The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 282 Crossing the Mountains
Eric found Natalia hiding and explained the situation on the other side to her. He then showed her the jar of dried meat he had brought back.

"so much……"

“They must have looted it from here or somewhere else before,” Eric said, and the two went back into the cabin.

The two demon deserters' corpses were still lying on the ground. Eric dragged the bodies into the house and said to Natalia, "There's blood all over the ground. Let's go somewhere else."

"it is good……"

They rode on snow sheep and moved to another wooden house not far away, where they tidied up again.

"There shouldn't be any more lurking demons here, right?" Natalia said, looking at him.

Eric took a breath. "It should be gone, but just in case, I'll go check the nearby cabins again."

"I'm with you."

The two searched the area carefully, ruling out the possibility that other demons were hiding there.

On the way back, Eric carried a bundle of firewood, while Natalia found some dried vegetables in the nearest cellar. Back at their new hideout, the two started a fire, cooked soup, and settled down for the time being.

The temperature inside the room gradually rose. Eric glanced at the melting snow in the iron pot, then looked at the two snow sheep kneeling in the corner.

"The battle just now seems to have had no effect on them at all."

Natalia glanced at it, then looked back at the flickering flames. "If it were two snow sheep fighting horns, we would probably just watch."

“No, not at all.” Eric licked his lips. “I’m really looking forward to something fresh right now.”

Natalia paused for a moment, then said, "Okay, me too. But the snow sheep won't see us as food."

Once the vegetable soup boiled, Eric found two bowls and served the two calm and collected snow sheep first.

“Once we escape the Demon Realm, I probably won’t be able to bear eating them.” Eric patted the heads of the two snow sheep.

After putting down the cheese, Natalia struggled to tear the jerky into small pieces and threw them into the vegetable soup to continue cooking. "Luckily they can't understand, otherwise they wouldn't be able to drink the vegetable soup."

"I meant I would let them go."

"His tone wasn't confident enough."

After a while, the dried meat was cooked until tender, and the two began to enjoy their dinner.

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, there was still quite a bit left. Eric took the iron pot off the stove and put it aside, intending to use it as breakfast the next day. It could be heated up and eaten without needing to be cooked for too long.

Before going to sleep, the two talked about what had happened that day.

Eric lay on the snow sheepskin, one arm warmed by the heat, even a little hot, while the other was still a bit cold. "Judging from their equipment, this group we encountered were also deserters from the demon race."

Natalia turned to face him, "Does encountering so many demon deserters at once mean we're closer to the border?"

Eric turned to look at her. "I guess so. After all, we ran dozens of miles today."

He paused for a moment, then added, "We will encounter deserters from the demon race more frequently in the future, but since they are deserters, their strength is only slightly stronger than that of ordinary demons, so there's no need to worry too much."

"Those who truly have power are eyeing our land and food on the front lines."

Natalia picked up where he left off, "We've been teleported to the Demon Realm for several days now, and we don't know how things are on the front lines."

Eric gazed at the dimly lit roof and sighed. "We'll only know the answer when we return to human soil."

They both remained silent for a while.

When their attention returned to the distant war, it was hard for the two not to think about the things they had been worrying about before being teleported to the Demon Realm.

Natalia recalled her surprise when she received the news a few days ago, "The group of mages we recruited should have been sent to Dorne by now. Although I don't know why Igor did this, they should be sent to the front lines of the Gradia battlefield soon."

“Hmm…” Eric rolled over, trying to get himself cooked as evenly as possible. “Gradia is the most important place. If we lose it, we’re really doomed.”

Natalia stared at the flames for a while, lost in thought.

"have a rest."

"Good night."

The next morning, the two woke up, ate something, fed the snow sheep, and set off again.

After two days of snow, the wind and snow had lessened considerably when we set off again today.

This was good news for Eric and Natalia, as the improved visibility would help them orient themselves and allow them to spot the demons on the road sooner.

After traveling all day, by evening they were looking for a place to stay. The first thing they did after finding the demon village was to eliminate any demons that might be hiding there.

“I really feel colder here than where we were before,” Natalia said as the two searched the village’s cellars together, having eliminated the risks.

Eric glanced at the snow sheepskin wrapped around her. "Has she changed a lot?"

“No, it’s just gotten a little colder,” Natalia said.

Eric pursed his lips.

He had heard in his past life that, due to differences in physiological structure, women are more sensitive to temperature changes, so he couldn't feel the difference between minus twenty degrees and minus twenty-two degrees.

But if Natalia's feelings are true, then it means they are moving towards a colder place, that is, a place further north.

Were they actually heading north, not south?
Eric looked up and could only see a small patch of dim sky above him through the cellar entrance.

Having been in the Demon Realm for so many days, they have not seen the sun yet. Even though the wind and snow have lessened considerably today, the sky remains overcast.

Not only can we not see the sun, but we also cannot see the stars, so we have no way of knowing where we are going.

Did he unknowingly reverse his direction while traveling, or was the direction he chose from the beginning wrong?

After all, his communication with the two demon deserters he first encountered relied entirely on gestures, and there was no guarantee that they understood each other.

"Is your intuition accurate enough?" Eric asked Natalia.

Holding a wad of dried vegetables, she shook her head frankly, "I don't know, I just have this feeling."

"We'll continue our journey tomorrow, but we need to find a demon to question and try to confirm our direction again," Eric said.

Natalia nodded and handed over the dried vegetables in her hand. "I hope it's just my imagination."

After resting for a night, the two continued their journey in the same direction.

The wind and snow stopped completely that day, but the sky remained overcast.

Riding on their snow sheep, Eric and Natalia raced across the snowfield. Whenever they reached a high point, Eric would stop and look around for a while.

Determining the direction was secondary; he was more interested in catching a deserter from the demon race on the road, or even seeing which direction the deserter was coming from.

If they are coming from the opposite direction, then they are most likely heading south.

Of course, this method of judgment is not accurate. It would be best to encounter a demon who can speak the common language or an ancient language.

But demons who can master languages ​​other than the demon language are basically people of status and position. Would such demons become deserters?
Seeing Eric constantly frowning, Natalia understood what was bothering him.

“Let’s keep going. At worst, we’ll have to turn back in a few days. We have enough food and snow sheep to get around,” she comforted us.

After descending another high slope, the two continued forward.

They didn't encounter a single demon throughout the day, and Natalia felt that it was even colder there.

The next day they set off again, heading in the same direction, but at a much slower pace.

They arrived at the foot of a snow-capped mountain that was difficult to bypass, where the terrain became rugged and the road became much more difficult to travel.

Around two or three in the afternoon, Eric looked at the long snow-covered path ahead and the mountaintop that was faintly visible in the wind and snow, and estimated that they might have to spend the night on the mountain.

“If we can’t find anywhere to shelter from the snow and wind ahead, we’ll have to turn back, or we’ll freeze to death on the mountain tonight,” Eric said to Natalia.

"Shall we go back to that dilapidated wooden hut halfway up the mountain that we passed earlier?"

"Well, it's a bit run-down there, but it's better than being out in the open. It's enough for us to spend the night."

Natalia nodded, then looked up ahead. "Is there such a tall snow-capped mountain in the south of the Demon Realm?"

“I don’t know. But I’m increasingly convinced that we’ve really gone down the wrong path,” Eric sighed.

Natalia shifted her gaze. "Should we still turn it over?"

Eric sighed, "Because I still can't be sure if we've really gone in the wrong direction."

“Then let’s keep climbing. We can see further from the top and make more accurate judgments,” Natalia said.

"After all, it's not us who are suffering..."

Eric stroked the snow sheep beneath him. "Luckily, I brought some dried vegetables with me before we left, otherwise we wouldn't be able to find any food for them here."

The dried vegetables were very light because they had been dehydrated, so the two of them packed two large bags on their snow sheep, which would also protect them from the wind and snow on the way. Continuing to climb, after more than an hour, they passed a small wooden house at a higher elevation and decided to stop there for the day and rest.

The door to the cabin could be pushed open with a forceful push. The inside was empty and its purpose was unclear. Eric and Natalia stopped there and then herded the snow sheep inside.

"We'll have to rely on these to get through tonight."

All around was snow, not a single tree. The only thing that could be used as fuel was the wooden cabin itself, but it was clearly not suitable for starting a fire. The two of them had no choice but to endure the night.

Fortunately, the wooden house itself was quite sturdy, and the wind couldn't get in.

"Is this place prepared for people who climb the snow mountain to spend the night?" Natalia wondered.

Eric looked outside and wondered, "Does the demon society even have public works projects like this?"

“That could be some kind of supply depot,” Natalia suggested.

Eric circled the cabin, stabbing the ground with his sword, but found no cellar hidden by the snow.

It was too early to rest now, so he wandered around the area, but his gaze eventually returned to the mountaintop above.

“I hope to see the Black Ice Wall there, even if it’s just a distant shadow,” he said softly, breathing on his hands.

Natalia looked at him. "I hope so too."

As darkness fell, the two ate the cold dried meat and then scattered dried vegetables on the snow outside, letting the two snow sheep graze on their own like grass.

When it was time to rest, Eric and Natalia spread out furs on the floor, then had two snow sheep kneel on either side, while they lay in the middle, the two of them and the two sheep snuggling close together.

As the light from the illumination faded, everything in the darkness became clear.

"Will we wake up tomorrow?" Natalia asked softly.

Feeling the warmth of the person close behind him, Eric closed his eyes. "I'll wake up, but I might have a sore back and smell like sheep."

The voice behind them said again, "We live a life of hardship, sleeping in the open and sharing our beds with wild beasts. Aren't we just like those adventurers now?"

Eric shook his head. "Adventurers probably don't have it as easy as we do. When my uncle and his friends went on adventures, they probably spent most of their time sleeping against rocks or trees in the wild. At least we found a house."

Natalia was silent for a moment, "But they've never been to the Demon Realm, nor have they ever seen...a real demon before this year."

Eric responded with a sound of agreement, then added, "My uncle has met him."

"Huh?" Natalia turned her head. "Duke Edgar has seen demons before? Where?"

“Ancient battlefield,” Eric replied, feeling a gap behind him; she seemed to be lying down, so he lay down too, squeezing against her shoulder.

"I heard it from someone else. My uncle has a nickname, 'The Sword of Demon Slayer,' because when he was young, he once faced and killed a demon skeletal cavalryman alone deep in an ancient battlefield. No one had ever done that before... Although he has been dead for five or six hundred years, he was still a demon."

"I see," Natalia said, suddenly realizing. "That's amazing."

"Um……"

Eric pictured his uncle's face in his youth, and his spirited travels across the continent.

"Once everything is over, I want to travel all over the continent."

The people around were silent for a moment.

"As an adventurer, or as a saint?"

“Just live like an ordinary person,” Eric said. “Once the demons are driven out, my mission as a saintess will be over.”

Natalia turned her head. She couldn't see anything in the darkness, but she could feel that he was looking in her direction as well.

"Yes, you're still very young... you won't settle down in one place."

“Don’t talk like you’re thirty years old,” Eric said quickly.

Natalia smiled. "It's only a matter of four or five years, not far off."

She paused for a moment, then said, "But sometimes, I feel that you are closer to that age."

Eric couldn't deny it, "Maybe it's because I think about it too much?"

"maybe."

Natalia turned to the side again, but this time she was facing him.

“To me, your words are more trustworthy than your identity as a saint... I can also feel that you trust me in the same way... I even have the illusion that this trust was already established when we first met.”

“It’s not an illusion,” Eric said. “The first time I met you, I knew you were the most reliable person in the entire royal family.”

Natalia's voice lowered, "Can you tell me why?"

Eric thought for a moment, “It’s my intuition as a prospective saint. Perhaps the gods have already given me hints in ways I haven’t noticed.”

Natalia seemed to smile slightly.

After a while, she lay down again and didn't make any further noise for a long time.

Just as Eric had fallen asleep, her voice seemed to come from a very distant place.

"For me, when will it all end?"

Eric looked in her direction. "Probably when Her Majesty the Queen is able to become independent."

“I was probably forty years old by then.” Natalia paused for a few seconds, “...and you don’t even know where you’ve gone.”

“I will write to you often,” Eric said.

"..."

“I will tell you where I went and what I saw. The new empire will surely have many wonderful changes, and I will witness them for you and then tell you which ones are the result of our joint efforts back then.”

Natalia opened her mouth, but swallowed back the resentment that welled up within her.

"Then I... will only feel an even stronger urge to see it for myself."

“There’s no place you can’t go if you’re willing,” Eric said.

“The temporary freedom is not the same as the relaxation that comes when everything is over,” Natalia said.

Eric laughed, "Has the investment in building a new empire become a shackle of unfreedom?"

“That’s not what I meant… but in a way, that’s the truth.” Natalia paused, then added, “It’s not that I’m unwilling, it’s just…”

“I just wish I could stay,” Eric continued.

Natalia did not speak.

The silence between them lasted for a while.

In the darkness, his hand reached out, groping for her arm, then exploring downwards until it grasped her hand, which was already outstretched and waiting.

"I thought that kiss in the Demon King's tomb that day was my confession."

"..."

Natalia rolled over, taking his hands in hers. "I thought so at the time, but then I thought it was just some kind of farewell."

Eric faced her and said, "So much has happened these days, I can't find the right atmosphere to bring this up again."

He paused, then suddenly remembered something, "You mentioned Kasha a couple of days ago, is that what you meant?"

“No. Stop talking,” Natalia whispered. “It’s just the two of us here now, let’s not talk about things that don’t concern us.”

After another moment of silence, he suddenly pulled his hand away from hers.

"..."

In a moment of disappointment, Natalia took a breath, and the next second, his hand was on her back, pulling her closer.

The body tenses and stiffens in the close warmth, then gradually relaxes.

She closed her eyes, reached out, and hugged him tightly.

"...I'm so cold, Eric."

It seems that snow has started to fall outside again.

The wind howled, and the cabin echoed with high-pitched or low-pitched responses.

Climbing peaks and ridges, the road was first carved out from the mud. With fingers intertwined, Eric persevered through repeated trials, finally reaching his limit and giving his all.

(End of this chapter)