Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Jerson rolled the snowman’s body over to me.

“It’s cold. Let me buy you something hot to drink as you finish your snowman.”

I watched Jeron walk over to the stands, then turned back to Siegren, who had been quiet all this time.

“Siegren, I’d like to attach the head onto the body. Can you help me?” I asked.

“Of course...”

Though I had wanted us to put the head on together, Siegren took over the task. He picked up the head of the snowman by himself and hoisted it on top of the body.

“Thank you,” I said. I gently began to smooth out the lumpy surface of the snowman with my hands.

Siegren seemed to hesitate for a moment before blurting out, “Fiona.”

“Yes?”

“What are you going to do from now on?”

“I don’t know. I’ll probably continue living like this for a while,” I said.

Siegren shook his head awkwardly. “That’s... not what I’m asking,” he said.

Then I realized that he sounded a bit different from his usual self. I made a point of looking Siegren in his eyes. “What did you mean to say?”

He looked flushed, perhaps from the cold.

“...Come?” he mumbled.

“What?”

“Are you going to come...?” he asked again.

Because his voice was so quiet, I couldn’t quite catch his words. “What did you say, Siegren?”

He suddenly shouted, “I asked if you were going to come and see!”

I was surprised by his sudden question. “Um... see what?”

“Me!” yelled Siegren.

I began to put the pieces together. So... Siegren just asked me if I’d come and see him, right? But before I could answer, Siegren hung his head as if to hide his face as he stepped back.

“It’s okay. I wasn’t trying to put you on the spot... You probably hung out with me out of pity. I shouldn’t have—” he said.

I grabbed his hand hastily as he tried to back away. Geez, he was really getting ahead of himself, wasn’t he? “No! I’m going to come and see you!” I said.

Siegren flushed as I stepped closer to him.

“Y-your hand...” he said.

“I’ll come every day!”

He averted his gaze. “You don’t have to go so far...”

“It’s okay. I was the one who said I wanted to be your friend, wasn’t I? So I promise I’ll come.”

Siegren froze, his eyes wide as if he had heard the unthinkable. I wondered why. I mean, I was the one who asked to be his friend. Shouldn’t he have expected this?

We stayed silent for a while. Snow from a nearby branch plopped to the ground. The atmosphere had grown so awkward that I had resorted to silently counting sheep when Siegren quietly called out my name.

“Fiona.”

“Yes?”

He clasped my hand with a grave expression. “You’ll always have to be the one to come see me...”

Well, that was true. Siegren couldn’t just come over to the Heylon Castle as he pleased.

“I know. That’s okay,” I said. Siegren’s hand covered my hand completely. I felt warmth radiating from his touch.

“But I’m going to do my best so that one day it will be me coming to see you,” said Siegren before adding, “I mean, it’s unfair for you to come over all the time when we’re friends. It’d be a lot of work.”

I was the one who was surprised this time. I lived in Heylon Castle, which not just anyone could access. If Siegren planned to come meet me there, it meant that he was going to rise up the ranks just so he could see me. Moreover, this was the first time that the word “friend” had ever come out of his lips.

“Then again, I’m an orphan without anything to his name. So I get it if you can’t believe me—”

“No, I believe you. Siegren. I believe you can do it.” I smiled sheepishly as I looked at his trembling gray-blue eyes.

“Not only that, I know you’ll become a great person someday,” I said.

It was true. Siegren would grow up to gain so many things in this life—wealth, honor, power, and... a lovely partner who would heal the wounds in his heart.

“I promise,” I said in a solemn tone, “I’ll help you so that this will come true.”

Even if I hadn’t said anything to him, I always would have helped him. Ever since I had seen the wounds disfiguring his small and precious body, I had sworn to always protect him.

Siegren once again froze, and I smiled sadly.

On this winter day, Siegren and I became true friends.

Heylon

Heylon’s winters were long. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to describe them as unending. Here in the northern frontlines, the snow melted for only a single month in the entire year.

I must have been crazy when writing this story... Why did I make Heylon so cold? Thanks to my decision, I had been suffering here in the bitter cold for the past five years. No matter how long I lived here, I just couldn’t get used to this weather. Besides, after fighting for hours on end on top of a mountain in the middle of a blizzard, I think one earns the right to complain a little bit.

“It’s so cold!” I cried pitifully. The soldier next to me turned to me, looking quite pale. This was apparently his first battle, and he still had the look of a young boy. His name was Allen, if I recalled correctly. Allen seemed to be in his late teens like I was.

“L-Lady Fiona! Focus on the battle!” he said.

“I am focused,” I said, snapping my fingers as a lightning bolt crashed down on the ground right next to Allen. “Also, don’t mind me. Observe your own surroundings calmly.”

Allen slumped to the ground looking pale, his eyes unable to leave the spot where the lightning had fallen. It had left behind the scorched carcass of a demonic beast that had tried to snap his neck.

I grinned at his frozen figure, unable to even scream.

“By the way, if you let your mind wander like that, you’re going to end up on the demonic beast’s dinner table.”

Allen’s legs began shaking violently.

Hmm? He seemed quite frightened. What I had said was no worse than a light joke between fellow soldiers, but he seemed to have taken it to heart. So I put my hand on Allen’s shoulders and smiled kindly. “Don’t be scared. I’m here so that doesn’t happen.”

Allen looked up at me in a daze, his cheeks flushed red from the cold. The flush made him look even younger. He looked touched.

“L-lady Fiona!”

“Hey, don’t just stand there. Get out of the way,” said a gruff voice as something huge dropped right in front of Allen.

It was the head of a demonic beast with fangs the size of my forearm… The blood from the beast’s neck sprayed Allen’s clothes and the snowy ground.

“Argh...” he gagged, shocked further by the frightful sight. Well, so much for trying to comfort him.

I sighed quietly as I looked at the man who tossed the demonic beast’s head at the new soldier. He walked nonchalantly across the bloodied snow strewn with the dead demonic beasts, his face delicate and cold as if carved from ice.

“Siegren,” I said.

The pretty boy had long outgrown his childish looks. Siegren’s eyes were now sharp and cool like a hawk soaring through the sky in search of prey. His callused, trained hand held a sharpened sword, dripping with the blood of the beast he had just killed. However, the sight did not strike fear in me.

Rather, Siegren looked quite beautiful, his sharp looks only elevated by the ruthless scenery behind him. Striding toward me with his long legs, he looked at me with his gray-blue eyes.

“What?” he said, his lips picture-perfect.

Man, was he still in his rebellious phase...? What was with that tone? He was nineteen. He should be over that adolescent nonsense by now.

“What do you mean what? You should apologize if you surprise someone,” I said.

“Abel told us to train the rookies properly.

If he’s shocked by this, we’d be in trouble,” said Siegren grumpily before looking down at Allen with a cold, dangerous smile.

“This is just the beginning,” he said.

Needless to say, Allen, as well as every other soldier nearby, went pale.