Chapter 32

Chapter 32

“Everyone clap!” I shouted and clapped my hands three times. None of the children followed along, no doubt finding the practice unfamiliar, but they all peered up at me quietly regardless. I spoke while I had the chance. “It doesn’t really matter who I am or who you are. What matters is that you’re about to destroy a precious artifact!”

The children stared blankly at me.

“Don’t you have chisels and hammers? Did your guild master instruct you to destroy the ice with magic?” I was asking because I was actually curious, but the children reacted like I was scolding them. They dropped their gazes to the ground, looking guilty.

“No...” murmured the child who’d pointed his staff at me, looking put out. He then rummaged around in his pocket, taking something out. “The guild master left us these, actually...”

A tiny ice pick and hammer sat in his hand. The other children produced their own chisels and hammers.

“The ice is too thick to just use these!” complained a child.

“And it’s enchanted, too! The ice will just grow back after a few minutes!” said another.

“We can do magic, so we thought we’d be able to get it out more quickly this way...” murmured a third. The children seemed melancholy. With a sigh, I held out my hand.

“Give me those,” I said. Taking an ice pick and hammer from one of the kids, I approached the large mass of ice which was nearly as tall as I was. The children, curious, gathered behind me.

They were right.

The chunks of ice that had been blasted away were reforming. The corner of the chest that had been freed was slowly becoming encased in ice again. I studied the spreading ice carefully and realized that there seemed to be a limit to its regenerative ability. The corner of the box was still slightly exposed, the spread of the ice stopping before it was fully encased again.

I might be able to recover it if I do this right.

I asked the lion-masked kid, “Can you get some hot water?”

“Yes! We can conjure some with magic!”

“You don’t want to damage the artifact. Can you spray it on the ice but make sure no water gets on the chest itself?”

The child nodded enthusiastically and held up his staff again. “Water Fission!”

A soft mist of water sprayed from the end of the staff, and moments later I called, “Okay, stop. Now, wait for my signal and spray again.”

“Okay!”

I ceased scolding them, choosing to deal with the situation myself. The hot water had melted the hard surface of the ice on contact. Careful to avoid the chest, I placed the tip of the pick into the softened ice and swung down hard on the handle with the hammer. With a cracking sound, a huge fracture formed in the ice around the chest. I drove the pick into the crack a few more times and soon was able to lift out a huge hunk of ice, revealing the corner of the chest in full again. I waited for a long moment, just watching, and my suspicions were confirmed. The ice took much longer to regenerate if the same area was eliminated multiple times.

“I think this might be the only way to remove the ice without harming the artifact...”

“What do you mean?” asked a child.

“The old-fashioned way,” I delivered the news without sympathy to the children peering up at me with shining eyes. “Don’t try to take shortcuts with magic. You’ll have to melt the ice and chip away at it piece by piece.”

“Oh...” They all groaned. It seems they had been convinced there was a simpler way.

“The area that’s carved away seems to take longer to regenerate, at least.”

“So, we chip away at the same part over and over?” one of the children asked.

“That’s correct,” I said with a nod. “I’ll work on the ice first with our little lion here. The rest of you spread out and find a spot then continue chipping away at it, okay?”

“Okay!”

I was a little flattered seeing their eyes sparkling with enthusiasm as they scrambled to obey. I was also a little excited to feel like I knew what I was doing. With the enthusiastic children clamoring to follow my lead, I began helping to extract the artifact in earnest. I’d read about the excavation process in many books, but I’d never tried it myself before.

I thought I’d have plenty of opportunities to try it in university... I smiled bitterly. I never imagined my long-awaited dream would come true for the first time after I was forced into a game world.

“Now, then. Try hammering right here. Make sure the pick doesn’t come in contact with the box, you’ll scratch it.”

“I want to try!”

“Me too, me too!”

Unexpectedly, the clumsy children had a more delicate touch than I did. We chipped away at the ice for a while, and by the time only half of the precious chest containing the artifact was exposed, we were all very tired. I expected the surrounding floor to end up soaked, but it was surprisingly dry, and much cleaner than it would have been if we’d been excavating dirt. This was mostly because, seemingly still enchanted, the ice flakes that fluttered to the ground didn’t melt.

“Oof, my back...” I said, straightening from where I’d been crouched over the ice. My entire body was aching. The children were obviously feeling tired as well, grumbling and massaging their limbs.

“This is hard...”

“Too hard.”

“But we’re halfway there!” shouted one of the children, doing their best to sound perky.

“You’re right!” responded another. I surveyed our work, noticing that the chest didn’t have a single scratch on it. I grinned. “Good work, everyone.”

“It’s all thanks to you, ma’am!”

“That’s right! It was all thanks to you!”

The children all rushed at me at once, clapping in appreciation.

I told you not to call me ma’am, I thought, frustrated. However, since I was still wearing the mask, I just resigned myself to it and clapped along. That was when I heard a chilling voice from behind.

“Who are you?”

I froze, my palms pressed together awkwardly, mid-clap. I’d forgotten why I’d come here in the first place, engrossed in excavating the artifact.

“What are you doing here?” the voice asked.

I turned around stiffly like my joints had suddenly rusted over. There was a tall man in a white rabbit mask standing a short distance away.

Winter Verdandi.

“I cast a spell on this place—it can’t be detected or accessed by just anyone.” I could see navy blue eyes glaring at me through the mask’s eye holes, cold as ice. He slowly raised a large, heavy staff, pointing it at me. “You’re wearing a mask. Are you a mage?”

A white light glowed at the top of the staff, and I had the feeling the beam of a spell might fly at me at any second. I gulped, trying desperately to think of what to say. I couldn’t very well tell him I was doing a secret side quest, could I? What was the best way out of this predicament?

Should I take off my mask right now? Tell him who I am?

As I hesitated, I noticed the numbers above his head begin to blink precariously...

[Affection Score 9%]

Then notifications began appearing.

Affection Score minus 1%

Affection Score minus 2%

Affection Score minus 2%

Affection Score minus 1%

The flurry of tiny messages blinking in and out of existence above his affection score made my jaw drop.

Huh? What in the world?

[Affection Score 3%]

No! Please, no!

His affection score had dropped to 3% in an instant. And it hadn’t stopped there, either. The letters were still blinking threateningly. I bit my quivering lower lip.

I thought there was no penalty. There was no mention of minus points! Come on!

I was relieved I was still wearing the mask. If my face had been visible, I might have burst into tears at this unexpected turn of events. Winter jerked his staff, which was still aimed in my direction.

“Tell me immediately how you got in here,” he pressed.

“Y-you see...” I started. I hadn’t experienced such a sudden plummet in affection score since entering this world, and so my mind was drawing a blank. I was so shocked that I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. My lips moved helplessly, but no words came out.

“We brought her here!” one of the children cried as they all ran in front of me, forming a barrier between us. “This lady seemed to know a lot about excavating artifacts, so we asked her to help us!”

“That’s right!” another little voice hollered.

“She helped us, and we’re nearly done! Look!”

They pointed at the chunk of ice behind us. Winter glanced at it, his eyes widening briefly.

“I’ve told you multiple times that outsiders are never to be allowed in here,” he said sternly to the children.

“But she said she was a guest!”

“And the task you gave us was too hard...”

I hadn’t expected the children to stand up for me. After all, we’d only met a few hours ago. I barely had time to ponder how appreciative I felt, however. Winter’s cold stare changed as soon as he heard the word “guest” leave the child’s lips. He glanced between the artifact and me, then lowered his glowing staff and bowed politely.

“I was rude and after you helped the children, too. Please, forgive me. This place is usually off-limits to all but a select few.”

This was the first apology that I’d ever received from one of the game’s love interests—if you excluded Eckles begging for forgiveness. In this world, no one ever apologized to Penelope. The apology didn’t leave me feeling happy, however. I felt stupid for getting excited over picking away at some ice. Now, I was terrified that Winter might kill me.