How a Wizard Survives (31)
How a Wizard Survives (31)
Winter Fortress.
Though the name made it sound like something that belonged at the edge of the northern world, the reality was otherwise.
Under a bright, clear sun, we reached our destination without particular trouble and lifted our heads to take in the enormous structure.
"That's it?"
"Yes. It's been a long time."
Gray ramparts towering high above a sheer cliff.
A building designed purely to repel enemy invasion looked down upon us imposingly.
The Wizardvein Family possessed a formal domain befitting a noble house... but in practice, Winter Fortress was their true headquarters.
A domain was merely land for collecting taxes, as far as they were concerned.
Winter Fortress was different.
It held not only wildly dangerous mages but also sealed ancestors of the Wizardvein line.
And as a matter of principle, Holy Relics of every kind were stored at Winter Fortress.
Its importance was beyond expression.
"The word 'impregnable' fits perfectly."
"It has never once fallen. And, Jaeger..."
Katrina, who had been delivering those brief boasts, fixed me with a serious expression.
"There's no need to react sensitively to whatever you hear in there. Understood?"
"Whatever I hear... I understand, for now."
I pretended not to pay it much mind, but recalling the behavior of her cousin Charlotte gave me a rough idea.
If someone else tries to mock her, I'll memorize the face and kill them later.
With that thought, I started up the narrow, steep path.
Even Angelica, normally so unreserved, wore a visibly tense expression.
The face that greeted us at the imposing fortress gate was not a particularly welcoming one.
Charlotte, whom we'd seen several times in Reshutal, came out to meet us with obvious reluctance.
"The trip wasn't especially long or hard, was it? I'll hand over the Holy Relic right now, so hurry up and..."
"Don't be spiteful, Charlotte."
A quiet voice of reproach sounded from behind her.
The moment the escort party saw its owner, everyone swiftly dismounted.
I followed suit, and a figure as tall and thickly built as Reinhardt appeared.
A physique that looked capable of bare-handedly beating down a wild boar.
Katrina, having dropped to one knee, offered greetings as the party's representative.
"It's good to see you, Family Head."
"It's been a while, Katrina. Rise. You've been well in Reshutal, I trust? Reinhardt writes about you often."
And about your squire, as well.
The Family Head added that quietly, his gaze resting on me, as he personally raised Katrina to her feet.
Unlike his daughter Charlotte, he seemed like a reasonable person.
He did not forget to greet Angelica, either.
"Lady Angelica of Einhold. Welcome. We are ever grateful for the friendship of Einhold."
"It is Einhold that is grateful..."
Angelica, having concluded the pleasantries with practiced ease, followed the Family Head deeper into the fortress.
As this was a military facility, almost no civilians were present.
The few civilians who were here were mostly family members of Inquisitors.
Still, the fortress was so vast that it didn't feel empty.
"I've already notified the Holy Relic Repository. Katrina, I trust you'll manage, but use the relic prudently."
"I will keep it in mind, Family Head."
"Good. Then I'll see you at dinner."
The family head of the Wizardvein Family excused himself at just the right moment.
After dismissing the escort party to rest, Katrina vanished somewhere.
The sight of her slipping away from the main path, of all things, genuinely startled me.
"Lady Katrina. Are you not going to the Holy Relic Repository?"
"We'll rest overnight regardless, so there's no need to rush. The Holy Relic can be collected just before tomorrow's departure."
"Ah."
"... Jaeger, if it's all right with you, would you keep me company for a while?"
"Attending you is my duty, Lady Katrina."
Katrina gave a small nod and headed toward the fortress's inner keep.
In the part of the fortress used by the Wizardvein bloodline, silver hair like hers was a common sight.
"Ah, Katrina. It's good to see your face. It's been a while."
"I hear Reshutal is in serious trouble. Stay strong."
Contrary to her earlier warning, Katrina's relatives greeted her with warmth, encouragement, or words of support whenever they crossed her path.
There seemed to be hardly any scoundrels like Charlotte among them.
After exchanging greetings with her kin, one by one, Katrina finally reached the keep's underground levels.
We descended a maze of stairways until a new floor opened before us.
From the entrance, the security was impossibly strict.
Here, members of the Wizardvein Family themselves stood guard.
Yet the moment they saw Katrina, they silently parted to let her through.
A look at the scene beyond began to paint the picture.
"..."
Already, the cold was biting into my skin.
To either side of the broad corridor, transparent ice caskets stretched in long rows.
Within were the faces of mages, indistinguishable from corpses.
Most of them were twisted in agony or despair.
"Chilling."
"It is not a pleasant sight. Our destination is a little farther down."
We passed the mages designated as Permanent Sealing Targets and descended one more floor.
A far more solemn place came into view.
Unlike the level above, this floor was adorned with a fair number of decorative statues.
It wasn't hard to guess its purpose.
"This..."
"This way."
Katrina, who had been walking without hesitation, swayed briefly and then sank to her knees.
Before her lay a sleeping woman with a slightly more mature bearing.
Katrina's mother, sealed here after taking a fatal wound in battle.
The resemblance was so strong I recognized her instantly without any explanation.
Beside her ice casket sat a stone tomb and a marker, presumably for her husband.
"Mother, Father..."
I hurriedly paid my respects alongside Katrina.
This was our first meeting in my life, but simply having given birth to Katrina made her a benefactor, did it not?
Katrina, who had kept her place with sorrowful eyes, clenched her fist and rose.
"I'm sorry for dragging you down to a place like this."
"Not at all. Your mother is a beauty as well."
"As well... Ah, never mind."
Katrina's face, already paler than usual from the cold, flushed red.
Afterward, we joined the evening meal and rested thoroughly through the night. Early the next morning, we went to collect the Holy Relic.
I was none too happy about having to venture back out beyond the safety of the walls, but once we returned without incident, this entire chore would be over.
The staff at the Holy Relic Repository had prepared the items well in advance.
Katrina checked the relics loaded onto the cart one by one.
"Spear of Mortality, Sun Shield... Good. I have received all of them."
"Travel safely. The area around here is generally quiet, but one never knows."
"Thank you for the advice."
"Lady Katrina, what about this one?"
A Holy Knight who had been organizing the cart held up a relic that looked like a small shard of ice.
Katrina swiftly took it from him and placed it among the collected A-rank Holy Relics.
That was the Winter Fragment.
The relic Ulysses coveted.
That doesn't belong there. That thing is S-rank level.
I hadn't been given any separate explanation, yet I could instinctively gauge the relic's level.
As always, my own talent was impossible to rein in.
Though it was nothing more than a fragment that had broken off from the original, its level exceeded what mages could create at the risk of their lives.
Its applications were narrow, but that very specialization made it immensely powerful.
The kind not even Ulysses's magic, near-omnipotent though it was, could imitate.
I wanted it badly, but it was out of the question.
The odds were high that Reinhardt would take personal custody of it upon receipt, and besides... I already had my eye on a different relic.
"If everything is in order, let's depart at once. We'll return by a different route than we came, so it will take somewhat longer."
"Yes, Lady Katrina."
True to form, Katrina chose the route with care. We followed her direction without complaint.
The journey back to Reshutal had an entirely different atmosphere.
All through the ride, a tight, oppressive silence.
We were now escorting a Holy Relic; heretics could leap out anywhere at any time.
On top of that, the change of route made it difficult even to find an inn where we could rest for a night.
For us now, a rough, untraveled road was the safer road.
Along the way, rain poured down and forced us to shelter in a cave, but things remained manageable until we drew near Reshutal.
Exhausted by days of sleeping rough, the escort party pressed on while swallowing their complaints.
Today marked the fifth day since leaving Winter Fortress.
The change of route had lengthened the journey a little, but we would reach Reshutal in two days at most.
While marching along in silence, the escort party discovered an inn around noon.
A modest building that seemed devoid of guests, but apparently it was still open for business.
"Aah, Lady Katrina. Let's rest a while."
"We got caught in the rain two days ago... How about we stay here tonight? The troops are very worn out."
Katrina, who had been pondering the Holy Knights' suggestion, made a difficult decision.
"In exchange, from tomorrow morning until we reach Reshutal, we will not rest. Is that acceptable?"
"Of course. After all, there isn't much distance left now..."
A forced march to that extent was bearable if it meant resting now.
The escort party, feeling they just might survive this, crowded eagerly into the inn.
After stabling my horse, I carefully examined the well.
Fortunately, it hadn't been poisoned.
"Mm, it's fine."
"Jaeger. Don't just drink it recklessly."
"It's all right. If something goes wrong, I..."
Katrina's eyes blazed fiercely when I hinted I might use magic.
I yelped and immediately set about preparing the meal.
This was our first inn since leaving Winter Fortress.
The Inquisitors naturally began to relax.
I had accumulated so much fatigue that I fell asleep almost immediately.
Perhaps sleep came too quickly.
In the early dawn, when only the sound of insects filled the air, nothing was amiss, yet my eyes opened on their own.
The forced march would resume tomorrow, so I intended to force myself back to sleep. And then, in the darkness, I glimpsed a faint gleam of eyes.
... Katrina?
Katrina had settled herself at my bedside and was looking down at me without a word.
Silvery hair that stood out even in the deep darkness.
Her elegant jawline was unmistakable, no matter how hard I tried.
I was about to pretend I hadn't noticed and close my eyes again when suddenly, a suspicious presence of mana came from far off.
At the sense of crisis prickling my skin, I shot upright and discovered red flames.
"F-fire!"
"Enemy attack! Everyone wake up!"
Shh-shh—Shhhhk—!
With a sharp tearing sound, fire arrows flew in.
Arrows thickly soaked in oil, I'd wager.
A shabby inn like this would be engulfed in flames in an instant.
The Inquisitors, roused by our shouts, swiftly armed themselves.
"What about the Holy Relic?"
"Everything is fine!"
Fortunately, the relic had been kept intact in the middle of the inn. Unable to store such precious cargo in the stable, they had brought the cart inside.
In the meantime, one Inquisitor, having thrown on only a breastplate, burst out the inn door. The moment he opened it, he was hurled violently backward.
Magic, not just arrows, flew from outside.
"A-a mage!"
"Yes. Obviously a mage!"
"We're already surrounded, I take it? This position is terrible..."
"At this rate, we'll all die!"
To use magic and fire arrows both... the enemy had made considerable preparations of their own.
The inn building, which could have served as cover, had turned into a prison trapping us inside.
Yet if we charged out recklessly, we'd only become prey for dark-adapted mages.
Katrina shut her eyes tight, then reluctantly issued the order.
"I authorize emergency use of the Holy Relics. But only one per person!"
"Understood!"
A Holy Knight who had been waiting for exactly that order snatched up a relic.
Predictably, he chose the Sun Shield.
A Holy Relic that absorbed ambient heat.
"Let's see how this works."
He raised the shield high, and the inferno that had been consuming the inn was sucked into it in an instant.
The flames had spread widely, yet they were snuffed out in the blink of an eye.
I was inwardly triumphant at a level of performance that exceeded expectation.
This settled it: a Holy Relic was far better than some half-baked mage.
Having witnessed a relic's capability firsthand, I shed my hesitation and picked up the one I had been eyeing all along.