Chapter 90
How long ago could that have been?
A hundred years, two hundred years, or perhaps even longer ago.
The newly born ice spirit was all alone in the mountains.
There were many weak lower spirits, but only the ice spirit possessed self-awareness as a higher spirit.
And so, in the snowfield where they were all alone, the ice spirit made many friends.
Foxes, weasels, bears, deer, rabbits, squirrels, birds──all of them were ice statues.
They were so exquisitely crafted that they looked ready to start moving at any moment, but they could not move on their own. Nor did they ever reply when spoken to.
They were ice statues, after all. Friends who would melt away when spring came.
──I want a friend who won't melt away.
One day, the ice spirit met a beautiful dragon in the mountains.
The beautiful dragon's eyes lit up when it saw the ice statues the spirit had made, and it said:
"Beautiful, beautiful, so very beautiful."
The ice spirit was so happy to hear those words that they made the most beautiful ice statue they had ever created.
It was a statue of the dragon. Its beautiful, graceful body and wings had been recreated so perfectly that it looked ready to take flight at any moment.
The dragon was overjoyed by the statue and praised the spirit for it.
But when spring came, the ice statue would melt away.
The ice spirit began to wonder. If the statue melted away, would the dragon grow tired of them and go somewhere else?
After all, the ice spirit had nothing to offer. All they could do was make beautiful ice statues.
When spring came and the statue melted, the ice spirit would no longer be needed. The dragon would leave, too.
And so the ice spirit wished that spring would never come...
That wish became a blizzard, burying the mountain and the human settlements beneath snow.
──This is fine. We don't need spring.
But from that day on, the dragon's figure was nowhere to be seen in the mountains.
It was not beneath its favorite great tree, nor in the beautiful valley filled with icicles, nor by the river where clear water flowed.
"Toure, where are you, Toure?! No, no, don't go away! Toure, Toure!"
The ice spirit wandered the mountains for three days and three nights. Then the dragon appeared in human form.
The dragon had taken the form of a young man with silver hair and golden eyes. Covered in snow from head to toe, he said he had gone to the human settlement.
Then the dragon offered the ice spirit a beautiful sugar sculpture and said:
"Pique, Pique, don't cry. I'll give you ice that never melts."
The dragon seemed to think that the ice spirit was sad because the statues had melted.
That was why it had gone down to the human settlement in search of ice that would not melt.
It wasn't the statues melting that saddened the ice spirit.
They were afraid that when the beautiful ice statue melted, the dragon would disappear, too.
When the ice spirit honestly voiced what was in their heart, the dragon smiled gently.
"Pique, when the blizzard stops and spring comes, let's look at the flowers blooming in the snowmelt meadows together. Let's listen to the spring herald bird sing together."
The beautiful dragon's human incarnation spoke in a voice like a song.
He spoke of the mountain's beautiful spring scenery, and of a future in which the ice spirit and the dragon walked through the spring mountains.
"I want to be with Pique through spring, when the new leaves sprout; summer, when sunlight glitters on the river; autumn, when the nuts on the trees turn colorful... and the long, long silver-white winter, too. I want to be with Pique through all of it."
The blizzard of sorrow covering the mountain was the tears of an ice spirit who did not know how to cry.
And now, at last, those tears stopped completely.
From then on, the two of them spent many cycles of the seasons together.
In spring, they counted the new shoots as they sprouted.
In summer, they played in the river, whose surface reflected the sunlight.
In autumn, they gathered glossy nuts, strung them together, and made a necklace.
And when the long winter came, Pique made ice statues and showed them to the dragon.
Spring, summer, autumn, and the long, long silver-white winter—the dragon and the ice spirit were always together.
＊ ＊ ＊
"There! There! The White Dragon!"
"With scales from the White Dragon, we'll never have to worry about firewood again!"
"We'll be able to eat our fill of bread!"
Uneasy at the commotion among the lower spirits, the ice spirit ran through the mountain and saw the White Dragon pierced through with spears, surrounded by humans.
The humans living at the foot of the mountain—the 〈People of Haila〉—worshipped the White Dragon as a god and generally did not enter the mountain. They came only once a year to offer tribute at the shrine.
The intruders were not 〈People of Haila〉. To them, the white dragon was nothing more than prey.
All the humans were shabbily dressed.
Perhaps the happiness they wanted was something small and simple: to spend winter in a house with enough firewood, without freezing, and to fill their gaunt, starving bodies with bread.
But what does that matter?
The ice spirit froze every human solid and dropped them off the cliff.
Not a shred of pity stirred within them.
The ice spirit had no interest in human circumstances or concerns.
"Toure, Toure, don't die..."
The White Dragon was a fragile creature. An attack anywhere but its brow could prove fatal.
The ice spirit poured their mana into it and desperately nursed the White Dragon.
Then, after ten nights had passed, one morning the White Dragon awoke and said:
"Who are you?"
The wounds the White Dragon had suffered were fatal.
It had become unable to absorb mana on its own.
As a result, the White Dragon grew steadily weaker, and even its mind was beginning to break down.
If the ice spirit poured their mana into it, the White Dragon could recover temporarily—but the mana of spirits and dragons had different properties. Spirit mana was too pure to blend with the White Dragon's body.
The ice spirit could not save the White Dragon with their own power alone.
So they thought and thought, then decided to go down to the human settlement to find a way to save the White Dragon.
"Toure, I'm going to the human settlement. Disguise yourself as a human and hide in this shrine until I return."
When the ice spirit told it this, the dragon, disguised as a human, cocked his head and said:
"Hello. Who are you?"
The weakened White Dragon had forgotten not only the ice spirit, but even who it was itself.
The White Dragon now harbored a great wound deep within its body, and it was slowly breaking down from within. Its body and mind alike.
The ice spirit embraced the dragon in human form. Its slender body, thin enough to snap, smelled of blood and snow.
"Toure, Toure. I'll save you, no matter what..."
Once you recover and remember everything, I want you to call me in that gentle voice.
(My name.)
＊ ＊ ＊
"Obey me, Ice Spirit Ashelpike!"
The moment the human claiming to be a descendant of the 〈Lineage of the Wise〉 said those words, the ice spirit Ashelpike flew into a rage.
Why should a mere human, fit only to be a sacrifice, dare call their name?
(But Toure had forgotten that name!)
In fury, Ashelpike tried to stab the human to death with an ice blade, but the mana at their fingertips scattered, refusing to obey their will.
The true name they had engraved on the spirit stone was restricting Ashelpike's actions.
Ashelpike had never imagined that a human could decipher spirit speech!
Ashelpike was a spirit who had lived for many years. Even among higher spirits, they possessed extraordinarily great power.
And yet they had been rendered powerless, bound by a contract Ashelpike had made unilaterally. What humiliation!
To break the contract, they needed to touch the spirit stone in that bracelet.
If they closed the distance and pounced at once, perhaps... As Ashelpike leaned forward, the White Dragon's roar behind them abruptly ceased.
"...Toure?"
When they turned around, the dragon's huge body, ensnared in rose vines, was shrinking as white particles of light scattered from it.
The one who crawled out from beneath the green vines was a slender young man with silver hair.
The dragon's human form wore a faint smile on his vacant face.
"I remember. Pique, Pique... Welcome back, Pique."
White particles of light spilled silently from the young man's entire body in a gentle cascade. His mana was leaking away.
Toure could no longer even retain his mana.
Even so, the gentle dragon spoke with a concerned expression.
"Pique, Pique, don't cry. I'll give you ice that never melts."
With that, the young man offered something with his bloodstained white fingers.
Reflecting the light of the 〈Ice Spirit's Snow Lantern〉 and glittering like crystal, it was one of his scales.
The ice spirit Ashelpike did not know how to cry. Like a human, they had never shed tears from their eyes.
Even so, the gentle White Dragon always noticed the sorrow of the spirit who could not cry.
It would tell the spirit not to cry while offering gifts meant to make Ashelpike happy.
"...Pique?"
Toure tilted his head at Ashelpike, who stood motionless.
White light spilled from the tip of his finger──and Toure's fingertip vanished. His body had begun to break down.
"No, no... Toure...!"
I have to pour mana into him.
Ashelpike grasped Toure's crumbling fingertip and poured mana into it.
Even so, Toure's finger did not regenerate. Spirit mana was too pure to blend with a dragon's body. It could serve as a temporary power source, but it was not enough to regenerate flesh.
"No... nooo...!"
Just as Ashelpike screamed at their own helplessness, a hand reached in from the side and grasped Toure's hand.
The one pouring mana into Toure's hand, which was missing a fingertip, was the young man who had contracted with Ashelpike──Cyril Ashley.
Cyril glared at Ashelpike and shouted.
"First, explain what happened and what the situation is!"
"A human... There's nothing a human can do..."
"I'll decide what can and can't be done! Just tell me already!"
When Ashelpike fell silent, cowed, the red-haired man controlling the roses widened his green eyes and asked, "Are you going to help?"
Cyril snorted haughtily.
"As heir to the Hioon marquisate, I have a duty to always do the best I can! In other words, this isn't for the sake of this spirit. It's for me!"
The red-haired man opened his mouth wide and laughed with incongruous cheerfulness.
"That troublesome side of yours is seriously great, Cyril!"