Watcher of Winter, Part 3
What was their relationship?
This time, he did not bother to think over the answer.
“We’re friends.”
“Friends?”
“Yes. Friends.”
“…….”
Killian stared at Lawrence for a long moment.
“Then as friends, will you promise not to turn your back on those children if they’re ever in danger?”
“Friends don’t need to make promises like that.”
The answer was firm, and Killian sank back into his chair.
“...I see. She did have an eye for people.”
He raised the familiar cigarette to his mouth, lit it, and drew in a long drag.
“Then let’s hear your purpose.”
Lawrence glanced toward the door.
He didn’t sense a single human presence outside.
It was only natural, considering they had brought up the Valentina family.
The Watchers of Winter probably hadn’t left any civilians lying around.
“I’d like you to show me to a place in the north.”
“Show you? If you mean the Wall, there are a few procedures involved. Especially since you belong to the Holy Cross Order. It could take months before you’re properly permitted to visit.”
“No. The place I’m looking for isn’t the Wall.”
“Then what is it?”
“I’m looking for a palace said to have been left behind by the northerners. From what I’ve heard, it’s similar to the holy sites the Order speaks of.”
Killian took the cigarette from his mouth.
“That’s your purpose? To find the Order’s holy site?”
“Yes.”
“…….”
With a look of sheer disbelief, he burst out laughing.
“I really don’t understand you. You came all the way to the Wall, risking your life, and you’re telling me you don’t have some greater purpose—only that you might be looking for a holy site?”
“A pilgrim’s path is always a hard one.”
“Nonsense. There are no pilgrimages here, and there’s certainly no holy site in the north. Do you truly believe there’s one here?”
“Even if my steps are faint for now, the path I walk will become one for someone else.”
The laughter did not stop.
“You seriously came here as a pilgrim? A mage tied to the Laynald family through the Order?”
“Is there some reason I shouldn’t have?”
“No reason not to, I suppose. You’ll find out soon enough anyway.”
Killian stomped his foot twice in quick succession.
A moment later, a Watcher of Winter who had heard the signal entered the room.
“I’ll vouch for this man’s identity. Report it upstairs. As of this moment, Watcher Kilian and the Second Search Team will return to their post.”
“Understood. Then what shall we do with this man?”
“He moves with us.”
Killian did not take the ring bearing the Valentina crest.
Lawrence understood the meaning well enough.
After a brief hesitation, he put the ring into his bag.
The falcon could no longer fly the open sky.
* * *
The Watcher of Winter blindfolded Lawrence.
With his sight cut off, he was led out of the safe house.
He had no idea where they were going.
No one told him the destination.
Not a single word passed between them.
The Watcher of Winter carried out their work in absolute silence.
In that unpleasant stillness, Lawrence simply kept walking.
Was he circling in place?
Were they heading for another safe house?
Or were they climbing the mountain—or descending it?
By the time his sense of direction had become nearly useless, Lawrence realized he was riding on a dog sled.
Was White Fang the one pulling it?
The freezing wind slapped against his face.
The sled slid swiftly over the snow, carrying him somewhere unknown.
Minutes passed. Or perhaps hours.
A hand removed the blindfold from Lawrence’s half-asleep face.
“We’re here.”
Bright light poured down over him.
Shielding his eyes with a hand, he slowly let his vision return.
The place they had reached by sled was a cave.
A pickaxe without a handle.
Rails exposed over the frozen ground.
A rusted mine cart sat stuffed with some unidentifiable filth.
This wasn’t a cave.
An abandoned mine. A disused shaft.
“We’re going in.”
The smell of oil tickled his nose.
It was the whale oil scent he often caught in Reindeer Village.
The Watcher of Winter, carrying a torch, entered the abandoned mine.
White Fang did not follow.
After one glance back at the Watcher of Winter, White Fang vanished along with the sled.
“Where is this place?”
“You don’t need to know.”
Killian brushed off Lawrence’s question.
But Lawrence didn’t miss the quiet addition that followed.
“Just cooperate. It won’t be a bad thing for you, either.”
“…….”
There were too many eyes around them.
Other Watchers of Winter were moving with them as well.
He had no way to demand a clear answer from Killian here and now.
“You don’t need to light any more torches back there.”
Lawrence stopped the Watcher of Winter who was striking flint behind him.
“Shadow Light.”
Darkness turned to light.
With Shadow Light floating beside him, he stepped deeper into the mine.
The Watchers of Winter, who had watched him for a moment, followed after.
He was used to the silence by now.
Lawrence slowly looked around as he walked.
The abandoned mine was lonelier than he had expected.
It had clearly been a long time since human hands had last touched it.
Discarded tools were buried under dust and filthy stains.
The support beams looked ready to collapse at any moment.
Not even bats clung to the ceiling.
A vicious stench rose through the air, one he had never once smelled in the snowfields.
It was something fundamentally different from the waste of animals.
It was the foul reek of monsters, the same stench he had grown sick of meeting along the road.
“Seems this mine has monsters too.”
“Sharp eyes.”
He had said it without expecting a reply, but one came anyway.
“This is a kobold nest. The shafts where men used to come and go in endless haste are all their territory now.”
Kobolds.
He knew of them.
Like horn boars, they were monsters obsessed with minerals.
He had heard they had hunched, crooked bodies and tough frames.
Compared to a wendigo or an ice troll, they weren’t especially dangerous.
At worst, around goblin or Under Wolf level.
Still, they were pack creatures.
If this was a kobold nest, he couldn’t dismiss their numbers.
“The Watcher of Winter didn’t come all the way out here just to exterminate kobolds. So what in the world is down here?”
“Don’t rush. You’ll know soon enough.”
As if there was nothing more to say, Killian fell silent.
Claps only make a sound when two hands meet.
Realizing he wasn’t going to get any more information, Lawrence held his tongue too.
They moved deeper into the abandoned mine.
The farther in they went, the more traces of kobolds appeared.
Half-eaten musk ox meat.
Animal carcasses stripped down to bones.
And here and there, clubs that looked crude enough to serve as weapons.
Yet they never came face-to-face with a kobold.
A Watcher of Winter who had entered the mine ahead of them was waiting.
“Report.”
“The shafts are clear.”
Killian raised a hand.
The Watchers of Winter in the rear lifted their torches high.
In the place where the darkness was pushed back, a rusted iron door appeared.
Killian passed through it.
One by one, the Watchers of Winter followed.
Before long, they had drawn near Lawrence and motioned for him to come along.
Of course. As if he had any choice.
Lawrence, too, crossed the iron door after them.
* * *
The instant he stepped through, the world opened up before him.
When he lifted his head, sunlight was streaming through cracks in the stone above.
The place was bright enough to travel without a torch.
He summoned Shadow Light anyway.
Beyond a small open space, there was a stone staircase descending underground.
Killian and the Watchers of Winter seemed to know the place well, because they headed straight for it.
The staircase seemed to have no end.
Down beneath the abandoned mine, the spiraling steps wound in a great circle, like a road leading into a dark abyss.
Perhaps they thought Lawrence was afraid.
The Watchers of Winter passing by muttered a few words.
“Watch your step. Falling would be a pain to clean up.”
“You’d better keep that ball of light well under control.”
But Lawrence wasn’t afraid.
Rather, amazed would have been the better word.
He hadn’t imagined there would be a place like this beneath the north.
He had heard that beneath the glaciers stretched a vast sea.
Yet the scene before him denied that fact outright.
Now he understood why Pete and Ralph had never known about the northerners’ palace.
It wasn’t on the surface.
The building that might have been a holy site lay beneath the frozen earth.
There were no true structures in the stairway descending underground.
The steps were definitely man-made, but the rest of the subterranean landscape had been shaped entirely by nature.
How far had they descended?
By the time the staircase that seemed as though it would continue forever finally ended, Lawrence clicked his tongue.
What lay at the bottom was an enormous tunnel.
Unlike before, not a single ray of light reached it.
Above them was only a ceiling stained the color of dirt.
The cavernous tunnel could easily hold dozens, even hundreds, of people.
Torchlight flared once more.
Without pause, the Watchers of Winter moved on.
“From here on, ice trolls show up from time to time. It won’t be as easy to deal with them as it is on the surface, so if they appear, lend a hand.”
The reason was obvious enough.
At Killian’s words, Lawrence lifted a hand.
“Water Ball.”
Water spheres don’t freeze.
If it wasn’t just his imagination, the spell also felt weaker than usual.
This was a tunnel where all he could see was earth, not snow.
In a place like this, maybe Bind would be more effective instead.
He withdrew the Water Ball and cast Bind.
Unknown weeds blossomed into vines.
The tendrils that sprouted around his feet wrapped tightly around his legs.
To be clear, they weren’t strong enough to snap a leg outright.
Still, he could certainly raise their power further if needed.
Depending on the opponent, they might buy him enough time.
It felt like it had been a while since he had cast a proper Bind.
Lawrence let the spell fade.
He would rely on Bind more than Water Ball down here.
“If we run into an ice troll, I’ll stop its movements.”
“With those toy-like vines?”
“I can’t bind it completely, but I can delay it for a moment. Isn’t that enough?”
He wasn’t wandering this strange place alone.
The Watchers of Winter around him were more than capable of beating down an ice troll.
It was no different from traveling with mercenaries.
They might not be friendly, but their skill could still be trusted.
“You all heard that, right? If you meet an ice troll, don’t try to force it.”
“Why would we need to?”
One of the Watchers of Winter voiced his doubt at Killian’s words.
“You don’t want to rely on an outsider?”
“…….”
Silence was answer enough.
Though none of them said it outright, they all seemed to be thinking the same thing.
“Don’t be short-sighted. Use what you can use. He’s an outsider anyway. If we can spare our brothers’ blood by using an outsider’s hands, then there’s no reason not to.”
“But... won’t that mean showing him this place?”
“I guarantee this man’s identity. Like any other contact, he’ll be useful. He won’t do us harm. Or are you questioning me, brother?”
“I trust you, Watcher. I don’t trust him.”
Killian laughed at the answer, given without a trace of hesitation.
“Then you don’t need to trust this man. Trust me.”
“...Understood, Watcher.”
Killian tapped the left side of his chest twice.
Seeing it, the other Watcher of Winter did the same.
“Fear not the darkness, Watcher of Winter.”
“The night sky is our friend. The moon on the lake shall reveal our enemies.”
“Take up your sword, brother. We who guard the holy wall shall stride toward the road of glory.”
It sounded like an oath spoken to oneself.
Lawrence remembered something Pete had told him before they parted.
That’s the holy oath of the Watcher of Winter. The first tap means they’re offering their heart to the kingdom’s peace, and the second means they swear that heart to stand with the Watchers. If you travel with them, you’ll probably see it more than once.
Lawrence had nothing to say.
Now he understood all too well why Killian had said he could never return to being a Valentina.
That was more than enough to tell him.
The man standing here was a Watcher of Winter.
Kilian Valentina, who had once borne the weight of a noble house, no longer existed.
How long had they been walking?
Just as a faint sweetness began to rise in Lawrence’s mouth, a sound came from somewhere ahead.
He hadn’t imagined it.
The dark tunnel slowly began to fill with light.
Not far ahead, he could make out several structures and people.
The Watcher of Winter who had noticed Killian tapped the left side of his chest twice.
“You’re late, Watcher Killian.”
“Something came up above.”
His gaze shifted to Lawrence.
Having confirmed the presence of an outsider rather than one of their own, he spoke.
“A new contact?”
“Something like that. He’ll be joining this search.”
“He must be quite skilled.”
“He’s a mage.”
“A mage?”
Surprise colored the Watcher’s voice.
“Then maybe this time we’ll be able to open that door.”
“We’ll see. It’ll be long or short, depending on how things go.”
The Watchers of Winter dispersed in different directions.
Was this a place where they could rest before moving again?
Killian motioned to Lawrence as if to say he should do as he pleased.
His legs were heavy.
After taking a moment to catch his breath, Lawrence slowly looked around.
There were only a handful of structures.
At most, three or four buildings.
They were little more than makeshift shelters with roofs and partitions.
There were even horses down here.
The building they were kept in was hardly a proper stable, but the horses tied to the rock were quietly standing in their little enclosed space.
Was this some kind of way station?
One thing was certain: the Watchers of Winter had claimed this vast tunnel as their own.
“Makes a man jealous of the supply corps, times like this. Who knows how many days it takes to get all the way out here?”
“That’s a rich thing to say. You envy us when we haven’t seen sunlight in months? Then why don’t you ask command to switch places with us right now?”
“I’m joking, I’m joking. Every job has its own hardships. So what’s for dinner today?”
“Eat gruel, you bastard.”
The way station wasn’t occupied only by Watchers of Winter.
People who looked like ordinary civilians were also moving around nearby.
“One more round! Damn it!”
At one side of the way station, a gambling table was running openly.
Cards slid back and forth across a filthy round table.
Red, bloodshot eyes were fixed on the other player’s expression for only a moment before an entire stack of cards came spilling over the tabletop.
“No way! That’s cheating!”
The furious voice belonged to a green-haired woman.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Cheating? If you lost, just step aside.”
“Who says I lost? We should start over from the beginning!”
Lawrence unconsciously lifted a hand to his temple.
He had recognized the woman, all puffed up with outrage.
“You can’t fool my eyes! I’m Rose, the big-shot of the gambling table!”
Why on earth was that woman here?
“No way. Hey—hey! Mage! You remember me, right?”
He wanted, more than anything, not to know her at this moment.