Chapter 4
It was a war without mercy.
We pursued them to the very ends of the snowfield and tenaciously cut off their last breath.
And at last.
In Norheim, the name Bloodfang vanished completely into history.
The extinction of an entire tribe.
But throughout those fierce two years of war,
and even at the moment we wiped them out,
that red vision occasionally rose before my eyes like a heat haze.
A sense of déjà vu that flitted past like a warning—or as though telling me not to forget.
But there was one decisive difference.
In the future shown by the vision, I was absent, and Kara, left alone, always had sad eyes.
Hollow, lifeless eyes, as though she had lost the entire world.
But things were different now.
“Varg! It’s all over!”
On the snowfield where the war had ended.
Kara, having washed the blood from herself, was smiling brightly and waving at me.
Behind her, a healthy Gorgon was heartily laughing and encouraging the tribespeople.
Kara ran to me and threw herself into my arms.
The sky in her eyes as she looked up at me glittered with vitality.
Yes, this was enough.
This was the future I had changed.
There was no evidence.
My instincts alone were corroborating it.
* * *
The war was over.
Victory was sweet, but cleaning up afterward was bitter.
But this time was different.
Because it was different from the future shown by the red vision.
In the vision, Kara had become the head of her household after Gorgon died, and had to bow her head to the delegation and engage in ‘a servile negotiation for survival.’
The tribespeople had been forced to abandon their homeland and migrate as though driven out.
But now.
“We’re in no hurry. Your Grand Duke is the one who wants this.”
Gorgon, who had survived, was looking down at the head of the delegation and laughing heartily.
The delegation’s faces looked as though they had accidentally bitten into a frog and spat it back out.
The assassination had failed, and the Bloodfang Tribe had been annihilated.
The plan of Northgard’s Grand Duke, ruler of the north, had gone completely awry.
In the end, they could not return empty-handed.
They bestowed the surname Wintersword on the Winterclaw Tribe, but had to stamp their seal on a humiliating treaty guaranteeing gradual migration and autonomy.
It was a perfect victory.
During those negotiations, the red vision flashed through my mind once again.
The sight of Kara bowing her head servilely.
『With this… our tribe…』
But when I blinked, Kara stood before me with her chin held high.
‘It’s changed.’
Relief washed over me.
A future that had been erased from existence.
A new timeline created by my intervention.
Of course, the future had not changed completely.
‘In the end, we still have to migrate.’
Slowly but surely, the climate of the snow mountains was changing.
We still had to come inside the fence to survive the schism that would come in the future.
Moreover, the future in which we received the ill-intentioned surname Wintersword had not changed either.
And although the Grand Duke had backed down for now because Gorgon was alive, our ties to him had not been severed completely.
Someday, he would bare his fangs again.
‘But things will be different then.’
I clenched my fist tightly.
Because then, I—and all of us—would tear out his throat.
That was why our own unbroken stretch of time continued, beyond even the reach of red visions resembling prophetic dreams.
As if it were a dream.
* * *
One night, Kara and I sparred alone.
Sword and ax clashed on the snow.
Clang!
Kaang!
Movements like a dance, without killing intent.
In that moment when our breaths mingled and our gazes tangled, there was no red vision.
Because it was a future that did not exist.
“Haa... haa...”
Kara, breathing hard, slipped inside to exploit an opening.
The sword strike that would normally have been aimed sharply at my neck.
But.
“Huh...?”
Her foot tangled.
A clumsy, awkward mistake unlike Kara, who traversed the snowfield as though it were her own home.
Kara’s body tilted and spilled into my arms.
“Kara!”
I reflexively threw away my ax and caught her around the waist.
Thud.
We tumbled across the snow, tangled together.
Instead of the cold touch of snow, the heat of our bodies enveloped us from head to toe.
When I came to my senses, I was on top of Kara.
“......”
“......”
We were so close the tips of our noses touched.
Kara’s sapphire-colored eyes were trembling.
“I. Ac. ci. dent. ally. fe. ll.”
She did not push me away.
And she turned her eyes aside, offering an awkward excuse.
“…..”
When I did not answer, Kara wrapped her arms around my neck and whispered in a trembling voice.
“...You’re not pulling away?”
At those words, the thread of reason snapped.
Suddenly, Gorgon’s hearty laughter brushed past my ears.
『Kara’s mother couldn’t hold herself back and pounced on me. Hahaha!』
Ah.
So that had been true.
Blood really does tell.
I answered by devouring Kara’s lips.
“Mmph...!”
Hot breath rose into the air over the cold snowfield.
We rolled across the snow, sharing a passionate kiss as though devouring one another.
That night, at Moonlight Lake.
We immersed our naked bodies in the cold lake and felt each other’s warmth.
“Varg, are you warm?”
“Yeah. Because you’re here.”
I wasn’t embarrassed even when I uttered such a childish line.
There was no red vision then, either.
Only my better half, shyly smiling in my arms, existed; there was no Kara with sad eyes.
On another day, we climbed Sandra’s Cliff together.
I had originally planned to climb it alone.
Because Gorgon had once told me something while drunk.
『Varg, if you’re a man, you have to risk your life to propose. Back in my day, I picked a snow violet growing at the edge of Sandra’s Cliff and... Ahem!』
To follow that romantic advice, I climbed the cliff at the crack of dawn.
A cliff where screams echoed.
A place where one wrong step meant a straight road to the afterlife.
When we were about halfway up, panting hard,
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
I spotted a familiar head of silver hair clinging to the sheer cliff beside me.
It was Kara.
She, too, was climbing the cliff in exactly the same predicament as me, relying on a single rope.
“You... why are you here?”
“Why are you here?”
We blinked at each other.
And at the same time, our gazes turned toward the single purple flower blooming at the top of the cliff.
Snow violet.
An odd silence passed.
Gulp.
And without either of us waiting for the other to speak,
“It’s mine!”
“Get out of the way, mutt!”
A romantic proposal?
There was no such thing.
Blinded by the sudden flare of competitive spirit, we began climbing the rock face like mad, pushing and pulling at each other.
“Go away! I’ll pick it first!”
“Don’t make me laugh! My arms are longer!”
After a life-or-death race in which we grabbed each other’s ankles and collars,
Tap!
My hand snatched the flower stem first, by a hair.
“Ah...!”
Kara let out a regretful sigh.
I climbed onto the top of the cliff, breathing heavily.
“Tsk... Must be nice being tall.”
Then I lifted Kara, who was pouting, and set her on top of the cliff.
At the cliff’s edge, silver hair fluttered in the wind.
And her sky-blue eyes were flushed red.
I grinned and held out the flower.
“Here.”
“......”
Kara accepted the flower with a sullen expression.
“......Tsk. I was going to pick it first and give it to you.”
Her grumbling suddenly reminded me of the rest of Gorgon’s story.
『...Actually, I wasn’t the one who picked it. Your mother-in-law climbed up first and was waiting for me. I ended up being proposed to while hanging from the cliff. Hahaha!』
Ah.
A chill ran down my spine.
I had almost ended up like my father-in-law.
‘Thank goodness.’
Because I picked it first.
I’d avoided being the one hanging from the cliff while someone asked, “Will you marry me?”
With a sigh of relief, I spoke to Kara, who was sitting at the edge of the cliff.
“I’ll make you happy for the rest of my life, Sis.”
There was no grand proposal.
But at those words, Kara’s eyes went round.
“......Sis?”
And she let out a short laugh as though she couldn’t believe it.
“Ha, you finally called me Sis? You wouldn’t do it for the life of you when you were little.”
“......”
“But if you’re a man, isn’t it embarrassing to call the woman you’re marrying Sis? Barbarian males hate that sort of thing.”
Kara’s question was sharp, but it did not affect me at all.
At that moment, a strange sensation passed through the depths of my subconscious.
I felt no resistance whatsoever to calling the woman I was marrying ‘Sis.’
It felt natural, rather.
As though modern people considered age-gap couples nothing out of the ordinary.
I grinned and caught Kara around the waist.
“So you don’t like it?”
I pulled Kara into my arms with a sly smile.
“If you don’t like being called Sis, I’ll just call you my woman.”
“......Tsk.”
Kara’s face turned red like a ripe apple.
Then she accepted the flower and buried her forehead against my chest.
“I love you, Varg.”
Even then, no red vision appeared.
Instead, the rising sun painted the sky red, taking the red vision’s place.
* * *
The meeting between our families was simple, but more heartfelt than ever.
We had lived under the same roof from the beginning.
Formalities were unnecessary.
That night, we shared potent snow beer across a campfire.
As the alcohol went to his head, Gorgon brought out an old sword he had kept to one side.
It was a keepsake of his late wife, Kara’s mother, Plina.
“Plina. Are you watching?”
Gorgon stroked the sword and spoke in a hoarse voice.
“Our little girl... is getting married. To the boy I picked up, no less.”
He stared straight at me with bloodshot eyes.
“I’ve watched him for twelve years. I know what kind of man he is. How fierce he is, and how much he cherishes our Kara.”
“......”
“So don’t worry. I vouch for him. Our Kara found a good man.”
His blunt sincerity tightened something in my chest.
Kara, too, gripped her mother’s sword with tears gathering in her eyes.
“Mom... I’ll live happily. I won’t make Dad worry, and I’ll be happy for your sake too... truly happy.”
I knelt before them and pressed my forehead to the sword.
Words were unnecessary.
‘I will protect her. Even if I have to give my life.’
My father-in-law and father.
My mother-in-law, whose face I had never seen.
And my bride—I carved the heaviest vow into my heart for them all.
As the mood grew solemn, Gorgon sniffled and forced himself to laugh heartily.
“Ahem! Enough of this maudlin stuff! The wedding is on the full moon next month. Tell Granny Baba to pick an auspicious day.”
And at last, the day of the final battle dawned.
No—the day of the wedding.
In the tribal square, a huge bonfire rose as though it would set the sky ablaze.
Red flames and the tribespeople’s cheers rippled across the pure-white snowfield.
“Groom, enter!”
With the officiant’s booming shout, I walked out.
The tribespeople cheered at the sight of me in ceremonial attire decorated with wolf fur instead of my usual leather clothes.
And across from me.
“Bride, enter!”
As the tent flap was pulled aside, Kara walked out.
In that instant, it felt as though the world’s noise had been cut off.
Kara wore ceremonial robes made from pure-white frost fox fur.
With her usual tied-up hair let loose and her silver hair cascading down her back, she was not a warrior but the goddess of the snowfield herself.
‘She’s beautiful.’
We stood facing each other before the bonfire.
Granny Baba, serving as officiant, called out in a solemn voice.
“Now, begin the ceremony! Let’s get this over with quickly!”
She sounded a little annoyed.
I drew a dagger and cut off a lock of my hair.
Kara likewise cut some of her silver hair and handed it to me.
Black hair and silver hair.
The two colors were mixed and thrown into the bonfire.
Fwoosh!
Acrid smoke rose and soared into the sky.
It was the moment our souls became one and reached the ancestral spirits.
“Now swear your vows!”
No sooner had Granny Baba spoken than I grabbed Kara and pulled her close.
“Varg...!”
Kara looked up at me in surprise.
A vow?
A vow spoken in words would be too light.
I dipped her backward in my arms and plunged my lips onto hers.
“Mmph...!”
A gentle kiss would not suit us.
A beast’s kiss, exchanging breaths and mixing souls as though we would devour each other, was perfect.
“Waaaaaaah!”
The tribespeople’s cheers shook the snowfield.
We did not part our lips until we were breathless and the world spun around us.
At the moment our saliva mingled and our body heat became one,
I knew for certain.
This was the perfect happy ending I had won for myself.
“Bwaaaah! Our Kara...!”
I could hear Gorgon folding up his big frame and sobbing his heart out in the corner, but we did not stop.
Until the night was over.
Until the flames had burned away.
We loved each other, then loved each other some more.
Everything was perfect.
‘There was no red vision in any of these moments.’
Because this was our true future, the one we had won.
Freed from the red vision, this was the new happy ending we had created with our own hands.
And so, our passionate newlywed life began.
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<Kara in Winterclaw Tribe Ceremonial Attire>
