Outside, snowflakes drifted gently from the sky.
Inside the small wooden cabin, flickering amber firelight cast a warm glow on two faces.
"Emilia, can you tell me more about this world?"
Rikuto turned toward Emilia, his voice gentle as he began asking about the unfamiliar place he had awoken in.
Faced with the question, the silver-haired girl went quiet for a moment, then lowered her head shyly.
"…Actually," Emilia murmured, "Even though I woke up earlier than you, I also don't know much either."
She began to explain her situation to Rikuto.
To put it simply:
The girl named Emilia had lost all her memories.
She had only recently been awakened from her icebound slumber by a spirit named Puck.
Aside from a few things she'd picked up in the nearby village, she was just as unfamiliar with this world as Rikuto was.
"I see." Rikuto nodded slowly, watching her expression.
But Emilia's face showed a flicker of confusion.
"Wait… aren't you the same as me? Didn't you wake up from the ice too?"
There was a subtle trace of disappointment in her voice.
"From the ice? You mean there are… others frozen like that?" Rikuto raised an eyebrow.
Emilia nodded slightly.
As she spoke of the ice, a faint sorrow and guilt colored her expression.
There was something inexplicably heartbreaking about the way she looked.
"They're right outside. You can see them from the window," she said, pointing.
She rose to her feet and gently helped the recently recovered Rikuto over to the window.
Through the swirling snow outside, Rikuto saw them—
Dozens of white figures standing motionless in the wind and frost.
No… "figures" wasn't quite right. They were ice statues.
"People… or spirits, frozen solid?"
Each of those statues had pointed ears.
They weren't human.
Rikuto turned to glance at Emilia, who now wore a deeply troubled expression.
"Emilia, do you know what caused this? Was it the weather—or something… deliberate?"
Emilia looked up and shook her head.
"I don't know. I really don't know."
"When I woke up… they were already like this. Everyone was already like this."
Her voice grew small, and she crouched down by the window, curling into herself.
In that moment, all her beauty faded into something fragile and childlike. She looked like a child abandoned in a storm.
Moonlight streamed faintly through the frosted glass, mingling with the warm glow of the fire inside.
Is it guilt she's feeling…?
Watching Emilia, Rikuto couldn't help but recall her desperate cries in the storm—"Don't die."
It had sounded so much like a plea for forgiveness.
Did she mistake me for one of them? Was she trying to atone…?
He turned to glance back out at the frozen statues scattered across the snowy landscape.
And suddenly, Emilia's frantic determination to save him made a strange sort of sense.
As she knelt there by the window, tears brimming, Rikuto started to kneel beside her—intending to comfort her.
But just before he could move—
A childish yet indignant voice rang out beside him.
"Who made my dear Emilia cry?!"
Countless glowing motes of light began to gather midair, slowly forming into a small figure.
Grey fur, large round eyes, a pink button nose, and a body barely the size of a palm—
A small, floating cat stood before them, paws clenched into tiny fists.
"I'm Puck. The spirit Puck," he huffed, waving his little fists at Rikuto.
"So tell me…"
"Was it you who made Emilia cry?"
The adorable cat's expression darkened into something truly ferocious.
Around him, cold began to condense. The air temperature dropped sharply.
Spikes of ice formed out of the surrounding moisture, all of them turning in unison to point directly at Rikuto.
"Spirit, magic, and a talking cat that floats…" Rikuto muttered. "Yeah… this definitely isn't my old world."
Even as his legs trembled beneath him, he somehow felt… not afraid.
Because in that moment—when the ice spikes formed—
The cat, Puck, gave him a playful wink and flicked his tail toward the weeping Emilia.
It was obvious.
Puck wasn't truly angry.
He was doing this—creating a scene—to shift Emilia's attention away from her grief.
And truth be told… it was working.
"Puck, please don't," Emilia suddenly cried, stepping between Rikuto and the icy barrage.
She spread her arms wide to shield him, her face serious and unyielding.
"Relax, Emilia," Rikuto said calmly, patting her shoulder with a smile. "Mr. Puck is just teasing me, right?"
"Of course!" Puck chirped, throwing up his tiny paws. "Just a joke!"
"Emilia, you wound me~ How could you ever doubt me?" he added, pouting dramatically.
The tension melted away in an instant. The ice spikes dissolved into glimmering lights, vanishing as if they'd never been there.
"Really? It's fine?" Emilia's gaze darted nervously between Rikuto and Puck.
"Really," Rikuto nodded reassuringly.
"This Puck you mentioned earlier… he's the one who thawed you from the ice, right?"
Rikuto turned toward the floating cat spirit.
Emilia nodded again, then began to introduce the two of them properly.
"Puck, this is Rikuto. He was unconscious in the snow, so I brought him back here."
"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Puck," Rikuto said, bowing slightly.
"And to you, Rikuto," Puck replied with a wide grin.
He floated closer, sniffing curiously at Rikuto, before flashing a contented smile.
"I don't sense any malice from you."
"You smell like a good person."
Puck's voice was cheerful and full of praise, not holding back in the slightest.
As a spirit, Puck had near-perfect sensitivity to the emotional vibrations of human souls.
And Rikuto—someone who hadn't even opened his "Gate" yet—was about as ordinary as they came.
But even so, Puck could feel it: Rikuto held no ill will toward Emilia. At his core, he longed for peace and harmony.
He was the type of person who had likely never even been in a real fight.
"Well… thank you," Rikuto replied with a bashful smile.
Then—without missing a beat—he raised his head.
Taking advantage of the praise, he made his move.
"Mr. Puck," he said with earnest eyes, "you looked incredibly powerful just now."
"Would you be willing to teach me magic?"
"I'm prepared to offer something in return."
"Maybe… some unusual knowledge in exchange?" he added with a hopeful tone, gesturing lightly toward the floating cat.