Episode 654
Chapter 166: Traces on the Caldran Snowfield (1)
Eastern Region 5, Caldran Snowfield.
At this time, the Caldran Snowfield was notorious for causing even seasoned adventurers or hardened warriors to lose their way and freeze to death.
Of course, the party currently here had no risk of dying like that, but relying solely on the map Ronil had given them made navigation a daunting task.
If it weren’t for Shuri.
Once again, Shuri was proving to be an invaluable guide for the group.
“Ha ha! Come here, Shuri. Let this big sister give you a kiss. How is our Shuri so smart? Must take after her master, huh?”
[Meow.]
Shuri gently pushed Sandra away, prompting Zephyrin to scoff.
“Big sister? What a ridiculous notion, Miss Biomechanical Golem. The Crimson Ruby Cat of the Jin Runcandel line is a spirit creature at least a thousand years old.”
“Oh, and why are you picking a fight with me again, you miserable wretch?”
“Picking a fight? I was merely amused by you.”
“Hedo, just slit that mouth of hers already.”
“You’ve been relying on your brawny butler to say whatever you want, haven’t you? You should know there are far more monsters in this world than you think.”
“Hmph. If you’re so confident, why don’t you make the first move? I guarantee the moment you lay a finger on me, Hedo will draw his sword. Then, of course, we’ll fight until there’s a clear winner. And I have a pretty good idea who that’ll be.”
“Ah, really. How did I end up being treated like this? If only it weren’t for my master’s orders…”
“You couldn’t fight back in the Sota Desert because of the things the Jin family stole, and now it’s because of your master’s orders. Being the Grand Duke of the Demon Realm sure has its perks—always a mountain of excuses when you lose.”
“Fine, fine. Then, Biomechanical Golem, you go first. I’ll make sure to kill you.”
Unlike Zephyrin, Sandra immediately swung her fist, but Hedo grabbed her arm, preventing her from reaching Zephyrin.
Watching Sandra struggle in his grip, Hedo sighed deeply. Since the journey began, Sandra and Zephyrin had been locked in a constant battle of nerves.
Looking back, their first meeting in the Sota Desert hadn’t gone any better.
“Don’t you think the tension here is a bit too low for a hostile territory?” Jin said.
“But Jin, she keeps getting on my nerves. Did you see that? She started the fight again.”
“Is it a secret from Lord Jin that you’ve been deliberately stepping on my heels the entire way?”
“If either of you does that one more time, I’ll leave you behind and go on alone. You all should be able to escape the Caldran Snowfield without me, right?”
Sandra and Zephyrin fell silent simultaneously.
‘Impressive,’ Jin thought.
‘Damn it. If my master finds out I got kicked out for fighting a biomechanical golem, I’ll be treated even worse than this…’
Sandra accepted Jin’s words because they were his orders, and Zephyrin knew he wasn’t bluffing.
With the two suddenly quiet, Hedo almost resented Jin for finally stepping in to mediate.
The group pressed forward quietly.
Their pace was painfully slow. Since Ronil’s last trip to the snowfield, knights corrupted by chaos had been hunting Jin here.
If they were spotted, the Sword Garden would send reinforcements. In the worst case, Rosa herself might come looking.
Though it would take considerable time for her to track them from the Sword Garden to the Caldran Snowfield, the use of chaos dragons or the Seer’s Lair from the Sota Desert made the situation unpredictable.
‘If Owl were here, we could move so much faster. This is frustrating.’
Owl was currently tracking Yona’s whereabouts and couldn’t assist Jin.
Since the Gliek subjugation nearly three years ago, Yona’s episodes of rampage had been growing more frequent.
Thinking of Yona made Jin’s heart ache.
‘I need to use the purifier on my sister soon… Before the infection takes over completely, I have to find her.’
According to a message Owl sent to Tikan a few days ago, Yona hadn’t yet reached full infection.
The Balmel Alliance couldn’t find her any better than they could.
Despite gaining such great power, Jin felt a bitter truth: it still wasn’t enough to fully protect his family and clan.
In a way, he began to understand his father, Siron, a little better.
Pushing those thoughts aside, they traveled for three days. Fortunately, they avoided detection by patrolling knights and crossed snow-covered rocky mountains.
But they gained no new information about Valeria. All they saw was endless snow and rock beneath a pale, dark sky with no clear day or night.
“…Looks like we’re almost there.”
In the distance, a dead-end cliff cut through the heart of the snowy mountains.
Shuri pointed with her paw toward one side of the cliff. The party couldn’t see it yet, but that was where the cave was located.
Jin sent Shuri back to the Crimson Ruby.
He could sense a strong aura of chaos. It had been present for the past three days, but near the cave, it grew especially thick.
“Hmph, I thought so. It’s hard to monitor the entire snowfield closely, but they’re definitely guarding the area around the cave where Hister disappeared.”
“If we’re going in, there’s no avoiding a fight from here on out. The 12th Cavalry.”
Zephyrin and Hedo spoke.
“It’s a problem we expected anyway. We’ll go in.”
“You do realize there are a lot of variables from here on, right? Honestly, I’m not sure if it’s even worth risking so much to rescue a survivor of Hister.”
“That’s not your call, Zephyrin.”
“You’re a tyrant. Of course, if Hister is inside that cave, there’s no question. But honestly, even Lord Jin doesn’t believe that’s likely, right?”
“Hey! Our comrade disappeared there! Whether likely or not, we have to check it out. Do the demon scum have no sense of camaraderie?”
“Sounds like something’s barking somewhere. Lord Jin, I’m just saying maybe we should look elsewhere instead of the snowfield. We missed Ronil, and I think the same goes for Runcandel. If they’d caught her, they’d have tried negotiating or threatening us by now.”
Zephyrin was right—there was almost no chance Valeria remained in that cave.
But Temar’s tombs were always made of ‘pocket dimensions.’ Whether in the Baolrai of the And Plains, the shores of the Shcheron Kingdom, the Myoin tribe’s world, or the Wantaramo Forest.
Ronil said Valeria vanished without a trace right inside that cave.
‘If there really is a pocket dimension leading to Temar’s tomb inside that cave…’
That would mean Valeria reached Temar’s fifth tomb and fled there.
Or perhaps it wasn’t a voluntary escape but a forced transfer triggered by some condition.
“There could be a pocket dimension, Zephyrin. Every Temar tomb I’ve encountered has been like that.”
“You’re saying a Hister survivor might have entered it? Now I understand why you haven’t given up hope.”
“A snowfield date followed by a pocket dimension date! Romance, pure romance!”
“And one thing I never understood—why did we bring this biomechanical golem along? She’s no asset in battle and just spouts nonsense all the time.”
Zephyrin directed her question at Hedo, not Jin.
Hedo said nothing, wiping the frost from his glasses.
“…12th Cavalry, so the decision to enter is made. How do you plan to proceed?”
“I think Zephyrin should take out all the knights first.”
Despite the thick chaos aura, Jin believed Zephyrin could easily overwhelm all the knights near the cave. Though she often lost or got the better of Jin in some way, she was undoubtedly one of the world’s strongest.
“Then the obvious next step: draw attention until reinforcements arrive, right?”
“Too simplistic.”
“There’s no other way. We can’t assassinate all those troops without a trace.”
“So what’s my role?”
“Cover me while I search for traces of the pocket dimension inside the cave.”
“Fine by me. I needed someone to vent my frustration on anyway, thanks to that biomechanical golem.”
“Zephyrin.”
“What?”
“I have a favor to ask.”
Jin met Zephyrin’s eyes.
She almost looked taken aback—this was the first time she’d seen this demon speak to her so politely.
“A favor…?”
“If possible, end the knights’ suffering quickly and without too much pain.”
So most of the knights left in the Sword Garden have been consumed by chaos against their will?
There might be some who chose it, but as you said, most likely not. What mad knight would want to fight under such a monster, no matter how strong? The knights of Runcandel are especially proud.
Jin recalled the conversation he had when receiving the family’s swords from Jorden.
Most of the knights in the Caldran Snowfield were probably unwilling victims of chaos corruption.
Purifying them all was impossible. Judging by the intensity of the chaos aura, most were nearly fully consumed.
Just as Zephyrin was about to respond, Jin bowed his head once.
Reluctantly, Zephyrin shrugged.
“…Very well. I don’t like that it’s for your sake, but it does seem the more dignified choice.”
“Thank you. I’ll repay the favor.”
“Shall we start immediately?”
“Yes.”
“If anything unexpected happens, signal me. If I roar three times in a row, immediately exit the cave and prepare to retreat.”
“Go and just die. No! You can’t die. You have to stay alive until we all get out of here, Devil Dragon! You promised Jin, so you have to keep that promise. Got it?”
Zephyrin shifted back to his true form and sneered.
[You just focus on your lonely, gloomy little date, bio-golem. From my long experience, it seems the Hyster survivor Jin is trying to save is more than just a comrade… heh heh.]
“W-what did you say?!”
The knights of the snowy plain, having detected Zephyrin, began to unleash their full power.
Sandra hurled a string of curses at Zephyrin’s retreating back as he took to the air.