Chapter 41 : I Wish There Were No Annoying Things

It took three days just to cross the border into the Levath Kingdom from the royal capital.

And then, it took another day to finally reach the capital city, so just the travel alone had already drained me completely.

Still, showing any sign of fatigue is forbidden in the political world.

Especially when meeting the king of a foreign country, it’s all the more important.

“Welcome, guests of the Rezel Kingdom.It pleases me to hear you’ve come to aid our country.”

The old man’s words echoed quietly through the audience chamber.

Yet, contrary to his words, there wasn’t a hint of joy on his face.

For someone asking for help, he seemed oddly detached.

“You must be exhausted from the long journey.Today, rest and recover from your travels.We’ve also prepared accommodations for you.”

I’m tired to death, so why can’t they just leave me alone?

Though I wanted to say that, I had to hide my true feelings and thank him politely.

Politics is like that—there’s no helping it.

Let’s think of it as saving energy for the trip to Snowite starting tomorrow.

“Ugh… I’m dying here.”

Still, perhaps because we were guests who came to help, they seemed willing to be generous with hospitality.

I was given a room far larger than my own back home, all to myself.

The bed was big enough for me to roll around in, and I immediately threw myself onto it.

The soft mattress swallowed my body, slowly gnawing away at my accumulated fatigue.

Ah, now I finally feel alive again.

“I wonder if Madam Linz is staying in a room this big too?”

She and I had been assigned separate rooms.

If we hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to show such an unguarded side of myself.

I wanted to take a nap like this, but I couldn’t, just in case someone came in.

Knock knock knock.

“Count Christian, may I come in for a moment?”

See?

Barely had the thought crossed my mind when someone came knocking.

At the sound of the voice, I quickly got up from the bed, hid my discomfort, and put on a smile.

Let’s see who’s ruining my rest.

“Yes. Please come in.”

As soon as I gave permission, a woman opened the door and entered.

She wore a flowing pink dress.

Her long, slender eyes and stiff, rigidly set lips made her look like she was carved from stone.

The jewel-encrusted rings and necklace she wore seemed almost ostentatious, clashing with her stern demeanor.

“Forgive me for visiting when you must be tired.”

Saying that, the woman naturally sat down at the table prepared in the room.

Usually, a guest would wait for the host to sit first, wouldn’t they?

‘Well, I am just borrowing this place, since I’m a guest in a foreign country.’

I decided not to get upset over every little thing.

I sat down facing her.

“It’s an honor to meet you.I never thought I’d have the chance to see the famous mage in person.”

“You know of me?”

“Of course.The Count’s name is well known even in our country.”

Am I really that famous?

Hearing that I’m known even in another country made me feel embarrassed, but also proud.

“They say you’re a rare genius—leading your house at such a young age and already having reached the realm of Archmage.Honestly, I’ve heard so much about you, it’s almost enough to make my ears bleed.”

But at that moment, her words, laced with thorns, quickly deflated my swelling pride.

Maybe it was just my imagination.

But her snake-like sharp eyes seemed to be glaring at me.

Did I do something wrong?

I don’t even know this woman; this is our first meeting.

“…By the way, I forgot to ask—may I have your name?”

Trying to shake off the unpleasant feeling, I changed the subject.

The woman chuckled quietly as if she had just remembered, and finally introduced herself.

“I apologize for the late introduction.I am Rosiria Velerence, the Third Princess of this country.”

“A princess?”

I was so shocked I nearly threw my arms up.

But I managed to stop myself from acting foolishly.

Instead, I quickly stood up and bowed deeply.

“It’s an honor to meet you.Forgive me for not recognizing someone so distinguished.”

Ugh.

If she’s a princess, she could’ve said so earlier!

“…As expected, someone like me isn’t even worth noticing.”

“Sorry?”

“It’s nothing.You don’t need to be so formal—please, lift your head.”

Did I just hear something weird?

Although it bothered me, since she told me to sit, I sat back down.

In an instant, an uninvited guest had become an unexpected VIP.

Still, how could the atmosphere be so different even though Victoria is also a princess?

I guess that proves she’s the odd one.

“Um, Your Highness, may I ask why you came to see me…”

“I just wanted to meet the people who’ll be heading to Snowite tomorrow in advance. Also, I wanted to meet you separately, Count.”

“Why would you… Wait. Your Highness, are you going too?”

A princess of the kingdom personally going to a place nicknamed the Frozen Hell?

Even ordinary nobles hesitate to go, and yet a royal is? 

That was a bit surprising.

“Well, things just turned out that way. But unlike all of you, I won’t actually be climbing the mountain. I’ll just show my face as the person in charge.”

“Ah… I see.”

For a second, I thought it was something else.

Anyway, more importantly, the fact that this woman was in charge of the Endrago retrieval tomorrow somehow didn’t inspire confidence.

Her delicate hands and fair skin suggested she hadn’t done any hard work in her life.

‘Wasn’t this supposed to be a really important mission? Then why…?’

The distrust I felt toward her only grew, piling on top of the doubts I’d already been harboring.

Even the king hadn’t seemed particularly urgent or anxious.

It was almost as if the Endrago wasn’t that important after all.

If they were relaxed enough to just send a figurehead and worry about appearances, then there would’ve been no need to ask for help from another country in the first place.

“Your Highness, this might be a sensitive question, but… why exactly does the royal family want to retrieve the Endrago?”

I figured it would just give me a headache if I kept wondering, so I decided to just ask directly.

Of course.

“That’s a secret. I can’t tell you.”

I hadn’t expected her to answer easily, but still.

She didn’t even bother trying to come up with an excuse.

Which, if anything, only confirmed that there was definitely something fishy going on.

“Well, I suppose we’ve exchanged enough greetings. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

It seemed Princess Rosiria intended to end the conversation with that uncomfortable remark.

Honestly, I wanted to grab her shoulder as she was about to leave and demand to know her true intentions.

But since there was nothing else I could really say, I had no choice but to sit there alone, trying to sort through my tangled thoughts.

“As long as we get the Endrago, it should be fine… but something smells really fishy.”

Either way, having come this far, I couldn’t exactly back out now.

Even if there was another scheme hidden behind this, I’d just have to deal with it.

“I just hope it doesn’t turn into a big hassle…”

At this point, all I could do was pray that everything was just a figment of my imagination.

*

It had already been tedious enough riding in the carriage all the way to this country, and even the journey to Snowite itself took a full day.

I’m seriously going to get sick of this at this rate.

And as we got closer to the land where the mountain was located, patches of snow began to appear on the ground, until eventually, it reached the point where the carriage couldn’t go any farther.

So, in the end, we had to continue on foot from the halfway point.

Damn it. 

A snowstorm in the middle of summer, really?

“It feels like this land has fallen into another world, doesn’t it?”

Madam Linz, who was traveling with us, spoke, and she was absolutely right.

I had already heard that Snowite was a mountain where the snow never stopped falling, all year round.

But seeing it with my own eyes and feeling it with my own body, I finally understood the true meaning of those words.

A heretical land that even rejected the will of the summer sky.

It felt like I had fallen into a world more winter-like than any winter I had ever experienced.

Because of the blowing snowstorm, it was hard to see ahead, and my feet sank into the snow, making it difficult to walk.

Thanks to the clothes enhanced with thermal magic, I could at least stave off the cold, but the closer we got to the mountain, the less effective even that became.

Well, of course it would.

They said the blizzards blowing from Snowite could even erode mana.

Honestly, at first I had scoffed, thinking there was no such thing, but now I could actually feel the mana within my body ever so slightly diminishing.

‘This place is full of nonsense. It’s a complete mess.’

Suddenly, a passage carved into an ancient ruin I had once explored flashed through my mind:

Hear, those who set foot on that mountain.

Turn back, and abandon all thoughts of climbing.

There, God has fallen into eternal slumber; do not seek to wake Him with your footsteps.

Those who climb will close their eyes under the wrath of the heavens, that even God cannot withstand.

Everyone who read that passage believed it referred to Snowite.

I had thought the same — and now, that belief had turned into certainty.

“I can see it!”

Beyond the swirling snowstorm, something began to faintly come into view.

A massive presence that soared into the sky.

Even lifting my head, I couldn’t see the top; it was so high it made even the resolve I had before coming here waver for a moment.

There was no need to say what it was.

Because there was no other word for it but mountain.