Throne of the North.

Chapter 622 The Uninvited Guests of the North: Deep in the Ice Plains Untouched by Humans

The knights went out to attack, and as expected, a group of dozens of Frost Lizardmen were taken prisoner and taken back to the foot of Rhinoceros Horn Mountain.

Orcs are typically bullies who prey on the weak and fear the strong. After being threatened with sticks, these frost lizardmen quickly became hardworking orc slaves.

However, they didn't seem to be able to do anything, so Ryan asked while thinking about how to wear down these orcs.

Where did you live before?

Dozens of Frost Lizardmen offered their answers all at once.

"In the ice field caves."

This is an answer that is not an answer. The Icefield Caves, these Frost Lizardmen live beneath the ice and snow and travel through the caves, but they know nothing about where the caves are, in what direction they are, or how much time and latitude they are from the southern lands.

Ryan asked several times, but the orcs couldn't give a clear answer. They only knew that they lived in the ice caves, both before and now, which sounded exactly the same.

He changed the question.

How did you get here?

Why are you appearing next to humans?

A group of dull-witted frost lizardmen tilted their heads and said:

"Ah? The clan chief brought us here, so we came."

They knew nothing when asked; in short, all they did was eat and sleep, and all other activities depended on the clan chief's orders.

"So, how long did it take you to get here from your previous cave?"

A group of frost lizardmen stared wide-eyed; they had no concept of time whatsoever.

This gave Ryan a real headache, and he couldn't help but look at the knights and servants who were capturing the Frost Lizardmen.

Gene lowered his head, feeling ashamed. Could it be that they had captured the wrong people, a bunch of stupid orcs? The orcs they had encountered before were not like this.

"Let's put it this way, how many of your companions have died along the way?"

At this point, all the Frost Lizardmen got excited; Ryan had finally gotten to their area of ​​expertise.

"So many people died. Savage Fang and his entire family died. His tribe roasted and ate the remaining survivors. We ate our fill, along with withered scales. They died too, all of them died."

The Frost Lizardmen had absolutely no skill in organizing logic and rhetoric, and it took Ryan half an hour to finally get the gist of it.

More than 60% of the entire Frost Lizardman tribe died, and the remaining 30-40% of the orcs came here.

"You've never seen humans before?"

These fierce orcs on the snowfield shook their heads. They didn't even have the concept that the two sides belonged to different races. They only knew that these people were very powerful, which made them dare not resist.

"Never seen a human? Not even the oldest? Not even your priests?"

The Frost Lizardmen tilted their heads, looking like they were about to fall asleep, and indeed they were.

This orc race had never seen humans before, and they didn't even have a complete understanding of humans. They thought these humans were just orcs who were much uglier than themselves.

Ryan remained silent. These frost lizardmen had never actually interacted with humans before.

This is... quite interesting. The orcs in the North didn't just become humanity's northern neighbors in the last hundred years. Before the North was covered, orcs were distributed in many places on the Norris continent. It's impossible that there were no orcs who didn't plunder humans or were slaughtered by humans.

"Along the way, six or seven out of ten of our people starved or died from exhaustion. The Frost Lizard Orcs are naturally good at living in the icy and snowy world, but even so, they still starved or died from exhaustion."

"So, the place they were in before... was much farther away than we thought?"

Ryan was incredibly curious, so he sought out Archmage McKen, an old scholar who had traveled to many places before.

After listening to Ryan's summary, the archmage frowned.

"These images sound like polar ice fields?"

"What is that place?"

Ryan was very curious.

"The polar ice fields are an ice world that existed before the North covered the continent of Norris."

"Our Norris continent is only one-third of what it used to be. More than a hundred years ago, the complete Norris continent included the other two-thirds. You can think of the polar ice cap as the northern one-tenth of the complete Norris continent."

"That place is eternally frozen, and even the light of the Lord of Dawn cannot illuminate it. If you were to walk all the way from there to the Frozen Territory, I can only say that the physique of these Frost Lizard Orcs is truly remarkable."

"They were able to preserve a portion of their population and make it to the south alive."

"You should know that when the Northern Territory was just beginning, even human nobles might not have been able to complete the entire long escape journey."

"However, if these orcs really did come from the polar ice fields, then that can be explained."

"It is normal for non-human races to have no understanding of humans in places where humans have never set foot."

"After all, the orcs we deal with... are still closer to human civilization."

Ryan nodded, which meant he had gained a better understanding of the continent of Norris, but he also shared the same doubts as Archmage McKen.

"Why did they come to the south? It seems they could adapt to the most extreme north."

Ryan looked back at the Frost Lizard Orcs. Without his instruction, the knights and servants around him brought down their clubs with a thud, causing the previously restless Frost Lizard Orcs to once again prostrate themselves on the ground.

"Were you on the verge of starvation before?"

In the nearly one hour that followed, Ryan figured out how to question these orcs: don't let them think, only let them answer clear-cut multiple-choice questions like yes or no, right or wrong.

The Frost Lizard Orc was bewildered for a moment, then nodded frantically.

As fierce and cruel they were on the snowfields before, they are now just as obsequious and humble. The orc races, who live in places untouched by humans, have no understanding of humans whatsoever, only a simple distinction between the strong and the weak.

Kowtowing to the strong and baring their fangs at the weak—this is an old tradition of the orcs.

"During the time when you were on the verge of starvation, was something else killing your people? Were they still chasing you?"

The Frost Lizard Orcs looked bewildered. Among the dozens of orcs, some nodded, some shook their heads, and some turned their heads back and forth as if they were about to fall asleep.

The temperature in the tundra... is a bit of a headache for them; the high temperature makes them feel dizzy and drowsy.

"Does it exist or not?"

Ryan looked at an orc, and the knight's squire punched the orc in the head. The thick-skinned lizard orc fell to the ground, howling in pain, and then roared as the knight repeatedly questioned him.

“There are terrible things killing us; they are eating us, and we can’t outeat them.”

Then they were driven away and chased? The Frost Lizardmen were forced to flee their homeland and head south?

The knight pulled over another orc, who had been shaking his head the whole time. "Why did you say you weren't being chased?"

"I don't?"

"I speak instinctively," the Frost Lizardman said, then punched and kicked the orc in front of him.

"I didn't see anything. You must be hallucinating. The priest said that only weak people hallucinate."

As he said this, the orc in front of him lowered his head in shame, agreeing with him wholeheartedly.

Some of the Frost Lizardmen saw the monsters chasing them, while others did not. Ryan summoned seven or eight officials and had them listen to the descriptions of the orcs who had seen the pursuers, and then draw the terrifying monsters they described.

As a result, another hour or two passed, and a whole bunch of... strange-looking things appeared in front of Ryan.

They drew out things that humans couldn't even imagine, like creatures with three heads and six arms but their butts growing on their noses, creatures with tails so long they could wrap around their necks, creatures with fur so thick it looked moldy—basically, things that humans couldn't even conceive of, these officials simply drew them out based on the beastmen's descriptions.

Ryan's lips twitched, and he told them to choose the most reasonable part.

The result... not a single one.

"What the hell? These orcs are far dumber than our old friends. Let's kill them all."

Ryan also lost his patience. These Frost Lizard Orcs were brainless, as if they had been kicked by a donkey. They were utterly devoid of intelligence; they were just talking beasts.

Seeing the knight's longsword kill his orc companion, the remaining frost lizardmen were finally filled with fear. They pushed and shoved, unwilling to approach the knight's squire. Finally, one orc cried out in desperation:
"And also, they look just like you, they are all hairy beastmen without scales."

What does that mean? Ryan asked a few questions before he realized that the other person was referring to humans.

"Haven't you ever had any dealings with humans before?"

Ryan's expression was unfriendly, but he quickly realized what was going on.

When did you see those humans?

The Frost Lizard Orc held up his claws and pried at the target, and it took Ryan a long time to get a result.

That was about ten days to half a month before I ate four meals.

"Ten days to half a month ago, they saw a group of humans in the Northern Territory. At that time, the Frost Lizard Orcs had settled in the caves of this snowfield. Most likely, it was the goblin cave that was cleared out for the remains of the Dragon Emperor."

Why would such a group of people appear in the North?

"That's not right... No one could appear in the North without my noticing."

Ryan thought of something, then drew the emblem of the Dawn Church on the paper and asked:

Do they have such markings on their bodies?

The Frost Lizard Orc nodded.

“They were terrible; they killed our priests and chieftains.”

No wonder the Frost Lizard Orc tribe was so disorganized; it turns out all the leaders were dead, done by the Dawn Church.
"So... these people from the Dawn Church are the assassins that the legendary Black Swan assassin mentioned, who went to the North to kill me, right?"

Ryan recalled the words of the legendary Black Swan assassin who had been captured at Earl Pascal's castle: that a force had gone to the North to kill him.

The answer we got from the orcs suggests that this group is not the Black Swan assassins.

The Black Swan assassins will not carry any symbols related to the Dawn Church, because no one would acknowledge that they belong to the Church.

"The Pope wants to kill me? And he even sent a special team of extraordinary beings to the North?"

"What's going on? This doesn't make sense. When did I ever make the Pope hate me so much?"

Ryan was completely baffled. He waved his hand and ordered the knights to imprison all the orcs, intending to use them as bait in the road construction project.

Since the Dawn Church wants to kill him openly, Ryan should be wary. His power has already been exposed in the wars. If the Dawn Church is confident in killing him, they must have calculated how much help he will provide.

“Tell Signi to send more Shadow Vanguard troops to the North.”

"Arrange more around Rhinoceros Horn Mountain as well."

“Bring the Bucks back too, since there are no more black swans in Northwind Province anyway.”

"I need to find those extraordinary beings from the Dawn Church by issuing a mission to the Northern Heroes Guild."

Ryan quickly gave the order. He didn't know when the assassination attempt against him would come, so he decided to strike first.

Only after issuing these orders did Ryan begin to reconsider the contradictions in the matter.

Why kill him like this? Weren't the Black Swan assassins enough? You know, when the Black Swan assassins kill nobles, there's no way to prove it. But if other clergy members kill a noble, then the evidence is irrefutable. It's impossible for the Dawn Church to shirk responsibility or deny it.

What's the point of all this?

In fact, Baron Ryan's doubts all stemmed from one reason: the information was incomplete.

There is indeed a powerful Dawn Church of Extraordinary Beings in the North, who entered the North through clandestine means.

But... it wasn't, as the legendary Black Swan assassin claimed, that he came specifically to kill Ryan.

Their goals initially had little to do with Ryan.

Their target is another group of people.

……

"Where did that King of Nantes escape to?"

Deep in the snowfield, a group of over a hundred members of the Dawn Church took root in a crevice where the wind and snow were not too fierce. The leading knights, ascetics, and missionaries gathered together to discuss what to do next.

What they were searching for was none other than the King of Nantes, who had disappeared after the massacre of the royal family, and his loyal followers.

The Kingdom of Nantes is currently in a state of chaos yet maintains a semblance of order, precisely because the whereabouts of the Kingdom of Nantes are still unknown. The king's body has not been found, meaning he is missing. Under this premise, any actions taken by the nobles of the Kingdom of Nantes are unjustifiable by law or morality.

"He's quite young, yet he managed to travel so far. Which nobleman in the empire helped him?"

"A Holy Knight asked in confusion."

"The trail we've followed indicates that it's a noble family from the Northwind Province of the Empire, and the one with the most power and ability in the Northwind Province is the Baron of the Frozen Territory."

"Of course, no matter who it is, we must take back what belongs to His Holiness the Pope."

“Thieves from the Kingdom of Nantes should not steal secrets that belong to the Pope.”

"Humans cannot survive in the North. The King of Nantes cannot hide for long. We must find him and interrogate him about the whereabouts of that letter."

(End of this chapter)