Chapter 51

Chapter 51 : Even Artisans Are Selective About Their Tools (2)

Hwipone was sprawled on a chair pressed flat against the wall, sitting curled up with his back leaned against it, fast asleep and purring softly.

It seemed he had never intended to leave that same day from the start, but what did I care?

I propped my chin on the table, stared at that miserable state of his, then rose from my seat.

Hwipone went in and out of the Third Domain all the time.

His previous mission had also passed through that place, so the necklace Hwipone had been given was highly likely to be an access pass for a specific area within it. If I was going to search somewhere the flame might be, it could only be there.

Leaving such an important necklace that defenselessly must have been his silent approval for me to take it myself, no?

Fortunately, stealing the necklace from Hwipone, who had completely passed out, was not difficult.

I placed the necklace I had taken without hesitation around my neck and hid it inside my collar.

“I will use this well and return it.”

The crow-tit popped out beside me, thoroughly mussed Hwipone’s hair, then returned to my shoulder, and even then, he did not wake.

Hwipone had not even been back a full day from the place he had passionately described as brutal, spittle flying as he spoke.

He said that once he unlocked his Frame, drunkenness like this would vanish in no time, but the mental exhaustion from carrying out a mission without sleep for days on end would not have recovered.

“I am going first, so follow me or not.”

After leaving a farewell he would not hear, I went outside.

DING—CLINK.

Perhaps because this was a place without any distinction between day and night, a large clocktower in the central square announced every hour.

It was also the time when Pan and the others who had accompanied me would be returning.

I pulled the hood attached to my cold-weather coat firmly over my head and headed toward the immigration hall.

Going to the Third Domain was not difficult.

Perhaps Etel had given advance notice, because the moment the administrator confirmed who I was, their gaze darted around, not knowing where to land, and they guided me to the Gate with extreme caution.

Resolving to ask Etel later exactly what kind of notice she had given, no matter what, I faced a door similar to the one I had seen in the Forest’s Domain immigration hall.

“M-may you have an enjoyable v-visit—aaack!”

The employee, who bowed excessively and whose voice even cracked at the end, hurriedly covered their own mouth and opened the door.

Just before I set foot beyond the door, a question occurred to me.

The method for entering Sky’s Domain from the dock had not been a door, but an octagonal magic circle. Moving from the second domain to the first domain had used the same method too.

And yet the Third Domain was a door again?

“Excuse me…….”

“Yeeees—!?”

“Is there anything I should know that I do not know?”

“Th-that, hic. Uh, n-no, hic, there is not.”

Mm. So there is.

Snow broke through the fierce blizzard beyond the door and blew all the way over to this side. Wherever that snow touched, it drew white patterns and frost formed.

It meant this was not ordinary cold.

I took one step back from the door and wondered whether I should bring Hwipone after all.

To survive in cold that extreme, I really needed Hwipone, who had the ice attribute…….

“So you are the kind of person who abandons an unconscious companion and runs off. Why are you not going?”

The pressure of him slinging an arm over my shoulders from behind and weighing me down was considerable.

That meant he had only pretended to be asleep. Most likely, he had been secretly following me from the moment I left the tavern.

Mm, was that a test?

“You looked tired, so I thought perhaps I did not need to take you?”

On top of that, it had been a probe he had carried out while already factoring in the fact that I would not be able to pass through that door without him.

“You will need to take me.”

“It looked that way.”

Perhaps because my calm reaction bored him, Hwipone gestured roughly to the gatekeeper and crossed the door first.

It was then that I confirmed the snow did not touch the place Hwipone passed through.

So when he said it was a place where I would die with my eyes open, he meant I would freeze to death with my eyes open?

I stuck close to Hwipone, my excellent insulation item, and crossed the door.

As soon as the door closed behind us, the whiter blizzard swallowed my sight.

At the same time, an ice skewer was aimed at my throat.

It was Hwipone’s sword.

“A familiar setup.”

“The necklace.”

“I do not…… know what you mean.”

From the place where Hwipone’s sword touched, the cold pressed in sharply.

White frost clung to the hair caught in my field of vision.

This was an armed demonstration. A threat that if I did not obediently follow his words, he would no longer protect me from that cold blizzard.

“If you want to freeze to death, keep doing that.”

“Do I not need to be holding the necklace if I do not want to freeze to death? Who knows if you will abandon me and leave if I return it?”

At my words, Hwipone’s mouth pressed shut.

Were you really planning to take it and run?

A hollow laugh escaped me in disbelief, but the skewer dug into the edge of my neck and stung. It froze over immediately and stopped the bleeding, so blood did not flow.

Feeling heat and cold at the same time, I lowered my gaze.

Was there some other reason he was threatening me like this when he could simply take it by force?

“That is a treasure of the sky. It must not be stained by an outsider’s touch.”

“Mm…… is that so?”

I smiled brightly and ignored Hwipone’s words.

“I do not know what you took me for when you stole that, but the fact that there is someone who can even take it in the first place…….”

“I cannot hear you very well.”

“Th-that……! That is an object that cannot be taken without its owner’s permission!”

In the end, needling him had been worth it.

Before Hwipone could sweep the skewer sideways, hook the necklace, and pull it away, I took it off and threw it far away.

“Huh? Huh…… uh!”

Hwipone hurriedly followed the necklace with his eyes as it traced a high arc and vanished through the blizzard, then lifted his head to estimate where it would fall.

In that gap, I struck upward at Hwipone’s throat, hooked his leg, and knocked him to the ground.

I had already confirmed the entire process of him creating the skewer through the Phantasm Domain.

In other words, I had known that movement from before we crossed the Gate.

The reason I had played along with Hwipone’s pace anyway was to test how far he could threaten me over the necklace.

I easily twisted Hwipone’s arm, pinned it down with my knee, and caught the falling necklace.

“What are you…… pffft.”

Hwipone, whose face had been shoved into the snow and who had swallowed a whole mouthful of it, sputtered and spat it back out.

“I did not know either, but apparently I know how to use my body a little.”

I had vaguely noticed something strange during the office raid incident.

I had simply thought that maybe, when I had lost my mind and fought the mutant Phantasmal Species with my life on the line that day, I had learned something, then let it pass.

But it seemed to be the influence of a Skill I had acquired.

Should I say it felt as though my body moved the way I imagined it?

I put the necklace back on and moved away from Hwipone.

It was just before the ice crystals he had made could threaten my body.

The moment I got away, dozens of ice skewers formed around Hwipone, then scattered quickly.

“Tch.”

The sound of him clicking his tongue followed.

“Were you really going to kill me?”

“You did not die. You do not die. If you did not die, that is enough.”

Hwipone, sitting roughly sprawled on the ground, grumbled nonstop, then shook his head.

“Why not carry a sword, at least? Will a dagger be enough?”

Hwipone asked, jerking his chin toward the dagger tucked into the belt at my thigh.

I laughed softly and pulled the hood that had fallen back over my head again.

“A sword is only heavy, and I have never used one.”

“Really? Should I teach you?”

“……Why are you suddenly being kind?”

Hwipone shook off the snow clinging to his hair and explained indifferently.

“If you had collapsed as easily as you did when I saw you before, I was just going to take you back. But you do not seem to be at that level. In that case, rolling you around a little more so I can have an easier time is not a bad direction.”

“…….”

“And I cannot do anything about the necklace anyway. That thing was originally set up so it could not be taken by killing the owner or by force, so it is a necklace that even protects against assassination…….”

“It came off easily.”

Hwipone’s eyes furrowed deeply at my words. How would I know what even you do not know?

Now that I knew he could not threaten me over it, I could relax about the necklace.

I nudged Hwipone, who was still sitting there, with my knee and urged him on.

Because the snow was so white, I had not realized it immediately, but the sky here was growing darker and darker.

It was night.

That meant we were no longer on the whale.

---

Before Sky’s Domain migrated onto the Gigantic Phantasmal Species.

There had been a homeland where they lived.

They had built a civilization atop a frozen lake, and they had taken pride in the lake that held the sky and in their pure white snowy landscape.

If not for that incident.

“So this means this place is the former Sky’s Domain?”

Fierce snow whipped around us.

I fiddled with the flare I had been given and walked while watching Hwipone’s back.

Starting from the “great incident,” Sky’s Domain could no longer hold the sky. A snowstorm that cut into flesh raged every day, and it became a land of death where no one could endure and live anymore.

That was why the members of the sky accepted migration and came to where they were now.

Leaving their beliefs still behind in their former homeland.

“There are only a few people left who remember that now.”

“So they hid it as the Third Domain and forbade entry?”

“You stopped at the door too, did you not? It is the fear of death. A warning every living thing has.”

“Does that mean you overcame fear?”

“It is possible because I am me.”

I measured the thin red boundary cast around Hwipone.

About ten steps.

Within that space, the snowstorm that seemed ready to freeze everything fell as ordinary snow.

I had no desire to know what would happen if I went outside it, so let us leave that buried.

“It is coming.”

At the same time, Hwipone created a skewer. Following Hwipone, who was watching the front, I too focused tensely.

I had already noticed it.

It was thanks to the fact that the range of the Phantasm Domain had increased considerably after my grade rose to Supporting Role.

A vivid red lump was breaking through the blizzard and drawing closer.

Instinctively, I realized that it was different from the Phantasmal Species I knew. I placed my numb fingertips on my dagger and steadied my breath.

GRRKK—.

At the same time I heard the creature’s heavy cry, the red lump that had been far away rapidly drew close.

I widened my eyes and drew the dagger.

As it charged in right before us, the blizzard cleared all at once.

At the same time, the creature’s enormous true form was revealed. Its body was wrapped in shaggy pure white fur—!

I had no time to be shocked. I had to deal with the creature as it swung an arm thicker than a person’s body.

WHOOSH—!

The sound of wind being split struck my ears, and the belatedly rushing gale made me stagger and take two or three steps backward.

At a glance, it looked somewhat like a yeti.

If one was willing to treat something with horns on its head and grotesque bone wings as a yeti, that was.

“Dodge!”

The arm was a feint.

Because I barely managed to lean my head back, the blade-edged tip of its wing swept past just in front of my nose.

Beyond my upturned vision, I saw Hwipone charging at the creature with a skewer in hand.

I hurriedly drew my dagger too and blocked the creature’s wing as it came in again and again.

SCREECH.

I clenched my teeth at the weight that made my arms tingle.

Even though the red-line warning was still appearing, my reaction speed was slow.

Just because I could see it did not mean I could dodge everything.

Meanwhile, I had no choice but to force my way through the gaps and rush in after Hwipone, who was digging into the creature.

Damn area-denial character.

I had to avoid the mutant yeti’s attacks while also staying within Hwipone’s safety range.

‘That bastard is already bigger than the safety range!’

Hwipone continued the exchange as he pleased, as though he could not afford to worry about me too, and I broke out in a cold sweat, feeling like a hyena watching a lion fight an elephant.

Then, I spotted something.

A place where the red energy flickered unstably.

“Riwin?!”

I ignored Hwipone’s horrified call and dug into the mutant yeti.

As if the creature had noticed my intention, it completely turned away from Hwipone and thrust its fist down as though trying to crush me.

I had already grasped the attack range.

After easily avoiding the fist, I grabbed the creature’s shaggy fur, which filled my vision.

WHOOSH—.

Even a swinging pirate ship ride would churn my stomach less than this.

Dangling from the arm as it was pulled back, I flew into the air, clenched my teeth, seized the base of the creature’s wing, and drove my dagger into it.

In that instant, red energy spread explosively in every direction.

THUD—!

If things had gone wrong, it might have fallen backward and crushed me.

“Hoo.”

Letting out a light breath, I raised my head, looked at the horrified Hwipone, and rolled my eyes.

Why do I feel like this is going to become annoying?