chapter 16:The Children of Luobeidra(3)
"It's just like that time:"
Roberta thought of Rashid.
The old knight Rashid. It was just like when the man he believed to be his son attacked Ulrich. Ulrich had been unharmed then, too. No, he had been wounded, but the wound
vanished. As if it had never existed in the first place.
It was a miraculous healing ability. So much so that seeing it again made her wonder if she had imagined it. Could his endless stamina and boundless lifespan be related to this?
She narrowed her eyes.
"My apologies. I couldn't save him."
Ulrich emerged from the pit, carrying the body. Only the upper torso remained, soaked in digestive fluids. He had rummaged through the monster's stomach in the pitch-black earth to
retrieve it.
"...Not at all. We should be thanking you."
Duke Bailen seemed shaken, but he quickly controlled his emotions and spoke. He averted his gaze as he continued.
"Still, because you stepped in, Duke Dithmarschen, Bellido survived, did he not?"
At Bailen's glance, Bellido checked himself over and nodded to show he was all right. The wound from the pincer-like jaw had healed considerably thanks to Roberta's first aid.
With a little more time, only a scar would remain.
•More importantly,• are you all right, Duke?"
"I'm fine. It just... hurts a little."
Ulrich let out a short sigh.
"Don't worry about me. This is nothing to fuss over."
Roberta, who was treating Bellido's injury, looked up. For a moment, she sensed a deep exhaustion in his voice. But perhaps she had imagined it. He quickly
regained his usual composure.
"The problem is you all. You'll be facing far more dangerous creatures from now on, yet you're far too careless."
Roberta looked at the pit and nodded.
Looking back, they had been too careless. The reason those two fell into the pit was because they had strayed from the group on their own, wasn't it?
Having spent days on the snowy mountain, they had grown accustomed to its harshness, and the fact that no one had died until now must have bred a complacency—a feeling that 'it's tough, but manageable.'
According to the bestiary Ulrich wrote, the monsters they had encountered on the mountain were only a fraction of what was out there, with countless more dangerous ones besides.
"Don't rely on me. I can't protect all of you."
"We will keep that in mind. And·••could you give us a moment?"
When Ulrich nodded, Bailen approached Roberta.
"I spent a long time with him. Priestess, if you would, I would like you to lead a prayer for him."
Roberta agreed silently. It was her duty. She brought her hands together, formed a sign, and performed a brief rite for his spirit.
When Ulrich nodded, Bailen approached Roberta.
-I spent a long time with him. Priestess, if you would, I would like you to lead a prayer for him."
Roberta agreed silently. It was her duty. She brought her hands together, formed a sign, and performed a brief rite for his spirit.
After the rite, Ulrich spoke.
"I'm sorry to say this, but we can't stay here long. This is the Ice Peninsula, and the monsters will swarm when night falls. We need to move to the next location before then."
"Understood."
They buried the body and departed.
Just as Ulrich had warned, the crisis was only just beginning.
A day later, another man died. While Ulrich and Roberta were out hunting, he had gone off alone to relieve himself and never returned.
In the morning, they found a part of his body nearby.
Three days later, they were attacked by a monstrous bird. It was taller than an adult, yet its movements were so swift that even she had a close call. If Ulrich hadn't tripped her, its beak would have pierced her neck.
And the next day, another was injured. Fortunately, he survived, but he lost a leg and could no longer walk. Bailen carried him on his back.
.
"Duke Dithmarschen, is that the place over there?"
Duke Bailen asked.
Fourteen days after leaving Dithmarschen, a mountain began to appear on the horizon. It was one of the nameless mountains in the Kaldorekai range that cut across the Ice Peninsula, its peak high enough to pierce the clouds.
How could they only be seeing such a tall mountain now? Ulrich explained that it had been visible ever since they descended the first mountain, but the fog had made it indistinguishable from the sky.
"Yes, the Narvakayani have made their home somewhere over there."
Roberta flinched at the word 'somewhere.'
"You don't mean we have to go and search for it, do you?"
"Don't worry. That won't be necessary."
".That's a relief.'
She sighed in relief, patting her chest. The thought of climbing another mountain was dreadful enough, but the idea of having to wander around searching for a nest made her head spin.
"Why would they live in a place like that?"
"They find it suitable precisely because it's that kind of place."
Suitable to live in? Because it's that kind of place?
"*The environment of the Ice Peninsula is only terrible from our human perspective; from a dragon's, it's nothing. In fact, it's better. If they make their home in a place like that, it naturally prevents incursions from apex predators, doesn't it?"
Indeed, that makes sense, Roberta muttered.
The dragons she had read about in texts were more powerful than any other race and were said to be intimate with Mana. The trials Roberta's party had endured would be trivial from a dragon's point of view.
"It feels strange, to think of humans as apex predators."
"It's true if you look at humans as a group, not as individuals."
Roberta gazed at the mountain for a moment before following Ulrich.
It would be trivial.
"It's true if you look at humans as a group, not as individuals."
Roberta gazed at the mountain for a moment before following Ulrich.
When the sun began its descent from the center of the sky, he led the party to the next waystation. It was a tower. Judging by the collapsed walls forming a snow-covered hill around it, it must have been a watchtower.
The first man-made structure they had seen since entering the Ice Peninsula looked like a square, single-story house, its upper section having broken off.
Was it built by the Dwarves or Elves who lived here long ago? Or was it built by the army of Emperor Taiwon, who led a failed expedition?
While she was examining the tower from the outside, the party started a campfire, and Ulrich took out the meat from a hunt on a previous day and began to roast it.
Game, he called it euphemistically, but it was a monster. He never brought back the whole monster he caught. He only took a portion of the flesh, and when asked why, he would only smile silently.
She had no intention of complaining about the food in a place like this, but she couldn't help feeling uneasy. She watched Ulrich cut a piece of meat and hang it over the campfire, then asked.
"Why are there monsters like these?"
"It's because of the evil gods, isn't it?"
The answer came not from Ulrich, but from Duke Bailen.
"Mun-gan, Takna, Galpa—they rebelled against the creation of the chief gods and sowed their seeds wantonly, filling the world with monsters. Is that not so?"
No, that's not what I'm talking about.
"Then?"
"Before I was ordained as a Priestess, I was educated at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. So I know more about monsters, and about the evil gods, than the average Priestess. But... I've never seen or heard of the monsters here anywhere."
It's common for each Magyeong to have one or two monsters not found in others, but the Ice Peninsula was excessive. Most of the monsters they had encountered so far were new species, unknown to her and even to the Pantheon. That was why she had been so skeptical even after reading Ulrich's bestiary.
"That would be so."
Ulrich nodded.
"The Mana here is denser than elsewhere, and its flow is larger and more irregular. It's only natural that the evolution of life would be accelerated."
Mana is the element the gods infused into the world for the creation of life. Therefore, if the concentration of Mana is dense and its movement is great, the effect on life is bound to be significant.
"Then why has its movement become so great and its concentration so high?"
"It's because of a major event that shattered the balance."
He took the teacup of brewed Songhwacha from the campfire.
"This land we now call the Ice Peninsula was originally divided into an island and a mainland. Near the end of the age of the Dwarves, when they used the island as a base for their final resistance, the Elves dragged the island to the mainland and joined them."
•…They dragged an island?
she asked, her tone one of disbelief.
A quick glance at the rest of the party showed they had the same reaction.
Ulrich scanned everyone's faces, answered, "Yes," and drew a map on the ground with his index finger. It was simple, but it showed Osnover and the Ice Peninsula to its north.
Then he drew a line through the middle of the Ice Peninsula. "Look. This line I've just drawn is the main body of the mountains we spent days climbing, the Kaldorekai. Everything west of this mountain range was the island."
Roberta touched her lips.
The peninsula was similar in area to the entire Osnover Kingdom, and the land west of the mountains accounted for half of it. If Ulrich's claim was true?
It would mean that the Elves of the old age had, by their own power, dragged a massive island—equivalent to half a nation's territory—and smashed it into the mainland.
"If such a feat were performed, think of how twisted nature would become. For every action, there is a reaction; how could the flow of Mana possibly remain the same as before?"
It would mean that the Elves of the old age had, by their own power, dragged a massive island—equivalent to half a nation's territory—and smashed it into the mainland.
"If such a feat were performed, think of how twisted nature would become. For every action, there is a reaction; how could the flow of Mana possibly remain the same as before?"
After saying that, he added that there were many other places besides the Ice Peninsula where the flow of Mana had become unbalanced for similar reasons.
"The race that claims to love nature caused a pollution unlike any other, all in the name of protecting it. By the time they realized their mistake and regretted it, it was too late. Regret, no matter how
deep, is too late. I was so against it."
Roberta didn't quite catch his muttering.
Dragging a castle to collide with the mainland? She could only call it preposterous. Though she had heard all sorts of claims from the Lord, this one, as always, was hard to believe.
But as you know, Lord—"
"Mm. It's a story left in neither scripture nor oral tradition."
He cut her off as if he had read her mind.
•·•Yes, if the Elves truly performed such a great feat, I would think there would be some mention of it somewhere. In the scriptures, for example.
"The scriptures weren't compiled to simply list historical facts. Their purpose is to inspire faith. And would they record the great deeds of a race that humans once served, instead of the deeds of humans themselves?"
Roberta felt several pairs of eyes on her. Duke Bailen and the others were cautiously watching her reaction. They must have been worried, as he had just uttered words criticizing the scriptures in front of a Priestess. But Roberta merely furrowed her brow slightly and said nothing.
"That's not all. The fate this tower met is another reason."
Ulrich rose from his seat and stood near the wall. He poured some Songhwacha on it, melting the frost that coated the surface. A carved inscription was revealed. Pointing to it, he asked Roberta.
"Can you read this."
It was a crude inscription. Anyone could tell it wasn't the work of a stonemason. As Roberta squinted to examine it, she saw that it appeared to be in an ancient script.
After the gods departed, the languages and scripts they had spread changed little by little with the ages. The characters carved on the wall before her were one of those that had undergone such a process.
No... I can't read it.
Roberta vaguely recalled seeing similar characters before, but she didn't know how to read them. She could only guess that it might be a script used before the age of humans—that is, in the age of the Dwarves and Elves.
"We die here. That's what it means."
They were ominous words.
What does this mean?
"Exactly what it says. It's like a last will!"
"What? A last will?"
A last will? Roberta blinked.
The Ice Peninsula was once a battlefield for two races, the Dwarves and the Elves, and in the end, the Elves were victorious and began their own age. Could this inscription have been carved by a Dwarf facing defeat?
"It was left by a civilization from before our history."
Ulrich answered after hearing her reasoning.
"The masters of this tower were neither Dwarves nor Elves. It was built by a civilization that belonged to neither, and this is what they left behind in their final moments."
"Neither Dwarves, nor Elves..."
Roberta looked at the inscription again. 'We die here.' A strange feeling washed over her as she thought of it as a last will, left by someone nearly ten thousand years in the past. Who were they, why were they here, and how did they perish?
"Think about it. Does a civilization that makes history just appear out of thin air? It only becomes history after surviving countless failures and repeated collapses."
washed over her. Who were they, why were they here, and how did they perish?
*Think about it. Does a civilization that makes history just appear out of thin air? It only becomes history after surviving countless failures and repeated collapses::
He placed a hand on the inscription.
"This place is a trace of a destiny that collapsed and did not survive."
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