Chapter 5 - Warmth Begins to Bloom (1)

Snow fell in the North yesterday, today, and the next day as well.

When the pure white snow covered everything, it seemed as if the same peace as yesterday continued, with everything appearing static.

"We've discovered a rift."

Peace did not last so easily.

"It's the largest scale in history. Fortunately, there's no sign of monsters coming out yet, but they'll likely start spewing out monsters soon."

Silence and sighs followed.

It was unclear whether it was mourning for the many who would die in the future or disappointment at the despair that those left behind would show.

But it was clear that someone would be held responsible for the outcome.

So, while everyone was just watching the silent conference room and reading the atmosphere, Grand Duchess Elisia Wintreaven proposed a solution, "We'll request support from the central government."

With a rift of this scale, once the North was breached, they would have to pay all the consequences, so they would at least provide nominal support.

To be honest, the central government's situation wasn't good either, so the probability of sending ample support was extremely low.

Fortunately, since Damian Carsaril was staying here, there was a high possibility that they would provide enough support to at least keep the youngest son of the ducal family alive.

...Or they might just make arrangements for their son to return to the family.

In fact, the latter was more likely.

For some unknown reason, as long as Damian Carsaril showed interest in her, he would likely want to stay here.

The Carsaril family would probably raise their voice, even if reluctantly.

At these words, some people's faces brightened, some still showed expressions mixed with lamentations, and most people didn't seem to have many thoughts.

It was obvious that continuing the meeting further would only lead to meaningless arguments, so just as she was about to signal her father, Lake Rick Wintreaven, to end it, the knight commander, who had always shown a particularly skeptical attitude towards Damian, brought up one thing.

"I've received reports that Damian Carsaril has been entering the deep forest every evening recently."

Right after the rift issue was brought up, the intention behind bringing up this topic was too obvious, causing a hollow laugh.

Normally, such words would have been lightly ignored and passed over, but perhaps because the rift issue was too big, everyone started to react sensitively and look at each other.

"The deep forest... I can't understand why a young master from the South would enter the forest every night, not morning or afternoon."

"That's what I'm saying. I heard he takes a bundle of stale bread from the kitchen... it might be related to something."

"It's certainly suspicious. Is he planning something?"

Unlike the outward image of the North as boisterous, rough, and likely to overlook trivial personal matters, in reality, because they had to constantly share limited resources, they were often closed off and sensitive to profits.

As a result, a culture of excluding outsiders had spread quietly.

It wasn't hard to guess that the knight commander had brought up this topic for similar reasons.

And there was probably also a calculation to hold her responsible for lack of management, as Damian's fiancée, to support her brother.

"I hear he has a character that trains harshly, so the training might continue in the deep forest."

"That could be the case... but I can't understand why he would do this training specifically in the deep forest, and at night when visibility is poor."

"..."

"Grand Duchess. It's good that you trust your fiancé Damian, but excessive trust is not good. This is the North, where one wrong judgment can drive someone to death."

To such a question implying whether she was making proper judgments due to being blinded by her fiancé,

Elisia calmly spoke to the knight commander who was sneering, "You seem to be misunderstanding something. Even if he is my fiancé, I have never trusted him."

Therefore.

"There's no need to worry too much. No matter what Damian does or what his true intentions are, I have no plans to ever trust him in the future."

After bluntly stating that although he was her fiancé, it was simply a contractual relationship, she continued with an unwavering, firm voice, "Before being his fiancée, I am Elisia Wintreaven. This will never change, so don't worry."

At this declaration, the knight commander's expression instantly distorted.

Although the interpretation could differ depending on the listener, this statement was equivalent to declaring that she would become the family head, surpassing the eldest son, Pelia Wintreaven.

Pelia himself didn't seem to care much, but some others seemed to feel differently, as changes appeared in their expressions.

***

It had been a week since I received the promise from Elisia that she would look at me properly if I made the North warm.

Perhaps because I had been feeding bread generously to the strange life forms circling around the Sun Spirit during that time,

The creatures that wouldn't have even glanced at me originally now came to me first, acting coy.

"Grr."

In fact, the identity of these strange life forms was ice spirits.

They actually took the form of wolves, but they had the characteristic of changing into what they thought was the most threatening appearance to drive away strangers.

By the way, now that I had become quite close with the spirits, they were in the form of majestic wolves rather than the strange life forms I had seen at first.

I didn't know if it was because they were spirits, but they had glossy white fur that made me feel quite good just by touching it.

While I was diligently petting the wolves and distributing the bread I had brought, a wolf about twice as large as the others approached me and spoke.

[Do you desire the Sun Spirit?]

Fenrir, the king of the ice spirits.

In the original work, there was only a description of him sitting behind and staring at the protagonist, but strangely, he spoke to me directly.

Although it was an unexpected situation, it wasn't a problematic one, so I nodded, and Fenrir smirked and said to me.

[You're honest.]

Fortunately, being honest seemed to be the right answer.

As I was calming myself down, inwardly sighing with relief, Fenrir approached me, stared at me intently, and said.

[By the way, I quite like the scent coming from your body, it's a scent I've never smelled before in my life.]

Being told that my body odor was good was completely unexpected, so I felt awkward.

Fenrir laughed briefly, sat down, and said to me.

[No need to worry too much. It means you have a fate that spirits will be drawn to.]

Spirits were drawn to me? Did Damian have such a setting? If anything, I would have thought spirits would avoid him.

I wasn't sure, but since he said so, I decided to take it positively and thanked him.

Fenrir broke the ice surrounding the Sun Spirit with his hand and smiled gently.

[Then, I entrust this poor child to you.]

With those final words, Fenrir and all the ice spirits disappeared like illusions.

At the same time, the Sun Spirit that had been trapped in ice slowly fell down.

A small, round, shining spirit reminiscent of the sun.

Carefully catching it as if receiving a snowflake, afraid of hurting it if I applied too much force, the Sun Spirit slowly opened its eyes in my palm and looked at me.

"Hello."

As I cautiously greeted it, the spirit bounced up and down in my palm, showing friendliness.

It seemed to have seen me coming here for over a month while in the ice, so I smiled and told the Sun Spirit that I looked forward to working with it.

"Myeong!"

A cute response came back.

Perhaps because it was still a lowest-grade spirit, it couldn't speak properly.

But being able to communicate at all was satisfying enough, so I slowly stroked the Sun Spirit's head with my finger.

"...Young Master?"

I had completely forgotten that I had brought Loraine along, as I was focused on obtaining the Sun Spirit.

I turned my gaze and calmly looked at Loraine, who was staring at the Sun Spirit in my palm, and said, "Could that possibly be a spirit? And was that huge wolf from earlier also a spirit?"

It didn't feel like she was asking about something she didn't know, but rather asking again because the situation was so shocking even though she knew what it was.

I nodded lightly to indicate that she was correct, and Loraine blankly admired and said to me, "I've been in the knights for an extremely long time, but this is the first time I've seen a spirit contractor."

Come to think of it, in the original work, when the protagonist contracted with the Sun Spirit, there was a scene where everyone was extremely surprised.

As I was building rapport with the spirit that had now climbed onto my shoulder, tickling it, I calmly closed my eyes and decided it was time to start resolving the goals I had been aiming for.

***

Thanks to contracting with the Sun Spirit, it became possible to restore warmth to the North depending on my efforts.

Of course, the Sun Spirit wasn't omnipotent, so various efforts were needed to maintain the warmth.

But I could easily make that level of sacrifice for Elisia, so I was just happy.

Will she smile when the North becomes warm?

If possible, I hope she would smile.

As the one who gave me the only hope when I was about to give up everything, unable to see even an inch ahead, I hoped that she too would gain hope and move forward, just as I had.

So, thinking that I wanted her to quickly escape from all worries by making the North warm, I moved my feet onto the dark street and called the Sun Spirit.

The Sun Spirit that had been circling around me flew forward when I called, waddling and shaking its body.

I reached out to the Sun Spirit and gave one command, "Can you make this area warm?"

The spirit responded proudly to my request as if it were obvious and began to emit warmth.