Chapter 38 Howls of Snow

[Winter]

The cold winds of winter howled, arriving with an abrasiveness this time around as snow quickly piled up around Yullim.

“Brrr…”

He sat in front of the fireplace, rubbing his hands together as he kept a plaid blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

“You’re not cold?” He asked, looking over at Irene.

Irene was reading a book as studying for her own learning of the language, but she was still wearing a light dress that certainly did not aid in repelling the cold.

The girl with frizzy, but long, dark-blue hair shook her head, “…Nope. Is that weird?”

“I’d say so,” he laughed.

In the kitchen, Celly was helping Treyna prepare a warm dinner–though the half-elf girl wasn’t very experienced with Yullim dishes, apparently.

“…You want me to…skin this?”

Celly was pale in the face, holding the knife up as she looked down at the white-furred deer that was lying limp on the table.

“Yup!” Treyna replied with a beaming smile, “Have at it! This is the way we do things around Yullim!”

“I-I see…” Celly gulped.

Cooking was one of the things his mother prided herself on the most, aside from her bright son and her adequate knowledge of magic, though she didn’t like to display it often.

He could hear the two speaking from the kitchen, letting out a quiet sigh with a smile as he could feel Celly’s struggle.

Julius told me a secret that he made me swear ten times on, about their days as full-time adventurers. Apparently one of the other girls in the group was an amazing cook, and Treyna…well, he described her dishes back then as “emperor-class poison spells.” Long story short, I guess Julius got a bit…close with that other girl, and Treyna thought it was entirely because of their differences in culinary abilities. So, Treyna abandoned her path as a mage and became a cook–all to seal the deal with Julius. These are my parents…seriously, were they even qualified to have a kid?! He thought.

While sitting in front of the fireplace as the orange flames began to settle down, the front door suddenly opened as the wind howled inside.

He, along with Irene, turned back to see Julius stomping in, bundled in a fur-lined coat while covered in a layer of snow, bringing in the icy winds with him as he carried firewood in his arms.

“Close the door!” He yelled out, shivering already.

Julius stumbled in as the fearsome winds of winter brushed against his back, kicking the door shut as the raging winds were silenced.

“…Phew…” Julius let out a sigh of relief.

The man’s beard had grown from an aesthetic five-o’-clock shadow to a full-blown, jet-black beard, though at the moment it was lined with droplets of snow.

As the grown man shook the snow off of him like a wet mutt, he walked over, setting the firewood down before splitting them into smaller chunks with his bare hands, tossing them into the fireplace to stoke it further.

“…Ah, that hits the spot…” He closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth.

Julius plopped himself down right beside him, letting out a relaxed sigh in unison with his son as the flames combatted the icy grips of winter.

“How’d you get this much firewood, anyway? You were gone for less than half an hour or so…You didn’t go into town, right?” He asked curiously, looking up at Julius.

The man casually answered, “I took down a tree.”

“…Right. I don’t see an ax on you,” he furrowed his eyebrows inquisitively.

Julius tapped the scabbard that was strapped to his back, “Why would I need an ax? I’ve got ‘Onyxwing’!”

It’s not as if he didn’t know the sword was strapped to his father’s back, but it was pretty obvious that using a sword to cut down trees would definitely dull the blade, if not outright destroy it.

But, he stopped himself from questioning further as he recalled the nature of ‘Onyxwing”–Julius’ personal sword: it was enchanted with a spell that allowed the blade’s edge to never dull. Though Julius always went on-and-on about his beloved, black-steel sword, he never actually spoke about how it came to be enchanted.

“How’s it, Irene? Warm enough for ya’?” Julius asked the young girl.

Irene nodded, but didn’t give a verbal answer.

“Apparently the cold doesn’t affect her,” he said.

“Is that right? That’d be pretty convenient for adventuring!” Julius laughed, “That reminds me of this place I went to. It was when I was just starting off as an adventurer–still green behind the ears and thinking I could conquer the world.”

Both he and Irene listened in as the three sat around the fireplace. Though it was practically an everyday occurrence that Julius told stories of his adventures, they never grew old, and he never seemed to hear the same one.

“It was an area that had picked up the name “Stretch of Zero.” There isn’t a single village there and it’s flooded with snow year-round,” Julius said.

“…Wait, this is in Milligarde?” He asked.

Julius nodded, “Yup! Hard to believe, isn’t it? Around here, it’s usually endless green and blooming flowers except for winter.”

“Yeah, it kind of is,” he nodded.

“Well, anyway–it’s this whole area; there’s not a damn person living there. Not that anybody can survive there. All that lives there are beasts–and let me tell ya’: the harsh cold forged those beasts into real bastards,” Julius explained with a smile.

“Really?” Irene looked up at him with a curious look in her hazel eyes.

Julius nodded, “Yeah! You should’ve seen the look on my face when I ran into a “Goliath Bear” there–it was about five times the size of the bears around here! It had this coat of silver fur and claws that were practically swords.”

Such a fantastical story would normally be nothing but exaggeration to the young boy’s ears, but in this world, he knew it was without a doubt the truth.

“How’d you run into it?” Irene asked.

“Yeah, why were you in a place like that anyway? Sounds like somewhere nobody outta be,” he added.

Julius seemed overjoyed to have these questions posed, “Well, let me tell you…”

He was able to picture it for himself as his father told the story with a youthful flow in his eyes.

“I saw that quest posted on the board–it was just a simple ore gathering quest, but the reward for it was sky-high. I remember thinking to myself it was practically free money. Little did I realize–the reward was that high because nobody wanted to go into that place–’The Stretch of Zero’,” Julius explained, “…I nearly froze myself to death ten times over before I found the cave with the ore, but…”

“But?” He asked curiously.

“Little did I know that the cave was the den of a certain grumpy bear,” Julius smiled.