00. Prologue

It was a night when the blood-red full moon shone eerily.

“Ikanel. I cannot forgive you.”

A hoarse, cracked voice crawled weakly across the cold stone floor. She lay collapsed, giggling.

There was no comedy more absurd than what had happened to her in this world. A tiny mouse crawled over her body, but she had no strength left to chase it away.

“You. Your world. Even myself who loved you. I cannot forgive any of it.”

She knew no one was listening, but she recited it like a monologue. She knew she would soon die. Her body was already numb. There was nothing new to fear. Only, for the last time, she suddenly wanted to see the sky.

She stared blankly through the iron bars of the small window with unfocused eyes. The abnormally bright red moon was captured in her eyes for the last time. She smiled a bitter smile.

Something beyond her faded green eyes blinked out. Finally, she thought:

‘So I probably won’t be able to close my eyes, even in death.’

♣ ♣ ♣

“Gasp!”

Snow bolted upright in bed. The blanket covering her slid off. Her entire body was drenched in cold sweat. Her hands were still trembling. Snow quickly looked around. It was indeed her room. The snow-white hair, the soft hands without a single scar—all belonged to her.

In the dream, Snow had been a woman she had never seen before. Snow had become that woman, meeting death while lying on a dark, cold prison floor.

Tears flowed down her transparent cheeks. At first, they fell silently, drop by drop, then suddenly became passionate, and before she knew it, Snow was sobbing with her lips bitten.

Surprised by the fact that she was crying, she repeatedly wiped away her tears. But despite rubbing until her delicate eye area turned red, the tears showed no sign of stopping.

Though young, Snow knew how to control her emotions. She knew how to hold back sadness and calm anger. But now she simply couldn’t stop crying. She couldn’t understand why her heart ached so much. Except for when she was very young, this was the first time she couldn’t suppress her emotions like this.

Covering her mouth with one hand and sobbing, she flung open the curtains of the window by her bed.

“Ah.”

Snow groaned in dismay. The stiff white curtain in her hand crumpled helplessly.

Large snowflakes were falling heavily over trees that had been full of green sprouts just earlier that day. Outside was completely white. Her silver eyes stung. But she had no presence of mind to frown or close them.

The spring-filled earth was freezing over with heavy snow. Even faced with this strange sight, her tears wouldn’t stop.

Her hands trembled with the compulsion to stop crying before something worse happened. “It’s because of me, because of me,” she whimpered.

She slowly inhaled and exhaled to calm herself.

‘It’s just a dream. Only a dream. It can’t affect me at all.’

Slowly, slowly, the crying subsided.

Snow picked up the water glass on the table with trembling hands. She drank the rippling water slowly, in several sips. As time passed, her mind gradually calmed.

While she was composing herself, the blizzard gradually subsided, and by the time Snow looked out the window again, it had completely stopped. She exhaled with a “whew.”

That moist sigh dispersed faintly into the air that had grown cold from the unseasonable snow.

01. Snowflake

On the day when a blizzard raged as if to devour the world, she was born.

♣ ♣ ♣

It was a bone-chilling night. Massive trees hundreds of years old swayed helplessly, adding to the desolate sound. Heavy snowflakes fell upon the bodies of animals frozen to death. People locked their doors, extinguished their lights, and prayed desperately to God for this nightmarish time to end.

From tiny insects to large beasts, all had vanished, leaving no trace of life. Through those snow-white streets, through streets swept by blizzards like the devil’s breath, some mad people were taking one step at a time.

Even with doors locked and all available firewood burning, fingertips froze and white frost settled on eyebrows. Yet these people were trudging through knee-deep snow in this living h*ll. They were truly out of their minds.

The thick fur cloaks they each wore were as white as the falling snow, camouflaging their appearance like protective coloration. The paths they cleared were quickly filled in again by the falling snow.

Snowflakes fell relentlessly upon their bodies as they took each laborious step. But if they carelessly extended a hand outside their cloak to brush off snow, they risked immediate frostbite. They bit their lips, which had turned purple from the cold, until blood showed through, and continued to plow through the snow.

Finally, they arrived at a mansion. They began pounding on the firmly closed mansion door with their bodies. They knew that no matter how loudly they shouted to open the door, their voices would be drowned out by the fierce wind. They were desperate. If this door didn’t open now, the fate of the entire country might be buried and lost in the blizzard.

Fortunately, the door opened before long. The blizzard swirled in through the gap of the open door. They entered as if being sucked in. As soon as everyone from outside had entered, the door slammed shut again.

Those who had broken through the blizzard breathed heavily. Despite burning all available firewood, the people inside the mansion were wearing thick winter clothes. But compared to those who had come through the heart of the blizzard, it was nothing, and as soon as they entered, they felt the relatively warm air hit them and removed the heavy fur cloaks weighing down their bodies. The snow accumulated on their cloaks fell with a thud.

As the cold subsided and they gained some composure, they looked around. Everyone was staring at them as if they were ghosts, these people who had come through the nightmarish blizzard.

One of those who had come through the snow took something out from inside his garment. He thrust it forward to show.

It was a letter stamped with a red seal.

Someone gasped upon seeing the seal on the letter. The murmuring grew louder in disbelief. The one holding the letter shouted in a boiling voice:

“I am a direct representative sent by Ceres herself. Summon the master of this mansion immediately to pay respects to Ceres!”

At this thunderous cry, someone rushed up the stairs. Soon the master of the mansion appeared. He carefully examined the letter held by the man claiming to be Ceres‘s representative.

The red seal was clearly that used by “Ceres,” the leader of the priests who served the goddess Amir. He immediately knelt before the letter and bowed his head.

“I am honored to meet the representative of Ceres.”

“Baron Arbor. A divine revelation has come to your family.”

“…Pardon?”

The baron stupidly asked again, caught off guard by the representative’s words. And for good reason—it had been a full 20 years since divine revelations had ceased in this country. Yet here was Ceres‘s representative, who had come through the blizzard, telling him to receive a divine revelation.

“The goddess Amir has sent a revelation to your family!”

The representative shouted once more, unable to hide his impatience. Since Ceres‘s representative would not lie, it seemed certain that a revelation had indeed come. The baron bowed his head again and said:

“…Delos Arbor of the House of Arbor, I receive the divine revelation.”

Everyone except the representative knelt and bowed their heads, waiting for the divine revelation. The representative opened the letter sealed with the seal. Inside was the revelation that the goddess Amir had given through Ceres, her closest servant. The representative, on behalf of Ceres, read each word of the revelation clearly so it wouldn’t be drowned out by the fierce wind.

After delivering the entire revelation, the representative asked the baron:

“…Given the content of the revelation, where is your wife?”

The baron’s face had turned as white as the snow falling outside. When the baron hesitated to answer, the representative spoke again.

“Where is the baron’s wife who is carrying the child who will become the saint?”

“My wife is not with child.”

The baron answered in a trembling voice. The representative stared silently at the baron. The baron felt as if he were being stripped n*ked before him. The representative who had come directly through the calamitous blizzard looked terrible. But his shining eyes believed in his god without a trace of doubt, and exposed to this, the baron felt cold sweat despite the freezing cold.

The representative spoke again:

“There will certainly be a daughter of yours born today.”

The baron buried his head to the ground. The representative asked one last time:

“Where is she?”

“The mother carrying that child…”

The baron swallowed hard.

“She has probably already frozen to death.”

A chilling silence descended. The representative’s body swayed. One of his companions supported him. The representative said:

“I swear in the name of Amir, the saint will be alive before this night is over. Where is she now?”