The Chief of the Snow Woman Village – 3
The snow woman who had shown only a cold and ruthless side suddenly clutched the doll tight and began to act spoiled.
Fortunately her frame was small, so even when she hugged hard it didn't hurt much.
The only problem was…
"Huh? Papa's body feels soft and squishy today instead of fluffy?"
The texture was something I simply couldn't fake.
I had no idea why the doll was moving, or why it had hidden me inside itself, but all of it was pointless in the end. She was going to catch on over something trivial eventually.
"Ehehe! Doesn't matter! Yukiko likes soft Papa too!"
She's just letting it slide.
Beyond mental regression, even her judgment seemed to have gone back to being a little kid.
I really wonder how she became an 8th-Class Mage at such a young age.
"Hard to believe — but if we do not accept it as fact, our minds shall simply refuse to process it."
If someone over a hundred years old was acting like this, she was properly senile. So we concluded the snow woman's age was in the double digits.
Even if the chance to learn the truth ever came, we would desperately look the other way. We believed without a doubt that would be better for both of us and for her.
"Papa! Stroke Yukiko's head!"
"…"
"Don't be mean, hurry~!"
Should I really be stroking her head? A thousand worries flashed through my mind and left me hesitating.
"Today's Papa is a little weird? He doesn't feel like Yukiko's Papa…"
Through a small gap in the doll's belly, I could see Yukiko's face. Her head tilted slightly, smiling a chilling smile — it was quite terrifying.
Right. When even the doll was moving, what was the big deal about stroking someone's head?
I placed my palm on her blue hair and slowly stroked it down.
"Ehehe!"
When I stroked her head, Yukiko began to laugh coyly. It was a laugh of pure joy welling up from deep in her heart.
Did she really think of the snowman doll as her father? It was a completely different reaction from someone who just vents to a doll to relieve stress.
"The shock of losing her parents to a dragon at a young age must have been what ruined her like this."
I think so too.
Yukiko, who had lost her parents before she could even receive their love. Even if she looked fine on the outside, it wouldn't be strange at all if she carried mental anguish she could never tell anyone about.
Looking at it from a different angle, I felt a little sorry for her. A single lizard had destroyed her happy family, and at a young age she had endured bone-grinding pain to become an 8th-Class Mage.
She's fallen asleep already.
"She must have been quite exhausted. To fall asleep so quickly even though she only just woke up…"
Maybe she used up all her strength in an unfamiliar battle?
"At this rate, even if she reaches the 9th-Class, she could never beat Ignite. No matter how much power you gain, without experience you are nothing but a large scarecrow."
About that — there's something I just can't understand no matter how I think about it.
"What is it?"
Is it even possible for a child who knows nothing of the world to become a high-ranking mage? Whether swordsmanship or magic, reaching high realms always requires enlightenment. And the foundation of enlightenment is…
"Experience."
Right. In that sense, this snow woman has more than a few things that feel off. It's like power that was forcibly raised through some shortcut.
When you obtain power beyond your station, a great price always follows. If you leap over stairs you should climb one by one, it's easy to fall backward.
Hadn't Yukiko, though she didn't show it outwardly, been paying a terrible price?
I really should check out that secret space in the study.
"Looking like that?"
Obviously I need to take off the doll costume… but how do I get this off?
"How would this body know?"
I'd been dragged into a living, moving doll without realizing it, and now I had no idea how to get out. The zipper that had been open when I entered was locked shut at some point, and there was no visible exit.
And the doll costume that had been about three times my volume had somehow fitted itself perfectly to my body — just like a hero suit.
This is insane. It won't come off!
"It seems this snowman doll was a cursed piece of equipment."
No matter how hard I pulled at the clothes, they clung to my body with no sign of coming off. I wanted to cut it open with a sword, but Frach had also come inside the doll costume, so I couldn't draw her.
In other words, there was no way to take off the doll clothes right now. Depressing as it was, I'd have to stay in this ridiculous snowman form for a while.
"Ugh…! So stifling!"
Just bear with it a little. I'm just as cramped as you are.
I carefully lifted Yukiko's sleeping body from my lap and moved her back to the sofa in the reception room. Right after, I quietly headed for the study.
"Ah…!"
"What is it?"
"The magic tool key is in my pocket…"
With the doll clothes clinging tight, there was no way to get the key out. Just as I was clutching my head at hitting another dead end—
Gurgle-gurgle!
Ting—!
Suddenly the doll clothes began to writhe, then spat the key that had been in my pocket out onto the floor.
That settled it. The snowman doll that had swallowed me had a will of its own, and it wanted me to learn the truth.
I still didn't know the doll's identity or purpose. I wanted to ask it directly, but the doll wasn't in a state to hold a conversation. I'd have to find out myself.
The key issue is solved, so let's keep going.
"Somehow this body gets the feeling that once we go in, we may never come out again."
That sounds like you're recommending I save first?
"This body has no idea what the Contractor is talking about. I meant for you to be careful."
Right.
Click—!
I put the key in the hole and turned it. The sound of the lock releasing came, and the door slid open.
Beyond the door was a staircase leading down. The end of the stairs wasn't even visible to the naked eye. Judging by the length, there was a hidden space beneath the mansion, and this led there.
"Wait…! I've seen this somewhere before?"
After coming down the stairs for a long while, I finally stepped onto flat ground. But looking at the scene before me, I felt a sense of déjà vu.
A stone structure full of branching paths like a maze, and torches lighting the space. The deep darkness beyond seemed to be luring me to come closer.
"It is a dungeon. And this thick, ancient demonic energy — this place is definitely related to the Seven Deadly Sins as well."
"You've got to be kidding me…!"
The ancient dungeons of the Seven Deadly Sins, said to be tightly hidden all over the world. I'd only just escaped the Lust dungeon not long ago, and now I'd set foot in another ancient dungeon.
Was the world trying to screw over not just Bern but me too? I felt the heavens were heartless.
"Still, now I know why Yukiko became abnormally strong."
"We have no choice but to conclude she contracted with an ancient demon."
Yukiko had already committed the mistake that Kang Junhyuk would make in the future. A contract with an ancient demon that must never be crossed. You can obtain vast power, but in exchange you lose something precious of your own.
"Now that I've realized the truth, let's head back once."
Unlike the Lust dungeon, this place had a path to return. If I went back to the village first, got the doll clothes off, then cleared the dungeon with Lin and Rene…
"Papa~?"
Just as I set my foot on the first stair. From the end of the stairs — the entrance side — Yukiko's icy voice rang out.
Had she woken up already?
"Papa, you're in here, right? Right?"
"…"
"Yukiko told you over and over, didn't she? That you mustn't come in here… I clearly warned you, and you still came in?"
A tone sharp as thorns and cold as a sheet of ice. I felt a quiet rage and found myself stepping backward without thinking.
That judgment proved correct — the entire staircase froze over in an instant. If I'd been even a little slower, my body would have frozen too.
But it was still too early to relax.
"A Papa who doesn't listen to Yukiko…"
"Oh…"
"…isn't needed."
Starting from Yukiko's short following words, the entire space shook. The air trembled madly under extreme killing intent, and my instincts screamed at me to run.
Realizing I couldn't go back, I had no choice but to enter the dungeon.
And Yukiko, who had come down the stairs at some point…
"Kyahahaha! So you want to play hide-and-seek with me?"
She was letting out a mad laugh as she watched me flee. She didn't seem sane.
"Fine! Run as hard as you can, Papa. But if I catch you, you die by Yukiko's hand, okay?"
"You've finally lost it…?"
"Yep! Yukiko is crazy about Papa!"
Yukiko blushed like a girl in love. But contrary to her entranced expression, in her hand was a single ice kitchen knife — a kitchen knife honed so sharp that even the hand gripping it was bleeding. If I got stabbed, I was sure I'd be done for.
I couldn't use sword or magic. To survive, I had no choice but to run.
What the hell is this bullshit…!