Frozen kingdom of Londria. An empire built on the bones of a great wyrm that once ruled the land, history says that it used to be a simple fishing village but with the invasion of the demon king army and increasing hostility near its borders a great witch called Eira summoned the power of the great draconic emperor to her aid, following that, the land was covered in ice, freezing more than half of the demon army but keeping the residents of the village safe. Through harnessing the power of frostburnt silver they slowly progressed to today’s kingdomship, many died from the cold, but legend says that every true descendant of the witch is still protected by the wyrm’s blessing.

“I was adopted when my parents were killed by my step-grandfather’s schemes.” Oliver’s voice was filled with a subtle hint of hatred. “Though he had no reason to adopt me, I think he did so not out of pity, but the circumstances dictated that he had to. Both his grandchildren fled from the prestigious Arc household and with nobody else to fill that role, I was the perfect puppet. With no one else to vouch for my identity, I became an Arc.”

“Get to the point.”

Phoebe was clearly becoming impatient with his pacing, shown by her lack of tact.

“I was getting there.” He cleared his throat. “As outsiders, most won’t suspect you asking around for information, I need to know what the people think about him.”

“What makes you think we’d do that?”

The high elf still kept the hostility towards Oliver almost as a means to shoo him away, but Leona quickly intervened.

“Wait Phoebe.” She placed her hand in front of her as she turned to the captain. “Why are you asking us to do something like that? I get it that you’d want revenge but to take revenge upon someone you don’t really require information to do that.”

He looked away with a hint of anger in his eyes.

“It’s- it’s complicated… I’m not sure but there is more to him than meets the eye and I want to know for sure what is going on before I act. Even if I take my revenge, it’ll be for nothing if it ends up making many others miserable like me.” He turned his attention towards the soldiers. “Some of them have families to take care of, I don’t want my actions to cost them their livelihood.”

Leona understood his reasoning completely, the meaning of having people to put their lives in their master’s hands was something very familiar to her own family. On top of that, being able to extract information directly from the source seemed like a worthwhile endeavor, however Phoebe’s words were still fresh in her mind.

‘Don’t get yourself involved with it.’

But chances don’t come without risks and she knew if she was to make any sort of progress, there were going to be things at stake. Therefore she began to carefully lay the groundwork for her objectives.

“Very well… does Athena know about your hatred for your own adoptive family?”

He looked away seemingly in shame.

“No, I never had the courage to tell her that because it was thanks to them that I was able to meet her in the first place.”

“Then I take it you wouldn’t want to involve her in your revenge?”

“She has nothing to do with this, it wouldn’t be fair to get her into my own mess.” He clenched his teeth. “She suffered enough in the hands of my family.”

“So the Arcs are also involved in the murder of her father?”

He shook his head lightly.

“I’m not sure, it’s all speculation up to this point, but they might be according to all the evidence in the circle of researchers. That being said-”

“Captain, we secured most of the appointed goods, we are ready to depart at your command.”

One of the soldiers approached the group and saluted Oliver, who quickly dismissed him before turning back to Leona.

“We’ll talk more once we reach Londria, it’s about a day of travel with our pods.”

They began walking back towards the entrance, the large amounts of gold coins were dug out from many sides, diminishing the pile’s size but not by much. Upon reaching the hallway to the entrance, they found the soldiers carrying Krieg, Phoebe quickly ran up to them and stopped the duo as they were about to exit the cave.

“We have our ride.” The high elf insisted. “Plus I think it might even be faster than your pods.”

“But miss, wouldn’t it be better for your comrade to be protected from the snow? It’s quite the brutal storm out there.”

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“We’ll go with them, Phoebe.” Leona told her. “Just make sure to take out that box you told me about. Lest we let it be damaged by the weather.”

Phoebe raised an eyebrow as she turned around to face the tactician.

“Then, can they even bring this enormous piece of metal without anyone powering it?”

“Oh you underestimate our pods.” Oliver walked past the two of them. “I’m sure we can haul your vehicle as well while bringing everyone on board.”

The attrition between elf and high elf became obvious as both parties had their voices borderlining verbal violence.

“Come on now.” Athena saw both fighting and stepped in while glancing at each of them. “Save the exchange of insults for later. Let’s get going and quit this place.”

“Hmph.”

“Tch.”

Both elves turned their heads away from each other as the rest of the soldiers proceeded with the loading of extra cargo. Around the cavern’s entrance, there was a round shaped metallic pod of almost three times the size as the mobile snow sledge Leona’s party was using to traverse the vast white of the frozen land. Although the design was odd at first glance, the large tank-like threads offered great area of contact meaning the whole thing, as heavy as it was, wouldn’t sink in the snow even when the vehicle was stationary.

“Oh this is quite interesting…”

Leona muttered as she circled around the odd vehicle, the passengers would board from behind it, while on the right side outside had racks for different materials and tools like shovels, pickaxes, handsaws and sledgehammers, the left had a hatch for burnable fuel while also carrying said fuel in separate compartments-like boxes.

The exhaust vent was just above the rectangular hatch that was open by rotating the large center wheel counter-clockwise which also gave access to the boilers used to feed the engine necessary steam to move. Inside there was enough space for ten people although there wasn’t much in terms of personal comfort, but it was functional.

“Not bad for Londrian technology eh?” Athena smacked the side metal bodywork twice. “But this thing is too cumbersome to go beyond the snowy landscape unfortunately.”

“You make it sound like that is an issue.” Oliver shrugged off as he turned to Phoebe. “You’re welcome to come in with us, there is enough space for everyone.”

The high elf was about to raise an eyebrow but instead just shook her head lightly.

“As a bodyguard, I’ll follow Leona wherever she goes. You don’t need to remind me.”

Once Krieg was carried inside the vehicle, the tactician followed suit and sat beside him shouldering some of the knight’s weight with her own. Phoebe sat on the opposite side of the two while keeping an eye on the elf captain that came after them, closely behind Athena was accompanied by her brother and another four soldiers, one of which went to the driver’s seat in a separate room in front of the vehicle.

“Thankfully it is somewhat insulated inside.” Athena let out a sigh as she sat beside Leona after hanging her rifle on a rack inside the vehicle. “The early prototypes used to not have any protection from the cold. Imagine not having any sort of measure against the freezing temperatures of this land.”

“They had, until someone thought it was a good idea to burn coal inside an enclosed space.” Oliver sourly added. “Until they resolved the exhaust issue they couldn’t exactly make the boiler go through the inside of the vehicle.”

“So you’re saying that it uses its own engine in order to heat the interior?”

Leona was concerned.

“Yeah pretty much.”

Athena answered.

“But then, wouldn’t it get too hot inside?”

Both the captain and inventor shared glances before laughing it off. Phoebe seemed a bit annoyed by the elf’s reaction.

“Sorry, it’s just that it shows that you don’t know much about Londria.” Oliver took a mercury thermometer from the wall and showed it to Leona, it was currently marking ten degrees celsius. “If you’ve seen a thermometer before, it should represent well just how brutal the cold here is. It usually barely reaches twenty at full use of the boiler.”

The tactician was left speechless, the coldest she had ever felt was about fifteen degrees so anything below that would feel unreasonably cold.

All she could do now was to shrink in her seat and hope the body warmth of both Krieg and Athena was enough to keep her from feeling too cold.

At that point, one soldier approached and stood outside the vehicle as he talked to the captain.

“Sir. The others are ready.”

“Very well.” The elf nodded. “Let us head back to Londria. Don’t burn through all of the fuel, we might need to take a detour if the storm is still strong in the capital.”

“Yes sir!”

The soldier saluted and helped close the vehicle’s hatch, however closing the only entrance made the interior of the pod become black as night.

“Ah, I forgot to turn this on.” Oliver’s voice could be heard as he was going through the other seats in the darkness. A few thuds and clunks later he seemed to have found what he wanted. “There it is.”

A click and Leona squinted her eyes at the sudden flash of orange light that suddenly assaulted her eyes. In the very center of the roof there was a switch to turn on the warm lamp that illuminated the interior of the vehicle as there were no windows in the passenger compartment making it simply impossible to see without a light.

“Well then… I suppose some sleep is in order then.” Athena crossed her arms and leaned her head against the back of her seat, which was seemingly designed with that in mind as it was comfortably cushioned to fit one’s head. “Wake me up if something happens.”

Seeing how the captain also began to prepare to sleep, it made Leona wonder if she could do the same as her eyelids were gradually feeling heavier. Maybe it was because of the cozy interior of the vehicle and the fact that she had been enduring the cold weather for some time now.

“Feel free to sleep Princess.” Phoebe reassured after noticing the tactician almost nod off. “Rest assured that I’ll wake you up if anything happens.”

Leona nodded sluggishly as she folded her arms and leaned her head against the comfortable seat cushion. Sleep took over her in a matter of just a few minutes as her head tilted towards Krieg’s side.

‘Well then… I think I might rest for a bit too.’

The high elf folded her arms and closed her eyes for a brief respite.