The Righteous Player(s)

Annan carefully tucked the cub that curled up into a ball like a white marshmallow into his arms.

Since the three-color scepter could not be handed over to others and must be held in the hand at all times, Annan only had one hand free to use.

This child was too small… Even with Annan’s stature, he could grab the cub’s back from behind with one hand. If it were the palm of an adult, the cub could probably sit in the palm.

However, for safety and convenience considerations, Annan couldn’t keep holding the cub like that. In the end, he stuffed it inside his clothes — Annan did not wear the attire given by Silver Sire for this trip. Instead, he put on a white cardigan on the outside, with a sweater and a shirt underneath.

Annan stuffed the cub between his sweater and shirt so that its paws and head could poke out from the collar of his sweater. Since the puppy’s hair color was similar to Annan’s, Annan looked a bit like a Kangaskhan [1] with a baby.

If it were indeed a fox-dog, it would serve well for warmth. However, despite Annan’s lineage from the Austere-Winter family, which protected him from Frost Beasts’ attacks, the penetrating cold of the beast’s fur persisted.

Now, Annan distinctly felt a chill at the front of his chest—as if he had tucked someone else’s cold hands from a winter day inside his clothes.

Surprisingly, this feeling was not annoying to him.

They encountered no further setbacks in their travels after that.

They followed the winding road upward, entering the Viscount Dolgoruky’s residence.

It was more like a lighthouse than a mansion.

It was a structure adapted from a lighthouse. It still retained the architectural features of a lighthouse, although the light had been extinguished. Of course, it might also be due to it being daytime, to conserve fuel.

Because of this, Annan didn’t notice this strange lighthouse when he was at the bottom of the mountain.

Although this place looked odd, there were servants inside. The building didn’t seem to be a blatant trap.

Annan stood at the door and subconsciously looked to the west.

It wasn’t even noon yet; it was still much too early to watch the sunset.

However, even with two layers of barriers, the shimmering sea surface below was still clearly visible from such a height.

The gently undulating black sea was filled with dead silence, without any birds or ships.

—This sea was named the Whalebone Sea hundreds of years ago.

Before the Great Barrier collapsed, this sea area was originally used by the elves to hunt whales. At that time, in addition to its role as a mine, Frangell Province also served as a port.

Now, the unified barrier had shattered.

After Austere-Winter used the power of the Old Grandmother to form a new barrier, this sea area was separated from the barrier.

The curse in the form of “the Gray Mists” was not actually a “mist” in the form of liquid. According to Annan’s understanding, it was more similar to an aerosol particle that could dissolve on biological surfaces.

It wouldn’t drift too high, nor would it forcefully penetrate the earth and the sea surface. It could float in the air for a very long time without easily dispersing… However, on this basis, it could still be blown by strong winds. Over time, it would very slowly settle onto the land and the sea surface, continuously contaminating them.

The land contaminated by the curse would witness the rapid death of all its original plant life, eventually giving rise to a type of fern that stored the curse and poison, known as “poison fern”; while aquatic creatures in the shallow sea areas would die swiftly, and the sponge animals would rapidly decompose into tentacled monsters similar to the poison fern.

According to research by the Noah Kingdom’s Alteration Wizards, the cause of death for large aquatic animals was total organ failure. This was somewhat similar to the herbivores living outside the Great Barrier… Their corpses occasionally exhibit this symptom.

As for how it was triggered and the sequence of organ failure that followed, the specifics remained unknown due to the lack of conditions for continuous observation within the Gray Mists.

But it could be simply inferred that — its lethality to ordinary people and animals whose souls had not yet materialized was not that high.

The more advanced the animal, the slower it decomposed in the Gray Mists. According to observational reports from villages and towns exposed outside the Great Barrier, over 80% of the inhabitants’ causes of death were due to dysentery or food poisoning from consuming food that decayed too quickly; the remaining 20% were complications caused by wounds that failed to heal and rapidly decayed due to exposure to the Gray Mists.

Austere-Winter’s Great Barrier manifested in the form of a frigid hurricane — this icy storm that surrounded the Austere-Winter was enough to freeze the Gray Mists and blow them into the upper atmosphere. However, in the Noah Kingdom, the Great Barrier was a thin silver film… There was still a very small number of people who had been living outside the Great Barrier.

The situation was different from Natta County.

Generally speaking, these people were death row inmates repurposed for waste utilization — they were exiled beyond the Great Barrier, living in small towns that clung to the edge of the Great Barrier. By selling information about their living conditions, or by collecting the carcasses of herbivorous animals that had nearly turned into monsters, they could exchange for a small amount of clean food and water… Their main purpose was to serve as observers of the effects the Gray Mists had on the human body.

Relying only on simple gas masks and cloaks, people who survived in the Gray Mists for over a year would exhibit clear signs of rickets, multiple abscesses on the skin surface, their faces becoming extremely gaunt like that of a ghoul, and the skin around their joints would inexplicably develop fissures… They would typically die at this stage due to infections caused by wounds that could not heal.

Humans would not experience organ failure for at least two years.

Interestingly, although whales were also aquatic animals, they differed from fish and possessed a stronger resistance to the Gray Mists—this allowed them to occasionally surface without being killed by the mists.

Annan speculated that this might have been because whales are mammals… it’s just that humans of that era had not yet discovered this fact.

The Great Barrier in the United Kingdom was built with the statues sunk in the sea. To this day, there were still fishermen in the United Kingdom who crossed the Great Barrier and went out to hunt whales — as long as they didn’t leave too far, they could come back even if they were injured.

Even injuries sustained outside the Gray Mists could be treated with divine arts or rituals upon returning within the Great Barrier—ordinary herbs were no longer effective because the wounds had been infected by a curse, and the potent curse had to be removed first.

Logically speaking, there should be whalers here in Austere-Winter.

Although Austere-Winter’s Great Barrier was wildly ferocious, the winds near the sea surface were not strong enough to sweep ships into the sky because there was a concern for disrupting marine life. By employing the “iron chain” to link the ships, the sailors could prevent being blown off course and losing direction.

Therefore, only mortals could sail out.

The Freezing Water Port was originally used for trading between Austere-Winter and the Noah Kingdom.

For the Austere-Winter Dukedom, which severely lacked food and fuel, especially the northern cities that suffered from food shortages due to the disruption of the southern cargo subway, whaling brought huge benefits—it saved many of the people from freezing or starving to death.

Upon seeing the lighthouse, Annan initially thought that upon reaching the summit, he would witness the scene of whaling ships operating in the nearby sea.

However, it was so quiet outside.

Not to mention the whaling ship, even the port was desolated.

—This is abnormal.

Although coal is produced here, the subway in the northern cities is disconnected from the south. Importing and exporting resources from here are laborious.

So, why did Frangell Province, which has a tradition of whaling, completely abolish the whaling industry?

For environmental protection? Or ecological protection?

…That’s nonsense. The winter year has been going on for decades. Austerians can hardly survive anymore. Not to mention, this viscount doesn’t look like the kind of person who would do good deeds.

Annan narrowed his eyes slightly and walked into the viscount’s residence.

His intuition told him that one of the Truth’s fragments must be here.

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