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Chapter 33
Zephyrus, quietly gazing at her, asked,
“Are you happy right now?”
“Happy?”
Repeating the word happy to herself, Clémen placed her feet on the floor and stood up.
She turned around and faced Zephyrus.
“That’s right. I’m happy. Really happy.”
Happy. Truly. This time, she repeated that she was happy, then raised her index and middle fingers and declared,
“I found the second thing I like!”
“What’s that?”
“The North! No, the North? Anything!”
Clémen spun around with an excited face, giggling.
The whooshing wind seemed to play music along with her movement.
Until just a moment ago, it had been nothing more than loud, cold wind.
Zephyrus couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. He seemed to have forgotten even to blink.
“Master? What’s wrong?”
Clémen spoke to him. Only then did Zephyrus blink and lower his head, pretending to look at some documents.
“That’s a relief.”
“Oh, because I like the North?”
“Yes. I needn’t worry so much about you running off.”
“Wow, Master! You still don’t trust me?”
“Make me trust you a little more.”
“Alright. Watch. I’ll make you trust me right away.”
Zephyrus caught a glimpse of Clémen clenching her fists with determination, and he couldn’t help but chuckle softly.
Unlike last year, this was an unusually warm period after the Nightmare of the Snowy Mountains.
Thinking that, a pang of guilt arose in one corner of his heart.
Because of his presence, the villagers were suffering.
‘How can I manage this… just this once?’
He thought about telling Clémen but quickly dismissed the idea.
It was obvious it would place too much burden on her, and above all—
‘It’s dangerous.’
He settled that thought and returned to what he had to do.
The ghost incident from last night had been confirmed as a maid’s misunderstanding in the report.
And so, the warmest Nightmare period passed.
The rumor that ghosts had appeared spread through most villages.
The villagers’ accounts of the ghost sightings were largely consistent.
“There were only feet! There was nothing above that!”
“You only saw that? Suddenly a light appeared in the empty air!”
“Gah! Mr. Tom, you saw it too? Snow was falling, but something blocked it!”
In the cold, dark space, sparks appeared, paths formed as the snow melted, and faint, white threads seemed to appear and vanish repeatedly.
“What is even happening… no master, no firewood, and now ghosts?”
“All of this must be the land trying to collapse!” Tom shouted, furious.
When the former Duke was alive, they lived well without worrying about food or firewood.
But ever since the current Duke began ruling the territory, things had deteriorated over just a few years.
Even outside the Nightmare of the Snowy Mountains, it seemed colder than before.
“Lucky we didn’t freeze to death… right?”
Tom paused mid-sentence to look around.
After the Nightmare ended, every year at this time, their first priority was identifying deaths.
They had to hold the proper rites so the departed could rest peacefully.
‘No one has a gloomy expression?’
Even in a small village, one or two people typically die. Even in a house with plenty of firewood, the weak couldn’t survive the cold.
Those who lost family would show it plainly. In a place near death, those left behind could hardly appear unharmed.
“Could there be any families who lost someone this time?”
Representatives from each household looked at one another.
“Our household is fine.”
“Ah, ours too.”
“Actually, it even felt a bit warmer?”
This time, there wasn’t a single person. No one fainted from the cold.
The brief silence ended when a woman cautiously spoke up, claiming she had seen a fire appear in the air.
“Maybe… it’s a fire fairy helping us?”
“A fire fairy?”
The people considered it.
It made sense! It was far more reasonable than blaming a random ghost. The fairy, feeling sympathy for them, revealed itself.
Being a fairy, it could turn invisible. And being fire, it could melt or block the snow.
There was even a legend that somewhere in the North, a fire fairy lay dormant. It wasn’t entirely impossible.
“That’s it!”
“Haha! We were scared for no reason, huh?”
The villagers’ faces brightened immediately.
This conclusion was common among all villages not too far from the Duke’s castle.
“Our land is blessed by a fire fairy?”
This had never happened during the former Duke’s reign. Could it be the current Duke’s power?
Someone called out to Tom, who had a puzzled expression.
“Uncle Tom!”
“Juli!”
Juli, who had stayed on duty at the Duke’s castle, had returned to the village as soon as the Nightmare ended.
“I had such an amazing experience!”
“Wait! Now I understand. Could it be a ghost?”
“Ah, yes! I saw it on the first day!”
Tom gained certainty from his earlier thought. It was the Duke’s blessing!
Even appearing at the Duke’s mansion on the first day indicated this.
A fire fairy wouldn’t heed human rank, yet it went to the Duke’s mansion first. That meant something important was there.
If it wasn’t the Duke, what else could it be?
“And, and I made a friend too! I wanted to introduce her, so I brought her along.”
Juli gestured behind her.
A woman stood in the distance, eye-catching.
She looked like a gorgeous blossom in the snowy mountains.
Her crimson hair fluttered in the wind, enhancing the effect.
Tom slowly lowered his gaze.
The ground she stepped on had melted.
The only change in their otherwise unchanging daily life. The outsider responsible.
“It’s Clémen. She’s really warm and kind!”
Clémen stepped slightly closer and greeted them. She brought her hands forward, forming a flame shape as if offering it. A northern-style greeting.
A greeting wishing the recipient the protection of the fire fairy—a northern custom.
At that moment, Tom’s mind solidified the thought into absolute certainty.
“It’s her!”
“What? What is?”
Startled by the sudden shout, Juli asked, but Tom’s gaze didn’t leave Clémen.
Even though the Nightmare had ended, the North was still cold, and the woman wore only a thin cloak.
“She’s the incarnation of the fire fairy! The one who warmed our land!”
Clémen was greatly surprised and waved her hands emphatically.
“Ah, no, that’s not true! Absolutely not!”
She stepped back. Rosia’s words came to mind.
“Clémen, who’s going to be friends with Juli this time! She might come by often, so please take care of her. I’m busy now, so bye!”
Clémen ran off without looking back.
“If the villagers call Clémen a fire fairy or something, she can run away immediately. Probably… it could be dangerous.”
That was on the first day.
It was after Clémen clumsily tried to sneak outside the mansion and was seen by Juli, then spoke with Rosia.
The conversation with Rosia began on the first day the Nightmare of the Snowy Mountains started.
It began at the point when Juli, now asleep, had been taken to her room.
“I’ve noticed for a while that Clémen is unusual.”
Clémen, startled by Rosia’s sharp gaze, shook her head unconsciously.
Wasn’t it embarrassing to be caught doing something secretly?
“Unusual? Why am I unusual?”
“That reaction just now was unusual too.”
Rosia explained logically, point by point.
“First, you came out too quickly when I called. At first, I thought you just weren’t ready yet.”
But she kept noticing things different from usual Clémen.
Clémen repeatedly apologized while talking to Juli, and she spoke Imperial language more comfortably than usual.
“And I found the evidence.”
Rosia moved closer to the wall. Clémen’s shoulders rose slightly. The tools she had hidden—a piece of transparent glass—were there.
It was the transparent glass Ameti had made and Zephyrus had kept in the room.
Clémen had brought it secretly to shield herself while trying to sneak outside. She ran into Juli.
She intended to stay pressed against the wall until she passed.
But the white cloth she had used to disguise herself was seen by Juli.
‘I don’t think she touched it…’
Anyway, Clémen, having lost any means or will to deny it, nodded.
“They said there’s not enough firewood. I thought if I used my heat, we could save some firewood.”
“You mean… you were planning to go outside at this time?”
