MTM 195

Zed stepped outside the inn and began walking. Then he suddenly looked up at the second-floor window where Harto was staying. His eyes, fixed on the frost-covered glass, were filled with worry he simply couldn’t hide.

‘…I know. I’m not worried.’

He’d said that just a moment ago inside the room to reassure Harto, but Zed simply couldn’t help but worry about him. It wasn’t only because of the fear that someone might break in while they were in an unfamiliar place. It was because Harto’s condition had deteriorated significantly on the way here.

Over the past three days, they had crossed rugged snow-capped mountains, camping only once along the way. Even though Harto had stayed in his monster form to conserve his energy as much as possible, he had shivered severely from the cold that night.

Even though they had shared a fur sleeping bag equipped with cold-resistant magic and he had wrapped Harto in his own body heat – which should have been more than enough to keep him warm – Harto’s shivering wouldn’t stop.

‘Harto…! Stay with me. Hm? Can you hear me?’

‘Haa! I-I don’t want a shot, uh… hmm…’

‘A shot…?’

By the next morning, his breathing had become labored and his body was running a fever, leaving Zed flustered. Unlike in the Forest of Life, his power wasn’t working properly this time, and Harto’s body just kept getting hotter.

Zed held Harto, who felt like a ball of fire, tightly in his arms, and tried every trick in the book. He even scraped together ice from the surroundings to cool him down.

Every minute and every second felt like an eternity, burning a hole in Zed’s heart. After that grueling struggle, it wasn’t until past noon that Harto’s fever finally began to subside.

‘Ah! Zed, did I sleep too long?! I’m sorry!’

But Harto himself was completely unaware that he’d even been sick. Seeing Harto apologize, thinking he’d simply passed out from the grueling journey and slept in, Zed’s heart ached, but he didn’t let on and prepared Harto’s meal as usual.

‘Harto, does it taste good?’

‘Yes! The potatoes and jerky are super sweet. They’re really delicious when you eat them with butter like this.’

He thought it was a relief that Harto’s appetite was just as hearty as ever.

But he had no idea how much longer this precarious situation could last. The thought that there wasn’t much time left made Zed feel anxious.

“There aren’t as many moored ships as I expected….”

Zed suppressed his complicated emotions, and headed toward the pier. He walked toward the icebreakers moored at the dock.

Thud! Clang!

Sounds echoed from somewhere. As he drew closer, he heard the sound of a sailor using a hammer to smash the thick layer of ice that had caked onto the tied mooring ropes.

“Excuse me. Do you know what time the ship departs tomorrow?”

The sailor, who had been finishing up breaking the ice and winding the rope, paused for a moment. He quietly raised his head, looked at Zed from head to toe, and then chuckled as he asked in return.

“Ruinbelt?”

It was a reaction no different from that of Boris. As if to suggest that the destination of all outsiders setting foot in Nordheim ultimately boiled down to one place, the sailor’s rough voice contained not a shred of doubt.

When Zed nodded with a stony expression, the man snorted and began winding up another frozen rope.

“Wake up. There’s no ship going to Ruinbelt.”

Zed was taken aback. Since there was no way to reach that treacherous island except by sea, the news that there was no ship came as a bolt from the blue.

“In my whole life, I’ve never seen a single person who boarded a ship bound for that place come back alive on their own two feet. Any sane person in their right mind would never sail a ship down that hellish route, unless they’re a madman so obsessed with money that they’ve got three or four lives to spare.”

The sailor clicked his tongue in disgust as he thudded a bundle of ropes as heavy as a boulder, onto the deck. He was already treating Zed as a dead man who would never return alive.

“Is there absolutely no other way? Like not docking fully at the island but just dropping us off in the nearby waters, or throwing in a little extra money, however much it might be….”

“Hmm….”

When Zed persisted without backing down, the sailor rubbed the scruffy beard on his chin. After a while he spoke up.

“Ah, now that you mention it, there used to be some guys who’d risk their lives doing that kind of crazy stuff. The guild guys, I mean.”

“Guild? Are there guilds in Arcadium too?”

Zed raised his voice without realizing it. It was hard to believe that private guilds were operating openly, evading the surveillance of the [visit our site]Arcadium Empire, a nation run by strict control and laws.

Moreover, he’d heard that no matter where you went in the Empire, they enforced strict regulations against illegal activities like outsiders entering the territory or smuggling, which made it even harder to believe.

‘But they probably couldn’t have maintained perfect control over a place like this. After all, it was a place where outsiders traveling to Ruinbelt used to come and go. It must have been too much for the imperial knights alone to maintain surveillance, so even if they deliberately created a guild, it wouldn’t be that strange….’

Zed analyzed the political situation of the Arcadium Empire in his own way and reached a reasonable conclusion.

“Heh heh… Hahahahaha!”

“……?”

Suddenly, the man clutched his stomach and burst into loud laughter. Seeing Zed’s bewildered expression, he chuckled and said,

“My friend, you’ve got a serious misunderstanding on your hands! While Nordheim is indeed part of the Arcadium Empire’s territory, it was the Nord people who put down roots and lived here long before the empire’s flag was ever raised.”

“Nord people…?”

“That’s right. We Nords have long been the continent’s greatest outlaws, ruling this harsh, icy sea for ages!”

The sailor stopped winding the rope altogether and sat on an old wooden crate nearby.

“Well, we’ve been toyed with by the imperial navy and mercilessly crushed by those pirates, so we’ve fallen into a pretty sorry state these days… Still, there’s one guild left, formed by a bunch of guys claiming to be descendants of the Nords. As soon as word spread that Hartiros had made his nest in Ruinbelt, these guys made a tidy profit by ferrying in the blind ones who came looking for a quick score.”

The sailor cast his gaze toward the distant horizon, reminiscing about the days stolen contentwhen the Nords roamed the seas freely, then turned back to look at Zed.

“If you really want to go there, try looking for ‘Wolf Hide.’”

“Is ‘Wolf Hide’ the name of the guild?”

“Yes, they’re the ones who walk around wrapped in wolf pelts.”

The moment the words “wolf pelt” caught his ear, Zed thought of Boris, the checkpoint guard. It might just be a coincidence, but that old man was wrapped head to toe in a wolf-pelt cloak. For now, the quickest course of action was to take care of his business and then go back to that man to confirm it.

As a token of gratitude for the information, Zed pulled out a silver coin and pressed it into the man’s hand.

“Oh? Thank you.”

The sailor slipped the silver coin into his pocket with a satisfied smile.

Zed quickly turned and hurried away from the pier. The sailor watched Zed’s sturdy figure recede into the distance, then grabbed the frozen rope to get back to his work.

“Ah.”

Suddenly, a memory came to mind.

“Come to think of it… I recall a fellow not too long ago who was looking for a ship to sail to Ruinbelt…”

The man shook his head vigorously to shake off the distracting thoughts brought on by the relentless cold sea breeze. The circumstances of some nameless ​Read on​stranger were none of his business. He picked up his hammer again and began to tap on the frozen rope, thud, thud.

***

Instead of a regular market, Nordheim had a fair that opened irregularly on days when the weather was mild enough. Fortunately, today happened to be just such a day, so Zed was able to easily procure the supplies they needed for their journey.

As he made his way to the busiest part of the market, he came across a stall selling crisp, freshly baked apple crumble cookies. He was reminded of Harto, who had once devoured a sweet apple pie until his cheeks were bulging. Zed immediately got in line and bought a generous supply of apple crumble cookies.

“Mom, I want some of that chocolate too!”

Just then, a mother and son who had been buying cookies right in front of Zed hurried off somewhere. As if spellbound, Zed followed them and picked out a few pieces of chocolate that Harto would like. As he gazed at one of the shiny, round chocolates, his eyes wavered slightly.

‘Look at this! The kids here gave me chocolate to eat.’

It was because a memory from the past had naturally surfaced in his mind— the innocent, guileless image of Harto, who had been so delighted to receive a “chocolate” gift actually goat dung carefully wrapped up —after being tricked by the mischievous pranks of the Belnok children.

‘Come to think of it… I guess he hasn’t had any real chocolate since that incident….’

Back then, he’d been so flustered that he’d just warned Harto not to eat something like that on his own. Thinking about it now, it was such a one-sided demand, and he felt a pang of guilt.

At the same time, a thought flashed through his mind: “Would Harto still believe it’s chocolate if I wrapped goat droppings nicely?” He chuckled. Just picturing that harmless, innocent face made his heart flutter.

It hadn’t even been that long since he’d been apart from Harto, but he already missed him.