Snow is an inalienable part of the northern lands.
It keeps piling up on the fields and the mountains all year round, no matter the season.
Except for a single place.
The only place in the North that’s without this northern characteristic.
The Black Forest.
Even if it snows within the forest, snow doesn’t pile up and cover the earth. The dark and dense overgrowth of trees instead exudes a sultry atmosphere. Even in broad daylight, the insides of the forest remain very dark.
The trees here are strangely small yet warm, so even if snowflakes fall, they melt quickly.
Therefore, the Black Forest is the only place in the North not covered in white snow.
And inside such a forest –
Callius looked at Helena and asked, smirking.
“I see. Helena. Are you saying you want to marry me?”
“What, what are you even saying! Who wants to marry you! Who’d be crazy enough to marry the kingdom’s biggest womanizer!”
Callius gently sliced a steak with his knife and fork.
“…”
Even that figure resembled some masterwork painting, and Helena’s mouth involuntarily curved up at the corners as she watched.
‘What a handsome face.’
Even when eating with only a knife and a fork in the middle of a shabby forest, the scenery somehow changed to an old-fashioned painting.
The ground was dirty and wet with snow, and the forest full of musty and grassy smells, but his very existence pushed all those things to the background.
‘Should I ask what perfume that is? It smells so good…’
Unconsciously, Helena closed her eyes and focused on her sense of smell. A scent like flowers and honey, sweet yet subtle, brushed against her nose. She wished she could keep smelling it forever.
‘Still, marriage isn’t on the cards. Unfortunate.’
The position of the Lady of the North was indeed attractive enough.
But she still wouldn’t.
“Then why did you bring up such a thing?”
“I was just saying. Isn’t your daughter already twelve? She might get married and have children soon. Then I’d become a grandmother.”
Helena must’ve already imagined that non-existent future in her head.
“I see. What are you actually saying here? Do you want to become a grandmother?”
“Of course not!”
“Then why are you talking like that?”
“It’s just a hypothetical! It was just a few words, why did you have to take that as me trying to marry you?”
“So it was just useless chatter.”
Useless chatter, huh.
She really hadn’t thought her words through, but hearing that made her want to cry.
“You can’t even say a kind word to your own daughter, do you have any room to talk?”
As soon as she spat those words out, Callius naturally became furious.
“What nonsense! I’m doing my best!”
He had his own pride.
Even though he’d found out only recently that he had a daughter, he acknowledged Emily and treated her well with all his heart.
That is, in his own way.
“It’s not enough to just throw a few presents to your daughter. How delicate a girl is! Why can’t you go and give her a hug?”
Callius flinched.
Come to think of it, he’d never done anything like that.
Because it was so awkward.
“That kid doesn’t want stuff like that.”
After all, she was a kid who liked to fight with swords.
… He wasn’t mistaken. Probably.
“Did Emily tell you that herself?”
“No, but I mean…”
They hadn’t talked much lately.
Emily was always training, and Callius had a lot of work to do.
The war was over, but he’d only gotten busier.
Post-processing after a war is always important. Funerals need to be held to appease the souls of the fallen knights and soldiers.
Bernard and Callius –
Along with the heretic inquisitors, had all joined in prayer and held a magnificent ceremony.
Emily was now naturally recognized by the knights, and she always hung out with them or helped Bernard teach the children.
Also, Callius didn’t have many opportunities to meet her, because he’d been preparing for the hunt and then to travel to the Church. Elburton had also thrown a lot of issues his way, which he had to deal with in his spare time.
There had been occasions when Elburton had invited them both to a light dinner.
But even there, for some reason, they hadn’t talked much.
The relationship between father and daughter had reached a stalemate, with no sign of progress.
Callius wanted to shut Helena up, who was trying to keep nagging.
If he left it alone, her rapid-fire chattering would end up rupturing his eardrums.
“Helena.”
“Eh, yes? What?”
“I’ve been in the North for a while, so I’ve got no idea what big things have happened recently in the kingdom. You must have a lot of stories to tell, do you mind sharing them with me?”
Helena was a merchant, so she was sensitive to rumours.
In this age, information was money, so there had to be many stories she knew about.
“Hmm, for free? You haven’t paid back those thousand gold coins you’d borrowed, yet.”
“Where do you think you are? This is the North.”
If you want a thousand gold coins –
Just ask.
“Well, the war’s left more than ten thousand corpses this time. And the Church is processing them for free! Yeah, you’re getting rich enough that a thousand gold coins would just be pocket change.”
“But why a thousand gold coins? I remember it was about five hundred.”
“Including interest. I mean, you’re the highest-ranked count in the kingdom, won’t you even pay the interest on the loan?”
“…”
Callius was furious for a moment, but thinking about it further, he’d borrowed the money three whole years ago.
Even if the interest had increased to match the principal, there was nothing to say. He’d really needed the money urgently at the time.
Not just the money, he owed her his very life, so this much wasn’t a problem.
“And there’s another debt that you really need to pay off. The debt of saving your life.”
She was a woman who’d even suck out the marrow from his bones if he didn’t resist.
It was time to build up an iron wall defence.
“I never asked for your help.”
“Ah~ How can somebody be so mean? But since I already saved you, I can’t take it back.”
Having thick skin occasionally paid huge dividends.
Callius decided to change the subject.
“Did you get my letter?”
“Letter? Ah, the copper mine in Torrett, right?”
“Yeah.”
She must’ve made a killing from that copper mine.
“Are you trying to pay off your debt with that? We couldn’t do anything with the mine, though.”
“What? Why?”
It was just copper, but copper still had many uses.
The mine had a respectable copper reserve.
“Didn’t you know? The Church has already occupied the entire town. There’s talk about some kind of sacred object?”
“Sacred object?”
Callius’ eyes narrowed.
There was no way any relic of the Church of Valtherus could be in Torrett.
If one talked about some lost sacred object in Torrett –
‘It can’t be the Tear of Valtherus.’
It was similar to a holy relic, but they probably wouldn’t have come in force to look for it.
“Anyway, that’s why I didn’t even bother with that place. I might get hurt if I try to get involved.”
“I see.”
Did that happen to Torrett?
Sacred object…
‘Then, does Ryburn chasing me have something to do with a sacred object?’
A sacred relic could justify such single-minded pursuit.
Then, the Lord of Torrett –
Leone – what’d happened to him?
‘In the worst case, he might be dead already.’
Leone.
He’d been a pretty sweet kid.
“Is there any other story?”
“There really isn’t anything big? Something you might be interested in… Ah! Come to think of it, Oliorro is in ruins.”
“So that happened, huh.”
“What, did you already know?”
“No. I didn’t.”
He’d been asked by Count Artemion to be part of an escort to that place.
But he’d refused.
Because he’d guessed this would happen.
In the first place, anywhere the empire stuck its nose in was bound to suffer a disaster.
“I heard heretics were hiding there. So the royal family… you know?”
“That animal, huh.”
“Animal… if you say something like that to the prince’s face, you’ll get your head chopped off.”
“It’s not wrong, though, is it?”
When Callius spoke firmly, Helena shrugged her shoulders as if she sympathized to some extent.
“Anyway, that’s what happened. The prince went and smashed, killed, and destroyed everything.”
“I see.”
Count Altemion had asked Callius to escort somebody from Tristar.
The subject of the escort had probably been the Prince of Carpe.
‘If I’d been part of the escort, it would’ve ended in a disaster.’
The one called the Mad Prince.
A beast who’d lost its mind and gone crazy because of touching a single sword by mistake.
“But the trouble in Oliorro wasn’t just a rebellion, was it? I don’t think even the prince could’ve handled it.”
“Because it wasn’t just a rebellion, the prince had to step in. This is a top secret, do you know what weapons the rebels were holding?”
“Mace, is it.”
“Huh? How did you know?”
“I see. That’s why they sent the prince.”
Mace.
If that was the case, it was understandable.
A country that hadn’t been absorbed into the empire, yet maintained a friendly relationship with them.
Radon, the country that served the God of the Mace.
The hatred the people of Carpe had for them was second only to what they felt about the empire.
Or perhaps in a way, they hated them even more than they did the imperials.
“You really didn’t know?”
“Now I know.”
“What the… Anyway, so it wasn’t just some little riot. I’ve been buying up this and that, since there might be a big war soon. But the North was already at war. It’d been a really big deal.”
The Wheel turns.
The War of the North had been a main quest.
It’d already come to an end, but now was just the first step.
‘Time’s flowing faster than I thought.’
Before the war really broke out, the problems had to be pruned in advance.
That made his decisions easier, in a way.
“Just how long are you going to eat? Get up! I’m still a bit cold…”
“I’m not cold, though.”
“You’ve got those artifacts on you, of course you aren’t! And you’re a native! But I’m not! It’s cold! I’m freezing to death!”
This noise was going to kill him.
“Noisy. Bruns. Take care of it.”
“Yep! Wait, what do you want me to take care of?”
Bruns looked at the dish in his hand and Helena alternately.
“… I meant, you clean up the dishes.”
“Oh, yes!”
“What, did you look at me just now?”
“Don’t take your anger out on somebody unrelated. And you were the one who wanted to follow me. If you’re going to whine about a little cold, just go back.”
“I’m just going side by side because the Black Forest’s on the way to capital! Why do you keep telling me to go back? I’m hurt!”
Callius shook his head and mounted his horse.
He’d been a dullard when it came to horseback riding in his youth, but people grow after all. With the Saddle of Humasys, horseback riding was no big deal anymore.
“Why are you doing this?”
But the horse didn’t budge an inch.
“It’s not being wilful. I think it’s scared, Callius.”
Of that creature in the Black Forest?
It had dragon blood.
It seemed that ordinary beasts didn’t even want to enter the forest.
“It’s already like this. I heard it’s a baby… is it not?”
Callius activated the Tricolour Eye.
The entire forest in front of him was dyed red. There were some lonely spots of blue, but most of the scenery blazed red as if stained with blood.
Perhaps someone had annoyed the thunder wolf dragon already.
“Have they already met?”
Well, it’d been quite some time, so they might’ve met at least once.
If you walk around in this forest, you can’t help but run into it.
“I’ll leave the horse here. Bruns. You have to stay and guard.”
“Yep!”
Anyway, this guy would only be a hindrance inside the Black Forest.
The Black Forest that now stretched in front of them.
“Helena. The shadows…”
The moment he was about to speak –
Callius’ Instinctive Intuition sounded the alarm.
Hairs rose up all over his body, and a chill sensation penetrated deep into his bones.
Unconsciously, his body moved.
“Hey!”
He pushed Helena away to avoid it.
That was then –
Kwagwagwang!!
Blue lightning flashed.
– Hiiiiiiiiing!
In front of his eyes was the head of a wolf.
Body covered in dragon scales. Light blue fur on its tail. Two horns flashing wit spots of light.
A hybrid of dragon and wolf. The thunder wolf dragon with dragon’s blood, had appeared.
Lightning coruscating from its open maw.
Editor’s Notes:
None for this chapter.