XI. The Coming of the North Wind (1)
XI. The Coming of the North Wind (1)
To head west from Schaffendorf, they first had to follow the road north.
Ignoring the road and forcing a breakthrough across the snowfields would invite every manner of hardship.
Baron Gofrit had likely headed straight west in his urgency, but that would only have slowed him considerably.
So Keldric and his party kept heading north. North, and further north.
Familiar scenery unfolded one view after another. This was one area where Keldric could pretend to know the land.
Though outside the areas around Bellam, Bogenberg, and Spitzenberg, what did he really know...
'That way is the forest, that way the mountains, and if you go that way... Carlton Village.'
The wind from beyond the mountains grew stronger, carrying a heavy sense of nostalgia.
Carlton Village lay at the northern edge of the empire, on the fringe of the Everfrost. Following this road would lead there.
It would still take four full days on foot, through the same monotonous expanse of snow... Yet Keldric did not dislike the winding dirt road.
It was the path Keldric had walked when he first ventured out into the world, knowing nothing.
The dirt road across the snowfields looked like a painting, and the snow glittered like jewels in the reflected sunlight.
Retracing it felt fresh and welcome. Keldric's eyes shone.
"Damn it all. What kind of backwater are we even traveling to?"
Henri, who loathed the cold, was disgusted.
He complained incessantly as they followed the dirt road, which was little more than a single track.
"Sir Keldric, I have traveled all over the northern empire, but I have never seen anywhere this bleak. Does anyone actually use this road?"
"Ha ha..."
Keldric laughed awkwardly. Henri was not wrong.
Most of the soldiers were northerners and did not complain, but they were hardly impressed either.
Snow, snow, and more snow. Every direction was snow.
The cold wind was gentle but constant. There was nothing to see and nowhere suitable to rest.
But Keldric enjoyed the scenery itself.
People rarely cared about what was easy to obtain. Snow was everywhere, so neither the soldiers nor Henri paid it any attention.
Keldric was different. Simply being outside made him happy.
Even if it was only a brief respite during a war, he welcomed scenery he had not seen in a long time.
"This... is simply too dull to bear."
Henri spoke while digging in his ear with a twig. Keldric and Alisa looked at him as if to say, 'Here he goes again.'
"What is it now?"
"I am bored. Why do we not each tell an interesting story?"
An interesting story. That was vague.
"For example?"
"Well... something that happened when you were young? We could pass the time with stories like that."
Keldric glanced down the dirt road ahead, following the direction of the conversation.
Then he looked up. The sun had just begun to rise where the mountains ended. In other words, it was morning.
When Keldric first left Carlton, it had taken a little less than half a day to reach Schaffendorf from the fork.
The party was larger now, so they still had another three or four hours of walking.
They were not going to spend that time in silence. A little banter would be fine.
"Not a bad idea."
"Then I will go first."
Henri began telling them about his homeland, the Barony of Candillon.
He spoke of the baron's castle before vineyards set among beautiful hills, and of playing on hills heavy with the scent of grapes on fine days...
"At any rate, that is the sort of place it is. Candillon is beautiful."
No one made it obvious that they had been eavesdropping, but everyone smiled as they imagined the Barony of Candillon Henri had described.
Keldric was the same. His eyes lit up as he imagined warm vineyards.
"I would like to visit one day."
"You would be welcome anytime. You and I are inseparable friends... No, practically sworn brothers! Hahaha!"
The laughter spread from the soldiers to the attendants. Even the cold seemed to ease.
The rising sun probably helped, but the warm mood lifted their spirits.
"Sir Henri, now that I think of it, your fiancée—"
"Ahem! That is enough about me. It is your turn."
Keldric had been about to ask about Henri's fiancée, but Henri cut him off firmly.
Henri awkwardly changed the subject, and Keldric took the hint.
'I am curious, but...'
There was no reason to pick at a wound.
Henri would tell him when he was ready. Keldric let it go.
"You mean my story?"
"Yes. You seem to have had plenty of interesting experiences."
Interesting experiences. Keldric looked back over his life.
He had spent eighteen years in Carlton Village, then his house was attacked and Yakov died...
Then he had ventured out into the world. He had won the Bogenberg Tournament, and he had slain a monster at Spitzenberg, too.
The only stories he could openly boast about were his excruciatingly dull village life, the tournament, or the monster.
Henri already knew about the tournament and the monster.
After thinking for a moment, Keldric spoke.
"I do not have much of a story, but how about a simple game instead?"
Henri looked disappointed.
They had neither dice nor a table to roll them on, so it was hard to imagine what game Keldric meant.
"As long as it is fun, why not?"
Keldric remembered the card game he had idly considered before.
He could not make cards on the spot, but there were plenty of simple games.
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"Twenty-three!"
"Caught again."
"Damn it!"
Henri erupted. No wonder—this was already his fourth loss.
The simple game Keldric proposed, the so-called '369 game,' was unfamiliar to Henri and the others.
But the unfamiliarity quickly became novelty.
Its competitive rules were genuinely fun.
With Henri, Alisa, and several attendants participating, the heated contest was no longer a 'light game.'
"O-one more... Just one more round!"
"Sir Henri, we should probably..."
"No! One more!"
Henri shouted with fire in his eyes. Keldric nodded reluctantly.
"Then... Sir Henri, you start."
"One!"
"Two!"
Claps rang out one after another. The soldiers following them were soon watching with keen interest.
"Twenty-eight!"
"Twenty-ni— Ah!"
"..."
Keldric squeezed his eyes shut. Henri's talent was catastrophically bad.
Physical tasks were normally a knight's specialty, but this had nothing to do with physical ability. It required a brain.
Quick reflexes helped, but Henri's mind could not keep up with his excellent body.
"Sir Henri. Come here."
"Urk...!"
Sir Henri thrust his forehead forward with a look of humiliation.
His forehead, flushed bright red, proclaimed its own existence like a target.
Hoping Henri would finally give up, Keldric hooked his middle finger with his thumb and drew it back as hard as he could.
Then he fired.
Smack—!!
"——?!"
The crisp smack echoed across the snowfield. Henri clutched his forehead and flailed so violently that his warhorse staggered.
The aftermath of the 'Finger Catapult,' as Keldric had renamed it for the occasion, was severe.
Everyone had been horrified the first time Keldric struck Henri.
"A-again... Again...!"
Keldric was strong to begin with, and Henri's face was now twisted with spite.
Either one could crack a skull if he caught you.
"One!"
"Two!"
But the game continued.
Henri screamed with his face bright red, while the attendant beside him called out the numbers with tears in his eyes.
Keldric clicked his tongue as he watched the almost-possessed Henri.
It was not the stubbornness that appalled him. Henri was simply so unbelievably terrible at the game.
"Thirty!"
Once again, the count stopped below thirty.
Keldric stared at the defeated Henri and blew on his fingers.
"Sir Henri, a man has to honor the rules."
"This must be the devil's game."
Devil's game or not, nothing was more cowardly than dodging an agreed penalty.
By the time the sun sank beyond the snow-white horizon, Henri's forehead was redder than the crimson sky.
"Let us stop for today. We need to find a campsite."
"If I ever play this fucking game again, I am no man."
The small pleasure of the journey faded, and night took its place.
It was a northern night filled with bone-deep cold.
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After making do with bread and barley porridge for dinner, Keldric lay down in the bed they had improvised.
They had brought no tent to shelter them from the wind. Such a luxury was unsuitable for a detachment that prioritized speed.
Keldric did not mind. There was no reason to hide the star-filled sky.
Many soldiers were northerners, so no one complained.
"Ugh..."
The problem was Henri and Alisa, who were vulnerable to the cold.
Henri could stay reasonably warm by sleeping pressed against his attendants. Alisa had no such option.
She could sleep beside Arno or Helga, but that was nowhere near enough against the freezing northern wind.
In the end, the shivering Alisa came to lie beside Keldric.
"I-I am sorry..."
"It is fine."
Keldric was used to northern cold, and his large body gave off considerable warmth.
He did not know why. Perhaps his absurd body's metabolism was that active, or there was some other reason.
What was certain was that Alisa's trembling gradually subsided after she cautiously lay beside him.
Silence and cold settled over the camp. No one seemed awake except the sentries.
The fire crackled at their feet, scattering sparks. They had cleared away the snow and laid hides on the ground, but cold seeped up from below.
Feeling a little chilly, Keldric pulled the wolf cloak he was using as a blanket higher.
Snoring soon rumbled through the camp. It had to be Henri.
"Sir Keldric."
Keldric turned toward the faint voice beside him.
Mysteriously gleaming blue eyes met his in the darkness.
"Did you call me?"
"If you were asleep..."
"No. I was not."
The two whispered softly through the quiet camp, broken only by occasional snores.
"Although this journey is for my own purpose, traveling with you has always felt meaningful, Sir Keldric."
"Your purpose... the wizard?"
"Yes. That wizard... the one I am searching for."
Keldric knew little about Alisa.
Only that she came from a southern peninsula and belonged to a fallen noble house.
"What will you do after you find the wizard and achieve your purpose?"
"I... do not know."
"I see."
Alisa worked her lips, searching for words.
Keldric looked up at the night sky. A shooting star trailed across it.
"Sir Keldric."
"I am listening."
"Thank you. For everything."
"It is nothing."
The conversation ended there. Keldric fell silent, and Alisa said no more.
Before long, soft, steady breathing reached Keldric's ears.
'Thank you...'
Keldric had traveled with Alisa ever since leaving Carlton.
Looking back, one question had always lingered in his heart.
Could he trust her now?
They had not spent that long together or traveled to many places.
Less than half a year, strictly speaking.
Was that enough to form a bond?
Keldric could not answer yet, but the conversation had made one thing clear.
Alisa still could not tell him everything.
The same was true of Keldric.
Neither could close the remaining distance between them.
Keldric disliked speaking about his house, while Alisa avoided discussing her destroyed family or the wizard she sought.
Without a common purpose, people had no reason to remain together.
If nothing changed, Alisa would leave Keldric someday.
That thought made him strangely uncomfortable.
For the first time, he truly felt the passage of time and the way relationships changed with it.
'...This is difficult.'
The cold wind eased.
With Alisa's quiet breathing and occasional snores as a lullaby, Keldric slowly closed his eyes.
Another exhausting day seemed to end that way.
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"Damn it."
Keldric opened his eyes in the familiar cave and cursed quietly.
Just when he thought he might rest, he was inevitably dragged here.
It had to be the demon's doing. Keldric frowned.
When Keldric wanted advice, the demon never appeared. Yet it dragged him in whenever it pleased.
His eyes swept the cave for it.
The dark, damp cave now felt like his own bedroom. The statue fragments had been cleared from the floor, leaving it silent as a grave.
At the center of the cave, beneath the shaft of light entering through the ceiling—
[ It has been a long time, warrior. ]
Black mist surged into view, gathered, and took the familiar shape of a wolf.
Keldric clicked his tongue, but his body moved from habit and sat atop the statue's remaining lower half.
"So, what is it this time?"
He had never lost anything by listening, so he decided to hear it out.