Chapter 531: The Three-Eyed Sorcerer
The old monk led Kian out of the city through a tunnel.
When they came out the other end, they were on a mountain five kilometres east of Kyoto.
The old monk said, "From here to Snowflake Mountain is only a hundred and fifty kilometres. If we walk fast, we can be there in three days."
Kian frowned.
"Three days? Too slow!"
The old monk was helpless.
"There's no helping it. The distance is what it is. Covering twenty-five kilometres a day is already hard on the body."
As he spoke, the old monk hefted the weapons in his hands, a naginata, a bow, and a katana, which he'd brought for protection and which weren't light.
Kian stepped forward and tucked the old man under his arm.
"I'm not waiting three days!"
Then, with the old man under his arm, he took off running.
Kian's stamina bar was now longer than his lifespan. He could run at forty kilometres an hour for half an hour.
Once his stamina bar ran out, he'd walk slowly for three minutes, it would refill, and he could sprint another half hour!
Tucked under Kian's arm, the old monk got to experience what it meant to fly along on foot.
In a little over five hours they'd left Kyoto's lands and entered the borders of the Snowflake Domain.
If Kian hadn't been afraid of jolting the old geezer to death and deliberately slowed down, he'd have been up Snowflake Mountain already.
"Slow down, my lord, slow down! We're almost at Snowflake Mountain. Put this old one down and let him walk. These old bones are about to be shaken apart!!"
On a bamboo-lined path near the border of the Snowflake Domain, Kian was racing along with the old man under his arm, and the old man could barely hold out. He hurriedly asked Kian to put him down.
Kian did as he asked and set the old monk down. The old monk rubbed his back and pointed to a distant mountain whose peak was covered in snow.
"My lord, that's Snowflake Mountain. Snow is already falling on its peak, and before long heavy snow will cover the whole world."
They strolled to the foot of the mountain and began to climb.
By the time they were halfway up, the old geezer was exhausted and wheezing.
Climbing a mountain over three thousand metres high didn't dent Kian's stamina bar at all. He even had time to enjoy the scenery.
He could see a town at the foot of the mountain. That was Snowflake Town.
This world had thousands of domains. In truth, all it took was a tiny patch of land. If a small town had a few tens of thousands of people, its lord could declare it a domain, go to the Son of Heaven and pledge allegiance, get an edict, and that was that.
Take Snowflake Town. The town was tiny and its walls were low. At a glance it probably didn't even have fifty thousand people, and it still dared to call itself a domain.
Kian's gaze swept back and forth over Snowflake Town. Suddenly he noticed a large crowd of refugees gathered outside the town walls, a few thousand of them.
By now the old monk had more or less caught his breath and looked where Kian was looking.
"My lord, that's the human livestock market, where slaves are bought and sold.
"With the Big Yōkai running rampant lately, the common folk around Kyoto have all fled here. Peasants who leave their land aren't people anymore. They're slaves, and they get caught and sold."
Kian lifted his chin and said nothing. He kept climbing.
Snow was already falling on the mountain, a sheet of white, and it was very cold.
The old monk dug a winter coat out of his bundle, threw it on, and said:
"In the cave at the summit is where the three-eyed ones live.
"Because of how they look, they could bring trouble on themselves if outsiders saw them, so they've lived in the cave for years without showing themselves.
"The leader of the three-eyed ones is called the Three-Eyed Sorcerer, and he has incredible powers!
"Once, one of the daimyō of the Snowflake Domain wanted to build a hot-spring palace on Snowflake Mountain and sent troops to drive the three-eyed ascetics off the mountain.
"That very night, the daimyō and every one of his direct descendants died, bleeding from all seven openings of the head!"
Kian heard this and thought it was probably some kind of psychic curse. Nothing unusual.
Before long, the two of them reached the summit.
There was a big cave at the top of the snowy mountain, and at its mouth stood a mysterious figure in a hooded robe.
The old monk told Kian, "That's the Three-Eyed Sorcerer's gatekeeper ninja."
Kian stepped forward and said to the gatekeeper ninja:
"Kindly announce me. Kian Voss: Count with real power on Agri-World 496b, Lord of Whitepaper City, Saviour of the Spire, Executioner of Daemons, Pious Crusader ordained by the Planetary Bishop, Trampler of Xenos, Gretchin Slayer, and Titan Pilot, come to pay his respects to the Three-Eyed Sorcerer."
The gatekeeper ninja rolled his eyes.
"Blah blah blah. I can't remember all those names.
"The Three-Eyed Sorcerer went out this morning. No telling when he'll be back. You can see yourselves down the mountain."
The old monk tugged at the hem of Kian's robe.
"My lord, the Three-Eyed Sorcerer hasn't left in ages. How could he have gone down the mountain? He must be testing your sincerity!
"Why don't we go down and come back tomorrow? Visit Snowflake Mountain three times, and the Three-Eyed Sorcerer will surely be moved!"
Kian shook his head. He wasn't Liu Bei, and the other guy wasn't Zhuge Liang. Nobody here had earned three visits to his thatched cottage.
He smiled pleasantly at the gatekeeper ninja.
"Oh, right, I have one more title. Inquisitor. Ordo Hereticus."
The gatekeeper ninja was only a security guard and didn't know what an Inquisitor was. He said he didn't understand, shook his head, and told Kian to leave already.
Kian kept smiling pleasantly.
"If I leave now, then when I come back, it'll be with macro-cannon bombardment, white-phosphorus executions, servitor conversions, Penitent Engines, and a one-way trip to Terra as psyker batteries."
The words were barely out of his mouth when hurried footsteps came running from inside the cave. A middle-aged man with three eyes on his forehead ran out of the cave without even stopping to put his shoes on and cried excitedly at Kian:
"Oh my, oh my! Wonderful! Wonderful! I, the current Three-Eyed Sorcerer, humbly welcome my lord Inquisitor!"
The three-eyed middle-aged man ran up to Kian and bowed a full ninety degrees.
Kian glanced at the Three-Eyed Sorcerer.
"You, sir, are the Three-Eyed Sorcerer. Why so humble?"
The Three-Eyed Sorcerer's face was all fawning.
"Had I known it was my lord Inquisitor, I'd have come five kilometres down the mountain to meet you. Please come in, my lord Inquisitor, please come in!"
Kian snorted coldly, clasped his hands behind his back, and walked into the cave.
"Five kilometres? Only five? I think you Navigators have been left to graze on your own for far too long. You need a thorough, rigorous investigation!"
The Three-Eyed Sorcerer broke into a cold sweat. As a Navigator house, they had been through the Great Forgetting too. But the books they'd preserved were classified, so they understood the universe and the Imperium far more fully than anyone else here.
They knew exactly what Inquisitors were like. Serve one badly, and heads would roll!
The old monk smiled at the Three-Eyed Sorcerer.
"Well, well, if it isn't the Three-Eyed Sorcerer. Don't people have to knock three times before they're allowed to see you?
"What's the matter? Not so high and mighty now? Hee hee, you're about to get investigated by an Inquisitor!"
With that, the old monk followed Kian into the cave. He'd worn himself out tagging along on this trip just to see this moment.
The Three-Eyed Sorcerer cursed the old monk a thousand times in his head, then followed them into the cave, trembling.
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