[Vol. 9] Chapter 21: On the Dragon’s Back
Finally, someone suddenly dropped to the ground with a thud, breaking the tense silence in the caravan where even a falling needle could be heard. Only then did everyone breathe hard like people who had just escaped death, their faces still full of shock and fear.
“My ancestors… that was way too terrifying!”
“So that’s a real mythical creature. Today I really saw something new. For us to survive after meeting a dragon, this is truly… the spirits’ blessing.”
“But wait, there’s such an important piece of information that an ice dragon lives in the Extreme Cold Zone, and the caravan ahead of us didn’t send out any warning at all? What were those bastards doing, trying to get us killed?!”
“Or maybe they never came across it, or all the other witnesses are already dead? Who can really understand a dragon’s habits? This time, that giant seemed to be distracted by something else, but in the future we might not be so lucky… If you ask me, we should run as far as we can.”
“Yeah, yeah! I don’t want to stay in this cursed place even for another minute!”
As the caravan’s people argued louder and louder, their voices carrying both excitement and fear, the leader, Miss Sasha, took a few deep breaths of the freezing air. Only then did she slowly calm herself from the shock.
Among everyone present, she was clearly the least affected by the dragon’s overwhelming presence. Not only was Sasha the strongest in the group, but also, months ago, while traveling in the Holy Empire, she had once been blessed by the Goddess to temporarily wield power far beyond her normal level. Because of that, she had some faint understanding of that realm.
Sasha didn’t know whether that unfamiliar, overwhelming power she once held was stronger or weaker than the ice dragon that had just flown across the sky. But because she had steadier senses, relying on the sharp eyesight of a master archer, she seemed to catch some details others had missed.
There was someone on the dragon’s back.
Or rather, beings that looked very much like humans.
Though the distance was great and the wind and snow blurred her sight, she could vaguely make out what seemed to be two figures. And for some strange reason… she even felt a faint sense of familiarity?
It was ridiculous.
That was a dragon, the true kind, standing at the very peak of countless races, the strongest even among mythical creatures! Throughout history, while there were indeed a few powerful people who managed to form contracts and become partners with dragons, such things were far, far out of reach for a nobody like her.
No matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t imagine anyone she knew who might have raised or befriended such a mighty dragon. After thinking it over again and again, she could only come to a helpless conclusion.
“I must have… seen it wrong.”
…………………………………………
High in the sky, the dragon spread its wings and soared.
A freezing storm strong enough to rip iron into shreds howled around them, yet the two figures standing steadily on its wide back didn’t move at all. Though they had no visible protection, the icy gales split naturally to the sides before reaching them, as if some unseen force kept the winds away. Not even a single strand of the girl’s long hair, hanging down naturally, was disturbed.
The two young women stood one before the other, quietly gazing down at the endless white world of snow and ice below. Soon, the golden-haired girl standing behind was the first to speak.
“I thought Master would go down and at least say hello. After all, that merchant group has had some ties with you in the past.”
“…There’s no real need. Meeting them here is just a coincidence. Even if I did go down, it would only be a few meaningless words before leaving. It’s not like we could travel together, Alexia can’t carry that many people.”
The black-haired girl in the white robe calmly shook her head. Her silver-blue eyes swept lightly across the snowy wilderness, then quickly turned back to the front.
“From the way they looked, their destination should also be the northern snow kingdoms. If fate allows it, we’ll naturally meet again in the future.”
Suddenly, a voice rang out beside the two girls. It was as loud as thunder, but also clearly the pleasant voice of a young woman.
"So, Lady Violet, why did you have me attack those two beast groups? And why did you only graze them and scare them off with the dragon's might instead of just killing them all in one blow? It seems like a lot of extra work, doesn't it?"
Hearing this, the priestess smiled and patted the smooth, icy-blue scales on the dragon’s back as she casually explained.
“Those beasts were just living here peacefully and didn’t attack us. Why should we kill them for no reason? As for why I told you to drive them off… well, as a dragon flying high above the world, it’s hard for you to understand how hard survival can be for mortals. To put it simply, I just wanted to leave behind a bit of good karma.”
“Oh…”
The blue dragon muttered as if half-understanding. Violet didn’t mind. Her gaze moved past the ground below and toward the endless snowy world ahead, her eyes narrowing slightly.
“Still… this Extreme Cold Zone really is quite interesting.”
According to the map, this long and narrow land stretches for tens of thousands of kilometers, starting from the Beast Kingdom on the western border all the way to the Eastern Sea. It almost cuts the entire Primordial Land into northern and southern halves. If you want to go north, there’s basically no way around this region.
So, to reduce trouble and avoid danger, Violet had specially gone to see the White Dragon Queen who was supporting the kingdom’s expedition before setting out. From her, Violet borrowed an adult Frost Blue Dragon, perfectly suited for this environment, to use as a mount. Her plan was to fly directly across the Extreme Cold Zone.
Although the Frost Blue Dragon wasn’t the fastest among dragonkind, its speed was still far beyond that of any ordinary aircraft. With its strong resistance to ice elements, the blizzards here were nothing more than a light scratch, it was basically unaffected.
The Extreme Cold Zone was vast in length, but its width was only a little over a thousand kilometers. At a dragon’s speed, crossing it should have taken at most half a day.
But as expected, the unexpected happened.
Before entering, Violet had already gathered information: the visibility here was extremely low, so it was easy to get disoriented. Even if you kept feeling like you were moving in a straight line, your actual path could easily turn into a diagonal or even a curve.
Such problems might trouble ordinary mortals, but surely not a mighty dragon that could clear storms and fly freely across the skies, or so Violet thought. But when they actually tried, to her surprise, after flying nonstop for over a day and covering what should have been more than ten thousand kilometers, they still hadn’t managed to leave the Extreme Cold Zone.
It seemed this snowy land contained some kind of special power. Not only did it cause endless blizzards and extreme cold, but it also directly warped physical directions. In this storm, south wasn’t truly south, and north wasn’t truly north. No matter how they flew, they ended up going in circles, like being trapped in an invisible maze.
The Frost Blue Dragon carrying them, Alexia, clearly already knew about this. When asked, she explained the reason to the priestess and her companion.
The Extreme Cold Zone, it turned out, wasn’t a natural phenomenon. It was created by the divine authority of Sinong, the God of Eternal Winter and Snow. The endless blizzards here carried the power of divine law.
When the great Sinong created the Extreme Cold Zone, the purpose seemed to be to separate the northern and southern lands of this world. Because of this, both the environment itself and the creatures living within it would instinctively do everything they could to block outsiders from passing through. It was like an invisible rule set upon this land.