Chapter 5
“My lady! Are you still asleep? Hurry and come down for breakfast!”
“Mmm… all right.”
As usual, I climbed out of bed while listening to Ruby's nagging.
“Ugh… it's cold.”
Even with a blanket draped over my shoulders, my body began to shiver from the biting chill as soon as I stepped into the hallway.
According to the calendar, it should clearly have been spring, but the air in the North was unbearably cold.
“You've arrived.”
The warm air and Heter, who was already seated at the table, finally welcomed me when I reached the dining room after battling the cold.
“Good morning, Sir Heter.”
“Good morning, my lady.”
“But… aren't you cold?”
Unlike me, who was wearing ordinary clothes with a blanket over my shoulders, Heter was dressed in a short-sleeved shirt.
“It is a little cold, but I'm gradually getting used to it.”
“Wow….”
It was astonishing.
I had lived here for twenty years and still hadn't adapted to the cold, yet he had grown accustomed to it after staying in the territory for only a week.
‘He must have done well if he'd served in the military in Gangwon Province.’
Thinking that, I sat down at the table, and Ruby brought out the food.
The menu consisted of the stew we'd been eating for several days, hard bread, salted meat, and diluted wine.
It was pathetically meager for a noble's breakfast, but what could we do when we had no money?
“Hmm.”
“Please bear with it just for today. We'll have a party once the Snow Wyrm has been fully processed.”
“I didn't say anything.”
When I made a preemptive excuse in response to his reaction, Heter smiled.
If there was one thing I'd learned about him in the past week, it was this.
He was more emotional than I had expected.
When I first saw him, I had assumed he would be expressionless and unfeeling, like the male leads commonly found in web novels.
When that simple breakfast was over, Ruby, Sir Heter, and I all went outside.
“Come on! We're almost finished!”
“Hey! Move that carefully! If you even scratch it, you'll lose your wages!”
From early in the morning, the territory's people had gathered in the mansion's yard and were working hard to dismantle the Snow Wyrm.
“Hey! You're a man, aren't you? Is that all the strength you've got?!”
“Oh, come on, Sir Gold! Stop nagging me.”
Sir Gold was there too, directing everyone with more vigor than anyone else despite his advanced age.
As if to prove that old men don't need much sleep, his clothes were already soaked with sweat.
“Good morning, Sir Gold.”
“Yes, good morning, my lady.”
“You look much healthier than before.”
“Ha-ha, do I really look that way to you, my lady?”
In fact, Sir Gold's complexion was markedly different from a week ago.
Before, his face had been gray and his cheeks hollow, but now they were flushed a bright red, and his cheeks even seemed a little fuller.
His meals hadn't changed, and directing the dismantling should have left him more exhausted, yet he seemed to be doing better now.
“Oh, the young lady's come out.”
“Good morning, young lady!”
“How come you're only greeting Sir Gold?”
“Good work, everyone.”
“Oh, you're out with Sir Heter today too.”
“Yes.”
The territory's people, who had continued working, greeted us as well.
The people here were so friendly—comparable to golden retrievers—that Heter had blended into the territory in less than a week.
“Sir Gold said it looked like we'd finish processing it today. Once we're done, I'll provide a cow so we can celebrate.”
“Ohhh!”
“Did everyone hear that? We're having a beef party when we're done!”
“Wow!”
“My lady! You're the best!”
The men carrying the carapace, bones, and chunks of flesh, the women removing the meat left on the carapace and preparing food, and even the children who had followed their parents all cheered.
Seeing everyone smiling brightly warmed my heart despite the cold.
“I've wandered through quite a few places myself.”
While I watched the territory's people working hard, Heter quietly came over to my side.
“This is the first place I've seen where the nobles and the people of the territory are this close.”
“Is that so?”
When I turned my head, he nodded with a faint smile, just like me.
“Hmm.”
Looking at Heter, I suddenly felt mischievous and jabbed him in the side with my elbow.
“Does that mean I'm not acting like a noble?”
“Oh my, I'm at a loss that you took it that way.”
The smile on Heter's face changed into a wry one as he shrugged.
“This is the last one!”
“We're done!”
Once the dismantling was finished and all that remained was to put everything away,
Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble.
“Huh?”
A tremor began to spread through the ground.
“What is that?”
“An earthquake?”
As the people gathered in the yard looked around in confusion,
only three of us seemed to know what this vibration meant.
“Everyone! Take shelter in the mansion at once!”
“Do as my lady says! Quickly!”
As Sir Gold and I evacuated the people to the mansion, Heter drew the sword at his waist and dashed forward.
The ground in the direction he ran suddenly began to bulge.
Bang!
“Eek!”
“W-What is that?!”
With a roar like an exploding bomb, a Snow Wyrm emerged.
“A Snow Wyrm?”
“That thing? It looks at least twice as big as the one we dismantled!”
“You idiots! What are you gawking at?! Get to the mansion—”
“Grrr….”
Krooooooo!
As Sir Gold urged the people who had stopped to flee, the Snow Wyrm let out an even louder roar upon seeing its dismembered kin.
It reacted as though this creature were related to it somehow.
‘Just as if a family member had died… Good grief.’
Could this creature be the other Snow Wyrm's mate or parent?!
“Damn it.”
This was driving me crazy. I'd never even heard of a Snow Wyrm coming to avenge a family member killed by humans.
Just as I was wondering how we should act in this situation,
Whoosh.
“Huh?”
Something flew beside me, and it was—
“Sir Heter?”
“Ghk….”
Heter, covered in dirt and bleeding from the head.
“Krooooooo!”
“My lady! Please flee while I hold it off!”
“Wait!”
Before I could say anything, he charged toward the Snow Wyrm again.
All I could do was watch Heter's back, feeling as though every drop of blood in my body had turned cold.
‘This situation is really bad.’
Boom!
For starters, the Snow Wyrm that had appeared this time was larger than the previous one, so its attacks had greater range and force as well.
“Guh!”
Whoosh!
Unlike before, when he had fought while wearing armor, Heter now had to dodge the rocks that flew up every time the Snow Wyrm moved.
“My lady, you should retreat now too…!”
“Sir Gold! Why isn't Sir Heter going inside the Snow Wyrm's body to fight it as before?”
I asked Sir Gold, who had probably come to take me to safety, about what I found strange.
“Pardon?”
“You said the Snow Wyrm's carapace was sturdy, didn't you? Then why isn't Sir Heter fighting it the same way as before?”
“It's….”
After hearing my question, Sir Gold watched Heter's battle with the Snow Wyrm.
He might not have been exceptionally skilled, but Sir Gold had lived as a knight for decades.
At least, he probably had more knowledge than any other knight.
“Ah!”
A moment later, he opened his mouth as though he had realized something.
“What is it?”
“It's because he needs to breathe.”
“His breathing?”
“Yes.”
Given the circumstances, Sir Gold grabbed my arm and explained while leading me toward the mansion.
“That Snow Wyrm is larger than the previous one, so even Sir Heter would need time to get inside and bring it down. But no matter how strong a knight is, he can't fight if he can't breathe.”
“Ah!”
At last, I understood what Sir Gold was trying to say.
“The previous one was small enough to defeat while holding his breath, but that's impossible with this one.”
“At least, that's what Sir Heter must have thought.”
This was a real predicament.
If armor was the problem, I could bring him some, and if he lacked firepower, I could help, however feebly.
‘But unless I'm a mage, I can't supply him with air… huh?’
When we entered the mansion, a thought flashed through my mind.
‘Wait, I know how to give him air!’
Whoosh.
“My lady?!”
When I suddenly took off running, Sir Gold chased after me.
“Sir Gold! Lend me your sword!”
“Pardon? Why do you need a sword?”
“Hurry!”
After borrowing his sword, I took a deep breath and assumed a stance in front of the door leading to the basement.
Every second counted.
There was no time to go up to the study, get the keys, and come back down.
“Hah!”
With a battle cry, I swung the sword at the door.
‘It's been ages since I last held a sword; cutting through a lock is out of the question.’
But… I might be able to cut an old hinge!
Clang!
The rusty hinge shattered under the blow, and the door tilted toward me.
Crash!
I quickly stepped back, entered the basement, and pulled out the oxygen cylinder I'd shown Heter a week ago.
Hiss.
“Good.”
Perhaps because it was filled with magically infused air,
I cracked open the valve and smelled the air. Thankfully, it seemed fine.
“My lady!”
Ignoring Sir Gold's call, I hoisted the cylinder onto my back and returned to the yard.
Boom! Crack!
“What a disaster.”
Broken trees, collapsed walls, and a ground pocked with holes.
In the few minutes it had taken me to fetch the cylinder, the mansion's yard had become a complete disaster.
Fittingly, Heter was bleeding from various parts of his body, while the Snow Wyrm looked completely unharmed.
‘I'll need time to put the cylinder on.’
Just as I was wondering how to buy him that time,
‘Huh?’
I noticed the only thing in this chaos that remained unscathed.
“If I use that…!”
***
The Snow Wyrm was furious.
Its mate had been brutally butchered; it would have been strange if it weren't enraged.
It had wanted to kill all the humans who had happily laughed while butchering its mate, but this small human kept getting in its way.
But that was fine. This human's movements were beginning to slow.
Just as it thought it would slaughter this human as its mate had been slaughtered, collect its remains, and return,
“Look this way!”
“Kro?”
With its keen hearing, it caught a sound and turned its head.
“!”
There was a human plunging a blade into the remains of its mate.
“Sir Heter! The cylinder!”
“Krooooooo!”
The human said something, but that didn't matter.
How dare this human insult its mate even after death!
Boom!
“Gah!”
Alice flung herself aside at the last possible moment, barely dodging the Snow Wyrm charging at her.
But before she had time to feel relieved, the Snow Wyrm burrowed underground.
Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble.
The earth began to shake once more.
“Damn it!”
She had rolled across the ground, but the shaking earth made her a beat too slow to dodge.
Tap.
“Huh?”
“I'll be back.”
With the cylinder strapped to his back and a mask over his face, Heter shoved Alice aside.
At that very moment,
Rooooooar!
The Snow Wyrm surged up from below and swallowed Heter in a single bite.