Chapter 0
“...Haaah... I cleared everything... Seriously...?”
Slowly, I leaned my stiff body back and stretched, then looked at the monitor in front of me.
-Achievement Unlocked!/Knight of the Pure White Snow
Viewed every ending and every branch in the <Guardian Knight of White Snow> chapter.
“...Why?”
The <Guardian Knight of White Snow> chapter, the story of the third expansion for Icarus Chronicle, a JRPG with a modestly dedicated fanbase.
The other expansions, <Slayer of the Verdant> and <Revolutionary of Blazing Light>, both had routes and endings that could be considered happy endings...
For some reason, Vector Soft—the game company that always claimed every story had a happy ending—and its scenario writer, Catseye, had come up with a story with no happy ending.
And unlike the other expansions, all the branching endings in this one focused solely on whether Aiden, its central character, lived or died.
Or on choosing a party to defeat the final boss, the Iceflower Dragon Mircania.
There was even an ending where you simply killed the dragon without ever learning why the Iceflower Dragon, who was supposed to be the North’s Guardian Dragon, had been seized by madness or why it had begun unleashing massive blizzards across the North.
“...Something’s weird. Are they planning to release another expansion or something?”
There were small but subtle gaps in the story, but I couldn’t tell whether I was the only one who felt them or whether the story was setting something up for the next installment rather than this expansion.
The questions had been bothering me quite a bit, so I quietly went to the game company’s website and began writing a review full of complaints.
-harang (Playtime 1,137.2 hours/Achievements 55/55)
This expansion, <Guardian Knight of White Snow>, was definitely fun too. It fixed the shortcomings pointed out in the previous expansion, <Slayer of the Verdant>—the rigid gameplay and lack of freedom in party composition—making it an expansion where I could enjoy playing alongside NPCs while trying out various routes and party combinations.
Since the story focused on the Northern Duchy of Karts, Aiden’s story as a Guardian Knight and the scenery of the northern maps were also things I really liked, and worth bonus points.
It was also great to see the characters’ growth from the main game and the two previous expansions reflected through the supporting NPCs.
However, this expansion left me wondering what the scenario writer and Vector Soft were even aiming for. The endings seemed to differ only in how willing Aiden was to kill the final boss, the Iceflower Dragon, and in the direction his feelings took.
In the main story and both expansions of Icarus Chronicle, the final boss changed depending on the route across the three endings—bad, normal, and happy—when you failed to stop the boss. It was also disappointing that this expansion had no such element.
Of course, <Guardian Knight of White Snow> was a very good story for exploring the character arc of Aiden, who had supported players as the most reliable frontline NPC in both <Slayer of the Verdant> and the main game.
As we journeyed north with him, the story also did a good job of weaving in why monster attacks on settlements had become more frequent, why Aiden had set his sights on slaying the Iceflower Dragon, and what his backstory was.
But it never clearly revealed why the Iceflower Dragon had gone on such a rampage or what had caused the outbreak. Instead, everything simply led to slaying the dragon, which made the story feel frustratingly unhelpful to players.
The protagonist’s story was certainly well told, but this expansion left me wondering if there really couldn’t have been a happy ending for the final boss.
If the next expansion keeps these strengths and fixes only the flaws, I think it could be a masterpiece. One thing’s for sure: I had fun playing this one.
I think I would’ve understood it better if I could’ve heard the story of the dragon named Mircania.
“Hmm... I think I did a pretty good job explaining both the good points and the things I was disappointed by, didn’t I?”
Well, if not, I figured it was still better than nothing, clicked the button to post the review, and leaned back in my chair.
“Haaah... Still, what a letdown. The ending routes either wiped out the whole party or had us kill the boss with a bitter aftertaste...”
Otherwise, there was the ending where Aiden, the Guardian Knight, became consumed by vengeance.
Since this expansion had only three endings that didn’t feel happy at all, I was utterly deflated after firmly believing there would be a happy ending and trying every route.
Of course, that’s not counting how I’d become a shut-in, holed up in a tiny room and playing games all month.
“Yaaawn... Somehow, I haven’t been able to get proper sleep for days...”
I’d had such high hopes for this expansion that I was all the more disappointed.
The Iceflower Dragon Mircania, who had appeared once in the main game, <Mucresia of the Sky>, and Aiden Callinix, my favorite character throughout the series.
I had no doubt those two would be the stars of this expansion—and even more so because the main cover at launch featured the Iceflower Dragon and Aiden.
I’d had such high hopes for a peaceful ending where those two somehow returned to living as Guardians of the North once more.
Of course, by now, those hopes had been shattered to pieces.
“Haaah... How can there be no happy ending...”
I let out a small sigh and quietly opened the window, only to catch the musty smell of cigarette smoke and hear the familiar voice of a drunken old man. I soon closed it again.
It was the same everyday scene as always, but for some reason, today the sight and smell felt so unbearable that I let out a small sigh and gradually drifted off to sleep.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Ugh...”
I quietly shifted in my bed, which felt unusually hot today.
It wasn’t just the heat; my throat was sore, and for some reason, breathing felt difficult too.
In the midst of that sensation, I slowly opened my eyes and saw smoke thickly filling my room, along with a red shape becoming visible outside the window.
As the heat gradually filled my room and pressed in on me, I hurriedly sat up.
What on earth was happening? I looked around, but all I could see were flames beginning to devour everything.
“W-what... What is this...”
Crackle—whoosh—!
Faced with the blaze continuing to devour everything in my home, I couldn’t keep my head straight, so I hurriedly opened the window.
“Ugh...!”
The moment the window opened, a wave of heat and smoke rushed in, making me stagger and fall face-first onto the floor.
The smoke was so thick that I couldn’t even bring myself to stand and close the window again.
Bang, bang—!
“Is anyone there?! There’s someone in here!”
Somehow, I managed to open my bedroom door, make my way out, and pound on the front door.
If the smoke was rising from below, that meant the fire had started in the apartment downstairs, at the very least.
Would the firefighters come save me?
The fire was spreading to my apartment too, and the kitchen and balcony were already burning. Would I survive?
Despair and fear of death filled my mind faster than the desire to survive could rise within me.
Even now, I could barely breathe. The desperate urge to escape clashed with rational thoughts about what I should do to improve my chances of survival, leaving my mind unable to function.
Slide—
The doorknob I grabbed to open the front door was already scorching hot. The moment I touched it, I jerked back in shock and rubbed my hand.
“Aah...?! No, I have to get out... Somebody help me! There’s someone in here!”
Then, desperate to get out, I kept pounding hard on the front door and shouting.
I was consumed by the desire to survive somehow, by the thought that no matter how disappointing things got, I just wanted to keep living quietly and playing the game I loved.
And yet, I heard no voices and no other sounds.
Even if a fire engine’s siren was blaring, I wouldn’t be able to hear it from here.
My vision blurred. The toxic gas filling the apartment was slowly eating away at my consciousness.
And just as my vision began to fade, flames began crawling once more through the gap in the door separating the kitchen from my bedroom.
The hellscape of flames I’d seen beyond that glass door would now engulf my room too.
My breathing was labored, and everything had become meaningless. I quietly despaired, letting my hands—mangled from pounding on the door and scraping at the walls—drop limply to the floor.
“Cough, hack... he... here... ah...”
As if to prove there was no longer any way for me to get out alive, carbon monoxide coursed through my body, snuffing out my consciousness.
Just before I blacked out, I felt the heat of the burning flames.
And in that pain, unable even to scream, I curled up and closed my eyes against the searing agony I never wanted to feel again.
If I fell asleep now, maybe it would hurt a little less.
Taking comfort in that thought, I quietly made a wish.
In my next life, may I never suffer from heat like this again.