Return to the Winter Temple
It was truly time to leave now.
Seherbian stepped into the Door under the escort of a white crow and an apprentice priest.
Whoooom!
As Seherbian vanished fully into the biting wind, the Door closed behind him. Unlike the Door that linked Hartney Territory, this one had served its purpose; it began to break apart at once, dissolving into glittering grains of ice.
Before long, the enormous Door disappeared without a trace, and in its place there hung the eerie stillness peculiar to a winter evening.
Kisha, still caught in the afterglow of farewell, stood rooted to the spot long after the Door was gone.
He’s really gone.
From now on, she would have to protect the temple without Winter Bell. Her shoulders felt heavy with both confidence and the trembling unknown.
“Haaah……”
Kisha let out a long sigh, then suddenly became aware of the white crow still perched on her shoulder and shifted awkwardly. There was, in fact, a very real reason her shoulder felt so heavy.
“Um, excuse me.”
“Peep?”
The white crow, seated comfortably on the girl’s shoulder, tilted its head. Its body was a little plump for a crow, and its mint-colored eyes gleamed with a strange brilliance even in the dim evening light.
“You’re Lady Liliana, aren’t you?”
“Piii. Piiiiii.”
The white crow chirped in a lovely, almost singing voice.
But Kisha only grew more flustered. Unlike the master dragon Seherbian, she had no way at all to understand the language of birds.
“Peep?”
「Oh, right. In this form, you can’t understand me, can you?」
Too late, Liliana realized the problem. Fortunately, as a guardian, she had a way to break through the barrier of communication.
The pure-white crow hopped down from Kisha’s shoulder, clearly unable to remain still there.
Pop!
“Eek!”
Kisha shrieked when a tiny burst sounded suddenly before her and a puff of smoke bloomed into view.
“There. Can you hear me properly now?”
“Huh……?”
It was a voice she had never heard before. Kisha stopped flailing her arms and looked up.
Through the thinning smoke, she caught sight of silver hair sparkling in the dark.
“Huh?”
The color was like the white crow’s feathers, but it was unmistakably human hair.
A woman stood there with long silver locks hanging down her back, one hand planted on her hip as she looked down at the girl. Her skin was nearly white, her lips a soft pink, and in the glittering harmony of her whole appearance, only her mint-colored eyes stood out with jewel-like clarity.
She was much taller than twelve-year-old Kisha, who had to tip her chin up to look at her.
Before she could stop herself, Kisha stared with her mouth hanging open.
“A-angel?”
“Huh? Ahaha!”
Even at that dazed response, the winged woman laughed heartily, as if Kisha were adorable.
“I do get that misunderstanding a lot, but you’re wrong. I’m from the Bird Clan. Liliana of the white crow branch.”
“Liliana……?”
“That’s right. I’m the white crow you just saw a moment ago, Liliana. Bird Clan members have both human and avian traits, so we can transform into either form.”
“W-what?!”
By all appearances, the bird “Liliana” and the human “Liliana” had to be the same person. But even seeing it with her own eyes, Kisha still could not believe a bird had turned into a human. In the first place, the beastfolk living in Hartney Village were not especially common.
Bird Clan, too?
Maybe that sort of thing existed in the Hestallion Empire, that vast landmass across the sea, but in the Alferios Kingdom, which held relatively little territory, they were a rare foreign race never before reported.
“I was born as a bird, so this form isn’t as comfortable to me. But apparently there are also clans that are born human and live their whole lives that way.”
As a Bird Clan member, Liliana had two bodies.
The first was her bird form.
And the second was this human shape with wings.
With that, Liliana gave Kisha a playful wink.
“It’s been a while since I used this form. Sorry for the late introduction, but welcome to Winter Bell’s dragon temple, Kisha Hartney.”
Kisha could only nod weakly, still open-mouthed.
The dragon temple really is……
……full of unbelievable things.
Everything about it.
* * *
Meanwhile, Seherbian emerged from the Door at the edge of the Blanconia snowfields.
“……?”
Even if it was only the edge, the blizzard was still lashing down fiercely. Seherbian stared blankly at the scene, then lifted his staff up in front of his face.
“Mimir. Where the hell did the Door connect to?”
「Current location alarm: the southwestern edge of Blanconia.」
“That’s not what I asked.”
Seherbian pressed a hand to his forehead and asked again, enunciating each word with exaggerated patience.
“Why am I still in Blanconia?”
「……」
“The place I pictured was clearly outside the snowfield, wasn’t it?”
Mimir, who usually rang out noisily with nonstop chatter, was strangely silent.
Seherbian found that silence irritating in a distinctly petty way and glared down at his staff.
“I was expecting to open my eyes and see a green meadow. Not this miserable, never-ending snow.”
The Door, which ought to have carried him wherever its master wished, had dropped him in the wrong place instead.
At his accusation, Mimir’s magical core flickered softly and delivered a report.
「Master, an error was detected in the Door.」
“What kind of error?”
「It was confirmed that the Winter Bell system interfered during the Door’s creation process.」
At that, Seherbian’s frown eased slightly. But the real problem remained.
“……You mean another ‘prayer seeker’ came into Blanconia?”
「Yes.」
That explained why the Door had refused to send him outside Blanconia. After all, he was Winter Bell, a dragon burdened with the duty of a god.
If someone had come all the way to Blanconia and prayed with enough desperation, Winter Bell was obligated to answer.
It was just unfortunate timing.
Has the rumor already spread among the people?
Mimir, sharing his thoughts, answered calmly.
「It has already reached the king’s ears.」
“Well, isn’t that rich. What kind of king is a man who murdered a king?”
Seherbian muttered under his breath, but Mimir replied in an emotionless tone.
「Still, after he usurped the throne and made the proclamation before the kingdom’s people, he has been the formal king of Alferios for twenty years now.」
“……You really have no soul. I miss the warm conversations I used to have with Rown.”
「Incorrect command. Please issue the command again.」
“Never mind.”
With a sulk, Seherbian lowered his staff and looked around.
Snow lay thick across the entire snowfield.
And far in the distance, someone who looked no bigger than a dot was staggering forward, forcing their way through snow that came up to their knees.
Thud!
The Blanconia snowfield was ruthlessly inhospitable to uninvited guests.
In a place like this, where all one could see was white, even the edge of the territory behaved like a mire, and before long a traveler would lose their bearings and wander aimlessly.
The person who had collapsed just now had probably been wandering for days.
Watching the figure’s halting movements, Seherbian’s expression turned faintly sour.
“……This is familiar.”
「Loss of thermal function confirmed. Rapid drop in biological energy due to hypothermia. Heart activity slowing. Estimated time until death: approximately fifteen minutes.」
“Haa. I’m not going to leave them there, so stop announcing a time to die.”
Seherbian grabbed the staff, still blinking as it briefed him, and lifted into the air with a light leap.
He landed precisely in front of the collapsed stranger.
Tap.
Like Kisha when they had first met, this visitor had also lost consciousness, unable to endure the brutal cold.
At least this one isn’t a child.
Unlike Kisha, however, he was a sturdy adult, and the fact that he was properly equipped for travel made him look more like an adventurer than anything else.
He doesn’t look particularly ambitious, either.
If a power-hungry noble wanted the dragon’s strength, they would usually bring a crowd of subordinates, tear the snowfield apart, and leave empty-handed after their failure.
Someone who had thrown himself into such a dangerous snowfield alone, without even a companion, let alone subordinates……
“Hmm. Could he have given up on life?”
「The visitor has approximately ten minutes left before life functions are exhausted.」
While Seherbian was torn, wondering whether this might be an extreme would-be suicide who had thrown himself into the snow out of sheer despair, Mimir warned him of Winter Bell’s laziness.
But Seherbian took it in without concern, as if it were nothing more than background noise.
“Excuse me.”
He even crouched down casually in front of the unconscious adventurer.
“I don’t know what you were hoping for by coming all the way here, but……”
He tapped the back of the adventurer’s head with one finger, almost playfully. There was still no response.
Seherbian cast a spell with a languid expression. Tiny grains of ice gathered at his fingertips and wrapped around the adventurer. Soon, color returned to the blue-white lips, and warmth began to spread through the frozen body.
With Winter Bell’s authority, the frostbite vanished in an instant and body temperature rose, restoring life to the body.
“It would be troublesome if you died in my domain, so I’ll at least clear away the cold. Please be grateful for your own healthy body, and I’d appreciate it if you never came back.”
Seherbian said what he wanted to say whether the other man heard him or not, then rose to his feet.
He meant to drive the intruder away like this.
Then, if he simply left the snowfield quickly without using the Door, everything would be solved.
After all, once he got out of the sacred land of Blanconia, anyone who came looking for him would no longer be able to bind him through the Winter Bell system.
Just as he was thinking that and summoning the winter wind to blow the adventurer outside,
rustle.
“……?”
The harsh gale slipped back the hood, revealing the adventurer’s face.
Seeing it, Seherbian froze.
“This is……”
The short hair had been hidden by the hood, so he hadn’t noticed before, but now he could see that the other man’s hair was silver and shining like snow.
To ordinary people, it might have looked like nothing more than white hair gone gray, but Seherbian recognized it at a glance.
Mimir, catching the same impression, also trembled in his hand.
“It’s the blessing I gave you.”
Silver was the mark of the Silver Dragon.
In other words, this intruder was someone who had received Winter Bell’s blessing.
* * *
In the end, Seherbian changed his mind about driving the stranger away.
It was a nuisance, yes, but humans died far more easily than one might think. If he left someone out in the snow too long, they could lose their lives simply from the cold.
Even if they had received Winter Bell’s blessing and possessed resistance to frost, there was still a limit. Cross that line, and the cold would consume them to death.
He had barely been gone half a day after saying he would leave, yet when he returned to the temple, Kisha brightened and ran toward him.
But when she saw the unconscious adventurer hanging limply in his arms, she darted this way and that like a startled sparrow, searching for an adult who could help and preparing a room where the patient could be laid down.
Thanks to the cooperation of the apprentice priests and the people of Hartney Village, the adventurer was able to wake safely in a room warmed by a crackling hearth, after even his wet clothes had been changed.