Chapter 195 – Over the Summit (I)

Chapter 195

Over the Summit (I)

The weather luckily improved within a couple of hours, during which the young man never woke up.

As the blizzard settled down and the thick fog began to recede, we started our climb back up to the castle, the moods lifted. The kids chattered on about one thing or another while I kept glancing over at Long Tao and wondering precisely what new fresh hell he would take us to once we crossed the mountain.

… speaking of crossing the mountain.

There’s no one dedicated path. Honestly, I thought there’d be a tunnel or at least a navigable road, but nope. No such thing. There are natural ways to cross, of course, but they involve climbing further up, about 650 yards to be precise, against the dreadful weather, insanely low temperatures, and God knows what else.

It is the path we’ll have to choose, but goddamn, I ain’t looking forward to it in the slightest.

It was midday by the time we returned to the castle, and, boy, was it ever abuzz. As soon as the Blood Fiend collapsed, so did his Thrall–and, we were quickly ushered (well, Lilia and Zhu were quickly ushered; we just followed along) to the barracks, where we didn’t find a recently ‘deceased’ corpse… but just a sludge of rot in a vaguely humanoid shape.

And it stank so badly that I retched and nearly belched my guts out; Xi Zhao, Dai Xiu, and even Wan Lan were unable to hold back, and they quickly rushed out and behind the barracks, where they did vomit their guts out.

Light merely frowned, strangely enough, while Long Tao looked as though he expected precisely this. Probably because he did.

“Hallowed Heavens,” Zhu mumbled, deeply frowning too as he stepped over to the sludge. “No soul deserves this accursed existence.”

“We’ll bury him behind the pines,” Lilia said. “And pray.”

“Hm.”

We didn’t stick around, as, well, this looked rather personal to everyone involved. Despite merely being a husk, the Captain was quite respected by all those who lived here.

We returned to our little abode, which was when I finally handed over the gauntlets to Dai Xiu.

“… for, for me?” Her lips trembled as she stretched out her arms and took them, her eyes turning watery as she looked up, her chin folded downwards.

“Of course. Who else?” I said, smiling faintly.

The punch was rather abrupt. Well, it wasn’t a punch–it was the force of a young girl slamming directly into my stomach as she hugged me with the force of a damned bear.

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I held back a yelp as the shock straddled through me–this was the first time she hugged me. I mean, she wanted to many times before, I could see it, but always managed to hold back. The gauntlets, I guess, were the fuel she lacked before.

To be honest, my heart was melting a bit; I reached out and hugged her back as she squeezed even harder. I don’t know much about any of these kids, but I fear most have been starved for comforts like these, one way or another.