Rest Amid the Frost
After taking down Orsonero and the Sabeltiger, the hunters managed to reclaim the initiative.
Even so, General Gero had points he refused to concede.
He proposed that the outpost's security and management be shared between them, and that exploration be divided into separate sectors as well.
Adelaide accepted the suggestion.
None of the other hunters objected, and neither did I.
Back in Angolo, the royal army had handled outpost management entirely on its own. But Angolo and Lacrima were not remotely comparable. Angolo had been manageable; Lacrima was hopeless in every respect.
Without Thermal Powder, nothing got done, and overexerting yourself could bring on altitude sickness without warning. Keeping your body temperature up and resting properly came first, so rotating shifts without pushing too hard was the only sensible approach.
Which was why I found myself taking an unexpected break.
I lay on the bunk in the lodging and held the Sabeltiger's essence up high. A faintly blue, dark-hued essence. It filled my palm completely, condensed into a hard, solid mass.
"Hmm…"
The Sabeltiger's essence was the same grade as the Luga-lac's. Just as the Luga-lac had its Frenzy, the Sabeltiger possessed a skill of its own.
Frost Blade.
The way the Sabeltiger sharpened its own blunted fangs, the skill honed a weapon's edge to peak condition—and layered on extra damage from the cold clinging to the blade. Aside from being useless against heat hot enough to melt it outright, it was a solid technique.
Frenzy was genuinely disorienting in a place like this, making it hard to use effectively. Frost Blade had no such drawback, so for general-purpose use it might actually be better.
I wanted to equip it right away, but the problem was that it still hadn't been processed. Should I leave the work to one of the technicians stationed in Lacrima? Somehow, when it came to this kind of thing, my hands just wouldn't move for anyone but Matillo. My weapons were the same—Matillo was the only repair shop I could truly trust.
On the bunk beside mine, Pina sprawled out and burrowed into her blankets.
"This is heaven. A little cold, though."
"Yeah."
Hunting was great, but in a place this extreme, doing absolutely nothing and just resting was pure bliss. Wish there was a campfire somewhere. I could go for roasting marshmallows.
"Without Thermal Powder, you'd freeze to death out here, wouldn't you?"
"A little…"
This highland where the snow never melted was a strange place. Just down the hill it wasn't this cold, but the moment you reached Lacrima up on the heights, the chill came rushing in. Twisted time had warped the space itself.
My body had adapted to Antico, so this kind of cold left me dizzy. Put on armor and it felt like the chill started from your toes inside the boots. Saying you'd get frostbite without Thermal Powder was barely an exaggeration.
"You'll get used to it eventually, right?"
Pina answered with a doubtful look.
"I don't think I will… It's just too cold."
"You'll get used to it soon enough."
"Ugh."
If it snowed again, everything would turn white. The whole world would go blank—you wouldn't be able to see a thing. Would I finally get to experience that whiteout phenomenon I'd only ever heard about?
I kept turning the essence over in my hands, then decided I couldn't keep resting like this forever. It was time to deal with the things I'd been putting off so I'd be ready to hunt whenever needed.
Clink—clink—.
Fighting left clothes frayed and armor scored with all kinds of damage. The red bloodstains on my clothes were a problem too. Dirt, dust, and blood clung to the armor.
I soaked a cloth in oil, dabbed it in finely ground sand, and scrubbed hard. It was something I did often enough, but doing it in this kind of cold made the work miserable. I set the cloth down and wiped my forehead. Even in weather like this, working steadily was enough to send a bead of sweat rolling down.
"What a pain…"
Pina seemed fascinated by the sight of me like that.
"I've never seen Alice-nim look annoyed before."
"Mm…"
"It's the cold, right? You should dress warmer. Like me."
Pina laughed softly and patted her own clothes. I shook my head at her.
"…You're overdoing it."
"Overdoing it? This still isn't enough."
I frowned slightly and looked her over. Pina was wearing several more layers than when she'd first arrived in this land. I'd thought she was just being dramatic, but she'd been completely serious.
I ran my fingers over a gouge on the back of my armor. Seeing the scratch the Sabeltiger had left made something inside me collapse. My precious armor…!
Not that I had anyone left to take it out on—I'd already killed the culprit with my own hands. The grief with nowhere to go gathered in the hand holding the cloth. I scrubbed with all the care I could muster, dulling the scratch as much as possible.
Pina spoke up.
"Aren't you working a little too hard?"
"You never know when a fight might break out. Better to be ready."
"You're thorough…"
Still sprawled on the bed, Pina rolled onto her stomach so she could face me.
"Is that another habit from the future?"
"Who knows."
I tilted my head at her question. Could you really call this an effect of the future? Still, maintaining armor and weapons like this settled my mind. It felt like keeping an empty heart and tempering the spirit.
"How are your memories?"
I shook my head.
"Same as ever."
"I see…"
Pina sounded bitter.
"Don't you want them back?"
"Hmm. Hard to say."
What kind of person the hunter from the future had really been—I didn't know the full story. That woman who never once flinched before countless monsters and walked the hunter's path. I'd only ever glimpsed fragments of her in dreams.
"I'd like to know."
But that was only a small wish. I couldn't afford to cling to something like that. I had to finish everything.
Once the supreme-grade monsters of the five lands were put to rest, Miteraos would appear on its own. Disastro was dead, so four remained. To escape this wretched, frost-choked Lacrima, I needed to find Neveumano and Neveterde as soon as possible. Neveterde had almost no combat ability, so finding Neveumano alone might be enough…
While I was lost in thought, Pina seemed to be searching for a way to recover my memories.
"Isn't there something that could serve as a trigger?"
"A trigger?"
I was already working hard at anything that might qualify.
"Killing monsters should do it."
I'd been a hunter in the future, and I was a hunter now. The truth was, no matter how many monsters I killed, no memories ever came flooding back. I just wanted to gloss over the whole situation. Dig too deep and my position got awkward.
"Then and now—I'm a hunter."
The line I'd just said sounded pretty cool, actually. Or… did it? I snuck a glance at Pina's face. She looked rather forlorn.
"Alice-nim, you've already hunted plenty of monsters…"
I shrugged at her words.
"Must not have been enough."
"Th-that wasn't enough? It really doesn't seem like it was lacking at all."
"This much still isn't enough."
I'd killed plenty of monsters, sure—but they were all weak ones. The only ones that had felt strong were the ancient Alberoelva and Disastro… Schiagua and Ekriki were basically joke enemies. The former was a damp, paralysis-spitting stalker of the dead of night; the latter was a complete idiot you could beat with dual shields. Broken Horn was straightforward as long as you watched out for the horn that killed you on a stab—nothing else about it was hard. Even its final blood-frenzy pattern wasn't that difficult if you could parry decently.
What really got my heart racing had to be a high-tier opponent at minimum. The One-Eyed Luga-lac and the Master Blade Sabeltiger… both mid-grade, but after long years of fighting they'd evolved into Elder Species and reached high-tier strength. Still, both of them had a way of getting under a hunter's skin. Figures, coming from the dog family and the cat family. Imagining it was kind of cute, though.
I cleared away the stray thoughts and added,
"And it's fine even if the memories don't come back. I'm me."
What would happen if the memories returned? I mean—if the rabbit woke up again, what would become of me? It was a little frightening. If her memories fully awakened and took over this body, what would happen to the memories of the person I am? Could I still exist as myself?
"Pina."
"Yes…"
I spoke on the off chance.
"If the memories come back, what happens to me?"
"Even then, Alice-nim is… Alice-nim. To me, at least. That doesn't change."
I gave her a bitter smile. Pina always said kind things for my sake.
There was a truth I could never forget no matter how hard I tried. I'd been living in Hunter Land for eight months one way or another, and I was still an uninvited guest. Living in a borrowed body in this world—was it too much to ask for even a single place of my own?
The best I could do was grant the rabbit's request to kill Miteraos, and leave behind proof that someone named me had existed in this world. Traces of me as a player, as a protagonist—something that wouldn't vanish from this world even if I did.
I spoke quietly.
"I hope so."
Which meant I had to work even harder than I was now. I polished the edge of my greatsword and thought about how to live diligently. No matter how hard I thought, nothing suitable came to mind, so I settled on a hunter's method.
Just kill whatever's in front of you, right?
…So I just needed to do what I always did.
Faced with that suddenly obvious fact, I felt sheepish and simply kept scrubbing at the blade.