entire time without being able to strike back even once.
Just what kind of creature could have done this?
Arden thought it might be more dangerous than expected.
“I do not think we need to deal with this one. How about we move right away?”
“Agreed. There is no need to waste our strength.”
Dylan agreed with Kane’s proposal.
They needed to conserve their energy in case they encountered the creature that had torn the Frost Giant apart.
“Then we will move again.”
After saying this to the two knights, Dylan took a slight detour and began heading toward the Snowy Mountains again.
Arden looked at the white blood soaking the dirt.
For some reason, his heart was beating quickly.
Unconsciously, he was about to approach it when Kane spoke.
“What are you doing? Let’s go.”
“Ah, yes.”
Pulled out of his thoughts, Arden followed after them.
***
At the heart of the Snowy Mountains...
“Grrrr...”
There, a white creature nearly four meters tall was crouched down.
It resembled a dragon from myth... with one exception: it had no wings.
Bones and chunks of flesh were scattered all around it.
Then, suddenly...
RROOOAR!
The creature opened its eyes. It opened its maw wide and let out a great cry.
The Snowy Mountains began to shake.
Avalanches erupted, and the terrain shifted.
RRRUMBLE!
Soon, around a hundred creatures had gathered before it.
Every one of them had a different appearance.
Towering figures nearly three meters tall with two heads. Heaps of liquid crawling along as they melted the snow. Ants a little larger than humans. And all kinds of grotesque creatures too strange to describe.
The Snowy Mountains were filled with white monsters of every kind.
An ordinary person would have fainted at the sight.
“Grrrr...”
The creature cleared its throat and spoke again.
“At last.”
Its flat, phlegm-filled voice echoed.
“Prepare yourselves. The time of slumber has ended. The time has come to sever a long history.”
Twisting up the corners of its mouth, the creature rose to its feet.