Chapter 5

Kapkan lowered the two warriors he had been carrying on his back after they collapsed from dehydration. He soaked a handkerchief with melted snow and placed it over the mouth of one of his exhausted men.

‘……Is this a miracle?’

Snow that did not melt in this scorching desert!

The mound of pure white snow in front of him was still hard to fathom. Everything he had ever known was being turned on its head.

He had no idea how the snow could possibly exist here, but one thing was certain: it had saved his and his warriors’ lives.

Once the two exhausted warriors had regained consciousness, Kapkan reached out and scooped up a handful of the white snow.

Its icy chill seeped into his palm.

When he put some in his mouth, it melted instantly.

“……It’s cold.”

Kapkan closed his long, straight eyelashes and savored the sensation.

As he swallowed the water that had collected in his mouth, its cool freshness brought relief to his parched throat.

After being stranded with no hope of rescue, finding water amidst their desperate thirst felt like salvation; it was so overwhelming that it could drive a man mad.

Beside him, the fierce warriors devoured the snow with such ferocity that they looked ready to overwhelm a horde of barbarians.

Before long, the mound of snow was shrinking rapidly.

Kapkan had only just quenched his thirst and begun to survey their surroundings when—

“……A person?”

Kapkan blinked his violet eyes in bewilderment as he spotted a woman dressed entirely in white from head to toe.

A woman was lying in the middle of the snow.

“……What?”

The warriors, who had been digging into the snow, all raised their heads at once. Dozens of eyes turned towards the center of the mound.

Indeed, there was a woman lying at the heart of the mound they had surrounded. She was still lying on the ground, but had merely turned her head to stare at them.

Her gaze fell upon Kapkan and the other desert warriors, as though demanding an explanation for their presence.

“Uh, well……?”

“Hmm…….”

“……Who might you be?”

An awkward silence descended upon them.

***

“……What is this?”

Ophelia opened her eyes in the middle of a sandy desert.

Lying with both hands neatly folded over her chest, she blinked blankly.

Dry air.

Warm sunlight shining down upon her.

Even the faint breeze carried the heat of a desert—something she had never experienced in her life.

“Am I…… dead?”

She had undoubtedly thrown herself out of the window.

She remembered falling from the top of the tower, but the absence of pain left her feeling disoriented.

Soft sand pressed against her back, cradling her gently.

Ophelia moved her arm and grasped a handful of it. Bright yellow sand trickled between her fingers.

When she turned her head to look either side, she saw nothing but endless sand stretching out in all directions.

An open desert beneath a vast sky.

Ophelia lay alone on the sand.

She lay peacefully beneath the warm sunlight.

“……I’m dead.”

After blinking vacantly for a moment, Ophelia murmured with certainty.

The snow-white mountains had vanished, replaced by boundless dunes.

The desert landscape, which she had never seen before in her life, was entirely different from the scenery she had observed through her window for twenty-three years.

“It’s warm……”

She loved the sensation of warmth seeping into her lungs and spreading throughout her body.

Although she had never been particularly sensitive to the cold, this warmth felt wonderfully new after living through an endless winter her entire life.

The afterlife is a pleasant place.

Ophelia thought, savoring the heated sand.

When she buried her hands in it, the warmth against her palms felt unbelievably gentle.

Closing her eyes, she surrendered herself to the sand. A languid sensation spread throughout her body, and she felt as though she might fall asleep again.

The balmy air.

The warm sun.

This place seemed like a paradise created perfectly for her.

“Ah……”

Whenever she exhaled a cold breath, warm air flowed into her lungs to replace it.

Her entire body melted into comforting warmth.

Poof, poof.

As she lay there contentedly, snowflakes appeared from the empty air around Ophelia.

From the moment she was born, her heart had been filled with the cold of the spirits, and she had been destined to serve as a sacrifice to restrain the rampaging ice spirit. Consequently, snow began to fall around her from time to time.

“……This is lovely.”

Ophelia murmured as she gazed at the clear, cloudless blue sky above her.

The occasional breeze blew the hem of her white dress.

Before long, a thick blanket of snow had accumulated around her.

She had just fallen into a deep sleep, breathing softly and peacefully.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

“……Mmm.”

The tremendous vibration reverberating around her awakened Ophelia from her peaceful sleep.

She frowned. The sound was so immense that it could easily have been mistaken for an earthquake.

What was happening?

With the mound of white snow piled around her, she could not see what was going on.

Ophelia blinked sleepily.

A moment later, strange men began swarming around her amid a cacophony of frenzied cries.

“……Water! Water! Water!”

“Holy sh*t, we survived! We’re alive!”

“This is water?! All this white stuff is water?!”

There were dozens of them.

They crowded around the wall of accumulated snow in a circle and began tearing into it ferociously.

What on earth was happening?

Ophelia blinked in bewilderment.

Dozens of hands appeared from every direction, punching through the semicircular wall of snow she had created, before withdrawing again.

In some places, instead of hands, the tops of heads or unfamiliar faces suddenly appeared.

The piled snow was torn apart in moments and disappeared into their mouths.

Faced with this vicious spectacle accompanied by monstrous cries, Ophelia flinched and froze.

Could it be that strange men came to visit the dead in the afterlife?

***

“……A person?”

Or was she a fairy?

Kapkan froze midway through lifting a handful of snow to his mouth.

In the center of the mound that they had torn apart, there lay a woman as white as snow.

Her hair, skin and clothes were all pure white, without a single blemish.

If her pale blue-grey eyes, which had been watching them until a few moments ago, had not blinked, it would have taken them much longer to find her.

Thirst clouded their minds and none of them had imagined that someone could be lying in the middle of this desolate desert, let alone buried in a snowy mound.

She looked like snow itself in human form.

‘How is this possible?’

Kapkan stared at her as though bewitched.

White snowflakes drifted quietly around her, gathering into soft mounds. It was as if the season itself had changed around her.

It was a marvelous sight, as though nature obeyed her alone.

Looking at her, Kapkan recalled a tale he had heard from travelers.

It was about a magical beast that bewitched lost wanderers and lured them to their deaths.

Yet the being before him transcended any mere legend.

‘……She certainly is captivating enough.’

Kapkan stared at the woman, utterly mesmerized.

She had such an air of mystery about her that it was difficult to believe she belonged to the same human race.

Her straight, snow-white lashes fluttered slowly.

Her pale blue-grey eyes held a languid expression, as though she found the whole world tiresome.

Kapkan and all his warriors fell silent and froze.

Then, with a rumble, the wall of snow suddenly collapsed, shattering the silence.

“……D*mn.”

Coming to his senses, Kapkan let out a low sigh.

Looking around, he saw the mound of snow that they had dug through so savagely that it was no longer recognizable.

Regardless of how anyone viewed the situation, it was clear that Kapkan and his warriors had attacked the woman before them, whether she was human or some kind of magical beast that bewitched people.

Under the woman’s unwavering stare, Kapkan felt a rare surge of embarrassment and discomfort. He hurriedly apologized.

“……I apologize for our rudeness. As you can see, we have been stranded in the desert for a month.”