The Continent
Back to the continent...
...That guy right there...
...He shrank! He's just like Quilly!
Although it was unlikely a dragon race would appear, the interior of the palace was surprisingly spacious and vast. It was enough room for one extra person without any issue.
As I walked the corridors with Mishra, the spirits murmured among themselves. They had immediately recognized Mishra as the intruder she was in her humanized form. It was the result of the mana-piercing eyes of the spirits.
Meanwhile, I advanced down the path with a polite and composed demeanor... on the surface only. My attention was entirely focused on the visitor behind me. She kept glancing at the Pricke with wide blue eyes, clearly amazed by something.
"The spirits are this numerous..."
From the casual tone I overheard, she seemed surprised by the sheer number. After all, I had put in some effort. Even though no one had requested it, I had worked hard, collecting them like prized items. Seeing people surprised by my traces made my shoulders rise just a bit.
'Not human, though.'
If I thought that way, it was true that Mishra was the very first person I met when I came here. In the original story she had almost no presence, but according to the world's rank system she was one of the strongest who could never be overlooked.
It was a meaningful connection in its own way. There had been no downside to improving our relationship at all. As I was pondering what to do next, I spotted a Pricke growling at Mishra.
-Krr...
More than just the one, there were quite a few Pricke in wolf form. It was partly because the image of the Dragon King had taken root negatively, and partly because spirits were inherently individualistic by nature. Naturally, anyone other than their creator, me, would be wary of them.
Yet the Pricke's attitude was sharper than the others. Perhaps their personality was simply stronger than average. Mishra's steps halted abruptly, and I too stopped moving.
A chill ran down my spine at the thought of a bad development. It was no good if the Pricke's vigilance was triggered like this. We needed their cheerful personalities right now. It wouldn't do for them to be well-behaved only to suddenly act out like this.
Reluctantly, I approached the Pricke who was carefully baring its teeth. I placed my hand gently on the head of the silver wolf and offered quiet advice.
"Quiet down, it's a guest."
I passed the now-disheartened Pricke who had been woken by the commotion.
After a short while, we arrived at the room I called the "reception room." I had given it that name when I explored the palace structure and assigned roles, though I never expected to actually use it.
"This is..."
I only called it the reception room for convenience; in reality its role could change at any time. For example, if I laid out food on the table, it would instantly transform into a dining area.
A small annoyance was easily resolved by eating something delicious, so it was a perfectly fine solution. Of course I couldn't actually cook anything. But in the game there were countless diverse items, and among them were food-type items that took up space.
After the item was processed to make it edible, a expiration time was added, but until then they were consumable items that could be safely stored. In the game they were only used to restore stamina or similar, but now that I had become real I could actually taste them.
As Mishra stared blankly at the desserts I had prepared, she asked a question.
"...What is all this? That, did you make it...?"
Compared to before, her tone was far more gentle. Or perhaps she was just feeling that way because of my human appearance. After all... the form of the Dragon King was quite intimidating.
I hadn't considered her question, but upon hearing it I found it reasonable. Now that I thought about it, these were all items from a thousand years in the future. At the current time they might not even have been born yet.
Still, I had no intention of showing off with items I had simply taken from storage. I answered honestly.
"No, I brought them."
"You brought them...?"
The way my words came out so smoothly made me secretly pleased, but Mishra tilted her head and smiled faintly.
"So the food is raining from the sky. There's no need to say it that way..."
She seemed to have a grand misunderstanding.
A slight embarrassment came over me at her suddenly bright expression, but there was no need to correct her. After all, it was the best mood we had had so far.
To calm the other person's mind, I had prepared tea and cake. It was an excellent combination as a dessert. Mishra took a fork awkwardly and brought a bite of cake to her mouth.
"O...!"
Her pupils dilated and she covered her mouth with her hand.
Seeing her eyes widen in surprise, she must have found it to her liking. For a moment I had tensed, but then I relaxed.
It seemed my choice had been a good one after all.
Really, I owed these items a great debt. The snow woman I created didn't technically need to eat according to the setting, but since I had lived as a human I couldn't just starve, could I?
Even the white dragon king didn't need to eat in the same way as a snow woman, but it was almost unnecessary. One could gain extreme efficiency with just a tiny bit of intake, I suppose. Anyway, even such beings, as long as they had digestive organs like spirits, enjoyed a meal now and then.
And sweets were always right.
In this era when such food was rare, it was even more so. Mishra was proof of that as she greedily enjoyed the tea and cake while watching my every move.
"...I've never tasted anything like this before. Is it... a very rare food...?"
After she emptied her plate she came to a strange conclusion and asked. I thought it over carefully. If I said it was rare, I could gain extra points. But I soon shook my head.
"No, it's nothing special."
It was the truth.
All high-grade items were not linked, so the ones in the current storage were, in a way, cheap. I didn't know what other users thought, but for me at least it was true.
At my answer Mishra's eyes sparkled.
She looked as if she had understood something, but why was that? It concerned me, but I asked a more curious question.
"Why did you come looking for me?"
The reason she had suddenly appeared after not being seen for a month. I needed to know the cause.
"Ah, that... was for exploring the ruins! I happened to pass by after heading out to investigate the ruins."
Mishra, who had frozen for a moment, explained as if she had just remembered. Upon listening closely, it seemed she had slept for a month in her lair. Then, when the cycle came, she had come out to look at the ruins.
As a dragon king, she had regular duties within her territory. Investigating was probably one of them.
"Ruins... obelisk?"
The word she used sounded quite familiar. Ruins. When I searched for structures that could be called that, there were quite a few in this vast snowfield. However, it was unlikely the dragon king would regularly check such tourist-like places.
If it was a worthy target, there was only one thing that came to mind from my perspective. The divine ruins, the obelisk.
"You know about it? ...Well, of course..."
Watching Mishra mumble softly, my thoughts accelerated.
After a long time, I encountered a keyword that stirred my old memories, and I was happy. The obelisk, also called a pillar of the world, was a divine ruin built by the gods to maintain the world in the beginning.
It was said to be the greatest object on the surface.
The obelisks, which held enormous divine power that defied mana, were located one each in the four cardinal directions of the continent.
Except for the north, they were all placed in difficult terrain that was hard for humans to enter, and especially the eastern and western ruins were on par with the worst magic realms.
The eastern magic realm was naturally the far-eastern snowfield, and there was certainly one somewhere in this place where I resided. I had completely forgotten about it because it had nothing to do with me.
Anyway, the obelisk was an important keyword high enough to rank at the top of the world setting, and it was a dangerous building that even the dragon king could not lightly touch.
Surprisingly, even ignoring the relatively low importance of the game, someone like the dragon king would manage it.
"You came to investigate the obelisk, so why did you come looking for me?"
There was one thing I couldn't understand and I asked in return.
I had completely forgotten about it and hadn't even come close to the place. Perhaps she had been stuck in her lair and, bored, had come under the pretext of investigating.
"......"
While hiding my dissatisfaction, I looked at Mishra. She simply stared at me with meaningful eyes.
Sweet desserts were the best for clearing the mind, after all. When she left, I saw no trace of malice in Mishra's face. She seemed slightly pleased.
"It might be my imagination..."
Even though we weren't close, perhaps our relationship had elevated to acquaintances at least. While cycling through such hopeful calculations, I picked up the neatly made tote bag.
The journey to the continent.
I had selected and packed useful items into the bag. Of course, the bag itself was also an item.
With that, all preparations were complete. Now all I had to do was take the Yeti with me, but before that.
"Take care of the house."
I had to warn the troublemakers.
-Uuuuu... Quilly...
-I want to go too! Take me too!
-Are we going back?
A large number of Pricke had all rushed to the entrance. I had already explained things in summary, but children like them wouldn't understand it immediately. It was frustrating, but now I understood.
I looked at the familiar faces.
Some were sullen, some downcast, and some were still throwing a tantrum. There was not a single good reaction.
Because the atmosphere was like that, my thoughts naturally drifted to a different side from usual.
Had I ever been such an important person to someone? The me from Earth was still truly me, but this place, where I had spent hundreds of nights, had already become my second home.
But I thought a house was a place to return to, not a place to live for a lifetime. Just like my first territory had disappeared.
And it was necessary to experience being apart from home.
"Don't ask obvious questions."
For me, and for the kids.
Although I had set out boldly, I soon encountered a problem.
"...Is this the right place?"
I was a well-known figure in the Sa-gye War, and as such I had confidence in the geography of the continent.
Yet it was a time when a decade had passed far fewer than a hundred times since the mountains and rivers had changed, and on top of that we were in the middle of the snowfield where it was harder to find a road than a forest.
In short, I was lost.
Or so I felt. Honestly, I couldn't tell.
"The direction should be right..."
When Mishra had flown away earlier, I had been able to specify the direction to the ruins. The location of the obelisk had been fixed since ancient times, so I had successfully inferred the direction of the Ice Mountains through it.
If I kept going in the direction I was traveling now, I should come out here. My reason was shouting that, but my emotions were in turmoil. If it was wrong, I would only waste time, and I might end up lost.
"...This should be it, right?"
A small doubt arose, as if clutching at my ankle. In the end I stopped briefly to catch my breath.
-Uuu...
From the side, the Yeti let out a whimper as if comforting me. Some might find it scary, but to me it was a cute action. With her there too, I felt psychologically much more stable.
"The divine ruins."
Suddenly I recalled my conversation with Mishra. I had almost completely forgotten, but why did it keep coming to mind? Especially since it wasn't trivial setting but rather quite important.
Should I go there sometime?
Such a fleeting thought came to me, but I quickly shook my head. Even though the oddity wouldn't stand out much in the game, the divine ruins were a place of terror in the setting.
Weak divine power that had spread from the abandoned ruins where the suppressor had disappeared would turn insects or other creatures that touched it into named monsters called "demons."
Above all, one of the main targets of that "disaster" was the obelisk itself.
I didn't know in detail what activities the black disaster had carried out a thousand years ago, but there was no harm in being cautious. The snow woman simply didn't have the specs to confront it.
"For now, the continent, the continent."
I wouldn't worry about anything else.
Whenever I needed to satisfy my curiosity, it was enough to stop by a moderately safe place. After all, my goal wasn't to deal with the final boss or anything like that. I had no clear goal in the first place.
But I could find that goal on the continent. Having made that decision, I stood up and resumed my actions. No, to go faster, I used some of the few magic spells I had.
Whoosh-
One of the special magic of the snow woman, transformation magic.
This skill allowed me to turn into mist or snow, making it perfect for evasion or movement, and it was precious. It was a skill with very high mana consumption, but using the power of the snow woman characteristics, I could minimize consumption on the snowfield.
As I changed into snow, the Yeti, who had been lazily following behind until now, began to run at full speed.
.
.
How much time had passed?
During the several nights that followed, I had no sleep. I hadn't forced myself to stay up just to hurry; as a snow woman who was not a living being, I didn't need food or rest.
Of course, stamina wasn't infinite, so rest was necessary. In the middle I would catch my breath and sometimes ride on the Yeti's shoulder while admiring the scenery of the snowfield that changed with the rhythm.
When I saw terrain and creatures different from before, I realized.
I had arrived at the Ice Mountains.