ISDM 02

Chapter 02

Ch.1

It all started with the headline of a newsletter that suddenly arrived one day.

<Breaking News> Kalek Winterwald Makes Dramatic Return After 5 Years!

People’s reactions were explosive.
“Good heavens!”
“Prince Winterwald, who’s been missing for 5 years, has returned?”

The sole heir of the Northern Duchy.
Master of the endless winter.
Kalek Winterwald had returned—after being missing for a full five years!

<Where Has the Prodigal Winterwald Been for the Past 5 Years?>
<Kalek Winterwald: ‘I have no obligation to explain this in detail. And who taught you the manners to shove a recording magic device at a patient who just recovered? @#%@$…’ Click for age verification to read more>

“Hey! Don’t click that—it’s magic phishing!”
“Whoa, I almost had my magical info stolen.”
“Look! Another extra edition is coming!”

The entire empire was literally in an uproar.
Even third-rate gossip papers were throwing extra editions around recklessly, using expensive magical tools.
Everyone’s eyes were glued to the name Kalek Winterwald.

As a result…

<Ad> Looking for a runaway dad.

Articles like that had no choice but to be pushed aside.

“My goodness. He’d been completely missing all this time—where was he found?”
“In the Southern Labyrinth! He was reportedly collapsed with blood on his head.”
“What? The Southern Labyrinth? The one discovered a few weeks ago?”
“Yes. According to this, it was larger than expected.”

Murmurs grew louder.
The term labyrinth referred to monster caves that sporadically appeared across the continent.
If left unchecked, monsters would overflow and devastate the surroundings.
So whenever a labyrinth appeared, it had to be conquered—and normally, the task fell to the empire’s four ducal families.

“To summarize, Prince Winterwald, who had been missing for five years, was suddenly found collapsed in a monster labyrinth…”
A man cleaning an old farm tool muttered with a doubtful expression.

“Isn’t that strange? If it was the Southern Labyrinth, the Summerlain Duchy would have sent a squad.”
“That’s true. Prince Winterwald himself tackling the southern affairs? And being injured too… that must mean he fought fiercely…”

The empire had ducal families guarding each cardinal direction.
North: Winterwald.
South: Summerlain.
East: Bloomsburg.
West: Longfall.

Each family handled the labyrinths in their assigned region and received rewards from the royal court.

“Extremely speaking, even if Prince Winterwald wiped out all the southern monsters, the one who benefits is still Summerlain. Why on earth…?”

Besides, the two ducal families were not on good terms, making Kalek’s actions even more puzzling.
“Did he hide gold in the south…?”
“Or rather…”

At that moment, someone quietly listening asked,
“What exactly was Prince Winterwald doing for the past five years?”

People shrugged as they looked at each other.
“Who knows?”

My name is Lirin Balt.
Today I turned eight, and I am crying more sorrowfully than ever.
“Waaah…”

A dark night. In a worn-out shack.
The wind outside rattled the windows threateningly.
I pressed my face into the table and covered my ears.
“Daddy, why aren’t you coming…”

In front of me sat a single, fancy cake.
Unfortunately, the candles couldn’t be lit.
My father, who had left for work in the morning, hadn’t returned even as night fell.

“Ta-da! Here’s our Lirin’s 8th birthday cake!”
“Dad… it’s 5 a.m… I’m still sleepy…”
“I know, I know. But let’s at least look at the cake! I made it myself with Marsha from the bakery!”
Sigh…
“Dad has an urgent task and needs to leave early. I’ll finish quickly and come back so we can have a fun birthday party tonight! Okay? Happy birthday, my little one!”

But then. But then!
‘Is this punishment for not properly looking at the cake Dad carefully prepared?’
I cried more sorrowfully, wearing a cone-shaped hat meant for the birthday child.
“Boohoo…”

Next to me, my three-year-old brother Theo watched pitifully.
Theo was a baby I found a month ago abandoned in the forest while out with Dad.
For some reason, he still couldn’t speak even short words.
His body was fine, so maybe it was the shock of being abandoned… or he simply never learned to speak.

“Wah…”
His tiny hands struggled to wipe away my tears, but I didn’t have the energy to care for him.

The moon had disappeared behind clouds. The chilling wind still banged against the windows, and distant wild animals cried.
I had a gut feeling:
‘Dad isn’t coming back.’
Not like this.
Never.
‘He ran away because living with Theo and me was too hard…’

A sharp pain stabbed my heart.
Or maybe something happened to him on the way back?
“That’s even scarier… Daddyyyy…”

While crying, I grabbed a sketchbook from the desk and wrote clumsily. Almost unconsciously, in a panic.
I had recently heard from Uncle Bill at the general store that he caught a relative who ran away with money in this way.

Tomorrow, I would have to send this request…
“Waaah…”

Even through tears, I thought that drawing a portrait in the blank space might help.
As I rummaged through the drawer for colored pencils, my eyes caught a small box.
“Waaah… huh?”

My crying stopped for a moment.
‘This… is what Dad showed me years ago.’
I carefully took the box in my hands.

Suddenly, my father’s voice, so vivid I wondered why I had forgotten it, came to mind:

“Lirin, my dear. You must only open this box in a true emergency. Never give it to anyone else.”
“What’s an emergency?”
“Well… let’s say I’m not around, and it’s troublesome, or… somehow you feel the urge to look down on others with invisible power and taste a different kind of superiority. Got it?”
“The last part sounds weird…”
“Haha, you still don’t know what power is. My cute daughter.”

Emergency!
Recalling that, I opened the box without hesitation.

Inside…
‘Is this… a ring?’
A lavish ring with intricate engravings.
As I examined it, my eyes widened.

“Huh? This snowflake engraving…”

Something felt strangely familiar.
The moment I held it, a peculiar sensation seemed to squeeze my whole body. My eyelids moved very slowly.
Blink. Blink.

When my tear-clouded vision cleared, the pattern on the metallic ring looked even more distinct.
An undeniable unease ran up the back of my neck.
‘Could this be… the ring I saw in my dream?’

I had a secret I hadn’t even told Dad.
Since my 6th birthday, I had been having special dreams: dreams of the future.

The first dream started small: scattered fragments with the sound of flipping pages.
In it, I stood before huge, ornate buildings I had never seen.
A fountain carved with baby angels was impressive—but the problem was, the fountain wouldn’t actually exist until months after the dream.
‘I was so shocked when I saw it in a newsletter!’

This happened a few times, and eventually, I realized I was seeing the future in my dreams.
‘The scenes appear randomly, without context… and I often forget them after waking.’

So I didn’t tell Dad, though recently, my dreams had become clearer.

“Ah… I remember now.”
I blinked in a daze, staring at the cold metal in my hand.

‘This ring… it was on the thumb of “that man” who died in my dream a few days ago.’
Kalek Winterwald.
Even I, who had never left this backwater village, knew his name—one of the empire’s most famous figures.

‘He’s supposed to be super strong…’
I didn’t know much. Whenever I tried to read news about him aloud to study letters, Dad would appear flustered and snatch the newsletter away.

But strangely, in contrast to his current reputation, the Kalek Winterwald in my dreams was an extremely terrifying “villain.”
He even met a final fate, punished by justice for his misdeeds.

‘Wait, wait.’
My mind spun like a boat in a storm.
All this is fine, but why did Dad…
Why did our kind, gentle, diligent, and dependable father have this ring?
It looked real, sparkling and all…

‘No way… no way!’
Realization hit like lightning.
I covered my mouth, unable to process the shock.

The symbol of the Duke of Winterwald rolled from my hand, hitting the leg of Theo’s baby chair and stopped.
Only one person could possess this unique ring.

“Oh… my…”
My jaw dropped in shock.
“Dad… was that ‘villainous’ Duke Winterwald…!”

‘Well, looking at it now, the silhouette kind of resembles him?’

Yes. All along, I thought I was a plain, ordinary “field spoon” (poor commoner), but in reality, I was a hidden “golden spoon” (noble) in disguise.

Even if it was still a troublesome, rebellious spoon!