Hard Carried by My Sword

Chapter 192

Unwelcome Guest of the Lake

Difficulty: Hard

Scale: ?

Threat: Monster from another dimension, ???

Overseer: None

A monster summoned from an unknown dimension has settled somewhere in Lake Ladoga. If the lake—this city’s water source—becomes contaminated, the residents will soon be affected. Eliminate the monster lurking in the lake, the exolaw wielder controlling it, and the accomplices aiding his scheme.

After reviewing the quest once more, Leon tapped the hilt of his sword. The letters floating in the air vanished.

This confirmed it. Just like in Alger, the Ladoga barony had also been tampered with by the Evil Order.

Elahan clasped her hands and whispered a prayer.

“O Goddess, have mercy on the innocent.”

It was a natural reaction. Lake Ladoga was the water source for the surrounding villages, the wellspring of their daily lives. The barony itself had grown up along the wide shore of the lake, so vast that no further description was needed. Tens of thousands—perhaps more—drank its water, washed their clothes, and cleaned their homes with it.

“Judging by the word ‘contamination,’ it sounds like the thing has powers related to poison or disease...”

When Leon voiced his deduction based on the quest description, Karen agreed that it made sense. People can live only three days without water, but three weeks without food. Simply put, water was seven times more important than food.

Even in military science, targeting an enemy’s water source was one of the most basic tactics. The Evil Order had merely applied that logic.

Leaning against the fence that ringed the lake, Karen poured Aura into her eyes, sharpening her vision.

“So, the monster is hiding at the bottom of this lake?”

For a moment, her sight surpassed that of an eagle. Even clairvoyance manifested in her gaze as she tried to pierce the depths of the lake.

Ten meters, thirty, sixty, a hundred, no matter how much she forced her sight through the murky, impurity-laden water, nothing came into view.

Eventually giving up, she said, “Ugh, no good. It’s way deeper than I thought. I can’t see the bottom with my eyes.”

“How deep is it?” Leon asked.

“At least five hundred meters. If measured properly, it might even reach kilometers.”

“Deeper than most coastal waters, then.”

Clicking his tongue, Leon looked out at the rippling surface. Sunlight scattered off the waves into glimmering beams. It was a beautiful sight, but his face was stiff.

Even if I went all out, I couldn’t evaporate this lake. And even if I could, that would obviously cause other problems. Unless it comes up on its own, attacking will be difficult.

Since awakening the Icarus Wing, Leon had grown accustomed to aerial battles, but underwater combat was another matter entirely. More than anything, the nature of the Aura Blade—heat and flame—would be halved underwater.

If the target is a monster like the Kaleider they had hunted in Jugend, it would be far too dangerous under these conditions. Monsters from the other dimension often drew overwhelming power from their environment, which meant that charging into their lair was a massive penalty to Leon and his companions in itself.

“We have no choice but to avoid a pre-emptive strike,” Elahan murmured, reaching the same conclusion.

Leon agreed, “Yeah. Let’s spend today gathering information inside the barony. We should also test the lake water.”

“Yeah. Let’s take a look around first.”

Leon agreed and began walking toward Ladoga’s western district. Elahan and Karen naturally followed.

The barony of Ladoga, the city encircling the lake, was divided into four districts: the east held the military facilities; the south was a commercial quarter with a few merchant guilds; the west was packed with residences and taverns.

The north was the domain of the lord’s manor and gardens, meaning that it was off-limits to ordinary people.

“Is it possible that the exolaw wielder is holed up in the lord’s manor, like back in Alger?” Karen suggested.

“Ah, you’re right,” Leon nodded.

Even the powerful margrave of Alger hadn’t dared defy Nigel. It was entirely possible the Baron of Ladoga had been deceived by some impostor in disguise as well.

They couldn’t just leap the walls and infiltrate the manor, but Leon’s party did include someone adept at scaling them.

“Karen, could you sneak in tonight? Avoid combat if possible and just focus on gathering information.”

Things had turned out well in Alger by chance, but as the saying goes, lightning doesn’t strike twice. If they caused a ruckus and spooked the hidden mastermind, the chance to kill the monster in the lake would slip further away.

Karen understood what Leon was thinking and gave a wry smile.

“Ahaha, don’t worry. I get it. I’ll do better this time.”

“I’m not worried. I trust you,” Leon reassured her.

“Mm!”

As they spoke, the three drifted deeper into Ladoga’s western quarter, and the main street grew crowded. Though the civil war had soured the atmosphere, the sheer number of people out on the streets was a relief. If things were truly dire, everyone would have been locked inside their homes.

“Hm...?”

Leon, however, felt something off. Everything seemed ordinary. People in typical Imperial garb walked past. A man smoking in an alley, a woman spreading rugs to hawk trinkets. And yet...

“What is it?” Karen asked.

“Nothing. Just feels... off.”

At Leon’s suspicion, Karen and Elahan both looked around as well, but found nothing amiss. Leon quickly decided it was probably his imagination.

“Never mind. Let’s find an inn and then scout the town. We’ll split up only after nightfall.”

“As you wish, Hero Leon.”

“Fine by me.”

The three disappeared into Ladoga’s western district. Behind them, countless people bustled by, and from a roadside tree, a single withered leaf fluttered down.

For some reason, the wind felt unnaturally cold.

***

After finishing dinner together, Leon’s group finally split up to gather information in their own ways.

As planned, Karen headed for the northern district where the Baron’s manor stood. Elahan wandered the streets with a staff she had picked up from somewhere, knocking it against the ground repeatedly in search of “revelations.” With each of them with a task of their own, the three scattered quickly.

This barony is a lot more prosperous than I expected.

Walking the night streets alone, Leon looked around. According to what he had learned earlier, the Ladoga barony was supposed to be a minor holding within the Empire. Yet in size and prosperity, it hardly lost out to any county in other nations.

The centuries of hegemony of the Clyde Empire as the continent’s strongest state could be felt even here.

Leon turned his gaze on the waters and muttered, “The lake looks the same as it did by day...”

Most monsters were nocturnal. The Goddess had two eyes. Of them, the sun—shining by day—was the harshest enemy of unnatural beings.

Undead melted under its rays like icicles in midsummer. The moon was also a symbol of purity and cleansing, but its power was not as overwhelming as the sun’s.

I thought it might stir by now, but I guess not.

His eyes sank in worry. This was the worst of the patterns he had considered: the monster never leaving the lake, day or night, and no clues to track its location.

Instead of waiting endlessly for the monster that’s holed up on the bottom of the lakebed, it seemed like they would have to aim for the exolaw wielder holding its leash instead. According to the Quest Map, he even had an accomplice.

If the map marked them yellow, neither will be easy.

For Leon, Karen, and Elahan, only Master-level enemies or higher counted as true “threats.” That meant their foes must have reached the realm of a Master, whether in magic or Aura, or at least possessed equivalent power by some other means.

The Kaleider they had fought during the quest, Vein Invader, had shown just how absurd such creatures could be in both special abilities and physical power.

“Haaah...”

The sigh slipped out unconsciously, vapor bursting white into the night. It was a natural phenomenon, nothing strange about it. Or was there?

“Huh?”

The breath itself triggered his sense of wrongness. The warm breath met the cold air, and it condensed into mist. And suddenly Leon realized something.

This time of year in the Empire... It should be late summer.

It should have been hot or warm. Cold was not an option. Yet everyone’s breath was steaming. Leon wondered for a moment if it was just him, but no—every passerby exhaled white puffs, bundled in layers of heavy leather.

Ah!

He finally understood the unease he had felt earlier. It was the clothes. Despite the late-summer season, everyone wore layers of furs, even bear and wolfskin coats, as though it were the middle of winter.

“I need to check this out...”

Fixing his suspicion, Leon vaulted over the fence encircling the lake. Few people were out, even with lamps lit, so no one noticed his maneuver. He strode quickly to the shore and dipped a finger into the water.

It’s cold.

Not just cold, it was cold enough to send chills up his spine.

The chill blanketing the city was flowing from the lake—or rather, being drawn into it. It wasn’t that the cold was spilling out from the water, but that the heat of the land was being sucked into it.

Wondering whether this was the monster’s doing or some natural phenomenon, Leon rubbed his arm and thought, The three of us don’t feel heat or cold anymore—that’s why we were slow to notice.

At the master level, Aura users reached the state of immunity to natural ailments, heat and cold alike. Because of that, seasons held little to no meaning.

The unfamiliar Imperial garb had played a part, but Leon did not use that as an excuse. It was simply his oversight.

El-Cid chimed in, —Leon. If it’s a monster that feeds on heat from an entire region and makes its lair in water like this lake, I think I know what it is.

Really? What is it?

—It’s a creature from a dimension where fire can never be born. A realm of eternal ice and blizzards.

For such beings, heat was both prey and enemy. They swallowed fire and stilled life. El-Cid had faced one in the past and knew its name.

—It’s the Winter Serpent.

A monster summoned from the dimension of permafrost, growing stronger in proportion to the heat it devours.