Late January, on the southern coast of the Protos Empire in the Northern Continent.
In this relatively warm coastal region, snow was not a common weather phenomenon.
Lilom City had always been a warm, bustling city with the sea as its backdrop.
Because this southern coastal city lay west of the relatively remote Southern Border, extremely far from the major southern ports of the Protos Empire, while the inland area behind the city consisted mostly of mountains and forests, and even the nearest inland city was over a hundred kilometers away, it was mostly a tourist city.
It was not particularly prosperous, but its scenery was beautiful.
The entire city was spread across a series of small coastal islands connected by bridges. As a result, the highly artistic bridges had become an especially striking sight in Lilom City. They not only facilitated transportation but also offered excellent places to view the sea.
However, during this year's unusually harsh winter, with extreme cold running rampant, the storms seemed to have swept down from the Imperial Capital in the north all the way to these border cities.
A light snowfall drifted down during the night.
The light atop the lighthouse appeared and disappeared behind the thin curtain of snow. The ships moored in the harbor were covered in a faint layer of white. The seabirds had stopped chirping and hidden in the cabins or warm hollows of the lighthouse, while the masts formed a surreal silhouette with the distant lights amid the fine snow.
Snowflakes gently settled on the city's stone-paved roads, blending into the snow that already covered the ground.
Along the long road from the harbor to the City Hall, the lights had been covered by snow. The light passing through the snowy layers on the lampshades had become soft