Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

"...."

"...."

SHHP SHHP

SHHP SHHP

The pair walked in the snowy and icy field without exchanging any words. They walked and walked like that for minutes, maybe hours.

The girl glanced at the man from time to time, opened her mouth, and closed it again without saying any words. 

SHHP SHHP

SHHP SHHP

They kept walking like that.

"Hey!"

Finally, unable to bear the awkward silence any longer, the girl started talking.

"How long are we going to walk?"

The man looked at the horizon.

"I'm not sure."

Claire closed her mouth and didn't say anything for a few moments.

"Are we... perhaps going to the island?"

"The island?"

Mr. Hey looked at her and tilted his head.

"Don't you know about it?"

He shook his head. 

"Do you know how this place was created?"

He shook his head again.

Claire smiled, clasped her hands behind her back, and started explaining in a cheerful voice. It was the best opportunity for her to break this awkward silence.

"They say long ago, this place was an ordinary ocean. It wasn't frozen like this and the snowy mountains around were furtle lands full of grass and plants. There was a big island in the ocean and it was home to a lot of people. But after the monsters first appeared, the island couldn't remain as peaceful as before."

She looked at the sky as if she wanted to remember every detail and kept talking.

"Emperor Reynold quickly took care of the situation in the continent, but it was different for that island. One had to pass through the mountains and cross the ocean to come there. Such a thing was hard back then, so this island was left undefeated. But the situation wasn't that bad on the island because a single being appeared and protected it. It was a dragon! The Dragon of Frost!"

The man interrupted her words with a surprised voice.

"A dragon? Such things exist?"

Claire shrugged her shoulders with a chuckle.

"I don't know. It's just an old story with no base and proof."

She coughed once then continued to talk.

"The Dragon of Frost protected the island and its people from the monsters. No one knows why but he took care of the island pretty well. Gradually, the island became his home. He lived there with humans for centuries in harmony and peace. 

Until the island and the dragon were labeled evil by an ancient religion. The religion claimed that The Dragon of Frost was hiding there to gather power and then kill all humanity. The religion had a lot of believers back then, almost all of the empire, so people all started to call The Dragon of Frost and the people of the island evil. And finally, the troops belonging to that religion attacked The Dragon of Frost and that island. 

The battle is said to be a long and dire one where lots of people were killed. All of the islanders died in that battle and The Dragon of Frost took a lot of damage, but they couldn't take it down. In the end, the leader of the religion had to step in and get rid of the dragon.

While The Dragon of Frost was dying, it cursed the leader and the believers of the religion. While watching his beloved island and its people's death, The Dragon of Frost released the power stored within his core. The energy spread throughout the ocean. It caused all of the ocean to freeze and turned the furtle mountains into snowy lands. The Dragon of Frost died on that island after that and no one saw it anymore. They say that its bones still remain under the thick layers of ice, but no one has managed to see them till now!"

Claire finished her words with a shrug and raised her head to look at the man again.

"You didn't know about that at all?"

Mr. Hey shook his head.

"Nope. But that was an amazing story."

"I know right?"

Claire smiled proudly, happy that the stories her mom told her as a kid finally came in handy.

"Hoooo!"

She moved her hands towards her mouth and blew her breath on them, warming her frozen fingers with her breath a little bit.

"So why are we going there? Shouldn't we go back to the base? You even kicked The Fifth out of the group in the road and told me to bring you here..."

The man looked at the horizon and answered without a nonchalant voice.

"We are running away."

"Pardon?"

The man took a map out of his pocket and looked at it.

"There isn't much left..."

Claire stood on the tip of her feet and poked her head forwards, glancing at the map in Mr. Hey's hands.

"What?"

Mr. Hey folded the map and placed it back in his pocket, then resumed walking.

"Probably, a tracker spell was placed on me by that mage boy."

"Eh?!"

Claire's eyes opened wide.

"Then why are we here? If you tell boss, he can take care of-"

"I can't go back to the base while carrying a tracker with me. It will reveal our location."

"Ah!"

"So we are moving further away from the mage as much as we can so that the spell would be broken."

Claire tilted her head.

"Are you sure that the spell will break if you move too far away from the mage? I too was once marked with such a spell but it didn't break even when I moved to a whole other country. Will it really work this time?"

"....."

The man kept staring at the horizon.

"I hope it will."

"...."

Claire stopped walking.

"Wait!"

She grabbed Mr. Hey and stopped him as well.

"Have you been dragging me all the way here based on 'Hope?'."

Nod Nod

"Yes."

The man answered shamelessly.

"...."

The man released his arm and kept moving. 

"I'm not sure if moving far away will work or not. I hope it will but even if it doesn't, I'm sure that they will come here to look for me."

"What?"

"I'm not sure if they will attack me here... or will only hide and watch us."

Claire's eyes widened even more.

"W-we are walking right into a trap!"

"Yep!"

Once again, the man shamelessly nodded his head.

"Are you out of your mind? We should leave this place right away!"

Mr. Hey grabbed the furious teenager by the shoulder and lowered his voice.

"We can run away with your ability even if we are attacked, right?"

"T-that..."

"Actually, it is way better for us if they attack us here."

"No! They can easily outnumber us! Why would they even attack us when they can just track you and find your whereabouts? Can't we just go and hide somewhere safe? Can't we contact the boss to ask for help?"

The man let go of Claire's shoulder and stepped back. 

"They can outnumber us... actually, that would be even better if they all attack us."

He moved his hand inside his cloak and took something out. What he was holding looked like a bunch of papers.

"They will come here... because I've prepared a little present for them!"

He said those words louder than any other words and moved the papers up and down.

Claire paled upon seeing the thing that was in his hands.

"A-aren't they the confidential documents in the base?"

"Yep!"

"W-what are they doing in your hands!?!?!?!"

Mr. Hey folded his arms and leaned on one leg, purposely holding the document in a way that the big titles and Philomns' stamp written on them would be visible.

"I stole them!"

And proudly confessed to his crime.

"WHAT???"

Claire's eyes were about to fall out from their sockets. She placed her hands on her mouth and looked at the man in fear.

"Do you know what you've done?? Boss... Boss will kill you if he knows that you've stolen the confidential documents!!"

The man waved his hand as if it wasn't such a big deal for him.

"That's right. They will kill me only 'If they know!'. The only one who knows about it is you so they will know about it only if you..."

His voice trailed off as he looked at the girl.

"...."

Understanding the meaning behind his words, Claire shook her head.

"I won't tell anyone!"

"Good!"

Pat pat

Mr. Hey patted Claire's head and turned away, resuming walking.

"I can say that SMF would do anything to get their hands on these documents... But... how are SMF agents supposed to know that you hold these documents?"

"Hehe!"

The man chuckled and waved the documents as if to show off.

"They will know!"

He placed the document back and put his hands inside his pockets.

"MMM... There is no soil around here... It is going to be hard..."

Claire didn't understand what he meant by that but started walking again nonetheless. She hurried to the man's side and made sure that she wouldn't be left behind. She had to stick to Mr. Hey if she didn't want to get captured by SMF. She focused on her steps and concentrated on not falling behind. 

"By the way, that boy said something about murder? Are you a murderer?

Flinch

Claire flinched upon hearing that. She hurriedly shook her head and opened her mouth to explain.

"No! How can I possibly be a murderer? He was probably talking about the time when I..."

Claire didn't know why but she explained the situation, trying her best to prove her innocence to that man.

That was why she didn't notice something.

SHHP SHPP

She didn't notice the sound coming from a pile of snow right behind her back.