"So sour···"
"Huh?"
The girl's sudden reaction caught Chlorine Sodium off guard.
A hamburger was sour? When had the Ursus bear developed such an intense palate??
She dipped a finger into the sauce on the wrapper and put it in her mouth.
The taste was indeed a little strange, but it was still acceptable. Was it sour?
The girl, however, didn't hear her sister's surprise. She had simply once again become lost in memories of the past···
Even if they were fragments she had only just dredged up from the depths of her memories.
Yet for some reason, the bitterness went straight to her heart.
It seemed to be a very distant memory.
It was from the days before the nightmares.
From the life woven together by a nameless man and woman.
"What do you want to eat?"
The woman with the blurred face asked the little toddler who was still learning to speak.
"Hamburger meat!!!"
The little one hopped as she spoke with the words she had just learned.
"That's something you can only get elsewhere. We can't eat it now. I'll make you some cabbage rolls instead."
Although she could no longer remember the woman's appearance, she could still remember her smiling.
A happy smile.
Back then, the future had still been beautiful.
"Sour?? How could that be? Isn't this sauce sweet? Could it be the meat?"
Although Chlorine Sodium loved life, she held no prejudice against junk food. She also liked these high-calorie foods.
"This isn't sweet?"
"No···"
The girl covered her nose and mouth, as if trying to ease the sourness spreading into her nasal cavity.
"It's sour."
P.S. The problem's solved ahhhhhhh hahahahahaha!!!
Chengzi said I should go to him on Wednesday to get a recommendation!!!!!
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Section 22: Chapter Twenty-Two—The Snow Demon
"Crack."
The sound of ice splitting rang faintly beneath their feet.
"This isn't good···"
"Why is it cracking?"
Early in the morning, by the river on the tundra several kilometers from the city they had left.
The ice had looked solid enough. Whether they threw stones at it or stomped on it, they couldn't shake the thick ice even a little.
It should have been perfectly safe. After all, this was Ursus, a land on the tundra perpetually blanketed by wind and snow. If people could walk across it, vehicles should have had no problem either.
Yet just as Yelena was about to reach the middle, the sound of cracking ice rang out.
"It's going to split?!"
Hearing the ominous sound, little Yelena hurriedly stopped. The cracking stopped as well.
Emmmmmmm····
"The ice shouldn't have any problems."
Chlorine Sodium had already crossed the ice ahead of Yelena and was crouching near the bank. She examined the ice beneath her feet. The cracks were so tiny they could barely be seen; all she could hear was the sound of the ice fracturing.
The girl narrowed her eyes and knocked on the frozen surface. Only a hard response came back.
There was nothing wrong with it. That made it strange.
The ice had no problem bearing weight. Her blue-gray eyes drifted from the ice to Yelena.
Emmmm····
"Wha·· is it? Sister, did the ice crack?!"
"It didn't."
"Then what is it?"
"Yelena··· have you··· gotten fatter?"
The speaker had meant nothing by it, but the listener took it to heart. Little Yelena had gradually escaped her former nightmares these days, and with her usual exercise, there was no way she had gotten fat.
But children were still growing, and fat always had somewhere to accumulate.
On top of that, the girl had begun to develop and care about her appearance. Naturally, she didn't like people calling her fat.
Although she still didn't understand the difference between being fat and being huge.
Feeling that her sister's gaze was strange, little Yelena hugged her chest with both hands.
"How could I? Besides, I haven't even been eating··· Eek!!"
The girl's shriek echoed through the valley.
Chlorine Sodium, who hadn't been paying attention to what Yelena was saying, slid over to the girl and poked her in the waist.
Yelena was already quite ticklish. The poke made her whole body jolt, and her fair face instantly turned bright red.
"What are you doing, Sister?!"
"Just checking your development."
The girl's coy protest earned her a round of gentle cheek-pinching and kneading from Chlorine Sodium.
She clearly had no expression on her face, yet she could always manage to do things this astonishing.
Truly, Chlorine Sodium was a born villain.
Yet this was all necessary to grow closer. Behind the warmth lay a vicious scheme.
"Looks like little Yelena is growing up too."
"Don't say things like that!!"
She had originally been the sister who rescued Yelena from danger.
Why had things turned out like this?
For the first time, she had been given a chance to live, and she had also found someone willing to help her.
Two happy things should have created even more happiness, leading to an even more beautiful future.
But··· why?
Why had her sister's image in Yelena's heart become increasingly strange?
Ignoring the sound of cracking and the fractures in the ice, Yelena simply walked across.
At worst, she just wouldn't cross the ice next time.
"Tsk. Children get harder and harder to take care of." Sigh.
···························
"Should the danger level be raised?"
The Garrison Legion's "ruins."
They were called ruins because the military camp that had once stood here had completely disappeared.
In the literal sense.
The camp had originally been a restricted military zone enclosed by barbed wire, iron fences, and low walls.
But none of that remained. The iron fences, melted and then cooled again, lay crooked across the snow. The entire camp looked as though it had been plowed over by a battery of city-defense cannons. All that remained were the charred, still-burning military landships, collapsed buildings, countless enormous pits, and corpses scattered everywhere, pecked apart by carrion birds.
The Garrison Legion's entire formation had practically been wiped out, and all resistance had become wishful thinking.
According to the limited records, the attacked camp had initially fought back. Ursus's military strength was unrivaled across Terra, and no one had ever dared openly challenge Ursus in military power.
The Ursus army was naturally no pushover. It was impossible for them to be attacked without fighting back.
Yet the strangest part was that the vast majority of the deaths had occurred during the counterattack.
In the end, the formation was shattered, the legion's morale collapsed, and the attack only ended when the soldiers completely broke and fled in all directions.
The attacker didn't pursue them, simply disappearing on its own.
The attacker this time was the unknown entity designated by the Ursus military as the Snow Demon.
"No. There's no need yet. It's only a single Snow Demon. The Emperor's Royal Guard is merely the empire's insurance policy. A few scattered guards being eliminated isn't enough to warrant raising the danger level."
"The Emperor's Royal Guard? Isn't it perfectly normal for those idiots to be killed instantly?"
An incongruous female voice appeared beside the investigator.
She seemed thoroughly disdainful of it.
P.S. I might get a recommendation, so everyone, please send in a few more votes!!! I'm begging you!!!
Section 23: Chapter Twenty-Three—The Gods
She was a remarkably alluring woman.
Contrary to that allure, however, she wore a nun's habit.
She looked like someone from a church.
Yet the cover of the thick book she had just closed bore an engraved··· six-pointed star with a remarkably ancient appearance.
"The Emperor's Royal Guard? Isn't it perfectly normal for those idiots to be killed instantly?"
"It was only a few guards being crushed, along with a group of insignificant mortals. This was nothing to begin with, yet those people below have exaggerated it as if some god had descended into the world."
The woman's tone was thoroughly disdainful.
"Or are you saying, Duke Koschei, that you've really grown old? Is something like this worth bringing us out?"
Among those present, the most eye-catching was this alluring woman. Next was Koschei, dressed entirely in white. On this land where strength spoke for itself, aside from the Emperor of Ursus, only monsters like them possessed the right to speak.
After all, this was a world of demi-humans. Every legend had been given physical form. Whether the ancient dragons of the East, the evil dragons of the West, or the evil gods of Ursus, they all truly existed.
That included this woman named Yaga Glazunov.
The name was strange. Compared with an actual name, it sounded more like several words sewn together.
"Of course not. It's merely the existence of the Snow Demon that has left me quite puzzled."
The duke spoke humbly. He was always like this, with a faint smile on his face, elegant and humble, seeming like the perfect embodiment of nobility.
Among these monsters, Koschei was the most composed and mysterious.
"After all, there's no need for us to oppose one another. Whether we came first or arrived later, we all love this land. I believe this Snow Demon must be the same. Its behavior has simply been too extreme, which is why I wanted to find the two of you and ask for your help. After all, it casually killed four members of the Emperor's Royal Guard and leveled an entire military camp. This is already the second military base. Even with Ursus's vast territory and abundant resources, this will still unsettle those mortals. That won't do, will it?" Koschei said.
Before you continue