I Was The Hero, But I Woke Up as a Phoenix Princess! – Chapter 573

Chapter 573 Chapter 31 The North Wind Witch’s Inquiry
“It’s you, Azer?”
In the moonlight, Verafia raised her little head from Ignet’s shoulder as she saw the red-haired young man approaching, a hint of novelty appearing in her sparkling gold eyes.
The red-haired young man walked up to them and, seeing only Verafia and Ignet, asked, “Isn’t Miss Ophi here?”
“Little Fei has gone to rest.”
Ignet stood up and smiled at him, “However, Azer, you’ve come to find us so late, is there something you need?”
“I want to apologize to you and Ignet on behalf of Lord Trist.”
Azer said, “I think Lord Trist suspected you were followers of the Frost Calamity, which is why he suddenly released his aura.”
“Suspected us of being followers of the Frost Calamity… just because we appeared from where the Frost Calamity descended?” Verafia tilted her face up slightly and asked softly.
“Most likely, please forgive us.”
Azer apologized and said, “We’ve always had rumors here that below the Saint Rank’s domain, no one could survive the Frost Calamity except its dependents.”
“More than ten years ago, the Alliance’s punitive expedition suffered a crushing defeat because they were rescuing a commoner who ‘escaped’ from the Frost Calamity. Since then, the Inquisition has been extremely wary of those who escaped the Calamity, suspecting them of being spies, and even executing them directly.”
“Is that so?”
Verafia propped herself up slightly with her delicate body and asked in confusion, “If that’s the case, why were you willing to let us travel together when you first met Ignet and me?”
“The original intention of establishing the Inquisition was to protect commoners under the Frost Calamity. Besides repelling the dependents of the Frost Calamity, it was also to rescue innocent people caught in it.”
Azer shook his head and then gave a wry smile, “Moreover, the Inquisition’s suspicion had no basis. The Alliance Council and the lords repeatedly warned them, and after that, such actions decreased significantly. Except for old stubborns like Lord Trist.”
“Sir Trist, is there anything different about him?”
Verafia asked, slightly raising her gold eyes, gazing at the snow covering the ground outside the camp. In the reflection of the night, it looked cold and piercing, like the chill she had felt in Trist’s bone-deep blood.
She suddenly remembered the frostbitten scars on Trist’s face and asked, “Did Trist also participate in that ‘crushing defeat’ you just mentioned?”
The light in Azer’s eyes dimmed for a moment. After a long pause, he raised his face and said,
“Just as you thought. Miss Verafia… do you remember I told you before that Lord Trist used to be the personal guard knight of the former Count Vinash?”
“That war was when the Count led the punitive expedition to conquer a city corrupted by the Frost Calamity, but due to the Count’s momentary kindness, they suffered a crushing defeat. And that was when Lord Trist was accompanying the Count, helplessly watching his lord and best friend being devoured by the storm of the Frost Calamity.”
Verafia briefly gripped the young man’s hand beside her. As Azer recounted, in the red-haired young man’s eyes, instead of regret, there was more of a deep sadness.
Like family.
Ignet gently held the girl’s soft and tender little hand, indicating he understood, and then turned to the red-haired young man, “Please accept my condolences. However, Azer, you defended us back then, it should be me and Veer who thank you.”
Azer also realized his lapse in composure and, after calming himself, shook his head and smiled:
“It’s nothing. Although Lord Trist is stubborn, he is ultimately an upright hero. Even without me, I think after his probing, he wouldn’t have made things difficult for you.”
A stubborn hero…?
With a fleeting thought, Verafia suddenly raised her clear gold eyes, “Hmm… because of this, that’s why Azer told us not to mention to Sir Trist that we had met that frost-haired witch?”
The girl’s light and pleasant voice caused the smile on the red-haired young man’s face to fade. He looked at her slightly upturned, innocent and beautiful snowy cheeks, further enhanced by the interplay of the cold moonlight and the firelight, and earnestly admonished.
“If it’s the North Wind Witch, it’s not just Lord Trist; the entire Alliance would probably suspect you of colluding with the Frost Calamity.”
The girl slightly stuck out her thin tongue, and the young man beside her held her little hand, “Azer, can you tell me and Young Lady what kind of existence the North Wind Witch is?”
“The Northern Witch?”
Azer pondered for a moment, then slowly shook his head:
“For the Kaol Alliance, the existence of witches is no different from a natural disaster. Her appearance is not long ago. The first time she appeared in legends was twenty years ago, in Winterfall City, the most powerful city-state of the Carol Alliance at that time. And after her footsteps, the storm of the Frost Calamity descended, and the ancient city was devoured by ice and snow, turning into eternal frozen land.”
“Since then, every time the witch’s footprints fell, the storm of the Frost Calamity would devour that land. There are rumors that the North Wind Witch calls forth the ice and snow, offering the stolen heat to the evil gods after the Frost Calamity, while others say she is the embodiment of the Frost Calamity itself…”
“However, no matter what, the North Wind Witch represents frost and cold, bringing natural disasters, and is an evil existence that uses her strange spells to take lives.”
Sitting by the campfire, VeraFIA’s face, illuminated by the faint firelight, was slightly lowered, her exquisite eyelashes covering her gold eyes. She recalled the words spoken to them by the frost-haired white-robed girl before the blizzard arrived.
“In everyone’s eyes, the North Wind Witch is a symbol of disaster. People fear her, hate her, and the punitive expeditions and hunters formed also set her as their ultimate target.”
Azer continued. He raised his face, his clear eyes, like ice and snow, seemed to reflect the frost under the entire night sky, then melted by the flickering firelight. Azer suddenly shook his head.
“However, no one has truly seen the North Wind Witch. All the legends are just hearsay… Around her, there are always attendants of the Frost Calamity, and where she goes, it is eternally devoured by frost.”
“There were once powerful punitive knights, and even saints, who traveled long distances, traversing the domain of wind and snow in an attempt to eliminate this disaster-bringing witch, however, their whereabouts were unknown. It wasn’t until months later, when the natural disaster descended again, that those heroes who hunted the witch had already been corroded into knights of the Frost Calamity…”
“Of course, besides those who died in the Frost Calamity, there are also those who survived and witnessed the witch’s face—but they were all traitors who betrayed humanity and joined the Frost Calamity.”
“They formed the Cult of Frost, proclaiming the leadership of the North Wind Witch, their purpose being to act as spies for humanity and lead the Frost Calamity to devour human territories.”
Azer suddenly shook his head, his gaze falling on the girl’s face:
“Until now, the Frost Calamity has almost encroached upon half of the Alliance’s land. Among these, a large part is due to the betrayal of the Frost Calamity Cult. In the eyes of the Inquisition… their evil deeds are even worse than the Frost Calamity.”