Roaring Heroes Battle the Overlord (Ainz) - Part 1 (Chapters 1 to 200)

Chapter 111: The Crossroads of Death

"Old man, what's the deal with this house?" EeDechi brushed the frost and snow off her head, stopping an elderly man in a linen padded jacket to ask.

"It caught fire last night. Good thing it's snowing hard now and the weather's freezing—it only burned two or three rooms before the fire got put out." The old man tugged at EeDechi's black cloak. "Young lady, you're dressed so lightly. Aren't you cold? Bundle up a bit more."

With that, the old man shuffled off on his own, leaving EeDechi still gazing at the squat building in front of her.

This was Rigrit's secluded home. The Last Defender of the Way adventure team was set to leave Re-Estize's capital today, and they wanted to swing by for one last visit to this final survivor of the Thirteen Heroes. But they found her rooms already reduced to a charred ruin. According to the sheriff's report, though, no one had died in the blaze.

The legendary Thirteen Heroes' Rigrit, who'd lived over 200 years, had vanished without a trace once again. Maybe she was scared of something and had to pull a disappearing act like this, or perhaps she just wanted to ditch the Thirteen Heroes' fame and enjoy a quiet retirement.

The squat building was covered in sooty scorch marks. EeDechi glanced back one last time, then could only walk away in frustration. She trudged through the snow-swept residential district, back to the street where the Last Defender of the Way team's hired carriage waited, with her three teammates still inside.

To be precise, only one teammate now.

Sean Tachya and Stella Famillion had already turned in their resignation papers, heading back to Baharuth for a settled life. EeDechi had signed off on them grudgingly.

The weather had plunged into the depths of winter, with heavy snow falling nonstop for three days and three nights, and it still hadn't let up. The world was bitterly cold and frozen, everything wrapped in a blanket of pure white.

According to the weather forecast from Re-Estize's official who possessed the "Weather Prediction" Innate Talent, the fluffy, goose-feather snow would keep coming down for another two days before it might finally clear up.

The coachman, bundled in a thick cotton cloak, cracked his whip, and the studded wheels churned through the deep snow as the carriage lurched forward. Today, they were leaving Re-Estize's capital by carriage, bound for the nearby small town of Lepergan.

In Lepergan city, they would go their separate ways: Sean and Stella heading east to Baharuth, while Barrett and EeDechi would hop through a teleportation circle to Re-Estize's southern border city, then cross the border and make for the Slane Theocracy, pressing on with their unpredictable adventure.

Lepergan city was home to Re-Estize's biggest teleportation hub. Usually, a country's teleportation magic center gets built right in the capital—like in Baharuth—to squeeze out the most economic and travel perks.

But when the fifth king of Re-Estize built the teleportation array, he was wary of scheming nobles stirring up rebellion, with rebels teleporting straight into the capital. So the king "wisely" picked a small town far from the capital to set up the teleportation hub.

Inside the slightly jostling carriage compartment, the four adventurers sat facing each other.

Barrett handed EeDechi an exquisite boxwood gift box and said, "This is a parting gift from Brain Unglaus—he asked me to pass it on to you. He said if he wasn't bogged down by his Warrior Captain duties, he'd join you on your adventures."

"Oh, that wimpy kid still wants to adventure?" EeDechi took the box, snapped the red silk ribbon, and ripped it open in a few quick tugs.

Inside the box were spherical chocolates of all sorts: milky white, green, pitch black, goat's milk flavored, hazelnut flavored, and more besides. EeDechi picked up one and tossed it into her mouth, then passed it to the other three companions in the carriage compartment. "Pretty tasty, you guys try some."