The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 280 Interspecies Communication

Eric tossed aside the cheese, caught Natalia as she jumped down, and released her, asking, "How many people?"

“Two!” Natalia answered immediately, then quickly added, “I only saw two! They’re over there, coming this way!”

She pointed in a direction.

Eric had just climbed the ladder to the cellar when he heard the shouts of demons outside. He couldn't understand them, but from their anxious tone, it seemed that one of the demons had discovered Natalia and was calling to his companions.

He climbed up a bit, not revealing himself, but stepping onto the ladder, while drawing his weapon and listening carefully to the approaching footsteps outside.

Natalia held her breath, looking at him and at the only exit above her head.

coming!

The dull thud of footsteps on the snow grew clearer as he approached. Without hesitation, Eric leaped out and immediately saw a surprised demon's face.

They are demon warriors!
Eric quickly identified the other person from their clothing and immediately attacked with his sword.

when!
Eric frowned as the sword strike aimed at him was hastily blocked, not because his opponent was too strong, but because he was too weak.

Eric kicked the demon warrior to the chest, snatched his weapon, threw it far away, then held his sword to the demon's neck and looked at another demon running towards them.

It shouted something at him, but its bravado masked its weakness, and it dared not approach any further.

"What is it saying?" Natalia climbed up as well.

“Who knows?” Eric didn’t turn to look at her, continuing to press his sword against the demon on the ground, and shouted to the two of them in an ancient language, “Can you understand me?”

The standing demon hesitated for a moment, then uttered a series of words, still in the demon language.

“It seems there’s no way to communicate.” Eric raised his sword, about to finish them off, when the demon threw down his weapon and knelt down on the snow, shouting as he did so.

“It’s begging for mercy,” Natalia said, watching the two demons, one kneeling and the other falling.

"Ah."

Because the gap in strength was so great, Eric began to doubt his own judgment.

Although all demons are warriors, there are differences in strength. The demon warriors he had encountered in the past would at least be elite monsters if thrown into a dungeon, if not bosses. But these two were no different from the roadside minions that could be swept away by a single sweep.

He recalled Natalia's ordeal on her escape south from the Black Ice Wall.

“These two might be deserters from the demon race,” Eric said.

Natalia looked at him. "Why? Is it because you're too weak?"

"Hmm. Didn't you encounter some deserters before?"

Natalia then looked at the two demons wearing simple armor. "Is this their home?"

“We’ll just have to guess,” Eric sighed. “The language barrier is a real pain.”

But if they really are deserters, then they have a way to go home.

Eric thought for a moment and decided to try communicating with body language.

Eric sheathed the longsword resting on the neck of the demon lying on the ground, and in front of them, drew a line in the snow.

He first pointed his sword at the area to the left, pointing at the two demons;
Then he pointed to the area on the right, and then to himself and Natalia.

The two demons looked at him, then at the marks on the ground.

Eric continued his performance, pointing to himself, then to the area on the right side of the ground. He then raised his sword, pointing to the direction he and Natalia had come from, and the direction they were heading, looking at them with a questioning gaze.

Natalia could easily understand his actions and his intentions, but she was pessimistic about whether the two demons could understand them.

“I didn’t understand what you were gesturing at all,” she whispered. “Them.”

Eric pursed his lips. "If all else fails, I'll draw a map of the continent; they should be able to understand it then."

"Let me do it."

Natalia drew a simple map of the continent's outline on the snow, with a small section at the top representing the Demon Realm and the main body of the continent below. She then drew a line in the middle to represent the Black Ice Great Wall.

“You—” she pointed to the upper part, then to the demons.

“We—” she pointed to the lower half, referring to herself and Eric.

Next, she walked from the upper part to the lower part, and just like Eric had done before, she first pointed in two directions, and then looked at the two demons.

The two demons looked at each other and then started chattering in their demon language.

"..."

Natalia took a deep breath. "Kill them."

Eric calmed her down and didn't make a move. "These low-level demons probably don't even have a concept of the continent, let alone have seen a map of it."

Natalia glared at him. "Wasn't this your idea?"

"My my..."

Eric repeated the same method he had used before, demonstrating it to the two demons again.

This time, the demon who knelt down to beg for mercy for his companion seemed to understand his gestures and pointed in one direction several times.

"you sure?"

Chattering away.

"..."

Eric took a deep breath, pointed to himself, and then pointed in that direction.

The demon nodded repeatedly.

"So... this counts as a successful communication, right?" Eric asked Natalia.

Natalia looked up at the sky.

“Let’s just assume they understood,” Eric said. “We were going to try to find a direction anyway.”

“Hmm.” Natalia nodded and casually said, “Let’s kill them.”

Eric looked at her.

"For the sake of them showing us the way, can't we spare their lives?"

Natalia seemed a little surprised, staring at him for a while, but in the end she didn't say anything.

"Listen to you."

Eric sheathed his weapon, waved to the two demons, who both stared in surprise. He then pointed at them, casually indicating a direction.

It was the demon who seemed a little smarter who understood his meaning, immediately grabbed his companion, and quickly left in the other direction.

After they had run far away, Eric turned around. Natalia looked at him, then climbed down into the cellar without a word and handed him the cheese she had thrown away earlier.

Eric took it, put it aside, and then took her hand, pulled her up, and didn't let go.

Natalia looked up at him again.

Do you think I should kill them?

She was silent for a moment, then turned around and gripped his hand tightly as well.

“I understand what you mean. You think they are deserters, just civilians of the demon race, who haven’t committed any atrocities on our land… But when we pity the civilians of the demon race, will they pity our civilians?”

Eric pursed his lips and said nothing more about the relationship between civilians and war.

"Let's just say that this time they showed us the way to survival in exchange for their own lives. If I see them again, I'll kill them."

Natalia looked at his face and smiled.

“Leave your mercy for after the war, Eric.”

The two demon deserters ran away and disappeared in the blink of an eye. For the rest of the time, Eric and Natalia stayed together to avoid any further accidents when they acted alone.

After searching the village for a while, the two found some food they could take with them. As it was getting dark, they decided to come back the next day.

As Eric left the village, he circled the perimeter and found the footprints of the two demon deserters.

"They came from over there, and they were probably just passing through looking for some food."

Natalia rode alongside on her snow goat, saying nothing, but as they passed another set of distant footprints, she glanced a few more times in the direction they had gone.

Before it got completely dark, the two returned to their lodgings.

Just to be on the safe side, Eric walked around the village again, and only returned to his temporary house after finding no footprints.

Natalia knelt beside the fireplace, seemingly blowing on it, "There's only a tiny spark left, it won't light."

Eric went to the past and used the holy flame to completely ignite the firewood.

As the fire began to burn, the two of them had their dinner again: vegetable and meat soup, but with the addition of a large piece of cheese, turning it into cheese and vegetable soup.

Flames flickered, and aromas wafted through the steam. Two snow sheep kneeling at the doorway made a soft sound, as if reminding the two that they were hungry too.

“If we find another snow sheep tomorrow, we’ll have to cook a separate pot for them,” Natalia said. Eric shook his head. “Then we can have something fresh. Winter is the perfect time for lamb stew.”

Natalia looked at him. "Is this a custom in Otwell?"

"Hmm... it's a custom from my hometown."

He seemed a little hesitant, but Natalia didn't seem to mind. "Then I'll start looking forward to tomorrow's harvest."

“Actually, the food we’ve found is enough to feed us for several days,” Eric said, stirring the iron pot on the hearth. “Just to be on the safe side, we should find some more food to take with us tomorrow, and leave here by the day after tomorrow at the latest.”

Natalia had no objection.

"It's ready to eat."

Before starting, Eric first served each of the two snow sheep a bowl of vegetable soup and added a clump of snow to cool them down.

The addition of cheese greatly enhanced the vegetable soup, and Eric and Natalia thoroughly enjoyed their dinner.

Today's situation was not as tiring and tense as yesterday. After dinner, the two even went for a walk in the snow.

"Do you think Rusdy will survive?" Natalia asked.

“The demons will definitely spare his life, and in that situation, he probably won’t have time to commit suicide,” Eric said, pausing before adding, “He himself probably wouldn’t have the courage to do it, which is why he asked me to do it.”

Natalia looked at him and said, "I think that after this incident, Rusdy will have no freedom left and will probably be sent to the Demon Realm."

Eric looked at her too. "You mean we should ambush him on the road and rescue him?"

“That is, we can run into the convoy escorting him north,” Natalia said.

"If you're willing to wait and watch, the chances are actually quite good."

Eric stopped and drew a line on the ground with his toe. "At least before we teleported here, we didn't get any news that the Black Ice Great Wall had been destroyed. The demons still have to pass through the frozen ice on both sides of the Great Wall to travel between the Demon Realm and the continent, either to the east or to the west, with a 50/50 chance."

Natalia added, "It will take quite a while to travel north from Castelfel, but we will definitely make it to the Black Ice Wall before he arrives."

“Hmm.” Eric nodded. “Then there’s the question of how to rescue him and how we get through there. There are definitely a lot of demons guarding the checkpoints on both sides.”

“Just like the border guards the Empire previously stationed there.” Natalia took a deep breath, recalling the year she had spent at the border.

They both remained silent for a while.

"Let's take it one step at a time." Eric continued forward. "Riding a snow sheep and wearing demon fur clothing, we might be able to slip through the mud."

Natalia followed, "That's too risky... but haven't we taken enough risks along the way?"

The two walked around outside for a while when suddenly a snowstorm started. They were shivering from the cold and quickly went back inside to take shelter.

“It’s been two days and only one snowstorm has started… Snowstorms are much more frequent on the Black Ice Wall.” Natalia stamped her feet and shook off the snowflakes after entering the house. “If it weren’t so much colder here, I would have thought I was south of the Black Ice Wall.”

“The mountain where the Demon King’s tomb is located blocks a lot of the wind and snow from the north, so this is blowing in from another direction,” Eric said, patting his fur coat. “That’s probably the main reason why the villages are so concentrated here.”

The two returned to the hearth, and Natalia added some more firewood.

"Can you wake up in the middle of the night?"

Eric glanced at her through the flames. "Difficult."

“I think so too. How can you wake up if you fall asleep in this weather… especially tonight when it’s even colder.” To make herself more comfortable, Natalia spread out a few extra fur coats on the floor.

“Let’s take turns keeping watch,” Eric said. “I’ll get some sleep first, and wake me up if you get sleepy. I’ll keep watch for the rest of the night.”

Natalia nodded, then added, "Adding firewood twice along the way will be enough to keep it burning until dawn, so you don't need to keep watch over it the whole time."

“I understand,” Eric replied, then suddenly asked, “Should we include both of them?”

"What?" Natalia was taken aback.

"Those two snow sheep."

"……fool."

Natalia smiled, turned to look at the two snow sheep huddled together, then looked at Eric, who was already lying down by the hearth.

The wind and snow outside grew stronger, the wind sometimes howling and sometimes eerie, making the doors and windows rattle.

Listening to the sounds outside, Natalia lay down and began to drift into a daze.

The chaotic sound of the wind, after a while, was more hypnotic than the cold of a winter night. Her consciousness suddenly became hazy, and she closed her eyes. The next moment, she opened them abruptly and sat up.

...I almost fell asleep.

Looking over at Eric, he was staring at her. "I've only been lying down for a few minutes."

“I didn’t sleep either.” Natalia stood up, checked the hole she had plugged when she came yesterday, and stuffed some more stuff in to make it even tighter.

After walking around the house and checking everything, Natalia touched the two snow sheep by the door and opened the door a little to look outside.

The wind and snow danced wildly in the darkness, outlining any shape.

A blast of cold wind swept in, almost completely dispelling her sleepiness. After standing at the door for a short while, she returned to sit by the fireplace.

Eric had his eyes closed, seemingly asleep.

"Speaking of which, did Miss Kasha leave on her own the day before yesterday at Xingyuan Academy?"

After a long silence on the other side, a sigh was finally heard.

"I was just starting to feel sleepy."

"It's still early."

Eric got up and glared at Natalia on the other side. "Before going underground, I sent Kasha away on her own to return to the Empire and relay our situation to the nearest governor's mansion."

Natalia looked at him, "But Miss Kasha certainly won't leave right away... she'll at least see a result."

Eric remained silent.

“Then she’ll only see Rusdy being taken away, and after the demons guarding the place leave, she’ll sneak into the underground and won’t even be able to find our bodies.” Natalia sighed. “I wonder how she’ll feel.”

"...If you keep talking like this, nobody's going to sleep tonight."

Eric sat up straight cross-legged. "Once Kasha sends news of our gruesome deaths back to the Empire, it won't be long before everyone knows we're dead. Everything we negotiated before will likely fall apart, and the resistance against the demons will quickly crumble."

"..."

Natalia glared at him for a moment, then said, "It's not that serious."

“That’s hard to say. How many people lent a helping hand because of His Highness’s promise? Now that you’re ‘dead,’ who knows if the little empress of Lutia will keep a promise she may never have even heard of? It’s best to stop now and cut your losses,” Eric continued.

There was silence on the other side for a long time.

"Do we really have to talk like this?"

"You started first."

Natalia rolled her eyes and then saw him get up and walk over to the two snow sheep, pausing for a moment.

baa—

The snow sheep suddenly cried out.

When he came back, Natalia saw that he had a tuft of wool in his hand, which he was stuffing into his ear as he walked.

"Your Highness, please continue. I'm listening, and I'll reply to you when I wake up."

"..."

Natalia kept staring at him until he returned to his original position, lay down, and turned his back to her.

But because of what she just said, Eric couldn't fall asleep for most of the day after lying down.

Kasha...

He just wanted her to listen to him and leave immediately;

Or perhaps she could find an opportunity to transform into a bird and inquire about Rusdy, who had been captured again by the demons, to learn that they had actually been teleported, not died.

He also couldn't help but think of his three sisters who were sealed away in Lutia.

And what would his uncle's reaction be if he received the news at this time that he had been killed without a complete body...?

Eric suddenly opened his eyes and turned around. On the other side, Natalia hurriedly turned around and wiped her face.

He removed the wool from her ears and threw it into the fire. He got up and went to Natalia, whose face was still wet with tears.

Their eyes met, and she lowered her head. "The thought that Mia might hear about my death makes me sad for her."

"I can't imagine how my uncle would feel if he heard I was dead."

Eric took her hand. "But we're still alive, aren't we? If we go back to the North and find a place that hasn't been taken over by the demons, we can immediately send the news that we're still alive to Lutia."

Natalia looked up at him and nodded.

A burning stench wafted over, and the two men stared at the fire. The wool they had thrown in had completely caught fire and vanished in the flames in an instant.

(End of this chapter)