Tremors Across the Snow
Pina and I practically inhaled our food.
There was no time to taste any of it.
We were that steeled for what lay ahead.
The hunters sharing the meal stared at us with puzzled eyes. But the gravity that dominated the table made them look away.
At times like this, I really regretted how scarce transportation was in this world. If only there were helicopters—or even just a single car to get around in.
Even the monsters the kingdom used to pull carts couldn't adapt to Lacrima's weather, so the region had to be traversed purely on foot. Of course, they could raise the docile monsters that lived here, but preparations weren't ready yet, so there was no choice.
"You ready?"
"Yes. I've packed everything."
All we really needed were goggles. Blizzards would thrash around Neveumano, so anything that blocked our vision had to be shut out immediately.
I adjusted my armor gauntlets as I spoke.
"ETA is tomorrow evening."
"Tomorrow evening? That seems a little tight."
"It'll be doable if we don't run into monsters along the way. We'll avoid them as much as we can… or scare them off."
"If only the kingdom army had gone a little slower…"
"Can't be helped."
I looked out the window. The sun had passed its zenith and was steadily sinking.
From now on, our job was to leave Lacrima and keep heading straight toward the snowfields. No chance of getting lost—what mattered most was pacing our stamina.
Arriving tomorrow was well within Pina's and my endurance. Pina had become an iron woman in stamina from chasing after me for so long. But we had to account for the possibility of fighting the moment we arrived, without a second to breathe.
Maybe the situation would already be over before we even got there….
If that happened, there was nothing I could do about it.
If everyone was dead, I would have to kill both Neveumano and Neveterde—for the kingdom army, for the people.
It might have been my fault. The fault of pitying Neveterde and not killing it beforehand. And the fault of failing to predict General Gero's solo action.
But Neveterde truly was a creature well-disposed toward humans. General Gero hadn't moved out of greed—he'd moved for his soldiers and knights.
Who could dare condemn either of them?
It was simply the fault of the temporal distortion that had gathered us all here. If we had never met in the first place, if the anomalies had never happened, none of this would have occurred. Neveumano and Neveterde would have continued their symbiotic life in happiness, and General Gero would have lived training soldiers in the kingdom.
Conclusion: Miteraos, who sent me to the past, was a complete bastard.
I scrubbed a hand over my face.
I was the only one who knew how dangerous Neveumano was. It was a Supreme-grade monster. This wasn't something you could solve just by throwing numbers at it. Even dying hundreds of times and retrying wouldn't be enough—charging in with no information was brave, if you wanted to call it that. Or maybe they just trusted the kingdom army's strength that much.
I slung the Famine Blade onto my back and said,
"……Let's go."
"Yes."
Arriving before a reckless fight broke out was the best we could do.
We opened the door and left the lodging. The clank of armor felt newly solemn.
Come to think of it, I hadn't touched the armor since making it to fight Disastro. Still, leather armor was the most comfortable—for movement, for weight. More than anything, Lacrima always required bundling up in thick clothes. Ending this mess quickly and getting out of the region was the path to improving quality of life.
We went straight to find Adelaide.
Standing with her arms crossed before the central brazier, Adelaide saw us and nodded.
"…Alice, Pina. Are you prepared?"
"Yes!"
"Yeah."
Hearing our answers without a shred of hesitation, Adelaide looked satisfied as she gazed toward the distant horizon.
"Good. I will trust you. I would like to accompany you myself, but the hunters are still searching the conifer forest, and the general has left his post, so I cannot. Honestly, I would love to watch you fight just once."
An attendant standing quietly beside her shook his head.
"Your Highness, please restrain yourself a little……."
"I know, I know. If I left the outpost too, it would cause chaos. So I entrust this to you, Hunter."
I nodded readily.
"Leave it to me."
"Ah, and… well, I said you two would be enough, but it seems additional personnel will be joining you."
"…Huh? What do you mean?"
I tilted my head at Adelaide's words.
Adelaide shrugged.
"They are already prepared. They are waiting for you at the outpost entrance."
"Who? Hunters?"
"No, not hunters. Kingdom soldiers."
I blinked and looked toward the entrance.
Just as Adelaide said, I could faintly make out people. Not hunters. All of them wore matching kingdom army armor. Even the knight visible among them was perfect.
I recognized who it was at once.
"…That knight. The one who came back with me."
"Yes, that's right. Go on now. Return safely."
"Got it."
I left Adelaide behind and headed for the entrance.
As I expected, the soldiers waiting for us were Evan and his subordinates.
Evan, who had been sitting on the ground, saw me, brushed the snow from his greaves, and stood.
"Hunters. You're here. We've been waiting."
"Coming with us?"
"Yeah. I heard. The general left first, right? Our squad can't sit this one out."
Faintly, the eyes behind Evan's helmet visor were smiling.
"And we want to help you. The way you saved the kingdom army."
"…Alright."
I wouldn't turn down help if it was offered.
"No time for small talk—follow me. We're leaving right away."
"Right."
Adding Evan's squad of eleven to the two of us made the party thirteen. But the plan didn't change. Arrival had to be tomorrow, no matter what.
We left Lacrima, following in General Gero's wake.
I took the role of guide.
We climbed the uphill path toward the tundra, avoiding the pools formed where some of the snow had melted. No time to rest just because it was hard. We had to widen our strides as much as possible and go as far as we could.
The soldiers were full of energy at first. They formed ranks and walked while watching their surroundings.
"Monster over there."
"…We'll have to detour."
Several monsters appeared along the way, but unlike usual, I avoided engagement and passed them by. That meant we weren't taking a straight course and our direction shifted a little, but the time and stamina for combat were too precious.
Fortunately, no one fell behind. They trained regularly, and having stayed in Lacrima longer than us, they were probably used to it.
But as time passed and exhaustion set in, even that formation crumbled until it lost all meaning. They just didn't show how hard it was—their once-light steps now thudded heavily, and though spaced far apart, their breathing came rough.
The sun was setting at last, and a gloomy atmosphere settled over the tundra.
Our hearts were urgent, but the body needed proper rest. This was the maximum for today.
"…Let's rest soon."
"Haa~."
"Hoo……."
At my words, everyone except Pina and Evan sank down in relief where they stood.
I met Pina's eyes. She didn't look that exhausted yet.
These soldiers are soft.
Setting up the overnight camp was Pina's job. Because she always insisted on helping me somehow and took on every non-hunting task herself, she was outstanding at this kind of thing too. Whether it was all that living experience shining through, her movements were so fast and thorough that even the soldiers marveled.
"She's fast…."
"Ahem."
Pina, who somehow overheard that, cheerfully shrugged her shoulders. It was cute because it was Pina—if anyone else did it, it would have been cringeworthy. Anyway, the point is she was cute.
In no time, Pina fully secured a safe base for us to stay, and finally lit a fire in an instant, finishing the preparations.
We set down our packs for a moment and each unrolled our sleeping bags for the night. Naturally, the soldiers took the night watch.
"Heh heh, you ladies rest easy. You've worked hard."
"Yeah. We'll handle this stuff. Don't do a thing—just get some good sleep."
The soldiers' consideration somehow sounded a little shady.
Pina looked at me with an uneasy expression.
"……C-can we trust them?"
How would I know?
Instead of me, Evan answered Pina's question with an awkward smile.
"I know what you're worried about, but it's fine. They're all good people. Don't worry."
Pina nodded with a dubious look.
Contrary to those concerns, the soldiers diligently stood watch and periodically sprinkled thermal powder so our body heat wouldn't drop. The final watch even prepared breakfast in advance, saving us time.
Thanks to that, we really did get a comfortable sleep. I almost felt bad for having been suspicious.
Suddenly I thought of those rough-looking middle-aged men who purely enjoyed card games. Maybe this was what it felt like when guys like that joined the army?
…No idle thoughts.
We would be fighting soon, so both body and mind had to be serious.
The party kept walking.
The tundra seemed endless, but at some point, the only thing under our feet was snow.
At the crunch-crunch of footsteps, Pina looked around.
"It's pure white everywhere."
Someone among the soldiers murmured.
"Beautiful…."
A pure white world, just as they said. A snow country of nothing but white no matter where you looked. And weather cruelly cold. Beneath the snow would be the frozen corpses of monsters, of people.
It was also proof that we weren't far from our goal now.
This was a world of nothing but small shrubs and moss. Even those were mostly buried and frozen under snow.
"Don't let your guard down."
You never knew when something might happen.
I advised the soldiers as I slowly advanced. Without a single word of small talk, everyone showed signs of tension.
Then someone shouted.
"Footprints!"
Just as the soldier said, several footprints that hadn't yet vanished were visible on this snowfield.
"Kingdom army!"
But what the soldier had found weren't monster tracks—they were human footprints.
"It might not be the general who came this way. Could be survivors."
Evan looked at me as he spoke.
"Whoever it is, we have to meet them. We should follow."
I nodded.
We walked again, following the footprints.
Past the shrubs, across the tops of sheer ice cliffs. It felt like a rescue team searching for the missing. But it wasn't a hopeful story. In an environment like this, most missing people couldn't survive long.
It was truly nothing but snow, snow, snow. Even climbing the continuing uphill path, only snow and ice.
But on the way up that slope, we finally found a person who had died buried in the snow.
Evan brushed away the snow to identify him and removed the helmet.
"…Minor."
And he softly spoke the name.
"Who is he?"
"The knight we were looking for…. He died here."
I quietly looked down at Evan.
"……Let's go. We can't stop here. We have to find the general."
There was not a single sad emotion in the voice, but I too found this situation equally heartbreaking. But so many people had already died that I simply wasn't greatly shaken.
"…Yeah."
Evan quietly set the helmet down beside him. Then he dug out a little snow so the body's location could be identified.
"Let's hurry."
The atmosphere was heavy. Our steps were heavy too.
In everyone's chest, after seeing the knight's corpse just now, a deep sense of duty had taken root.
The kingdom army still seemed not to have found the knight.
Two possibilities came to mind. They had already encountered Neveumano, or they still hadn't met it and were wandering this snowfield.
The latter would be fortunate.
Boom-!
Something struck the ground with a resounding impact. The earth shook as if in an earthquake, and the snow vibrated, slowly sliding down the slope.
"U-ugh?!"
"What is this vibration…."
I lowered my body and planted a hand on the ground.
The fierce tremors gradually swept the snow from the path we had come, triggering an avalanche. If we had been late climbing up here, it would have been disastrous.
Soon the vibrations ended. This wasn't an earthquake. Someone had clearly slammed the ground with tremendous force.
There was only one monster in Lacrima with that kind of power. And only one reason for it to do something like this.
In the end, the possibilities narrowed to one.
The kingdom army had now encountered Neveumano.
Had our paths crossed because we avoided monsters while walking?
"Everyone, pull yourselves together. We have to hurry."
It wasn't too late yet.