LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 15.2
“This Arad salt… it’s almost gone too.”
She scooped some water from the pot and added a pinch of Arad salt from a luxurious leather pouch.
The slightly salty and warm water moistened her dry lips, tongue, and parched stomach.
“……”
“……”
Around her, knights with faces as haggard as hers—or worse—sat in silence.
Everyone was so drained that they no longer had the energy to speak.
‘Hmm…?’
At that moment, her heightened senses, made razor-sharp by hunger and sleep deprivation, detected something.
A presence was approaching from far away.
Using her Swordmaster-enhanced vision, Arina focused in the direction of the disturbance.
‘A carriage…? In this Demonic Realm?’
A golden carriage was slowly making its way toward them.
‘Am I hallucinating now?’
She chuckled bitterly, shook her head, and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the golden carriage was still there, shimmering in the distance.
She rubbed her eyes and even splashed snow on her face, but it didn’t vanish.
“……?”
The golden carriage kept coming closer.
One by one, the other knights around her began standing up.
It seemed they had also realized what they were seeing wasn’t a mirage.
* * *
The golden carriage I was driving stopped before the ashen snowfields, untouched by any attack—perhaps thanks to my high luck stat.
Some might wonder why I didn’t simply cover the golden carriage with a tarp or something.
In the Demonic Realm, however, showing off was often the better strategy.
The mere existence of a carriage here was so absurd that a golden one was less about stealth and more about projecting confidence.
Finally, I arrived at the abyss of the Demonic Realm.
The ashen snowfields drew a distinct border, as clear as a national boundary.
—
‘I’m not too late, am I?’
It had been nearly fifteen days since I sent the Grand Duke and the knights ahead.
“Hmm…”
At the meeting point, I sensed something was off.
‘The compass says the Grand Duke and knights are within 500 meters, yet there’s no sign of them.’
The ashen abyss stretched endlessly.
Roar!
Screech!
The cries of high-level monsters echoed in the distance, but there wasn’t a trace of Arina or her knights—not even a strand of hair.
‘Could it be…?’
An uneasy thought crossed my mind, so I retrieved something from the carriage.
It was a fist-sized magic stone. I combined it with the compass I was holding.
Beep!
A sound like a bird’s cry rang out, and a laser-like beam pointed in a specific direction.
‘As I suspected, it’s a barrier—a very expensive one, too.’
The barrier likely held the Grand Duke and the knights inside.
Rustle… rustle…
“?!”
Suddenly, I sensed killing intent and movement around me.
It was sharp enough that even I, a non-combatant, could feel it.
‘Not monsters—they’re humans!’
The killing intent was different from the feral aura of monsters.
If it had been from monsters strong enough to pierce the golden carriage’s protective aura, my horses would’ve been panicking by now.
This was undeniably human malice—and it wasn’t coming with good intentions.
Thud, thud, thud!
About a minute later, a group of around ten people appeared in the distance, rapidly approaching across the ashen snowfield.
Though they were on foot, they were moving faster than most horses.
‘An elite adventurer party! And a nasty one at that!’
Whether they were from the Northern regions or the Empire, it was clear their intentions weren’t friendly.
Click, clack.
I prepared my enchanted crossbow and mana-charged bolts while slowly maneuvering the carriage to create some distance.
‘Four of them are floating with magic—they’re at least 4th Circle magicians. The remaining six are A-rank mercenaries at minimum. The kind of superhumans you rarely see even in Haven, all grouped together in the abyss of the Demonic Realm.’
My highly trained eyes were said to surpass even a scout’s precision.
‘If I fight, I’ll lose for sure!’
With my passive skill, “Eye Scan,” I assessed their combat strength and concluded that fighting them was out of the question.
‘They might even be the ones who set up this barrier!’
If I wanted to survive and protect my most valuable possession—the golden carriage—I needed allies.
“Let’s go!”
With that, I drove the golden carriage straight into the barrier, following the compass’s guidance.
* * *
“This… If I’d been even a little later, it could’ve been a disaster…”
This remark wasn’t directed at myself for diving into the barrier but at the six figures I found trapped inside.
‘So this barrier is why the Grand Duke and his high-ranking knights went missing in the original timeline. It’s more accurate to say they starved to death here.’
Inside the barrier, the scenery resembled the Demonic Realm outside—eerily calm and desolate.
In the distance, six knights stared at me in a daze, their appearances resembling beggars.
‘What a pitiful end for them.’
As I maneuvered the golden carriage closer to their campfire, I recalled the history of the Silver Age.
‘They seem to have gone without food for a long time. I’ll start with a light stew to restore their energy before providing a proper meal.’
While approaching, I mentally planned their recovery.
‘But isn’t it strange? It’s only been fifteen days since I last saw them, yet they look far worse than they should.’
The closer I got, the more their pitiful state stood out.
‘Could this barrier distort time and space differently from the outside? Who could’ve created such an advanced barrier? With this level of extravagance, it must’ve been…’
My thoughts trailed off as I arrived at the knights’ campfire.
“It… it’s not an illusion!”
“Thank the heavens!”
“Renslet! Rune Renslet!”
As we came within sight of each other’s faces, the knights realized my golden carriage wasn’t a mirage.
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