Chapter 6 - Warmth Begins to Bloom (2)

In the North, when heavy snowfall made it extremely difficult to find food, people were forced to make value judgments.

In other words, those who couldn’t immediately find food were classified as worthless.

In contrast, adults who could go out and find food were highly valued.

Therefore, in such situations, the North sacrificed the elderly and children first.

The elderly and children who couldn't find food were assets for the future, not the present, so they became worthless for the time being.

If one invested in the worthless out of sympathy, the whole family could starve to death.

Paradoxically, secretly putting frozen food scraps in one's mouth and going out to hunt while the hungry child cried was the only way to save the children.

The North was a place where everything was directly linked to survival, forcing the realm of emotions to freeze in a barren and desolate environment.

In that sense, the North seen in the middle of the city was an excessively empty place.

Due to heavy snowfall, everywhere was covered in snow, and the only people walking around were hunters and a few adult males.

They passed by, glaring at me with wary eyes.

To them, outsiders were merely competitors coming to take their share.

Moreover, powerful outsiders could potentially collapse what they had barely built up.

That was why they were wary and avoided me.

Feeling like I had fallen alone into a one-eyed village, I called out the spirit, placed it on my palm, and opened my mouth, "Can you help me?"

The spirit nodded quickly as if it would do anything I said.

I synchronized with the spirit's power and emitted warmth.

Drawing out the spirit's power wasn't that difficult.

I just had to empathize with the spirit and think about what I wanted to achieve.

However, perhaps because I was still inexperienced, a strong mental burden came with a headache.

But it was bearable enough, so I endured it and spread the Sun Spirit's power widely.

"...Huh?"

Starting with someone's surprised voice, the endlessly falling snow from the sky began to subside.

Of course, I couldn't block all parts of the city, so I could only achieve this in a radius about the size of a playground centered around me.

But it was enough size to draw out the Northern people who were hiding in their homes to escape the cold.

"It's not snowing here."

"It's warm here...?"

As the falling snow disappeared and turned into rain, melting everything around, the Northern people came out one by one with dumbfounded expressions.

Although I couldn't emit perfect warmth yet, so it wasn't an extremely warm temperature, it was close to a miracle temperature for them, so they all started to get rained on, centered around me.

"Everyone seems to like it."

Loraine smiled slightly, looking at the people around looking up at the sky.

I nodded towards Loraine, suppressing the oncoming headache, and slowly looked around.

The snow continued to melt.

People, not expecting to see such a sight in the North, began to offer prayers standing on the muddy ground.

Some people cried out, lying face down on the muddy ground, calling someone's name.

"Oh Goddess..."

"If only... if only it had gotten warm a little faster. E-Elena could have lived."

"Ha... haha, it's warm."

The Sun Spirit seemed to have the power of life in addition to simply emitting warmth, as it quickly bloomed flowers and grass, erasing the desolation.

This meant that the surroundings were gradually turning blue.

It also meant that it had the effect of drawing more attention and rousing people.

I was a bit disappointed that everyone seemed unaware that I had done this, being distracted by the temperature change.

But I thought it didn't matter much as long as Elisia recognized it, and was about to shake it off when…

"Here, Big Brother, take this!"

A little child held out a blooming flower.

I was about to say thank you, looking at the blue flower in my hand, when someone who looked like the child's mother quickly pulled the child away and went into the house.

It seems that to them, I was still just an outsider and someone to be wary of.

Still, I thought it was fortunate that at least one person recognized me, when...

"No, Young Master... what on earth did you do?"

Loraine looked at me with an expression full of shock and suspicion from the side.

"There's something like that."

At those words, Loraine gave me a suspicious look, then nodded slightly, muttering, “So it was something like that after all.”

I felt like she was making some strange misunderstanding, but I didn't have the energy to care, so I ignored it and looked around.

Snow no longer fell in the city.

Instead of the silence that had been reciting despair, laughter could be heard.

Looking at this place where hope had begun to bloom, I smiled, thinking I hoped Elisia would like it.

***

After six months of my desperate efforts, the cities of the North no longer shivered in the cold.

The cold surrounding the cities had all disappeared.

Many life forms had begun to sprout on the land where proper life couldn't grow due to freezing.

So many crops grew in the North that the expressions “barren” and “desolate” no longer suited it.

Trade, which had originally been extremely limited, also increased greatly, and many goods began to circulate in the streets.

Although it was still difficult to evaluate it as a wealthy city, it was no longer to the extent where starvation deaths occurred every time heavy snow fell, so the city was full of smiles.

Above all, hope has arisen.

Those who had been wary of strangers, hunching their bodies in fear of losing what little warmth they had left,

Now began to straighten their backs and approach new things.

They began to act with the belief that things would get better, breathing life into each other, but...

The problem is that they've started to take this warmth for granted?

Not to gild the lily, but the reason the North had become warm was entirely thanks to me.

To be more precise, I was “temporarily” keeping the Northern cities warm by borrowing the power of the spirit.

In other words, if I stopped putting effort into making the North warm, it would quickly become no different from before.

It's such a power-consuming act, so I wish they would develop on their own if possible.

I was worried because it seemed they weren't doing such research from the point they started taking it for granted.

But it wouldn't be a big problem as long as I suffered alone for Elisia.

Well, anyway, the important thing would be about Elisia.

By the way, perhaps because I had been greeting Elisia every day for six months, making her tea, and continuously making the North warm, she no longer told me to get lost as soon as she saw me.

Of course, that doesn't mean we've become close...

The relationship wasn't vastly different compared to six months ago.

If I had to say, it had changed from a hateful relationship to something like a strange neighbor next door.

Of course, even this much was quite satisfying, so I was making tea for Elisia, and just as I was about to bring it to her, I discovered something quite good.

"Elisia!"

Having found something good, I hurriedly headed towards the office to show Elisia, calling out to her.

Elisia stared at me blankly with an expressionless face.

I looked at her like that and pointed to the corridor, saying, "Come with me for a moment!"

"...Damian. I'm sorry, but I don't think I can because I still have a lot of work piled up."

"It's fine, so come!"

Perhaps because I had never acted like this before,

Elisia unexpectedly... didn't follow me obediently, but was dragged out into the corridor as if being pulled, saying,

"I hope this is something meaningful."

There was a bit of tension at the words implying to be prepared if it wasn't meaningful, but I really wanted to show this, so I endured it and moved my feet quickly.

"..."

After shaking Elisia's shoulder, who was looking at documents with a vicious expression, I pointed to a window in the corner of the corridor and said,

"Care to look here?"

"...Haa."

Perhaps thinking it would be better to look since she had been dragged this far, even if it was meaningless,

Elisia looked out the window with an expressionless face like an emotionless jointed doll.

At that moment, for the first time, Elisia's expression changed from expressionless to one of wide-eyed wonder, like someone who had found hope at the end of despair.

She probably knew the North had changed greatly from checking documents.

But it seemed this was the first time she was seeing how much it had changed, having been cooped up in her office looking only at documents.

I watched Elisia, who was looking as if she was seeing something very precious, and playfully said, "Do you like it?"

When asking such a question, probably with high probability, I expected to hear answers devoid of any emotion like “I'm not interested,” “It's not bad,” or “Yes.”

So I wasn't expecting much, but…

"...Yes. I... I like it very much."

A completely unexpected answer popped out.

I blinked in surprise, rather taken aback myself, as I looked at the smile spreading across Elisia's face.

Elisia looked at me and expressed her gratitude.

"Thank you very much for showing me this sight."

The strong wind caused Elisia's snow-white hair to scatter in all directions.

Perhaps because it caught the light, I thought it shone brighter than anything else, and as I stared at it blankly…

She smiled brightly again and continued speaking, looking at the vibrant cityscape, "So what I've been doing wasn't meaningless after all."

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

"I'm really... glad."

I was continuously dumbfounded, never dreaming I would hear such words.

I just blinked and nodded.

She continued to look at the scenery outside the window, then turned her gaze and said, "Well then, I should work harder."

Then, unlike before, she began to walk down the corridor with a lively expression.

I smiled, realizing once again why I had liked her, watching her back as she walked away.

No, I had been smiling.

Until an unimaginably massive army of monsters burst out from the rift.

And that was...

"There were reports that Lord Damian entered the deep forest every night. And this sudden warmth... it seems clearly related to the rift no matter how you look at it."

It was also related to the declaration of breaking off the engagement that would soon happen.