Chapter 97 : To the Snowfields
Chapter 97: To the Snowfields
A hero was like deadly poison to demons.
The interference power they possessed existed to repel invaders.
A power fundamentally opposed to demons, the primary invaders. This was why demons feared heroes, and why humanity put heroes at the forefront against the Demon King.
Conversely, this also meant that dimensional interference power did not demonstrate great strength against beings of the same dimension.
That did not mean a hero’s talents vanished. Excluding interference power, they still possessed superior abilities and the advantage of rapid growth.
However, compared to fighting demons, it was undeniable that one of a hero’s greatest advantages disappeared.
That was why Pablo Barkat could not easily defeat Austin Croyne, and why he could do nothing when the kingdom’s army was mercilessly pushed back.
More precisely, he had pressed forward nonstop yet still could not finish the fight quickly. And during that time, their allies had been completely overrun.
“We must stop them. We must seize back the mines and reclaim what belongs to the Union.”
Pablo Barkat raised his voice toward the nobles of the ten nations.
“I saw the mana stone lode with my own eyes. That is an undeniable fact. And they, blinded by the lode, ambushed us! This is directly tied to the prestige of the Union!”
“What does Your Highness wish us to do?”
“We must take it back by force if necessary. How can we overlook them trespassing into Union territory and stealing Union resources?”
“Wise words indeed!”
Envoys of several nations nodded in agreement. But others wore uncomfortable expressions.
Naturally so.
Though eleven nations had gathered under the name of the Southern Union, their purpose was never the birth of a great nation.
Survival. It began as a desperate struggle to block the Empire’s advance and survive.
Most Union countries desired stability over war. Especially if it were a war where victory could not be guaranteed.
Hesitation was only natural.
“I know what concerns you. But simply letting this pass is absolutely wrong.”
And it was natural that Pablo urged for war even knowing this.
It was partially due to the humiliation and insults suffered at the hands of the Imperial dogs, but it was not merely an emotional issue.
“If the mana stone lode falls into their hands—if they develop the mine and the mined mana stones enter their possession—”
“Those mana stones will only make the Empire stronger.”
“They will fatten themselves with the resources they stole from Union territory. And that swollen strength will one day return as a blade aimed at the Union.”
Such was the nature of mana stones.
A mineral essential to all industries connected to magic.
Natural mana stones were superior in purity and quality to artificially produced ones.
A single large mana stone mine could influence an entire nation. It could make a nation prosper.
“Will you simply stand by and watch? The Empire is greedy, and they are always looking for a chance to tear into us. Will we accept future destruction because we fear war now?”
“And furthermore!”
“Union citizens fell to the Empire’s blade. They shed meaningless blood in that ambush! Who will answer for their deaths?”
“If we do not avenge them, who will fight for the Union?”
Pablo’s voice rose with passion.
“Besides, the Pilerium Mountains are a natural fortress between the Empire and us. They cannot bring a large army to the mines.”
Countless monsters would greet them, and more soldiers would die to monsters before even meeting the enemy.
The Empire would never choose such a foolish option.
“We only need to reclaim and hold the mines. The Empire cannot deploy a large army either.”
It was not merely an issue of the Pilerium Mountains. The Southern Union’s only enemy was the Empire, but the Empire had countless enemies.
“Most importantly, the Empire cannot ignore the turmoil in the north. If not now, we may never get another chance to reclaim the lode!”
“Mmm…”
They swallowed groans.
In their heads, they knew the prince’s words were correct. But a war with the Empire was not something one could decide lightly.
They knew they could not retreat—but the possibility of defeat was far greater than the possibility of victory.
One noble raised a hand to ask.
“If the operation fails and the Empire launches a full-scale war, what then?”
“Of course…”
Pablo shouted firmly.
“We cannot retreat. If we lose the mana stone mine, the Union is finished. But if we seize it, we may overturn the humiliating history of being trampled by the Empire. No matter the cost, we must take it.”
“Indeed!”
“How long must we bow to the Empire!”
“If it is difficult to decide, let us proceed in the Union’s traditional manner.”
“…Very well.”
“In three days, at the Banquet of Kings, we shall decide in the traditional way.”
The Banquet of Kings was a meeting where the kings of the eleven Union nations gathered to debate and determine the direction of the Union.
And the conclusion was decided by majority vote.
Three days later. Ten in favor, one opposed—the operation to reclaim the mine was set.
---
『Demon King! Please help us!』
A single transmission completely ruined Berje’s plan to gleefully watch the clash between the South and the Empire.
『We were defeated. Gillian Aint lost his right arm, the barbarians suffered immense losses, and the White Eagle and our group were scattered across the snowfields. We do not even know who is alive!』
…What now.
---
Rumors spread quickly.
Berje, without even stopping by the Tower, had left Roger and the elves roughly in the outskirts of the Southern Union and headed north with Ernan.
Passing through dozens of transport magic circles, and as the scorching sun gave way to a cool breeze, rumors of the snowfields reached his ears one by one.
“They say another barbarian tribe vanished today.”
“A disaster. That makes five, yes?”
“What about the White Eagle? Didn’t even the Red Hawk join them?”
“No contact. The Imperial investigation team found traces of a fierce battle but no survivors. At least the bodies of Hillan Cargill and Gillian Aint were not found…”
“Why are the Demon Kings acting like this? They’d have to be insane…”
“One thing is certain—something is happening.”
“And did you hear the rumor? Gillian Aint supposedly did something to the Tower of Extreme Cold…”
Everywhere he went, the rumors were about the snowfields. Berje picked out the parts most consistently mentioned.
The snowfield monsters had suddenly begun rampaging.
The northern tribes were in peril due to monster invasions.
The White Eagle and Red Hawk joined forces to protect them.
And then disappeared.
“There’s also speculation that a Demon King intervened.”
Ernan whispered quietly.
“I hear it too.”
It was a noisy tavern, the air full of drifting rumors.
“What will you do?”
“First, I need to confirm exactly what happened.”
Could this even be real?
No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand.
Reina Sordein was strong, of course. But Hillan Cargill and Gillian Aint were Stars. Moreover, Hillan Cargill had been rapidly growing stronger after slaying two Demon Kings.
If Hillan Cargill had been in real danger, they would never have sent him to the snowfields just to “fix his attitude.”
‘Did Jason interfere?’
Or was Reina stronger than he had assumed?
He didn’t know.
In truth, he barely knew anything about the Demon Kings.
Before regression, he had almost no interaction with them, and after regression, he had only just begun to learn.
‘Reina Sordein is strong.’
She was a Demon King who completed the Demon King Military Academy and endured for decades in Arein. It would be stranger if she were weak.
However, unless they foolishly climbed all the way to the top of the Tower, there should have been no reason for them to clash with Reina Sordein.
And the Hillan he knew was greedy for honor but never such an idiot.
Which only made this more puzzling.
Why had this happened?
Tap tap—
Ernan tapped Berje’s shoulder.
“Lord Pale.”
“What is it?”
“Merchants who just arrived said the Imperial Army is preparing to march into the snowfields.”
“……!”
“Still talking.”
Berje listened in the direction Ernan pointed. Two merchants had set down enormous bundles on either side of them.
“...The… north…”
The voices that had been buried under the noise gradually grew clearer.
“…Are they really saying the northern army is marching into the snowfields?”
“So they say.”
“Truly? They had been ignoring it until now.”
“There’s a limit to that. Haven’t five tribes already vanished?”
“Still, they’re just northern barbarians, aren’t they?”
“Even barbarians are still subjects of the Empire. And a necessary evil.”
“Well, yes. Disgusting as they are, the Empire suffers less thanks to them.”
The northern barbarians lived under Imperial rule yet rejected Imperial authority.
They lived in the snowfields, preserving their freedom and their own way of life, but also served as the first defensive line, blocking the monsters crossing into the Empire.
They merely wanted to survive, but that benefitted the Empire. Thus the Empire left the unruly barbarians alone, only making sure they never united as one.
“Then who’s leading the expedition?”
“They say the Border Marquis of Chernian is personally commanding it.”
“Good heavens.”
Hearing an unfamiliar name, Berje asked:
“The Border Marquis of Chernian?”
“He’s the border marquis who defends the Empire’s north from the monsters that pour in from the snowfields. A fifty-year-old knight whose skill ranks within the top ten in the entire Empire. And his personal knight order, the Frost-White Knight Order, is called the Blizzard of the Snowfields.”
“I see.”
Lately, Berje found Ernan surprisingly convenient to have around. Like carrying a living library that instantly produced answers to anything he wondered.
Especially when it came to nobles. Being royalty, she knew them thoroughly.
“If someone like that is going, maybe I don’t need to. It might even complicate things.”
There was little chance of things going well if he got entangled with the Empire’s regular army.
“Well, normally I would have said so.”
“But it’s different now?”
“Sir Hillan is not a weak man.”
“Damn it, how did I end up cleaning up after a damn hero…?”
A man who had devoured two Demon Kings was this fragile—unbelievable.
It irritated him, but Hillan absolutely must not die.
“But for both of them to be so thoroughly defeated… I really don’t understand it. What could’ve happened?”
When a hero and a Demon King fought, the Demon King generally held the advantage. Even those heroes worshiped as Stars were no exception.
But most Demon Kings properly followed the Standard, and Reina was not someone who would leave the peak of her Tower.
So why had they been defeated?
‘Of course they do enter the Tower.’
Before regression, the war between the White Eagle and Reina Sordein that Berje knew had been relatively simple.
The northern tribes gathered and climbed the Tower. They cleared monsters and beasts from the lower floors again and again.
Eventually the Tower’s power weakened. Demonic Points were finite, and as long as the Demon King gained no meaningful results and only losses, the Tower would run thin.
Then the Demon King lost the strength to repel the heroes.
But because the Tower had to be filled, she would desperately squeeze out power to summon something.
The heroes would ascend again, hunt the easy monsters, and claim by-products.
As long as they did not reach the top, they would not fight the Demon King, so damage would spread upward floor by floor.
Thus the vicious cycle continued, and the Tower turned from a place of terror into a mere hunting ground for those damn heroes.
But all of this required one premise:
The Demon King had to sit there stupidly with no countermeasures.
And laughably, most Demon Kings did exactly that. Because it was the Standard. Because it was normal.
They didn’t realize they were being hollowed out. And when they did, it was already too late.
Thus Reina had been driven nearly into a corner and finally used Jason’s help to instantly summon high-grade monsters and annihilate them.
But this time was different.
She had learned of their plans beforehand through Berje and prepared.
If he wanted to find the reason Hillan and Gillian had failed, he had to understand that preparation.
‘Reina wouldn’t have left the Tower. Then she must have driven them back with her demon subordinates, beasts, and monsters…’
He didn’t know the exact number of northern tribes, but he knew there were dozens.
Large tribes numbered in the thousands; smaller ones in the hundreds. Not all would follow Gillian Aint, but even if only ten tribes joined, the number of warriors would easily exceed a thousand.
And with them, the White Eagle, Gillian Aint, the Red Hawk, and Hillan Cargill—
‘Is it even possible to wipe them out completely? True, Reina has the largest number of subordinates among the Demon Kings, but still…’
And the snowfields were their territory.
“We’ll know when we meet Granada.”
“It’s a relief Sir Granada survived.”
“Yes.”
Granada had managed to contact them because he had escaped Reina’s reach and survived the snowfields.
Unlike the others who disappeared, he had chosen the right direction to flee and returned to Imperial territory.
Granada was now waiting for Berje and Ernan in the fortress city nearest the snowfields.
“He said he was different from the Red Hawk, yet this time he surpassed them.”
At least this time it was in a good sense.
Without him, they would not have learned the details.
After finishing their meal, Berje and Ernan resumed their journey north.
The atmosphere was unsettled, likely due to the turmoil in the snowfields.
Several more days passed, and finally, they reached the northern fortress and met Granada.
“What exactly happened?”
“Just before we entered the Tower, the Tower’s door opened on its own. Demons and monsters poured out, and as if waiting for that moment, thousands of monsters attacked us from all sides.”
“…How many demons?”
Granada’s explanation suggested one thing.
‘All-in?’
Impossible. For Reina Sordein to do that?
But the real issue was different.
“For the past few days, members of the Red Hawk and White Eagle have been returning. The barbarians have also taken refuge in the Empire.”
“There are more survivors than expected?”
“Yes. Considering the scale of the battle, far more than expected.”
Granada explained that something felt wrong.
But to Berje, nothing felt wrong at all.
“She acted like she intended to finish them off, but in the end, Reina is still Reina.”
Completely annihilating the northern tribes and wiping out the White Eagle and Red Hawk would only alarm the Empire and other kingdoms.
Reina preferred perfection. She must have judged that it was not time to further provoke the Empire and avoided unnecessary slaughter.
It was fortunate.
“Then Hillan Cargill should return soon.”
Berje let out a sigh of relief.
The ending felt anticlimactic for how urgently he had rushed here, but that was for the better.
“Well…”
“What now?”
“I asked all the survivors, but… not one of them said they saw Hillan.”
“He must have lost his way.”
“I would like to believe that is all…”
I have a bad feeling.
Granada murmured, and Berje scowled at the dispiriting tone.
“Don’t stir up needless anxiety.”
“…Yes.”
‘…Should I contact Reina under the pretense of checking in?’
Nothing was better than hearing directly from the source.
< 097. To the Snowfields > End