“We are about to cross the wall,” I declared with the rest of us in the pilot room. We were flying deep into the frozen North. Because we were unable to see much further due to a rather tall wall that was mountains, we were somewhat excited by the prospect of finally being able to see the North. Certainly, there were some fears involved venturing into the unknown. Therefore, we were all gathered up here for the moment for both excitement as well as being ready for anything unfortunate that may befall upon us.

  “The mountain wall doesn’t look natural,” Roseline remarked. It took her several days to recover. When Duman found her in her room, she was completely unconscious and wouldn’t wake up at all. Since she was the only healer among us, she couldn’t cast a healing spell to help herself out. Therefore, we ended up staying at the volcano for some more days since the temperature was far warmer there, during which we spent some proper time to gather up remains of those who perished during the battle. Thankfully, there was nothing to rot since flesh was all charred up. It was mostly their equipment and ashes.

  “Meaning?” Duman asked.

  “Not sure. Maybe I will have more explanation once we explore the frozen North.”

  The mountain wall did look suspiciously tall. While I had little experience with mountains, it was quite clear even to me that those mountains that formed the wall did look rather artificial compared to other mountains around here. For me, what was more suspicious was the passpage way that went right through the wall. It was as if people were meant to use that path if they wanted to pass the wall. How was that path formed in the first place? Like Roseline said, “not sure” was probably the best answer.

  “We are crossing,” I said. I had to increase the ship’s attitude much more than usual. In fact, we were going above the clouds if there was any. Yeah, this was way taller. Speaking of clouds, Roseline conducted numerous tests with it and concluded that clouds were water. I know that it sounds ludicrous, but even I had to admit when a piece of cloth became dripping wet after passing through a chunk of cloud. Logically, the next question was why it was in the sky in the first place. She claimed that rain was very much likely originating from the clouds. Then the next question was how water got up there in the first place. She wouldn’t tell me but claimed that she was writing up a thesis.

  “Oh, wow,” Jane blurted.

  Oh, wow, indeed. But what are we looking at? The scene revealed in front of us was … awkward at best. There were sharp and deep trenches on the snow. They were gigantic and very deep with no bottom in sight and just pitch blackness. Among trenches, there were very tall rocks? They looked very sharp and looked artificial like the wall. They looked like … claws?

  “I see trees and lakes?” Duman said.

  Yeah, there were three lakes with some trees around it on both East and West. There were two of them in the East with the furthest one having a volcano in it.

  “It looks as if there was a fight here,” Roseline said with her fingers on her chin. “Is it possible that the dragon had a fight here? Against what, though?”

  I had goosebumps all over my body. It felt right that the dragon had a fight because it was probably the only creature large enough and powerful enough to inflict such damages. But -

  “And the king fought against such a thing?!”

  My bro won against such a monster?! Just how?! And he did it alone?! None of it made sense, really.

  “Did the king fight the dragon here in the North?” Jane wondered aloud with her arms folded. It was possible since both of them could fly. Either way, I guess we are married for a reason. We shared the same thought. I was oddly happy about that.

  “As far as I know, where they battled was southwest of Siwen mountain,” Duman said. “I am positive that this scenery before us has nothing to do with the king’s battle with the dragon of the North.”

  “Besides, those look eroded,” Roseline added. “Those are old scars.”

  Old scars, huh. It was clear that there were some secrets buried in this frozen land. Whether we could find any clues…, probably not?

  “What do we do from here? I mean, where to?”

  “That lake is the closest,” he pointed at a lake in the west. “Let’s investigate there first.”

  That made sense.

  Besides, those lakes were the most curious ones to boot. I could see some green color around the lakes as well as if vegetation was there, which shouldn’t be possible due to the extremely low temperature.

  “Alright, heading there right now. I think we will get there well before the end of the day. How is the supply by the way? We’ve been out for a while now.”

  I think it’s been around a month.

  “Food is fine,” Jane replied since she was in charge of supplies and whatnot. “But the water is kinda low.”

  “All the more reason to visit the lake then,” I said.

  “Yeah, it makes sense.”

  Duman and Roseline eventually left the pilot’s room, leaving just me and Jane.

  “What do you think about our journey so far?”

  My question was probably out of the blue, but I meant to ask her this for some time now.

  “Well…” She refused to answer right away. Instead, she approached the door, opened it a bit to check whether anyone was around and then closed the door gently so as not to make any creaking noise.

  “Kinda underwhelming, isn’t it? We haven’t earned any money, either.”

  That was something I had to agree with. I was hoping to earn some decent pay but, so far, there was nothing. I wasn’t going to voice my complaints, though, since this journey was planned long before anything else. Besides, money wasn’t the goal. Speaking of which…, I didn’t think I did a good job trying to rejuvenate Roseline.

  “Yeah, I get what you are saying.” But I said something else to her. I understood that she had little to do with the whole affair. Besides, there was little point in trying to argue with her. It was just better to agree with her and then try to meet her half way or something similar. “After exploring the North, I am going to suggest going elsewhere for some money.”

  “Good because we really need to get something out of this journey.”

  Her goal was obviously different, and I understood why. There was no point in trying to convince her. It was just what it was.

  “Go back inside. It’s freezing cold here,” I told her.

  “Okay, keep up the good work.”

  Once finally left alone, I let out a long sigh while massaging my left shoulder. Massaging my right arm was no longer possible, so Jane sometimes massaged it for me.

  “Not easy, this,” I whispered. The reason I got married was because everyone got married as soon as possible. Especially for men, it was seen as important for them to get married. This was especially true for someone like me who wasn’t exactly an adventurer but a noble. Adventurers defied the norm. It was one of the benefits of being one of them. But it wasn’t all sunshines. Outside of the adventuring circle, they weren’t perceived well. Adventurers who somehow earned nobility were usually isolated. How would I know this? Mom told me once I received my title. Nobles preferred pure nobles who were nobles from their birth. It wasn’t about earning titles but earning prestige and respect as a result. Anyway, I would be lying if I got married purely for the love of the woman. Sleeping with one was a part of the pull if I was being completely honest. I didn’t dislike her but I didn’t think I loved her, either. Like or not, she was my only choice within my reach. What I learned from my short marriage was that relationships aren't easy. Like mom told me, money guaranteed the basic level of happiness. But, since the basic needs were guaranteed, we or she was trying to step a level above. I preferred living just as is, however.

  “Well, we will see how it goes. It’s too late to go back now.”

  I once asked Duman why he remained single, and his answer was that marriages were very much about enduring headaches with a duty to produce children. I had to agree with him at this point. With such thoughts in my mind, we were there pretty soon.

  “We are closing in … What am I looking at?”

  The lake or whatever it was was releasing what looked like steam. I wasn’t sure whether it was a lake to begin with since it was so huge. The Laufeld lake in Ceres was tiny in comparison. The boundary of the lake appeared to be green, so some vegetation was definitely there. There were also trees, which couldn’t be seen anywhere else in the frozen North.

  “And what is this smell? It’s disgusting.”

  A strong stench hammered my nose. I never smelled anything disgusting like so previously in my whole life. Driven by the stench, the others rushed into the pilot room.

  “Faro, what’s going on? What is this smell? I feel like puking,” Jane said as she came in first, followed by Duman and Roseline.

  “It’s not me if you are wondering!” I raised my voice a little in my defense. If my fart smelled like that, I was probably dying. “I think it’s from the lake?”

  “The lake? We are there?”

  “Well, almost. I am bringing the ship down.” I pointed ahead. “Look.”

  “I’d rather not.” She refused while covering her nose. Roseline showed a similar reaction while Duman walked forward undeterred and looked down through the open spot.

  “Hell, yeah, it must be from that steam. It’s worse here,” he remarked with a frown.

  Thankfully, the smell was getting less as the airship was closer to the ground, or we were getting used to the stench. Roseline was about to leave the room but froze for a second or two.

  “Duman,” she called out all of a sudden.

  “Yeah?”

  “I recall this smell although it was much less potent.”

  “You do?”

  His eyes rolled upwards, trying to dig into his memories. Both were from Siwen, and he lived very much at the bottom of Siwen mountain.

  “Fuck, yeah, I do. I do recall now. I’ve forgotten since it was decades ago.”

  “Duman, you experienced this smell before?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah, this smell is from a volcano or at least whenever it releases smokes when I was living in my hometown.”

  “As far as I know, inhaling too much of this has long term health consequences,” she added, which made me and Jane look right at each other with urgency.

  “Should we be even landing here?” I blurted.

  “It should be fine as long as we leave soon,” he said.

  “The smell is so much more prevalent, though,” she added.

  “That’s true…”

  “What’s going on, Duman. What’s the smell about?” I asked, with Jane giving me an approval nod.

  “Nobody knows what it exactly is, but it is from volcanic activities,” Roseline explained.

  “But there is no volcano here,” Jane chimed in.

  Duman and Roseline looked at each other with puzzling faces. The latter eventually came up with a hypnosis.

  “I am assuming here that there is volcanic activity underneath the lake, thus it is heating up the lake.”

  “Wouldn't the water have been boiled off then?” I asked.

  “I am thinking that it’s not directly touching each other. Think of it as a pot on a campfire,” she explained.

  “So, the earth soil is acting as a pot…,” Jane mumbled with fingers on her chin. “Makes sense.”

  “I am not seeing any animals, which makes sense since the stench would be driving them away,” Duman remarked.

  “I am not sure whether there is enough vegetation for them to eat,” Roseline said. Around the probably-warm lake, there were grasses growing around it. However, it wasn’t much. If any herbivores were to survive, there would need to be at least ten times more green lands in my book.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Let’s not land,” Duman made the call. “We saw two other lakes, right?”

  I nodded.

  “Let’s check them out instead.”

  “It’s very likely that they are the same,” Roseline said.

  “We still need to check them out. This was a request from the king, remember?”

  She reluctantly nodded. “True,” she admitted. “Don’t worry. I will draw a map.”

  “Good, we are being paid for this, you know.”

  His statement piqued Jane’s interest at once, but she didn’t say anything. Her relationship with Duman was strictly professional. They were, in fact, not in casual talking terms. It would be weird for a married woman who was so much younger than a man to be on friendly terms indeed. In such a perspective, the relationship between the three of us was an interesting dynamic. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t be talking to them like close friends. Guild members, in general, had far looser social codes as well. But Jane knew where she stood probably. She was married and was technically a noble by marriage.

  “How much?” I asked casually.

  “Don’t know the exact amount, but the king wouldn’t pay us cheap,” he replied, and I noticed that vigor was returning to Jane’s eyes.

  “Let us proceed to the new destination, then,” she said at last.

  The Eastern part of the frozen North had two more lakes. One was much smaller while the other looked to have a volcano along with a lake. We didn’t expect much from the smaller lake because it was far too small. The other one, however, appeared to have a volcano right next or in it. That one was what we were hoping to have some positive news from. Besides, that particular lake looked quite different from afar.

  “Alright, we are going up and setting course to the East,” I declared.

  After our airship ascended to the sky, close to the clouds, Roseline left the pilot’s room while Duman remained.

  “You know,” he said while looking out through the frontal navigation window. “As a kid, I’ve always dreamed that some sort of civilization would thrive in the frozen North. As a kid, I’ve always dreamed of making first contact.” He let out a weak laughter. “My village was boring as fuck, and it was how I survived day to day.”

  “So far, I don’t think any creature lives here,” I said. There were some possibilities of insects and maybe small creatures surviving near the hot lakes, but I didn’t expect anything substantial.

  “Yeah, I agree,” he said, grinning. “What a shame. There was nothing in the frozen North after all.” Turning away, he asked me or us, then asked.

  “What would you do if we found a lake that is warm but doesn’t stink?”

  I had no clue. What good is a warm lake for?

  “I would set up an inn,” said Jane, taking a step forward with a clenched fist on her chest, looking mighty determined. “Do you know how hard it is to get a warm bath? I’d advertise that and bring customers in!”

  He beamed a grin at her. “Yeah, I’d do that as well. Having grown in a cold climate, getting any sort of bath was an ordeal on its own. Even in the South, getting a warm bath is not easy.”

  I had no clue since I didn’t really care. I did recall maids preparing warm baths for me from time to time back at home. I realized, at that point, that it wouldn’t be the same for commoners and less fortunate people.

  “Would people really pay for that, though?” I argued. I was really convinced that people would not bother traveling so far for a hot bath. Then, she shot a hot glare at me.

  “In my whole life, I’ve never had a warm bath!” she barked, to which I raised my eyebrows inadvertently.

  “No fucking way!” I blurted, finding it hard to believe. Duman let out a pleasant laugh at us.

  “Faro, you were raised by wealthy farmers. Jane was a typical farmer.”

  “Faro! I’ve never had a bath to begin with!” She pressed.

  “No way…,” I trailed off. Her skin was so smooth when we were making out, though…

  “For someone who never had a bath, I can assure you that people WILL pay for a warm bath!” she pressed, this time taking a step toward me. “I bet even noble women would pay a visit if we claim some mysterious benefits!”

  “Wouldn’t that be false advertising?”

  “Who can say?” she smirked. “No one can prove anything anyway.”

  “Sneaky,” Duman whistled.

  But we were pretty much set for our lives. I wondered why she was volunteering to work when we could live our lives in peace. I could not ask her this directly with Duman present. Therefore, instead, I asked her a roundabout way.

  “Are you serious?”

  “I am,” she replied promptly. “I’d rather have a busy life than a boring one.”

  “You should have become an adventurer, Jane,” he said with a grin.

  “I don’t have the talent to be one,” she replied with a remorseful smile. “The best I could do was being a receptionist. Any profession beats being a farmer anyway.”

  Did I have any talents to become an adventurer? I was fairly certain that I did not, at least not until I lost my arm. At least, she was mature enough to know her limits because I did not. And such a woman said she had something she wanted to do. It would be foolish for her husband to deny, especially when I could support her. I still had five gold coins. The ten gold coins that were invested weren’t going to move because the interest money was going to guarantee us a certain level of luxury in our lives. Besides, five gold coins should be enough to start. Of course, we would need to find a lake that doesn’t stink of course.

  “If you really want it, then so be it,” I told her which made her react a bit odd as if she realized something. She looked like she wanted to say something to me but was keeping my mouth shut for the time being. A private talk was probably in order. As if noticing the air, Duman left the pilot’s room after tapping my shoulder a few times.

  “Look, I got a little carried away,” she said pretty much as soon as he left.

  “I meant it, though,” I replied. “If you really want to operate an inn, I can help. I will ask; do you really mean it?”

  It took a moment for her to answer. “Yes, a hot bath is time-consuming and expensive. With an already hot lake, it will take neither money nor labor. We will just need to set up an inn.”

  I wasn’t sure if it was going to be that easy, but her point was true. In my memories, maids took a long time to prepare for a hot bath.

  “Say that we set up an inn, won’t that be like starting a new settlement?”

  As far as I knew, an inn employed a good amount of people. They would need places to stay. Given the vast distance, they would basically need to live there.

  “You are a lord, aren’t you?” She said, and I blinked, not really understanding her point. “Can you not start a new settlement and become the lord of the new place?”

  I … wasn’t sure? I mean, I didn’t even think about such a possibility. Not in a million years, nope.

  “Are you saying what I think you are saying?”

  And she nodded. I was initially weirded out by the sudden turn of topic. But I was indeed a lord although it was strictly titular. I wasn’t given a land to govern and I was never going to get that … unless I start my own place? But all of this was a bit premature to think about because we would need to find a lake that didn’t stink.

  “Let’s find a lake first,” I said, pushing my thoughts back into a corner of my mind.

  “Yeah, I agree. No point in getting ahead of ourselves,” she echoed my thoughts.

  Anyway, the journey to the Eastern side of the frozen North was actually easier said than done due to strong wind blowing against us. It was always blowing westwards. This slowed us down to a point that we were pretty much at running speed which was very slow for an airship. Eventually we made it, but it took us like more than ten days. On a flip side, we’d save time going west, so it was going to even out in the end. We reached the smaller lake.

  “The smell isn’t too bad this time,” Jane remarked. Duman and Roseline were present as well.

  “The lake isn’t releasing steam, so I don’t think it’s hot. Well, it’s hot enough for some trees to survive,” Duman said. We decided to skip this one and head straight to the biggest lake with a volcano.

  “Do you think there is a correlation between the stench and the steam?” I asked.

  “So far, yes,” Roseline answered. “Let’s check out the final lake, and we will have a more firm answer.”

  As I headed the airship toward the final lake, it was close enough that the others didn’t need to leave the pilot’s room.

  “It looks like a crater with a trench at the bottom. In a way, it looks eerily similar to one that we saw from the labyrinth of Ceres,” Roseline deduced.

  “Perhaps a dungeon underneath?!” I replied. That was certainly possible. If there was indeed a dungeon, setting up a settlement would make a lot of sense.

  “It’s releasing smoke. It’s likely a volcano. It’d be way too hot down there,” Duman added.

  “It’s interesting that it’s not really a mountain. It doesn’t look tall. But the frozen North has volcanic activities close to the ground in general. It’s overall interesting,” she said, nodding along as if she understood something we didn’t. Anyway, as we got closer to the final lake, which didn’t take long by the way, it was becoming clearer. It was indeed a crater with a crack on its deepest point. It was very much similar to the labyrinth of Ceres. The only major difference was that the crater was somewhat above the ground which allowed it not to be submerged by the lake.

  “No smell so far,” Jane remarked. Yeah, I wasn’t smelling anything.

  “It looks like whatever a volcano releases, it goes up and disperse quickly. And it appears that whatever it is, it gets mixed up easily with water,” Roseline deduced. “The lake is spared from direct volcanic activities, but it still seems to be hot enough, given the grass and trees around it.”

  “Are we going to land on this one?” I asked.

  “Yeah, this one should be safe, and this is the most interesting one,” Duman replied.

  “Where should I land? On what spot exactly?”

  “Near the lake but also near the crater,” he replied.

  “Got it.”

  As I prepared to land the airship, there was no animal around like before. The immediate vicinity of the lake had green with trees here and there. So far, aside from the lack of the stench, everything else was the same. Well, of course, there was a crater right next to the lake.

  “Landing legs down. Brace for impact!”

  No matter how many times I landed the airship, there was always a hard impact whenever I landed her down. This was no exception where I felt like I fell down from a second story with my feet first onto the ground. I was probably exaggerating a bit, but the impact always felt substantial. After a thud, we landed down.

  “Alright, I am going to get ready,” Duman said, exiting the pilot’s room. Roseline followed him, leaving Jane and me.

  “I should get ready also. Jane, you have the helm.”

  “Got it.”

  I’ve taught her the basics of airship controls. She should be able to pilot the airship in case of my absence although she was yet to have enough experience. Anyway, once the three of us were ready, we pushed down the exit and carefully took our steps out. Jane was at the door as well, looking out with curious eyes.

  “I think I smell something, but it’s not the stench,” she remarked, and we sniffed loudly as well.

  “I do think it’s the stench, but it’s very weak,” Duman said. “Far weaker than what I smelled growing up at the bottom of Siwen mountain.”

  It was mysterious why this place was mostly clear of the stench. Even Roseline had no answer for this, yet. Either way, we explored the area a bit to find that, while the air was freezing cold, the ground was radiating a good amount of heat. It would be entirely possible to build structures and contain the heat without needing fuel. Jane’s desire of establishing an inn was a sound idea from that aspect alone. I also inspected the grass to find bugs and whatnot. They were there, a sign that perhaps the air was clean enough.

  “This place is very interesting,” I said to myself as I walked down the crater to check out the source of the smoke. Duman was already there with Roseline. The slope was only mild.

  “How goes there?” I exclaimed as I approached them.

  “Faro, there is a fucking dungeon down there.”

  My eyebrows rose up. “What? For real?”

  “Yeah, it’s too hot to go down there, but there is a dungeon underneath.”

  “This is a major discovery,” Roseline added.

  “If it’s too hot, how can we even explore it?”

  When I got there, I looked down into the giant crack that was releasing light gray smoke nonstop. Duman had apparently thrown down a fire crystal which was illuminating the area. I could clearly see a wall. Indeed, that was a mark of a dungeon. An artificial object like a wall shouldn’t even be there.

  “Oh, wow. What a find.”

  Even though it was nigh impossible to investigate, creative ways to explore it could be eventually found. And, for that, a base of operation was going to be required. With Jane’s idea of the hot bath inn, everything clicked in my head. This was a golden opportunity, I felt. At the same time, I realized that mayhaps five gold coins wasn’t going to be enough. Therefore, I told Duman and Roseline immediately what Jane and I had talked about and asked for investments.

  “I kind of saw that coming when Jane talked about it rather passionately,” he said with a grin. “The girl rarely talked about anything she wanted.”

  “A hot bath, huh,” Roseline said while looking in the direction of the lake that was faintly releasing steam. “That’s a logical choice perhaps. If you are going to build an inn here, you will give me a room for free, right?”

  “Eh…, sure?” She was actually asking for a freebie? The woman was rich beyond imagination.

  She added, “There is a lot to be studied here.”

  “Your first order of business would be to find a way to explore the dungeon without getting heat stroke,” he told her.

  “Consider it done.” She, then, turned toward me. “Before I could conduct any sort of research, you need to build your inn or whatever.”

  “That is easier said than done, isn’t it?”

  The logistics of hauling things here…

  “Isn’t that why you asked for our investments?” He asked. While we conversed, we made our way toward the lake that was slightly releasing white steam. When we touched the surface, it was almost too hot for a warm bath. In other words, it was the perfect temperature.

  “Well, shit, this water is made for baths,” I blurted while smelling my wet hand. It had a unique smell which I didn’t recognize at all. It wasn’t disgusting, though. And whatever doubts I had were progressively disappearing. It was worth investing, I felt. This place was similar to the labyrinth of Ceres in many ways with the inability to grow food and being desolate by being in the middle of nowhere. But the scenery had a strange charm with it being pure white as far as eyes could see along with the strange rock formations.

  “I guess using trees here to build structures is out of the question, right?”

  “Of course not, you want to preserve the natural beauty. Besides, there aren’t even that many to chop,” he replied.

  “I get a feeling that they’d be gone if you chop them,” she added. “It’s best to leave them be.”

  The trees themselves were quite different as well. Their leaves were like needles. Duman told me that those were called pine trees and they were predominantly seen in cold climates.

  “Ugh…,” I grumbled. Lumber and stone were the two primary materials to build structures and both of them were hard to move around. Given the vast distance between here and Ceres, airships were the only way to transport them. With our Fat Lady, it wasn’t impossible to move them around but probably at a very slow pace. Even if we hired more airships, it was going to be both costly and time consuming. I looked around for stones. They were mostly pitch black, and I wasn’t sure whether they were suited for buildings. I would need to talk to the carpenters first as soon as we get back. Speaking of which…

  “Uh!” I exclaimed. I was building my home in Ceres. What’s going to happen to that house? A home in Ceres and a workplace here in the middle of nowhere where it took like 20 days coming back and forth? I can’t cancel that house, can I? Nope, no, after all those troubles to get the permit and whatnot, not to mention the fact that the old man was really pleased to have his final work before retiring, cancelling the house was not even remotely possible. How am I going to navigate through this now?

  “Faro? Are you listening?” Duman’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. Startling, I replied at once.

  “Sorry, I was thinking something. You were saying?”

  “I can tell that this is going to be a nightmare, logistics wise, and our Fat Lady is meant for speed and personnel transportation. It’s not meant for hauling people and goods.”

  “Yeah…”

  “Thankfully, airships meant for hauling are a lot cheaper than those meant for speed. I know this from the guildmaster.”

  Yeah, I did hear about Brian purchasing an outdated airship model because he needed one fast. The original purpose of the airship was to transport people.

  Roseline added, “At least one airship dedicated to this project is going to be minimum.”

  “Well, we will talk and plan once we get back to Ceres. I am going to talk to the king as well since this is about the establishment of a new settlement.”

  “Well, he is a lord. There shouldn’t be a problem,” she added.

  “He should still get his blessing.”

  “Point taken.”

  Everything was moving really fast. With Jane looking at us from the airship with a curious look, I scratched the back of my head, feeling dumbfounded and weird. I wasn’t sure how to explain all this to her. I knew one thing for sure, though. It was going to get busy, perhaps too busy.