TL/ED – Miso
It took roughly a week to reach the place called the Dwind Mountain Range, barely managing to arrive after driving the carriage without rest.
Of course, during that ti, the Burden of Extre Ice had grown far worse. Brimdal’s fingers, which had only been tinged purple at first, had blackened at the tips by the ti we arrived.
The condition was unmistakable. Necrosis.
His flesh was gradually freezing and falling away.
Even facing sothing more terrible than death for a knight, the inability to grip a sword, Brimdal seed utterly unbothered.
He was so nonchalant that I felt foolish for worrying, casually peering out the window and muttering to himself.
“Hmm, this is it, if my mory serves. Though I’m not sure it’s right.”
“…I can’t see anything at all with the naked eye.”
How can he be like that? I hid my shock and answered, and he shrugged before saying sothing completely out of expectation.
“Didn’t I say my mory isn’t exact? Try spreading that sensing magic of yours out a bit wider.”
“?”
Tilting my head at Brimdal’s cryptic words, I did as he said and extended the range of my Current Sense further.
And imdiately grimaced.
“We’re already at the foothills.”
“That’s right.”
The road we were climbing had a very gentle, but definite incline.
Following it to its end, it led into mountains.
-Mountains tall enough to touch the sky.
“This is… this is supposed to be a mountain range? A single mountain looks like it rivals entire other ranges in size.”
Crunch, Balkan stepped down from the carriage and planted his feet on the frozen, hard-packed snow, looking around with an expression of awe.
Even the single mountain we stood on was imnse enough to dwarf the Capital, and the sight of such mountains stretching on endlessly was beyond majestic; it stirred a feeling that this might be so kind of deliberate design.
Even Dersia seed dumbfounded, shooting a glance at the mountain range before scooping up snow from the ground.
“I’ve read the records on the Dwind Mountain Range. ‘Imnse’ was a common descriptor, but none of them suggested anything on this scale. Most likely, over eighty percent of this is accumulated snow.”
“E-even so, this is excessive…”
“For now, let’s test whether it’s even possible.”
-Clap.
The mont Dersia clapped her hands, Damyu ca shuffling out of the carriage.
As soon as she stepped out, she shivered and hugged herself, then took one look at the massive mountain range and went pale, muttering to herself.
“Th-this really is Lord Decay’s domain… if he finds out I’m here, I’m dead…”
“…’Lord’ Decay?”
Balkan wasn’t one to let that slip by. He imdiately furrowed his brow and glared at Damyu.
Balkan hadn’t taken kindly to Damyu throughout the entire journey. Granted, considering Damyu’s personality was rather awful, that wasn’t particularly strange, but…
“I’d like an explanation now. What the hell is that thing? Why do Fallen keep popping up left and right in the Capital, both this one and the other?”
Balkan wasn’t fixated on her character. He was obsessively fixated on the fact that Fallen had appeared in the Capital.
I wasn’t entirely sure, but it seed like an occupational hazard of being a Guardian Knight.
“As I said, they are so of the Fallen that were being experinted on in the Capital.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing. All Fallen were supposed to be quarantined. Are you telling there were experints being conducted without authorization from , a Guardian Knight?”
“It was carried out by Her Highness the Princess.”
Dersia stepped in with a sigh.
Invoking the Princess’s na usually turned even the most cantankerous knight into a silent, nodding yes-man, so I had assud it would work on a Guardian Knight too.
“Then I need to know all the more. What exactly were these experints that Her Highness the Princess was conducting?”
But Balkan pressed on without stopping.
Perhaps it was because his relationship with the Princess wasn’t exactly amicable. He showed no intention of backing down over sothing like this.
Seeing Dersia’s brow begin to narrow, clearly growing irritated at being challenged over trivialities when ti was of the essence, I quickly cut in.
“It was less of an experint and more of an infiltration.”
“…Infiltration?”
“Yes. A year ago, I received orders and infiltrated the Crimson Circle. I spent a considerable ti gathering intelligence from the inside and relaying it to Her Highness the Princess.”
“Wh-what did you say?”
“As a Guardian Knight, you must be aware. Hasn’t an enormous amount of information on the Crimson Circle been released over the past year or so?”
“…”
“That was all .”
At the sudden confession, Brimdal shot a slightly worried look.
But people like Balkan wouldn’t back off unless you threw them a bone. And besides, I didn’t care if he slandered or treated as an enemy. The problem would only be if those around got dragged in.
Simply talking about my own activities didn’t bother in the least.
“I operated within the Crimson Circle for a year before recently returning to the Imperial Palace. I was about to go back when this incident occurred, and I ended up serving as a guide.”
To be precise, after that I had borrowed the power of Regression to infiltrate the Crimson Circle again.
But that was a future that no longer existed. He wouldn’t believe it even if I told him, and there was no reason to. While I kept that to myself, Balkan stroked his chin and glanced at Damyu.
“So you’re saying you picked that thing up from the Crimson Circle.”
“I-I wasn’t picked up… I ca of my own free will.”
Damyu’s ek protest didn’t seem to register with him at all.
“I hope that satisfies your curiosity. We’re pressed for ti at the mont.”
“…That’s sufficient.”
Balkan seed satisfied and withdrew with an expressionless face, and Damyu approached and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Undercurrent-nim, you really want to go under this mountain range? It’s going to be really dangerous… are you sure??”
“Yes. And if possible, I’d like to be able to move around freely. Can you manage that?”
“I-I can. But there are a few things to keep in mind.”
Damyu held up her fingers with a serious expression.
“First, you can’t hit .”
“What are you talking about?”
“Starting now, I’m going to apply the maximum Burden I can muster onto you, Undercurrent-nim. Once I do, every bit of ground you step on will lt away, and you’ll sink downward. Forever.”
“Really, that long?”
“…Actually, about two hours. That’s my maximum output.”
“Then what was the ‘forever’ about?”
“…Anyway, while in that state, you need to have a way to move your body on your own. Otherwise, no matter how you walk or swim, you’ll just keep sinking. Can you do that?”
“Easy. Don’t worry about it.”
For , with Water Pressure and Current at my disposal, Damyu’s conditions were so trivial they were practically yawn-inducing.
Not knowing my abilities precisely, Damyu fussed and cautioned further.
“And if the surrounding dirt starts to harden, you need to get out. Otherwise you’ll be buried alive. Oh, but you said you don’t need to breathe, so… maybe you could just dig your way out.”
“Understood.”
I patted my shoulders and readied myself.
“I’m all set, so go ahead and sink .”
“…I did warn you, okay? If you say sothing different later…”
“Want to take you down there too?”
“See you in two hours!”
-Squelch!
The instant Damyu glared at , the ground beneath my feet began to squirm and shift.
The plunge was so violent it made clear that what she’d done to when we first t had been nothing more than child’s play.
When I ca to my senses, dirt and dust coated my face, and I couldn’t see a thing with my bare eyes.
‘Is this a Swamp or a sewer…’
Checking with Current Sense, I had already descended roughly ten ters underground.
Gritting my teeth, I used Water Pressure to halt the Swamp around , then waved my hand to test Damyu’s ability.
“Hm.”
The result was far more impressive than I’d expected.
Of course, I hadn’t dismissed it just because it wasn’t a Great World, but still.
Seeing the earth, which had been frozen solid as steel, transform into sothing sticky and soft like pudding drew genuine admiration from .
It wasn’t perfect, but it was effectively liquefied.
As a test, I slowly pushed my body forward with Current.
“…Oh.”
It was thick and sluggish, but I could move far faster than I’d anticipated.
I was swimming underground.
It felt like I’d beco a mole. Considering I had no vision either and was relying solely on Current Sense, the comparison was actually quite apt.
After savoring that peculiar sensation for a mont, I shook my head and snapped back to focus.
‘This isn’t the ti for that.’
Two hours. Short if you think of it as short, long if you think of it as long.
I cleared my mind and darted through the mountain range using my Current Senses.
Simply passing through the underground of a single mountain, my Current Sense perfectly detected every last insect within it. It took barely five minutes.
Through repeated ti savings that would have been absolutely impossible by climbing on foot, I explored more than half the Dwind Mountain Range and constructed a rough map in my head.
It was an achievent accomplished in just an hour and a half. Factoring in the ti I needed to return, I was about to head back and have Damyu apply the Swamp Burden again, when…
“…?”
A sudden pain struck my abdon.
Sothing sharp had jabbed into my stomach mid-transit.
Fortunately, it wasn’t sharp enough to pierce through my clothes and skin. Wondering what it was, I probed it with Current Sense, and…
I confird that the Swamp hadn’t been able to lt all of the ice fragnts.
I paused and surveyed the area around , noting that the earth was frozen in an abnormal pattern.
-Just like my Deep Sea had frozen when Decay drew near.
‘Found it.’
I’d achieved my objective far too easily.
I imdiately scoured the entire mountain with Current Sense, but unfortunately, I couldn’t detect anything.
Did he have so ans of evading Current Sense?
Hiding my disappointnt, I hurried back. At least I’d pinpointed which mountain Decay was in.
All that remained was the ambush.
“-Pah!”
Returning to where I’d entered, I forced my way up through the earth.
Brushing dirt off my body and crawling out with effort, Balkan, who had been sitting nearby tending a campfire, flinched in surprise and scowled.
“You crazy… you could’ve said sothing before popping out. Nearly gave a heart attack.”
“I found Decay’s location.”
“…Already?”
“I’m certain. It’s about a thirty-minute walk from here. Taking the carriage would be faster, but we might be detected.”
“So the ti has finally co to escape this midnight sun.”
Brimdal, who had been brushing the dirt off , let out a sigh and gripped his greatsword.
“I don’t know much about this Decay or whatever, but I’ll make sure he lives up to his na. He’ll be sleeping, won’t he? Or should we catch him off guard and go now?”
“This is the assassination of an Upper Tier mber. We need a plan.”
Dersia, having shot a withering look at both Balkan and Brimdal who seed ready to charge off at any mont, stopped them.
“A plan? We sneak in and kill him. Isn’t that enough?”
“How will you sneak in, and how will you kill him? And when fighting a Fallen, you must always have counterasures prepared for their world. You’re already struggling to cope with the ambient Burden, aren’t you?”
Dersia glanced down at Balkan’s gauntlets and continued in a flat tone.
“If it cos to a direct confrontation, you should assu that Burden will be dozens of tis stronger. Surely you realize you can’t win with no hands or feet?”
“Hmm…”
“Ngh…”
Indeed, their fingers were already necrotizing. If they actually encountered him, there was no telling what might fall off.
“But I haven’t thought of any other approach. Cut off his head before my fingers fall off. How about that, Elf?”
“That is, letter for letter, exactly the answer I predicted. For all of your sakes, I’ve prepared a solution myself.”
Wearing an expression that said she hadn’t expected anything more, she produced two bottles of clear liquid from the carriage.
“Drink.”
“…? What is this?”
“I’ll explain after you drink.”
Balkan and Brimdal swallowed the liquid with deeply uncomfortable expressions.
Before long, their eyes went wide, and they removed their gauntlets.
“Ooh…! This is incredible.”
Color was gradually returning to their once-purple fingers.
Even Brimdal, who had disparaged Dersia for being an Elf, nodded with a rather pleased expression and said approvingly,
“I never thought an Elf could actually be useful. What is this?”
“It’s blood extracted from my kin.”
“?”
“It’s Elf blood.”
“Wh-what did you say???”
“I anticipated that reaction, which is precisely why I didn’t tell you beforehand. You would have refused.”
“No, why the hell would you make us drink sothing like that!”
Dersia calmly explained to the apoplectic Brimdal.
“We Elves have the longest lifespan among the Long-lived Races, so our tabolism is slowed to the absolute minimum. Using components extracted from our blood can significantly delay the Burden. A Burden is, after all, rely sothing that progresses. And it clearly helped, did it not?”
“No, even so, that’s still…”
Watching Brimdal’s aghast expression, I held out my hand to Dersia.
I could drink Elf blood without any hesitation. If I could survive within Extre Ice, what was a little blood?
“Could I have so as well?”
“…Hm.”
But Dersia.
For so reason, she avoided eting my eyes as she replied.
“Jern, you don’t need it.”
“Pardon?”
“You don’t need to take this.”
“…”
…Sothing felt…
deeply, terribly wrong.
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