A round white object rested upon the sand.

It was, quite literally, nothing more than a pale lump.

“……Oh, for f*ck’s sake.”

The warriors’ hopes vanished the instant they identified its shape.

It was not blue like water. There were no trees around it, nor was there even the smallest lake.

The object was protruding above the sand.

Disappointed and disheartened, the warriors lashed out.

“Nasim, you bastard! Does that look like water to you?! It’s white no matter how you look at it!”

“Has this idiot finally gone mad from thirst……? We’re already dying for water, and now we have to deal with your defective eyes too?!”

The price they paid for raising their hopes, only to shatter them, was merciless. Dozens of disappointed warriors berated the warrior who had first spotted the mirage.

Of course, most of them had cried out countless times after seeing mirages and visions throughout their journey, so they could empathize with him. Nevertheless, their irritation and disappointment were not diminished by this understanding.

“Let go of me! I’ll put that bastard’s eyes back where they belong today!”

Curses filled with camaraderie echoed across the desert as everyone seized the opportunity to taunt Nasim, the youngest warrior.

‘……Rock salt?’

Kapkan felt a faint sense of disappointment and let out a hollow, exhausted breath.

A mass of pure white rock salt that size was rare, but it would be useless to them unless it could be turned into water.

What use was even that much gold when they were all about to die?

Kapkan gazed listlessly towards the rock salt in the distance.

With his throat burning from thirst, the sight of the unusually white object gleaming before him felt almost spiteful.

It was at that moment that he narrowed his eyes and stared intently at the white mass.

Wait.

‘Something…… is strange.’

White powder was emerging into the air around the supposed rock salt.

Kapkan possessed exceptionally sharp eyesight.

His vision was so extraordinary that he could count the eyelashes of a camel sitting atop a dune at the horizon.

And yet, white powder was unmistakably swirling around the object he had assumed was ordinary rock salt.

Kapkan carefully studied the white mass of rock salt beyond the dunes.

Fine white powder emerged from the empty air around it and accumulated upon its surface.

‘……Is such a thing even possible?’

Confronted by this profoundly surreal sight, he closed his eyes briefly before opening them again. He wondered if he had seen it incorrectly, but he hadn’t.

White powder was still scattering from the empty air above. Something resembling a low-hanging cloud had formed above the pale mass, releasing clumps of powder beneath it.

Kapkan stared intently at the scene.

What he had assumed to be white rock salt did not appear to be stone at all. It seemed to be something formed by an accumulation of white powder.

“…….”

Kapkan calmly gazed beyond the dunes.

The mysterious white mass radiated an unusually mystical atmosphere.

It was as though that single place, resting upon the desolate sea of sand, had been severed from the rest of the world……

“……Surely that isn’t……”

An absurd possibility crossed his mind.

Its immaculate white appearance.

The pale powder falling from the sky.

Logically, he knew it could not be real, yet the thought refused to leave once it had occurred to him.

He had once heard merchants travelling between his kingdom and the northern continent talk about such a phenomenon.

It was said to be found only in frigid regions where people had to wear animal pelts all year round.

“……Snow.”

Even as he spoke the word aloud, Kapkan felt confused.

He had certainly heard that the northern continent was so cold that rain froze before it could reach the ground.

The idea of snow in a desert, where even a drop of rain was rare, seemed absurd to him and made him laugh hollowly.

As far as he knew, snow could never exist under the desert’s blazing sun, in a sky so hot that water evaporated.

‘Ha. I suppose it was only a matter of time before I lost my mind.’

Kapkan became convinced that his eyes had finally begun showing him hallucinations.

The symptoms afflicting his warriors had apparently spread to him at last. They were dying of thirst, so what could possibly be strange about going mad?

“Huh……? Snow? What is snow?”

At that moment, the scapegoat, who was being mercilessly berated by the furious warriors, asked with a vacant expression. Having been born and raised in the desert, he had never heard the word before.

His superiors were already tearing him apart simply for describing what he had seen. At the very least, he deserved to know what it meant before enduring their *buse.

“……Hmm.”

Kapkan looked at Nasim, the youngest of the warriors, whose yellow hair was completely unkempt. He then surveyed the rest of his men.

As befitted people who had been stranded for a month, they all looked haggard or savagely wild.

Even viewed generously, they resembled beggars or dangerous vagrants.

They were the kind of people who would soon die in the wilderness from heatstroke or dehydration.

As for snow…

Snow was water.

Yes. They were going to die either way, so did it truly matter if they were hallucinating?

Still half doubtful, Kapkan spoke.

“Snow is…… ice. I cannot be certain, but that white thing you found might be snow.”

“……What? Ice? In the middle of this desert?”

At that moment, veins bulged around the eyes of every warrior who had been berating the youngest. Dozens of gazes, already half crazed by thirst, flared with longing.

“I-ice, you said?!”

“Then it’s water!”

Everyone inhaled sharply.

The youngest warrior crawled away from his seniors’ affectionate attention, while the others stared at one another in disbelief.

Tormented by scorching thirst, the warriors burst into laughter and muttered like madmen.

“Water…… That’s really water……?”

As though bewitched by a seductive magical beast, everyone began moving.

We have to reach that place.

A single thought filled their minds.

“Water……”

Water to quench their endless thirst.

Moisture to pour down their parched throats.

It was waiting for them over there.

Step. Step.

At first, their footsteps faltered, but the hesitation soon disappeared.

Before long, the steps of dozens of warriors had become a frenzied advance.

Then the men, who looked vicious, lost all reason and charged forward.

“Water……!”

Thud, thud, thud!

The warriors thundered across the ground.

Sand billowed beneath their savage footsteps. Their bodies were on the verge of collapse, so it was hard to fathom where such strength had come from.

Their destination was the dune in the distance.

It might have been their imagination, but the closer they got to the white mass, the cooler the air seemed to become.

One step after another.

The closer they came to the white shape, the more the suffocating heat receded, allowing the warriors to breathe freely again. Even the grains of sand striking their feet no longer bothered them.

After running as fast as they could, they reached the dune and discovered ice that truly did not melt.

A mound of pure white snow lay piled high before them.

“F*ck! It’s cold!”

A warrior plunged his hand deep into the snowdrift, letting out a strange shriek as he did so.

He could feel it.

It was cold!

This was no mirage or hallucination. He seized a handful of snow and put it in his mouth.

The cold sensation spread across his tongue as the snow gradually melted.

The fine, shaved-ice-like snow moistened the warrior’s shriveled, parched throat.

“It really is water…”

Overwhelming emotion surged through him. Tears streamed down his face as he dropped to his knees and buried his head in the snow.

“It’s real! It’s cold!”

“Ah! Wait—my head!”

The warriors arriving behind him shoveled snow into their mouths and clutched their heads at the sharp pain that followed.

Yet even if the piercing headache sent them collapsing facedown, they refused to stop cramming snow into their mouths.

“It’s water! Sob…… Water!”

“Cold! Water?! Cold! This is water?”

“Waaaaaah…… Sob, hngh…… Waaaaaah……”

They scooped up the snow with both hands, forcing it ravenously into their mouths.

Dignity no longer existed. Each warrior devoured the snow with an intensity bordering on convulsions.

Some knelt reverently, repeatedly burying their faces in the snow like woodpeckers. Others gathered enormous handfuls and wolfed them down greedily.

They all went mad in their own distinctive way.

They resembled savage beasts in human form.

“…….”

Well, they had narrowly avoided death. Considering the circumstances, they were relatively restrained.

Arriving behind them, Kapkan deliberately ignored the disgraceful spectacle of his subordinates descending into madness.