Estel Hadassah El Ras (3)
Warming up in a cold environment is an essential element directly related to survival.
That’s why each animal has evolved a thick layer of fat, hide, and thick fur to survive the extreme cold.
Such was the wool of a sheep, such was the skin of a bear, and such was the fat layer of a seal.
So what did mankind do during that time?
Humans did not evolve on their own.
They have no thick layer of fat, no skin, no profuse hair. However, he committed an atrocity that was only allowed for Jo’s clothes, and that was the existence of cold-weather clothes.
If I don’t have it, wouldn’t it be enough to shear the fur of other animals, peel off their skins, and wear them?
The skin is removed, the unsightly blood and hair are removed, and after being softened through tanning, it is processed into clothes.
It is a vice and a right that only humans can enjoy. And here… are us in animal skins.
“Uh… it’s wet.”
“Be patient. It’s an idea you came up with.”
“still······.”
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Two people are inside the whole sheepskin.
Only the arm holes are pierced in the sheepskin, and two people fit inside like a sleeping bag. The side carried is to cling to the person in front and walk without hindering as much as possible.
– Hate! I won’t forget even if I die! I hate you, humans!
I feel like I’ve been cursed when I see the skin of a sheep’s scalp, which is bare because both eyes have been dug out and abandoned.
“Kyaaak! Mmm, the head! The scalp came in! It’s covered like a hat!”
It seems as if Estelle’s head was covered with a sheepskin that still held grudge even after death.
“Don’t struggle! I hope your ears are warm too!”
“Aren’t you talking too much about someone else’s business?”
Estelle walks as if clinging to me inside the sheepskin. It was an unavoidable measure for both of them to endure the cold, but it cannot be denied that it was very out of shape.
“Uh… isn’t it heavy? Junior?”
“The fortunate thing is that the saintess is very lighthearted.”
“Isn’t it? I’m a bit like a feather.”
“Not quite like that.”
“At times like this, you have to agree with the woman’s words unconditionally, junior.
“Oops, I didn’t know that.”
Our tiki-taka flowed smoothly.
In this harsh cold weather, there was also the need to constantly check on each other in order not to lose consciousness, and Princess Estelle was an easy partner to talk to objectively.
It made me wonder if it was true that this person was the noblest person on the continent.
“Aren’t you hungry? Shall I feed you some melted snow?”
“Saintess, take that, and I’ll give you a cup of the bloodless one.”
“Ugh… how do you eat it because it’s empty?”
“Eat to live. And they say blood is more edible than you think.”
“Who is it?”
“There is. My older sister with a lot of money.”
Estelle was clinging to my back, passing food from time to time. It was mainly chilled squirrel meat and frozen berries, but it was okay in terms of energy replenishment.
We traversed the Iron Islands in this way.
During the day, they dug a hole in the snow to make a den, and slept together using sheepskin as a sleeping bag. At night, they walked north and north while looking at the stars.
In the meantime, he was almost caught by his familiars chasing him, but at that time, he escaped danger by disguising himself as a dead sheep buried in the snow.
“·······.”
“…a bit, very close.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s right?”
After spending 24 hours out of 24 hours skin-to-skin, we got used to it.
“Saintess, over there…”
“I checked too.”
Estelle also noticed something down in the snow hill and her pupils widened.
“Wizards. The pursuers… I don’t think they are.”
Estelle muttered in a low voice.
Beneath the snowy hill, a few wizards were doing something with their familiars.
A large ice golem moved the pile of stones, and spirits embodied in magic dug the ground.
The deformed Chimera was not mobilized for work, but it seems to have been sufficient as a guard dog.
“Looking at the heavy-hip guys coming this far, it seems like a pretty important thing.”
“Are you planning on raiding?”
“·······.”
I delayed answering for a while. I know what that place is doing.
An excavation team excavating the remains of giants. Assemble as many giants as you can with that, and cover the rest with cultured flesh and metal.
To do so, he had to obtain as many remains of giants as possible.
The problem is that I have a defenseless Estelle. I don’t know if I’m alone, but I don’t have the energy to attack the giant excavation team with Estelle.
“No, let’s move on. There’s no need to attract attention. Rescuing the saintess is the priority now.”
“Hmm…”
Estelle let out a hoarse voice. I couldn’t see her expression when she was carrying Estelle on her back, but it wasn’t hard to imagine her expression based on her voice alone.
“The morning sun is slowly coming up. Once we go further from here, we will be noticed. We dig a burrow nearby.”
Digging oysters was entirely up to me. She made a sheepskin for Estelle and hurriedly dug her eyes.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Just watch. You’ll get frostbite for nothing.”
“·······.”
Estelle, who cannot use her holy power, is no different from an ordinary person. In other words, unlike me, a knight, I have no tolerance for cold.
Above all, I am not selling with my bare hands.
Appropriately, he used the heat of the Clau Solas to melt the snow and widen the burrow. During this process, Estelle poured the melted snow into a bucket of water.
Estelle and I were barely able to get into the eye cave that was created and lay down. You can make it bigger, but any bigger than that will be noticed by the pursuers.
“Let’s go in.”
Once I pushed the sheepskin inside, I first went into the hole in the sheepskin and widened the space between the hides.
Estelle follows behind him. Estelle sticks her face in from the bottom of her chest and smiles awkwardly.
The past few days, they’ve been in a sheepskin sleeping bag together, but they still don’t seem to get used to it.
Well, even if it’s like this, when it’s time to fall asleep, we desperately cling to each other in search of warmth.
In front of the cold, where life is at stake, it is embarrassing and nothing.
“It’s all frozen hard meat now, but I still eat that.”
“Yeah. Do you want to eat, too?”
“One piece, please.”
Inside the eye sockets, where the only light was the fine reflected light that flowed in from the outside. We held a piece of frozen meat and kept a distance of less than 10cm.
“Ugh… It’s frozen and hard.”
“Give it to me. I’ll cook it a little.”
I engraved the rune of the sun on the meat that Estelle gave me. For cooking meat, Kenaz is better suited, but otherwise a fire will start in this small space.
– Chii!
Lamb cooked sizzling by the heat as the rune of the sun is engraved. I blew on the oil dripping as the ice and meat cooked and recommended to Estelle.
“It’s hot, so don’t touch it. Ah~ do it.”
“Ah… Is junior-sama okay?”
I’ve seen it a few times, but it looks strange. Estelle was embarrassed for a moment, but opened her mouth like a baby bird being fed by its mother.
– Yum.
Mumbling, chewing on the cooked meat, Estelle’s lips formed a faint smile. Eating meat makes me feel good.
The holy power must have lost a lot of stamina in the land of severe cold, but it is commendable that he does not show any signs of hardship.
“It’s delicious. Come on, juniors, too.”
“yes yes.”
We were able to finish a small but satisfying meal.
“Tonight, we’re going to go round and round to avoid the wizards. Soon you’ll see an icy road leading to the Dingle Peninsula, and you can cross over there.”
It’s not a big deal that I thought of this escape route.
In the Mage Tower subjugation episode, the wizards abandoned the Mage Tower and ran away, but in the previous episode, it was because they found out the route the wizards escaped.
The wizards of the Mage Tower rode a sleigh from the northern end of the Iron Islands and crossed the icy road to the Dingle Peninsula.
Did you know that seagulls are just beach chickens?
You will be preparing similarly this time.
“·······.”
As I was thinking about how to move tonight, I felt Estelle’s gaze.
Although it is in the dark, the usual smiley face has disappeared, and the face shape that is close to expressionless stands out.
“Why is that?”
“No, I think I’m more of an obstacle than I imagined.”
“Isn’t this the time to feel qualified?”
“Do you have any regrets, juniors?
“I don’t.”
there’s no way you can how important you are
“why?”
“I’m looking for someone, what reason do you need?”
“Uh… the type who feels rewarded by that?”
“Who doesn’t?”
I did a good job, but why do I feel bad?
“No, they don’t usually risk their lives to do good. If there were a lot of people like that, this world would be a utopia.”
“Neither does it.”
It’s a new feeling, but I think I’m on the pretty good side. Even Master and everyone else can’t praise me as a hero, so I’m impatient.
“I don’t regret it though. My choice was the right one.”
I said calmly.
“I was aware of someone’s unhappiness and had the ability to address it. That’s why I did it.”
There must be many reasons not to do it.
The premise that it is dangerous, difficult, and that you can get hurt. With good intentions, there are more reasons not to do it than reasons to do it.
“Even if there is only one reason to do it, isn’t that enough reason to do it?”
“and······.”
Two eyes blinking in the dark. It is like the gaze of an ornithologist who has seen even a natural monument.
“I… I’m very good at telling the truth.”
“Uh… isn’t it the other way around?”
“I don’t know who lies, and other people always put on a sincere face and say the truth in front of me.”
Estelle smiles bitterly, saying that she must be afraid of the Lord to lie in front of the saintess.
“That’s why you can always tell the truth as much as the facial expression. That’s why the lying expression was clearly visible.”
“Really? It’s like the chicken or the egg first.”
“But there really are people who are this sincere… That’s what I thought.”
As if sincerely admiring it, Estelle gradually lowered her voice as if she was muttering to herself.
“Awesome. Really.”
“Not to that extent.”
“No, that’s great. I’ve never seen a cool guy like my junior.”
“What is it, strange.”
“Haa… A good man like this usually has an owner.”
“Well… there are two candidates.”
“There is a goalkeeper, right?”
“huh?”
“But doesn’t a goalkeeper score a goal?”
Estelle smiled and made a cute expression.
“What does the saintess mean by that?”
“What what? What did I say?”
“No, it’s the goalkeeper’s goal…”
“What do you mean?”
“Ummm…”
Estelle burrows into Dorie’s arms and smiles. This part… the sisters resemble each other.
“Corin junior, you look cute when you look like this.”
“Oh no! Let’s refrain from that soft voice! Make your heart tremble!”
“It’s cold~ It’s cold~ Colin junior’s reaction is so cute~”
They just pick and drop men. This is a fairy or a saint.
Estelle, who had been bullying me for a while, sighed heavily.
“If at least the holy power had been restored, the situation would have been very different.”
“It is.”
Although Estelle herself possessed terrifying combat power, she was not a target that could be recruited as a party member.
So, what she can help with is a temporary buff through prayer. If Estelle’s holy power was still there, this prayer buff would have been of great help.
“Come to think of it, did you say that the holy power was sealed?
“・・・・・Yes. It feels like I’m recovering subtly, but even that goes right away somewhere.”
It’s definitely weird. As far as I know, Estelle’s holy power is the divine power left by the gods, and Estelle, the only half-blood Danan in this land, freely gathers them.
The blood has faded for a long time, but after all, she is a distant descendant of Balor and Dagda.
An atavism between a giant and a god-king manifested in a very rare case.
I don’t even know the principle that seals her power. Even in the game, in the previous rounds, she was still a captured princess.
“What did you do to me with the Holy Grail?”
“That’s why it doesn’t make sense to be captured by the Master of the Magic Tower. There was no Holy Grail back then.”
“Huh? I fought properly with the Master of the Magic Tower. I was defeated because my holy power ran out.”
“uh?”
“huh?”
something is wrong with the timing Wasn’t the saintess sealed at the time of escorting the sinners?
“I’ll check one thing. Then at what point did the saintess not be able to use her holy power?”
“When I woke up, it was the Magic Tower. It was only then that I couldn’t use my holy power.”
“·······.”
In other words, Estelle did something after coming to the Mage Tower.
As a simple example, I recalled the time when the power of the Hwaran was weakened.
Chickens invented the chicken dance. They’re just too embarrassed to admit it.
Jinbeob master Jiang Lun, he weakened Hwaran by feeding Jiangshi a deadly peach wooden board.
Estelle may have used a similar technique.
However, if he did it by hiding it in food, aside from Estelle not noticing, would his power be weakened or sealed even now, long after he got out of the Mage Tower?
“That’s right, junior. I don’t know why, but after meeting my junior, I feel a strangely warm divine power flowing in. Could this be because of my junior’s ‘sun’?”
“·······.”
The information I got from Estelle brought me great confusion.
How and what is the magic tower sealing Estelle’s holy power with? Could the magic tower seal the mechanism called holy power in the first place? That would punish priests who committed serious crimes in the church… Ah.
“······what’s the matter?”
“it’s nothing.”
Possibilities surfaced. But still how? The question remains.
More than anything, it is a question of whether it is right to speak in the current situation. This will create an altercation and possibly create a rift between Estelle and me.
There is no time for persuasion or resolution of arguments in a situation where survival is imminent.
‘I’d better talk about it after this situation is over.’
After the morning of the fourth day, it was the night to prepare for the move. We woke to an unfamiliar commotion, not at the scheduled time.
-Come on, come on!
– No, stop it! Stop these guys…!”
weird noise. The sound of metal hitting something and screams echoed.
“Hoo, junior? This?”
“······ It’s a battle. Who the hell is this here?”
Hey. do you know that snakes are bald?
Not to mention one side The Wizards of the Mage Tower I witnessed yesterday at the bottom of the hill. The question is who attacked the wizards of the Mage Tower.
“Ugh…”
Estelle cowered nervously, but we instinctively held our breath.
────!!
The bloody battle and the screaming continues. Who is it? Are you a support group? No, at this time, can reinforcements come here?
The question continued, but now the time has come to hold back even that thought. It was because the battle was over or something was approaching this way.
-Kong! kong! Oh oh oh!
A dog barking… No, it was rather loud for that. I think it’s closer to a wolf than a dog.
Were there dogs or wolves among the wizards’ familiars?
-Jerbuck! that buck!
big.
I heard the sound die as I stepped on the snow, but I could tell that the opponent was not an ordinary giant by the sound of stepping on the hollow. furthermore······.
-Jerbuck! that buck!
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-Jerbuck! that buck!
not one person–
-thud!
‘What was that?! What was that?!’
Even as I covered Estelle’s mouth, I was taken aback by this mysterious roar.
Do you hear this noise in the snow? How gigantic must it be… Could it be that the resurrection of the giants is over? Otherwise, this big…
All nerves are focused on the outside of the burrow. Information transmitted through hearing warns of danger.
Caught? Otherwise, there’s no reason to approach this snow cave higher up the hill than the wizards’ camp.
-Kong!
Sounds like dogs or wolves from earlier.
“Kouhai-nim, below…”
“·······.”
Where Estelle’s gaze descended. Even if she didn’t say anything, he was already heading there. i.e. at the entrance to the snow cave.
-·············.
“············.”
The entrance to the snow cave. Our eyes met with the guy with a sharp face.
Brilliant blue eyes. straight nose. Large and ferocious teeth are revealed along the raised corners of the mouth.
Didn’t I say earlier that they are closer to wolves than dogs? Yeah, that wasn’t a dog. Wolf… That’s a dire wolf that lives in the North Kingdom.
“after······.”
“Did you hear?”
“······yes.”
– Quaang!
The ceiling of the snow cave is smashed to pieces and something grabs us.