The atmosphere changed immediately after entering the snowfield.
Ramon, Verita, Mir, and even Lanfero, who had been leisurely driving the horses, now had a beast-like sharpness in their expressions. I read slight tension as well as caution in their attitudes.
I wondered if there was any need for that. After all, a snowfield was an open place. It wasn't suitable for stealth or cover, so there was little risk of ambushes. Any enemies could be quickly detected. Even in the middle of the night, the exposed moon would shine its moonlight on the snowfield and illuminate everything with a dreamlike glow.
Personally, I felt that the forest at night, where our vision was blocked, was much more dangerous.
"Sister, have you ever been to the north?" I asked.
"Divine punishment is carried out everywhere," Verita replied softly.
She could just say yes, but religious people had a habit of speaking in convoluted ways.
In any case, the first day passed without any incident. The first problem occurred the next day.
I woke up in the morning and found snow falling from the sky. "Oh..."
It was a bit cold. I took a moment to look around at the scenery. It had snowed back in the capital and where I used to live, but the snowfield definitely felt different.
Only a few days ago, it still felt like spring. It was enough to make me lose my sense of the seasons. On the other hand, it felt a bit romantic seeing the snow pouring down on a spring day.
"What do you think, Ramon?"
"If things go well, the paths might overlap."
Voices filled the air. I glanced over and saw that Lanfero and Ramon were talking with serious expressions.
"Was there a village around here?"
"If we go west for around half a day, we will find Noltown."
"However, it will take a while."
"That's true."
Lanfero thought about it before asking, "How much food do we have left?"
"We still have some. If we eat it sparingly, we can last for up to five days."
"That is cutting it close. Okay, let's go further for now. If we reach a point where we can't move forward, we will endure it then."
"I understand."
It was only this afternoon that I understood what they meant by a point where we couldn't move forward.
Swoooosh—!
I took back my initial thoughts about snow being romantic.
At some point, it started to snow like crazy. I couldn't tell the difference between forward, back, left, and right at all. The heavy snow drained the horses' physical strength, so we got off the carriage and walked to ease the burden a bit.
The first blizzard I experienced was straight out of a nightmare. There was no visibility and the wind made it difficult to even open my eyes. It felt like we were standing in the middle of a typhoon. The snow melted and quickly took away my body heat.
In a sense, a blizzard was a disaster that combined the effects of fog, strong winds, and heavy rain.
"This way!"
In the white world, we couldn't even hear each other's voices. However, Ramon's unexpectedly loud voice clearly reached my ears.
Ramon checked his compass and guided us through the snow. Thanks to that, we were able to move forward slowly but steadily.
Once the wind reached a certain level, Lanfero said without hesitation, "We need to rest."
At those words, we immediately threw ourselves into the carriage as if we had been waiting. We sat inside the carriage, gathered around a smokeless torch, and warmed our chilled bodies.
I sat down and operated my energy, using the First Fire Technique to preserve my body temperature. In an instant, my pale white skin regained its natural color. I also gently released the energy in all directions to make the interior of the carriage a bit warmer.
Ramon had been trembling more than the rest. Now his expression relaxed and he remarked, "Hey, this magic tool is amazing."
I made eye contact with Lanfero and he smiled at me.
Mir glanced out of the carriage and asked, "Is it okay to leave the horses like that? I'm worried that they might freeze to death."
"It is okay because they are a cold-blooded species. They can endure the cold much better than us even though we are wearing layered clothes. However, we will need to brush them thoroughly once the snow stops."
"Ah."
I looked at Ramon and asked, "Senior, when will the snow stop?"
"Who knows? Maybe only Ymir knows."
"Why are you suddenly mentioning Ymir?" Mir exclaimed excitedly. "The greatest titan, the hero, the legend, and the myth of the north!"
"I know who he is."
Mir had started babbling, so I pressed down on her head and looked over at Ramon.
The goblin smiled slightly as he said, "It is a saying in the north. The only one who can see the beginning and end of a blizzard is Ymir, a frost giant as big as a mountain. In other words, we have no way of knowing. Maybe it will last all day, or even through tomorrow if we are unlucky."
"Mm."
I finally admitted that I had underestimated this northern journey. I'd thought that no place could match the barren environment of the southern desert, but this place was comparable to that. The south had massive sandstorms and tornadoes that blew away buildings, while the north had extremely fierce blizzards.
So this is why it can take up to twenty days if we're unlucky.
I was convinced. I took out some jerky and chewed it slowly. The magic torch kept us warm, but it wasn't strong enough to cook food. Thus, I had to replenish my strength by chewing or eating dried food for the time being.
Just then, a loud noise caught my attention. I glanced over and saw Ramon gnawing on a stick-like object with his sharp teeth. The shape was somewhat familiar.
It was the same kind of energy bar that Teacher Junian always used to eat. It was tasteless, preserved food made by hardening various grains.
It was said that heroes had to eat such bars until they were sick of it. That seemed to be true. I saw that Verita was chewing on something similar.
Aside from the taste, it seemed to have great utility as food. Maybe I would one day find myself eating it.
In any case, time passed as I slowly replenished my energy.
Once it felt like five hours had passed, Ramon looked outside the carriage and murmured softly, "The snow has eased a bit."
"Then can we move?"
"We can, but..."
"It seems we are receiving a grand welcome after so much time." Lanfero chuckled, grabbed his mace, and stood up.
Soon, I realized the presence of enemies all around us. I asked, "What are those things?"
"They are the famous snow trolls of the north. They are usually the ones in charge of the welcoming ceremony."
"Trolls..."
Did these trolls have a grudge against me from a past life or something? It was the same in the Jewel Mountains. Every time I entered places like this, they were always the first to give me a warm welcome.
"Is there any difference from normal trolls?"
"Their skin is tougher and they are more resistant to the cold. They can survive without eating anything for months. They usually hide under the snow, sleep, and attack when their prey approaches."
"They can last several months?"
"Of course. They can just melt some snow under the snowfield and drink it, after all."
"Mm."
I looked outside the carriage, where a group of snow trolls had appeared over the hill.
Their appearance was strange. They looked somewhat like monkeys, but they were skinny with almost no muscle, and their arms were strangely long. Moreover, their stomachs were bulging as if they were full of water. Their appearance was probably due to their eating habits.
As I sized up the snow trolls, Lanfero gave instructions. "Ramon and Mir, stay with the horses. Every time one of them is injured, the arrival time will be delayed by two or three days."
"Yes."
"I understand."
"Sister Razbet and Luan, get ready."
Lanfero grinned.
"It is a fight."
***
After a while, the snowfall eased up. The blizzard that had been raging like crazy just moments ago now gave way to snow falling gently from the sky.
It was like seasoning gently sprinkled by a top chef, although perhaps that analogy was a bit strange. In any case...
I looked at the snow trolls surrounding us. There seemed to be around thirty of them. Looking closer, they were smaller than I thought. It would probably take three of them joined together to match the size of a troll in the Jewel Mountains.
It made sense. The harsh northern land probably didn't allow the trolls to grow as big as they did in the Jewel Mountains, where food was abundant.
Still, they had thick coats of fur and looked bigger than they actually were.
Kuwaaaaah!
Then one troll with an unusually scarred face screamed, and the other trolls rushed in from all directions.
I clenched and unclenched my right hand.
Good. The damaged meridians in my right arm had completely recovered.
It had taken around a week to get to the snowfield. During that time, I hadn't done anything and just repeated cycles of internal energy circulation and meditation, so it was a natural result.
I quickly raised my energy to the fullest and wrapped it around my arms. I normally followed the unspoken rule of swinging a sword against monsters, but I felt like I wanted to hit them with my bare fists today for some reason.
First of all, I went after the one who looked like the boss. I narrowed the distance in an instant and attacked the scar-faced snow troll.
Its eyes widened instinctively as it swung a long, grotesquely overgrown arm at me. Its claws were also long and deformed.
I didn't dodge and instead struck with a hand blade. I didn't just aim at the claws, but the entire arm.
Kyaaaaack!
With a tearing sound, green blood splattered. I couldn't help thinking that the color of the blood was no different from that of other trolls. Then I struck its chest with my palm.
Baaaaang!
For fighting trolls, internal injuries were more effective than external ones. Their regenerative ability was excellent only for healing muscles. It took much longer to heal internal organs. At least, I had never seen a troll survive after having its brain crushed or its heart burst.
The troll's eyes rolled back as it collapsed in a pool of blood.
From that point on, I started a series of one-hit kills. My stiff body soon felt refreshed. It would be cold again once the heat cooled down, but I didn't feel that way right now.
Kill the snow troll in front of me, find the next; kill it, find the next. I repeated a series of actions mechanically before I suddenly realized there were no more enemies around me.
I looked around and saw that it wasn't just the trolls near me; the ones on the other side had been turned into bloody pieces and scattered across the snow.
Ah. Clan Leader Lanfero. I had been so focused on fighting that I hadn't watched Lanfero. I wanted to see how vampires fought.
The snow trolls around him looked like they had been smashed by some kind of hammer. There was a bit of blood on the black parasol in Lanfero's hand.
Lanfero asked, "Do you have anything to say?"
"Did you smash them with that?"
"That's right. Why?"
"It doesn't look like the vampire fighting style I imagined."
"Aha. I guess you thought I would suck blood, turn into a bat, or something like that?" Lanfero laughed and brushed blood off his parasol. Green blood soaked the white snowfield as he continued, "Not really. That is just a stereotype."
"I see."
"In any case, we should hurry. The blood of snow trolls stinks. Soon, hungry beasts will gather," Lanfero muttered while staring up at the sky. "The snow has stopped falling now."
***
After that, the journey wasn't smooth. From this point on, the monsters rushed at us whenever there was a chance.
Their attacks were as frequent as in the Jewel Mountains, which were considered one of the four forbidden areas of the empire. Of course, there was a big difference in difficulty. There was no monster as strong as the jewel beast here.
On the other hand, our current group could defeat a jewel beast without much damage. So the true reason for our slow journey lay in the environment of this northern snowfield itself.
"The mindset to maintain in the north is to get rid of impatience. When you wait, do it calmly without thinking about anything else. If you ignore the weather and rush ahead, you will likely end up as a frozen corpse," Lanfero explained.
"Even after a blizzard has passed, we must not let down our guard. We have to check our surroundings carefully. There are many pits in the snow that you can't get out of once you fall down. However, the snow covers them so it is difficult to distinguish them with the naked eye, much like a trap created by nature. There might be signs sometimes, so you should check carefully."
In this unfamiliar land, I slowly increased my knowledge of the north. It wasn't easy to let go of my impatience, but every time it happened, I calmed myself down by looking at Mir. She had to be feeling more impatient than me, but she had been very composed from the moment we set foot in the north.
We slowly but steadily made our way to our destination. However, a problem occurred around five days later: We started running out of food and water. We could solve the water issue by melting the snow nearby, but there was nothing to do about food.
People became sensitive when they were hungry. In particular, I had a big appetite, so skipping just one meal had a big impact.
From then on, I didn't waste my energy on words. Conversations between us stopped. It was a wise move, as a useless conversation could turn into an argument. Such disputes would lead to an unnecessary waste of energy.
Sometimes, we walked all day without saying a word. I could feel that even the sturdy horses were showing signs of struggle. It wasn't an easy journey, so I understood.
I was always cold and sleepy. Every time there was no blizzard, we moved even if it was the middle of the night. Our daily routine was completely messed up. Due to that, I was tired even after sleeping for a long time. It felt like my body was slowly deteriorating.
I relied solely on melted snow to quench my thirst, which worsened my physical condition even more. My senses became quite sharp, however.
Just as our group reached our limit in many ways...
"Ah, I can see it," Lanfero said hoarsely. "There it is. The town we handle, Snowville."
It was midnight. At the edge of the dark blue snowfield, I could see the outline of a small village. I'd never thought that man-made lights could look so dazzling. Finally, we'd reached our first village since entering the north.
The closer we got to the village, the more I started to think about my appetite and desire to sleep, as well as what to prioritize.
No, first of all, I needed to wash up. Our clothes hadn't been changed for a long time and had a bad smell. There were extra clothes, but winter clothes were too bulky for us to pack much.
Then something unexpected happened at the entrance of the village.
There was a checkpoint in the small village. A man who looked like a guard spoke to us as we approached. "Excuse me, but are you Lanfero Nosferatu, the head of the Snowville branch of the Hero Society?"
Lanfero tilted his head and replied, "And if I am?"
"I'm very sorry. It has been decided that from now on, our village will no longer allow entry to anyone from Corrupted. Please go back."