Chapter 15

Chapter 15

#15. The Golden Carriage of the Magic Realm (4)

Though they were bewildered, they weren’t desperate.

High Knights also train for battles against magicians.

They had as much experience dealing with barriers as their training provided.

Thus, everyone basically knew how to break through a barrier.

That way, what felt like days passed into weeks, then a month.

“……”

“……”

But they still couldn’t break the barrier.

“What kind of barrier is this?”

“It’s a barrier that distorts and twists space-time.”

“To maintain such a barrier so wide for so long? This isn’t the work of an ordinary mage…….”

Breaking the barrier was simple.

You just wandered around inside it as much as possible to find the subtle gap between reality and the barrier.

Then you infused mana into that gap, widened the space between reality and the barrier, and slashed through the opened gap with a sword imbued with aura.

But no matter how much they wandered, they couldn’t find the gap.

The reason they couldn’t feel the gap was simple: the barrier was too vast.

“This is bad. Our food supplies…”

Who knows how much time had passed in the outside world, but for Ariana and the knights trapped inside, time flowed quickly and endlessly.

Their biggest problem, food, ran out despite their best efforts to conserve it.

But their trials weren’t over yet.

There was an underground below them.

Hiiing… Thud!

One day, all their top-grade horses suddenly collapsed simultaneously.

“Curse! It’s a curse!”

“How?!”

A world without monsters, people, or even common fruit trees.

The horses had survived by eating weeds from the snowy plains and snow itself.

Even though their situation was clearly better than humans’, the horses still collapsed.

“It seems those dark wizards have been up to something.”

“Are we in danger too?”

“We’re superhumans who’ve mastered mana and swords. If it were a curse strong enough to poison us, those guys would’ve revealed themselves by now.”

“Hmm… What type of curse is it?”

“It seems to be a plague curse. They must’ve suffered greatly, yet showed no signs… Such pitiful and faithful friends.”

Knight Doyle inspected the dead horse and reported with a sorrowful expression.

“Let’s bury the horses.”

After receiving Doyle’s report, Ariana and the knights closed their eyes tightly with grief on their faces.

“And just in case… From now on, we don’t eat snow raw. We boil it before consuming.”

This added another obstacle for Ariana and the knights.

“Can we eat these fallen horses?”

Exhausted by hunger, the knights stared at the carcasses of their fallen friends with complex expressions, mourning their loss.

“They’re afflicted with the plague curse. Eating them will kill us too.”

“We’ll expel more nutrients than we gain by putting this meat in our mouths.”

“Damn…”

In the end, no one could eat the horse meat.

All they could do was dig holes in the ground and bury their companions with bitter regret.

After losing the horses, Ariana and the knights had to walk on foot, searching tirelessly for the barrier’s gap.

“Goddammit! I’d rather die fighting than endure this humiliation!”

Their patience had reached its limit.

For knights who regarded dying in battle as the most honorable fate, their current predicament was no ordinary insult.

“Come out, you disgusting dark wizards! Let’s fight fairly!”

KooOOOo!

Had Ariana and the knights’ cries reached someone?

Monsters began appearing before them, weakened by hunger and deprived of their mounts. As if they’d been waiting for this moment.

“It’s undead monsters!”

“Everyone, draw your swords!”

“Find the necromancer controlling them! Capturing him is the only way to escape this barrier!”

The monsters finally revealed themselves, exactly as Doyle had described—undead creatures.

Unlike regular monsters, you had to dismember every limb, tail, wing, tentacle, and head to incapacitate them.

They were the type that drained stamina the most during hunts.

Despite their dwindling strength, Ariana and the knights faced these creatures.

But there was a reason they were called the strongest combatants of the northern region.

Every attack from countless undead monsters ended in victory for the knights.

“Daring to target us with such foul-smelling zombie-like monstrosities!”

Ariana and the high-ranking knights of High City were each monstrous beings.

With nearly depleted strength, they hunted over five hundred monsters.

These weren’t ordinary monsters; they were creatures seen only in the depths of the Magic Realm.

Although they had lost their agility due to becoming undead, they gained formidable bodies in return.

“Come on! You bastards!”

“Lenslet! Rune Lenslet!”

That’s how they defeated hordes of death.

Now it was clear why Ariana and the knights were so confident before departing from Haven.

“It never ends…”

But this momentum couldn’t last forever.

The fights continued, the barrier remained unbroken.

Food supplies had run out long ago.

The knights’ stamina and lifeforce gradually drained away.

“Will we survive this?”

“Arad… I want to eat Arad stew from Haven before I die.”

Their initial confidence faded like gray snowfields.

Long starvation and wandering within the barrier pushed them halfway into panic mode.

“I wish I could get some sleep peacefully.”

“If we die like this, will we rest in peace, or become undead unable to find rest?”

And now, they couldn’t even sleep properly.

Whenever they tried to rest, monsters inevitably attacked.

Even northerners, known for their resilience to cold and survival skills, have their limits.

“This is bad. Our weapons and armor…”

“Sharpening can’t slow down the corrosion anymore!”

Worst of all was the corrosion of their final defenses—their armor and swords.

Fighting undead monsters unknowingly corroded their gear, further diminishing their already near-zero combat abilities.

* * *

By the campfire.

Exhausted and weary, Ariana sat blankly, staring at her sword.

Once a famous blade made from Northern Cold Iron, it now looked like scrap metal after being worn down repeatedly.

‘At this rate, I’ll have to fight bare-handed in the next battle…’

Her stomach growled painfully, signaling her extreme hunger.

On the fourth day of not eating anything, her hunger had turned into sheer agony.

She scooped water from the fire to momentarily forget her hunger.

‘Even the Arad salt is running out…’

Scooping the water, she took a pinch of premium Arad salt from a luxurious leather pouch and dissolved it slightly in the water.

The warm, salty liquid moistened and filled her parched lips, tongue, and stomach.

“……”

“……”

Around her, other knights sat listlessly, looking equally or worse off.

They were all too exhausted to even speak.

‘Hmm…?’

Just then, her senses, heightened by hunger and lack of sleep, detected something.

Somewhere far away, footsteps approached.

Ariana focused her Sword Master vision toward the source of the sensation.

‘A carriage…? In the Magic Realm?’

A single golden carriage slowly approached.

‘Am I hallucinating again?’

She chuckled, shook her head, closed her eyes, then reopened them.

The golden carriage still hovered in the distance like a mirage.

She rubbed her eyes, even washing them with water.

“……?”

But the golden carriage kept coming closer.

Bolt upright!

Bolt upright!

Other nearby knights also stood up, realizing what they saw wasn’t a mirage.

* * *

The golden carriage I was driving arrived at the edge of the ash-gray snowfield thanks to my Luck stat, having avoided any attacks along the way.

To clarify, one might wonder why I didn’t simply cover the golden carriage with cloth, but in the Magic Realm, openly traveling was the right choice.

After all, seeing a carriage in the Magic Realm itself was absurd.

If people were going to stare, it was better to ride boldly in a golden carriage and appear intimidating.

Finally arriving at the edge of the Magic Realm’s abyss,

the ash-gray snowfield marked the border clearly.

‘Am I not too late?’

Having sent the Duke and knights ahead almost two weeks ago, I was about to reunite with them.

“Hmm…”

And at this meeting place, I sensed a distinct anomaly.

‘The compass says the Duke and knights are within 500 meters, but I see no trace of them.’

The barren expanse of ash-gray terrain.

KooOOOo-

Kiiaaaak-

The roars of high-level monsters echoed everywhere.

Yet, there’s no sign of Ariana and the knights—not even a strand of hair.

‘Could it be?’

A sudden thought struck me, and I retrieved something from inside the carriage.

It was a magic stone shaped like a fist-sized orb, which I combined with the compass I held.

Peeeeep

A laser-like beam emerged with a bird-like chirp, pointing somewhere.

‘So it was a barrier. And quite an expensive one at that.’

I estimated the Duke and knights were likely trapped inside this barrier.

Swish swish

Swish swish

“?!”

At that moment, I sensed hostile presences surrounding me.

A palpable killing intent even I, a non-combatant, could clearly feel.

‘Not monsters! Humans!’

This killing intent differed from the crude auras of monsters.

Considering the energy that could penetrate the golden carriage’s protective aura would’ve driven my horses insane first,

this was human killing intent.

More importantly, it wasn’t directed with good intentions.

Pew pew pew

About a minute later, a group of around ten figures rapidly approached from the distant ash-gray land.

Though they weren’t riding horses, their running speed exceeded that of most mounts.

‘An elite adventurer party! And definitely not good guys!’

Whether they were northern adventurers or imperial ones, their vibe suggested ill intent.

Click click

I gathered magical flails and magic stones.

While moving the carriage to create some distance,

‘Ten members, four floating with magic—minimum Fourth Circle. The remaining six are at least A-rank mercenaries! Truly, ultra-human beings rarely seen even in Haven, gathered here in the Magic Realm’s abyss.’

Advanced eye scanning surpasses scouts, right?

‘If I fight, I’m guaranteed to lose!’

Using my passive skill, Eye Scan, to estimate their combat power, I concluded I must avoid this fight at all costs.

‘Perhaps they’re behind this barrier!’

To protect both my life and my fortune—the golden carriage—I need reliable allies.

“Let’s go!”

Heeeyyyinnn

Thus, I drove the golden carriage straight into the barrier indicated by the compass.

* * *

“This… If I’d been any later, things could’ve gotten really bad…”

The words I just spoke weren’t aimed at myself entering the barrier hastily, but rather at the six people already trapped inside.

‘Is this barrier the reason the Duke and high knights disappeared from history? In reality, they starved to death.’

Upon entering the barrier, I saw the same Magic Realm landscape as outside, eerily silent surroundings,

and six knights staring blankly at me, dressed in rags.

‘What a pointless and tragic ending…’

Recalling the Silver Age’s history briefly, I drove the golden carriage towards their campfire.

‘They haven’t eaten for quite some time. I should restore their strength with light stews before offering proper meals.’

As I approached, I formulated a plan in my mind.

‘But considering how terrible their condition is after merely a fortnight apart, something seems off.’

The closer I got, the more their wretched appearances raised questions.

‘Is this a barrier where time flows differently from the outside? Who could’ve created such a high-dimensional barrier? With this much money spent, it’s probably…’

My thoughts were cut short.

While speculating, my golden carriage had reached the knights.

“Phew, it wasn’t an illusion!”

“Oh gods, thank you!”

“Lenslet! Rune Lenslet!”

When we were close enough to see each other’s faces,

the knights finally confirmed that I and my golden carriage were real.

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