Chapter 147 - Cold Night

"Was that... really a water spell?"

I was sitting down next to the four-horned demon on a stump. The reason that stump was there was that the four-horned demon cut through it with her spell.

As well as forty or so wolves and every tree within a fifty-meter radius.

There didn't seem to be any water that was involved, which was probably what made me ask that question.

The four-horned demon shrugged her shoulders.

"There is water, it's just hard to see."

She pointed towards one of the fallen trees.

"Watch carefully, I will try to make it appear more visible."

The four-horned demon flicked her finger, sending out a slightly shimmering line of water. Despite its small size, it cleanly split past the wood, splitting the trunk into two.

I gasped.

"You used that tiny thing to just..."

I looked around myself.

"Do all of this?"

The four-horned demon laughed.

"It is easier to cut using something thinner and sharper. Obviously, I'm going to make it as thin as possible."

My face twitched.

"You say that like it's simple to use a strand of water to cut through a tree."

The four-horned demon giggled.

"Well, it's not that hard."

She said it a bit sarcastically.

A small sigh escaped me. With my remaining hand, I took a gemstone that was hanging on my belt.

"The only way I can even cast spells is with something like this."

The four-horned demon looked at the thing I was holding in my hand.

"Ah... the heart of a demon that has been transformed by the mana volcano."

I blinked in surprise.

"What? This is a heart?"

The four-horned demon shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah."

I stared at the gemstone for a few more moments.

"...Really doesn't look like a heart."

The four-horned demon sighed.

"Because it is no longer a heart that pumps blood, but mana."

I slowly nodded.

"I see."

The four-horned demon turned to look at the wolf corpses scattered across the floor.

"Anyways, we should get to cooking before they rot."

I got up off the stump.

"Alright."

With that, I watched the four-horned demon and me gather branches. Then, we set up a campfire and roasted large pieces of meat skewered on sticks.

...It took quite a while.

Frustratingly long.

Why was this vision going on for so long?

It made me wonder about the nature of them. Was there any pattern or reason for the visions that I saw?

Some of them seemed relatively related to the moment before they appeared, but this strange calm state truly contrasted with my unstable state.

I hastily grabbed one of the skewers that let out a concerning sizzling sound.

"Um..."

The four-horned demon turned to look at the skewer in my hand.

"How did you even burn it already?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Come on, I'm not a professional cook, ok?"

The four-horned demon leisurely picked up one of the skewers near her, which was not burned.

"Well, not a competent cook either."

My face twitched.

I began waving the skewer in front of her face.

"Like you are so much better than me because you didn't burn yours!"

The four-horned demon giggled while dodging the swings of my skewer. She even bit one of the pieces of meat and chewed it up. After swallowing, she nodded.

"Yep, burnt."

A twitching smile formed on my face. Then, I sighed and brought it back to eat.

The four-horned demon wasn't lying about her appetite. While I could only eat part of a wolf, she was able to finish off every single wolf that was here and still seemed hungry for more.

I raised my finger in the air.

"...Is there just a black hole in your stomach? Where did it all go?"

The four-horned demon shrugged.

"By the time I take the second bite, the first bite has already been digested. As you gain more horns as a demon the faster your digestion."

I blinked a few times.

"Huh, interesting."

With that, I watched the two of us continue for even longer, still traversing through the forest.

The frustration was starting to get to me. This was definitely the longest vision I ever experienced and that wasn't just an illusion because of my current state.

...There had to be some way to end it early.

However, I was basically being controlled by whatever this vision was. There was no way for me to move my body.

Which left my mind.

Or maybe my soul?

I'm not exactly sure what let me be conscious like this. But regardless, this was going on for far too long.

With my thoughts, I tried to forcibly get out of the vision.

...Then, my vision began to twist, while the sound became a blur.

My body stopped walking, prompting the four-horned demon to stop and look at me. I couldn't make out the expression since my vision was twisted.

With a bit more effort, my vision twisted even further.

That was when I started to speak, but the words were getting vague.

"Hey, this is probably really late, but my name is Zero-One. What is yours?"

From here, everything continued twisting on its own, almost like I flicked a switch, turning it on.

The four-horned demon smiled.

"Haha, that is a weird thing to forget. My name is-"

The only thing I heard was muffles.

...That was bad timing. If only I was a little more patient.

Everything became black like I was in a room that was painted pitch black and had no windows.

A little bit of regret seeped into me. If I figured out that demon's name, I might've been able to find her and even ask for help. I guess it's too late now.

While standing in this black void, my head felt a little fuzzy. Then, a minor pain formed in my head, like a mini headache.

Suddenly, I woke up, sitting up in a bed.

Looking around, I realized that this was my room. I lifted the sheets off me and got up. The room was dark, meaning it was probably night, but I got over to the balcony and pulled aside the curtains just to be sure.

A wave of cool air swept past me while my eyes were presented with a starry sky and a full moon. My eyes narrowed while my head snapped to the left.

If this was the night of the day we got summoned, that meant the little girl should be on Ned's balcony.

...But she wasn't.

I looked up to the sky, but not even a speck of snow was in the air. I dug deep into my memories and recalled that the snow only came at the start of the third day. Using that, I could determine this was the second night, right before it would begin snowing.

Though that was assuming it began to snow at the usual schedule.

I rubbed my temple with my palm.

What determined when it would snow anyway?

...It definitely had something to do with Ned. I remembered overhearing that girl talking to Ned previously. It seemed she had shown up to visit Ned several times when nobody else was around.

From how it looked, that girl seemed to have some sort of connection to the snow as well.

My eyes narrowed as another realization hit me.

The time I was holding onto the grain of rice and heading back to the palace, there was a cold feeling on the back of my neck. When I felt it, there was only water.

At the time, I didn't think about it.

But that was snow.

It was snowing.

I put my elbows down on the railing and pressed both hands to the sides of my head.

That girl... she must've been the one that made it snow in the first place. The early winter that doomed so many people.

My fingers began digging into my skull.

The whole reason I created the growing spell was that I thought it would solve the problem of starvation everyone had and fix this world.

But that wouldn't work, because that early winter was created by someone. In other words, they would find their own way to cause suffering if hunger didn't work.

There was a fuzzy pain in my head, but I could tell that it wasn't from a headache.

Because the pain from a headache was festering right now.

This pain... it just wouldn't go away.

Since it came after I forcibly ended the vision, that was probably the consequence of not sitting through the vision.

I looked down at the ground.

Now that I think about it, I've been waking up later and later after dying.

...Which meant that there was a cost for dying.

I was on a clock the entire time, I just didn't see it.

Nonetheless, it would all start by finding that girl. Heat began rushing to my head, making it warm despite the outside temperature.

It was a cold night.

But I was seething.