November 2, 1453, New Calendar
Northern Border of Solitude, Frostwind Outpost
Wind blew from the depths of the vast snowfield.
At the edge of the horizon was a vast, boundless white. Solitude's border had always been sparsely populated, with only an isolated outpost built of black stone standing lonely in the wind and snow.
Two spears hung with icicles crossed over each other, blocking the snow-covered path that led into the snowfield.
Once across the outpost, people would no longer be troubled by the moon's curse.
What awaited them instead was the curse of the wind and snow.
Those inside the snowfield no longer remembered how to walk out, so this outpost only stopped the fools from Solitude who tried to cross the border on their own without obtaining transit permits.
Aishide walked through the snow.
She wore thin clothing, her skirt fluttering in the cold wind, yet she did not feel the slightest chill.
Tiny crystals of frost clung to the tips of her pink hair. Her feet made no sound as they stepped onto the snow. Her pace was even and slow, her gaze deep and serene.
A commotion drifted from the front of the outpost.
Aishide stopped.
Standing quietly a few paces away, she cast her gaze toward three figures facing off in the wind and snow.
“H-Halt!”
A border guard clad in heavy padded armor, his nose red from the cold, gripped a spear. The tip of the spear traced irregular little circles in the air due to his trembling arms. He wore a leather hat that had already lost most of its fur.
Beside him, another slightly older guard looked just as tense, as if facing a formidable enemy. The older guard kept one hand pressed against the hilt of the blade at his waist. The sword was already drawn an inch, revealing a dull, cold gleam.
His eyes were fixed on the object held by the person in front of them.
The person they had stopped was a young girl wearing a greyish-white sister's robe.
The girl's eyes were a clear rose-red, her expression indifferent. Dressed in her sister's habit, she looked like an ordinary adventurer and carried no weapons.
Yet, what made the two guards so defensive was not just because she lacked a Night Companion.
It was more so because of the cloth bundle she held in her arms.
One corner of the bundle had come loose, revealing a pale, slender arm.
To be precise, it was a forearm severed from the elbow.
“P-Put what's in your hands on the snow! Then take ten steps back!” the younger guard shouted, his voice cracking slightly in the wind and snow. “Solitude strictly prohibits the smuggling of body parts and cult sacrifices! Is that your Night Companion? You... you are suspected of murder and dismemberment! Now... surrender immediately!”
Kaila stood where she was, visible confusion and distress in her rose-red eyes.
If I had known, I wouldn't have come this way.
A scene from this morning before she left Silvervein City flashed through her mind.
At that time, Sophie had held her hand, snapped off her own forearm, wrapped it carefully in a piece of cloth, and stuffed it into her arms.
“Miss Hero will definitely be lonely going to the snowfield all by herself.”
“Take my arm. It can hold your hand for me at any time. That way, it'll be like I'm always with you.”
“If there's any need, I can also dissolve my current body at any time and grow a new one from that hand.”
“Oh, right.” Sophie had pulled a small blue flower from her pocket, pinned it to the tips of Kaila's hair, and taken two steps back. “Miss Hero once gave me a forget-me-not, so now I'm giving Miss Hero one too.”
Miaoyue had once told her the language of the forget-me-not.
There was not much lingering attachment or reluctance.
Everything was left unsaid.
Kaila looked down at the severed hand. It was full of vitality—she was a vampire, after all—and it twitched from time to time.
Although she had anticipated that Sophie's token of affection might cause trouble, it had come a bit too quickly.
She raised her head and looked at the two shivering guards.
“This is not a body part,” Kaila explained in a calm voice. “This is a friend's hand. It's a gift she gave me.”
That made it even worse.
The two guards exchanged a look.
“Nonsense!” The older guard drew his sword another inch, the blade scraping against the scabbard with a dry, harsh screech. “Who chops off their own hand to give as a gift? Do you think this is my first day on duty at the border? This was clearly sawed off by some brutal method! And look, this thing is actually still moving! You're a necromancer, aren't you?”
“My friend snapped it off herself,” Kaila corrected the error in his words earnestly, though it only made the truth sound even more horrifying. “She is an undead. If she snaps it off, it will grow back. So, it's fine.”
Hearing the word "undead," the younger guard swallowed hard, his legs shaking even more violently.
“Y-You're actually colluding with the undead!” he shrieked. “Quick, light the beacon and notify the patrol! There's a heretic here!”
Kaila pouted slightly.
What a hassle.
Maybe she should just charge through the outpost before the guards could react.
She looked up at the wall, which wasn't very high.
“I don't need to be arrested,” Kaila said calmly. “I am just passing through. Please let me pass.”
“Don't even think about crossing this line!” the older guard roared, trying to bolster his courage with his voice.
Just as the tip of the spear was about to point at Kaila,
Aishide stepped out from the wind and snow.
Her white skirt swept lightly between the two spears. Without looking at Kaila, she walked straight up to the two guards.
Startled by the pink-haired woman who had appeared before them so silently, the guards took a half-step back.
Aishide looked quietly at the younger guard.
Her eyes were filled with gentleness.
“You are afraid,” Aishide stated in a soft voice. “Your legs are shaking, and not just because of the cold. It is also because you gambled away three months of your military pay at the tavern last night. You are afraid that if you die here today, your wife will take your young daughter and go to your neighbor, whom you have always suspected she was sleeping with.”
The younger guard's expression froze instantly. His eyes widened, his lips trembled, and he couldn't utter a single word.
Aishide turned her gaze to the older guard.
“You are also afraid,” she continued in her flat, matter-of-fact tone. “You have an old injury on your right hip, caused by a snow wolf's claw three years ago. That injury cost you the chance to be promoted to squad leader. You are afraid that this adventurer before you will suddenly attack and pierce your fragile old wound, robbing you of your ability to stand, and thereby costing you the only job that will grant you a pension.”
The older guard's hand shook, his eyes widening.
“Now,” Aishide said. “Your desire is to live. Therefore, you do not need to block the way, because this girl will not harm you. Nor do you need to worry about her; she has a transit permit from the Azure Sky Queen.”
“Yes, I have a permit,” Kaila replied immediately, attempting to draw the two guards' attention with the permit she held out.
It was clearly held in such a visible spot, yet these two had ignored it.
The two guards glanced at the permit, then at each other.
“Well, nothing we can do about that then.”
“Yeah, since she has a permit, what else can we do?”
These were not people they could afford to offend, so the two guards immediately backed down.
They couldn't understand how this pink-haired woman could so accurately state their deepest fears and secrets, but in any case, that wasn't a question for guards who only earned a flat wage to ponder.
In the next second, both of them walked off in another direction, pretending they hadn't seen the two girls at all.
The snow was too heavy; they had to keep a proper lookout to prevent any rats from slipping away.
“Oh, by the way,” Aishide said to the younger guard in a sorrowful tone. “If you go to your neighbor's house right now, not only will you see your wife, but you'll also find your daughter on the bed.”
The younger guard: “!!!!”
He instantly threw down his spear.
“Hey, where are you going!” The older guard was about to stop him when he heard Aishide continue.
“This yellow-haired girl just happens to possess a high-tier divine art that can heal old wounds. Isn't that just the most wonderful coincidence?”
The older guard: “!!!!”
...
Ten minutes later.
After pouring out his endless gratitude, the older guard was informed by Aishide that their superiors weren't around today, so he happily went home to test out his new waist.
Only Aishide and Kaila remained in the wind and snow.
“Thank you.”
Kaila said earnestly.
She tilted her head, carefully studying the woman before her with pink hair draped over her shoulders and a white dress.
That face carried a familiar indifference.
This was indeed the first time she had met this person, yet in that instant, something in her body and her subconscious seemed to tremble slightly at the sight of this face.
Her instincts as a Hero told her that this person was an incredibly oppressive mountain, yet also strangely familiar.
This troubled her, but Kaila did not show it.
“Do we... know each other?” Kaila asked slowly.
“I feel like... you look very familiar.”
Aishide looked into Kaila's eyes.
“Perhaps we do, perhaps we don't.” Aishide shook her head. “But for now, I do not know you.”
Kaila nodded in confusion.
The Hero's Eye determined that the other party was not lying.
She truly did not know her.
Was she simply a kind passerby?
Aishide's gaze fell upon the cloth bundle in Kaila's arms.
“May I see it?”
She reached out a hand.
Kaila looked at her outstretched hand, then at the bundle in her arms. After a brief moment of thought, she carefully untied the knot on the cloth bundle and handed over the pale, severed hand carrying Sophie's scent.
Aishide took the hand.
She did not show any disgust or surprise like an ordinary person would.
She merely held it quietly with both hands, then lowered her head and brought the hand closer.
Closing her eyes, she took a gentle sniff.
The wind and snow seemed to stand still around her for an instant.
Afterward, Aishide opened her eyes and returned the hand to Kaila exactly as it was.
“Thank you,” Aishide said. “That girl named Sophie treats you very well, doesn't she?”
“You know her?”
“I just got to know her, though I will forget soon enough.” Aishide handed the hand back and said casually, “You should seize the opportunity, Hero.”
“You know me?”
“I just got to know you too,” Aishide said.
She turned around.
Aishide's destination was Solitude, and Kaila's was the snowfield, so they would part ways here.
Just as she was about to leave.
“Then,” Kaila spoke up. “Could you let me get to know you?”
“There is no point in that. You won't remember me.”
“My memory is usually very good.”
“Very well.”
Aishide shrugged.
“Well, my name is Aishide.”
She paused.
“You can also call me Little Ai.”
The corner of Kaila's mouth twitched slightly as she tried to form a friendly expression.
“Thank you for your help, Little Ai,” Kaila said solemnly.
“It was nothing,” Aishide said, shaking her head with a smile.
She reached into the pocket of her worn white dress and rummaged around for a bit.
She pulled out a booklet bound in some unknown, rough leather.
She handed the booklet to Kaila.
Kaila accepted it.
On the cover of the booklet, a few words were written in an ancient, twisted script.
It was a book titled "Qi Nourishing Formula."
“In that snowfield, everyone knows this,” Aishide said calmly. “It will be very useful. You can use it in your training as well.”
Kaila looked down at the booklet.
She couldn't feel any mana from this small booklet.
Inside, there seemed to be an entirely different way of circulating power.
“Thank you,” Kaila said again, carefully tucking the booklet away close to her body along with the severed hand.
Aishide said nothing more.
She turned around and continued into the wind and snow, walking toward the inland of Solitude to the south.
Kaila turned around as well. Her destination lay deep within the northern snowfield.
The two walked in opposite directions.
Leather boots crunched against the thick snow. The wind grew stronger, almost masking all sounds of footsteps.
Kaila walked a dozen paces into the wind and snow.
Her footsteps halted.
Aishide.
That name.
A sharp, intense pain stabbed into her mind, accompanied by a sequence of fragmented images.
A frozen land, boundless wind and snow, the light of Judgment, and a battle scene against this pink-haired woman.
Kaila spun around.
“No.”
Kaila's eyes widened, her heart hammering wildly.
That person was...
The Snow Witch, Aishide! She had fought her before, which was why she felt familiar!
The deepest despair of the entire snowfield, one of the sources of calamity—the Snow Witch.
Kaila turned, intending to chase after Aishide.
In the next moment.
Her expression froze on her face.
Who was she... trying to chase?
Just now, why did she turn around?
Was the wind too strong, blowing something away? She felt the bundle in her arms; the severed hand was still there. She felt her pocket; the small booklet was still there as well.
A faint scent lingered in the wind, but after just a single second, even that trace of scent was completely erased.
Kaila stood frozen, staring blankly into the empty, snowy south.
She blinked.
She couldn't remember.
She went over the list of people important to her; no one was missing. She checked her notes; there were no omissions.
So, what did she forget?
Kaila withdrew her gaze.
Perhaps it was just the wind.
The cursed snowfield was prone to making people hallucinate anyway.
Tightening her sister's robe, she continued deep into the snowfield, taking one step after another.
Rate on N.U.
