CH 196

My plan was simple.

At the top of this snowy mountain, where snow falls, a spirit’s asleep. A dragon-shaped god.

Persuade the god, make him a villain of Ego Stream, and join her to the party.

Good. The theory was perfect. I’m a little worried about how to persuade him, but it’ll work out somehow.

Yes, I had such a happy thought…

Until I climb this mountain.

“Gosh, fuck… This is really bad…”

The snowy mountains we are climbing.

No, exactly, Choi Se-hee and I were groaning on the snowy mountain, where the snow was sweeping like Frozen.

“Hey, Da-in! I don’t think we can do it.”

I was whining forward, listening to Choi Se-hee’s voice right behind me.

Snow swirling almost to the point where I can’t open my eyes. Obviously, it didn’t look like this before going up, but when I came up to see what power the god uses, it was snowing like crazy .”Oh… Damn it.”

I was struggling hurting my eyes, covering my front with my arms to stop the snow swirling in front of me.

And Choi Se-hee who followed behind me.

“Hey, I can’t! Can’t I just use my powers?”

And at her words, I turned around.

Then what I see is her, who is about to turn into Electra with lightning under her feet.

I hurriedly restrained such Choi Se-hee.

“Hey, no! If you do that, you’ll get in trouble again.”

“Urgh…”

Just as she was about to rise from the floor, spraying electricity like that, her tongue kicked and she came back down.

As far as I know, the god is in deep sleep in the cave at the top of this snow mountain.

And since all of these mountains are under the jurisdiction of the god, if we use your ability for no reason, we can stimulate the god who can detect it and wake him up.

So for now, it’s best to go up quietly.

“Hmm… But I think we’ll get lost if we do this wrong.”

I murmured to Choi Se-hee in the snow. I can’t even see right in front of me, so I’m going to turn around.

However, I couldn’t hear Choi Se-hee’s answer, so I looked back, and something orange was floundering alone on the other side.

“Hey, it’s here!”

I mean, when did you get there?

Eventually, I cleaned the snowfield and went to Choi Se-hee’s place, and I grabbed her again and look back.

…But still, it’s snowing too much.

“Hey, I can’t see ahead!”

At Choi Se-hee’s words shouting from behind like that, I eventually held out my back and reached out my hand to her.

“Haa, hold my hand.”

“What?”

As I reached out my hand, she looked up at me with a whimper of red cheeks in the cold.

I spoke calmly to such Choi Se-hee.

“Hold my hand and follow me. We’ll lose each other at this rate.”

“Uh, yeah. Well, let’s do it!”

Choi Se-hee, whose cheeks are slightly redder than before, flinched a little and put her hand on my hand.

I took her hand like that, and I stood slightly ahead and began to move forward.

“Now! All right, let’s go!”

After holding hands with me, she purposely raised her tension and walked forward vigorously with a loud noise.

Looking at her, whose ears turned slightly red even though she wore a scarf, I smiled and climbed the snow mountain together again.

My hands are warm, so I think it’s better than before.

***

We kept climbing the snow mountain like that.

It’s hard to climb a mountain, then it’s also so hard to walk against the cold and snowstorm.

After walking up for a few hours, we concluded that we should take a break.”But where should I rest?”

“I know…”

A snow storm still blowing fresh.

We, who were still climbing hand in hand in the middle of it, realized that we wanted to rest, but there was no place to rest. I mean, we can’t sit on this mountain and rest in the snow.

Having my brain functioning for a moment like that, I soon reached the conclusion, flicking my other hand.

“Yes, if we keep climbing this mountain, there will probably be a cave. Let’s find it and rest.”

“Cave? It’s not like it’s the Himalayas. This is like Mount Jiri. How are we going to find any caves?”

“No… I told you there was a cave at the top of this mountain. Then isn’t there a possibility that there’s a cave in the middle?”

“…Is that so?”

Choi Se-hee began to be persuaded by what I thought was logical. Don’t you think it’s pretty good? If you don’t have that, you can’t rest and you have to go all the way up…

“Yes, let’s go this way for now.”

So we started to hurt our eyes again along the ridge that seemed to be something for some reason.

How much would it have gone up in that state.

“Oh, does the weather seem a little better?”

The snow, which had been falling like a fierce storm until a while ago, has now calmed down quite a bit now.

Of course, even if it calmed down, it was still snowing heavily, but it was much better than the strong wind just before.

So for the first time since we crossed the middle of this mountain, we were able to walk around looking around.

“Hey, look over there. There’s a river.”

“Really?”

So we found a frozen river.

Along the long river, which had already been frozen and covered with snow, we began to walk slowly up.

Only then did we look around and climb up the road. The view of white snow piled up on green pine trees along the frozen river was rather elegant.

Even though I was exhausted, I looked around and talked to Choi Se-hee.

At last, we were able to find something like a cave.

“Hey, isn’t that a cave?”

“Oh, really?”

“Yay, there really is. I can finally get the snow out of my eyes.”

That’s how we came into the cave.

A cave in the middle of the mountain that was not big or small in its own way.

When we came in, we realized that we were still holding hands with each other while trying to shake off our clothes… Come to think of it, the snowstorm stopped long ago, but why did we still hold hands?

We let go off ouhands naturally, patted away the snow from our clothes, and leaned against the cave wall as if we were sitting down. Oh, I feel so alive now…

While sitting like that and giving my tired legs a rest, Choi Se-hee handed me a cup.

“Come on, drink.”

“What is this? Oh… You brought it? Thank you.”

I was wondering what it was, and I brought warm tea in the tumbler. She put it in the lid of the tumbler as a cup and gave it to me.

I thanked him and drank it with my mouth on the cup.

It was so cold that it was a little cold even though it was in the tumbler, but when I drank it, the warm feeling spread all over my body around my neck.

I, who enjoyed the feeling, immediately drank a cup and returned it to Choi Se-hee.. Soon after, she poured tea back in there, and drank herself.

We were sitting face to face with our legs stretched out.

After resting while looking outside the snow for a while, I turned my head and looked at Choi Se-hee. She was looking out, sipping the tea in a daze with her shoulder-length orange hair leaning against the wall like me with a red scarf in one hand.

I talked to Choi Se-hee.

“It’s hard, right? You had a hard time following me. I should’ve gone alone. I shouldn’t have bothered you.”

“Huh? Oh, no. It’s fun since I haven’t been outside for a long time. You don’t have many chances to go hiking with snow flying to your face like this, right?”

It was Choi Se-hee laughing while saying that.

Thank you for being positive.

We took a break for a while after that.

“At that time, Seo Jayoung suddenly roared and Eun-wol appeared from behind. Eun-wol is fine, but Han Seo-eun, who was next to her, screamed in surprise…”

“Phew.”

After sitting down for a while and having enough rest talking about this and that, we stood up to start again. Put your backpack back on, trim your clothes.

And just before I left, I approached her with a small sigh as I saw Choi Se-hee shouting, “Now, let’s go!” with her scarf on.

“Wait, come here.”

“Huh? Why?”

Facing Choi Se-hee, who came to me as if asking why, I reached out and slightly loosened the red scarf she was wearing and tied it straight again. If you pull it like this and tie it again…

“Well, there we go. Let’s go again.”

“Uh, okay…”

Somehow, with Choi Se-hee whose ears are slightly red again, we climbed the mountain once again.

I feel like my eyes have calmed down more while I’ve rested. I mean, is it not snowing anymore as we keep going up?

“Hey, the snow almost stopped now?”

“That’s right”

When Choi Se-hee said so with her hand up in the sky, I nodded. It definitely stopped.

And the blue sky that you can see from a high place. Looking up for a moment, I grabbed my trembling legs and reached the top.

Now I can see down there.

And after looking at the view for a while, we finally arrived in front of a huge cave.

“Is this the place? There’s someone we came to…”

“Uh. Probably in here. Oh and, don’t be surprised at anything.”

“Hey, it’s a bit scary.”

With Choi Se-hee next to me, shaking slightly whether she was overwhelmed by the huge black cave, I went inside.

Well, I’m starting to worry as we got there.

…Will I be able to persuade her?

***

The headquarters of the Hero Association.

Stardus’ office is upstairs.

“…..”

Shin Haru, who was sitting there, blankly working as usual, suddenly muttered, leaning her back on the backrest.

“…It’s getting late.”

And her blue eyes to say so.

She was quietly looking at the small calendar, which was placed next to the monitor on the desk.