The Chief of Snow Woman Village - 1
Hearing her age had thrown me for a moment, but once my head cooled I decided it was nothing to fuss over.
This was another world, and a village of Snow Women. If Snow Women were a long-lived race, the chief could easily be past a hundred. In fact, assuming she was over a hundred felt more natural.
An 8th-Class Mage who hadn't even turned twenty? Absurd. The single greatest talent-monster in this entire setting was Kang Junhyuk — if the chief were truly that young, the whole world would collapse into a continuity error. So her age had to be at least one or two digits higher than it looked.
"The chief is remarkably young."
"Indeed! To achieve such impossible feats at her age — she's someone whose future is worth watching."
"But how did she come to hold a grudge against the Red Dragon?"
"…The chief lost her parents to the Red Dragon."
"Ah…"
Killing someone's parents was more than enough reason for a blood feud. Hell, I was already planning to erase the bastard just for hurting Rene. A parent's murderer? Wiping out three generations of their bloodline wouldn't even be excessive. And wiping out three generations of a Red Dragon was basically the same as extinction anyway. Either way, it was a perfectly valid motive for revenge.
"Forgive me. I brought up something I shouldn't have."
"Hoho! It's quite all right. The more people who understand the burdens our young chief carries, the better."
"Is it really wise to share something so personal with an outsider?"
"A follower of Lord Prihart would never do anything to harm our village — that's why I speak freely."
I could feel just how absolute Prihart's influence was in the North. The mere fact that I was his follower had earned me this much trust. If I played the believer card carefully, things might go smoothly. Still, asking for help without first earning the Snow Women and Snow Men's confidence would be meaningless.
"Pardon me, but could you tell me where the chief is?"
"So you mean to seek her out and speak with her yourself."
"Yes. I think it's best to hear the full story from the person concerned."
"That may well be the wiser course."
The old woman rose from her seat and began to walk with labored steps. I quickly moved to support her, steadying her so she could walk more comfortably and safely.
Once we reached the village's main thoroughfare, she pointed a finger toward a distant hill. Atop it stood a mansion frozen pure white — not merely buried in snow, but literally encased in ice. A fierce blizzard howled around the estate alone, nowhere else. Even from this distance, it looked like a weather phenomenon conjured by magic. A clear message: Stay away.
"Thank you for telling me. I'll handle the rest myself."
"Very well. Try not to provoke the chief if you can help it."
Leaving the old woman's farewell behind, I set off alone toward the hill. Given the chief's temperament, she wouldn't care for a noisy entourage. Going alone was the right call — and the blizzard's intensity proved it. The cold was nearly on par with what I'd felt during the Trial of Bitter Frost.
"This blizzard is almost as bad as the Trial of Bitter Frost."
"Truly wondrous. Never in all my days did this body expect to behold a Snow Woman who had ascended to the 8th Class."
"What's the big deal? Can't a Snow Woman become an 8th-Class Mage?"
"No. Under ordinary circumstances, Snow Women cannot become mages at all."
"They can't become mages?"
When I pressed her, Frach began explaining point by point.
"The origin of the Snow Women traces back to the day Cestia, Goddess of Life, discovered the Unmelting Snow-Ice. She commissioned the God of Art to sculpt it, then breathed life into the ice. The being born from that act was the progenitor of the Snow Women."
Ice at their core, yet endowed with the power of life — enough to conceive and bear other living beings. From the progenitor onward, they had increased their numbers through generations of coupling with males of other races.
"So why can't they become mages?"
"Did this body not just say it? The foundation of every Snow Woman is ice. Unlike animals, ice possesses no mana circuits whatsoever. Therefore, they can never become mages."
"But they've been interbreeding with other races, right? Even if the progenitor couldn't, shouldn't her descendants have circuits?"
"A Snow Woman gives birth only to Snow Women. In other words, no matter how much life ice may hold, it can only ever produce more ice. Historically, not a single Snow Woman has ever possessed mana."
"Then what about earlier? They were flinging icicles around like it was nothing."
"That is not magic — it is an innate racial ability. If ice can conceive ice, why should it not also shape ice and hurl it?"
"Fair enough."
By then I had entered the densest heart of the blizzard. I formed two magic circles, one in each hand — wind in the left, ice in the right — then pressed them together into one. The fused circle rose above me and began peeling the blizzard away from my immediate surroundings.
Dual-attribute magic. Combining spells of different elements to create something new. Still, my wind magic remained stuck at the 7th Class, so I couldn't clear the entire storm.
"But if what you said is true, a Snow Woman should never be able to use magic at all. So what's the chief? Not a Snow Woman?"
"This body does not know. As you say, she may not be a Snow Woman, or else…"
Frach trailed off mid-sentence, as if buffering. Then her cry slammed into my skull.
"Contractor — dodge!!"
"Ugh—?!"
A tingling sensation grazed my nerves and I threw myself backward.
KRA-KOOM—!
With a peal of thunder, five lightning spears slammed into the ground where I'd been standing. The shafts crackled, then detonated in a chain reaction.
"You've got to be kidding me."
I lifted one foot and stamped down hard. The earth cracked; reaction force heaved the ground upward into a wall of packed soil. The exploding spears slammed into the earthen barrier with a deafening roar, shaving a little off the surface but never reaching me.
"Isn't a sneak attack without even a greeting a bit much?"
I looked up toward the presence I felt in the sky. There she was — the same girl I had first encountered in the village.
"…I warned you. Stay away."
"Magic isn't a conversation. Just because you whipped up a blizzard doesn't automatically mean 'keep out.'"
"Then leave. Now."
"Sorry, but I need to speak with the village chief."
"I have no intention of talking with you."
Snap—!
She flicked her fingers, and house-sized fireballs bloomed in bulk on either side of her. A rough count put them at well over fifty. Wielding fire magic with perfect freedom inside a raging blizzard — there was no room left for doubt. She was an 8th-Class Mage.
"What will you do?"
Honestly, I need an alliance with her. I'd rather not go all-out…
"She is not an opponent you can half-measure."
Which means I have to put everything into putting her down.
My opponent was a Snow Woman. This time there was no reason to hold back on using Frach — so I drew my sword. The chief's brow furrowed the moment I made my intent to fight clear.
"Now neither of you can back down."
Once you've drawn a blade, you have to cut something — even if it's just a radish.
Those countless fireballs had originally been meant only to intimidate me. Since I hadn't retreated, they were about to become actual weapons.
"I won't hold back any longer."
Fireballs poured down in a simultaneous volley, staggered by delayed launches. Even as the irregular barrage threatened me, the Snow Woman was already preparing her next spell — a relentless assault designed to give me no breathing room. Sound judgment. Against a swordsman, a mage must never concede distance. Prioritizing speed over raw firepower and simply drowning the opponent was the right strategy.
"Her skill is excellent, yet the depth of her thinking is rather shallow."
Anyone can make that mistake.
But I wasn't an ordinary swordsman. Like her, I was a mage as well as a blade — that was Bern.
"Haste."
I layered wind over both legs and sprinted forward. With razor-sharp dynamic vision I read the impact points of every fireball, threading the empty spaces they couldn't reach without a single misstep, closing the distance in a dazzling weave of evasion.
"…Tch."
She clicked her tongue and her attacks grew more precise. What had been indiscriminate area bombardment became concentrated saturation fire. Evasion alone was no longer enough, so I raised Frach's blade.
Shhk—!
The fireballs I couldn't dodge, I cut down. Even as I advanced steadily, my arms and legs never stopped moving.
"Hah…!"
I exhaled long, drew a fresh breath, and kicked off the ground for a final burst of acceleration. In a mere ten seconds I had closed the gap to a hundred meters. One more second and my arm would reach her.
I was about to lay the flat of the blade against her head and knock her out when a presence flared behind me.
Ssssshhh—!
The moisture from snow melted by the fireballs gathered into a single mass and formed a giant. The water colossus raised a fist toward me. I spoke in a low voice.
"Eternal Icicle."
A magic circle bloomed at my back and spat a tiny icicle at the giant. Compared to the colossus's bulk, the attack looked pathetic. But hadn't David toppled the overwhelming Goliath? The moment that small icicle pierced the giant's body—
Crack—!
—it flash-froze the entire form and shattered it to pieces in the same instant.
"Is that all? A little disappointing."
"Kh—!"
"Where do you think you're going…!"
Her last resort crushed, the Snow Woman tried to flee skyward and open the distance — but she was already inside my range. My sword carved a great arc; midway I twisted the trajectory and struck her head with carefully measured force. Among mages, those who bothered with physical conditioning were vanishingly rare. The Snow Woman crumpled helplessly toward the ground.
"Ups-a-daisy!"
I caught her body before she hit the snow.
"Far more anticlimactic than expected. She possessed skill befitting the 8th Class, yet she felt strangely weak. The Demi-Lich we fought the other day seemed stronger."
The reason you're feeling that is probably her complete lack of real combat experience.
The way she had poured out magic was textbook mage-versus-swordsman fundamentals — the kind of orthodoxy you find in manuals. Do seasoned mages follow the textbook when fighting a swordsman? Of course not. Tactics shift with the swordsman's style, and they change again depending on whether the swordsman has learned even basic magic.
She didn't seem used to fighting at all.
"Mm. This body saw the same signs in abundance."
An 8th-Class Mage with zero practical experience. That alone told me she was hiding any number of secrets. To dig them up, I'd have to wait until she woke and have a proper talk.
"So what do you intend to do now?"
Right. First…
There was something I'd been curious about ever since meeting the Snow Women. That forbidden territory beneath their pure-white robes. Whether they wore anything under there or not — that mystery needed solving first.
"You lunatic."
Oh. Sky blue.