In Search of the Grave of Swords
Snowdonia National Park was open twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year. A helicopter cut across the sky above it.
"Are you sure we don't need to land?!"
"You already know we don't!"
Jinhyuk flashed a thumbs-up and rose to his feet.
"I'll see you when I get back!"
Before they could even return the farewell, he flung himself out of the helicopter. Charles and Olivia stared at each other. This was the second time they had witnessed it, and they still could not quite believe it was real.
"A perfect landing."
Charles murmured it to himself as he watched from above. Even standing right there in front of them, the man somehow felt distant — as if he existed somewhere far away. Familiar, yet foreign. Perhaps that was the phrase for a feeling like this.
"Let's head back."
Charles signaled the pilot.
"Are we really just leaving like this? He was very insistent. He told us to try to win him over, no matter what."
Before the two of them had boarded the helicopter, Philip — who had long stood watch over Conwy Castle — had spoken with a grave expression. Yu Jinhyuk, he said, would one day become a great power behind Britain's sun. No matter how much time or money it cost, they were to make him one of their own.
"It would have been pointless."
"Sir?"
"No matter what terms we offered, he would have refused."
Charles had witnessed something the others had not. An immortal being who regenerated from any fatal wound in an instant. Charles himself did not know who that man was. But one thing was certain: he fought for Jinhyuk.
"That guy is sharp. He's gentle and kind, but he's not someone who doesn't know his own worth. Lord Philip said cost was no object, but… it wouldn't be enough. Not even close."
Olivia's eyes widened. As far as she knew, this was the first time Charles had ever asserted his own will so firmly.
"We already know he'll refuse. No need to ask and lose face on top of it. Let's go back."
The helicopter turned without lingering and flew toward Conwy Castle.
And below, Jinhyuk — having just completed his landing — patted his tingling legs.
"Supreme Commander! Are you all right, sir?! That landing was unstable, sir! Two hundred out of a hundred, sir!"
Two hundred points for an unstable landing. Awfully generous scoring.
"Guess I was too conscious of being watched."
He looked at the receding helicopter. Knowing they were watching from above, he'd overdone it — something he never usually did. He'd gone for something like a hero landing and come down way too hard.
"It's pitch-black, sir."
"Momo hates the dark!"
As expected, Kancho and Momo were the first to pop out. Jinhyuk took the two of them and surveyed the surroundings. It was just past midnight. The park was open year-round, but nobody visited a national park at this hour.
This place is huge.
Jinhyuk clicked his tongue. By Korean standards, a park was somewhere you took the dog for a thirty-minute to an hour-long stroll. Come here with that mindset and you'd get yourself lost for sure.
"Food spotted!"
Kancho launched himself. A moment later he reappeared, a giant adder clutched in both hands.
"Ugh."
They said foreign snakes were all big, but this thing looked like a century-old python.
"Momo hates snaaaakes!!"
A horrified Momo hid behind Jinhyuk's legs. Whether she liked it or not, Kancho went on plucking adders from the undergrowth left and right.
"Whoooo!"
A cry of unbridled joy rang out. Jinhyuk had been wondering what was taking her so long. Elia came charging in with both arms flung wide, throwing herself straight at the adders. She snatched one up and wore a look of deep satisfaction.
"The venom's come along just beautifully!"
Perhaps even the adder recognized a natural predator. It didn't even try to bite — just trembled in terror.
"Granny! Need more adders, ma'am?! There's a ton of 'em here, sir!"
"The more the merrier, you know? I can make all kinds of poisons with them!"
"Then I'll dry this place of every last snake-fruit, sir!"
Kancho, thrilled, started thrashing through the undergrowth.
He means wipe them out, I assume.
Having once again translated Kancho-speak on his own, Jinhyuk pulled out the Yoddle Compass. They walked in the direction it indicated for a while, and Mount Snowdon — known as the highest mountain in Wales — came into view. Seeing it in the dark made it feel impossibly, dizzyingly tall.
Seira manifested and stepped up beside him.
"Must we climb this?"
"There's about a thousand meters left, so it looks like we need to go all the way to the summit. Kanchooo!"
Kancho came running from somewhere, puffing out his chest.
"You called, sir! Supreme Commander!"
"Stop catching adders. If you catch too many, you'll wreck the ecosystem here."
"Understood, sir!"
Kancho flung the adder in his hand toward Elia. She snatched it out of the air in one motion and stuffed it into a snake net she'd produced.
Watching them, Jinhyuk felt something unexpected. Reassurance. Even if they dropped into the wilderness with nothing, as long as those two were around, they'd survive somehow.
Jinhyuk first used Presence Detection, then hoisted Kancho up.
"Nobody around?"
"Not a soul, sir!"
After the double-check, he pulled out lamps fitted with glowstones and handed one each to Seira, Kancho, and Elia.
"Where's that lazybones Darc, sir?! He won't even come hold a lamp!"
Grab. With impeccable timing, Darc manifested and seized Kancho's head.
"How about a Yordle skull instead of a lamp?"
"That's a fine idea too, sir! Put me on your shoulders!"
"I'll pass. It's hot."
"Lazy as ever, sir."
Jinhyuk wasn't sure what refusing a piggyback had to do with being lazy, but anyway. Lamps in hand, they began the climb.
"This is nice."
Elia closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. A crisp, woodsy fragrance filled her lungs. For an elf who loved forests and lakes, Snowdonia was a truly wonderful place.
"Momo's legs hurt!"
Darc casually reached out and hoisted Momo onto his shoulders.
"Didn't you say it was hot, sir?!"
Darc chuckled and scooped up Kancho. He didn't put him on his shoulders, though. He simply tucked him under one arm and walked on, the Yordle dangling and swinging.
"Puh-hehehe! It feels like riding a swing, sir!"
Fortunately, Kancho seemed perfectly happy with the arrangement.
After a long climb, they reached the summit of Snowdon. Jinhyuk stood before the lake and swallowed dryly.
That's terrifying.
A lake at the summit — he'd been privately hoping for something mystical, something beautiful. Instead, this was a lightless night. All that lay before him was a pitch-black pool with no bottom and no end.
"The compass is pointing here, but… there's still more distance left?"
Jinhyuk narrowed his eyes and held the compass toward the lake.
"Looks like we have to go in."
"Momo sees something in there."
"Wh-what is it?"
Momo sidled up with the most serious expression in the world.
"There's a monster inside!!"
"You're not even going in, so no scare tactics."
"What's there to be scared of? Whatever comes out, we can just beat it down."
"Ahem, Darc. You Immortals wouldn't know this, but ordinary people…"
Jinhyuk placed a hand over his chest.
"…die when their heart stops."
Ink so black you couldn't see an inch ahead. If something burst out of there? Instant heart attack. Guaranteed.
He dipped a hand into the lake first.
"Oh, shit."
It was insanely cold. Only then did he remember what he'd looked up. The lake's name was Glacial — a lake formed from melted glacier, boasting a water temperature so low it defied reason. That raised the heart-attack odds in a whole different way.
Jinhyuk stripped off his clothes in a flurry and started warming up.
"Count me out, sir. If I go in, I'll be a frozen Yordle, sir."
Kancho, having poked at the water, promptly declared his surrender. Momo had never intended to go in to begin with, and Darc quietly edged a step back as well.
"Seira, you have to go."
"I am aware. I shall need a moment to steel myself."
While they waited for her to prepare, an unexpected figure started getting ready to enter the water. Elia pulled all manner of equipment from the Workshop of the Stars and put it on. Among the gear were goggles and a wetsuit that looked like they'd come off a supermarket shelf.
Kancho, who'd been watching quietly, furrowed his brow.
"Granny, have you lost it, ma'am? You're already living on borrowed time — you go into that ice water and what happens? Instant Frozen Granny, sir!"
"Then be a dear and thaw me out by the stove, would you? Before I start showing up in your dreams every night."
Perhaps because everyone besides Kancho was staring at her with the same surprise, Elia shrugged.
"The water's quite nice, you see."
A genuinely grandmotherly thing to say. As the question marks only grew larger, a smile formed at the corners of Elia's mouth.
"There's a spirit here."
"Huh? Out of nowhere?"
"It's a monster and you've gone senile and mistaken it for a spirit, haven't you, ma'am?"
"Ahem. Elves and spirits have always been the closest of kin, you know?"
Elia dipped her hand into the lake.
"Spirits don't dwell somewhere just because the water is clear and clean. That means there's something here that other lakes don't have."
"Oh."
Jinhyuk let out a sound of wonder and picked up the pace of his warm-up. Elia was a walking encyclopedia. If she was going this far, there really was something down there.
"Ready to dive. But Elia, is that just for you? Don't we get any?"
"You two would be fine even trapped in a glacier, but I wouldn't. Makes my bones ache."
Elia, now even wearing flippers with thoroughness, slipped into the lake.
"You and Seira are sturdy enough, so enjoy the lake with your own skin."
She bundled a mass of glowstones together and dove. Seira and Jinhyuk followed her in.
It's not cold, but it's cold.
Thanks to his resistance, his body didn't stiffen and his temperature didn't drop. But the chill against bare skin was tremendous. He kicked after the light leading the way, the water gurgling around him, and with one hand clung tightly to Seira's collar. As long as he didn't let go of this, he wouldn't die.
Will we actually find anything?
Visibility reached only as far as the glowstones lit. Beyond that was darkness itself — they could swim right past a sword on the way down and never even know it. Doubt crept in. Was the Grave of Swords really in a place like this? From the look of things so far, they were more likely to find a single raw Lapis stone sitting there by itself than an entire grave of swords.
Elia, who had been descending for some time, suddenly stopped.
What's she doing?
She kept going up and down at a particular spot. When it clearly wasn't working as she'd hoped, she swam over to the other two and started gesturing frantically.
It's divided?
Elia nodded and crossed her arms. Roughly: there was a boundary, and they couldn't get through.
Hmm.
Just as he was wondering if there was some other entry condition — a rustle of light. A pure white glow welled up from the depths of the lake. It moved with the vivid, shifting colors of something alive, drawing closer, trailing a long tail. It passed Jinhyuk. It passed Elia. And it came to rest directly in front of Seira.
Seeing this, Elia smiled.
One who is worthy.
Seira had received the spirit's permission. They wouldn't be going home empty-handed. The three of them looked at one another, nodded, and began to follow — the stream of light that had been waiting for someone, for a very long time.