Winter, Once More
A great deal of time had passed.
The weather, which had been pleasantly mild for the season, plunged headlong toward freezing temperatures—exactly as Noah had heard from the villagers.
Yes, it was cold enough now that snow wouldn't have surprised anyone.
"Haaah..."
Flakes drifted down in delicate spirals beneath the pale light of the pre-dawn moon. I exhaled slowly, and a plume of vivid white breath curled out of my warmed body and vanished into the night air.
Watching the thin layer of snow that had already settled over the village, I almost felt as though I were standing in the middle of some vast snowfield.
But Noah's cool hand resting on my back yanked me straight back to reality.
"What are you thinking about so hard?"
"I was remembering when we wandered the snowfields back then. Those were miserable times."
"We've stockpiled plenty of food, so even if the village gets snowed in, we won't be living off nothing but meat like we did then."
"True... Still, if it snows this heavily, will Alta even make it here? I can't help worrying."
It had already been well over a month since Alta set out alone for [Bolston], the nearest city. The date we'd originally expected him back had long since come and gone, and I'd counted off one day after another from that month—seven times now.
Alta's continued absence, combined with the snow that had begun falling yesterday, only sharpened the unease.
"Mm... the wind is unusually fierce, I'll admit. But it's still just powder snow, so we should be fine for a while yet."
"The problem is that this is only the beginning. He needs to reach the village before it starts dumping down for real..."
"Worrying won't accomplish anything. By the way... you've been quite devoted to your training lately, haven't you? Coming out here before dawn like this."
"I'm still weak. So I have to work hard."
Shwick—! Shwick—!
Finishing my brief rest, I readjusted my grip on the blade and swung at the empty air. A sharp whistle of wind rang out each time I cleaved through a snowflake.
The moon, now preparing to yield its place to the sun, hung suspended in the reflection of the steel.
"How is the work on reinforcing your sword aura coming along?"
"Making progress. Slowly."
After facing the Shadow Bear, I'd become keenly aware of my own shortcomings and thrown myself into training with renewed fervor.
Needless to say, nothing beat sparring with Alta, whose skills ranked a step above mine—but with him gone, I'd had to settle for a different approach.
The advice he'd left me concerned the sword aura itself.
Shuuuu...
Slashing at empty air was, in truth, little more than a way to focus my mind. I'd clear away every stray thought, send my will flowing into the wavering aura—and slowly, its shape would begin to change.
"The shape of your sword aura... it's changed."
"Still a long way off, but yeah. This alone took me a solid month."
"Hm. I wish I could use sword aura myself. Even when I replicate your mana pattern exactly, Jun, I don't get the same result—which is puzzling."
"It's a matter of will. Which is a spiritual argument, so honestly I don't love the theory either."
"Will, you say... Back when I was researching psychic energy, we couldn't even utter such an unscientific word out loud. Sword aura, for that matter? What kind of fool would have studied a sword that shoots out light?"
Noah grumbled as she brushed the little mound of snow off her chair and sat down.
It was the first time I'd seen her vent her dissatisfaction like this.
Apparently a month of practice without managing to produce so much as a wisp of aura had left her frustrated.
"It's also strange that the effect of sword aura changes depending on the weapon being used. No—if it's that case, we can hardly call it sword aura at all. In any case, the whole thing is utterly irrational."
"Was there no sword aura in the old days?"
"Of course not. In truth, there was no need to research it in the first place. In an era when anti-matter weapons were on the verge of mass production, what could you possibly have done with a single sword?"
"Ah... right, I suppose not."
"Psychic energy research stayed largely in industrial applications. Looking purely at individual combat strength, Jun, there were probably very few people in that era as strong as you."
"And I still can't touch Alta. Talk about being born in the wrong era."
Unfortunately, sword aura wasn't some unique technique that belonged to me alone. Given enough talent and time, it was a realm anyone could eventually reach.
According to Alta, sword aura was a kind of proof—something closer to a starting point than an achievement.
"In other words, the power of sword aura can be strengthened without limit. What I've been using all this time was merely the most basic form."
So how could I raise its power?
The simplest answer was to make one's will to cut something all the more vivid and precise.
But human willpower seemed to have its limits—no amount of meditation or plain physical austerity would improve the aura's performance.
"However... humans are creatures ruled by their sense of sight."
"Aha. That's why you changed its form."
"For now, I've been picturing a chainsaw blade."
When the shape changes, what you feel changes with it.
I'd merely imitated the form of a saw blade, but perhaps under the influence of the subconscious, the aura's cutting power had ticked upward, if only slightly.
And if I could make the blade spin furiously along the edge the way a real chainsaw did...
Then I'd be holding power many times greater than any sword aura that came before.
...
Dawn was breaking.
Time for my shift(?).
Carrying the lunch Noah had packed for me, I headed for the village's main gate.
Ivan, keeping watch atop the palisade, greeted me with a broad grin.
"Hyung-nim! You're here."
"Anything happen?"
"A few horned wolves came close, but I scared 'em off with the bow. Saved my bullets too."
"Good work. If gunshots had rung out in the middle of the night, it would've thrown the whole village into an uproar. Go get some sleep."
"Yes, sir! Heading in now."
And with that oddly office-worker exchange, Ivan climbed down from the palisade.
I'd taken over the self-defense duties in Alta's absence, but there honestly wasn't much to do in a small frontier village. Very few of the townsfolk who'd passed Granny Ryu's vetting were the type to cause trouble.
The real problem was that, exactly as we'd feared, monster sightings had grown sharply more frequent. Hunting and gathering had been strictly forbidden for a while now, thanks to the beasts that sometimes prowled right up to the palisade.
"And so here I am on guard duty again... feels like I've been drafted back into the army. With the snow coming down on top of it, I think my PTSD might be acting up."
I walked the line of the palisade that ringed the village high on all sides. Along its inner face there was even a walkway built so people could climb up and fire their guns in an emergency, and patrolling along it made me feel genuinely like an extra in a war movie.
I made a full circuit, checking for any damage—and found nothing out of place.
Whoooo—
"Ngh, it's freezing... when on earth is Alta going to get here... hm?"
The grassland, now half white snow and half green blades, stretched out before me. And at its far edge, I could see black dots squirming closer in a line.
They were moving in orderly formation—too disciplined to be monsters.
He's here!
"Yo—I'm baaack!"
"You're a week late."
"Don't remind me. Those damn pests just kept swarming us... It was a rough trip."
Vitality returned to the village, which had been drooping with everyone cooped up indoors, unable even to step outside.
Twenty wagons alone, all stuffed to the brim with cargo. Behind them trailed the hired mercenaries—and, apparently dispatched by the Guild, a neatly dressed man in formal attire besides.
The moment this eclectic crowd streamed through the gates, the quiet village erupted into noise.
...
The village chief's house—doubled as the town hall, and thus far more spacious than the other buildings—was steeped in a heavy atmosphere.
The technician dispatched by the [Guild] had just finished his inspection of the Suppression Device stored at the heart of the village.
The man, whose faint and unassuming face made him look younger than he was, opened his mouth with visible effort.
"The results of our investigation... show no problems with the Suppression Device."
"Is that so? And yet, Guildman, you saw it yourself on the way here—the monsters have been behaving strangely of late. We purchased that device on the strength of the Guild's guarantee... and now this."
"Ahem! I can state with certainty that this is not our fault."
"Oh? How do you figure?"
"Well, you see..."
What the technician had to say, delivered from behind his thin silver-rimmed glasses, was astonishing.
The monsters' violent stirrings weren't confined to our region at all. Apparently the same thing was happening in virtually every area where humans had settled.
Monsters had even been sighted near the Imperial Capital itself.
"Do you know the reason? Could it be that the Suppression Devices have simply stopped working?"
"Ah, well... that is... we conducted internal tests of our own, and we detected a significant rise in the concentration of mana in the atmosphere. That is most likely why the devices are failing to do their full duty..."
"I see. So the Guild bears no fault, then?"
"That's correct. And if we don't return before the snow worsens—"
BANG!
"You think you can wash your hands of this and walk away?! We waited seven whole years for that thing! Seven years! Do you have any idea how many people have died carving a foothold out of this brutal land?!"
"Ch-Chief, please, calm down first..."
"Do you have a solution or not?"
"...The device isn't broken yet, so the settlement should still be valid. For the time being, I'd suggest simply waiting until the monsters settle down—"
"That's your answer?! You stand there spouting empty promises with no guarantee behind them whatsoever!"
As the chief went red-faced and shouted him down, the technician broke into a cold sweat and spewed out excuses in a panicked stream.
But I noticed something: the chief wasn't angry at all.
What a sly old snake.
"Enough! There's nothing more to discuss. I still have the guarantee certificate I received from your Guild. It seems the time has come to put it to use!"
"The agreed period hasn't even expired yet, and besides, in a case like this—an act of nature, if you will—"
"Who are you taking for a fool? Handing over a defective product is exactly what this amounts to! I was a merchant myself once, you know—I have connections of my own! I intend to file a formal protest and demand compensation!"
At the chief's high-handed declaration, the technician's face went deathly pale.
If the monsters' unrest truly wasn't limited to our region, then the Guild must be drowning in protest letters from every direction by now. No doubt their superiors had already sent down orders to prevent exactly this kind of thing—an aggressive complainant surfacing at the worst possible moment.
"H-hey, Chief. Don't torment the poor man too much. What authority does he have over any of this? He's just a low-level worker, isn't he? Isn't that right, friend?"
"Y-yes, sir..."
"Alta, whose side are you even on?"
"Ah, well... I traveled all this way with the fellow, so I've grown a bit fond of him. Squeezing him like this won't solve anything, will it? Let's each give a little ground and meet in the middle."
"Hrk..."
Wow.
These two are laying the act on thick.
Good cop, bad cop—a classic, but classics work precisely because they're effective.
Between Alta's soothing words and the chief's bluster, I could practically watch the technician's soul leaving his body.
...
After being put through the wringer for a good long while, the Guild employee finally found his compromise and staggered out the door on wobbly legs.
My silent condolences to the man, made to suffer for something that wasn't even his fault.
The chief sank deep into his chair and rubbed at his eyes.
"...Phew. Well, we handled the Guild nicely. On the pretext of investigating the changes in the Suppression Devices installed near the Demonic Realm, he'll be staying here at least a month. Escort personnel included."
"And what about the trading company people?"
"Leave them be. We've decided to reinforce the palisade while we have the chance anyway, so they'll be here at least a week. Well, after that the snow might render all of us useless—but I factored that into the price we paid, so no trouble there."
"...Do we actually have the funds for that?"
"Broke as a joke, as of right now. We simply had that much to buy."
At Alta's worried question, the chief gave a hearty laugh and waved his hand airily.
The village's facilities had always seemed far too good for its size—apparently most of it had been paid for straight out of the chief's own pocket.
"Once everything settles down, that much money will replenish itself in no time. In any case, you've had a hard journey, traveling so far in this cold."
"Think nothing of it. Though—nothing strange happened here in the village, I trust?"
"As you can see. Ha Jun here handled everything splendidly."
"Well done, the—"
SLAM!
Just as we were trading congratulatory words, a young man burst through the door without so much as a knock.
He'd clearly sprinted the whole way here—he was still gasping for breath.
"It's... it's an emergency!"
"What is it?"
"Granny Ryu... Granny Ryu is... she's dead!"
"...!"