“Elios, thank you. Thank you so much.”

Snow repeated her words of gratitude. But she still showed no intention of changing her mind about leaving. Elios suddenly thought of another solution. There was a way to let Snow do as she wished without having to part from her.

Elios rose urgently. Snow’s field of vision whirled, and suddenly Elios was above her. Her silver hair scattered across the snow. Elios lowered himself, covering Snow like a canopy as he said:

“If you won’t change your mind, then take me with you.”

He meant it. The position of Crown Prince wasn’t something he could give up just by himself. Even if he, who had been closest to the throne, suddenly declared he wouldn’t succeed to it and remained just a prince, the nobles who had supported him wouldn’t stand idle.

If Snow remained at the temple, Elios planned to be baptized and become a priest. That would allow him to completely escape the grip of power. But if Snow wasn’t at the temple, that too would be meaningless.

If she went far away where no one could find her, if only he could go with Snow.

“Anywhere is fine. Even the end of the world. Even where lava boils, or somewhere colder than here. As long as you’re there.”

Elios’s face moved closer. From a distance where their noses almost touched, he said:

“I can’t live without you, so if you must go, I can follow you.”

Snow wore a sad expression. It meant refusal. Elios became even more desperate. If she left like this, everything would be over. Even if the calamity ended, what would be the use? For Elios, the calamity would begin then.

“You’ve lived in the temple all your life. You’ve rarely been outside the temple. Whenever you left the Grand Temple, except for this one time, I was always with you. I’ll be with you this time too. You can use me as you wish. You can treat me as a mere porter, or use me as bait if you ever face a dangerous situation. I don’t want anything in return. Just let me stay by your side. If you ever find someone else, someone else you like, I’ll just quietly protect you from somewhere unseen. Just please don’t leave me behind.”

Snow knew it was time. Elios alone had been awake for too long. If she kept listening to his words, her resolve might waver.

“Elios. That place is somewhere only I can go. No one can come with me. You just stay here. If you just live as usual, I might come back someday.”

Elios’s tears fell drop by drop onto Snow’s cheeks. His orange-gold hair, like sunshine, trembled finely with its owner. Snow’s image, reflected in his black eyes filled with tears, rippled like the surface of a river. Still covering Snow, Elios clenched his fists and sobbed like a child who had lost his parents.

“Don’t go. Snow. Take me with you. Or I’ll never appear before you again. I’ll just follow you like a shadow. It’s fine if you never see me for the rest of your life. It’s fine if you pretend not to know me from now on. Just let me follow you.”

Elios couldn’t finish his words. As if he had swallowed a whole bottle of sleeping pills, his consciousness instantly faded into the distance. It was merciless and ruthless, as if his soul were separating from his body. Elios clenched his fists with all his might. His nails dug into his flesh and blood flowed. Even that pain gradually dulled in his fading consciousness.

His reason was gradually flying away. Snow was smiling with eyes full of tears. Because it was the last time, she would show a smiling face?

‘Snow, you’re cruel. Truly cruel.’

Elios kissed Snow as if crashing into her.

“…!”

As the pain in his hands dulled, Elios clenched his fists even harder. Once a wound starts, it deepens in an instant. Blood flowed as if cut by a knife, staining the white clumps of snow bright red.

Breath met breath, completely overlapping. Elios poured all his consciousness into this first and last kiss. Snow had no thought of pushing him away. She closed her eyes and received the kiss.

She felt his firm body, braced above her, gradually collapsing. Snow gripped Elios’s shoulders more tightly. Though she had made him fall asleep, she wished he wouldn’t. Elios collapsed completely, covering Snow.

“I love you…”

Those were his last words.

Snow pushed away Elios’s body that covered her and stood up.

In a situation where every minute and second was precious, too much time had been wasted because of Elios. Even now, some innocent person might be dying.

Snow was already holding a sharp ice crystal in her hand. She placed it against her chest.

The two horses that the three had ridden stood beside Snow, staring at her blankly.

That was enough for Snow. She felt that at least she wasn’t alone.

‘Stay with me until the end, at least you two.’ Snow thought to herself.

Just days ago, she had done exactly the same thing. At that time, she thought that if she stabbed this into her body, she would surely die. However, she believed it wouldn’t be a fundamental solution, and just as Freia had been born as Snow, she would be born as someone else, repeating the vicious cycle. Snow hadn’t been able to resolve to stab this into her heart then because she wasn’t certain it would stop the calamity.

Now it was different. She had seen how the future would change because of her action. The only thing holding Snow back now were the three people lying collapsed on the ground.

Snow had lied to Elios. When Elios woke up, Snow would still be there. However, only her empty shell of a body, stabbed by a blade, would remain. She had wanted to end it quietly where they couldn’t see, so they would believe she had gone far away. But she couldn’t.

She knew it was impossible to persuade them to return to the temple. From the beginning, if Snow simply disappeared, they were destined to freeze to death here. So Snow had put all three to sleep. But it was obvious what would happen to them if they remained asleep in the blizzard after Snow disappeared.

Even if it was just a shell without a soul, if her body remained nearby, they wouldn’t be affected by the blizzard. So Snow couldn’t leave them behind. She had to end it right here.

When Freia’s breath stopped, she was reincarnated as Saint Bernadette. There was no reason it couldn’t happen again this time. That’s why Snow couldn’t easily take her own life. That had been the case.

But now it was different. Snow knew it was her choice. If she wanted to return, she would; conversely, she could choose not to. If she left only her soul while keeping her body bound to the earth, she would be neither dead nor alive, and thus unable to reincarnate. However, the lingering echoes of those painful emotions would all be carried away by her soul.

According to Snow’s thinking, she wouldn’t completely die. But to others, she would be in a state no different from death. She would be asleep for a very long time. There would be no life activities. She would neither consume nor excrete food, nor would she breathe. She would sleep deeply, like a corpse that doesn’t decay, not knowing when she might wake up.

No emotion must be left on earth. All obsession, curses, sadness, anguish, and pain must be taken into sleep. Only then would the curse on the Empire stop. If Freia’s emotions ever calmed down, she might wake up in the distant future. Conversely, she might forever remain an undecaying corpse in that state.

Perhaps Snow’s thinking was wrong, and the moment she drove the ice crystal into her heart, she would simply spill blood and her breath would stop. But it was certain that the calamity would stop one way or another. The spring returning to Akelan that she had seen in the future told her that.

She must hesitate no longer.

Squelch, the sound of something sharp tearing through flesh was heard.

Whether she died or not, the pain was real.

“Ugh, hnngh”, Snow made a sound like blood boiling. The pain gradually reached its peak, and then from some point on, she felt nothing at all.

Whether blood was flowing or not. Whether she was just falling asleep or her life activities were ceasing, how her heart was beating. She was in no state to consider such things.

Blood vessels appeared in Snow’s eyes. She collapsed. Right in front of her was Elios’s face, sound asleep.

Snow extended her trembling hand toward Elios. Then, thud, her hand fell.

Perfect darkness.

♣ ♣ ♣

Elios had a terrible nightmare. He couldn’t remember the content of the dream, only the feeling of fear and terror remained.

He opened his eyes.

The nightmare hasn’t ended yet, he thought. He couldn’t help but think so.

Snow was lying right in front of him. At first, he thought she was just sleeping like himself. But something about her condition was strange. There wasn’t a hint of color in her face. Her lips had turned completely white. As if in a dream, Elios slowly reached out his hand and placed it in front of her face. He couldn’t feel her breathing at all.

“Uh, ah?”

Elios made a strange groaning sound. He discovered the sharp ice crystal embedded in Snow’s chest. Snow had collapsed with one hand gripping it and the other hand stretched toward Elios.

Frost, seemingly spread from the ice crystal, completely covered her chest area and the hand holding the crystal. So the state of the wound wasn’t visible at all. From the outside, there was no sign of blood.

But Snow wasn’t breathing.

Elios crawled toward Snow. He lifted her into his arms. Her body was as cold as if it had become an ice crystal itself.

“Uh, uuh, Snow, aah”, Elios moaned awkwardly like someone whose tongue had been cut off.

“Ah, aaah! Aack!”

He finally began to scream. The horses standing quietly nearby were startled and neighed, wailing together.

“Aaah!”

A miserable sound, as if his soul were being torn apart, filled the empty snow field. But Arianne and Martadia, collapsed right beside Elios, still couldn’t wake from their sleep. Only Elios, holding the non-breathing Snow in his arms, howled like a beast.

“H-how, ah, uhuk, uuh, please. No. This isn’t real. Snow. Aah!”

The blizzard that had been raging as if to swallow the world was subsiding like a lie.

The sharp wind sound that could tear one’s ears had died down, but instead, an even deeper and more agonizing howl filled the world.