Raven watched as the White Walker paced back and forth. She leaned against the palace wall, observing the settlement.
She still struggled to believe this was a community of monsters.
Despite their human-like behaviors, there were stark differences that helped her maintain her sanity.
At first glance, the settlement seemed vast, but now it felt as though Raven had explored every part of it.
Buildings were scattered everywhere around the palace.
Since there were no houses there, White Walkers were rarely seen in that area.
In fact, she had never seen anyone there.
The backdrop was just a massive ice mountain, nothing more, nothing less.
Leaning against the palace wall, Raven continued to tap her foot on the ground.
It was her habit when something was bothering her.
She bit her lip, leaned away from the wall, looked left and right, and then moved towards the back of the palace.
After a while, she found herself behind an enormous wall. She felt vulnerable for some reason; there were no guards, no White Walkers in this place.
The massive ice mountain wall against the back of the palace created a dark, narrow alleyway.
Raven stood there, looking around.
She was trying to figure out if she had missed something when she noticed something peculiar.
She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and looked at it.
To be precise—she was starting to feel warm.
Which shouldn't be happening at all, considering that this part of the settlement should be the coldest.
Raven frowned at this discovery and stared keenly at the mountain wall.
There was nothing strange about it—it was just the base of the mountain.
But she didn't want to give up. She was sure that something was wrong.
Something had to be there… something generating an unusual amount of heat.
However, Raven didn't have much time to investigate. She could hear footsteps coming closer, accompanied by soft chuckles.
So she decided to leave something behind. She shifted her sleeve, and from a tattoo near her elbow, a black bird emerged. It fluttered into the air and disappeared.
Then Raven also slipped away.
A few seconds later, two White Walkers stopped in front of the mountain base—the same spot Raven had been examining all day.
They stood silently, not saying a word, as if they were guarding a door.
Only, there was no door here.
From the highest roof of the palace, Raven covered one of her eyes while the other turned pitch black.
Immediately after removing her hand, her eye returned to its usual crimson color.
She glanced at the guards and frowned deeply.
"Something is wrong," she muttered before flying away gracefully like a butterfly.
Northern, after having a fulfilling dinner, tiredly made his way through the dark, guarded halls of the palace.
No one paid him any special attention since he was a regular resident here, even a well-respected one.
Although Northern now suspected that they might have placed him in this location to keep an eye on him.
Because sometimes, that's exactly how it felt. Like he was being watched.
He didn't mind. He just held his stomach and walked away, having once again consumed the White Walkers' strange vegetable soup for dinner.
Surprisingly, these folks were vegetarians. They didn't eat meat or anything other than vegetable soup.
Most of their vegetables were grown in harsh climate conditions, which might have been why they were usually so hard on Northern's stomach to digest.
He opened his door and entered, then raised an eyebrow.
"You'll need to do better than that to surprise me..."
Of course, he had sensed her presence the moment he touched the door knob. She had just stepped into his room at that time.
"What's the occasion?"
Raven tilted her head with a curious expression.
"We made a plan earlier today. Isn't it right to come back and report what we've discovered?"
She narrowed her eyes at Northern with the intensity of a viper.
"That? Did you forget?"
"Of course not. Why would I forget?" Northern casually pulled off his blue cloak and threw it on the bed.
Then he turned to Raven. "Actually, I think I found something quite interesting."
"Me too," Raven said.
Northern looked at her for a moment and then gestured with his hand.
"Do you want to go first?"
"No, you go first," she replied.
He nodded. "Okay, then."
He sat on the bed and began. He told Raven about his idea to teach the boy king the human language, which made her mouth open slightly.
He explained their exercises and how the boy had interchanged the words "ruler" and "subject."
While he didn't want to overthink it, his theory was that the boy was trying to convey something important with those words.
In fact, Northern had deliberately chosen those words and that specific exercise to see if the boy would react.
He had devised several exercises like that, meant to serve as questions of sorts.
Instead of asking them directly, he posed them through the exercises, hoping the boy king would be clever enough to recognize them as questions.
Even if he wasn't, Northern was sure that if something was truly wrong, one of these questions disguised as exercises would strike a chord with the boy and cause him to act strangely.
Fortunately, it had happened on the first try.
Raven unfolded her arms and leaned away from the wall.
"Still… what if he just misunderstood?"
Northern lowered his head, frowning slightly.
"That's possible… but what are the chances he got it wrong? Ulzred is smart. I'll give him that."
"So, do you want to bet that something is wrong, that the ruler is the subject and the subjects are the rulers?"
Northern looked at her.
"Given how strange their culture has been so far, it wouldn't be too far-fetched, would it?"
"You're right. It's a gamble. But I don't think we have a better choice."
"Yeah…" Northern murmured.
They both fell silent for a while, then Northern spoke again.
"Your turn. What did you find?"