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Translator: Vine
Chapter Title: The Snowy Ascent
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My plan was simple.
At the peak of this snowy mountain, a divine spirit lay dormant.
A spirit in the form of a dragon.
My goal was to convince this spirit to fall into villainy via Ego Stream and join my party.
Good. The theory was perfect.
How to convince it was a slight concern, but I figured it would work out somehow.
Yes. I had been thinking such happy thoughts...
Until I started climbing this mountain.
"Oh, for crying out loud… this is an absolute nightmare."
Choi Se-hee and I were struggling up the snowy mountain we were climbing.
No, to be precise, it was a blizzard-ridden mountain, where snow raged like something out of Frozen.
"Hey, Dain! This is really not going to work!"
Hearing Choi Se-hee's voice from directly behind me, I trudged forward.
The snow was raging so fiercely I could barely open my eyes. Before we started climbing, it definitely didn't seem this bad, but once we were actually on the mountain, the snow was falling like crazy, as if the divine spirit had used some power.
"Ugh… seriously."
I shielded my face with my arm to block the raging snow in front of me, struggling to push through it as I climbed.
And Choi Se-hee followed behind me.
"Hey, this isn't working! Can't I just use my power?"
At her words, I turned around.
What I saw was her, crackling with lightning at her feet, about to transform into Electra.
I quickly stopped Choi Se-hee.
"Hey, no! If you do that, we might just cause another problem!"
"Ugh…"
She, who had been scattering electricity and was about to lift off the ground, clicked her tongue and settled back down.
As far as I knew, the divine spirit was in a deep slumber inside a cave at the peak of this snowy mountain.
And since this entire mountain was under its jurisdiction, using our powers might unnecessarily provoke the spirit, awakening it if it sensed us.
So, for now, quietly climbing was the best option.
"Tsk… We might get lost if we're not careful," I muttered to Choi Se-hee in the snow.
Seriously, I couldn't even see right in front of me, so I kept veering off to the side.
But when I didn't hear Choi Se-hee's reply, I turned around and saw something orange flailing about on the opposite side.
"Hey, over here! Here!"
Seriously, when did she get all the way over there?
Eventually, I trudged through the snow to where Choi Se-hee was, grabbed her, and brought her back.
...But still, the snow was falling too heavily.
"Hey, I can't see anything!"
At Choi Se-hee's shout from behind me, I finally held out my hand to her.
"Sigh, take my hand."
"Huh?"
As I offered my hand, she looked up at me, her cheeks red from the cold, sniffling.
I calmly told Choi Se-hee,
"Hold my hand and follow me. We'll lose each other like this."
"Uh… okay. Yeah, let's do that!"
At my words, Choi Se-hee's cheeks seemed to redden even more than before, and she slightly flinched as she placed her hand in mine.
I gripped her hand, stood slightly ahead, and began to move forward.
"Alright! Good, let's go!"
After taking my hand, she seemed to intentionally raise her spirits, walking energetically forward with another loud exclamation.
Seeing her ear tips slightly red even with her scarf on, I chuckled softly and we continued to climb the snowy mountain together.
Our clasped hands felt warm, making it seem better than before.
***
We continued to climb the snowy mountain like that.
Even regular hiking was hard enough, but walking against the cold and a blizzard made it utterly exhausting.
After climbing for several hours, we concluded that we needed to rest for a while.
"But where do we rest?"
"Yeah, good point…"
The snowstorm still raged fiercely.
We were still climbing, holding hands in the midst of it, and realized there was no place to rest even though we wanted to. No, we couldn't just sit on the ground in the snow and rest, could we?
After thinking for a moment, I snapped my free hand, coming to a conclusion.
"Right, if we keep climbing this mountain, there's probably a cave somewhere. Let's find that and rest."
"A cave? This isn't the Himalayas, it feels more like Jirisan. Where would there be a cave?"
"No… I told you there's a cave at the very top of this mountain. So isn't it possible there's a cave halfway up too?"
"…Is that so?"
Choi Se-hee started to be convinced by my seemingly logical words. No, wasn't it pretty plausible? If we didn't find something like that, we'd have to keep climbing all the way to the top without resting…
"Alright, let's try going this way for now."
So, we started pushing through the snow again, following a ridge that seemed like it might lead somewhere.
How long did we climb in that state?
"Oh, it seems like the weather's gotten a bit better?"
The snow, which had been falling like a fierce storm until just a moment ago, had now quieted down considerably.
Of course, even though it had calmed, large snowflakes were still falling heavily, but it was much better than the strong winds that had been whipping around before.
So, for the first time since passing the middle of the mountain, we could walk while looking around.
"Hey, look over there. There's a river."
"You're right!"
What we discovered was a frozen river.
Following the long river, which was already completely frozen solid and covered with snow, we slowly began to walk uphill.
Only after the blizzard stopped could we look around as we ascended. The sight of white snow piled on green pine trees along the frozen river was quite picturesque.
So, even though our bodies were exhausted, we walked with Choi Se-hee, looking around and chatting quietly.
And then, finally, we found some kind of opening.
"Hey, isn't that a cave?"
"Oh, you're right!"
"Yes! It's really here. Finally, I can get out of this snow, ugh."
So we entered the cave.
It was a hole of moderate size, neither too big nor too small, unexpectedly located halfway up the mountain.
As we entered, we went to brush the snow off our clothes, only to realize we were still holding hands.
...Now that I thought about it, the blizzard had stopped a while ago, so why were we still holding hands?
We naturally let go, brushed the snow off our clothes, and then slumped against the cave wall as if collapsing.
Ah, I could finally breathe…
As I sat there, giving my tired legs a much-needed rest, Choi Se-hee handed me a cup.
"Here, drink this."
"What's this? Ah… the one you brought. Thanks."
It turned out to be warm tea she'd brought in a thermos. She'd poured it into the thermos lid, using it as a makeshift cup.
I thanked her and put the cup to my lips, taking a sip.
It was so cold that even though it had been in the thermos, it had cooled slightly, but as I drank it, a warm sensation spread throughout my body, starting from my throat.
Enjoying that feeling and warming myself up, I soon finished the cup and handed it back to Choi Se-hee.
She then poured herself some more tea and drank it.
With our bodies warmed, we sat facing each other, legs stretched out.
After resting for a moment, watching the snow fall outside, I turned my head to look at Choi Se-hee. Her shoulder-length orange hair spread out, she was leaning against the wall like me, holding a red scarf in one hand, blankly sipping her tea and looking outside.
I spoke to Choi Se-hee.
"It's tough, isn't it? You've had a hard time following me. I feel like I put you through unnecessary trouble by not coming alone."
"Huh? Oh… no. It's fun for me to be out like this after a long time, you know? It's not often you get to climb a mountain in the snow like this, right?"
Choi Se-hee grinned as she said that.
I was grateful for her positivity.
After that, we rested for a while longer.
"Then Seo Ja-young suddenly went 'Roar!' and appeared behind Eun-wol. But Eun-wol was fine, and instead, Han Seo-eun, who was next to her, got startled and screamed…"
"Pffft."
After resting sufficiently, chatting about this and that while sitting, we stood up to continue our journey. We put our backpacks back on and tidied our clothes.
And just before we set off, I saw Choi Se-hee, who had haphazardly tied her scarf back on and was exclaiming, 'Alright, let's go!' I sighed softly and walked over to her side.
"Wait a sec, come here."
"Huh? Why?"
Facing Choi Se-hee as she came towards me, asking why, I reached out and gently untied the red scarf she was wearing, then retied it properly.
Pull it like this, then tie it again…
"There, done. Let's go again."
"Uh, okay…"
With Choi Se-hee, whose ears seemed to have reddened slightly again, we climbed the mountain once more.
It felt as if the snow had calmed down even more while we rested. Or maybe, as we kept climbing, the snow just wasn't falling as much higher up?
"Hey, the snow's barely falling now, isn't it?"
"It's true."
At Choi Se-hee's words, as she held her hand up to the sky, I nodded. It had definitely stopped.
And because we were so high up, we could see the wide-open blue sky.
After gazing at it for a moment, I grabbed my wobbly legs and reached the summit.
Now, we could look down below.
After taking in the view for a moment, we finally arrived in front of a massive cave.
"Is this it? The place where the person we came to find is supposed to be…"
"Yeah. They're probably inside. And, don't be surprised by anything you see."
"Hey. Saying it like that suddenly makes me a little scared…"
With Choi Se-hee, who was slightly trembling and clinging to my side, seemingly overwhelmed by the enormous, gaping black maw of the cave, I stepped inside.
Hmm. Now that we'd actually arrived, I was starting to worry.
…Can I really convince it?
***
Hero Association Headquarters.
Stardust's office on an upper floor.
"….."
Shin Haru, who had been sitting there, blankly working as usual, suddenly leaned back in her chair and unconsciously muttered to herself.
"….They're late."
And her blue eyes, as she spoke, quietly gazed at the small calendar placed next to the monitor on her desk.