The Wall started from the Beriela Mountain Range, crossed through the village of Northernmost, and continued to the eastern strait. The dead things beyond the Wall, just like humans, couldn’t cross the Beriela Mountain Range. They also couldn’t cross the Wall guarded by ancient magic, but as is always the case with worldly matters, there are always exceptions. Just as humans have magic, those dead things also had something special.
“I’m going to investigate.”
Just then, the innkeeper brought hot mulled wine and dinner. The party stopped talking for a moment.
“It’s wine I traded with the Amalta merchants in spring. It’s a southern wine, so it’s sweet and has excellent flavor.”
The innkeeper gladly emptied one remaining barrel of wine for the noble lords. If they just blocked the Snowstorm, there was nothing he couldn’t do. Moreover, the duke was a great Swordmaster, and his partner was a mage, so he absolutely had to make a good impression.
“Mm, the taste is truly incredible. It would have been nice if that fellow Sisou had come.”
Karen smiled broadly as if to lighten the heavy atmosphere. Right? Have a good time. As soon as the innkeeper wiggled his bottom and left the spot, Riario continued the topic again.
“What investigation?”
“If that thing came in, there will definitely be people who disappear. They’ll cannibalize somehow. Tomorrow I’m thinking of going around the village to check if there are people who’ve disappeared.”
Riario’s shoulders were sagging, perhaps because of the inference that the magic tool he’d personally designed might not have manifested properly. But Evernight’s words made perfect sense. If it were a hungry human craving meat, they wouldn’t have torn the goats to shreds like that.
“Then tomorrow I’ll investigate the places where we installed the magic tools with Sir Riario.”
Karen spoke on behalf of the dejected Riario.
“But… Your Imperial Highness, are you alright?”
In between, Anya was clearly turning pale with anxiety and nervousness. It was because he’d unconsciously put his hand in his robe pocket and discovered something. A round thing small enough for even a small hand to hold comfortably.
“Your Imperial Highness? Are you unwell somewhere?”
A small orb. It was an orb. The boy’s fingertips began to tremble faintly.
‘Why is this… why… why… in my pocket…’
Moreover, that orb was warm, as if it had been in Anya’s pocket all along. The surface of the stew visible below swirled grotesquely, and memories flooded in an instant.
“Ugh…”
Soon, as Anya let out a pained groan and collapsed onto the table, the three men hurriedly stood up. Evernight immediately put his hand between Anya’s armpits and lifted him up. Through his swaying vision, Anya continuously exhaled rough breaths.
‘It was… it was me. The person who broke the magic tool.’
How, how could he have forgotten so completely until now? The form that had been blurry in the darkness gradually became clear. The man caught in the gap of the Wall. And someone’s back view removing the orb. That someone turned around and smiled arrogantly. That someone… was himself.
“Ugh… hng…”
Then the pain reached an almost unbearable level. Anya writhed while clinging to Evernight’s shoulder, twisting his limbs. Tears that had formed in his reddened eyes helplessly fell pitter-patter onto the floor.
That orb was still in Anya’s pocket. Anya barely held onto his fading vision and looked at his companions.
Had he broken the magic tool, allowing those terrifying things to cross through that gap? Shouldn’t he confess even now?
But everyone looked exhausted from the past few days. Especially Evernight, whose expression had grown sharply more severe, making it even harder to open his mouth. Moreover, he had defiantly shouted at him just last night.
‘G-Give me a chance. If I m-make a mistake this time too, I’ll g-give up my knight position. And… and… I won’t step even one f-foot outside the inn.’
It was extremely difficult to retract words spoken less than a day ago.
‘Liar. Liar, Anya.’
‘You want to receive people’s respect and recognition. Like your husband Evernight.’
Unknown voices whispered and ridiculed Anya freely. Anya barely held onto his consciousness that was about to fade completely, but now it was his limit.
“Rest.”
At the same time, soft bedding touched his back.
‘How dare you be jealous of your own husband.’
‘Do you think your insignificant self could even compare to him? You who have no honor whatsoever!’
Over Evernight’s voice, the insulting words Rips Mohan had once said to him mixed in and could be heard. Evernight grabbed and fixed Anya’s chin as he shook his head violently.
“…I guess it was too much for you after all.”
When Evernight’s large hand covered Anya’s eyes, peaceful darkness came instantly. In his fading consciousness, Anya ultimately couldn’t refute Evernight’s last words.
* * *
“Hun… hungry, hun, hungry, hungry.”
“Who’s there?”
When the time for the Snowstorm came, the people of Northernmost would bolt their doors and not come out. Occasionally, if they were unlucky, entire families that were buried alive in snow and died of suffocation could be seen quite often.
Even if they were lucky enough to survive that chaos, the next problem remained. After the Snowstorm passed, they immediately faced a food problem. There were rarely any merchant guilds in the empire that came to trade this far, and the food they’d managed to stockpile was buried in snow. Because of the cold environment, they couldn’t cultivate land for farming either.
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing!”
But all that had become a thing of the past. After Evernight achieved victory in the battle at the Wall, Northernmost could also receive some compensation. Thanks to Evernight taking many people from Northernmost (though many had ambiguous origins) when he went on expeditions beyond the Wall, they were recognized for their merits.
“Damn it, I’m hungry, fuck, I’m hungry!”
“Wait, you! When the Snowstorm is coming, what are you doing here…!”
Lately, the construction site near the Wall had been very busy. They tied up materials scattering here and there in the raging wind and moved them to storage, and with the help of Tildyen’s mage, they cast a defensive barrier on the food storage. Though all construction on the Wall would be suspended for a while, there was nothing to fear like before. They had a duke who had saved them many times from beyond the Wall, and he had a reliable mage.
“Hi… hiiiek!”
He had certainly thought so… The man was the last patroller. For some reason, the village chief kept staring into space in a daze today.
‘You. Stop by the barn once.’
The patroller, reluctantly receiving the village chief’s order, headed to the barn. It was chaotic because ten goats had been horribly slaughtered since dawn.
The remaining goats were already moved, so why go again?
The man was full of complaints, but the village chief’s expression was quite unusual, so in the end, he headed to the outer barn without leaving a single complaint.
“Ugh… ugh…”
The man’s legs gave out and he plopped down on the ground. Drool dripped down his fear-consumed face. His fingers stuck in the frozen ground scraped off dirt with a crunch. The man’s gaze was fixed as if his soul had been stolen on the very corner of the barn.
[They cleared it all away! Foolish human bastards!]
An unknown language flowed from that thing’s mouth. There was no city anywhere in the empire that used such a language. The voice, with multiple overlapping high and low pitches, was low and murky, and just hearing it was agonizing as if it gnawed at one’s nerves.
[That guy’s smell is resonating right nearby.]
A pale form silently approached the man, sliding from the shadows. The pale face was somehow awkward to call human. As if it were wearing a death mask inside out.
[More, more, more, more, more, more, give it, give it!]
The man covered his ears with trembling hands. Just listening made his head ring and feel like it would burst. That thing full of rage approached. The man ended up making eye contact with it. Like the blue light burning at the edge of a flame, the man’s eyes were bluer than any other human’s eyes.
[This little child won’t fill my stomach.]
Ah… that thing was indeed not human. A rotten smell resonated through the sagging skin. As it approached closer, a chill came and his teeth chattered. It threw something. An arm rolled on the snowy ground. Judging by the small hand, it was a young child.
[Yes, someone like you will fill my stomach.]
It laughed. It was a sharp and arrogant sound. A soundless echo penetrated the dark and damp night.
