Ch.133Chapter 133

The Wendigo who had broken the possession flashed open his closed eyes. The Hrimtur who were waiting in front of him backed away in terror.

“Whoa! You suddenly flashed your eyes like that!”

“Hey, this is different from what you told us. You said his neck was twisting around.”

“Ah, no… I’m sure his neck was making strange cracking sounds…”

“……”

The Wendigo was dumbfounded as the Hrimtur women whispered in great confusion. If anyone should be perplexed, it was the Wendigo himself.

Of course, they might have been curious about the sight of a twisting neck, but…

“Even so, I don’t think it’s a good idea for strange women to enter a man’s tent uninvited. It could lead to unwanted rumors.”

Common sense dictated that entering someone else’s tent without permission was definitely not a wise action.

It seemed unlikely, but what if the Wendigo violated the customs of hospitality and did something harmful?

The Wendigo sincerely advised these curious women. They tilted their heads and whispered among themselves.

“Huh? Is that so?”

“I don’t know. Maybe that’s how they do things down below the snow fields.”

“Honestly, someone like Wendigo would actually be ni—”

“You crazy woman, saying inappropriate things in front of a guest. Would Angrboda cut off your head?”

‘Can this even be called a cultural difference…’

The Wendigo inwardly sighed at the unexpectedly casual culture of the Hrimtur.

Then again, considering Angrboda’s abilities, it was clear that Hrimtur men wouldn’t attempt to violate women unless they were insane.

Who would risk such an act when they might end up with not just their genitals but their limbs torn off and fed to whales?

“I intend to meet with Voltorn and Angrboda, so I’d appreciate it if you would step aside.”

“Oh my, you already have scouting results? That’s incredibly fast.”

“… You knew what I was doing, yet you were distracted by my neck twisting?”

“Ahahahaha…”

When the Wendigo stared at them incredulously, the women avoided his gaze and laughed awkwardly.

It was embarrassing, but they had enough conscience not to lie. Seeing their honest reaction, the Wendigo couldn’t even find it in himself to be angry.

As the Wendigo shook his head and stood up, a timid-looking woman took something out of a leather pouch and offered it to him.

“Um, I’m sorry, but would you accept this and not mention anything to Angrboda?”

What the woman offered was something resembling a rabbit’s head… no, it was a kind of snack made from a whole roasted rabbit head.

Of course, it wasn’t an ordinary rabbit head.

It was from a MaxRabbit, a native creature of the snow fields about the size of a human head, with particularly developed ears and neck muscles, a carnivorous animal…

When the naive friend tried to bribe the Wendigo with food, the other women were startled and grabbed her head, forcing her to bow.

Surely a guest wouldn’t be so easily swayed by food…

“Hooh… What an interesting food. Thank you.”

The Wendigo brightened at the sight of the unfamiliar food and reached out to take the rabbit head. He put it in his mouth without hesitation.

It had been prepared with care; the skull was tender enough to chew easily, and the salt seasoning was exquisite.

“This seems sufficient for me to be persuaded. Could you make more for me later? I’ll pay for it.”

“Th-thank you! No payment is necessary. If you want more, I’ll prepare some for you later.”

“!?”

After the Wendigo left the tent, the Hrimtur women looked at their friend and the entrance of the tent with bewildered expressions.

* * *

Angrboda and Voltorn were surprised that the Wendigo had discovered the truth earlier than expected, and they were shocked again to learn that the mother of the armor spiders was a cursed monster.

They had thought something was strange when the armor spiders suddenly began acting in groups, but they had never imagined it was because of a cursed monster.

Voltorn asked the Wendigo with visible discomfort, as if there was a thorn stuck in his throat.

“Honestly, it’s hard to believe… Are you certain? The monster might have been lying, you know?”

Voltorn’s reaction was perfectly normal.

A princess from a kingdom that existed thousands of years ago was cursed by a god, and fearing death, she crossed seas and mountains only to hide in a cave beneath the snow fields.

“If such a being… this monster Zeloa has existed since ancient times, how do you explain why the armor spiders only recently started behaving strangely?”

Angrboda nodded in agreement with Voltorn’s opinion.

If the armor spiders were the children of one woman and formed a community in the tunnels, it was puzzling why the armor spiders had acted independently in the past.

The Wendigo didn’t think it strange that they had such doubts. After all, leaders should always question and respond to problems.

The Wendigo nodded in understanding and first answered Voltorn’s question.

“Zeloa is so consumed by madness that she can no longer distinguish between reality and delusion, but at least she wasn’t lying.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“It might be hard to believe… but I have the ability to determine truth through a person’s scent.”

“Hmm…”

Voltorn scratched his chin with a dubious expression. He knew the Wendigo’s abilities were impressive, but the ability to discern truth was difficult to believe.

“Then I’ll tell you some truths and lies, and you can identify them.”

“I will.”

The most difficult lies to detect are those that contain truth. Voltorn recalled past events and began his narrative.

Starting from the day he first met Angrboda, he told stories of their adventures through snow fields, mountains, and seas, all the way to their wedding.

Voltorn and Angrboda savored their memories as they shared stories; to an observer, it would have seemed like they were genuinely reminiscing rather than conducting a test to detect lies.

Voltorn sipped his tea and smiled as he asked the Wendigo.

“Well? Were there any lies in my story?”

“Hmm…”

At Voltorn’s question, the Wendigo scratched his head as if troubled. Voltorn thought the Wendigo hadn’t detected the lie and burst into laughter.

“You’re not as good at detecting lies as I thought! You don’t need to make such far-fetched claims, I trust you enough—”

“The part about Angrboda confessing to you first seems to be a lie… I think you were the one who confessed first.”

“Kuhup!?”

Voltorn, who had been about to drink his tea while comforting the Wendigo, was so startled by the Wendigo’s unexpected revelation that he choked. Angrboda smiled slightly and wiped the spilled tea with a handkerchief.

Voltorn apologized to Angrboda and calmed himself. He was a bit embarrassed that his lie had been exposed, but there was still another lie that hadn’t been discovered…

“And the part about your wife crying at the wedding is also a lie.”

“Oh my! That’s correct. It wasn’t me who cried that day, but him. He cried so loudly.”

“Ahem! Hrm!!!”

As his embarrassing past was revealed, Voltorn gulped down his tea and repeatedly cleared his throat.

He had chosen to test with his most vivid memories, only to suffer such humiliation.

“… It’s a bit embarrassing, but I’m convinced by your words. To think that the one who gave birth to armor spiders was a cursed woman.”

“That’s a natural reaction. After all, Zeloa was a woman who fled from the far south, not the north. Who could easily believe someone escaped all the way from there to here?”

“If what you say is true… then what’s the reason the armor spiders suddenly started behaving strangely?”

Realizing that the Wendigo hadn’t been deceived by Zeloa, Angrboda was puzzled.

If his words were true, Zeloa was a monster who had been hiding for thousands of years, so it would have been normal for the armor spiders to act collectively from the beginning.

To be honest, even the Wendigo couldn’t give a clear answer to that question.

‘If we assume the period when armor spiders moved independently was when Zeloa was in a deep sleep…’

That would mean the armor spiders began showing collective behavior after Zeloa awakened.

However, the condition of Zeloa that the Wendigo observed was extremely precarious. She was someone who couldn’t endure even decades without falling into sleep.

What could have caused her to suddenly wake up and become active?

“… It seems the return of the gods has affected her as well.”

The Wendigo judged that the return of the gods was the most likely reason. Most of the mysterious events in this world could be attributed to gods and spirits.

Especially since Zeloa’s life’s rise and fall were all related to the gods.

“As the gods returned, the curse regained its power, and because of that, she couldn’t sleep and began repeating her past behaviors.”

“That’s not entirely implausible. Before she resigned herself to her fate, she must have been preparing to take revenge on the gods.”

Methods of revenge varied, but from Zeloa’s story, the Kingdom of Sparti was one that pursued military power to the extreme.

Naturally, it wasn’t strange for Zeloa, who grew up in such a kingdom, to prepare for revenge in the way she had been taught and followed.

“Really, if she wanted revenge so badly, she should have stayed and fought to the death instead of running away…”

Voltorn frowned and grumbled. Just from hearing the story, Zeloa was sufficiently unlikable.

She called herself a warrior but didn’t know how to show respect to enemies and tortured them, and on top of that, she caused trouble everywhere without showing any remorse for her sins.

The Wendigo nodded in agreement and said.

“She swallows what’s sweet and spits out what’s bitter.”

“I’ll inform the other tribes about this immediately and ask for their help. In a world where few are more dangerous than beasts that view killing as entertainment, other tribes will surely help us.”

The subjugation of Zeloa was an inevitable necessity. It was uncertain how strong a thousands-year-old monster cursed by a god would be, but if the Hrimtur of the snow fields united their strength, there would be nothing they couldn’t overcome.

And if Gulmarg joined them, defeating Zeloa wouldn’t be a problem unless there were additional variables…

“Just in case, I’ll prepare for battle separately.”

“Separately?”

“Well… you’ll see when the time comes.”

“?”

When the Wendigo avoided explaining, Voltorn blinked in confusion.

* * *

Voltorn and Angrboda moved quickly, sending envoys to each tribe to inform them of the truth behind the armor spiders’ unusual behavior.

Of course, it wasn’t an entirely smooth process. It was hard to believe that a monster no one had heard of, not even from their great-grandfathers, was lurking beneath the snow fields.

Most tribes couldn’t easily trust the information provided by Voltorn and Angrboda.

However, considering this, a surprisingly large number of tribes accepted Voltorn’s request and began to gather.

This was thanks to Voltorn and Angrboda’s reputation. The fame they had built while wandering through snow fields, forests, mountains, and plains in their youth was enough to earn respect from other tribes.

A young chieftain spotted Voltorn and Angrboda on a mammoth and rushed over, his eyes shining as he greeted them.

“I’m delighted to meet the renowned Voltorn. It’s an honor to meet the hero my father spoke of so often.”

“Thank you for responding to my call. I’m glad your father held me in such high regard.”

“My father always said he would have died if not for you, Voltorn. Thanks to you, my father lived a full life, so of course I had to respond to your call.”

As the young chieftain made his opening remarks, other chieftains who had been waiting for an opportunity came forward to pay their respects. Most were young chieftains who had grown up hearing of Voltorn’s exploits.

How could they contain their excitement at meeting in person the snow field hero they had only heard about from their fathers or brothers?

“Could you perhaps tell us some of the old stories?”

“Well, I—urk!?”

When Voltorn was troubled by the unexpected attention, a chieftain of his age approached, roughly put his arm around Voltorn’s shoulders, and dragged him away.

Voltorn turned his head at the heavy but familiar sensation. Soon his face lit up with joy.

His close friend, the one-eyed Golgota, was smiling with his distinctive skull armor rattling.

“You still don’t know how to enjoy the respect of young people, now or then. But I’m relieved to see you’re healthy.”

“Golgota, you’re the same as ever! No, wait, has your skull changed?”

“Come on, when have you ever seen me keep the same skull for more than a month? Anyway, if what you said is true, I’m quite excited. The bones of such a monster would surely make excellent weapons.”

“You really haven’t changed…”

Voltorn shook his head at his friend’s obsession with targeting the monster’s bones. The occasion of their first meeting was also when they hunted a lightning whale together.

Even then, his friend had risked his life to obtain whale bones, so it wasn’t strange that he was fixated on monster bones.

Golgota seemed to notice Voltorn’s thoughts and burst into laughter, patting his back.

“This guy! But the situation is much better than back then! At that time, only six tribes joined us for what everyone said was an impossible task!”

“Well, that’s true.”

The lightning whale was not only enormous but also possessed the power of lightning, making it a disaster for tribes that made their living by whale hunting.

Naturally, many tribes believed it was impossible to hunt the lightning whale, which was why only six tribes participated in the subjugation.

Thinking about it that way, the current situation was indeed much better.

More than ten tribes had gathered to subjugate the monster.

“By the way, those friends over there are new to me… they look quite peculiar.”

“Huh?”

When the usually bold and fearless Golgota pointed somewhere with a dubious expression, Voltorn turned his gaze in confusion.

There stood the Wendigo. More precisely, there were Wendigo’es’.

Thirty identical Wendigos were walking out of the forest in a group.

Golgota unconsciously placed his hand on his sword due to the strange eeriness. The sight of them walking with uniform steps without making any sound was that unsettling.

Halt.

The Wendigos stopped right in front of Voltorn. At the strange spectacle of dozens of footsteps stopping at once, Voltorn unconsciously swallowed.

The largest Wendigo at the front spoke.

[[ Sorry for being late… Oh, I made a mistake. ]]

“M-monster! No, a spirit? Anyway, it’s suspicious!!!”

“You damned friend. It looks different from what you described!”

When thirty Wendigos simultaneously uttered the same words, their voices resonated and echoed, causing the Hrimtur warriors to panic and draw their weapons, pointing them at the Wendigos.

“……”

Voltorn held his head in trouble. He needed to explain that they weren’t monsters, but even he found it unconvincing.

As Voltorn heaved a deep sigh, the Wendigo scratched his shoulder and apologized.

“I’m sorry. It’s been a while since I controlled my duplicates, so I made a mistake.”

“Haah…”

Of all the mistakes to make, he had to do something so incredibly suspicious…

The thought of having to explain this already gave Voltorn a headache.