The Temple Door in the Night Snow
“Damien!”>
In that instant, something that had been hidden from Damien’s eyes suddenly appeared. >
Arian stood before him in her thin summer dress, looking up with a face full of panic. >
Her hair was disheveled, whipped about by the cold wind, and her clothes fluttered wildly, barely clinging to her slender frame. The dress looked as if it might tear apart at any moment. >
Mad. He was so startled he tore off his own robes and dropped to the ground. >
Only now, after swallowing and struggling to expel the breath that the priests of Demia’s temple had trapped inside him, did he finally let out a long, ragged “Hoo… haa… haaa…” But to him, it was none of anyone else’s business. >
Descending the stairs that hung in empty air with perfect grace, he reached Arian and frowned. >
“If you’re wandering around here, you’ll freeze to death.”>
Damien said this, then draped his robes around Arian’s body. >
He remembered the mother who had sent her precious daughter to this barren eastern region without properly preparing her clothes and felt nothing but resentment toward her. >
What were you thinking, dressing my daughter like that and sending her off? Do you think only a handful of people froze to death on the Mount of Light? >
Arian blinked beneath the heavy folds of his robe. Each time she did, her long lashes—curled at the ends—fluttered. Her crimson eyes were clouded with bewilderment. >
She opened and closed her lips as if trying to say something. >
Damien bent slightly at the waist and pressed his face close to hers, listening attentively. >
What on earth had pulled this woman here to Demia’s temple in the dead of night? >
He wondered if her fierce temper had gotten the better of her; maybe she had been provoked into acting so arrogantly that even the corpse-like priests had not been able to ignore her. >
‘Just do that much.’>
You may have stirred up a little pride, but don’t bring my family into this night for that. >
Let’s see what the goddess Demia herself can do if this temple collapses. >
Damien gritted his teeth inwardly, but he forced the gentlest expression possible, worrying whether Arian might be frightened. >
Only then did Arian finally speak in a hoarse voice. >
“You—”>
Yes? Me? >
As soon as Damien nodded, the senior priest revealed his presence. >
Arian shut her lips like a goldfish, completely composed. >
Oh, really!>
Damien shot the senior priest a sharp glare. >
It’s you? You’re the one who dragged her here in the middle of the night? >
Damien had never imagined for a second that Arian would blindly run to Demia’s temple at this hour. >
His imagination had not been vivid enough to picture the girl who had been crying only yesterday from the monster’s threat, now sprinting across the snowy plains in a flimsy summer dress and charging into someone else’s temple. >
“And?”>
Damien asked sharply. >
But the cold voice that usually struck like lightning had only half its usual power tonight. > >
He had been holding his robes around Arian with both hands while facing the senior priest with an aura of freezing cold. >
Because Damien was taller than Arian, the hem of the robe dragged on the ground, yet he paid it no mind. >
“I’m… really grateful that you believed me.”>
The sight of Arian’s streaming tears made him want to snatch even the priest’s clothes and wrap them around her. >
Arian had only been threatened by a monster yesterday. It had been a human-form Mimic. >
It posed no threat to Damien, but Arian had been truly terrified—her face had turned deathly pale, as if melted by the monster’s stare. >
She was weak. >
He had only realized it yesterday. Yet today, while he had briefly looked away, she had endured the humiliation of being dragged to Demia’s temple. >
She didn’t just speak harshly—she was truly frail. >
He had been furious when he learned she had gone out in her thin clothes to search for her late, then vanished without a trace. >
At that moment, every corpse he had ever seen in his mind had transformed into Arian’s face. >
Neck snapped, blood pouring, body torn apart… From that day on, Damien had not been himself. >
He swore that if anyone had touched Arian, he would kill them. Then he raced here, to the only place he could think of. >
He had rushed in without thinking he would find anyone here. >
He disliked the temple, but these were still the proper clergy who served a god. >
Yet he had sensed Arian’s presence here. >
In that moment, Damien smashed open the temple doors and charged inside. The moment he saw the priests fleeing, he thought, ‘Are they the ones who took Arian?’ and his eyes widened. >
“The Son of the Earth greets the Hamilcar lineage.”>
The senior priest bowed lightly. >
Damien nodded. The senior priest stared at him intently. >
‘This child is Damien Hamilcar.’>
Earlier today he had only seen a pretty boy’s face. He had expected magic, but not that this boy was Damien Hamilcar himself. >
The successor to the Hamilcar family, the promising heir to the next Tower Lord, and the temple’s traitor. >
The senior priest’s gaze carried dense emotion. Just as Damien noticed and tried to meet his eyes, Arian grumbled. >
“It’s suffocating.”>
She tried to loosen the robe Damien had wrapped her in like a mummy. >
Damien watched her with displeasure and said, “Just go quickly.”> >
I thought he meant hurry up and get back. >
Damien lifted Arian as though she were luggage and muttered, “Hold on a moment.” Then he kicked the ground and began to run. >
What? Wait, if we run like this, what about the door? Why is it broken?>
“Damien!”>
The speed was so great he felt as though he had mounted a running horse. The wind made him shout at Damien. >
“Why?!”>
“Didn’t you break the door?!”> >
No? Wait, no way…>
Damien did not answer. But he felt his whole body trying to avoid giving one. >
Did he really break it?>
Just as he was about to scold him, Damien shouted, “I’ll fix it!”>
What a melodramatic tone!>
“Is that your money? Your father’s money, your family’s money! A twelve-year-old has no money to fix anything!”>
The Grand Hall sat atop a mountain peak. They had been forced to carry her almost the entire way up on Boshal’s back. >
When the temple’s power had been at its height, the nobles had lavished tremendous support and brought artisans from across the land to build this magnificent temple on the summit, just like Demia’s. >
But times had changed. Nobles had grown accustomed to magic that required no groveling—money was all that mattered. Now the temple existed only as a tool to display their morality. >
Naturally, with no active support as before, fixing even a single door of the temple built in the golden age was no easy task. >
“This is a temple that many seniors protected. We will guard it well and pass it on to the next generation.”>
That was a truly noble sentiment befitting a priest. >
He had been moved by it during the day, yet tonight Damien had smashed it apart without a second thought. How troublesome. >
Damien had said he would handle it himself, but from the temple’s side, they were now bound as one team. >
If Damien failed at this repair, Pythia and I would be in trouble. >
Wait, he did say he would take responsibility first, didn’t he?> >
I turned the idea over in my mind while feeling Damien’s running ability, which reminded me of a thoroughbred, with my own body. >
If anyone could scale the mountain without issue, it would be him. And I had the Sub-space. We had the broken door to fix… >
Why not buy ingredients while we’re down at the base and come back?>
I had the Sub-space now!>
Laughing as I rode on Damien’s back and watched the darkness unfolding behind him, I thought, Yes! That works! >
When everyone was asleep, I quietly opened the Sub-space in my room. >
“My land, respond to my call.”>
Hah, this world’s melodrama never adapts. Couldn’t I just say “Sub-space!”?>
As instructed, a door appeared before me. >
Beyond the arched doorway, light was already leaking out. I stared at it for a moment before stepping inside. >
This door… where have I seen it?>
It reminded me of the small gate in Grandmother’s vegetable patch. It was a bit similar. >
Hard to say exactly where, but the feeling was there. >
Can I go in?> >
I hesitated. If I opened this gate that Grandmother had forbidden me to open and recalled the miserable situation I was in, wouldn’t this be some “double difficulty event” nonsense?>
But if I thought about it, no matter if the difficulty was doubled or multiplied by twenty, the only thing I would lose in the end was the “Eternal.” What else could it take from me? Besides, if I messed up here, it was over. >
“Don’t be scared, it’s nothing.”>
I muttered the words aloud to myself. They sounded a little better when heard by my own ears. Phew… phew…>
Yes, I had to act boldly when playing games. I had died more than once from being too timid, hadn’t I?>
If I thought that way, I should act boldly here too. After all, if I lost, I lost everything. So I had to try everything. >
I swallowed dryly and straightened my back. >
Mother—meaning Louise Saint-Clair of this world—had always said this. >
The more difficult, the more terrifying, keep your head up and maintain the correct gaze so you never lose dignity. >
“Mother, Arian doesn’t have a correct gaze or dignity from the start,”>
I remembered how David had teased me when she said that. I had been annoyed then, but now it made me laugh. >
After one long laugh, I felt ready to enter. >
Gathering my courage, I reached out and opened the door. >
Inside was a vast blue prairie. >
Because I had recalled Grandmother’s vegetable patch gate, I immediately knew where I was. >
The very first scene I had seen after leaving Grandmother’s vegetable patch gate. Night sky, prairie, and forest… Wait, that meant this space might be—>
Connected to Grandmother’s house?>