The Ice Castle (3)
The price for this… how much would it go for?”
“Since it’s undamaged and in excellent condition, it’ll probably fetch quite a sum.”
They said it would fetch quite a sum, but I wanted to hear the specific range of that “quite a sum.” Everyone had looked absolutely thrilled when they extracted the golem’s core. Even the nobles.
“Hmm… the golem cores will be sold at auction, so the exact value hasn’t been set yet. It’s basically worth whatever someone is willing to pay. They contain incredibly powerful energy, so they’ll need a proper appraisal before the price can be determined. That said, given how pristine the condition is, if they’re appraised as at least high-grade energy cores, each one should be worth enough to buy an entire mansion. These two cores mean our team has already turned a profit.”
“Oh.”
Princess Raciel must have spent an enormous amount of money organizing this subjugation force. Everything we were using was top-of-the-line rather than cheap goods, and every single member was exceptionally skilled. Just the labor costs alone would have been staggering, and on top of that they’d equipped us with premium gear. It was clearly an unimaginable sum. Yet these two energy cores were apparently enough to offset all of that.
Now I understood why everyone had been so happy. ‘The initial investment has been recovered. From here on, it’s all profit.’
The gatekeepers guarding the castle had handed us such a windfall. The thought of how many more treasures might be sleeping inside the castle itself had everyone’s expectations soaring. The team members quickly rested to restore their stamina and began urging the leader to open the doors already.
“Are you all really okay? We could have lunch first and still be fine.”
“If we waste an entire day on just those two monsters, when exactly are we supposed to clear the castle? We need to conquer at least the first floor today!”
Just by looking at it, the towering castle appeared to have at least five floors. Trying to clear all of that after spending a whole day on two gatekeepers seemed incredibly inefficient. While the others prepared for battle, I chatted quietly with Melody.
They had been resting while I worked nonstop. Only now was I finally getting a break.
“Once the fighting starts, that entire castle is going to get destroyed, isn’t it? It feels bittersweet to think we have to smash such a beautiful building.”
The Ice Castle inside the labyrinth had the atmosphere of a place where the Winter Queen, a mage of ice and snow, might reside.
“It feels eerie to me.”
Melody offered an unexpectedly grim impression as she gazed at the castle.
“Eerie?”
Everyone else had been calling it beautiful…
“It might be because I can faintly sense the presence of the monsters swarming inside.”
“!!!”
“There are a lot of them. Once the doors open, every monster inside will probably come pouring out.”
“…Do the others know there are that many?”
“They probably do.”
Hearing Melody’s curt reply filled me with unease. I hurried over to the leader.
“Melody says she can sense an absolutely enormous number of monsters inside the castle. You might already know, but I thought I should tell you anyway.”
“An enormous number of monsters inside? Could you give me more details?”
So they really didn’t know!!
“It would be better if you asked her directly. I’m only passing along what I heard.”
Fortunately, Melody had followed right behind me. The leader approached her and received a detailed report about the monster count.
“By my rough estimate, there are well over one hundred and fifty.”
“Are you referring to the entire five floors?”
“No. Just the first floor. If we’re talking about all five floors, the number would be much higher. Roughly five hundred or so? It could be even more. I can’t be certain.”
“……”
The leader opened and closed his mouth wordlessly for a moment before letting out a deep sigh.
“We nearly opened the lid on disaster without knowing. Thank you for telling us. If you sense anything similar in the future, please let us know immediately.”
“I wasn’t completely sure of the numbers and assumed you’d already made a rough guess, so I kept quiet. That was a mistake. Understood.”
Learning there were at least one hundred and fifty monsters on the first floor alone seemed to have convinced the leader that the entire plan needed to be scrapped.
“Everyone, stand down!”
“Huh?”
“Stand down?”
“What about the raid?!”
Complaints erupted from the people who had been preparing for battle at the leader’s sudden order.
“We’ve just received word that there are one hundred and fifty monsters inside the castle’s first floor.”
“O-one hundred and fifty?!”
“Is that even possible?”
“The interior must be much larger than it looks…”
We had no idea what kind of monsters would come bursting out once the castle gates were opened. And now we were being told there were huge numbers of them? The one saving grace was that our team had a member who could move with exceptional agility in situations like this.
“I’ll conduct a safe reconnaissance and return.”
“Be careful.”
Approaching the castle carried tremendous risk. That was precisely why they had considered skipping reconnaissance and launching a direct assault despite the danger. I prayed he would return safely from his scouting mission and cast a buff on him.
“As expected, Priest-nim’s buffs are the best. Thank you.”
As I watched his figure grow smaller in the distance, Melody spoke.
“Are you worried?”
“He’s heading alone into a place with one hundred and fifty monsters sleeping inside. How could I not be worried?”
“He will return safely.”
“Yes. I hope so.”
But sadly, my wish did not come true.
Crash!
Everyone was watching the castle with tense anxiety. Suddenly, the sound of an ice window shattering echoed across the area. If only one had broken, the sound wouldn’t have carried this far. Dozens of ice windows shattered at once, and something shot out from within with a sharp whoosh!
“Huh?”
The scout who had headed toward the castle for reconnaissance was now sprinting back toward us, blood dripping from his left arm. From this distance it was hard to see clearly, but his expression looked utterly desperate.
“Prepare for battle!!!!!!!!!”
The leader drew his sword first. While everyone scrambled to ready themselves, the leader tried to rush forward to rescue the sprinting scout.
“Leader!! Don’t!”
Fortunately, someone quickly grabbed him.
“If you go like that you’ll get caught and killed!”
“Then I’ll handle it.”
One of the mages who had been preparing for battle stepped forward and thrust his hand out. About fifty centimeters in front of his palm, a strange current formed in the air, followed by a howling wind that sounded like a typhoon.
‘Mages really are incredible.’
If they could use magic like a skill, wouldn’t the world have been ruled by mages long ago? Of course, the gods would never allow such a thing.
“Huff… huff!”
Mages needed a long time to prepare their next spell after using one. On top of that, once they exhausted their mana they couldn’t do anything until it regenerated—a fatal weakness.
The mage’s spell successfully blasted away the monster that had been hot on the scout’s heels. The scout didn’t miss the brief opening. Gritting his teeth as if using every ounce of strength he had left, he sprinted the rest of the way to the group. The leader caught him and brought him to safety. Only then did the scout collapse to the ground, gasping for air.
“Haaah! Haaah! F-fuck! Haaah! I nearly died. Haaah! Huff!”
“What happened?”
Once he had caught his breath enough to speak, he answered.
“Those bastards… they were waiting for us… haaah… There are tons of them inside. Whew, I thought I was going to pass out. They were clinging to the ceiling… huff huff… and when our eyes met, it gave me chills! The thing even smiled at me like a person!!”
“…It’s a good thing you went on reconnaissance. If we had gone in blindly, we would’ve been wiped out.”
“Exactly! We all would’ve died! That place is their nest! A nest!”
We had nearly walked straight into a trap. It was no exaggeration to say that Melody had saved our entire party.
“Monsters approaching from the front! Contact imminent!!”
“Shields up!”
There was no time to keep listening to the scout’s story. The monsters that had burst out of the castle after him were now charging straight at us.
‘Are those bats?’
Their red eyes and elongated wings stood out sharply. Though they resembled bats, unlike ordinary black-furred bats these had pure white fur. Perhaps living in such a snowy-white environment had naturally caused their coloring to adapt. Moreover, they were far too large to be mistaken for normal animals.
The creatures flapped their wings and swooped toward us.
‘I’m not Yi Sun-sin. How the hell are we supposed to catch all of those?’
The sky had turned completely white with bat monsters. If it were snow falling, it would have been peaceful and beautiful. But these weren’t snowflakes—they were monsters, and instead of drifting gently down they were diving at us with terrifying speed. On top of that, we were overwhelmingly outnumbered. Even though I was seeing it with my own eyes, I could hardly believe how many there were.
‘There are that many, and they’re saying only one hundred and fifty?’
Honestly, it looked like far more than one hundred and fifty. The enemy had an overwhelming numerical advantage, while we were just a tiny handful. That was the biggest problem.
“Shouldn’t we run?! You want to fight this head-on?”
“Idiot, if we turn our backs now we’re all dead!! You think everyone here can outrun them?!”
Given the situation, a string of harsh curses flew from the leader’s mouth. Yet no one called him rude for it. Who wouldn’t want to swear in a situation like this? We could actually die here.
And then.
The monster horde finally collided with the team.
“Please step back. It’s dangerous.”
“Yes.”
Swoosh!
Any monster that flew toward my vicinity was blocked completely by Melody. If we had chosen to flee, she probably would have scooped me up and run while carrying me.
“These bastards have weak defense!”
After a single clash, it seemed they had calculated that the creatures weren’t as strong as they had feared. As the leader had shouted, the real issue was simply their sheer numbers. Killing them didn’t appear to require much effort.