Chapter 253. Above the Frozen Land (4)
I knew too well how much the land had changed. It was the place we had landed. The shape of the continent had most certainly changed. Seeing the coastline cut unnaturally, I felt a chill going down my spine.
“The perpetrator has enough power to change the landscape?”
“No, Dear Husband. The perpetrator only shaved off the top layer, like scooping ice cream from a bucket. We should be able to deal with this much!”
“I’m not trying to compete…”
Licorice was right. There was a gradual slope down to the ocean, allowing seawater to flow in. It was certainly something I could do too, though I would need to use quite a bit of my aura.
Even so, the fact that the perpetrator used so much energy to accomplish this made me uneasy. He had to have a reason for doing that. I pondered for a moment, and suddenly thought of something.
“Could it be… Licorice.”
“Yes.”
It seemed she was thinking the same thing. She projected the satellite pictures onto her crystal ball again and zoomed in. When we saw the land, the frozen parts were all connected to the coast. There had to be a starting point where the freezing began.
The answer was quickly found. If someone completely unknowledgeable saw it, he would only think of it as a giant glacier. This giant glacier was the thing clashing with the coast, and that was where the invasion was beginning. That giant glacier was undoubtedly the cut off part of Antarctica.
“Now we know for sure.”
“Un.”
A ship. The perpetrator had sliced off a part of Antarctica to use as a ship. Being able to slice off such a huge chunk of land showed just how powerful the perpetrator was. At the same time, it most likely meant that he wasn’t alone. He most likely had an army with him.
“He crossed over to Earth recently. If he was alone, it could be that he crossed over long ago and was hiding this entire time, but since he has an army, it makes more sense that he crossed over recently with his army. But… How did he time his invasion with the Event Dungeons?”
I didn’t know how Event Dungeons were created. From what I know about the worlds’ enemies, I know that they use ‘pathways’ to periodically send their armies to Earth, and that the dungeon traps them in Event Dungeons so that humanity doesn’t have to fight them at the same time, and encourages explorers to clear them for item and stat rewards.
One thing to note was that during the second wave of Event Dungeons, I encountered a demon race in the last Event Dungeon I cleared. It meant both monsters and demons became trapped in Event Dungeons when they crossed over without exception. But what about this time? Did I encounter any demons in the Event Dungeons I cleared?
“No, I didn’t.”
I shook my head. I couldn’t believe I only noticed it now. In that case, the answer was even simpler. Disappearing Event Dungeons and the appearance of the Demon Lord’s army. It could only mean one thing.
“The Event Dungeons didn’t disappear… Someone had the power to take demons out of Event Dungeons. As if they had everything planned, they gathered in one place and started conquering Oceania…”
“Then the reason all the disappeared Event Dungeons were in Antarctica was…”
“Yeah. They could probably control that too.”
I was dumbfounded. If our a.s.sumption was correct, the demons were practically playing around with the dungeon’s system. Either the dungeon’s restraint lost its meaning, or half of it was rendered useless. Was it because they already have a world’s power? I couldn’t be sure.
“Sorry, I’m going to go see Loretta for a bit. Go rest in the Residential Area.”
“Un.”
I hurriedly entered the dungeon. Loretta greeted me happily, but her expression turned grave when I told her my thoughts.
“That’s impossible. That would be the same as challenging the Lord’s power directly. That oldie might be annoying, but certainly powerful!”
“But this is what happened.”
“Uuu. But… Mm…”
Loretta shot up and began to circle around me. Then, she began to murmur to herself. It was a bit scary, but I let her be.
Soon, she nodded as if she came to a decision. She turned to face me.
“Shin-nim, try to resist this.”
“Huh?”
“Resist it, okay? Though, I would be happy even if Shin-nim didn’t… Kuhum! Anyways, try resisting it!”
Loretta didn’t wait for my answer and closed her eyes. When she opened them back up, the particles of light freely floating in her golden eyes suddenly began to let out a dazzling light.
Loretta was too beautiful.
For a moment, my heart thumped and obscene thoughts crossed my mind. I knew I liked Loretta, but this urge…!
“Lo… retta?”
“Good, just like that… No, that’s not right!”
I knew of Loretta’s beauty all too well, but its current destructive ability was beyond my imagination. What happened? I thought I was old enough to be disciplined! Unable to control my desire, I slowly approached Loretta. Suddenly, I felt terrified. I felt like I was being sucked in by Loretta’s charm, unable to maintain my own will. I felt scared that I was going to lose myself.
In the end, before I attacked Loretta, I instinctively poured mana into my Evil Eyes and released the charm I had kept hidden. It was common sense that high charm countered another person’s high charm. Slowly, my consciousness began to return. Loretta was still blindingly beautiful, but I was no longer feeling the same uncontrollable urge.
As if she didn’t want to lose, Loretta bit her lips and strengthened the power in her eyes. However, I also roused my charm and resisted her. At the same time, I understood somewhat that this was the power of Loretta’s Evil Eyes. Evil Eyes that can threaten my high charm, as I thought, Loretta’s ability was beyond my imagination…
“Just how high are you going to go!?”
“Ow!”
Realizing that Loretta’s eyes were sparkling to a dangerous point, I smacked her head. Loretta then finally released her Evil Eyes and rubbed her head in pain.
“Hiing, Shin-nim just wouldn’t come over.”
“You’re the one who told me to resist it.”
“I got angry because Shin-nim resisted it too well! If I were Shin-nim, I would have taken the opportunity to attack me!”
“Is that what you were hoping for?”
“Yes!”
As always, Loretta didn’t hide her intentions. Dumbfounded, I smacked her head again. Loretta pouted like a duck.
“I wasn’t sure Shin-nim could really resist it. Uuuu, why did the Lord have to put mares in the dungeon to have Shin-nim’s resistance rise!?”
“Do you really need me to answer that…”
When I retorted, still dumbfounded, Loretta moaned with a vexed expression.
“It’s been three hundred years since my Evil Eyes of Charm got blocked. Well, it was also the first time it was activated in three hundred years…”
“So they really were charm type Evil Eyes.”
The Evil Eyes I’ve seen until now were all beautiful, but Loretta’s were especially beautiful. It made sense if her Evil Eyes were Evil Eyes of Charm.
“Yes. Shin-nim has the qualification to meet the Lord, and I just proved Shin-nim won’t be charmed when meeting the Lord, so there’s no problem. Meet and ask the Lord directly. That will be the most definite way.”
I see. It seemed she used her Evil Eyes on me in case I got charmed by the Lord. In that case, the Lord must also be a woman whose charm was on a similar level to Loretta’s Evil Eyes of Charm.
Of course, I wasn’t looking forward to it at all. It wasn’t just because Loretta was taking her axes out.
“That makes sense, but…”
“I can go ask for you, but Shin-nim’s free, right? This is a good chance to talk to her. Come on, let’s go.”
“Okay.”
I had no reason to refuse. I was also curious about this Lord person. If I could meet her in person, I would love to do so.
“First, we’ll go to Fairy Garden. Then, I’ll open a road to where the Lord is.”
At Fairy Garden, I met Lokanyan who was playing with the elementals. She was like a cat chasing after b.u.t.terflies. As a cat would, Lokanyan detected our prescence and turned around to face us.
“Ah, Master nyan!”
“Where’s Lin?”
“Lin’s been making something. He won’t be with Loka nyan…”
Loka half-folded her cat ears with a dejected look. I flinched. What Lin was making was undoubtedly the accessories for Daisy and me. Loretta laughed and patted Lokanyan’s head.
“Lin is atoning for his mistakes by doing work. Just wait a bit, Loka. He won’t take too long.”
“Got it, nyan. Master is really kind, nyan!”
I wonder if she’d smile when she knew Loretta was the one who gave him that punishment. Since I didn’t want to pour water on a good scene, I stayed silent. Loretta dusted off Lokanyan with mana and advised her.
“When your stomach gets big, you can’t run around like now. It’s not good for your child.”
“Got it, nyan! But how does Master know so much when Master’s never been pregnant or even slept with a guy, nyan?”
“… Huhu, I have my ways.”
“Master is really amazing, nyan!”
“Huhuhu.”
I felt like Lin’s punishment increased by at least a month. I didn’t even want to approach Loretta because her smile was so scary.
“Let’s go, Shin-nim.”
“Yeah.”
Loretta held my hand and walked away. When Lokanyan disappeared from our view, she glared at me.
“Half of it is Shin-nim’s fault.”
“No way, only one out of two thousand seven hundredth is my fault.”
“Shin-nim…?”
“Come on, let’s hurry!”
The Fairy Garden wasn’t just an administrative guild area, but a rather mystical place. Just by walking while thinking about the person you want to me, you would be able to meet her. It was a place far out of human realm’s laws, a place ruled by mystical laws.
“Don’t let go of my hand and if possible, don’t think about anything.”
“Got it.”
Loretta warned me and grabbed my hand. Then, we began to walk step by step into the empty forest. With just that, the surrounding scenery began to change. From a forest to a meadow, from a meadow to a barren wilderness, from a wilderness to a hill, the sceneries changed as if we were teleporting from place to place. Soon, everything disappeared and we came to an area enshrouded in darkness.
If there was even a single star, I might have thought we were under a night sky. If there wasn’t a sense of vastness that made me certain the darkness expanded out endlessly, I might have thought we were in a dark room. Of course, neither was the case. At least, I knew we weren’t in Fairy Garden. Using Loretta’s existence as a key and using Fairy Garden as a door, we had arrived here. It was just like how I entered Fairy Garden through the pond in my mansion.
This place wasn’t connected to any other places and existed independently. It wasn’t a place one could enter just by wanting to enter or leave just by wanting to leave.
“Where are we…?”
“It’s the oldie’s taste.”
“Oldie? How rude, Loretta.”
The moment Loretta mentioned her, a calm mature voice of a woman reb.u.t.ted her. I instinctively turned to the direction of the voice. It was undoubtedly the first time I had heard this voice, but for some reason, I felt a sense of familiarity. While I was enveloped in this strange sensation, the Lord greeted me with a smile.
“This is the first time we’ve met. I’m Sherifina, in charge of the dungeon’s administrations. Everyone calls me Lord, but you always called me something else.”
When I heard her voice again, I realized whom it belonged to.
“Message noona! … Noona?”
In the empty darkness, message noona, or rather Sherifina, who greeted us… was a small girl perhaps even smaller than Ina.