Another World Reincarnation Chronicle

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The crowned prince wears a white robe, known as Taebaek.

A world blanketed in pure white snow. This was the land of Taebaek.

“Hu…”

I opened the map and looked around. Although I had purchased a detailed map of the geography of Taebaek, it didn’t reveal the location of the Ice Stone. Everyone was simply climbing this Taebaek Mountain, praying for the Ice Stone to be somewhere amidst the collapsed snowy peaks.

Here, the only thing I could trust was my unyielding stamina and my significantly more sensitive senses compared to ordinary people. I quickened my pace in search of this Ice Stone.

If it was refined from a dragon’s breath, I should be able to sense the energy of the dragon, but why was I feeling nothing at all? Here in Taebaek Mountain, I couldn’t detect the mana of the dragon. However, if I were to ask if I felt absolutely nothing, that wasn’t the case either.

There was an ambiguous and faint aura whose location I could not discern. It was merely a conclusion that there was something special in this place.

Even the wizards sensitive to mana must have sensed this aura. This was why, while wandering the Taebaek Mountain, it was not uncommon to come across wizards.

As many people with the same goal concentrated in one place, small and large disputes frequently arose. The differences in language and culture made confrontations between Beastmen and wizards inevitable. Of course, it wasn’t just conflicts between Beastmen and wizards.

With every step I took towards areas where the flow of mana wasn’t felt, I could regularly discover traces of battles. Bloodstains staining the pure white snow and the sight of cold corpses caught my eye.

This corpse was that of a wizard. I approached and looked down at the body. I recognized this corpse as a wizard because he was wearing the robe of the Mage Tower. It seemed the victors of the fight had taken away his possessions, as he had nothing else of particular value.

Did he ever imagine?

To disappear into the white snow, unremembered by anyone in a foreign land. I wanted to inform the Mage Tower of his death, but there were no belongings left to prove his identity.

As time passed, the nameless wizard’s body would vanish beneath the white snow. I stepped over the wizard’s body and moved on.

The Taebaek Mountain was also home to numerous monsters. There were white wolves and enormous snow leopards in sight. When those white-furred creatures scurried across the snowfield, it resembled waves of white crashing.

Then, it happened. A woman wrapped in a small wind appeared against the entirely white mountain. She was moving as if flying, leaving no footprints behind.

As I got closer, I could finally recognize the woman’s figure. It was a familiar appearance and a familiar flow of mana.

“Wendy…?”

It was Wendy, whom I had parted with in the city where the airship dock was located.

“Seris…?”

Despite having spotted me, Wendy didn’t seem inclined to stop. With her pale expression and ragged breath, she was constantly looking back as if someone was chasing her. Although we didn’t share a deep connection, I couldn’t be so cruel as to turn a blind eye to the difficulties faced by a fellow wizard from the same Mage Tower.

I immediately drew my sword.

“Run!”

Wendy shouted as she passed me. The smell of blood lingered where she had passed. Although I couldn’t see any wounds, it seemed she was injured.

At that moment, Wendy, who had just zoomed past me, turned back and charged toward me. The white snow piled on the ground was blown about by the wind she wrapped around herself.

“What are you doing?!”

In a hurried gesture, Wendy pulled at my arm. It seemed she thought of forcibly dragging me along, but her concern was unnecessary.

“I’m fine.”

I gently pushed Wendy’s arm away and focused on what lay ahead. How much time passed? In the fierce blizzard, about ten Beastmen revealed themselves.

They wore white hats and snowy white robes. Clearly, they had chosen that color to hide their figures as much as possible in this snowy mountain.

“Oh no, they’re here…!”

Wendy frowned at the revealed Beastmen, as if horrified. She blocked my path, conjuring rough winds around her hands, as if afraid I would get caught up in it.

“What do you have to do with those people?”

“They suddenly demanded to see my belongings… and when I refused, they accused me of hiding the Ice Stone and started chasing me like this.”

I frowned at Wendy’s reply. I didn’t sense the aura of the Ice Stone everyone was searching for emanating from Wendy.

“Wendy, are you hurt?”

“Ah, yeah…”

Wendy glanced at her shoulder at my question. I jumped off the Nightmare, saying, “Protect Wendy.”

Fwihihing-!

At my command, the Nightmare nodded, exhaling rough breaths. I walked past the trembling Wendy.

The ten Beastmen showed obvious hostility, seemingly unwilling to negotiate even after new companions had joined.

Just as I raised my sword to fight, the ten Beastmen swung their hands into the air.

Swish-!

Sharp, gray glints flew through the air. Since I couldn’t sense the flow of mana, it seemed they had been thrown with pure physical strength.

Clang-!

As I swung my sword, I deflected five of the projectiles and caught the other five with my unarmed hand. The extended sleeves of my red cloak fluttered as if confronting a storm.

A serene silence descended. Only the howling of the wind and the soft sound of snowflakes settling filled the surroundings.

“Umm…”

The Beastmen began to take steps back, regarding me with wary eyes. It seemed they had concluded that I would be a difficult opponent.

In that instant, the Beastman standing on the far right gave a small signal, and the other nine Beastmen moved in unison, leaping back and pulling more projectiles from their sleeves to throw again.

As the projectiles flew quickly and obscured my vision, I swung my sword at the ground, releasing mana. As the mana circle began to rotate and the Starlight Mana poured out, the projectiles homed in on me ceased their movement.

“Gasp…”

I heard Wendy’s astonished voice from behind me. It seemed she found interest in the new magic before her. She looked at me with gleaming eyes, as if she had forgotten the danger to her life.

“What, what is that…? What kind of magic is it?”

“Umm…”

I tilted my head at Wendy’s question. This magic didn’t have a specific name. It was a sort of preparation step for using spatial magic like Blink or Teleport. Even in summoning the inner world, similar preparatory steps were required.

But if I had to name it,

“Telekinesis…? Mancheonhwaou?”

In truth, it felt a bit lacking to be called Mancheonhwaou. The number of projectiles was insufficient; it was merely a simplistic imitation.

The Starlight Mana enveloping the scene began to cover the suspended projectiles. At that moment, the many projectiles surrounding us moved at my gesture.

The projectiles wrapped in twinkling starlight shot into the rough blizzard. The moment I detected the positions of the fleeing ten Beastmen through the expanded aura, the starlight-wrapped projectiles swept them away.

As the mana-coated projectiles began to descend, the white snow burst forth as if bombs were exploding.

As I dealt with all ten Beastmen, the projectiles returned to me. The range of my spatial control had grown significantly, thanks to the dragon’s mana I had recently absorbed.

As I recalled the starlight mana enveloping the projectiles, the many projectiles floating in the air all suddenly fell to the ground. The white snow blanketed the projectiles stained with red blood.

“Oh wow…”

Wendy marveled at the sight.

I chuckled softly and said, “Let’s check for injuries. There might be poison.”

“Po-poison…?”

At my words, Wendy hastily pulled down her robe. The injured area was around her wing bone. As I had expected, it showed signs of a bruise forming, a bluish mark appearing.

“How is it?”

“We should head down the mountain.”

“Wha-what?”

Carrying the dazed Wendy on the Nightmare’s back, I turned and started heading down the mountain. I could recover wounds with healing magic, but poison was different.

Once we reached the base of the mountain, I sought out the most renowned doctor in Taebaek. The doctor was a goat Beastman with a long white beard.

Inside the apothecary, filled with the smell of various herbs, Wendy lay on a bed for patients.

“How is she?”

In response to my question, the goat Beastman stroked his beard. Looking down at Wendy’s injury, he nodded and replied.

“There’s nothing much to worry about. I’ll prepare my antidote, so please wait a moment.”

Once the goat Beastman left, Wendy looked up at me with anxious eyes. Although she usually wore a lively smile like the wind, she seemed nervous at the thought of poison entering her body.

“It will be okay.”

“Really…? Can we trust the doctors here? Being a Beastman…”

Wendy seemed to have developed distrust towards Beastmen due to what had happened earlier. But what could I do? The doctors here were all Beastmen.

About thirty minutes passed when the goat Beastman returned, holding a cup filled with a dark red liquid and a paper bag.

“After your meal, brew this medicine. In about two days, the poison will naturally leave your body, so during that time, it would be best to avoid vigorous activity.”

After paying for the medicine, we exited the apothecary and walked the streets. Wendy followed me with a gloomy expression. The Nightmare seemed to enjoy itself, prancing about with some strange steps. Its tail swayed as if dancing.

“Are you here to find the Ice Stone too, Wendy?”

“Yeah… What about you?”

“Ah, something similar.”

“So wizards really do think alike…”

While searching for an inn to stay with Wendy, I turned my head to look around. In doing so, I spotted two handsome men walking down the street.

They had changed their hair color and wore the robes typical for wizards, but my eyes couldn’t be deceived. They were Ch’eong-bin and Red Wind.

“What’s wrong…? Do you know them?”

I could no longer see the prideful horns I remembered on their heads. Instead of scales on the backs of their hands, smooth skin was now visible. Now that I saw them like this, they closely resembled wizards from the Mage Tower.

Wendy, beside me, also seemed oblivious to the strangeness; ordinary Beastmen wouldn’t recognize them.

Where on earth had these wizards gotten their robes? I frowned as I cautiously led Wendy and the Nightmare toward an alley.

“They’re both good-looking… If you know them, introduce them to me.”

“Shh…”

“What…?”

“Those guys aren’t from the Mage Tower.”

“Then it’s impersonation…?”

What could their purpose be?

I rode the Nightmare with Wendy and began to exit the city.