43. Everything Froze (5)
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13th Myeolam Unit of the Sakwol Tower.
Vice-Captain Hyeijin Macaron.
Even the so-called Council of Archmages, said to stand at the summit of the magical world, had the authority to judge her, yet Hyeijin was one of the elite among the elite of the greatest magical combat organization in the world, an organization that operated hidden in the shadows.
Hyeijin Macaron’s life moved according to whatever interested her, and it was likely to keep moving that way in the future as well.
She was quite fond of adventure. The reason she followed Captain Kaen around was also because whenever she stayed with him and went on adventures, interesting and entertaining things kept happening.
However, even so.
‘I hate thisss!’
Actually enjoying adventure while literally staking her life on it was not, in the slightest, something Hyeijin found interesting.
Fwaaahk!
A frigid wave that brushed past her cheek gradually numbed her senses. It was a foreign sensation she had never once felt in her life. She hurriedly tried to gather warmth with magic, but it was impossible.
‘H-Huh?’
She was genuinely shocked. The mana of the entire world had frozen solid and showed no sign of moving.
‘That’s impossible…….’
A mana-freeze phenomenon.
How could something like this suddenly happen?
But something even more astonishing awaited.
“Where…… is this?”
It was an entirely blue world. In a world filled with blue…… there lay only a single white bridge.
And walking ahead on it was a familiar back.
Baek Yuseol.
Without realizing it, she looked up at the sky.
Constellations and the Milky Way were embedded in the blue sky like scattered points of light.
Again, not sky-blue.
Blue.
That deep, impossibly deep blue was so intense that it even stimulated human fear, making Hyeijin’s fingertips tremble.
The terrifying part did not end there.
Below the single bridge—the only place in this world where one could set foot—the sky stretched out there too.
Sky and ground alike.
Both were filled with constellations.
Thud!
“Aah……”
Hyeijin’s legs gave out, and she dropped to the floor. She tried to cover her mouth with her hand, only then realizing the truth behind the strange sensation.
Crk-crk-crk!
Her hands and feet…… were slowly freezing.
“…Huh?”
Wrapped in freezing ice, her fingers would not so much as twitch. She hastily tried to use magic, but the mana remained frozen and utterly motionless.
Just as Hyeijin began opening her mouth wide in shock, Kaen placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Get a hold of yourself, Hyeijin. And you still call yourself an illusion mage?”
“C-Captain! M-My hands……”
“It’s your ‘mind’ that’s freezing. Focus. Melt your hands with your will.”
“I-I’ll try……”
But no matter how tightly she shut her eyes and tried to concentrate, the horrible, vivid pain of her frozen limbs made it impossible to do as she wished.
“I-I can’t……”
“……Then I’ll help.”
Tap.
In the end, when Kaen took Hyeijin’s hand, a gentle warmth finally spread into her, and the ice slowly began to melt.
“Haa, ha…… thank goodness……”
“What exactly is there to be thankful for?”
“I thought my hands and feet would freeze solid and then break right off……”
“A pointless worry.”
“Right?”
“Yes. Because we’ve already frozen to death.”
“……Huh?”
What was he talking about?
“C-Captain? What did you just say……?”
“I meant it literally. This place is close to absolute zero. Physically, that should be impossible, but perhaps it’s even colder than that.”
“That…… makes no sense! Then how are we alive?”
“Because even death has frozen.”
What kind of absurd nonsense was that? Hyeijin could neither understand it nor accept it, so she tried to ask more, but Kaen grabbed her and pulled her along, leaving her no chance to do so.
“There’s no need to worry. There should be a way back.”
“C-Captain never lies, so that means it’s true, right?”
“Yes.”
Captain Kaen was an all-purpose mage who handled everything with ease. So surely he would somehow deal with this situation too.
“First, let’s follow Baek Yuseol.”
“Mm…….”
The bridge was terribly, endlessly long.
Clinging to Kaen’s right hand with both of hers, Hyeijin followed behind in a crouched shuffle, once more taking in the scenery around her.
A world where even time and space had frozen, where even death itself had been arrested.
Now that she looked closely, those constellations filling the sky and ground were nothing more than countless shards of ice.
Thousands, tens of thousands of ice fragments had gathered to form constellations.
Without meaning to, she thought, It’s beautiful.
Then she quickly shook her head from side to side. She had no desire to decorate a world that might kill them with pretty words.
Ahead of them, Baek Yuseol stood unable to advance, blocked by some immense wall of aurora. With Hyeijin still in tow, Kaen approached him.
“……You followed me all the way here?”
“Yes.”
Baek Yuseol, who had been staring at the aurora, slowly turned his head and met their eyes.
He did not look cold at all. In fact, he seemed to possess stronger mental fortitude than Hyeijin, who was a mental-type mage herself.
Her pride took a sharp hit for a moment, but she judged it unavoidable.
After all, she already believed Baek Yuseol’s skill was a cut above her own, considering he could casually brush aside illusion magic.
Standing more than five steps away, Kaen simply watched what Baek Yuseol was about to do. Seeing that meaning—I won’t interfere—Baek Yuseol turned his gaze back to the aurora.
He was nervous.
To be honest, he was so afraid his heart felt ready to burst, but he forced himself to endure it.
‘……I just have to do it the way I know.’
Games and reality were different.
Something that passed safely in the game might be overturned at any moment in reality.
Still, he had to do it.
If he didn’t, he would never be able to prevent Hong Biyeon’s bad ending.
Baek Yuseol looked at the gigantic aurora wall blocking his way. This aurora, which seemed to split the world in half, was the final boundary.
A warning.
Do not come any closer.
Ignoring that warning, he reached out and touched the aurora.
—Stop. I do not want you to come any farther.
“Ugh……!”
At the voice that swept through the world like an echo, Hyeijin collapsed to the ground. Kaen did not fall, but his expression still stiffened in shock.
“No. I’m going in.”
—Hoo… humans again. I’m sick of your kind now.
“That’s a bit unfair. Wasn’t the last human to come here a thousand years ago?”
—Really? Well, I have no sense of time, so even if you say ‘a thousand years,’ that doesn’t mean much to me. When was that?
“In the age of the Founder Mage.”
—……Aha? Ah, hm. I see.
Hyeijin somehow calmed her trembling body and stared at Baek Yuseol’s back.
‘W-What even is that……?’
Just hearing that voice made it feel as though the blood in her whole body might flow backward, yet Baek Yuseol was standing there talking to it calmly. She could not help but feel awe.
[The Blessing of Crimson Spring March.]
Of course, it was not as if this was easy for Baek Yuseol either. He had received the protection of yet another of the Twelve Divine Months, yes, but because his current capabilities were still very low, there was only so much it could do.
Even so, thanks to sharing Kkotseorin’s blessing and carrying a sacred relic on his person, he was able to adapt little by little.
—Then again… if it really has been that long, perhaps it has been a while indeed. So, what is it you want? The ones who could stand before me and hold a proper conversation were called heroes or ‘emperors’ in the histories. Are you one of those as well?
“I’m a student.”
—Hm. I’ve never heard of the title ‘student,’ but it must certainly be something great enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with emperors.
“Close enough.”
—So then, why are you here? If you came for some pointless reason, go back. For now, at least, I can still thaw your frozen souls.
Hyeijin urgently tugged at Kaen’s sleeve. She wanted to say, You heard that, right? Let’s go back already! But her tongue had frozen too stiff for her to speak.
—But the moment you cross that boundary…… even I will no longer be able to take responsibility. You will be trapped forever in the cycle of death, wandering along the edges of dimensions.
“That doesn’t matter. Open the way.”
—Why?
“I want to make a bet with you.”
At those words, the voice fell silent.
And after a long pause.
—Puhahahahaha!
It burst into loud laughter.
—A bet, a bet! Excellent!
According to the setting, Blue Winter December was a betting addict no less than Ma Yuseong. Back when he played Aether Online, this exact dialogue scene was one Character Baek Yuseol had never been able to clear, but Character Ma Yuseong had gotten through it with ease.
The keyword was betting.
Fwaaahk!
“Ugh…!”
The aurora in front of them suddenly parted, and white light spilled out. Hyeijin frowned and squeezed her eyes shut.
And when she slowly opened them again.
“……Is that the moon?”
There, in that entirely blue world, floated a gigantic white moon. Beneath that moonlight, which seemed capable of covering half the sky, a white mountain range coiled and wound across the land. Hyeijin and Kaen did not know it, but it was part of the Bingbaek Mountain Range in the northern reaches of the Aether Continent.
And beneath that moonlight, seated on the summit of the mountain range, was a blue giant.
Blue Winter December.
It was overwhelming.
It was awe-inspiring.
Even lifting one’s head and daring to meet its gaze felt terrifying.
Tears even flowed from Hyeijin’s eyes, but they too froze in an instant.
“I-I really hate this…….”
She clutched tightly at Kaen’s sleeve. Even so, Kaen merely stared blankly at the Divine Month.
‘A Divine Month…….’
He had heard many stories about them in legends, but he had never imagined he would face one directly, and even Kaen was deeply shaken.
In the first place, how many people in history had ever spoken to one of the Twelve Divine Months like this? By his knowledge, very few indeed.
—A most interesting proposal, human!
Blue Winter December grinned as he looked at Baek Yuseol.
—Yes, if we are to wager, something must be staked. Is there anything you desire?
“Yes. If I win, then please free the soul of the Pirate King Black Belize, who has been condemned to wander the nine heavens forever for the crime of stealing your possession.”
—……Oho.
Blue Winter December looked as though he wanted to say, So you know even that? But he did not ask for details.
That sort of thing did not matter to him.
—So that insolent pirate is still wandering the nine heavens without having vanished even now? Impressive in its own way. Had it been an ordinary soul, it would have disappeared long ago……
He thought for a moment, then nodded.
—Very well. It is about time I set him free anyway. Then here is my stake.
Blue Winter December met Baek Yuseol’s eyes directly as he spoke.
—Your life. If I win…… then you shall pay for daring to set foot in this sacred land with your death.
“Agreed.”
Without the slightest hesitation, Baek Yuseol nodded and stepped inside the wide-open aurora boundary.
“C-Captain……. we’re not going too, right?”
“No. We are not participants in the wager.”
But perhaps Blue Winter December did not dislike having the two of them as spectators, because he did not close the aurora boundary again.
As if telling them to watch.
Baek Yuseol strode forward with dignified steps toward Blue Winter December. Compared to that overwhelming gigantic presence, his back looked endlessly small.
And yet, for some reason.
As Kaen watched him, Baek Yuseol’s shoulders seemed as large as that towering mountain itself.
‘Strange.’
The legend of Blue Winter December’s wagers was famous. That being, who delighted in bets, had been challenged by countless heroes, yet had reportedly never lost even once.
So Baek Yuseol would lose as well.
Then what was with that confident stride?
Was it not as though he were convinced he would absolutely win? Even though failure meant death, he showed no fear at all. Was that confidence the source of it?
‘Hoo.’
Upon reaching the foot of the mountain range, Baek Yuseol closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
‘Don’t give up.’
He recalled the one important line he himself had written in his [Guidebook].
‘No matter what happens, do not give up.’
It might sound simple, but when had refusing to give up ever been easy?
But from this point on, Baek Yuseol had to do exactly that.
The entire world was filled with pure white blankness. Like a blank page unstained by a drop of ink or a speck of dust.
Crunch.
When he took the first step toward the mountain range, a single period was placed upon that blank page. Baek Yuseol walked slowly, and the periods multiplied, becoming a line.
Icicles connected sky and ground, and even the clouds and waterfalls of this mysterious world had frozen solid. In a place like this, Baek Yuseol’s very existence felt endlessly filthy and out of place.
And there, Blue Winter December came to greet him personally.
With a single breath, a blizzard rose. Each time he blinked, the world folded in half and spread open again.
And still, he was smiling.
Like someone thrilled by what was about to come.
—Very well! Let us begin at once.
And so……
A wager that could not be won began.
The challenge took place atop one of the towering peaks in the white mountain range.
This peak, honed to a knife-like sharpness, had two slopes running up it like slides, and at the very bottom sat a huge, round boulder of ice.
The rules of the contest were simple.
Each side would take hold of an ice sphere and roll it upward. Whoever crossed the finish line at the summit first would win.
This wager too was incredibly famous……
So much so that even Kaen had encountered it countless times in fairy tales since childhood.
‘To think I’d see this with my own eyes…….’
No one could dare imagine the feeling of witnessing a legend firsthand before them. Hyeijin too realized that the situation was no ordinary one and stopped whining any further.
She simply clung tightly to Kaen’s sleeve.
Rustle……!
A single hexagonal ice snowflake drifted gently down from the sky. The moment it touched the ground and became one with the vast mountain range, the wager began.
“…Huh?”
Hyeijin doubted her own eyes.
“W-What is this……. He challenged a Divine Month with that level of skill……?”
She could not believe it.
Because he was amazing? Absolutely not.
Because compared to Blue Winter December…… he was unbelievably, hopelessly slow.
She too knew the legends well. Who exactly had come to challenge Blue Winter December until now?
Heroes who had dominated an entire century. The Pirate King who had ruled all seas of the world. The tyrant who had unified the continent. The swordsman who had subdued the world with a single blade. Even grand archmages who had reached the heavens.
Countless legends had challenged Blue Winter December.
And lost.
But at the very least…… they surely had not displayed such an embarrassingly vast gap in ability.
Baek Yuseol was slow.
While Blue Winter December rolled his sphere of ice upward at a terrifying speed, that black-haired boy was moving his along by barely a single centimeter at a time. Even that seemed to strain him terribly.
‘This is ridiculous…….’
He came all the way here to propose that absurd wager?
If that really was the full extent of his skill, then there was no hope. Baek Yuseol would lose his life exactly like this.
“Captain. Let’s just go ba—huh?”
But Captain Kaen was watching Baek Yuseol with an oddly serious gaze.
‘……No, why?’
The time spent coming all the way here felt like a complete waste. What on earth was even worth watching here? Blue Winter December had certainly been fascinating, but staying any longer just to get dragged into danger made less sense than fleeing immediately, didn’t it?
And yet.
About an hour later, Hyeijin also began to sense that something was strange.
Blue Winter December had reached the summit in only thirty minutes, and the outcome had long since been obvious.
‘……Why isn’t he giving up?’
He had already lost.
And yet Baek Yuseol was still climbing the razor-sharp cliff peak at a tortoise’s pace, step by step. Was the burden of that ice boulder, many times larger than his own body, too much? Sometimes he slipped, sometimes he fell, but each time he got back up and moved forward again.
‘No way…… does he not even realize he’s already lost?’
A day passed, then two.
And when even a full week had gone by and still he did not give up, Hyeijin finally…… realized it.
‘He knows he’s lost, and still…… he’s refusing to give up, just to see the match through to the end?’
She raised her head.
There…… stood Blue Winter December, without taking even a single step, simply watching the boy.
He would likely remain there, unmoving, until that human either gave up, died, or arrived.
‘He’s insane. It’s impossible. With a body that weak, there’s no way he can reach the top…….’
It was already miraculous for a human body to push such a gigantic ice boulder in the first place. The very premise of reaching the summit of that slippery, razor-sharp ice peak was nonsense.
There was no value in watching.
He would lose.
So all they had to do was turn around and leave.
Even as that thought grew stronger and stronger, Hyeijin’s legs remained rooted in place as though nailed there. She could not leave.
And so, when two weeks had passed, snowflake spirits gathered to watch the reckless human boy. After a month, glacier spirits began to gather. After two months, she could even feel the glittering stars in the sky watching this place.
During that time, Hyeijin had neither grown hungry nor sleepy.
Because even time…… was frozen here.
All the spirits watched the reckless human’s challenge. They did not cheer him on. They did not encourage him.
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The boy did not stop.
As if he would climb forever, he climbed and climbed again.
Swaaah!!
A sudden shower poured down.
Rumble, crack!
Thunder split the sky.
Saaaaah!
A blizzard swept in.
Krrrroooom!
An avalanche broke loose.
And yet Baek Yuseol did not stop.
He…… looked almost as though he were dying. It was astonishing enough that he was still alive at all. And still, he kept climbing. Toward the place where Blue Winter December stood—no, toward the summit itself.
And finally, after three months had passed.
When Baek Yuseol at last reached the top and stepped over the finish line.
Blue Winter December smiled.
—Magnificent, human.
“Huff, huff…!”
Even in pain so intense it felt as though he might cough up blood, Baek Yuseol staggered to his feet and faced Blue Winter December.
Then he smiled back and cracked a joke.
“Ah, damn… cough! If I’d come… just five minutes… earlier…… I’d have won…!”
—Hahahaha!
At Blue Winter December’s laughter, heaven and earth trembled. It was laughter born of pure delight.
—What nonsense are you talking, human?
Pointing with one finger at his own ice boulder, Blue Winter December spoke calmly.
—This is your victory.
“W-What……?!”
Only then could Hyeijin and Kaen see it. Blue Winter December’s ice boulder…… had not even crossed the finish line yet.
That was right.
From the beginning, the premise of this contest itself had made no sense.
Blue Winter December was the ruler of ice. Rolling ice down or up a cliff…… was in truth something he could do easily without even laying a hand on it.
Then why had he deliberately competed in this ‘wager’ against the heroes of history?
To defeat them?
Because he wanted them to defeat him?
No.
No, that was not it.
It was only because…… there was no one in this world who could truly wager against him.
Whether he won or lost did not matter.
He had simply wanted someone—anyone at all—to wager with him without giving up.
Blue Winter December walked over to his own ice and nudged it with the tip of one finger, sending it across the line.
Then he said,
—What a shame. If there had been just five more minutes, I would have won.
