Chapter 61: Lich
Two heavily bundled men trudged down a snowy mountain, the snow falling hard and making it difficult to see.
Just then, the man leading the way stops in his tracks, turns around, looks at the man following him, and opens his mouth.
“Hey, newcomer, what brings you to Polwyn? Do you have a grudge against the demons like the others?”
The younger man behind him smiled bitterly.
“There’s not a man in Polwyn who doesn’t have ties to the demons.”
“Hmm. I suppose the only ones still here are the ones who want to see black blood.”
With that, the man in front turns around and starts trudging through the snow again.
“…Your parents are dead?”
“Yes.”
His question is followed by a rather dull reply from the man behind him.
“Where did you say you were from?”
“A town called Palaquebus.”
“Palaquebus… That’s pretty close to here… Well, then, you’re in the wrong scouting party. Your eyes have seen it all before.”
“I said I knew a little bit about the surrounding geography…”
“Hmph, stupid kid… If you’d acted like you didn’t know what you were doing, you could have stood on the ramparts over there and rubbed your hands together to pass the time.”
He snorted, and then looked up to meet the steady stream of snow.
The younger man watching him from behind begins to ask him questions.
“I heard that you were in the war, too.”
“I was.”
“Then have you also seen the Black Bloods that are said to be coming this time?”
“…I’ve seen him a few times in passing, but I’m not particularly close to him. By the way, the youngsters are quite interested in Black Blood these days.”
“Strong and… Cool, haha.”
At the young man’s reply, Zhao Zhang begins to recall the war that took place ten years ago. Back then, he didn’t have the long beard he has now.
“At first, I thought, ‘What kind of cadets do they bring to war with their hair so dry,’ but they deserved that nickname.”
“Did they really have black blood all over them?”
“Don’t even get me started.”
The captain said, shaking his head.
The image of the three men returning from hours of fighting, their eyes unfocused and covered in black blood, was still fresh in his mind.
It was while they were having such a conversation.
[Boom.]
An enormous airship roared past them as they passed through the snowy mountains. It was the airship of the Innocence Academy, which had organized a field trip to Polwyn.
“An airship… Speaking of which, it seems that the academy has entrusted the newcomers with the task of organizing the field trip this time, so you will be busy after returning to the fortress.”
“I was wondering if I could at least share a few words with the black bloods…I’m afraid they won’t have time for that.”
“Hmm… From what I’ve heard, those three are close to the Commander, so they’ll go somewhere else, but if you want to talk to them, you’d better get there before they leave then.”
“…Thank you for the information, Captain.”
The young man smiles at the captain’s kindness.
“Get to work.”
With those words, the captain walks away, trudging through the thick snow and the young man follows in his footsteps when he suddenly catches sight of a huge chunk of ice on the side of the mountain.
“Captain, what is that big chunk of ice?”
Even though it was snowing, he couldn’t understand how ice could be formed like that so the young man pointed to the ice and asked the captain.
The captain turned his head and followed the young man’s direction, and then spoke up.
“That’s…A grave.”
“A grave? Whose grave?”
“Have you ever heard of liches?”
“If it’s the Lich…”
“One of the final resting places of foolish warlocks. That’s the grave of one who ran amok in the North decades ago.”
“…Why did they kill him that way?”
“I don’t know. Maybe there weren’t any other people around at the time who could wield divine power. Without divine power, liches are pretty hard to kill. How could it be easy to kill him again when he’s already dead?”
“But he died anyway.”
“… There was no paladin, but there was an ‘Aisin’, and if you approach that ice, you can see his form. It’s a strange word to use for a lich, but it looks like he was frozen alive.”
The younger man nods in understanding as he listens to the foreman’s explanation.
One of the continent’s four elemental families, the Aisin Family of Water not only practiced water magic, but also ice magic.
The ice that had been created when the Aisin man killed the lich was still in place.
Looking at the young man who nodded wordlessly, Zhao Zhang clicked his tongue.
“Are you afraid that a warlock who had already died twice, decades ago, will come back to life?”
“Captain… There’s no way he’ll come back to life, I was just curious.”
“I smashed it with my hammer for fun, and it didn’t even stir. I knew it was an Aisin after all. I’ve marked the location of that ice on the map, so you might want to memorize it. It’ll help you find your way later.”
“Okay. I’ll keep that in mind.”
The young man responds succinctly to the captain’s question and immediately pulls the map out of his backpack to study it.
When the captain turns his attention to the front once more, the young man’s gaze is drawn away from the map and onto the iceberg.
‘The commander is away…? And with the black bloods?’
The young man smiles wryly, having gotten some good information.
The young man already knew what that block of ice was, and he already knew about the lich’s existence.
He even knew how to break the ice to wake him up, but was just waiting for the right time.
‘For Helgenas, the drunk.’
The young man recited the words to himself.
For what purpose he had come to Polwyn or why he seeks to awaken the lich…Why he, a human, worships demons and fiends?
No one else in Polwyn knew.
***
The airship arrived in the north without incident.
My conversation with Aizel was interrupted by the airship’s horn announcing its arrival.
Although our conversation was small talk as before, I always felt cozy afterward.
I stepped off the airship and onto the snow-covered ground while Yuri and Aizel, who had disembarked after me, walked toward me.
The north was as cold as Edward had said it would be.
First and foremost, it was snowing. But it was more of a blizzard, so it wasn’t a pretty sight.
It was hard to see in the first place but in the distance, I could faintly make out the fortress of Polwyn with its towering walls.
There wasn’t enough room to land inside the fortress, so the airship landed on a large flat area near the fortress.
Lucia, excited by the snow, runs around among the cadets, and Amon grabs her by the scruff of the neck.
[It’s snowing everywhere up north, I wonder if it’ll ever stop…]
Sierra was no longer clinging to me but floating in the air and looking down at me.
The snow was falling hard, and it was passing through her body.
Judging from her words, she had been to the North before.
“Whoa…”
Yuri, who was standing next to me, exhaled a hot breath.
Behind her, Aizel maintained her usual impassive expression, but her nose was a little red, as even a regressor can’t help but feel cold.
After disembarking from the airship, the cadets waited near it for a while. They were bundled up, but most of them were shivering from the cold.
Luckily, I had the Night Shroud.
It was a coat, and it was doing its job of keeping the cold out although it wasn’t designed for northern temperatures it worked well as both an item and a piece of clothing.
After a laborious accounting, the cadets were finally able to walk toward the fortress.
“Zetto, don’t you think it’s better to be hot, like in the sauna back then?”
Yuri said as we walked alongside the line of cadets.
I was about to respond when Aizel, who had been walking quietly, spoke up.
“Sauna?”
“Yes, I went to the sauna with Zetto yesterday.”
“You two went to the sauna together…?”
“No, Kaen went with us.”
“Kaen?”
“Yes, the one who had a duel with Zetto before…”
Aizel, who was talking to Yuri, was getting more and more suspicious but there was no time for me to interrupt their conversation.
“That… I was a little embarrassed, but… It was quite a fun experience. I wish Aizel could have come with us, but maybe I should have called you…”
“Never mind, I don’t really like to sweat.”
“Oh, I see… I’m not that fond of it either…”
In the end, the conversation ended with Aizel’s firm reply.
Yuri is a little shaken by Aizel’s blunt answer.
‘Let’s forget about the sauna…’
After that, the image of her wrapped in a towel kept running through my head.
I didn’t say anything, but somehow managed to clear my mind and walked down the street. However, I kept feeling a strange aura, so I glanced to the side…
“…”
…Aizel was staring at me but her face didn’t show any emotion. She was just staring at me with her eyes wide open.
‘Is she angry…?’
Maybe she wanted to go to the sauna too.
I couldn’t tell if the chills I was feeling were from her gaze or the northern cold.