The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 278 The Cold Night of the Demon Realm
When Eric and Natalia arrived outside the deserted demon village, it was almost dark.

The abandoned demon tribe was in ruins. The two found a house that looked relatively intact and prepared to use it as a shelter for the night.

"It's alright, it's just a broken window, we can just use something to block it up."

The house was covered in a thick layer of dust, indicating that no one had lived there for many years, which was good news for the two of them.

"Ever since the Demon King ascended to the throne... I mean the younger one, in order to avoid being discovered by humans and exposed in advance, the entire demon race, including the royal court tribe, has migrated to the north of the Demon Realm. Space there must be quite limited, so there wouldn't be such a large village completely empty."

Natalia glanced at the dust she wiped off the table with her fingertips, then looked at Eric. "You mean, this is the southern part of the Demon Realm?"

Eric nodded and glanced in the direction they had come from. "Judging from the terrain, it's at most in the mountainous region in the middle of the entire Demon Realm."

He paused for a moment, then said, "As the tomb of the first Demon King, it is the most suitable place."

Natalia sighed softly, "It's still far from the mainland."

"We've at least gone half the distance we previously estimated."

Eric offered a few words of comfort, then said, "I'll go find some firewood to start a fire. You... just look around; there probably won't be any food left here."

Firewood was easy to find; there was a lot piled up behind the house, and Eric carried a bundle inside.

The demons live in this extremely cold region year-round, and their houses are equipped with hearths. Eric stacks the firewood in a way that makes it easy to ignite, and then lights it with holy flames.

As the flames rose, the long-awaited warmth brought a sigh of relief to both of them.

"Although the chances are slim, I'll still go and see if there's anything to eat here."

After warming himself by the fireplace for a while, Eric was reluctant to even stand up, but the darkening sky and his growing hunger reminded him that he should go out and look for food sooner rather than later.

Eric left Natalia in the house and began searching the surrounding houses.

He didn't know what demons ate on a daily basis, but they probably had the habit of storing food. He could only hope that the demons here had left some food behind before they left.

but……

"Based on the previous speculation, no one has lived here for at least five or six years... Even if there is stored food, it may have spoiled."

They searched several demon houses, but they were all empty. Even in areas that looked like kitchens, there were some food scraps, but no stored food was found.

Eric searched another house but still found nothing. As he came out, a thought suddenly struck him. He looked around the house and found a basement behind it.

To his even greater surprise, the basement door was still locked.

Ericra used the hilt of his sword to knock the lock open, then opened the door and fired a luminous orb inside.

The cellar wasn't very big; you could see most of it at a glance. There were a few wooden shelves inside. Eric jumped down and found a lot of completely dried-out fruits and vegetables at the bottom of the shelves. He picked them up and squeezed them, and they crumbled into powder.

"..."

After a moment's hesitation, Eric carefully picked up the rest, intending to take it back to make soup.

He remembered that the vegetable packet in instant noodles looked similar to this...

Back in their temporary lodging, Natalia had hung an iron kettle on the fireplace. Seeing him return, she said, "This should be enough to boil some water."

Eric went over to take a look and found that it was already filled with snow.

“I found some vegetables…dried.” Eric put the things down. “They should be able to make a soup.”

“Use this.” Natalia found an even larger iron pot, which looked like a cooking utensil used by demons.

She went outside and wiped the inside of the iron pot with snow, while Eric searched for the basement behind the other houses.

After Natalia painstakingly hung the iron pot, which was more than half full of snow, on the hearth, Eric returned carrying a large piece of dried meat.

"I don't know what kind of meat it is, but it doesn't look spoiled, it's just a bit frozen solid."

After much effort, Eric finally managed to cut the jerky in half, keeping one half and preparing to cook the other half with some dried vegetables.

but……

"This iron pot is heating up way too slowly." Eric touched the iron pot; not to mention the snow inside, the pot itself had only just started to heat up.

He went outside and brought in a few more thick pieces of firewood, stuffed them under the iron pot, and used the sacred flame to ignite them.

Once the fire was turned up, the area around the fireplace became warm, even scorching, and the whole room gradually warmed up.

"The snow has mostly melted," Natalia said, looking into the iron pot. "It seems like there's not enough water left."

“I’ll go dig some more snow.” Eric stood up.

“Let’s dig somewhere cleaner,” Natalia advised.

“I know.” Eric went outside. It was already dark, but the ground was still visible because of the snow.

He took a few more steps, rolled a ball of snow, then felt it was too big and scraped half of it off with a chopstick.

Just as he was about to go back, Eric suddenly stopped.

Not far away, at the entrance to the village, a pair of bright green eyes were watching him.

Eric squinted. The thing was pure white, and in the dim light, its body was almost invisible.

He fired a ball of light in that direction and then realized it was a snow sheep.

—The mounts of the demon cavalry heading south were these tall snow sheep with large, curved horns.

Wild snow sheep...

Eric threw away the snowball in his hand.

We can have something fresh tonight.

With a push of his foot, several footprints appeared on the snow, spaced far apart. Before the snow sheep could react, Eric was already in front of it.

Just before he was about to swing his sword, Eric suddenly changed his mind, put away his weapon, and flipped himself onto the snow sheep.

The snow sheep struggled for a moment, then stopped resisting.

“It’s so docile…” Eric stroked the wool on the snow sheep’s neck a few times. “This wool is really warm.”

During the defense of Lutia, he briefly captured some snow sheep from the demon cavalry, but because the temperature in the south was still relatively high at that time, the snow sheep had all been shaved and looked terrible. It wasn't until today that he saw their original appearance.

The snowy region was vast, and Natalia's stamina was limited, so he planned to use this as her mount.

Eric rode the snow sheep back and called Natalia out.

She was surprised to see the snow sheep he was riding, then slowly approached and stroked it. "This should last us for several days."

Eric opened his mouth, but before he could speak, she realized what she meant: "It can be used as a mount!"

“Yes. But if you really want to eat it, I’ll try to find another one,” Eric said.

Natalia glanced at him. "I didn't think so."

Unable to find a rope to tie it up, the two simply pushed and pulled the snow sheep into the house.

Fortunately, the snow sheep was docile and, feeling the warmth of the house, squatted down in the corner.

"Why won't you come closer to the fire?" Natalia tried to urge the snow sheep to move closer.

Eric had already dug up another clump of snow and put it in the iron pot. "It'll get hot if you get any closer, and they're wearing down jackets."

Natalia suddenly realized.

"It's so warm..."

Eric stuffed the snowball into the iron pot, pressed it down slightly, and looked up to find Natalia kneeling on the ground, most of her body buried in the snow sheep's wool.

He looked at her for a while.

"Don't fall asleep."

"..."

She jolted awake, momentarily dazed, and reluctantly returned to the hearth.

Eric understood that she was exhausted after a long day.

"Have something to eat and then rest," he said.

Natalia nodded, staring at the snowballs melting rapidly in the iron pot.

Eric went to the kitchen and found a few rough earthenware bowls. He rubbed them inside and out with snow until the snow stopped changing color, then he considered them washed.

“Three bowls?” Natalia glanced at the pottery he had placed aside.

“And this one.” Eric gestured with his eyes to the snow sheep crouching in the corner.

Will it eat it?

“It doesn’t look like there are any wild grasses to eat in the wild.” Eric added the dried vegetables to the iron pot. “Let it have some vegetable soup.”

Natalia nodded, then picked up the half-piece of jerky, preparing to put it into the iron pot.

"Wait a minute before putting it in," Eric called after her. "What if it's snow lamb? Maybe it's even related to it."

Natalia paused, picked up the piece of jerky, and smelled it.

"What does it taste like?" Eric asked, looking at her.

“The taste of ice,” Natalia replied.

The two looked at each other and smiled at the same time.

“Then let’s wait a little longer.” Natalia put down the dried meat. There were quite a few dried vegetables found in the cellar, so the two of them didn’t hold back and put in a lot of them. The resulting vegetable soup was quite thick, like a paste, and had a strong vegetable aroma.

Eric filled a large bowl and placed it in front of the snow sheep.

Both of them were looking at it.

It went over and sniffed it, then stopped moving.

“It seems it doesn’t eat this,” Natalia sighed.

“It might be afraid of getting burned.” Eric went outside, scooped up a clump of snow, and put it into the ceramic bowl in front of the snow sheep.

Seemingly sensing that the temperature had dropped, the snow sheep licked a snowball covered in vegetable juice, and then began to lick it again and again.

"Leave another bowl for it." Eric found an empty earthenware pot, filled it with some vegetable juice, and then put the jerky back into the iron pot to continue cooking.

Are there any spices here?

Natalia shook her head. "Didn't find it."

Eric didn't insist. "That's fine. It's good enough that we have something to eat."

After waiting a while longer, until the dried meat was cooked until it melted into the vegetable soup, the two of them each served themselves a bowl, and Eric tasted it first.

"It has no taste." He blew on it twice, then took another sip. "It just tastes like the vegetables and meat themselves."

Natalia took a sip, then licked her lips. "I think it's delicious."

Eric smiled but didn't say anything.

For a long time afterward, the two of them didn't say a word, but just drank the vegetable soup sip by sip, savoring the taste of the food itself and the deep warmth brought by the hot soup.

During this time, Natalia got up and poured the extra can of vegetable soup into the bowl in front of the snow sheep.

The snow sheep continued to lick its food, and when the two finished eating, the bowl in front of it was empty, indicating that it was quite hungry.

Eric took down the iron pot, which still contained quite a bit of wood, and hung it aside. He then added some more firewood to maintain the temperature in the room.

“We don’t know the direction we’re going, or what we’ll encounter on the way. The Demon Realm is dangerous, so my idea is to stay here for a few days.” Eric glanced at the remaining half of the jerky. “At least we should prepare more food.”

Natalia had no objection. "Yes, we need to figure out the direction first."

They were heading south, back to human land.

"Let's rest first," Eric said again. "We can study it more tomorrow."

"Ah."

The two lay down next to the hearth. Having learned from their previous experience of being woken up by the cold while camping in the wild, Eric prepared more large pieces of firewood and piled them in the hearth, intending to add more firewood several times throughout the night.

The cold here is nothing like the late autumn in the south of the empire; it can really freeze you to death.

After lying down for a while, Natalia turned her head to look at the snow sheep squatting in the corner.

"Want to use it as a pillow?" Eric's voice came from the other end.

She smiled and said, "Yes, it's really warm and soft, but it's too hot for it here."

Eric thought for a moment and said, "If we can find other snow sheep, we can use their wool to keep warm."

"Should I just stuff it inside my clothes?"

"There probably won't be any needles and thread here, so we'll just have to make do with this."

The two had been teleported from the far south, and the clothes they wore were sufficient for the winter there, but in this extremely cold place, they were only slightly better off than not wearing any clothes at all.

“Let’s look for it tomorrow,” Natalia said.

"Hmm." Eric closed his eyes, feeling the warm warmth beside him, his mind already on the next topic, ready to bring it up as soon as Natalia spoke again.

But she didn't speak for a while, and Eric was too lazy to speak either, holding onto that thought and watching it gradually melt away like snow in an iron pot.

He was enveloped in complete darkness, which eroded his consciousness until he could no longer feel his own existence.

"—I am the Demon King."

Eric saw a different scene.

In the burning village, the figure who had parted ways with them during the day stood before the raging flames, announcing his return to the other demons with their varied expressions.

"You either submit to me, or you declare your loyalty to another demon king with your death now."

The black longsword swirled in his hand, and the surrounding flames seemed to carry an eerie black hue, with the faint wails of the dead audible.

The first demon to resist was completely engulfed by flames that suddenly leaped up from the burning houses nearby before it could even reach the Demon King.

The first demon to kneel in submission appeared, and soon, all the demons in the village knelt down around the Demon King.

Eric witnessed the entire process from a perspective that even he found difficult to understand.

He was sometimes an observer of both conquerors and the conquered, and sometimes he looked out from the perspective of the conquerors themselves, watching the demons who were trying to resist.

Just as his perspective shifted again, the Demon King suddenly raised his head and met his gaze in the void.

"..."

Eric was startled, then opened his eyes and found himself still lying in the wooden house in the demon village, and it was already dawn.

The hearth in front of them had almost gone out, leaving only a little residual heat. The snow sheep, which had been huddled in the corner, had somehow moved to the side of the hearth and was kneeling down. Natalia curled up into a ball, snuggling close to the snow sheep's wool.

Eric immediately regained consciousness.

Last night I was thinking of getting up in the middle of the night to add firewood, but I couldn't wake up at all.

Some firewood was added to the hearth, and then lit directly with the holy flame, and warmth spread out again.

Looking at the flickering flames in the hearth, Eric couldn't help but recall the dreamlike scene he had just witnessed.

Was that really a dream?
Or was it because the Demon King was resurrected through his sacrifice, and a deep connection of consciousness was formed between them?

Eric vividly remembers the Demon King's gaze at the end of the "dream."

If this is a dream, it feels too real...

Eric was lost in thought for a while when he suddenly heard a noise coming from the other side of the fireplace. He looked up and saw that the snow sheep that had been kneeling there had suddenly stood up.

It's probably too hot... for it.

However, Natalia clearly felt the warmth wasn't enough. In her sleep, she clung tightly to the warmth that was about to leave, as the snow sheep, who had stood up, dragged her away.

Eric wiped his sweat and quickly got up to go over, while Natalia woke up at that moment and let go of his hand.

"..."

Looking at Eric standing there, and then at the small tuft of wool remaining in her hand, Natalia sat up.

"Its daybreak?"

"Its daybreak."

Eric glanced at the snow sheep that had returned to the spot where it had been the night before and then went back to the fireplace.

He had just sat down when he stood up again, went outside to dig up a clump of snow, put it in an iron pot, hung it on the stove, and began to cook breakfast for the two of them.

"Did the fire burn all night?" Natalia wiped her mouth, glancing at him quickly. "I felt a bit cold before."

“I just lit it,” Eric said without hiding anything. “I was planning to add some firewood in the middle of the night, but I slept until dawn.”

Natalia smiled. "I know you slept very soundly last night and fell asleep very quickly. You didn't even respond when I spoke to you."

Eric looked up. "What did you say?"

She stretched and smiled.

"I've long forgotten."

Eric stared at her for a while, hesitating whether to tell her about his dream.

Natalia quickly noticed his unusual behavior. "What's wrong?"

He still spoke up.

Natalia indeed looked worried. "What you saw may be what the Demon King actually experienced."

“My only concern now is whether this connection is two-way,” Eric said.

Natalia remained silent for a moment.

The vegetable and meat soup in the iron pot bubbled and churned, and the aroma quickly enveloped the two of them.

Through the hazy mist, the two exchanged a glance.

"Let's eat first," Eric said.

Natalia nodded and took their earthenware bowls outside to wipe them with snow.

When she came in, she saw the snow sheep in the corner also looking towards the fireplace.

"It's hungry too."

"The soup tastes like meat, and it doesn't seem to mind, so it's probably not snow lamb." The soup pot was boiling, and Eric first ladled a large bowl of snow lamb into it, then threw in a clump of snow to cool it down. "You got a good deal."

(End of this chapter)