“The general situation is like this…” At the signal from Harper the old man, the Young Man sat by the bed and began to explain the reason he had come to Haike Village.

The villagers of Haike Village, like most residents along the Warmwater River, were mostly migrants from the Aimi Empire and the Holy See. In this region, the north is surrounded by a snowy forest 1,000 kilometers long and 200 kilometers wide; to the east is the Warmwater River Forest—the only non-coniferous forest on the Frozen Continent—which is also vast, about 300 kilometers in both length and width. To the south and west lies the sea.

The Aimi Empire does not have the authority to build a port here, and due to the climate, the Hami Empire will not build a port here either. So, once most residents move here, they rarely ever leave, especially first-generation immigrants like Grandpa Harper.

Young Man is different. Lake Harper spent his childhood in the northern federation of the Empire. After growing up in Haike Village, the Young Man was ambitious and unwilling to stay in one place for long, insisting on venturing out into the world. Harper the elder’s opinion was very clear: Young Man needed to go out and explore; in a lifetime of several decades, one should do what Young Man ought to do while still young.

Thus, ten years ago, during the most recent invasion war by the Aimi Empire, the 20-year-old Lake Harper joined the imperial army as a guide—if not for large-scale military operations, very few people could survive passing through the snowy forest or the Warmwater River Forest.

In Red Moon Year 187, that is, five years ago, Lake Harper, who had accumulated military merit and become a battalion commander of the Aimi Empire’s border army, took advantage of his leave to bring his only two-year-old son Amy back to Haike Village.

Lake Harper’s wife, after giving birth to Amy, became physically weak and could not withstand the cold of the Frozen Continent, passing away a year later. And Lake Harper’s military life made it impossible for him to care for his son, so he left the responsibility to his own father.

All of these things were already well known to Harper, and in even greater detail than Ethan Brooks. What followed, however, was the main reason Ethan Brooks had come here.

Also in Red Moon Year 187, Ethan Brooks was ordered to transfer from the imperial capital to serve in the border defense army of the northern federation, at the time as the cavalry battalion commander. When Lake Harper returned to the army after visiting his family, he found that the original cavalry battalion commander had been transferred back to the empire’s border on the Huayu Plains. During a very formal visit, he met Ethan Brooks.

According to this man named Ethan Brooks, in the series of subsequent collaborations, then-glacier infantry battalion commander Lake Harper saved his life several times: In Red Moon Year 188, the newly appointed Ethan Brooks led his troops in pursuit of the snow beastmen who had come out of the snowy forest to harass the border. Unfamiliar with the terrain, Ethan Brooks was lured by the snow beastmen into the Icy Valley, 50 kilometers deep into the snowy forest. He had intended to wipe out the snow beastmen in one fell swoop, but after the cavalry battalion charged down, they discovered that the snow beastmen had escaped using the ice ladders on both sides of the valley. Looking back at the 30° slope after charging down, the cavalry felt abandoned by the heavens—a 20-kilometer-long steep slope, it took only half a day to rush down, but how would they get back up? Could anyone even make it back? The horses simply

did not have the strength to climb the slope while also overcoming the slippery ice.

After learning the whereabouts of Ethan Brooks’s troops, Lake Harper quickly deduced the worst outcome and led the glacier infantry battalion overnight by sled to catch up to the Icy Valley. Then, using the blankets they had brought on the sleds, they managed to lay out a non-slippery path, saving the border cavalry battalion from total annihilation.

Of course, there were several other such incidents, but most were individual acts of help or life-saving, which Ethan Brooks described only briefly.

At the end of Red Moon Year 191, both the then-border cavalry battalion commander and the glacier infantry battalion commander, Lake Harper, received orders from the governor of the northern federation to return to the governor’s residence in the northern federation and escort the imperial archmage to the Ice Wishing Tower, located in the northern Hami Kingdom, to undergo a trial.

One battalion only needed to escort the archmage out of the snowy forest at the border of the Aimi Empire, while the other battalion’s task was to escort the archmage into the Wishing Tower.

In the empire’s recorded history, there have been a total of 342 archmages, of whom 134 voluntarily requested to enter the Wishing Tower for the trial. According to records, 35 archmages chose the Ice Wishing Tower, but only three successfully passed the trial. Of these three, one completed the trial five years after entering the tower, while the other two finished after ten years. According to the magical diaries of these three imperial magisters (magicians who pass the trial are awarded the title of magister by the Magic Guild), after entering the trial tower, they were actually thrown into an ice and snow barrier, where they honed and improved their magical skills within the illusions of the barrier.

The escort mission was to deliver a national letter to the Hami Kingdom and the Northern Hami Kingdom on behalf of the state. Along the way, there were three areas of the highest level of danger.

The three great perilous places of the Frozen Continent are, in order: the Trial Cavern, Dragon Tooth Mountain, and the Snowy Forest.

And this journey would pass through all three of these perilous places. Among them, the Snowy Forest was actually the safest.