Old Acquaintances Meeting Again

Shivering, he reached into his pocket for the toy in his coat, but even wrapped in three layers of thick cotton clothing, the bone-piercing cold remained unbearable.

Only then did Shade understand that this cold was a characteristic of this special place known as Silent Valley. Otherwise, with his current physical condition, he should not have been unable to endure such chill.

If you had not drunk the Blood Brew of "Ice Crystal Butterfly" at God's Banquet and increased your resistance to cold, things would probably be even worse now.

"She" reminded him in his ear.

Now was not a good time to stand in the snow and discuss matters. Although the snow covering the valley before him was almost perfectly flat, without any trace of human activity, he could vaguely see the glow of a bonfire within the cave ruins formed by the curved cliff walls where the two sides of the valley converged ahead. That also seemed to be the entrance to the library ruins.

Generally speaking, although Father of Infinite Tree liked to drop Shade some distance away from the true location of an event, it was never too far away. Since he could see firelight, Shade understood that was his destination.

"It's really cold."

He sighed inwardly as he struggled forward through the snow. He had only taken two steps when something hard beneath the snow tripped him.

After hesitating for a second, he thrust his hand into the snow and pulled the heavy, icy object out onto the snow surface. What he saw was a completely stiff corpse, frozen to death. It was the corpse of a man in a long robe, with somewhat darkened skin and eyes fixed stubbornly upward.

"Oh!"

Shade hurriedly threw the corpse away and lost all curiosity about what else