“I-I’ll check if the protective magical tools I installed before are w-working properly.”
Anya thought the timing was perfect. It was an opportunity to examine once more the magical tools he had repaired at dark dawn.
“Then I’ll leave it to you.”
It felt rather uncomfortable to entrust such an important task to a young prince who clearly hadn’t shed his boyishness yet, but right now was a time when every single hand was precious.
‘By the way, did I see wrong at breakfast?’
Riario suddenly recalled the prince’s eyes that had a blue tinge. He deliberately examined Anya’s face once more, scrutinizing every detail under the pretense of giving advice.
“Your Imperial Highness, if you let just a very small amount of magical power flow, really just a tiny amount, you should be able to confirm whether the magical tool is working.”
“Y-yes.”
The prince carefully nodded in the same posture. His eye color was also a deep brown resembling hazelnut.
‘I must have been mistaken.’
Riario lamented his situation, feeling like he had become a scholar taking care of a novice apprentice from one to ten, and resolved to earnestly plead with Evernight to hire a few magical assistants as soon as he returned to Tildyen Rock. At this rate of handling work, he might not live to see his natural lifespan.
“Let’s gather here as soon as the mission is over.”
At Karen’s words, Anya nodded solemnly.
Anya, who rushed first to the gap in the wall, checked whether the magical tools were working properly. Below the wall, a magic circle was drawn with complex, unreadable characters and pictures, and orbs containing magical power were embedded along the lines. When he placed his hand on it, light rippled. Anya swept his chest with a sigh of relief. From then on, everything went smoothly. Anya busily rode Mil along the wall, checking whether the magical tools were working properly.
‘Just a small amount of magical power, just a small amount.’
Anya muttered Riario’s advice to himself. It was still difficult to control it precisely, but day by day he was getting some kind of sense for it. Sisou’s words that actual practice was the best came to mind and laughter suddenly leaked out. His blood-covered palms stung, but Anya felt deep satisfaction.
‘Is this the last one…?’
Anya looked over the map Riario had given him once. The last magical tool was at the point where the wall left Northernmost village. Even beyond the village, the wall continued. The wall passed through desolate plains and sparse, shabby houses and met the sea at the eastern edge. To the west was the Beriela Mountain Range, a high and steep snowy mountain. Northernmost was between them.
The wall that continued past the village had stood in that spot since long, long ago. No one knew who built it or for what reason it came to be. It was only passed down that it had existed from the beginning. The Northerners had endured for long years, protecting the wall endlessly from grandfather, to father, to his son… and sometimes receiving someone’s help to repair it.
After checking all the last magical tools, the sun was passing its zenith. Perhaps because he had consumed magical power, he was ridiculously hungry.
“G-good work.”
After Anya patted the fluttering Mil once, he mounted the saddle. It was when he was about to grasp the reins and turn the horse around.
“M-Mage-nim!”
Someone came running. Anya immediately stopped Mil.
“Joel…?”
It was Joel. Anya was so happy he jumped down from the saddle. Joel, who had been running, panted and bent his knees, then quickly straightened his back to maintain propriety.
“I-I’m sorry.”
Fear passed across Joel’s face. He was young and had never seen a Claiser royal in his life, but he had always grown up hearing that his father died because of the Claisers. His mother always told him to engrave in his heart how his father had died so cruelly.
“I’m sorry for running away like that on that day. I committed a mortal sin. P-please help me, please help me, Mage-nim.”
But wouldn’t Lord Anya Claiser, no, Lord Anya Evernight be different, Mother?
After running away like that on that day, Joel felt he could only endure if he held onto even a faint hope within his unbearable despair. The person he thought of while rolling in the snowfield searching for his younger sibling was Anya. Though still confused, Joel was already exhausted to his limits. He was still just a kid who smelled of youth, after all. With a face that had become haggard and tired in the meantime, Joel knelt on one knee and bowed his head.
“The villagers… *sob*, Mage-nim, the villagers are disappearing.”
Joel bit his lips tightly to keep from crying and wiped away the runny snot flowing down.
“M-my younger sibling too… Ronan too… they all disappeared without a trace.”
Joel eventually couldn’t hold back and began to cry out loud, sobbing.
“This morning, *huff*, I went to look for that kid’s house. *sob*, The lady said, the kid didn’t come, *hic*, home. She asked me if we hadn’t been together all night, *sniff*, and pressed me.”
Joel’s words were buried in sobs and couldn’t be heard clearly, but Anya could vividly feel the child’s terror. Joel’s chest heaved with crying.
“Yesterday I helped Ronan search for my younger sibling all day. *sniff*, In the end we couldn’t find them even when night came so we parted… *sob*, I didn’t know he didn’t go home. No, it’s not that he didn’t go in, but that he disappeared somewhere. Just like my younger sibling.”
Joel eventually buried his face in the snowfield and began to cry out loud. It’s my fault. I’m the one who asked him to come search for my sibling with me.
“There was no one to help. The village atmosphere is strange, Mage-nim. Everyone acts like it would be a disaster to go outside… they’re trembling! Even though snowstorms were always scary, it was never this bad….”
Anya approached Joel and hugged his small frame tightly. His tensed body soon relaxed, and he buried his head in Anya’s chest and cried out loud. How scary it must have been, how dark everything must have seemed… Anya quietly stroked Joel’s head.
“D-don’t worry. I’ll find them.”
Anya first put Joel on Mil and rode together to the clearing where they had agreed to meet Riario and Karen. They had already arrived at the clearing and were organizing the remnants of magical tools. Snow piled on the street was kicked up by hooves, raising a hazy fog, and Mil stopped before them.
“That… kid, what’s that about?”
Riario frowned when he saw the little kid tucked into Anya’s arms.
“Kid, don’t you know a snowstorm is coming right now?”
Riario made clicking sounds with his finger while facing the Beriela Mountain Range.
“Hurry and go home. It’s not the time for a kid like you to be out.”
Anya first jumped down from Mil, then lifted Joel down.
“L-Lord Riario. This child is J-Joel, son of the Northernmost widows, and he says his younger sibling disappeared. And his f-friend Ronan too.”
“They disappeared?”
Karen adjusted his crooked glasses and looked up at the hazy sky.
“Oh my, could it be related to the goat slaughter?”
A moment of silence descended among them. No matter how much they tried to think positively, the signs that were occurring were ominous.
“Your Imperial Highness. How did the magical tool inspection go?”
“Th-they’re all working normally.”
Anya fell into brief contemplation about whether to tell them what had happened in the gap of the wall last night. But somehow, every time he tried to open his mouth, his solar plexus hurt achingly as if someone was hitting him. Perhaps because of the heavy atmosphere, no one noticed Anya’s condition of breaking into a cold sweat even in midwinter.
There’s no need to add unconfirmed facts and increase the confusion. And the man was definitely human. A citizen of Northernmost. A citizen of this place who even had children.
‘Besides, if they ask why I’ve kept my mouth shut until now… I might have to talk about the Claiser bloodline. I’d rather die than do that.’
“Hey, did you search properly? Jo….”
It’s Joel. Anya shook his head slightly to dispel his thoughts and whispered to Riario.
“Right, Joel.”
“I searched all night. I went through the whole village. But there’s nothing. As if they evaporated….”
Don’t tell me… monsters crossed over from the ‘Dead Land’?
Joel trembled, surprised by his own words. Northernmost was a place closer to monsters than any other city. Children quite often closed their eyes hearing stories at their bedside about the Dead Land and the dead, and all the other sinister things that fed on and grew in the night.
“The missing people are a-all children. They might be c-collapsed somewhere. If we leave them like this, they’ll be s-swept away by the s-snowstorm.”
At the same time, Evernight was just passing through the square with the village chief. The black warhorse exhaled white breath in the snowstorm. Snow had settled thickly on the village chief’s old robe.
“Were there no missing person reports overnight?”
They had just finished looking around the place where the vagrants were staying together and the nearby houses.
“Yes, there’s been no word so far. And as you ordered yesterday, I firmly warned the residents that the snowstorm is severe and not to go outside.”
Unfortunately, Lihisak had been dealing with the house where the vagrants were gathered and the aftermath of the livestock shed all day yesterday, so he didn’t know about Joel’s situation. Since no one was going outside either, even related rumors had vanished without a trace.
“It would be good for your well-being if not even a single rat comes out.”
The horse ran quickly and arrived in front of the tent crudely erected at the construction site. Several patrolmen were lingering there. In Northernmost, young men took turns patrolling the village. Given the timing, only 2-3 people paired up to watch over the village, but this morning they went to the livestock shed and ended up witnessing a terrible thing.
