Chapter 31
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: The Sun Driven into the Earth by the Snowfield's Ice Wall
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The ice wall of the snowfield drove the sun into the ground.
"Where's Alina."
The face of the ritual leader, gripped by the collar in my fist, flushed bright red.
As he choked and tried to answer,
"No!"
A woman's voice tore through the air like it was ripping apart.
Flash-!
A blinding light, as if swallowing the sun, erupted once more from inside the cabin.
Boom-!
With a massive explosion, the cabin door shattered, and someone burst out.
It was the one-eyed lookout who'd stayed behind.
But his condition was wretched.
His face was burning—eyepatch and all, even his remaining eye scorched, leaving him blind.
"Gaaah! It burns! Witch! She's a witch!!!"
The one-eyed man's face was engulfed in red flames.
The horrific stench of burning flesh and his screams echoed through the forest.
In agony, he rolled on the ground and kicked over the pile of firewood by the entrance.
Crash.
The burning logs scattered.
By the time he crawled out the door, the embers had caught the nearby pile of dry hay and the weathered wooden pillar.
Whoosh!
The old wooden structure ignited fiercely, as if doused in oil.
Spring, denied its first rain, became easy prey for the flames.
It was only a matter of time before the entire cabin was consumed.
"......!"
My eyes wavered.
Alina was inside.
Before me stood the terrified ritual leader, while Alina was trapped in the burning house.
'Dealing with these scum can wait.'
My decision was as swift as the encroaching flames.
'Alina first.'
Crack.
I drove a heavy fist into the ritual leader's philtrum.
Thud!
"......"
He couldn't even scream.
His eyes rolled back as he tumbled away.
No time to check if he was out cold or dead.
"Alina!"
I leaped over the fallen leader and threw myself into the blazing cabin.
Bang!
Inside the cabin, thick with flames and smoke.
Beneath the acrid haze, a small shadow crawled along the floor.
Elysia's shadow.
Elysia gritted her teeth and approached Alina.
"Ugh...!"
Her palms were blistered red.
'I planned to burn them all at once once the ritual leader showed up...'
But with innocent Alina kidnapped too, this was the best she could do now.
Moreover, the one-eyed man, whose face had caught fire first, had lunged at Alina in panic.
In shoving him away to protect the still-bound, helpless girl, Blazing Wrath had activated again.
The pain of burning flesh clawed at her fingertips.
The price of invoking the Sun God's power bare-handed was severe.
But Elysia didn't stop.
Her legs, bound for so long, were unbound.
Extreme fear and exhaustion left them without strength.
She couldn't stand.
Still, Elysia shook her aching hands and began untying the ropes around Alina's ankles.
Each touch made her burned skin scream.
Her palms, melted from burns too severe to open or close.
Elysia bit her lip until it bled to endure the pain.
"Cough! Little one... wake up... we have to get out...."
"Ugh... my... my eyes... I can't see...."
Alina trembled violently.
Having stared straight into the intense light Elysia emitted earlier, she was temporarily blinded.
She couldn't see ahead, only hearing the crackling flames and screams around her.
Terror too great for a seven-year-old.
Alina froze in panic.
'No...! Because of me....'
Elysia swallowed her self-reproach.
'I have to get her out. She's caught up in this because of me.'
Because of her name.
Because of her bloodline.
She couldn't let an innocent child sacrifice herself too.
The bastard child gritted her teeth and tried to lift Alina.
But she was exhausted too.
Unable to even support her own body, dragging a terrified, rigid child out was impossible.
Crack!
Then, a burning rafter collapsed from the ceiling.
A massive fireball plummeted toward the two girls.
"Ah...."
Elysia hugged Alina tight and squeezed her eyes shut.
This is the end.
Just as she thought that,
Kaboom-!
A roar tore through the flames.
Instead of searing heat on her face, a heavy gust blew in.
Elysia cautiously opened her eyes.
"......!"
A massive wall stood before Elysia's golden eyes.
Unmistakably human.
The huge shadow that pierced the flames swept away the falling rafter with its arm.
Thwack!
The burning beam flew as if weightless, smashing into the wall.
Sparks singed flesh, but the man didn't flinch.
His face emerged from the smoke.
Overwhelming bulk, eyes gleaming even in darkness.
A presence more beast than man.
Barg had arrived.
'No way... the one from the stories... of Norheim...?'
The ice wall of the snowfield looked down on the sun driven into the ground.
And then, Barg's and Elysia's eyes met.
'That red hair... it's really Elysia.'
I thought briefly as I looked at the woman before me.
By the original description, something like "fiery sunset-red hair and amber eyes holding the world's tragedy" should come to mind, but...
Who cares about that now?
Alina was about to burn to death.
'Sentiments later.'
I bent at the waist without a word.
Left arm scooped Alina, right arm the dazed Elysia.
Tucked one under each arm like sacks of rice.
"Kyaa! W-what!"
Elysia yelped in panic.
"Bite your tongue and shut up. We're going."
I warned curtly and turned.
Princess carries were reserved for my lovely wife Kara.
Next slot in ten months for Yeppi, fruit of me and Kara.
Alina...
We'll see.
But providing such skinship to the original heroine—who could threaten my happy family just by existing—was the last thing on my mind.
Efficiency and speed were all that mattered now.
I charged through the flames, girls slung like luggage.
Crunch!
Shoulder-smashed the burning doorframe piled with debris and burst outside.
Cold night air cleared the smoke from my lungs.
"Haa... haa...."
I panted roughly, distancing from the cabin.
Then, voices of the fallen kidnappers outside.
"Damn! He came out!"
"Destroy the evidence!"
The leader, the scarred thug, and the recovered ritual leader were overturning the wagon bed.
Crash!
The jars in the wagon spilled onto the ground.
Black liquid poured out, reeking of potent alcohol.
High-concentration anesthetic liquor meant to drug Elysia.
And atop it,
"Gaaah! Help!"
The one-eyed man rolled aflame from the cabin.
Right onto the shattered jars and liquid.
Fwoosh-!
Flames exploded upward.
Fire leaped to the alcohol, engulfing the cabin area in a massive blaze.
The one-eyed man vanished into the inferno without a final scream.
"If the fire spreads, pursuit will be tough! Scatter!"
The leader shouted.
They set the forest ablaze to slow me, fleeing into the darkness.
"Those bastards...!"
I gnashed my teeth.
Wanted to chase and snap necks, but couldn't with Alina and the heroine under my arms.
The forest burned.
Red and hot, like the rage inside me.
Meanwhile, on the forest's opposite side.
The Eisen Baron and search party, tipped off by a mysterious informant, closed in to encircle the woods.
"Baron! Fire!"
"That's... the cabin!"
The sudden wildfire threw the search party into chaos.
To make matters worse, the wind shifted, shrouding them in thick smoke.
"Cough! Cough!"
"Smoke... Miss Kara! Fall back! It's poison for a pregnant woman!"
The Eisen Baron covered his nose with his sleeve, trying to pull Kara back.
But Kara's feet were rooted to the ground.
Her moonlit eyes fixed on a shadow fleeing from the smoke-shrouded forest.
If escape was inevitable, at least one.
Before flames and smoke spread wide and far.
Right now, while contained.
Grab just this one.
Kara gripped Frostwind and held her breath.
The fugitive headed her way—weakest flames, downwind from the blaze.
Drawing closer.
"......"
Kara narrowed her eyes.
Instead of retreating, she held her breath and stepped forward.
Silence amplified her heartbeat.
A faint echo with each beat.
Yeppi's heartbeat.
Shing.
Frostwind gleamed coldly in the moonlight from Kara's hand.
The runner spotted Kara in the smoke too late and froze.
"W-what! Get out of the way!"
He flailed with a dagger.
In that instant, his face filled Kara's vision.
The long scar across his cheek now clear.
Kara murmured to Yeppi in her belly.
"Yeppi, this is Mommy. Be born healthy... and I'll tell you lots."
She lunged.
Kara's blade sliced cleanly through the air.
An elegant yet viciously cruel arc.
Aimed at his legs.
Slash-!
A chilling severance.
Tendons snapping.
"Gaaah!"
He tumbled screaming.
His Achilles tendon neatly severed.
"I have so many questions. And you'll pay for touching Alina."
Legs that would never run again.
Kara looked down coldly at the crawling man.
"I'll leave your heart. And."
She flicked blood from her sword and whispered.
"Keep quiet. Let Yeppi hear only pretty sounds."
Then, from the burning cabin,
"Baron! Alina's safe!"
Barg's voice.
He emerged through flames, carrying two.
"Fire started at the cabin! Suppress from here!"
"Alina... thank goodness. Everyone! Full effort on the wildfire! Bind the one Miss Kara caught!"
The Eisen Baron sighed in relief and commanded.
Kara finally relaxed at her husband's voice through the smoke.
"Barg!"
She wanted to run to him, but smoke blocked the way.
Biting her lip, Kara gazed toward Barg.
'Barg... you're okay, right? Come back safe.'
Meanwhile, the leader and ritual leader slipped into darkness amid the chaos.
"Huff... huff... we lost them."
"Damn, what a mess! Didn't even grab the money!"
The leader cursed, glancing back.
Blazing forest and smoke hid their escape.
"Cross the west border first. Safe in Slokina."
The ritual leader panted.
Just as relief set in,
"Where you headed in such a hurry."
A chilling voice blocked them.
"......!"
They halted in shock.
A man in black hood and white mask stepped from shadows.
Golden eyes gleamed through the mask slits.
Golden like Elysia's.
The ritual leader backed away.
The masked man drew his sword instead of answering.
"No time, so quick."
Whoosh!
One slash.
"Argh!"
The ritual leader's leg buckled, severed.
Thud.
The man looked down at him like luggage.
"Need you alive for interrogation. Legs not required to make you talk."
His gaze turned to the leader.
Trembling, the leader raised his sword in terror.
"M-me too? I have info!"
"No."
The masked man shook his head.
"One for the Eisen Baron. Manners."
"T-then...."
"But."
His eyes turned feral.
"Punishment for hurting my little sister... I deliver personally."
"L-little sister? No way... the emp—argh!"
Before he finished, the man's sword danced.
Slash- slash-!
Invisible strikes mangled the leader's feet.
"Gaaaaah!!"
He collapsed in agony.
All ten toes severed, rolling in the snow.
A brutal penalty—no more walking, running.
The masked man wiped his bloody sword and muttered coldly.
"Unlike Lady Wintersword, my blade's rough. It'll hurt a lot."
He bid the toe-less leader a cold smirk farewell, grabbed the unconscious ritual leader by the scruff, and dragged him away.
From afar, he watched Barg before the cabin—the fire's source—and gave a wry smile.
"Wanted to show Eli a cool side. Too late."