Chapter 196 - Mountain Of Snow

I had a simple plan.

At the top of this snowy mountain, a spirit sleeps. A spirit in the form of a dragon.

I would persuade this spirit to become a villain through the Ego-stream and have it join our party.

Good. The theory was perfect. How to persuade it was a bit of a concern, but I figured I'd manage somehow.

Yeah. I had such happy thoughts...

Until we started climbing this mountain.

"Damn it... this is seriously messed up..."

The snowy mountain we were climbing.

Or more precisely, the mountain where snow was whirling around like some scene from Frozen—Choi Se-hee and I were struggling through it.

"Hey, Da-in! This really isn't working!"

I heard Choi Se-hee's voice right behind me as I trudged forward, panting.

The snow was swirling so fiercely I could barely open my eyes. It certainly didn't look this bad before we started climbing, but once we got up here, the snow was falling like crazy—perhaps the spirit was using some kind of power.

"Ugh... seriously."

I covered my face with my arm to block the swirling snow in front of me, struggling to push through the snow as I climbed.

And behind me followed Choi Se-hee.

"Hey, this isn't working! Can't I just use my ability?"

At her words, I turned around.

What I saw was her, with lightning crackling at her feet, about to transform into Electra.

I hurriedly stopped her.

"No, don't! That'll just cause more problems!"

"Ugh..."

She was about to float up from the ground while dispersing electricity, but she clicked her tongue and came back down.

As far as I knew, the spirit would be in a deep sleep inside a cave at the top of this mountain.

And since this entire mountain was under the spirit's jurisdiction, using abilities carelessly might alert and wake the spirit.

So for now, quietly climbing up was the best option.

"Tsk... but we might get lost if we're not careful."

I muttered to Choi Se-hee in the snow. I mean, I could barely see what was right in front of me, so we could easily end up going sideways.

When I didn't hear her response, I turned around and saw something orange flailing around on the opposite side.

"Hey, I'm over here!"

When did she get all the way over there?

I finally pushed through the snow to where Choi Se-hee was, grabbed her, and brought her back.

...But still, there was way too much snow falling.

"I can't see anything ahead!"

Hearing Choi Se-hee shouting from behind, I finally reached back and extended my hand to her.

"Haa, take my hand."

"Huh?"

When I offered my hand, she looked up at me with reddened cheeks, sniffling from the cold.

I spoke to her calmly.

"Hold my hand and follow me. We'll lose each other otherwise."

"O-okay. Let's do that!"

At my words, Choi Se-hee's cheeks seemed to redden even more as she hesitantly placed her hand on mine.

I grasped her hand and started moving forward, slightly ahead of her.

"Alright! Let's go!"

After taking my hand, she suddenly raised her energy level and started walking forward energetically with a loud voice.

Looking at her with the tips of her ears slightly red despite wearing a scarf, I smiled and continued climbing the snowy mountain with her.

Our joined hands felt warm, making things a bit better than before.

***

We continued climbing the mountain like that.

It was exhausting enough just to hike, let alone dealing with the cold and blizzard while walking.

After climbing for a few hours, we concluded that we needed to rest for a while.

"But where can we rest?"

"Good question..."

The snowstorm was still blowing fiercely.

Still holding hands in the middle of it all, we realized we wanted to rest but had nowhere to do so. I mean, we couldn't just sit on the mountainside in the falling snow.

After thinking for a moment, I snapped my fingers with my free hand and came to a conclusion.

"I know, if we keep climbing, we'll probably find a cave. Let's look for one and rest there."

"A cave? This isn't the Himalayas or something—it's more like Mount Jiri. Where would we find a cave?"

"Well... I told you there's a cave at the top of the mountain. So there's a possibility there might be caves along the middle too, right?"

"...I guess so?"

Choi Se-hee seemed convinced by my somewhat logical explanation. I mean, it makes sense, right? If there's no cave, we'd have to keep climbing all the way to the top without rest...

"Okay, let's go this way for now."

So we started climbing again, pushing through the snow along a ridge that somehow seemed promising.

After climbing for a while in that state.

"Oh, the weather seems to be getting a bit better?"

The snow that had been falling like a fierce storm until just a while ago had now calmed down considerably.

Of course, even though it had calmed down, large snowflakes were still falling steadily, but it was much better than the gusting winds from before.

So for the first time since passing the middle of the mountain, we could look around as we walked.

"Hey, look over there. There's a river."

"You're right!"

What we discovered was a frozen river.

We started slowly walking along the long river that was already completely frozen with snow piled on top.

Now that the blizzard had stopped, we could look around as we climbed. The scenery of green pine trees covered with white snow along the frozen river had its own charm.

As we walked with Choi Se-hee, chatting casually despite our tired bodies, we finally discovered some kind of cave.

"Hey, isn't that a cave?"

"Oh, it really is!"

"Yes! It actually exists. Finally, we can get out of this snow."

So we entered the cave.

A moderately sized hole that was randomly located in the middle of the mountain.

As we entered and started dusting off our clothes, we realized we were still holding hands. ...Come to think of it, the blizzard had stopped a while ago, so why were we still holding hands?

We naturally let go and brushed off the snow from our clothes before slumping against the cave wall. Ah, I can breathe now...

As I sat there giving my tired legs a well-deserved rest, Choi Se-hee handed me a cup.

"Here, drink this."

"What is it? Ah... the thing you brought. Thanks."

It turned out to be warm tea she had brought in a thermos. She was using the thermos lid as a cup to serve it to me.

I thanked her and took a sip from the cup.

It had cooled slightly despite being in the thermos, but drinking it still spread a warm feeling throughout my body, starting from my throat.

Enjoying that feeling as I warmed up, I finished the cup and handed it back to Choi Se-hee. She poured herself some tea and drank it too.

We sat facing each other with our legs stretched out, warming ourselves.

As I rested for a while, looking outside at the falling snow, I turned my head to look at Choi Se-hee. With her orange hair that reached her shoulders, she was leaning against the wall like me, holding a red scarf in one hand while absentmindedly sipping tea and looking outside.

I spoke to her.

"Tired? Thanks for coming along. I feel bad for making you go through this trouble when I could have gone alone."

"Huh? Ah... no. It's actually fun for me to get out like this after so long. It's not every day I get to climb a mountain in the snow, right?"

Choi Se-hee said with a grin.

I'm grateful for her positive attitude.

After that, we rested for a while.

"That's when Seo Ja-young suddenly went 'Rawr!' behind Eun-wol. But Eun-wol was fine, and instead Han Seo-eun who was standing next to her screamed in surprise..."

"Pfft."

After resting sufficiently while sitting and chatting about various things, we got up to prepare for departure. We put our backpacks on again and adjusted our clothes.

And just before leaving, I saw Choi Se-hee carelessly wrapping her scarf and shouting 'Let's go!' With a small sigh, I approached her.

"Wait a moment, come here."

"Huh? Why?"

As she came over to me wondering what was going on, I reached out and slightly loosened the red scarf she was wearing to wrap it properly again. Pull this part like this, and tie it again...

"There, done. Let's go."

"U-um, okay..."

With Choi Se-hee, whose ears had turned slightly red again for some reason, we climbed the mountain once more.

It felt like the snow had calmed down even more during our rest. Or maybe as we kept climbing, it just wasn't snowing higher up?

"Hey, it's barely snowing now?"

"You're right."

I nodded at Choi Se-hee's words as she raised her hand to the sky. It had definitely stopped.

And perhaps because we had climbed so high, we could see a clear blue sky stretching out above us.

After gazing up for a moment, I grabbed my trembling legs and climbed to the summit.

Now we could look down at everything below.

After taking in the view for a moment, we finally arrived at the entrance of a massive cave.

"Is this the place? Where the person we're looking for is supposed to be..."

"Yeah. They should be inside. And by the way, don't be surprised no matter what you see."

"Hey. When you say it like that, it suddenly feels scary..."

With Choi Se-hee slightly trembling and sticking close to me, seemingly overwhelmed by the massive black cave opening, I entered inside.

Hmm. Now that we've arrived, I'm starting to worry.

...Can I really persuade this spirit?

***

Hero Association Headquarters.

Stardust's office on the upper floor.

"....."

Shin Ha-ru, who was sitting at her desk absentmindedly doing her usual work, suddenly leaned back in her chair and muttered to herself.

"....They're late."

And as she spoke, her blue eyes.

Were quietly looking at the small calendar placed next to the monitor on her desk.