CH 33

I grabbed a bundle rope organized in the corner of the warehouse and tied myself up against a pillar. I couldn’t do it tightly, but somehow I managed to tie it enough to keep me from falling to the floor. I twisted myself from side to side testing if it would break. As I finished wriggling, the Holy Sword spoke in a hesitant voice.

(You look very….)

“Yeah, it’s kind of funny, I know.”

I tightened the knot even further. This way, if I were to fall over suddenly, I wouldn’t hit my head on the floor like last time. If I went through the crown’s trials and lost consciousness again, there was no guarantee that the crown would come off my head. If I happened to fall on my head, l would end up with more than just a headache.

(That’s not what I meant… Forget it, do as you please.)

“What the hell! You can’t stop like that. What did you want to say?”

(It’s nothing! Hurry up and put the crown on your head.)

The Holy Sword spoke hesitantly but sighed as if it had given up. ‘What on earth did you want to say?’ I shook my head and looked at the open wooden box. The crown of thorns quietly lurking in it frightened me a little

“I know it’s powerful.”

A Holy Relic that knocked me out cold. There are few artifacts in the world with such powerful mana. The problem was there was no information about what this crown was for and what powers it would grant if I passed its ordeal.

(I can hear your doubts, Elroy. But I can’t tell you what it does.)

It wouldn’t be so easy to find out. All I had was the information from the novel I had read before falling into this world.

I picked up the crown carefully, not wanting to touch the thorns accidentally. A trickle of mana traveled from it through my fingertips and into my body.

“Call for me if you think I’m going to lose consciousness. I’ll try to hold on somehow.”

(Okay. Take care.)

Without further ado, I placed the crown on my head. What kind of trial was it going to give me this time? I sucked in a breath, unnecessarily nervous.

“Nothing yet….”

‘I just had to say something.’ As soon as I said it, the crown’s mana entered my brain again. ‘Okay, okay. Now, what the hell are you trying to do to me this time? It doesn’t look like you’re trying to cause me physical pain….’

Then, my vision suddenly went pitch black. I whipped my head from side to side in panic but couldn’t see anything. I wondered if I had been blinded by the sun or was just not used to the darkness anymore.

(Elroy? You don’t seem to have lost consciousness, at least.)

I could still hear the Holy Sword’s voice, but when I opened my mouth to reply, no words came out. Suddenly, a wind began to blow in the distance.

(It’s still okay….)

Holy Sword’s voice faded away. I shook my head, wondering if I was losing consciousness. No, I’m still awake. I could tell because my sense of space was still working. The wind picked up again, and I stood alone in an open snow-filled field.

“…What is this?”

My ankles felt wet and cold. I blinked and looked up. The world around me seemed to split in two, splitting heaven and earth into black and white. ‘What is it trying to show me?’ I frowned, searching for my Holy Sword, reaching at my waist out of habit. But the answer I had always heard was not there now.

“Do I have to overcome it by myself?”

Sure enough, it was not there. I smiled bitterly and looked around the snowy field again. I hadn’t noticed it before because it was covered entirely in white, but now the terrain looked familiar.

“Hold on…”

I frowned. Hadn’t I passed through here just a few days ago? An open field on the road to Evernode. Once green with short grass, the ground had been covered in white and became unrecognizable.

“…But nothing is happening.”

I narrowed my eyes, clenching and unclenching my fists. I could still move my body. The mana that normally pulsed in my heart was no longer present. I bit my lip, then tried to move my legs.

“Okay.”

The overly sharp sensation of my feet digging into the snow was disturbing, but when I looked behind me, I saw a forest of firs covered in snow. The creek was completely frozen over. I had a hunch that I needed to get to Evernode. I walked forward, the path to the castle in my head. Only my footprints remained in the snow.

…I have a long way to go.

With no horses to ride and no mana to enhance my strength, my steps through the snow were cumbersome. Snow began to fall from the sky. I looked up, but there was nothing to call the sky, only blackness.

I walked.

When I thought I would have to walk for the entire trial, I saw Evernode’s castle looming on the hillside.

“….”

Of course, it was never that simple. I felt something ominous. A sense of foreboding, almost a certainty, prickled my nerves. There’s something there. ‘Turn and walk away.’ My instinct whispered for me to run. There must be something waiting for me at the gates, something the crown has in store for me.

“…Fuck it.”

If I act on my instincts here, I will become a step closer to becoming a beast.

I went up the hill. The wind’s chill was growing stronger as I neared the citadel. As I approached, I noticed that the gates were open. There was no sign of anyone inside. I scanned the streets of Evernode for any sign of life, but there was nothing but empty buildings and snowy roads. There was nothing to call an ordeal.

So, where is this nagging sensation coming from?

I turned my eyes to the city’s northern outskirts, to the woods where we went to patrol. I had a premonition that I needed to go there to end the ordeal, but my instincts were screaming that I shouldn’t.

“What the hell do they have in store for me….”

I let out a nervous breath as I stared at the open doorway of the outer castle. Mist was coming out of my mouth. The snow is beginning to fall with violence, threatening to cover the world in white. Snowflakes pile up on the bridge of my nose. I let them fall on my body and walked to the doorway of the outer castle, mesmerized.

“….”

It’s quiet. I can no longer hear the wind in my ears. The falling snow sweeps across the ground in a blizzard, the trees fall and drop their branches, and all I can hear is my breathing. I lift my head, my breathing growing increasingly ragged against my will.

Something was coming.

My vision shook. Beyond the forest, something was approaching very slowly. I tried drawing my sword and mana out of habit, but now I was just one helpless human being. My legs stopped moving forward. I felt the ground begin to rumble like a giant drum.

Thump. Thump.

The tremors made giant trees snap like matchsticks and mountains crumble like sand dunes.

Thump. Thump.

‘Footsteps? What is there? What is moving?’

The world is falling apart. But I can’t help but stare at the spectacle. The white veil of annihilation had consumed the horizon and moved silently but quickly toward Evernode. I stood between the castle and its destruction. An overwhelming sense of dread paralyzed me.

Thump.

The drumming stopped. The forest in front of me crumbled. I realized it was someone’s foot that had crushed the forest. A wind that could uproot a tree cut through my flesh. I looked up in pain as the wind tore through my body, and ‘it’ looked down at me, then slowly lifted its foot.

Thump.

(…Elroy)

My body shuddered, and my head hung l limply, swaying like clockwork. I squeezed my eyes shut and looked up.

“Something happened.”

(The crown’s magic has shown you something like a dream; perhaps that is the trial it has put you through this time. I could have intervened, but the relic would not have withstood my power and would have shattered.)

The crown of thorns on my head seemed to fall to the floor as my head snapped back. I gingerly picked it up and placed it.

(I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.)

“No. I should pass it with my own power anyway.”

I shook my head and closed the lid.

“Did you see what the crown shows me?”

(No. I did not do so purposefully, for my mere observation of you would make the trial meaningless. What did you see?)

I rubbed my throat at the holy sword’s question.

“The Giant.”

(…I see.)

“Without you and my mana, I couldn’t do anything against it. I was waiting for it to crush me.”

I was not in a pleasant mood. I frowned and cut the ropes binding my torso.

(What was it like?)

“…I was completely powerless.”

I smiled bitterly and stood up. I don’t know how long I’d been chained to the pillar on my knees, but my legs tingled like crazy.

“Is the crown trying to test my resolve?”

(All Holy Relics do; we never determine our owners by physical strength.)

“…You-”

No. I opened my mouth to question it but closed it just as quickly. The Holy Sword didn’t ask about what I would say. I staggered through the darkness of the warehouse and looked out the window. No snow was falling through the bright sunlight.

***

I was getting used to the patrol duty that occurred once every two days. No matter how much Archduke Quenor vouched for it, the knights and soldiers in the north continued to look suspiciously until they went on patrol with me. That meant that everyone changed their attitude after going on patrol with me.

“I didn’t realize it on my last patrol, but Miss Daphne is quite an amazing wizard.”

Daphne’s performance on the patrol was a significant factor. As the world’s only Eighth Circle wizard, her magic changed and evolved with each patrol. This time, she cast the same protective spell on the entire patrol as she had on me. It kept them from suffering even the slightest injury in the battle against the monsters.

“A wizard of the fifth circle. That’s pretty awesome.”

Georg said proudly, and I smiled at him. Daphne’s protective magic was a great help to Georg, a frontline fighter. Unaccustomed to praise, Daphne was embarrassed by the patrol’s baptism of praise and slinked over to me out of habit. They laughed heartily at her behavior.

As I left my horse in the stables, I noticed a subtle bustle in the air of the citadel. It was almost as if the castle was busy preparing for something. When I looked back at the patrol, they had a look on their faces that said, “Oh, is it that day?”

“What’s happening today?”

At my words, one of the soldiers chuckled and nodded.

“Uh, yeah. Today is the day the ‘Ironblood Princess’ returns to Evernode.”

“The Ironblood Princess”? I scratched my head at the unfamiliar nickname. Such a character had never appeared in the novels, and I wondered if she had ties to the North. At my questioning look, the knight shrugged with a smile like the soldier’s.

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

‘From the nickname alone, it sounded like the nickname of a noble lady. Still, there’s no way a character of that nature wouldn’t have appeared in the original if she was in Evernode.’

“Ah, the Archduke is over there. Let’s go greet him.”

He sounded impatient. I narrowed my eyes and looked at Georg, who was familiar with the North, but he just shook his head in confusion.

“What, you’ve never heard of her either?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t heard of anything in the decade I was here.”

‘Well, I’ll just have to see for myself.’

A carriage stopped in front of the Archduke. We had just returned from a patrol and stood in front of the carriage behind him. We weren’t told why, but we were ushered to our place. Before I could ask the Archduke what was happening, the carriage door opened, and a beautiful middle-aged woman stepped out.

“My dear.”

Archduke Quenor wiped the tears from his eyes and embraced his wife. Following the Archduchess, two others stepped out of the carriage.

“Father.”

A tall young man stood over Archduke Quenor. I’ve heard of the eldest son of Archduke Quenor in the original story.

“There she is.”

The knight whispered, patting me on the shoulder from behind. The last person to leave the carriage was a stern-looking girl of about nine years old.

“…Ironblood Princess?”

And as I turned my head with a questioning look, the knights and soldiers laughed and nodded.