Chapter 306:
Yu-hyun instinctively reached for the sword at his waist, but stopped his hand when he realized that the opponent was not a monster, but a human.
The man had covered his mouth with a hood and pulled a fur hat deep over his head, but he was clearly a human.
“Shh.”
The man gestured to Yu-hyun to be quiet, then lifted the hand that had covered Yu-hyun’s mouth and pointed quietly to the entrance of the cave.
Yu-hyun followed the man’s finger with his eyes and saw that the giant had stuck his face in there.
‘…!’
Yu-hyun’s eyes widened.
The giant was pushing his body into the entrance, trying to get inside.
Considering the size of the giant, he could only fit his head in the entrance, but surprisingly, the giant’s body was blending with the ice wall and slowly passing through.
‘He’s not an ordinary giant?’
As soon as he saw the face of the creature that had been hidden in the dark, Yu-hyun couldn’t help but be shocked again.
What he had thought was the creature’s face was made entirely of ice.
The ice giant, whose face looked like a roughly carved white ice block, had succeeded in passing his upper body through the wall.
That’s when the man next to him pulled Yu-hyun’s sleeve.
It meant that they should run away now.
‘Come to think of it, the movement of the giant passing through the wall has slowed down a lot.’
Yu-hyun realized that he could pass through the ice, but at a slow speed, and nodded his head.
The two of them went deeper into the ice cave.
There were paths everywhere, making it feel like a complex maze, but the man who led the way seemed to know the geography of this place very well and moved without hesitation.
After moving for a long time and thinking that they had shaken off the ice giant, the man stopped in his tracks.
“This should be enough.”
Hoo.
The man lowered his hood and let out a breath he had been holding.
The man who had been hidden under the hood was a curly brown-haired young man with a rather young face. He looked no older than his early twenties?
“Now you can talk. I think we’ve lost him.”
“…First of all, thank you for saving me.”
“Huh?”
The man, Ringug, looked surprised as if he didn’t expect Yu-hyun to thank him first.
Yu-hyun was rather puzzled by his reaction.
What was so surprising about saying thank you sincerely?
‘Besides, this man seems to know something about my appearance.’
He naturally saved him and there was definitely something going on.
Yu-hyun then saw his reflection on the smooth ice wall.
His skin was as white as freshly fallen snow without any blemishes.
His black and long hair contrasted perfectly with his skin.
His beauty was like a night sky woven with silk and flowing down, and Yu-hyun couldn’t help but admire it.
‘Is this what my body looks like?’
The mysterious feeling that came from his appearance showed that this body was not an ordinary human.
As Yu-hyun looked at himself through the ice mirror, the man who had been waiting quietly opened his mouth carefully.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Oh. Sorry. But how did you?”
“I’m going to return to the city for now. That’s why I’m asking. Are you coming with me?”
“…What do you want me to say? I have nowhere else to go, so I’ll follow you for now.”
“Is that so… Oh right, I forgot. My name is Ringug. What about you?”
“I am…”
Yu-hyun was about to introduce himself.
“Kaira.”
If his mouth hadn’t blurted out another name on its own.
Yu-hyun was startled by what he had said. But Ringug nodded his head as if he expected that name.
Yu-hyun couldn’t recognize his reaction.
“Mr. Ringug, you seem to know something?”
“I do. It’s not the first time this has happened.”
“How many times…?”
Yu-hyun recalled that this was not his first time here.
There were many Tellers who had been exiled to this place before him, and before them.
What would they look like if they had bodies?
‘They must have fallen here in this form too.’
And, Ringug said he had met some of those predecessors.
Seeing Yu-hyun’s expression, Ringug gestured for him to follow him, saying he knew it.
“Anyway, you won’t know much yet, so let’s just move. I’ll explain as we go along.”
“Okay.”
Yu-hyun followed Ringug and walked inside the ice cave.
Ringug explained to Yu-hyun as best he could from what he knew.
That there were several predecessors like him before Yu-hyun, and that the survivors here had gathered and formed a city and lived.
Yu-hyun listened to Ringug’s words and occasionally nodded and agreed with him.
The first thing he felt as he listened to the explanation was that this man named Ringug was very talkative.
He kept talking without a break, and it was amazing how he could do that. But it didn’t seem awkward or uncomfortable to listen to him, so he seemed to be born with it.
And the next thing he learned was that this world was worse than he thought.
One day, suddenly, the [Curse of the Frozen Land] erupted, and this world was covered with ice.
And the ice giants that were shaped by the curse popped out and roamed the world, killing every human they saw.
“What are those ice giants?”
“I don’t know the details. They appeared with the curse, so it must be something related to that. We call those monsters Yarnhorim. In our language, it means frost giants.”
“They look very dangerous.”
“Yeah. Yarnhorim, or frost giants, are not normally dangerous. You’ve seen it yourself, right? The way they slowly pass through the ice wall.”
Yu-hyun nodded.
The sight of them passing through the ice made of matter was like something out of a horror movie.
“They are made of ice all over their bodies. So if they touch you by mistake, you’ll freeze right away. Even our Guardians do.”
Guardians were the natives who lived in this world.
They were born with strong muscles and powerful strength, and they didn’t feel cold.
They were similar to Scots or Germans on Earth, but Guardians were much more superior.
Yu-hyun thought his body was similar to that of a Guardian.
“I can kill frost giants, but it’s hard for me alone. If I don’t cut their necks or aim for their core, they won’t die. I’m more of a scout and explorer than a fighter anyway. I happened to stumble upon them and I was lucky. I almost got caught by a frost giant if I was a little late.”
Before long, the two of them left the ice cave and walked across a wide and snowy plain.
The sky was still full of dark clouds and gloomy.
Occasionally, the wind blew and swept away the snow on the ground.
The huge rocks that were carved by the blizzard looked faint in the distance, like giant tombstones erected on the ground.
“Hmm. The weather has calmed down a bit now, so there’s no blizzard.”
“You don’t seem to react much.”
“Yeah. The weather has gone crazy since the Curse of the Frozen Land, so there’s hardly any case where the wind doesn’t blow like this. We were lucky. Let’s move quickly while we have this chance.”
The two crossed the vast ice land and soon faced a huge mountain.
“There it is.”
“Where?”
“There’s our city.”
There was a passage where one person could pass through at the entrance of the mountain.
Ringug went in first and Yu-hyun followed him.
It was similar to the ice cave where they had escaped from the frost giant earlier, but while the ice cave was naturally formed, this place was an artificially made passage.
As they continued to go in, the passage expanded.
The narrowed view widened in an instant, and a huge ice wall appeared in front of Yu-hyun’s eyes.
A majestic wall made of carved ice, and inside it were buildings that could be called a city enough.
Only the wall was ice, and the houses themselves were made of wood and stone.
And in the center stood a high spire that naturally caught his eye. 𝐟𝐫eewe𝗯𝐧𝚘ve𝐥.c𝚘𝚖
“Welcome. To the city of survivors, Gardian.”
A refuge for survivors carved out of a huge ice mountain.
This was Gardian, the last city built by Gardians who survived from the Curse of the Frozen Land.
***
As they followed Ringug through the gate, the air that touched their skin changed in an instant. Inside the wall, the temperature was warm like a spring day.
Yu-hyun could see the inside of the wall more clearly.
‘It’s quite gloomy, unlike the appearance.’
Although it smelled like people lived there, apart from that, the people’s faces were filled with depression and anxiety.
The people who walked on the dry pavement saw Yu-hyun and quickly avoided him. Some of them even gave him a hostile look.
Yu-hyun couldn’t understand such hostility as he was a stranger, and Ringug smiled bitterly and said.
“Sorry. You have to understand. Everyone is on edge. There have been a lot of casualties among the explorers lately.”
“That’s why…”
“You’re too wary of you? That’s natural.”
“Your predecessor, or his predecessor, must have done something bad.”
Ringug didn’t answer and just smiled bitterly.
As they passed through the market street where there was not much to sell, they reached a narrow square where a bunch of people rushed over and blocked Yu-hyun and Ringug.
Among them, a young man with a mean face glared at Ringug and Yu-hyun with his eyes wide open.
“Ringug. What have you done?”
“What did I do?”
“Don’t you know what you’ve done?! You brought that witch here!”
Yu-hyun knew who he meant by the witch.
He closed his eyes and sighed softly.
He didn’t know what the previous visitor had done, but it was not a normal situation when they were openly calling her a witch over there.
‘It doesn’t seem like anyone is going to stop them.’
He looked around and saw that people were just watching.
Maybe they had a good impression of Ringug because he treated them well.
He didn’t expect there to be so many people who rejected her like that.
“A witch? Hender. Don’t you think that’s a bit harsh?”
“Harsh? The harsh thing is your brainless action!”
The man called Hender shouted with more anger.
“Have you forgotten how the witch who came before was? What she did?! They are no help to us at all! They always look down on us!”
Ringug didn’t bother to argue with that. No, rather, it was more accurate to say that he couldn’t argue with that.
Hender lowered his voice and spoke to Ringug as if threatening him.
“Ringug. Get rid of that witch. For the sake of the Guardian.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. Hender. I’m an explorer and a searcher, and I just saved someone who almost died. And Hender. You’re not saying this for the Guardian, are you? If you really care about the Guardian, you shouldn’t be stuck in the city like this.”
“You… what does that have to do with anything!”
“What I mean is, you don’t have the right to say such things.”
“You bastard…!”
As Hender was about to scream something with a twisted face, a commotion came from behind his group like a wave.
Yu-hyun narrowed his eyes and listened.
From behind, he heard words like ‘It’s Lean.’ ‘Did he come to see her?’
At the same time, Ringug’s expression hardened as he taunted and provoked Hender.
Before Yu-hyun could ask who was coming, a man appeared through the crowd.
‘That guy is…’
He was a man with blond hair that was more brilliant than anyone else in this place.
Compared to most Guardians who had brown or gray hair, it was rare enough to make him wonder.
He looked like he was in his mid-twenties, but his half-closed eyes and gloomy face made him look older.
His decadent eyes, wearing fur armor, turned to Yu-hyun.
‘What’s with that look?’
Yu-hyun noticed for a moment that the young man’s eyes changed when he looked at him.
It was only a moment, and the man who was called Lean opened his mouth before he could point it out.
“Follow me.”
Lean said that and turned his body right away.
When Yu-hyun couldn’t do anything, Ringug pushed his back.
“Just follow him. My role ends here.”
“…”
Ringug, who had brought him here, wasn’t saying anything wrong. Yu-hyun nodded and followed Lean.
As he followed Lean, Hender glared at Yu-hyun as if he wanted to kill him. His followers were the same.
It was as if they wouldn’t forgive him if he made any mistakes.
Yu-hyun ignored their gazes lightly.
‘Where is he taking me?’
The place where Lean arrived was a slightly shabby inn.
Did this city need an inn? Before he could think about it, Lean led Yu-hyun into the inn.
Unlike the cold scenery outside, the inside was filled with warm warmth. It felt rather hot.
“This is where you’ll stay from now on.”
Lean left only those words and tried to leave right away.
“Wait a minute.”
“…What?”
Lean stopped in his place and asked without even looking back.
He acted as if he didn’t care about this side at all, but Yu-hyun didn’t care about that at all.
“I’d like to hear some explanation since I came here.”
“Explaining is not my role.”
“What…”
“I’m busy, so don’t hold me back. The owner of this place will take care of you.”
Lean soon left the inn with quick steps as if Yu-hyun would call him again. It was as cold as the winter wind.
“That Lean guy.”
Then someone came out of the kitchen with an annoyed voice.
It was a 40-year-old woman with a good figure and proud arm muscles. She glared at Yu-hyun who was standing blankly.
“What are you standing there for? Get your mind together. Just sit down somewhere.”
“Um…”
“You can use any empty room on the second floor. You don’t have any luggage anyway. Just stay inside and don’t attract attention.”
The innkeeper was not very friendly to Yu-hyun either. She said what she had to say and then went straight to the kitchen.
‘This doesn’t look good.’
This was supposed to be a city of survivors, but the survivors themselves looked hopeless.
Moreover, they were hostile to Yu-hyun, or rather, this being called Kaira.
There were some who were not like that, like Ringug, but the problem was that there were more who were not.
‘I have to find out more.’
To do that, he needed to get along with the others first.
Why did Lian bring him here? And who was that lady?
He was sure that he had some connection with Lian, the man.
“Huh? What are you doing?”
As Yu-hyun entered the kitchen, the innkeeper lady glared at him. Her thick arms twitched with muscles.
She looked threatening, but Yu-hyun smiled softly and answered.
“I was wondering if you needed any help.”
He needed to get along with her first.
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