The Northern Warrior's Miscalculation
It was different back then. When Bigfoot died, the one who felt the most regret was none other than Gorhan. "To think Bigfoot would be hunted down." He had been dying to compare his own durability to the hide of that beast—a hide that was impossibly hard as steel yet strangely flexible. If only he could have at least kept the pelt. It was a shame, really, hearing that the entire hide had been sent straight to the heart of the Empire.
And so, while Gorhan was busy soothing his disappointment by making a name for himself on the northern front, a day came when his momentum was particularly fierce. "RAAAAAAAAGH!!!" In his excitement, Gorhan strayed from the front lines, venturing deeper into the monsters' lair. Most of the situation had been cleared, and no one was injured, so he felt the urge to go deeper alone and unleash all his remaining strength.
He had marched straight ahead from the front lines for quite some time when he finally stopped. "...Who are you?"
"My name is Mirne. Hello."
"How are you here? Even if this isn't Imperial territory, how can a woman be all alone in such a treacherous place?"
Gorhan had encountered a peculiar woman. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but she possessed a strange, alluring charm. She wasn't exactly the ideal woman of his dreams, but she had an atmosphere that naturally drew his gaze and piqued his curiosity. It was a sensation that was oddly mystical, yet it tickled his heart.
"Is she a witch?"
Gorhan, clumsy with his emotions, sensed something strange and immediately swung the axe held in his hand. "Black Mane Slash!"
Swoosh!
Judging by her clothes, she looked like the daughter of some noble house. For such a woman to appear in this terrain, where even monsters struggled to survive? He could only conclude it was some bizarre sorcery.
"Wait! Wait! Please, calm down!" Mirne hurriedly tried to clear up what she assumed was a misunderstanding, but—
"The technique name must be shouted with vigor! Black Mane Ripping!"
Gorhan swung his axe blindly. If his previous strike had been a simple top-down swing, this one was fast enough to make it feel like he was cutting multiple places at once. Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh! The aftermath of Gorhan’s axe swings made it feel as if the blizzard had stopped for an instant, and the few monsters nearby, sensing his killing intent, fled for their lives.
"Right, usually if I swing this much, they either die... or get hyped up." And in that situation—
"How are you so unscathed?"
Mirne was perfectly fine. Despite the area being shredded by his axe, she remained in the same state as when he first saw her, seemingly unaffected by the northern cold. She looked as if she were out for a stroll. Seeing that, Gorhan thought, "I definitely need more power to kill her!" Just as he began to boil his energy—
"No, I told you, I'm Mirne! The Crown Princess of the Maserin Kingdom! Mirne!"
"I don't care."
Mirne spoke urgently to calm him down. "I'll be blunt. I came to meet you. Before I return to the kingdom."
"Before you return to the kingdom?"
"I have memories in the North, but because of the monsters..."
"I understand."
Gorhan answered immediately to Mirne's follow-up. Originally, there were no monsters in the North. It was a very old story, of course, but the northern tribes desperately wished for those days to return. It was the dream of every tribe. "If it’s you, you might be able to make the North... back into the era when there were no monsters."
"Me? No, why should I trust you in the first place? Don't you realize that even talking to you right now makes no sense?"
"If that’s your doubt, I am blessed by a spirit. Does that answer your question?"
"Spirits have a hard time acting in the North. The cold wind filled with mana is fatal to them. Because of this, even our tribal shamans have great difficulty performing rituals. But how are you...?"
Hearing her claim to achieve such a dream, Gorhan’s suspicion level skyrocketed. Mirne, with an 'it can't be helped' expression, finally manifested the spirit she had contracted with. The bitter cold. The common sense that it was impossible to manifest a spirit in the North while piercing through this cold—
"Incredible!"
As that common sense was shattered pointlessly before his eyes, Gorhan’s jaw dropped. "Does this make you believe me?"
"I'll believe you. I don't fully trust you yet, but I believe you are a strong individual."
"...You don't believe my words?"
"I know you're an incredible spirit summoner, but what is your goal? Did you come to recruit me?"
That was that, and this was this. Gorhan’s thought process was very simple yet thoroughly compartmentalized. Of course, he would keep listening because it was a pretty woman speaking, but he couldn't completely erase the thought that she was a wicked witch.
"No, I just came to be friends. Close friends!"
"Close friends?"
"Yes, take this."
While he was lost in such thoughts, a white hand reached out over Gorhan’s calloused one and dropped something onto it. "What is this?"
"It's a tool that lets us contact each other, an artifact! It's a masterpiece I made recently. I had some help, though."
"And?"
"It means we should keep in touch sometimes, like allies with the goal of completely erasing the monsters from the North."
"You're funny."
"I'm glad if you laughed."
With that conversation, whoosh—a fierce blizzard, enough to block his vision, suddenly blew between Mirne and Gorhan. In the midst of that raging snow—"...Have I ever felt such warm hands, or heard such laughter?" Gorhan, unable to forget that brief moment of contact, stared blankly ahead. Naturally, Mirne had vanished.
"So, you received the artifact, returned to the North, and haven't contacted her since?"
"That's right! That's it! I don't know who you are, but you're smart!"
BOOM!
One exchange of words. One clash. And every time that clash continued, the surrounding terrain changed. The start had been in the new residential area, but as the Q&A continued, the two men’s positions were shifting every second. By now, they had reached the territory of a Great-Jaw, one of the habitats for major monsters. Far beyond the front lines. The Crown Prince, Bellon, loosened his shoulder muscles and looked around.
"We've come far."
"More! Let's do more! More!"
At Gorhan’s follow-up, Bellon turned his gaze back to him. 'He’s really nailed the character archetype.' The Northern Great Warrior, Gorhan, felt like the cliché of a slightly dim-witted but pure barbarian. A character who was intuitive, loved to fight, but occasionally dropped words of wisdom. "I don't know who you are, but you're the first human I've met who is this strong!"
"Between Mirne and me, who looks stronger?"
"I couldn't tell with Mirne. She is a woman with a truly unknowable but subtle charm. But you... I can tell for sure. You are a distant sun." Even if, right now, he just looked like a warrior who loved to fight.
"So you've never contacted her, even though you have the artifact."
"Same question again! But we already exchanged words once—ACK!"
KRAAAAAAASH!
Once again, Gorhan’s body was sent flying as lightly as a piece of paper. Including this time, it had been nearly twenty times. He couldn't even react; he didn't even know when he was hit before he was slammed into the wall.
"What on earth is this..."
As Gorhan raised his head toward the direction Bellon was likely in with a look of incomprehension, Bellon appeared in front of him, slowly, with a thoughtful expression. "You said you knew a way to repel the northern monsters."
"Th-that's right."
The Q&A continued. BOOM! As soon as Gorhan’s answer ended, his body was sent flying again. Even though it looked like he was hitting him randomly, he had been aiming precisely for his heart since earlier. Whether he hit him with his hands or feet, every strike kept landing on his heart. Thump. Thump. Thump. At first, he took the hits without thinking, but if this level of damage were to continue—
'This is dangerous.'
Could he die? The thought crossed Gorhan’s mind for the first time in his life. His heartbeat wasn't the same as before. Thwack, thud, tumble. His body skipped across the snowfield like a stone on water. THWACK! And then, he arrived at a place. Grrrrrrr...
"...A Great-Jaw?"
It was a drake with a grotesquely protruding jaw. A descendant of dragons that had lost its past glory. In the place of its degenerated wings, there should have been nothing, but contrary to its name as a major monster, the Great-Jaw had pathetic, useless wings. However, knowing that it had reached the rank of a major monster with those wings and that monstrous jaw, Gorhan, looking up at it, felt his breath catch in his throat. His condition was already poor, and now he was provoking a major monster? If he had brought a weapon or was fully armed, it might be different, but fighting a major monster right now was impossible.
"Hahaha! But isn't the path of a Great Warrior about overcoming such impossibilities!"
Nevertheless, standing tall and facing it was a virtue he held dear. Gorhan stood up, preparing to face the major monster, and at that very moment—
Whoosh.
A scarlet flame, compressed to the limit, flew over and—Swoosh. It blew away the upper part of the drake’s jaw. The Great-Jaw, which had been called the terror of the North, met its death without even knowing when it had died. "That makes two major monsters caught. I heard you say you aimed to be a Great Warrior, Gorhan."
"Y-yes, that's right."
At Bellon’s follow-up, Gorhan instinctively spoke in honorifics. At the same time, he realized. How much the opponent had been holding back against him all this time, and the reason he had been able to survive after taking dozens of attacks. "M-may I ask who you... are?"
The words wouldn't come out properly. How rudely had he acted toward a strong man? It wouldn't be strange if he died. As complex thoughts swirled in Gorhan’s head—
"Judging by your attitude, I won't bother saying it. As long as you maintain that attitude, no problems will arise."
"Th-thank you."
Bellon continued in a calm tone. "You said she gave you a new artifact, for contact."
"That's right."
"And she said to be close friends."
"That is so."
Every time the Q&A continued, Gorhan flinched. THUD! At the same time, the Great-Jaw’s massive body finally lost its center and collapsed to the ground. It was a major monster so large that even if a person tilted their head at a right angle, they could barely see its face. As soon as the monster collapsed limply, a massive blizzard blew. Whoosh. And in the midst of that snow, a single fire that melted everything refused the blizzard’s intrusion.
"From now on, report to me whenever anything happens, and do not answer rashly."
"...Wh-what does that mean?"
"It means to be close to that woman named Mirne in my own way."
As the flames pushed back the blizzard, Bellon looked down at Gorhan, who was sprawled on the ground, with a deep, dark smile. "Since she’ll only be thinking about using you, she’ll never even dream that she’s the one being used."
Mirne, the male lead you’re trying to capture this time is going to be a little different.