“Stop!”
The guard shouted at us clearly, as if he had been warming himself by the fire inside the hut.
I stopped at a distance to prevent them from being startled by the hellsteed and acting rashly.
I raised my hand to block the blizzard as the guards slowly approached us.
To avoid any mishap where they might stab the hellsteed out of shock, I dismounted and approached them first.
Of course, I raised my hands to show I was unarmed. The icy wind and snow from the north blew through my open cloak, making me shiver.
What sins did these guards commit in their past lives to serve in such a godforsaken place?
As I approached unarmed, the guards stopped at an appropriate distance. At this range, the blizzard would make it hard for them to see the hellsteed clearly.
I greeted them cheerfully, hoping the hellsteed would just look like a large black horse to them.
“The weather’s really something, isn’t it!”
“Who are you!”
Like a man from the northernmost frontier city, the guard skipped pleasantries and got straight to the point. I didn’t want to stand here chatting in the cold either.
“I’m a miner from Rosens!”
“What’s the purpose of your visit!”
“I’m here to see if there are any mines available for acquisition!”
The wind was so loud and our ears were covered with fur hats and our faces covered that we had to shout even though we were standing right in front of each other.
“Did you come alone?!”
“With my wife!”
When I first told Pelée to pretend to be my wife, she reacted unusually fiercely, twisting her waist and glaring at me.
But there was no other choice. For a young man and woman to travel to this distant north on one horse without raising suspicion, it was easiest to claim we were married.
‘It’s not like I’m really going to act like we’re married. Just bear with it for a while.’
Pelée wasn’t an emotional fool and knew that posing as a couple was the best cover for our situation. So she just answered with a glare.
“Are you human?!”
“Do you think we’re trolls?!”
“Come down here!”
I went back to the hellsteed and extended my arms to Pelée. She unhesitatingly entrusted herself to my arms and dismounted.
To anyone watching, it would look like a loving husband helping his beloved wife.
Not only that, Pelée clung to me to avoid the blizzard as we approached the guards, and I wrapped part of my cloak around her.
“My wife! She’s really beautiful, but it’s a shame her face is covered!”
The guard held up his lantern and examined Pelée closely. She perfectly acted the part of a shy wife, burrowing into her husband’s arms.
“Sorry, but my wife is very cold right now! Please let us through quickly!”
“There was a time when trolls invaded dressed in human clothes, so we had to check! Get back on your horse!”
The guards waddled back to the post to open the gate. As soon as they turned, Pelée pushed me away.
“Did you hate it that much?”
Looks like we can pass through the gate now. The hellsteed is so fast that if we rush through, the blizzard will make them think it’s just a fast horse.
The gate opened, and we quickly passed through the gap. As expected, the guards noticed nothing, and the gate closed behind us.
Appenzell on a blizzardy evening was indeed quiet. To be precise, nothing could be seen or heard except for the fierce howling of the blizzard.
There wasn’t a single rat on the street, and only light seeping through the shutters of houses lined the road.
Most buildings in Appenzell were single-story to block the strong wind and had narrow windows. Additionally, the walls were very thick, and the roofs were somewhat lower than in other areas.
So, looking at the buildings with white snow piled high on their roofs, they resembled pound cakes with whipped cream on top.
However, not all the buildings in this sizeable city, which even had a city Administrator, were single-story.
In the distance, the lights of two-story buildings shone like stars above the low roofs. If I remember correctly, that direction leads to the City Hall, the church, and various inns.
There was not only an Administrator here but also a priest, though I don’t know if they’re still around. Priests tend to seek comfort, so they might have fled.
After parking the hellsteed in a suitable alley, we went to an inn in the city.
The modest two-story inn strongly gave the impression that it was built solely to keep the cold out.
It had massive exterior walls, narrow and long windows, and even ropes as thick as a person’s arm.
Several ropes emerged from the snow, crossing the roof to the other side. These were tied to stakes buried in the ground, hidden by the snow, to keep the roof from blowing away.
When we knocked on the inn door, we heard the latch being undone from inside, and soon the door opened.
“Hurry inside! The snow is blowing in!”
The middle-aged innkeeper grumbled as he tugged on my cloak.
As soon as we stepped inside, he slammed the door shut and latched it, muttering curses.
“Damn it…showing up at this hour…”
If we were in the southern part of Rithelm City, I would have immediately responded and argued, but here I kept my mouth shut.
I didn’t want to fight and then voluntarily go back out into that blizzard just to protect my petty pride.
“Two single rooms, please.”
“Thirty silver coins.”
My hand froze as I was taking off my fur hat. What the hell… How much…?
I distinctly remember that inns in Appenzell never cost more than ten coins, no matter how expensive…
When I mentioned this, the innkeeper scoffed.
“How many years ago are you talking about? Do you think we sell snow?”
Thirty coins… If we stay tonight and catch Asenarisi tomorrow to stay another day, we’ll have ten coins left… We’ll either have to stay a day in Rithelm or travel further south and camp out.
If everything goes according to plan, it shouldn’t be a big problem.
“Here.”
I took out the silver coins from my pocket and paid. The innkeeper counted each coin one by one.
“The rooms are on the second floor. Meals are on the first floor.”
The innkeeper, having confirmed the amount, casually pointed to the stairs.
“We’ll have dinner. Do you have cassoulet?”
“Yes.”
“Two cassoulets.”
“Do something about those clothes first.”
My cloak and boots, frozen from the warmth of the fireplace, were dripping water. The innkeeper grumbled as he mopped up the water.
“Damn…you should have shaken them off outside…”
At the few tables in the hall, two men sat eating something, eyeing us warily.
We passed them and went upstairs. The old stairs creaked precariously.
Before going into our respective rooms, I called Pelée.
“Come down for dinner. Keep your hat on.”
“Okay.”
Pelée answered with her face red and frozen. Melted ice hung from her long eyelashes.
In the hallway, I shook off the snow from my cloak, hat, and boots before going inside.
The single room was very small.
There was only a bed and a small wardrobe, both crammed against the narrow wall.
The walls, a mixture of stone and plaster, were bare without any wallpaper, giving off a chilly feeling.
The wind blew through the narrow window shutters, making it cold enough inside that you could see your breath.
When I lit the candle, the flame flickered precariously in the draft.
A place like this costing fifteen silver coins…
But there’s nothing I can do. The value of goods is proportional to their scarcity. Everything is scarce and expensive in Appenzell. If I were running an inn here, I’d probably charge this much too.
I put my bag down and took my wet clothes downstairs. In a place with heavy snowfall, there was a drying rack in front of the fireplace.
While I hung my cloak, Pelée came and hung her cloak next to mine. She still had her hat on.
We sat at the table closest to the fireplace.
Pelée, sitting across from me, rubbed her frozen hands. It was a bit pitiful to see her rubbing her red fingers and blowing on them. She had been dragged to this cold wasteland following her employer.
“Is this your first time in the north?”
“Yes.”
As we sat, the unfriendly innkeeper plopped the food on the table and walked away. It was cassoulet with white beans and bone-in horse meat, along with pickled radish.
The cassoulet, with its golden color, looked quite appetizing. A bite revealed that the beans were tender, and the horse meat had been cooked so long that it fell off the bone.
It wasn’t exactly delicious, but it wasn’t inedible either. Despite its mediocre taste, it was comforting and spread warmth inside.
The pickled radish was carelessly cut, having been soaked in salty brine in large chunks. They were too big to eat in one bite, so you had to pick them up and bite into them.
“Ugh, salty…I should only eat a little bit of this…”
Pelée slurped the steaming cassoulet with her spoon.
As the warm food entered her frozen body, Pelée closed her eyes and sighed softly. Then she immediately took another spoonful.
Watching her eat, I asked the innkeeper about the absence of alcohol.
“Aren’t you going to give us any alcohol?”
“I thought you didn’t drink because you didn’t ask.”
The innkeeper snapped and went into the kitchen.
“Give us the heated kind!”
I shouted at his back.
Meals and alcohol are typically included with lodging, but people who don’t know that can be taken advantage of like this. What a scoundrel.
The innkeeper brought out two mugs of warm red wine. From the strong cinnamon smell, it seemed to be mulled wine.
A sip revealed a sweet taste, making it quite enjoyable.
“Try it. It’s sweet and tasty.”
“I don’t drink alcohol.”
“It’s heated, so it barely tastes like alcohol.”
Pelée, half doubtful, picked up the pewter mug and took a small sip of the mulled wine. She swirled a mouthful around and, with slightly surprised eyes, took a few more sips.
Apparently to her taste, she sipped it throughout the meal, eventually emptying the mug.
She also ate more than half of the cassoulet, likely because she’d been enduring the cold all day.
Pelée put her spoon down but didn’t go upstairs right away, instead waiting for me to finish my meal.
Rather than waiting for me, she was probably soaking up the warmth of the fireplace, waiting for her cloak to dry.
We leisurely sipped the mulled wine, staring blankly at the flames dancing in the fireplace.
Listening to the fierce blizzard outside while staying warm, I thought that this inn wasn’t so bad.
“Let’s go to bed early.”
The innkeeper grumbled and poked the fireplace with a poker, seemingly trying to end his shift early.
Hmm…I take back what I just thought.
“Let’s go upstairs. We’ll be outside all day tomorrow too.”
We gathered our clothes that had been drying by the fireplace and went upstairs.
“Good night.”
Pelée nodded briefly and went into her room.
In the middle of the night, the low sound of a horn echoed. Doors opened, and the sounds of cursing and clashing weapons erupted.
“The north gate! Head to the north gate!”
“Damn trolls! I’ll tear them limb from limb!”
When I opened the shutters, I saw people with weapons plowing through the snow, heading somewhere.
I watched the rough northern men running to fight the decades-old battle, ready to face death.
The next day, fortunately, the blizzard had subsided.
We stopped by the City Hall and requested a copy of the map of the northern mountain range.
The map hadn’t changed much from the one I used a few years ago. Only the mountains around Appenzell were slightly drawn, with blank spaces beyond.
The City Hall official told us to brace ourselves if we were heading out through the north gate.
…What did he mean by that?
In Appenzell, the palisade gates are kept open during daylight.
With frequent miner traffic, opening and closing the gates constantly would be difficult, and trolls are nocturnal, so they don’t move during the day.
So, I passed through the palisade gate quickly, so fast that the guards couldn’t get a good look.
Once we exited the gate and went outside, I finally understood what the City Hall official meant.
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