In the mountain village, where night arrived early, the seasons seemed to change swiftly as well. When the arduous and relentless task of uprooting the tree stumps remaining in the felled forest was finally completed—a task both delicate and brutal—an early winter descended upon the village.
Too much time passed, and too quickly. In the face of such thoughts, the only thing Reinhart could do was simply what needed to be done.
He had grown accustomed to spending entire days maintaining Mana Reinforcement, doing it as naturally as breathing. Reinhart had reached a stage where he could even maintain it while sleeping, a state where Mana Reinforcement was always active without conscious effort.
Now that the second phase of uprooting the tree stumps was complete, the next task was to turn over the soil and sift out the small roots and stones. Once that was done, the work Luna had assigned him for the summer would be finished. Despite finishing the second phase, Reinhart was not satisfied. Taking up the shovel, he brought it down into the forest soil.
Clang!
Instead of plunging into the soil, the metal blade of the shovel struck the ground with an unpleasant metallic sound.
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The early winter had frozen the ground.
Clink!
Reinhart tossed aside the shovel and picked up a pickaxe this time.
Thud!
The pickaxe struck the ground, but instead of penetrating, it collided with the earth. Once more.
Thud!
The pickaxe met the ground again, hitting the exact same spot, meeting the ground again. How many times did he strike the ground like that?
Thunk!
The pickaxe finally penetrated into the earth, and the ground beneath revealed its inner layers.
“...”
As if entranced, Reinhart turned over the soil, picking out stones and tossing them away from the clearing. As if there was nothing else he needed to do. As if he had forgotten everything else except this task.
Thunk! Thunk! Thud!
Reinhart swung the pickaxe as if possessed, and slowly but surely, faint wisps of blue mana began to rise from the handle he wielded.
Thus, a day passed. Then two days. Then a week. A fortnight. A month.
As winter deepened, the work of breaking, crushing, and digging into the increasingly frozen ground naturally grew more difficult. The simple task of digging into and sifting through the soil turned into the arduous work of breaking and shattering the frozen earth.
Even when snow fell on the mountain village, Reinhart remained in the forest, shattering the ice and breaking through the snow-laden ground without using any holy relics or the Flame of Tuesday, as if facing off against destiny itself.
Unable to watch any longer, Luna grabbed Reinhart’s shoulder while he continued to dig into the bare ground with a shovel and pickaxe, even in winter.
“There’s too much snow. At least wait until it stops,” she said.
“Oh... When did you arrive?” Reinhart replied with a dazed expression, as if he hadn’t noticed Luna’s presence.
The snow was falling so heavily that it had piled up to their knees, and Luna, too, was covered in snow from walking through the deep drifts. But she was at a loss for words as she looked at Reinhart.
Despite the heavy snowfall, no snow had accumulated on Reinhart’s head or shoulders. The heat radiating from his body melted any snow that touched his hair, face, or shoulders.
“I’ve been calling you for five minutes, but you didn’t respond.”
“Ah... really?”
“Yes. Do you know how ridiculous you look right now?” Luna laughed, covering her mouth as she looked at Reinhart.
“What do I look like?”
“You look like an angry kettle.”
With the steam rising from his head, he resembled a boiling kettle.
“Take a break today. That’s an order from the village chief of Rijaiera.”
“... Yes.”
At Luna’s words, Reinhart slung the pickaxe and shovel over his shoulder and trudged through the deep snow blanketing the mountain path.
“Haven’t you ever thought that this isn’t something you should be doing in the winter?” asked Luna, who was walking ahead of him.
Reinhart knew exactly what she meant. Of course, the task of tilling the ground was hardly something to be done in winter. It was work meant for when the ground had thawed and it was time to sow seeds. However, as if it had been arranged, Reinhart found himself doing the hardest work at the most difficult time.
“That’s why I like it more,” Reinhart said, following Luna with the shovel and pickaxe slung over his shoulder. The implication was that when things were easy, rewards came easily too, but doing difficult work at the hardest time would yield greater rewards.
“I’m glad you think so. I was worried you might think I assigned you this difficult task at this time just to torment you.”
“... Wasn’t that the case?” Reinhart replied.
Luna sighed deeply as she continued to walk. “Well, now I know that you have a twisted side to your personality. But I can’t say I didn’t mean to you a hard time. I did want to make fun of you a bit. Quite a bit, actually.”
“I’ve come to realize that you have quite a mischievous side, Mother.”
Luna narrowed her eyes at Reinhart’s comment, which was quite similar to her own. “You never lose an argument, do you?”
“There’s no reason to lose, is there?”
“You should know when to stop.”
Luna walked on ahead as if she didn’t want to engage with him any further. The snow was piled so high that walking was difficult, and the snowfall continued, slowing their progress.
How long had they been walking through the snow?
“Aren’t you worried about what’s happening outside?” Luna asked softly.
After a certain point, Reinhart had grown so focused on what he had to do, as if spellbound by it, that he hadn’t mentioned anything about the outside world. It had reached a point where Luna found herself needing to ask this question.
“You told me to trust you.”
“I did indeed.”
“If something goes wrong, I’ll just blame it all on you, Mother.”
“...”
Luna stopped and turned to look at Reinhart after his sudden outburst of nonsense. Her brow furrowed as she gazed at him.
“Is that how you found peace of mind? By deciding to blame everything on me if something goes wrong?”
“Isn’t it enough to just head toward your destination, without worrying about how you’re going to get there? Thinking that way makes me feel at ease.”
Luna sighed.
“But if something goes terribly wrong later, I’ll blame you for the rest of my life. Just so you know.”
“You must have been in Rijaiera for a long time for you to have become so stubborn.”
Reinhart chuckled. “I have been here for quite a while,” he said.
Reinhart watched as the snow piled precariously on the tree branches fell off in clumps. He had stayed in Rijaiera for two whole seasons.
“I’d like something warm for dinner tonight.”
“You’re getting more and more cheeky. You must be getting too comfortable.”
Smack!
Luna flicked Reinhart’s forehead with her finger, and clicked her tongue.
“Ow!”
“Don’t get too comfortable in Rijaiera,” Luna added quietly as she started walking again. “You’ll have to leave someday.”
He had to leave.
Reinhart’s expression fell. Luna’s words had a hint of finality to them.
He had to leave Rijaiera as soon as possible. But somewhere in his heart, he realized he didn’t want to leave Rijaiera. Luna had made him aware of that.
***
Though he didn’t know much about rural life, Reinhart learned that winter in a mountain village froze not only the ground but also brought the lives of its residents to a standstill. In places with four seasons, life in a mountain village was essentially about spending the year preparing for winter, then enduring through the frozen season.
All activities, such as making preserved food and storing up grain, were necessary preparations to endure the winter when food was scarce. Therefore, the residents’ activity levels during this season were minimal as well. There was no one else like Reinhart, who was working tirelessly as if possessed.
Winter was thus a long period of rest, filled with and anxious waiting for it to end. Of course, Rijaiera wasn’t an ordinary rural village, and the residents were rather self-sufficient, so there were no food shortages.
He had prepared enough firewood during the summer to last until the next year, and there was more than enough for winter. The village’s wood storage was filled with the firewood he had chopped, which the residents had dried.
People burned the firewood they had prepared in the previous seasons, nibbling away at their stored foodstuffs, waiting for the frozen ground to thaw and for spring to arrive. But since it was snowing heavily, people were busy clearing the paths in the village.
“Go up to the roof and clear the snow later.”
“You told me to rest.”
“...”
‘Hey, seriously, am I wrong? You told me to rest, but as soon as I’m back, you’re trying to make me work again?’ Reinhart thought.
Luna stared at him, and her lips started to pout.
‘See? Look at this. She’s pouting because she has nothing to say.’
“Fine, rest. But if the roof collapses from all the snow that falls overnight, you’ll be the one who suffers the most, since you’re sleeping on the second floor.”
“Mother, do you know that you’re quite petty, even though you pretend not to be?”
“Of course. I know it well.”
The fact that she admitted it so nonchalantly was the pettiest thing of all.
“Honestly, I used to think that the greatest similarity between you and Ellen was your looks, but now I realize your personalities are actually more similar.”
“... Our personalities?”
Luna tilted her head as if hearing this for the first time.
“Yes. When you have nothing to say, you pout, and you tend to speak carelessly.”
Luna turned her gaze away from Reinhart.
“I don’t want to admit it, but you’re quite an extraordinary son-in-law, even by your usual standards. You’re insulting both your mother-in-law and wife at the same time.”
“This is what I mean. This is how you pout.”
“Yes, you have a knack for getting under people’s skin. I was wrong, so let’s not talk.”
The fact that they could have such a conversation so casually made Reinhart realize once again how long he had been in Rijaiera. They walked along the path, which had been cleared of snow. Since the snow continued to fall, they would have to keep clearing it.
When would this heavy snow stop?
“Do we really look alike?”
Luna’s question came out of the blue.
“Yes, you do.”
Others must have noticed the resemblance as well. Perhaps she was thinking about what he had said about their personalities being similar. From Luna’s expression, it seemed she was pleased to hear that she and Ellen looked alike.
“It’s not particularly surprising for parents and children to resemble each other, is it?”
“Hmm. I suppose not.”
Luna continued to smile.
“But that’s what makes it more mysterious, isn’t it?” she said.
“The fact that a being who resembles me, who is like me, but is not me, can originate from me. That a being who comes from me but cannot be me is born and lives on. How beautiful it is... Sometimes, I find it so mysterious and lovely.”
For some reason, Reinhart didn’t quite understand what Luna was saying. Perhaps it was because he didn’t have children, or maybe Luna was thinking on a completely different level.
“Why do you like Ellen?”
Luna’s sudden question caught him off guard. Perhaps it was because of the snow, or maybe it had nothing to do with the snow. But for whatever reason, they were conversing much more that day.
Why did he like Ellen?
Even though he had been in Rijaiera for quite some time, Luna had never brought up this topic before. Knowing that he might have to confront Ellen someday, both Reinhart and Luna had avoided the subject, and the same went for Ellen’s father, Ronan.
Why did he like Ellen?
He had thought about it for a long time, and sometimes he pondered it alone, but there was only one answer he could give.
“... I don’t really know.”
He couldn’t honestly point to a specific moment or event. He didn’t know. There wasn’t much he could say other than that it just happened at some point.
“That’s a satisfactory answer.”
“I’m not sure if it’s a good answer, but if you say so, then I’m glad.”
“You’ve spent so much time together that you can’t explain it properly, isn’t that what you mean?”
“Is that... how it is?”
“Indeed.”
Luna walked on quietly with a smile.
What was happening in the present, and what would happen in the future? It wouldn’t be okay to only have a good past without having a good future.
—Yay! Woohoo!
—Save me!
While the older ones were busy clearing snow, children who didn’t understand any of it were simply excited to play, making snowmen and throwing snowballs.
Snowball fights and snowmen. Naturally, something came to mind.
“I once made a snowman with Ellen.”
“... Did you?”
“Not a regular snowman, but a snow sculpture that uncannily resembled a real person... I asked her what it was, and she said she had always made them like that with her brother.”
Luna laughed, as if recalling an old memory. “Haha, yes. Both of them had extraordinary skills, so they often did that.”
Reinhart suddenly regretted bringing up Ragan Artorius.
“Arta and Lena tried to imitate them too. Lena gave up, saying she couldn’t do it, and Arta tried to make a better snowman than Ellen, so he stayed up all night and caught a bad cold... So Ragan helped Arta make a snowman... Yes... That happened...” Luna recounted with a gentle smile.
“Those times... they existed...”
Her voice was bittersweet as she reminisced about the past.
“I’m sorry,” Reinhart said.
Luna turned to look at him.
“Why apologize for bringing up good memories?” Luna said as she continued to walk. “Thank you, Reinhart.”
Reinhart felt as if,at some point, Luna had accepted him as part of the family. He didn’t know exactly when or on which day it had happened. It had just happened at some point. Just as he didn’t know the exact moment, Luna probably didn’t either.
‘What if Ellen was here? It would be nice,’ he thought.
On that snowy winter day, he imagined a scene that could not exist, and smiled a forlorn smile.
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