“Your Highness the Princess, in my opinion, carrying out a mission like this at such a time is practically sending someone to their death! It’s true that we Northerners don’t like getting involved in conflicts, but we can’t just stand by and watch people walk to their deaths. Even if you weren’t the Princess, I’d still say the same thing.”
Leanna sat up abruptly from the bed covered in medicinal herbs and river stones, her expression serious—a complete departure from before. There was even a hint of reproach in her voice now.
“Whoever proposed this assessment content is being far too unreasonable… If these words offend His Majesty, then please forgive my strong language, but… this truly is too much!”
“This wasn’t Father’s suggestion. It was a trial set by Lady Ertel. Since she is the personal knight I have chosen, it is only right that I accompany her on this adventure.” Cecilia was still lying on the river stones, feeling the heat slowly rising beneath her.
Leanna crossed her legs and stared at Cecilia for a long moment. “Your Highness the Princess, we Northerners aren’t good at beating around the bush, and I have no other intentions. Now that I’ve told you the current state of the Everfrost Wasteland, if you insist on going, I’ll make preparations for you as soon as possible.”
“I’ve already made my decision, Miss Leanna.” Cecilia’s reply was concise, yet carried extraordinary weight.
Leanna nodded heavily and lay back down on the river stones.
After enjoying the bath—or rather, after Cecilia had become so drowsy from the heat that she was barely conscious—the three of them changed clothes and left the enormous public bathhouse. The cold wind struck them again, but Lita no longer felt chilled at all. Instead, she still felt somewhat warm. At the very least, this bath had done her considerable good.
Next came dinner in Snowfall City. Leanna led the two of them to the banquet hall of the city lord’s mansion and seated them down. Then she called over a young girl. This girl was even younger than Leanna, with blue hair similar to hers.
“This is my younger sister, Shirley. Once Your Highness the Princess has rested, she will lead the rangers to escort you to the Great Wall.” After Leanna made the introduction, Shirley politely paid her respects to Cecilia and sat down across from Lita.
Immediately, servants brought over large pieces of grilled meat skewered on bamboo sticks, big mugs of beer and fruit juice, along with some special foods rarely seen in the Royal Capital.
Cecilia couldn’t drink alcohol. Even if she wanted to, Lita would stop her for the sake of her own peace of mind, so she could only drink fruit juice. But Lita still sampled some of the Northern realm’s fine liquor. It had a high alcohol content and a rich, mellow flavor. The only pity was that Lita’s Poison Resistance prevented her from getting truly drunk.
The grilled meat was much more delicious. It was seasoned with only basic spices and salt, but the unique flavor of the animals raised in the North’s cold environment—with their thick fat and tight, juicy meat—was unmistakable.
During the meal, they chatted a bit more about matters related to the Everfrost Wasteland, then ended the day’s hospitality early.
At Cecilia’s request, Lita once again shared a room with her that night. The guest room’s double bed was more than enough for the two of them. After the lights were extinguished, Lita finally seized the opportunity to whisper to Cecilia.
“Leanna was so opposed to us going to the Everfrost Wasteland from the start, and she mentioned that Rosalia is near the Great Wall. Could there be some connection between them? Is she worried our presence might affect something?”
“No, that’s not it. Leanna is right. The people of the North only care about what lies beyond the Wall. They’ve always turned a deaf ear to the struggles in the Royal Capital. In the past, some have tried to win them over, but most attempts came to nothing. They might hold goodwill toward a certain Princess, but they won’t interfere because of it.”
“Then Ertel is basically sending me to my death?!”
“That might be one of the scenarios she’s considered, but I don’t think she would do something so malicious.” Cecilia rarely spoke up on behalf of others. “Given your identity, if you want to prove that you pose no threat to the Kingdom, you can’t do it by simply killing a few enemies.”
Lita thought about the mission Ertel had given her, and she deeply understood that going to the Everfrost Wasteland under these circumstances meant her task was no longer just about taking a few Wight heads.
“So it’s not just about killing a few enemies now? No, the ones I need to kill probably aren’t easy to deal with anyway.” Lita was half talking to herself, half complaining to Cecilia.
“If you direct your wariness toward House Snow in the right direction, you’ll figure it out on your own.” Cecilia sighed, but she still carefully explained her perspective to Lita. “The war in the Everfrost Wasteland won’t be a small matter, and it won’t end quickly just because we get involved. Therefore, this war will certainly be observed by all parties. And your appearance on the battlefield, regardless of the pretext, will to some extent prove that your allegiance lies with the Kingdom.”
“But I still don’t understand. Does that clear me of suspicion?”
“Of course not. Don’t forget that you have to achieve something. Using the blood of other races to solidify your identity—that’s not something just anyone can bring themselves to do. So even if you truly had ulterior motives, I, or the nonexistent faction behind you, would end up making enemies of the Wights as well.”
As she spoke, Cecilia slipped her cold hand under Lita’s clothes and lightly poked at the spot where Lita’s tail would be.
“Besides, for an ordinary person, venturing rashly into the Everfrost Wasteland is tantamount to suicide. But in Ertel’s eyes, you’re no ordinary person.”
Lita now understood that Ertel didn’t intend for her to die, but the road ahead was still fraught with difficulty.
Early the next morning, after Cecilia expressed her desire to set out as soon as possible, Shirley, who had taken Leanna’s place, mounted her war horse and led a team of four riders to escort Cecilia toward the Great Wall.
With Northerners leading the way, Lita didn’t need to bother using Pearl for navigation. But she also couldn’t easily use Charm Aura to control the pony. The four rangers appeared to be well-trained elites, fundamentally different from ordinary cavalry. If it came to a direct confrontation, Lita estimated that, without any restrictions, she could handle two of them at most.
Along the way, Lita noticed that Shirley’s personality was somewhat different from Leanna’s. Leanna was warm but knew her limits, while Shirley was simply excessively enthusiastic, with seemingly boundless energy. Lita found it quite comfortable to get along with someone like that, since she herself wasn’t used to complicated etiquette or strict hierarchies.
Another advantage of traveling with Shirley was that there was no need to deliberately seek out towns for rest. Their Wilderness Knowledge allowed them to camp out in the wild. All things considered, they didn’t need to exhaust the horses by traveling day and night like Lita had done, yet they still got adequate rest, and their pace wasn’t slow at all.
After three days, Lita could already see a massive shadow stretching across the horizon. At first, she thought it was another mountain range—after all, the North was full of endless snowy peaks.
But as the horse team continued forward, the shadow gradually came into focus. It was a colossal wall made entirely of ice and snow, like a frozen tidal wave abruptly solidified at the edge of the world. Its height seemed to pierce the clouds, while its sides stretched beyond the horizon, merging with the pale, snow-covered landscape.
“That’s the Great Wall.” Shirley looked into the distance, following Lita’s gaze, her voice carrying a note of pride. “Impressive, isn’t it?”
In her original world, Lita had climbed the Great Wall. She had imagined that the so-called Great Wall of Despair would be a gray-white brick structure, at most a bit like the walls built to keep out giants in comics—just taller and thicker.
But she had never imagined that the entire wall was made of ice and snow. This thing far exceeded the category of a city wall. In any neighboring game, it would definitely be a wonder that would take dozens of turns to research.
Lita opened her mouth but couldn’t make a sound. It seemed that all words were rendered powerless in the face of such a magnificent colossus. In the end, Lita simply nodded.
“Yeah. Impressive.”
Cecilia also poked her head out of the carriage window, gazing at the distant ice wall. “How long until we reach the Great Wall?”
“Half a day.”
“Half a day?” Lita’s mouth fell open in astonishment, and the cold wind that blew in seemed to leave a few ice crystals in her mouth in that short time.
“It looks close, but it’s actually still very far. The wall is so tall that you can see it from a great distance, so most people misjudge the distance.” Shirley continued, adding, “No one really knows how the Wall was built, but it contains powerful magic. Getting to the foot of the Wall is only the first step. Crossing it and venturing deep into the Everfrost Wasteland—that’s the hard part.”
The team pressed on, but the sense of oppression only grew stronger. It was as if the giant wall wasn’t just a physical barrier impossible to cross, but also actively repelled all living things from approaching.
For the rest of the journey, the entire group became much quieter. Even the lively Shirley spoke considerably less.
It wasn’t until the sky was almost completely dark that Lita finally arrived at the foot of the Wall. By torchlight, she saw the scenery at the base of the Great Wall of Despair for the first time. It was truly a case of “holding up the sky and splitting the earth.” Even when Lita craned her neck back as exaggeratedly as if she were saying “Let’s go eat grilled meat tonight,” she could only see the middle section of the ice wall.
But right now, Lita had no mood to admire the Wall’s splendor. Just the journey to approach the Wall had already left her feeling as if she would freeze solid. The fur cloak she wore seemed completely unable to block the cold wind, which pierced her body like the steel needles of a Steelback Beast. No—the Steelback Beast’s needles weren’t this painful. For the first time, Lita truly understood the meaning of “the wind cuts like a knife.”
But a bright campfire was already flickering in the distance. If she could just get closer to it, she would find warmth—even if it appeared as only a tiny speck of light at the foot of the Wall.
After another few tens of minutes, that speck of light had grown into a spacious campsite covering considerable ground. The buildings here, made of stone and ice, looked very much like what Lita had originally imagined the Great Wall’s architecture would be. That wasn’t bad—at least this area clearly showed the handiwork of humans.
Before Lita could even let out a sigh of admiration for the camp, a deafening roar—one that seemed to shake the entire earth beneath her feet—came from directly below her.