Traveling through The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Chapter 136 Sebastian Lott

"Ahaha! You finally woke up, you bastard. Great, now I can bite you to death with my own mouth."

Babas put his front paws on my chest, his dark eyes widened. I lay on the soft fur, covered tightly, and the sunlight shone through the gap in the tent roof, making me dizzy.

"where is this?"

I raised my hand to push the dog away, and then I felt a sharp pain in my limbs, as if I had just been stepped on by a mammoth. Babas admired my painful expression with satisfaction, then swung his tail and went out. Not long after, Helgi rushed into the tent like a whirlwind.

"Brother, you're awake! I was so scared! Didn't I tell you not to play with fire again?"

From the little girl, I learned what happened next. At that time, I got excited and used the fire element to ignite the hydrogen sulfide ghost in the room, causing a huge explosion. Mokran, who was playing hide-and-seek with Babas in the room, was killed on the spot. Babas was embedded in the wall by the shock wave, and the ice element blocking the door was also blown to pieces. In the smoke, Mokran turned into a huge black ghost, surrounded by the three elements of electricity, fire, and ice. At this time, I was already unconscious, and Babas had not yet climbed down from the wall. Helgi desperately used all the attack magic she knew. Unfortunately, her current level was far from enough to defeat Mokran's ghost. The little girl asked Miko to drag me to the top of the stairs to escape. How could the ghost let us go? Just as he chased out of the room, the tiger brother and sister who had been ambushed on both sides of the door frame poured all the remaining water on it.

Mokran's ghost is not hydrogen sulfide gas, otherwise it would have been blown to pieces by its own flame cloak. However, the water still caused him some trouble, and Hayu and Aigis successfully attracted his attention. When the necromancer turned to deal with the two cats, Helgi received a revelation from Meridia. She rushed into the room and drew out the sword Dawnbreaker. This sword can cause additional damage to undead creatures and is our only hope to kill Mokran. Helgi is not good at using swords, and Dawnbreaker is a bit too long and heavy for her. The little girl swung the sword and smashed and stabbed randomly, and finally burned the necromancer to ashes.

After Mokran's death, Meridia's holy light purified the entire temple, dispelled the poison gas, and even healed our injuries to a certain extent. After all, everyone inhaled poisonous gas to a certain extent during the battle. If the goddess hadn't taken action, others might not have died, but I would definitely not have survived. Helgi became a warrior of the Light Demon God and was summoned to the air again for a lecture. The others were teleported to the statue outside the temple.

My willful behavior caused a lot of noise. It is estimated that Mokran gathered the most powerful ghosts around him, resulting in an unprecedented explosion, which actually caused an earthquake and landslide. Solitude and Dragonbridge must have felt the tremors. Helgi was in the sky and saw people gathering in panic in both places. In order not to be caught by the soldiers of Hafingar, Hayou and others gathered their luggage as quickly as possible and went deep into the Kirkreath Mountains. Helgi used all our remaining supplies to bribe a snow bear and let it carry me forward. Although Aigis is a novice in fighting, she is an expert in handling traces and anti-tracking. With her as the rear guard, we can escape without worry.

The team was not moving very fast. On the one hand, everyone was injured after the fierce battle. On the other hand, all the supplies were fed to the bears, so it took more time to collect food every day. However, Helgi got news from the animals that people in Dragon Bridge Town had already moved towards the temple, but there was no movement in Solitude. It was unknown what Lord Elisif and General Tullius were thinking. The first to arrive at the scene were a group of people living in the wilderness. They were armed, but their specific identities were unknown. These guys checked the collapsed temple on the night we fled. They would definitely find traces of our camping. Agis did not have enough time to complete the cleanup, but for some reason, the other party did not search near the temple.

I was unconscious for two days, and Helgi and Hayou had a disagreement about the direction to go. The little girl thought that we should rush to the next destination as planned, which was the retreat of Madeline's father, Sebastian Lotter - the Rime Rock Cave. Barbas didn't know the exact location of the cave, but he knew that it was located on the west side of the Kirkreese Mountains and overlooked the Ghost Sea in the north. From this, we inferred that we should go northwest. The tiger man insisted on moving closer to the official road in the south. The reason he gave was that if my condition showed signs of deterioration, I would have to risk going to Longqiao Town to seek treatment.

The two sides were arguing, and in line with the principle of "all animals are equal", everyone voted by the campfire. Miko and Barbas supported Helgi's opinion, while Agis and Snow Bear stood on Hayu's side. The votes were tied, and after a frank exchange of opinions, everyone agreed that it was always right to go west first.

It was afternoon when I woke up. Agis and Miko were out hunting, and Helgi was bargaining with the snow bear. She hoped that the big guy would stay with us for a few more days, but the other party seemed reluctant. Seeing me wake up, the little girl was relieved.

"Brother, it's great that you're awake. This bad guy, Hayou, refused to listen to me. You have to teach him a lesson!"

"Helgi, when can you summon the ice element?"

The little girl stammered for a while.

“I can always do that… But! I think, brother, you are the leader of the team. Aigis can’t beat me. If she sees that brother is stronger than me, she will listen to you…”

Yes, what am I thinking? How could a genius girl certified by two demon gods be inferior to me? But it was unexpected that this girl showed weakness for my sake. She used to like competing with me the most. Maybe she is too lazy to do that now?

Since I woke up, we decided to head northwest to find the Rime Rock Cave. The snow bear finally agreed to carry me again tomorrow, and then we went our separate ways. According to the bear, the edge of its territory is not far to the north. There is a valley between mountains, and there seem to be some roads built by humans. Wild animals are very sensitive about their territory. They are generally unwilling to venture into the sphere of influence of other beasts, and they deliberately avoid humans. This is also the main reason why the snow bear is unwilling to stay with us for too long. We have mixed feelings about the news of the road. The presence of a road means human activities, which means we are in a relatively safe place; but the humans who are active here are likely to be our enemies, and being discovered by them will bring danger.

However, I prefer to move forward along the road, based on a judgment: Sebastian Lotter must contact other people to obtain the basic supplies needed for life. Although nearly half of the population of Hafingar County lives in the narrow plain from Dragon Bridge Town to Solitude, there are still many small villages in the mountains that occupy more than 70% of the area. Of course, at least 40% of these mountain people are bandits who have become bandits, and another 40% are uneducated Rich people. The few remaining good people are inevitably coerced by them.

However, in troubled times, there is no clear boundary between ordinary people and bandits. It is common for people without food and clothing to rob and loot to make a living. It is not uncommon for bandits to rob things they don't need and find ways to sell them. We have done business with bandits in Jingyue Camp. Everyone is just fighting for a glimmer of hope to survive. As Farion said, when something like this happens, the lord should be blamed first, not the "troublemakers", let alone "the common people don't understand the difficulties of the court" and "everyone is responsible for their own destiny."

If you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight. How can one be called a great ruler by shirking responsibility and putting the blame on the people?

Barbas was still upset about me detonating the ghost. Meridia, out of some evil taste, teleported a small piece of stone wall next to it, causing the image of the demon dog embedded in the stone to be watched by everyone. In revenge, the dog kept urging us to speed up after the snow bear left the team, causing me, who had not yet fully recovered, to live a life worse than death. Fortunately, none of us knew where the Rime Rock Cave was, so we could only rely on Helgi to ask the animals while walking, so that the distance we could walk every day was limited, and I would not be exhausted to death.

However, there are so many caves in the mountains. It is impossible for birds and animals to know what strange names humans have given these caves. In desperation, we had to search every cave with traces of human beings. Agis was able to judge the frequency of use and the number of people living in these caves through clues. Generally speaking, most of them are temporary shelters for people like hunters, and of course a few are strongholds of robbers. We don't want to cause trouble, so we usually let the tiger brother and sister sneak in to explore, and retreat directly after confirming that it is not the target location.

After five days of aimless searching, we unexpectedly discovered a plank road looming in the mist on the cliffs below us when we were climbing a dangerous peak. The first time I saw it, I realized that this must be our destination. The wood used for the plank road is very new, and it should have been built in the last one or two years. In this way, Sebastian has not been here for a long time. But Madeline has a high status in the comrades group, and she is only half a step away from becoming a core member of the circle, which does not seem to be an achievement that can be achieved in a short period of time.

What happened between the father and daughter? Why did Sebastian choose to live in seclusion here?

I believe that these questions will be answered after meeting Madeline's father, provided that old Lotte doesn't spray fire in my face as soon as they meet like he does in the game.

The information brought back by Aigis said that this cave was in the shape of a gourd. The small hall in front seemed to be used for meeting guests. The furnishings were simple, but the tables and chairs were very clean, which showed that Sebastian did have contact with other people. The cave in the back was very large, and there was a fire element patrolling, so the little cat girl could not go deeper. However, this information perfectly matched the characteristics of the Rime Rock Cave in the game, so I decisively led everyone in.

"Excuse me, is Mr. Sebastian Lott in the cave? We are friends of your daughter Madeleine and are here to visit him."

Our answer was a fireball.

Barbas and his dog led the way, and Helgi and I also summoned ice elements, and the tiger brother and sister surrounded them from both wings. For a moment, the bows and arrows were like a torrential rain, shooting the poor but diligent fire element into a hedgehog. Everything happened so fast that when Sebastian reacted, he was surrounded by us, and his hands were tied behind his back by Hayou.

"Haha, your etiquette for visiting friends is really unique."

Wasn't it you who started it first?

I didn't argue, I just pulled a chair over and asked old Lotte to sit down, and handed him Madeline's token. The old man looked at the Myra necklace for a long time, and then sighed.

"So, my filial daughter finally remembered that she still had a father who was not dead?"

"Mr. Lotte, we are here to bring a message for Ms. Madeline. She misses you very much and hopes to meet you."

"Oh? Hasn't she already found the love she always dreamed of? Why is she still seeing me?"

"I don't want to lie to you. Madeleine was seriously injured. Although her life is not in danger, she is still disabled. So her mental state..."

"Nonsense! Where's Scoyue? How could that beast let Madeline suffer? I'm going to skin him alive!"

"Sko Yue... He's dead."

"Impossible! No... Impossible... Impossible..."

Sebastian stood up suddenly, then held the back of the chair and slowly sat back down, repeating the word "impossible" in his mouth. I explained to him as briefly as possible how the comrades were ambushed by the Silver Hand, Madeline was seriously injured, and Scoyue was killed in revenge. Sebastian covered his face with tears, and then slammed the table and cried.

"Skoyue! You old dog! What did you tell me in the beginning? I shouldn't have let Madeline follow you! Oh my God! Oh my God!"

I was a little worried that he was too sad, so I went forward to help him with his back. The old man grabbed my wrist with a force comparable to a bear trap, and I felt that my bones were about to be crushed.

"Madeline! She's in Whiterun, right?"

I was sweating profusely and nodding my head like a chicken running around breaking rice.

"Take me to her!"

"Yes, sir. It's just that..."

It was only then that I suddenly realized that I had not designed a plan to return to the Whiterun Territory. Sebastian looked over 60 years old, so he couldn't be disguised as a hunter, right? Besides, the old man looked like a scholar, and standing next to us, he looked out of place. To be fair, an old wizard with two young hunters, two cats and two dogs, who would not question them carefully?

Seeing my hesitation, the old man stood up and went deeper into the cave. I then noticed that he was limping, as if his left leg was injured. Not long after, he came back to us with a cane and threw the two wizard robes on his arm to me.

"You and this girl put on this outfit and say you are my apprentices. I will take you out to broaden your horizons. The two kittens are my hired guards. As for ..."

The moment Sebastian saw Barbas, his pupils shrank suddenly. But the demon dog swung its tail and turned to walk out of the cave.

"Mr....Mr. Lott?"

I patted old Lotte who was standing there in a daze and asked him which way he was going to take, but I only got a bunch of roll of eyes.

"Naturally, we'll go to Solitude first."