Wendigo (1)
The cutting north wind welcomed the traveler to the frozen land.
Beyond the blue sky lay a blinding white plain of snow.
Clouds hung low over the snow-covered mountains on the horizon.
Now and then, patches of green poked through the drifts blanketing the ground.
By day, the sunlight melted the snow; by night, it froze solid again.
The thawed runoff gathered into tiny streams, and the icy roads hidden beneath the snow seemed determined to catch the legs of anyone passing above them.
Not only people suffered in the cold.
The horses pulling the carriage had grown noticeably slower ever since they entered the north.
Swirling snow carried the chill with it.
It was more than mere cold; it felt as if the air were slicing at the skin.
He had never experienced such cold even in the back alleys.
His breath kept streaming out in white puffs.
And Lawrence was weak to the cold to begin with.
If not for Warm magic, he might have abandoned this request long ago.
Pulling his collar closer, Lawrence headed for the back of the carriage.
“Clack! Clack! Clack!”
“Odd! Odd! Odd!”
“Three dice. Odd.”
“I knew it!”
The mercenaries gathered around the campfire were split between joy and despair.
The three dice that had come up in the cup were odd.
The mercenaries who had bet on odd cheered and whooped.
“This is rigged!”
“Rigged my ass. Quit whining.”
“You say I cheated? With this many people watching?”
The one shouting in protest was a green-haired woman.
“No, seriously. What the hell? I’ve lost four times in a row! And you’re saying it’s not rigged? What do you think, Ziel?”
“Huh? I won, though.”
“Goddamn it!”
Rose, thoroughly worked up, pulled out her coin purse.
“One more round!”
“Why not call it here? You know you’re just going to lose again.”
“How would you know that?”
She growled at him.
“At this point, I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who doesn’t know you’re terrible at gambling, Rose.”
“Hey. By now there isn’t a soul here who doesn’t know you’re bad at this.”
Laughter rippled through the group.
Rose’s face flushed red.
“Cut the crap and deal the damn game already.”
“As you wish.”
The campfires were plentiful.
He chose a place a little apart from the gambling table.
After tying up the horses, Lawrence opened his telekinesis spellbook.
The mercenaries who had arrived before him darted their eyes around in silence.
In their gazes, he could read a faint trace of fear and caution.
He was used to that reaction by now.
It wasn’t as if Lawrence had actually done anything.
The mercenaries had simply seen the power of magic and gone on being afraid on their own.
At first, they had almost fawned over him.
So the rumors were true—he really was a shadow mage.
They had crowded around him, eager to strike up a conversation.
But Lawrence had never been the sort who enjoyed mingling.
Rather than join the gambling table, he read his spellbook again.
Rather than sit around drinking, he practiced magic once more.
As refusals became routine, his distance from the mercenaries naturally widened.
He did not mind.
If anything, a bit of distance was better.
They were not companions, merely people bound together by a request.
He had no desire to become overly familiar with them in his private time.
Still, there were always exceptions.
“That damn Kali bastard. I’m telling you, he definitely cheated.”
What entered the space the mercenaries had claimed was Rose.
She sat down beside Lawrence without asking and muttered darkly to herself.
“Mage. What do you think? That was cheating, right?”
“……”
Lawrence ignored her.
He was concentrating on the spellbook and didn’t want to be disturbed.
“Hey. Shadow mage. Don’t just pretend you can’t hear me.”
The stench of alcohol rose unmistakably from her.
No doubt she had lost money at gambling and gone straight to drinking out of frustration.
As predictable as ever.
Then again, she did this every day.
“Don’t tell me there isn’t some kind of spell for this. A convenient one that can tell you at a glance whether this bastard is cheating or not?”
“……”
Lawrence sighed.
He closed the spellbook.
“I thought I told you magic isn’t all-purpose.”
“I know that much, mage. That’s why I’m asking.”
“Instead of hoping for a miracle, you should save money properly. You can’t make any because you keep gambling.”
“That hurts, you know. Life’s all about one big win anyway. If you win, you’re ahead. If you don’t, you lose.”
Rose flicked a darkened coin with her finger as if to punctuate her logic.
“So, anyway. Could you lend me some money?”
“……”
“I’ll pay you back double. How about it, Shadow mage?”
Lawrence opened his spellbook again.
This time, no matter how much she rattled on beside him, he didn’t even look up.
* * *
The snowfield was pure white, not a black speck in sight.
Everywhere in the north, the scenery suited the word winter kingdom.
But the landscape that had once drawn admiration over the past few days had now become a place he was sick of looking at.
“What is it? Why are we stopping again?”
“Seems the snow’s piled up too high. The carriage can’t make it through.”
“Again? You said that before, too—because of the snow!”
“What’s with you? It’s freezing to death out here, and you’re barking at me? What the hell am I supposed to do about the snow piling up?”
The mercenaries on the carriage jabbed fingers at each other and argued.
Fortunately, it didn’t escalate into fists, but the whole party was so on edge that even the smallest thing set them off.
It reminded him of the memories of suffering through the heat in Ulbazar Swamp.
Back then, too, everyone had snapped at one another over the slightest thing.
The heat had simply turned to cold.
Wherever you went, people were still people.
Sitting in one corner of the carriage, Lawrence closed his spellbook.
He had the general idea now.
What remained was to reproduce the image forming in his mind.
Telekinesis was closer to reaching out with an invisible hand.
An object affected by it did not move from nowhere.
It only appeared invisible.
The thing under telekinesis was wrapped in mana.
Picture it.
Think of mana as shadow.
The shadow affected by Shadow takes shape.
Mana was no different.
If mana affected by telekinesis wrapped around an object and moved it, then that was all there was to it.
It wasn’t difficult.
Mana, like shadow, possessed force of its own.
To reach out toward the laws of the world and borrow their will—that was the power of great magic.
“Telekinesis.”
At Lawrence’s will, the spellbook lifted into the air.
The first thing he felt was heaviness.
The spellbook was far heavier than Water, to the point that the two could hardly be compared.
Compared with Shadow, which simply lifted and carried objects, it felt like a newborn baby barely learning to stand.
It was so heavy that reaching out with his hand honestly seemed easier.
Was it really worth straining himself like this to use it?
The problem wasn’t mana.
His mental strain was so great that the thought crossed his mind.
He held on to the concentration that felt ready to snap.
Lawrence lifted the spellbook up onto the carriage roof and then lowered it again, letting out a long breath.
He had no idea how much practice it would take to become proficient.
No—more than that, he wasn’t even sure this was a spell worth devoting that much effort to.
If the distance was too great, telekinesis simply didn’t work.
And if the object was close enough to reach by hand, there was no need to use telekinesis at all.
To be blunt, in any situation where telekinesis was required, using Shadow would be several times better.
Crunch, crunch.
Footsteps drew near.
Mercenaries approached, treading over the snow.
“Change of shift. Next up.”
“Already? Wait. Don’t tell me it’s snowing again?”
“Bad news—it’s just started coming down hard.”
“Son of a bitch….”
Even while cursing under their breaths, the mercenaries made their way back from the carriage.
Apart from the brutal cold, the night watch was actually easier in some ways.
In the north, there was nothing to see but snow, no matter where one looked.
The white blanket made it easier to see even in the dark.
Lawrence followed them out of the carriage as well.
“Are you taking the night watch from here, too, mage?”
“I’m in your care.”
“That’s what we should be saying.”
The chubby mercenary scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed.
Snow continued to fall from the sky.
The cold showed no sign of retreating as it swept over them.
The wind had no intention of leaving either.
This weather, frozen stiff and merciless, whispered of bitter cold.
“Ugh. This is such bullshit.”
“Shut up and keep watch.”
“You’re the one standing by the fire and still talking crap.”
“What, you want to freeze to death?”
The reply came with a look of utter disbelief.
Lawrence checked the weapons of the two mercenaries.
The chubby one carried a huge hammer.
The long-haired mercenary by the campfire, on the other hand, seemed to use a crossbow and spear together.
It was a decent enough arrangement, with the front line and rear support complementing each other.
Still, he could feel eyes lingering on him.
“Do you have something you want to say?”
“Huh? No, it’s just…. Aren’t you cold, mage?”
So that was it.
They had made space beside the campfire and were waiting for Lawrence.
“It’s bearable.”
Thanks to Warm magic, he wasn’t suffering all that much.
Even if the air was chilly, the warmth that Warm magic brought with it was comforting.
The mercenaries had no way of knowing that.
Still, there was no reason to refuse a rare kindness.
Warm was better, after all.
Lawrence walked over to the campfire just as the two of them had.
“I’d heard the northern requests were hard, but I never imagined they’d be this bad.”
“What kind of man talks so much? You know how rare it is to find a request that pays this well? If I got the chance to come back, I’d take it again without hesitation.”
“You serious? I’m already thinking about cutting off my toes.”
“Then cut them off, idiot. You talk big for someone who doesn’t actually mean it.”
He couldn’t help a short laugh at the mercenaries’ unfiltered remarks.
“Any women around here, damn it? I’m losing my mind.”
“What do you mean, no women? They’re gathered up near the front of the line. Go beg by their pant legs and see what happens. You never know.”
“Ha. Damn it. Those count as women, too. Mark my words, the guy who rolls around with Rose has probably lost his entire coin purse. That insane gambling maniac…. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Rose ran out naked all of a sudden. That woman would absolutely bet her own gear on the stakes.”
“And you’d roll around with her? You’d be lucky if you didn’t get stabbed.”
“Who said I wanted to do anything with Rose?”
The chubby mercenary grumbled.
“Still, if she’s asleep at this hour, that’d be a relief. She’s probably back there gambling with her whole life on the line right now.”
“That’s not even surprising anymore. Jesus.”
How long did their pointless chatter continue?
At last, when the subject seemed to have run dry, the chubby mercenary spoke up cautiously.
“Mage. Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“Nothing big. If another request to the north comes in, would you take it?”
“No.”
Lawrence answered at once.
“Even if the pay is huge?”
“I hate the cold.”
A person’s constitution didn’t change.
Even with Warm magic, something he hated remained something he hated.
“Ah…. I see. So even you’re human, mage.”
At Lawrence’s blunt answer, the chubby mercenary looked away.
“Look at this guy. He asks the question and then gets spooked himself. Sorry about him, mage. He’s not a bad guy, just… a little like this.”
“Is that so? A timid fellow, despite his size.”
At Lawrence’s response, the two mercenaries exchanged a glance.
If nothing else, that was a relief.
Once again today, no sinister movement had been spotted in the snowfield.
Only the falling snow was reducing the fire’s strength.
“Fire.”
He rekindled the embers that had nearly gone out.
Fire was weaker than usual.
That wasn’t just his imagination.
Magic was affected by the environment it was cast in.
It was no exaggeration to say the bitter cold was devouring the flames.
“Seriously, that’s amazing. Long live magic.”
“Without the mage here, even starting a fire would be a pain.”
Mercenaries behind them came over when they saw the Fire.
They looked a little pitiful, so Lawrence left the spell burning as long as possible.
How long had he been standing watch?
Sleepiness came crashing down on him.
The yawns that kept escaping made his eyelids heavy.
To drive the drowsiness away, he touched Shadow.
Then, all at once, something moving out on the snowfield caught his eye.
“Isn’t that a gnoll?”
“It is.”
A gnoll with white fur as pale as the snow itself.
Lawrence remembered what Francois had once told him.
“It isn’t only animals that adapt to their environment. Monsters and magical beasts do too. I’ve heard that the gnolls found in the north have fur as white as snow.”
To keep from being seen by predators.
Or to keep from being seen by prey.
“What the hell? Where are those things going?”
What was strange was that the gnolls were heading somewhere.
They weren’t coming toward the carriage.
Scattering across the snowfield, they soon vanished one by one into the darkness.
“Maybe they’re afraid of us. No point in fighting at this hour anyway.”
“No. Well, if they don’t come, that’s fine, but….”
No. That wasn’t it.
Filled with an uneasy premonition, Lawrence raised his hand.
“Shadow Light.”
A sphere of light took shape.
He sent the Shadow Light out to drive back the darkness.
“Mage?”
Without a word, Lawrence pressed a finger to his lips.
At the gesture for silence, the mercenaries’ expressions changed.
“Shadow Light.”
He didn’t conjure just one.
He sent five Shadow Lights out around them in total.
Only then did the situation around them come into view more clearly.
The herd of gnolls had seen the lights in the darkness, yet still they did not stop.
Their steps quickened.
Their backs looked as though they were fleeing from something.
And behind them, a massive shape was approaching.
“Damn it.”
A white snowman walking on two legs.
In its hands—hands almost indistinguishable from feet—was a giant ice club.
With a body as massive as a Bugbear’s, it looked exactly like the creature they had heard about in the mercenary guild.
“It’s a Wendigo!”