"Snow! This is really coming down. It reminds me of the night you picked me up."
Murphy hovered in the snowy night sky, looking down at Scarlet Castle, blanketed in white. He said to Triss beside him:
"I still don't know why you picked me up that night, when I was practically dead. Was it just because you thought I was handsome, and you felt it'd be a shame to let me starve to death on such a miserable night?"
"Ugh, shameless. Who calls himself handsome?"
Triss spread her arms in the air and let snowflakes fall into her palms. With a straight face, she teased him:
"You're so shameless that you'd be considered shameless even among vampires, who are shameless by nature. Just assume I was feeling kind that night. But this really is a heavy snowfall. Given Transia's usual weather, there should be at least three more snowfalls in the next two months, and then the even colder early spring will arrive.
"Worse still, this year the land will face another challenge when early spring comes.
"But the gnolls living in the Dark Mountains don't like moving around in cold weather, so if all goes well, they'll be delayed in entering Transia."
"They won't get in!"
Murphy declared confidently:
"We'll hold them at the Wilderness Mountain Line. At the very least, we won't let them break through the swamp! My territory has finally started to prosper a little. I won't let those barbarians destroy it."
"It's good to be confident."
Triss hesitated, but in the end, she kept her thoughts to herself.
Murphy didn't mind Triss's tendency to expect the worst. He took out his broken pocket watch and checked the time, then turned to her and said:
"The purge at the forbidden swamp should be over. I