GRP Chapter 6

Ullri and Baen made identical expressions with their identical faces. As if the sky were falling. The twins, having forcibly erased the despair from their faces, exchanged glances. They were sharing thoughts. Mariaeks waited calmly for an answer.

"I spilled some while making it. Ullri did."

"No, Baen did it. That's why today's is a bit less."

"I see."

"Yes."

"But why did you only put in reindeer meat?"

The twins exchanged glances again. This time they looked at each other for quite a while. After a long moment, they lifted their chins proudly and answered.

"We forgot to go get ingredients."

Ullri and Baen went down the mountain once a month to gather food for Mariaeks. Since it couldn't be found within Heimdrykze, they had to cross the frozen river at the divine realm's boundary. Mariaeks knew well that the land beyond was also a barren place buried in white snow. How they managed to bring back abundant food every time from such harsh conditions was beyond understanding.

When Mariaeks once voiced this question, the twins had shrugged as if it were nothing. 'To worship Master's beauty and greatness, humans come from distant lands to build altars at the foot of Heimdrykze's mountains and voluntarily offer tribute,' they'd said.

It seemed somewhat off, but what could she do when they said it was so? Thank you, always. When Mariaeks said that, the twins invariably narrowed their eyes sharply. Great gods don't give thanks. Since meeting them, Mariaeks had learned for the first time just how many things great gods weren't supposed to do.

'We just bring it back. It's no trouble.'

Though Ullri and Baen's voices saying those words remained vivid, time had apparently passed.

"Going every time got annoying. We'll go down tomorrow..."

Ullri and Baen answered with somewhat delinquent attitudes. Had a late adolescence arrived? Mariaeks's heart grew deeply troubled.

The adolescent wolves didn't play even when they saw the snow pouring heavily around midday. Mariaeks couldn't read at sunset as was her routine, distracted by their changed behavior. And somehow, even when full night came, the earth didn't tremble.

From one to ten, the entire day had been twisted. The one fortunate thing was that this moment hung at today's very end. Mariaeks closed her eyes and imagined tomorrow's Mariaeks. Tomorrow's Mariaeks was repeating the same days she'd repeated for a hundred years. She looked a bit bored, but not bad.

'I wish tomorrow would come quickly.'

Mariaeks finally fell asleep only as dawn approached.

A fierce wind knocking against the window woke Mariaeks faintly. Rattle, rattle. The window shook again. The moment her drowsy consciousness cleared, Mariaeks sensed something wrong.

She rushed to the window, pushed aside the snow piled on the sill, and flung it wide open. Cold air wrapped around her entire body in an instant. She stared at the sky staining with sunset, frozen like ice, not even blinking.

Mariaeks left her bedroom. She didn't even think to close the window. She looked through all the familiar spaces—the cracked corridors, the shabby storage room, the worn kitchen, the prayer room piled with odds and ends, the clearing outside the temple. But nowhere could she find the two spirits.

Great gods don't seek out their inferiors first. We'll come running if you call our names, Master. Ullri and Baen's bright voices echoed in her mind. Mariaeks spoke their names through white-blooming breath.

"Ullri, Baen."

There was no answer.

Mariaeks crouched in front of the temple door and waited for the twins. The thought occurred to her that they might have gone to fetch offerings. She raised her head and only watched the darkening sky. But even when night fell completely and the frost giants' welcome footsteps sounded, Ullri and Baen did not return.

Not the next day. Not the day after that.

Heimdrykze, the land where the world-destroying 'Void' was sealed. The reason Heimdrykze was called a divine realm wasn't because it was 'land where great gods live,' but perhaps because it was 'land where only great gods can survive.' A joke humans sometimes made.

Heimdrykze was land where beings far stronger than the gods the continentals revered dwelled. The presence of savage monsters and powerful gods alone made it unthinkable to approach, and with brutal cold driving through on top of that, there was nothing more to say. Not just humans but animals, insects, not even a single blade of grass could be seen. The absence of food was the most primal reason ordinary life forms couldn't survive.

Olgidphaenn was a region bordering the divine realm with only a river between them. Brutal cold wouldn't transform into warm air just by crossing a river, and powerful monsters wouldn't fear to cross frozen water. The conditions were hardly different from the divine realm. Rather, Olgidphaenn lacked the name of being sacred territory where gods resided, so only the essence of its environment stood out starkly. Ah, this really is no place to live—a land of death.

One hundred thirty-five years ago, a 'god' of Heimdrykze descended upon Olgidphaenn. They'd merely crossed a single river, but history books generally described it grandly as 'descended upon' or 'came down to human lands.' This was because an event occurred that could only be expressed that way. For reasons unknown, the god was enraged. As a result, all the land facing Heimdrykze and the life forms living upon it froze in an instant and met death. A catastrophe that caused tens of thousands of casualties.

One hundred thirty-five years later. Time had passed, but Olgidphaenn still hadn't recovered. The frozen land refused to thaw, as if trapped in eternal winter. Even now, corpses from that time were discovered regularly. That environment, that landscape, that event from a hundred thirty-five years ago—all of it earned Olgidphaenn the name 'land of death.'

Its danger was known even to distant islands across the continent. Those with reason and beasts with only instinct alike refused to set foot in Olgidphaenn. Recently, however, the forgotten land scarred by catastrophe, has begun to feel the warmth of human connection spreading through it. Following the brave hero who'd taken the first step, numbers had swelled in an instant.

Among them were those who believed only gods born in the divine realm Heimdrykze were true 'gods' and wished to serve them, priests from the Thul'Mhoriae Alliance studying the gods' secrets, mercenaries and young heroes wanting to make names slaying monsters, or criminals who couldn't live in warm safe places. In short...

"O great god! Destroy these worthless humans and lead us to the land of salvation!"

On one side, fanatic followers praising powerful gods.

"Ah, I really do want to destroy worthless humans..."

"Ah... I want to go to the land of salvation too..."

On another side, priests of Thul'Mhoriae exhausted from nothing but research in the harsh frontier.

"Hey, if you bump into someone you should apologize. Apologize! You don't know 'apologize'? Round and golden and shiny?"

In the back alleys, rough low-class crowds with missing eyes.

"My heart boiling with justice and love led my feet to this place! So this is Olgidphaenn? The starting point where my name will become known? I have a good feeling about this somehow."

In the streets, young righteous heroes ignorant of the world's ways—all mixed together in disharmony. No matter when you looked, it was a complete mess.

"No matter when I look... it's a complete mess..."

A subordinate voiced aloud the sentiment Garthe was feeling.

"Godforsaken shithole."

Another subordinate carelessly spoke his true feelings. Shithole—quite an amusing expression. Garthe's lips curved in a smile. Technically he'd spent far longer wandering the continent, but the fact that he always returned made it feel like home. To his subordinate, and to Garthe.

Garthe raised his head to look at the high, solid gray walls. The large and small scars carved everywhere testified to Olgidphaenn's harsh history. Damage from the transcendent beings born in forbidden, sacred Mount Heimdrykze.

Stone fragments and large ice chunks were scattered below the walls. Dozens of workers raised rough voices as they repaired the walls. It seemed much had happened during his brief absence from home.

Garthe moved his briefly stilled legs again. Divine power spreading from deep within his body radiated in all directions. Black hair scattered like flames in the cold north wind. Here and there in the streets, those who'd been fighting while grabbing each other's collars stopped breathing and turned their gazes to look at him.

The reason people bowed before those called heroes wasn't only because they saved many and achieved praiseworthy deeds.

Heroes, unlike ordinary humans, could wield powerful strength and abilities. And that power was based on the divine energy all life forms possessed. Heroes with power to oppose transcendent beings held divine energy as strong as the life forms called 'gods.' Even though human, they possessed a presence that naturally evoked the same awe as seeing massive gods, divine beasts, or vast nature. Truly, they were snow-covered mountain ranges wearing human form, storms upon the sea.

Garthe was a hero counted among the best, possessing divine power rarely found even in history. Naturally each of his steps carried presence like a giant's. In this lawless land where any crime was buried beneath white snow, the only law had descended. Fanatics hid in shadows, mercenaries gently returned purses slipped from others' pockets to their proper places. There was no magnificent triumphal ceremony, no horn trumpets resounding to the sky, but everyone recognized that Olgidphaenn's master had returned.