Chapter 422
Escaille Village Life, Day 4
Even in Escaille, there was a concept of weekends. About one day a week, one could take a break from teaching and rest comfortably.
Of course, this didn't apply to Simon.
“Huah-cha!”
Crack!
With his sleeves rolled up, Simon shouted with vigor, and the rotten tree root that had been deeply lodged in the ground was yanked out of the earth.
The watching villagers let out exclamations of awe.
“Teacher Shaun is incredibly strong!”
“As expected, Priests are different!”
Simon let out a groan and plopped down on the spot. Around him, rocks and rotten tree roots he had pulled up were scattered in disarray.
‘I-I’m dying here.’
His arms screamed in agony, and his back throbbed.
As he wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead with a towel, a farmer he had grown close to over the past few days handed him a bowl filled with cold water.
“Drink up, drink up.”
“Thank you!”
“You’re really something! What would’ve taken two weeks, you cleared it all in a single day, and all by yourself!”
“I used to do a lot of this back in my hometown.”
As soon as Simon grabbed the bowl, he brought it to his lips.
Gulp gulp! His throat bobbed up and down. Water streamed down his chin, but he didn’t care about such trivial things right now.
“You’re a rare, diligent young man these days.”
“Leave the cleanup to us!”
The other villagers moved in to clear the debris.
“Truly, thank you.”
The farmer sat down on a nearby stump.
“Teaching the kids must already be tough, and yet you're helping out with rough labor like this too.”
“Well, I am a part of the village for now. Of course I should help.”
“Haha! You sure know how to win over the elders, don’t you?”
Of course, Simon had a reason for volunteering for such exhausting work: information gathering.
As he drank the cold water, Simon was calculating the timing to ask his question.
‘...Still, this is hard to get used to.’
Unlike this area, where sweat poured down, beyond the transparent barrier, a blizzard continued to rage.
He had to admit, it was an impressively made barrier.
“Mister.”
“Hm?”
“Living in the village, I started to get curious about something.”
“Oh! Go ahead, what is it? I’ll explain anything you want!”
This was exactly the cooperative spirit Simon had endured four days of hard labor to earn.
Simon raised his arm and pointed beyond the barrier.
“That extreme cold outside the barrier.”
“Mm!”
“It’s gotten so bad that it even covered the lower village, Coola. Do you know why that’s happening?”
“……”
The farmer, who had been smiling broadly, suddenly tensed.
“Why are you curious about that?”
Oops.
Had he asked too sensitive a question without having earned full trust yet? Cold sweat trickled down the back of his neck, but he quickly played it off.
“N-no, it's not like that! I was just thinking, if the cold stops, we wouldn’t have to slowly expand the barrier to reclaim frozen land. I just wondered why the cold is lasting so long.”
“……”
The farmer closed his eyes for a moment, then spoke.
“Because Lady Snow Maiden is angry.”
There it was again.
That being, the Snow Maiden.
“Is that... Snow Maiden person real? I’m sorry if that was a rude question.”
“Ah, I understand. It must sound hard to believe to an outsider. I was actually an outsider myself.”
He went on to say that in his youth, he had fallen head over heels for a woman from Mizenashi whom he met in the city, and followed her all the way here.
“And then, my wife, well...!”
Simon didn’t really know why he was hearing this random life story, but he nodded along eagerly and gave positive responses.
“...So that’s how it happened! Anyway, to answer your question—yes. Lady Snow Maiden definitely exists! Once you live in this village, you can’t help but believe it.”
“What do you mean...?”
According to the farmer, once a year the village holds a large ritual to honor the Snow Maiden.
During the event, a feast is prepared at the village hall. All the doors are closed, except the back door, which is left open, and they wait.
“Then, after a while! You hear footsteps behind the door, and the sound of someone devouring the food—crunch, crunch!”
Simon gulped at the vivid tale.
“And once it seems all the food is eaten, you hear the footsteps moving away! I couldn’t believe it, so I secretly opened the window just a bit and—would you believe it!”
With a chilling grin, the farmer waved his fingers eerily.
“She was wearing white robes, with disheveled gray hair, her eyes and lips as red as blood! And she ran off barefoot! Then she suddenly turned and looked right at me! I got chills all over my body...! Yeah. That couldn’t have been human!”
The description matched perfectly with the mysterious woman Simon had seen. His shoulders trembled slightly.
“Heh heh! Should I stop if you're scared?”
“N-no, I’m fine!”
He was a necromancer, after all. He couldn’t show fear over ghost stories.
“There’s more than one strange occurrence! One time, the blizzard lasted for months, but on the exact day Mizenashi made an offering to Lady Snow Maiden—bam! The skies cleared up like magic! Isn’t that amazing?”
Simon leaned in closer.
“What kind of ‘offering’ do they give her?”
At that question, the farmer’s eyes went wide. He clamped a hand over his mouth in shock, then glanced around frantically.
“H-ha ha! Did I just say ‘offering’?”
“Yes. That’s exactly what you said.”
“I-I must’ve misspoken! Ha ha! W-well, shall we get back to work? Huah-cha!”
As the man trembled and looked around wildly, Simon silently watched his back.
* * *
“Teacher Leah! Teacher!”
“Hurry up!”
Even though it was their one golden day off a week, the children still came to play at Lete’s house today.
‘Just when I thought I could rest a bit, they show up even on my day off.’
Lete was blinking back tears on the inside.
Three children surrounded her on the bed, pleading for her to read them a fairy tale.
‘Kids! Teachers are people too!’
She wanted to scream it at the top of her lungs, but instead, Lete maintained a professional smile and said,
“Then, shall we enter the world of fairy tales?”
“Yeees~!”
“Yay!”
Lete opened the well-worn fairy tale book. It had clearly been read over and over again, the pages were frayed and the binding looked ready to fall apart.
Since the children seemed to treasure the book, Lete turned the pages with great care.
“Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful girl.”
Her soft, gentle voice filled the room. The children lay with peaceful, cozy expressions, fully immersed in the story.
“The girl was born in a snow-covered mountain. But the mountain was too cold, so the girl and the villagers moved down to the warm southern lands. There, they built homes, cultivated fields, and lived happily.”
Lete carefully turned a page that was one-third torn off.
“One day, the girl discovered shipwrecked sailors collapsed on the beach! She brought them to the village and nursed them with care.”
“Oh! Thankfully, they woke up. They were adventurers! Strong and skilled, they helped the girl and the villagers build houses. They also taught them how to farm well, and how to make fire easily. The villagers and adventurers enjoyed their time together.”
Lete smiled as she turned the page.
It was a simple story, but had a warm charm. The children wiggled happily under the blankets.
“Then one day, it was time to say goodbye. The adventurers had repaired their ship and had to return to their kingdom. They comforted the crying girl, boarded their ship, and waved goodbye, swearing to return someday.”
Sniffle!
Snuuuf!
Soft sobbing could be heard here and there.
Thinking how pure children's hearts were, Lete turned the page.
“A long time passed after the adventurers left. The girl sat on the beach every day, waiting for them. Then, lo and behold! The adventurers really did return! And they brought many others with them. The wide sea was filled with ships!”
“The adventurers pleaded with the girl and the villagers. Our kingdom has been ravaged by bandits. Please, let us live here. The villagers gladly accepted the people of the kingdom.”
Rustle.
As she turned the next page, Lete felt a little uneasy.
The illustrations in the fairy tale had taken on a somewhat frightening tone. Even the text looked more forceful, as if written with tension.
“The adventurers and the kingdom folk said, just like last time, we’ll build you an even bigger city.”
“They burned the forest where animal friends lived to build roads. They flattened the sparkling beach to make a harbor, and cut down the sacred tree the villagers cherished to make furniture.”
“No!”
“Stop it!”
The children protested.
“The girl and the villagers begged them to stop, but the adventurers and the kingdom people only said, trust us. Just wait, and a better village will be made.”
“People from the kingdom kept coming from the sea. When there were too many, they began dividing the land. This is my land, that is your land. The girl and the villagers were shocked and said, nature belongs to all of us, no one can own it. But the adventurers and the kingdom people didn’t listen. Then, the next morning...”
Flip.
Lete’s voice sank low.
“There was no land left for the girl and the villagers to live on.”
The children began to cry. One even pounded the bed in frustration with their tiny fist.
“Driven out of their village, the girl and the villagers returned to the cold mountain. There, everyone made a vow. Someday, they would drive out the adventurers and kingdom people, and return to that warm land.”
“But the betrayal had left the girl so shocked, she had grown weak. She couldn’t finish climbing the mountain and froze to death. The villagers, burning with anger and vengeance, buried her in the snow.”
With trembling hands, Lete finally turned to the last page.
‘!’
And the moment she saw the final illustration, she nearly screamed.
Faded gray hair, blood-like red eyes, a face twisted in hatred and fury.
It was so realistic, Lete doubted it was even a drawing.
Below that image, the final line of the story read:
“And then, the girl rose.”
* * *
As evening fell, Simon and Lete reunited at their lodging.
The children had all been called home by their parents.
“Did you find anything out?”
Lete snapped her fingers, activating a soundproof magic circle as she asked.
“Yeah. I found out a lot.”
“Same here. Let’s start by sharing intel.”
Simon told her about the farmer’s story of the Snow Maiden, the mention of a sacrifice, and other bits of information he had gathered.
Lete shared the contents of the fairy tale she read with the children, as well as things she had learned while chatting with Petria.
“Well, that puts the pieces together.”
Lete said, looking out the window.
“You’ve figured it out?”
“Yes.”
Lete nodded seriously.
“Now, let’s uncover the truth behind this wicked village.”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters
Very good story and translation but half the chapter aren't for free and it is wayyyy too expensive will it stat like tjis foreve or will it get free after some time