Braille Wooden Board, Dawn Faith Deep in the Wind and Snow

Rumble.

Gale-force winds swept across the world's oceans, creating towering waves that brought torrential rain.

After the rainstorm, the clear sky Dispel all the smells, and even the muddy and filthy dirt road exuded a fresh scent.

The iron hooves of the Northern Warhorse landed in the puddles, splashing up dirty water that made the surrounding civilians scramble to the side, whether out of fear of getting splashed or out of fear of the dragon-slaying army that had suddenly appeared in Blue Butterfly City.

This is how they describe the knight whose armor is engraved with an emblem of a mountain peak standing in the wind and snow.

"Dig it open."

The centurion shouted, and the knights behind him drew their longswords and headed toward the grave ahead.

The sharp longsword was naturally no match for the fragile soil, and soon, a 'package' resembling a corpse bound with wooden sticks appeared before them.

"Lord Polk, it's a corpse."

The knight turned and said, then tore open the cheap linen coffin, revealing a rotting corpse inside.

The body was vaguely recognizable as that of an elderly man.

"What to do?"

Beside Polk, the centurion's second-in-command said that they were acting on Lord Ryan's orders, and given their position, they roughly knew what answer Lord Ryan wanted.

In short, it wouldn't have ended like this.

"Go ask the common people around here."

After Polk finished speaking, he dismounted and personally examined the foul-smelling, disgusting corpse.

It was indeed the body of the blind old man that the Catfolk assassin Apia had mentioned, there was no problem. Polk didn't know what to do either, they were warriors, not good at this kind of thing.

Not long after, the knight who had gone to inquire about the common people returned with some news.

"The people of Blue Butterfly City say that this blind old man was born when they were born, and that he is older than those who have lived forty or fifty years."

"Several elderly people were servants of the nobles here before. They remember that when they were young, the blind old man was also raised by others. Someone taught him knowledge and even drove away other curious people who wanted to master knowledge to enslave him."

"So... he has a responsibility to carry on the legacy?"

Polk asked this question, and then answered it himself.

"The world of Dragons, the legend of the Dragon Chosen —perhaps his legacy exists because of the Dragon Chosen ' weapons?"

"Now that there are no Dragon Chosen in this world, will he choose a new successor to carry on the stories he knows?"

Polk looked around at the people, and the knights laughed. Then they mounted their horses and knocked open the doors of all the houses in the vicinity.

"I'll talk, I'll talk, sir, have mercy! I saw that little brat from the Hughes family go to that blind man's house!"

A man crying and wailing clung to the knight's leg, shouting that after finding out the location, the knight dropped the sack of grain he was carrying and led the group to Hughes's house.

Knights don't have a good temper, and many people think Lord Ryan is too kind, but they don't.

The knight kicked open the rickety, drafty door and rushed in to find a man sitting alone in front of a pot, cooking wild vegetables over a wood fire.

Recently, thanks to Lord Ryan's mercy, these people have been able to go out and find wild vegetables to eat at will, and the former slaves of humans now all look much healthier.

Where is your son?

The knight called out, seeing the other's confusion, and then repeated himself.

"I've asked around, Hughes Hughes around here."

The fact that most of the names were the same was a troublesome thing, but fortunately, violence could guide these knights to find their precise targets.

"I don't have a son. The person you're talking about... might be me."

The man pointed to himself, and the knight frowned, looking at the unshaven, tangled man in front of him.

A moment later, the bewildered knight brought the man directly to Centurion Polk.

"They said you were the last person to enter the blind old man's house."

"Yes."

Hughes said so.

"What happened?"

"That old man gave me a plank of wood and asked me to collect his body."

Hughes said this, Polk glanced at the knight who brought him with some dissatisfaction. He was from Aixnier, while most of the knights around him came from Bilki. Those guys with Armored Bear on their heads were not very bright.

Not long after, the knight who had turned back brought back the wooden plank, which had many small dents and bumps on it.

"This is Braille."

Hughes explained, taking the plank and feeling it.

"The blind old man gave me this thing. One day, when I had nothing to do, I took it out to play with it, and that's how I came to understand the knowledge on it. It can help me recognize Braille."

"No one taught you?"

Polk opened his eyes wide and asked, knowing that Ryan had gone to great lengths to promote basic education in the Frozen Earth Territory, and the first to be affected were these Knight Retainer who needed to learn.

Even with the guidance of those former nobles, they were filled with a desire to live and die, wishing they could immediately go to the battlefield and die under the enemy's swords.

"No need, I can learn just by touching it every day."

"It's just that these Braille characters are too small, and if I look at them for too long, my vision goes blurry."

Hughes truthfully stated that his eyesight was poor because he had been staring at the Braille Wooden Board in his hand for too long, which caused him to become nearsighted.

Considering that this wooden board is a teacher who cannot speak, and the world is a supernatural world, then nearsightedness may be more than just nearsightedness.

During that time, Polk didn't sit idle either. He went to ask the old people around here, and they vaguely remembered that the person who taught the blind old man was also blind.

"Using this thing for a long time will cause blindness."

"Become blind?"

Ryan looked at the Braille Wooden Board in front of him; the various ridges and grooves on it reminded him of ancient printing plates.

"Is there some kind of curse on this?"

"Maybe."

Rose placed the Braille Wooden Board on the table and spoke ambiguously.

"What's the meaning."

Ryan asked, Rose organized her thoughts and replied concisely:

"Perhaps it's cursed, but I'm not qualified to see it."

"No forbidden knowledge can be spread casually, especially ancient knowledge that is difficult to record even in human history."

The curse of knowledge?

Ryan wasn't too shocked. In his view, in the world of the extraordinary, the more powerful the extraordinary knowledge, the closer it is to uniqueness. This is normal. It is common for powerful beings to leave curses on their inherited knowledge.

But this thing...?

Ryan glanced at the Braille Wooden Board instinctively. Apart from Hughes, it seemed that touching it did not grant anyone the ability to learn Braille knowledge.

So this wooden plank is also considered a powerful, forbidden, extraordinary object?

"Is there anything special about that Hughes?"

In front of him, Polk thought for a moment and then shook his head.

"He was very ordinary. He often dug for wild vegetables and roots with the other people in Blue Butterfly City. He used to be very active, but after his eyesight deteriorated, he became less willing to go out."

Rose then spoke up again:

"The simplest way is to kill him and then seal this Braille-inscribed wooden tablet. If there really is Deities, He will appear."

Ryan thought for a moment, then shook his head.

If there truly is some Great Being power preventing his complete conquest of Nidhogg, it cannot be resolved by simply killing an ordinary person. His goal is to obtain all power over Nidhogg and then smoothly gain the qualification to open the next world.

"Return the items to Hughes, then arrange for someone to keep an eye on him and report any unusual activity immediately. Also, send Egil and Sven to search for the angel that fell into the deep sea."

Surtr slapped the angel, sending him crashing into the ocean of Nidhogg. The angel was a servant of the Dawn, and as a precaution, Ryan needed the faith of the Lord of Dawn to ensure the angels would not be hostile towards him.

As for why Sven is necessary...

The answer is quite simple: Ryan personally went to Archbishop Adriana and asked her to grant Sven the status of a Dawn Believers.

What was Archbishop Adriana's response at the time?

No one would doubt his identity as Dawn Believers.

Even angels wouldn't do that.

Snowstorms raged. It was summer, and even the Frozen Earth Territory was free of snow, but in the world of Nidhogg, the raging snowstorms were like the breath of an angry Dragons, endlessly engulfing the world's frozen ocean.

Nidhogg is suffering the full force of the Northlands's encroachment.

Egil and Sven rode on two tall Northern Warhorse. The latter, wearing a cloak and hood, dared not take it off, while the former would occasionally take off his hood and sniff it.

"Over here."

Egil spoke, and the two headed toward the direction from which the snowstorm was coming.

"That angel is someone who has injured Deities. Do you think he might kill us?"

Sven, hiding inside his hat, shivered slightly, not from fear, but because the weather was so incredibly cold.

Aside from that, all that remained about angels was curiosity—unparalleled, intense curiosity.

He was Bard, and nothing could stop his yearning for unknown stories. Angels were undoubtedly the protagonists who could become a new chapter in his Bard's journey.

"How should I know?"

Three White Wolf quietly appeared beside Egil in the wind and snow. Sven was curious about everything, but Egil was indifferent to everything. Even in the Frozen Earth Territory, he lived like a lone traveler in Ryan's territory.

The White Wolf summoned by the three heads is all he has.

"Is there any movement?"

Sven and Egil were already quite familiar with each other. When they saw the three White Wolf appear, Sven nervously gripped a dagger under his cloak and turned to look around.

Nothing could be seen; the world was a vast expanse of white, the sky filled with flying snow, and the sea beneath our feet was frozen solid by the power of the Northlands.

He had also wondered why the sea froze so quickly, only to later learn that it was thanks to those thirty-six terrifying Mages.

The next moment, while still thinking, Sven was pounced on by a tall White Wolf. At the same instant, the Northern Warhorse beneath Sven also let out a cry and leaped forward.

But there was no time. The ice beneath their feet shattered in an instant, and the gaping maw of the deep-sea monster lunged at the warhorse amidst the flying ice shards.

What was the worst possible outcome of the arrival of the Northlands?

It wasn't the cold environment, but the scarcity of food.

For any life form that needs food and nutrition, this outcome is the most extreme and terrible.

This fish was no exception; in its eyes, the Northern Warhorse were like food that was a godsend.

In the icy wilderness, the Northern Warhorse are far stronger and more agile than ordinary horses; they are fast and do not fall into the icy water.

However, due to the sneak attack, the fanged monster fish still gained the upper hand.

Just as the gaping maw was about to bite the warhorse's hind leg, Egil suddenly appeared between the two, and the next moment, the dagger at his waist stabbed towards the fish's gills.

The strange fish was quite large, and such a dagger should not have caused much damage. However, the moment the dagger pierced through, the fish's entire body trembled, and boundless fear appeared in its small, horrifying eyes, as if it were being torn apart by countless wolves.

Until death.

Bang!

The strange fish fell, Egil kicked the corpse into the cracked hole. As the fish's corpse slid in, a scene that made both of them's scalps tingle appeared.

Below the crack, less than two meters in diameter, the seawater suddenly surged, revealing countless smooth fish skins that were frantically fighting and tearing at the corpse of the dead, strange fish.

Within seconds, the seawater turned blood red. Perhaps stimulated by the blood, the densely packed strange fish began to bite each other. Every fish with wounds and bleeding was their target.

"This is a school of fish, not a lone hunter."

Egil quickly ran to Sven's side, picked Sven up, and carried him to the warhorse.

"Run!"

Egil roared and slapped his warhorse's rump. The reason was simple: the riotous activity of the fish beneath the ice had caused cracks to appear on the frozen sea.

The galloping warhorses also gave the fish a sense of direction. A large number of strange fish from the deep sea, which had recently surfaced, chased after them. Their rapid movement caused the cracks in the ice beneath their feet to move faster and faster, closely following the two warhorses.

Egil and Sven dared not linger. The snowstorm ahead was getting thicker and thicker, so Egil had to slow down to help Sven deal with the deep-sea monsters that would suddenly burst out of the ice from time to time.

"The further north you go, the thicker the ice becomes. Once they can't break through the ice, they're safe."

Egil roared loudly. The young man who had gone mad when he fought with Ryan seemed to have returned. He jumped off his warhorse and stood still to fight the strange fish that kept blasting out ice around him.

Boom!!!

The ice suddenly cracked, Egil, along with the broken ice beneath his feet, plummeted into the icy sea. Sven, who was ahead, turned around and reined in his horse to help, but suddenly saw Egil standing on the backs of several fish in the boiling, churning water, tearing apart any approaching monster fish with his bare hands.

"Get out!"

Egil roared furiously, and Sven couldn't help but swallow hard. He had long heard that several of Lord Ryan's followers had undergone a qualitative change after bathing in dragon blood, but he was still shocked when he saw it with his own eyes.

Sven dared not linger and quickly disappeared into the hazy snow.

On the spot, Egil grew increasingly frenzied. In the murky sea of blood, he was completely unaffected by falling into the water. Not only him, but the three White Wolf beside him also moved through the water as if it were flat ground, swimming at an extremely fast speed and constantly tearing at the approaching strange fish.

"Come on!"

Egil leaped out of the water, stepping onto the back of a fish. He grabbed the upper and lower jaws of another strange fish with both hands, and with terrifying force, he tore the fish in two. He took a bite of the bright red flesh; the fish meat was very tender.

Time continued in this way until Egil realized he was exhausted.

The White Wolf leaped out and placed him on the ice, where the wind and snow concealed the vital energy within Sven.

Just as Egil was wondering where to go, he suddenly heard a faint call in his ear.

Was that Sven voice?

Egil looked around and then headed in the direction from which the sound came.

A few hours later, Egil suddenly realized that the surrounding snowstorm was no longer so hazy.

As he continued forward, he even heard the low howls of wild animals.

Sven voice also came from within.

"Magical Beast?"

Egil suspected that some powerful Magical Beast was simulating a peaceful environment in the snowstorm to lure lost lambs for hunting.

But he soon realized he was wrong.

The wind and snow completely disappeared, and the sunlight overhead had never been so bright. Egil saw the Magical Beast lying and sitting quietly on the ice.

They formed a circle, like the most devout believers facing the center. Outside the circle were dead Magical Beast, while in the center of the circle, an angel floated.

She was bathed in golden sunlight.

The angel stood Sven below him, beckoning.

(End of this chapter)