Winterglen (3)
“Welcome. How can I help you?”
It was a general store that dealt in every kind of tool and sundry goods. Lawrence asked the clerk, who wore a practiced sales smile, “Do you sell potions as well?”
“Potions, you say? Of course. The high-grade ones are 50 silver. Mid-grade, 30 silver. Low-grade, 10 silver.”
The prices were much steeper than in Remington Village. Even the most expensive potions the old woman had carried cost only 25 silver.
“Your prices are a little high compared to other places.”
“It’s hard to get herbs in the north.”
“Could I take a look first?”
“Certainly.”
The clerk brought out the potions from inside the shop. The vials carried a reddish glow, and at a glance it was obvious they were premium goods.
“Mercenaries who’ve used our store swear by the quality. The high-grade ones can even set a broken bone. A hand that was just cut off, too. They’re the sort of thing that really make every coin feel well spent.”
She didn’t mention the pain that came with the healing. Judging from the severe injuries she’d used as examples, Lawrence honestly couldn’t imagine how much it would hurt.
“If I bought one of each grade, how much would it be?”
“Oh my. You want all three? Hmm… I’ll knock off 5 silver and give them to you for 85 silver. How does that sound?”
Not a bad price.
After paying, Lawrence tucked the potions into his medicine belt.
“Do you have any useful items for traveling in the north?”
As if she had been waiting for the question, she pulled something from the shelf.
“More than anything, you need to prepare for the cold. I’d recommend stocking up on tea leaves that can warm the body.”
“Tea leaves?”
What she held wasn’t tea leaves at all, but a black lump. At first glance, it looked like a clod of dirt.
“Yes. Even a body frozen stiff by the snow wind will melt right down with a cup of tea. The most famous of them is this schaa, brewed with butter.”
“……”
Wondering if he’d misheard her, Lawrence looked at the clerk.
“You don’t seem fond of it.”
“I’m just not sure how often I’ll be in a situation where I can afford to brew tea.”
“I take it this is your first time in the north, then. Once you start traveling, you’ll see there’s far less time to move around than you’d expect.”
She went on. “At night you can’t move because of the darkness and the cold. You can only travel during the day, when the sun is up. And even then, if a blizzard hits, all you can do is set up camp and wait it out quietly. In the meantime, what keeps your frozen body going is this schaa.”
Hearing it that way, the story sounded convincing enough. Winterglen had been battered by blizzards until just a few days ago. Compared to the avalanches he’d heard about in rumors, a blizzard might not have sounded like much, but even that was enough to make going outside impossible.
“It’s easier to say than to live through. Think about it: if you’re face-to-face with a blizzard so thick you can’t see an inch ahead of you, nobody goes wandering around outside unless they want to die. Your vision blurs. Snow covers every crack in the ground. One wrong step and you’re dead on the spot. Of course you have to wait somewhere safe until the storm calms down.”
Without knowing the north, it wasn’t a problem you could dismiss lightly. Depending on how you looked at it, it felt even more dangerous than Ulbazar Swamp.
Ralph had said they would need about ten days before departure. Since Lawrence still knew so little, maybe it would be better to go back and forth between the Mercenary Guild and gather the information he needed.
The information he’d gotten from the Mistra branch had its limits.
“Thank you! Please come again!”
Lawrence left the general store with several packets of schaa.
The last place he visited was a clothing shop.
At first he wondered if he’d come to the wrong place and rubbed his eyes.
The clothing shop, in terms of size alone, rivaled the Mercenary Guild. It was nothing like the open-for-all blacksmith or the tiny general store. The shop was crowded with customers, as if to prove the point, and the clerk was working himself to the bone, greeting each one with a bead of sweat on his brow.
It was the liveliest place he’d seen since arriving in Winterglen.
“Welcome, sir. Is there something in particular you’re looking for?”
“Do you happen to have clothes made from wendigo hide?”
“Yes, of course we do.”
The clerk’s smile widened.
“Did you make a reservation?”
“A reservation?”
“Yes. Wendigo hide is extremely rare, so every single order is made in advance. As for quality, you needn’t worry. The wendigo-hide garments made by our shop are top-class items favored even by nobles.”
There was pride in his voice.
“I’m terribly sorry, but what would the usual price be?”
“Clothes made from wendigo hide start at a minimum of 5 gold. For top-grade wendigo-hide garments without any damage, 20 gold is not unusual at all.”
What kind of clothes cost that much? They were practically made of gold, weren’t they? Honestly, wasn’t that a bit too expensive, Mr. Lionel?
To be blunt, buying one outright was absurd. Even setting aside the price, if he had that much money in hand, Lawrence would head straight for a magic shop.
Still…
It was clear now that wendigo hide was worth a fortune. So that was why Oswin had paid such close attention to the reward. Even hide that had been torn almost to pieces was still wendigo hide. There had to be enough value in it to make the payout worthwhile, which was why he’d been willing to pay so readily.
If he had time, hunting wendigos with Sing didn’t seem like a bad idea.
“If the price is a bit much, how about clothing made from winter bear hide? They’re extremely popular among mercenaries traveling the north. Gloves and pants made from seal hide are warm too. Once you’ve tried them, you won’t even look at other clothes.”
Winter bear hide.
Thanks to his stop at the blacksmith, the name wasn’t unfamiliar.
“Could you show me a winter bear robe?”
“Of course. This way, please.”
The clerk led Lawrence deeper into the shop. Unlike the clothes piled near the entrance, the garments here were neatly arranged, hanging one by one.
“Winter bear robes usually go for about 1 gold. Compared to wendigo hide, that’s cheap, so a lot of customers look for them.”
One gold, considered cheap…
Lawrence gave a wry smile to himself.
“This size should about fit you.”
He tried on the winter bear robe the clerk handed him. Aside from the thick lining, it barely felt heavy at all. Even without any Warm spell on it, a pleasant heat seemed to linger in the fabric.
“Looks like you like it.”
“It’s good. How long would this hold up outside?”
“Winter bears are tough animals that can survive blizzards. Since the clothes are made from their hide, they should easily hold up for several hours without trouble.”
Lawrence ran a hand over the robe. If he added a Warm spell on top of this, wouldn’t his defenses against the cold be perfect?
“I’ll take one of these. And I’d like to see a few more things I can wear outside over it.”
“Thank you, sir. Please take your time looking around, and let me know if you find anything you like.”
You could never be too prepared. Lawrence followed the clerk and continued browsing the clothing shop.
* * *
Exactly ten days later, a message arrived from the Mercenary Guild saying the travel preparations were complete.
After gathering his things, Lawrence left the inn behind.
The agreed meeting place was Ralph’s house.
After ten days, Ralph looked almost no different from Lawrence himself. A hat that covered his entire head, a thick robe that made his frame seem several times larger, and cloth wrapped tightly over every part of his face except the mouth. A bag as big as his own body hung at his side, rattling loudly every time he moved.
“This is where we’re getting on?”
“That’s right.”
Lawrence studied the dog sled Ralph had prepared. Thick hides had been spread across the top like a carpet, and the black-and-white fur felt surprisingly comfortable to sit on. There was even a blanket prepared, as if for when he needed to cover himself. The smell, however, brought to mind something rotten, and Lawrence wrinkled his nose.
There was a support at the back he could lean against. It was clear Ralph had put thought into making the sled comfortable enough to lie down or sit on during travel.
On long journeys, conserving energy mattered most. It even seemed like this would be more comfortable than a carriage, with its unexpectedly generous space.
The sled was harnessed to no fewer than ten dogs. Already excited at the prospect of going outside, the dogs kept wagging their tails nonstop.
“Get on first.”
“Are we leaving right away?”
“No. I need to see how far you can go on a dog sled.”
Lawrence didn’t quite understand what he meant. Reading the confusion on his face, Ralph silently pointed at the sled.
“You’ll understand once you ride it.”
“All right.”
Lawrence climbed aboard. Ralph, oddly enough, didn’t take the seat beside him but moved to the support instead. Gripping it with both hands, he raised his voice.
“Time to run!”
He gave the rope connected to the support a sharp tug. The dog at the front, with silver fur, caught the signal. When it looked ahead and started running, the other dogs responded in kind and broke into a run as well.
Could this really move properly?
The doubt vanished the moment the dogs started running.
His body seemed to lurch backward, and then the sled, pulled by ten dogs, shot forward in an instant. The white world flowed past as smoothly as water.
Lawrence let himself be carried along by the sled sliding over the snow.
It was a strange sensation.
A dog sled was different from a carriage, which relied on wheels and horses. It was much faster than a carriage. Because they were racing across open snowfields, the terrain rose and fell here and there, but the up-and-down motion was less severe than he’d expected.
There was no need to hold the reins or crack a whip. Ralph didn’t seem to be giving the dogs any direct commands, either. The dogs must have been enjoying themselves, because they tore across the snowfield like mad.
It had been maybe ten minutes since he got on the sled when Lawrence finally understood what Ralph had meant.
It was cold—no, beyond cold, cold to the point that his face felt as though it had frozen solid. This was the kind of brutal weather where you could feel the chill even while standing still. Unlike a carriage, there was no structure to block the wind, so the sled was exposed to it directly.
Parts of his body covered by gloves and robes were still tolerable. More than anything, because he’d already cast Warm on himself, he didn’t feel sharply cold. But his face was another matter.
Only then did he realize why Ralph had wrapped his entire body in cloth except for his mouth.
“Woof. Woof.”
When Ralph pulled on the rope, the sled came to a stop. Lawrence lowered the hand he’d been using to shield his face. Thick, sticky snot clung to his glove. What had been running down his face wasn’t sweat, but tears. Only then did Lawrence learn that if the weather was cold enough, your eyes would start leaking on their own.
“Well? Can you ride more?”
“How can you say that after seeing this?”
Obviously, no pleasant words were going to come out of his mouth.
“Why didn’t you cover yourself with the blanket? If you’d used that, it would’ve been fine.”
“……”
Lawrence didn’t answer. No matter how urgent things were, he had no desire to wrap himself in something that smelled like that. He’d already had enough of covering himself with a filthy camouflage sheet in Ulbazar Swamp.
“I’ll go buy some face coverings in town.”
“Good thinking. It’d be better to have plenty of spares, too.”
He was already planning to do that. With the possibility of anything happening, securing extras wasn’t optional; it was necessary.
“Does your head feel dizzy?”
“You mean on the dog sled? No, not at all. If anything, riding horses makes me feel worse.”
“So you’ve ridden horses before.”
Ralph looked mildly surprised.
“Yes. Well. You can’t really ride them around here.”
“No, that’s not entirely true. There are places in the north where you can.”
Did he mean the area below Winterglen? The places with a little less snow could still be traveled by horse.
“I’m glad you aren’t dizzy. People riding dog sleds for the first time often can’t last more than a few hours before complaining of vertigo.”
“That’s surprising. Aside from the cold, I think it’s fun.”
Unlike a carriage, he didn’t have to sit there with his hands idle. Unlike a horse, it didn’t require much from him either. A dog sled racing across the snowfields offered a kind of excitement he hadn’t expected.
“If a dog sled runs without stopping for an entire day, it can cover more ground than a carriage. In the north, it’s the only means of transportation that can truly go anywhere. If you can adapt to it, I can confidently say there’s no more convenient way to travel.”
“More ground than a carriage? Isn’t that an exaggeration?”
“A carriage is usually drawn by one or two horses, but a dog sled is pulled by anywhere from six to more than ten dogs. It doesn’t haul nearly as much baggage as a carriage, either, and it isn’t weighed down by excessive burden. The dogs focus purely on running. Naturally, they can cover farther ground than a carriage.”
Ralph walked toward the dogs and added, “That said, focusing too much on running can leave the dogs in poor condition. If something happens to their paws or legs, it can lead to serious accidents. That’s why you always have to check whether they’re all right after a run.”
For reasons he couldn’t explain, the dogs were rubbing their backs against the snow. The sight made it look as if they were trying to charm their owner. Since the pack had all lain down with their bellies exposed, checking their paws didn’t seem too difficult.
Following Ralph’s lead, Lawrence examined one dog’s feet as well. But he quickly realized that even that wasn’t as easy as it looked. How should he put it? The dogs simply wouldn’t stay still for a second. They wriggled so much that checking the pads on their paws was a struggle in itself.
“The dog pulling at the very front is the one with the highest rank. When that one runs, the others follow its back and keep running too.”
Only then did Lawrence see that Ralph was watching the dog with silver fur—the very one that had been leading the sled from the front.