NOVEL NEXT Chapter 148: Someone Lives Here
"Goodbye, Norma," Luo Wei smiled from the carriage window, her fingers lightly resting on the frame. "I look forward to your letter."
"I will write, noble lady." Norma bowed deeply in farewell.
The herdsmen stepped aside, watching the carriage and knights disappear into the distance.
Only when the carriage's shadow became barely visible on the distant glacier did they rise from the ground, looking excitedly toward Norma.
"Norma, can we go to Demon Island with you?"
Norma nodded, "The lady gave me plenty of coins. I think it should be enough for us to rent a boat together."
Thinking of the lady who had just left, a smile appeared on Norma's face.
The Demon Lord was all-knowing. He knew a kind noble lady would pass by today, which was why He had specifically guided them here.
Only the envoy of Koevikros, the God of Death and Time, could possess such divine power to foresee the future.
The God of Death and Time was truly the most merciful deity in this world.
Only He would bestow miracles upon lowly commoners like them.
While those so-called gods, enshrined in golden temples and dwelling high in the clouds, were nothing but decorative figures.
Norma thought sarcastically - who said the Northerners were irreverent?
They simply didn't worship mere ornaments.
...
Under the vast sky, the endless ice desert stretched as far as the eye could see, seemingly merging with the horizon.
The carriage traveled between valleys, horse hooves echoing through the canyon.
Four days ago, they had set out from the Bidogit Highlands, heading west for nearly 375 miles.
They were now only about 125 miles from the City of Exile.
The ice plains were indeed more visually striking than glaciers. While glaciers showed traces of life, the plains were an uninhabited zone frozen for millions of years.
Ice thousands of feet thick covered both land and sea. Dry, bitter winds ravaged the earth, howling from all directions with an eardrum-piercing noise that paradoxically created a sense of silence.
Here, no one could survive alone.
The deathly silent plains, where sky and earth blurred together, would drive a solitary person mad.
Less than two hours after entering the ice plains, the group of six lost their way in the frozen wilderness.
Troy blew his bone whistle, summoning the griffin down to guide their direction from above.
"Screech—"
The eagle's piercing cry echoed across the ice plains as the griffin flew at varying heights, cleverly choosing a gentle and wide route for them.
After traveling several dozen more miles, Troy rode back from the front: "My lady, we've reached the northern border of West Sita Kingdom."
"We have? Let me see."
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Luo Wei stepped down from the carriage and gazed into the distance.
"Over there." Troy dismounted and pointed ahead at an enormous crevasse.
"I see it - there's a stone fortress down there," Luo Wei asked for his opinion, "Shall we rest there for the night?"
The winds were fierce on the ice plains at night, reaching speeds of 180 mph, and temperatures dropped extremely low. Most importantly, there was no combustible material to be found in the wild, making it dangerous to spend the night outside.
One might go to sleep and never wake up.
Troy realized this too and nodded, "Very well, I'll go scout the situation first."
"Go ahead, I'll wait here," said Luo Wei.
By her estimate, the castle was only about 5 miles away, situated beneath a narrow rocky mountain in the ice plain crevasse. Thick snow surrounded it on all sides, seeming ready to engulf the castle at any moment.
It was hard to imagine anyone would build a castle in such a place.
Luo Wei wondered how the people living there obtained food and what fuel they used for cooking.
Troy took a detour into the valley beneath the crevasse, his armor reflecting dazzling white light against the gray-black rocky slope.
Luo Wei watched him ride up to the castle gates and linger outside for a while, hesitating to enter.
She suddenly noticed something was wrong - in such cold weather, there wasn't a trace of smoke rising from the castle.
Could the castle be uninhabited?
"Yves, drive down there, let's take a look," Luo Wei immediately ordered.
"Yes, master."
Yves drove the carriage along Troy's route toward the castle at the foot of the rocky mountain, with Gal and Belial following on horseback.
At the castle entrance, Luo Wei's suspicions were confirmed.
The castle gate had a large hole as if smashed by something heavy, with half the door lying on the ground. Several sections of the wall had collapsed, leaving many fallen stones.
The carriage passed through the gates to an even more gruesome scene.
Over a dozen bodies lay scattered at the entrance, covered in blood with faces trampled beyond recognition by horse hooves. Black-purple flesh showed through dark red blood, with a layer of meat paste spread across the ground.
Due to the extreme cold, the bodies showed no signs of decay, making it impossible to determine time of death.
To avoid damaging the bodies, Luo Wei had Yves park the carriage at the castle entrance while she went in alone.
Many stone houses were built along the mountainside within the walls. Each had a peculiar shape, constructed crudely like piles of rocks stacked by children playing house.
Luo Wei could barely distinguish which openings were doors and which were windows - they were all the same size.
The stone houses were dim inside. As she looked through them, she found no people - or bodies - in any of them.
There was little furniture, no cooking utensils, no beds or wooden tables. Thick layers of hay were scattered in the corners of the houses, likely serving as beds.
Luo Wei discovered some wheat straw among the hay, indicating this place wasn't completely isolated. The former residents must have traveled to farming regions in the south to trade for necessities.
The mountain-hugging stone houses were stacked like building blocks. Looking up, no house stood out - they were all equally dilapidated.
Hoofbeats approached from afar. Luo Wei turned to see Troy emerging from the other side of the castle.
"Why did you come down?"
"What took you so long?"
They asked simultaneously. Troy answered first: "I searched the place - no survivors."
"I figured as much," Luo Wei said, looking around. "This place seems long abandoned. Those bodies at the gate - can you tell who they were?"
"Probably descendants of exiles," Troy dismounted and patted his horse's neck soothingly. "In ancient times, some banished criminals couldn't travel any further when they reached here, so they built houses with stones."
"Later exiles passing by saw the stone houses and gradually settled here."
Compared to the law of the jungle in the City of Exile, life here, though basic, was much more peaceful.
"There are many castles like this on the ice plains."
"Some herdsmen hide here with their livestock in winter to avoid bandits. These places are hard to spot unless viewed from above."
Luo Wei: "If it's so well hidden, why were they killed?"
She was referring to the bodies at the castle entrance.
This puzzled Troy as well. He shook his head, "I don't know."
"Tie up the horses and let's go up for a look," Luo Wei lifted her skirts and climbed the steps beside the stacked stone houses. "Did you check up there?"
"Not thoroughly," Troy followed behind her, "but the stone houses up there have collapsed. Probably uninhabitable."
"Probably?" Luo Wei sighed, "Many 'probablys' turn out to be wrong."
They climbed up the wobbling stones all the way to the top of the fortress without seeing a single person.
There were no bloodstains on the ground, nor any leftover food or firewood in the houses - clean as if completely ransacked by bandits.
Several brown-feathered, white-bellied birds circled overhead, making short, trembling "tiri-tiri-te" calls.
"Snow buntings."
"What?" Troy hadn't heard clearly.
"Those little birds flying up there are called snow buntings," Luo Wei said, looking up at them with a curved smile. "Troy, would you believe me if I said there are people here?"
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