Brown Snow

Snowflakes drifted sparsely through the sky. Though they were as numerous as cotton fluff, they possessed less than a tenth of the force of the mountain-sealing blizzard. Brown snowflakes occasionally fell onto the windowsill, and the innkeeper hurriedly sealed the windows with wooden boards, leaving not even a crack.

"There were quite a lot of people today, but thanks to you, we still managed to get rooms at this inn." Fanavena set a bowl of meat soup before Denolan. "This is the inn's dinner tonight. It may not taste good, but at least it hasn't been cursed by Rosha Kevin."

"Fanavena... you really misunderstood! I really wasn't..."

"Don't worry too much about such trivial things." Fanavena lit the candle provided by the inn. "By the way, weren't you going to buy flour? Why did you appear in the temple with Tia? What did the two of you do in the temple for over an hour?"

"There was only this much flour!" Denolan hurriedly cut her off. He pulled a small sack of flour from behind him. "There's less than two jin of flour in the bag. The shopkeeper said this was already his last stock. Before the blizzard reached Canfor, he wanted to sell the shop and move to Aldeb."

Denolan unconsciously touched his boots. The parchment hidden inside made his feet itch.

"I see..." Fanavena let out a long sigh. "What about you? Didn't you say before that you wanted to leave this city too?" Fanavena's question caught Denolan off guard. "Mountain-Sealing Day is getting closer. I know you don't want to stay behind and wait to die with us. Since you won't say it, I'll say it for you..."

"Fanavena, why are you suddenly saying something like this..."

Fanavena placed the holy water she had bought that afternoon before Denolan. "This is all I bought today. This winter, someone in the village definitely won't make it through."

"Just this?" Denolan shook the clay jar. It was less than half full of holy water. "It's obviously diluted holy water, yet they only gave us half a jar. This amount wouldn't be enough to purify the water source, much less sustain daily life."

"There's nothing we can do about it. We're just ordinary people. We have no miracles, no magic. When such a curse falls upon our village, the best choice is simply to flee our homeland."

"What about Mother? Her health has always been poor. If I leave, who will take care of her..."

"If you leave, I can help you take care of Aunt Ridna," Fanavena said quietly. "Everyone in the village except you has been infected with Rosha Kevin's curse, so... live on in peace for all of us."

"But! Fanavena..." Denolan tightly gripped Fanavena's hand. "Come with me. Leave this place, leave the village. We can go anywhere!"

"Is that so?" Fanavena said calmly. "I still have a younger brother. If I leave, who will take care of him?" She pushed Denolan's hand away. "And besides... your mother is still in the village, along with so many others. If I leave too, then everyone in the village can only wait to die."

"If you stay in the village, aren't you just waiting to die too, Fanavena?"

"It's different." Fanavena shook her head. "I can only stay. Looking on the bright side, perhaps someone will survive until next spring? Maybe when spring comes, the country will send priests to cleanse the curse here. Then perhaps everyone can keep living."

"But..." Denolan did not finish his sentence. He knew that even a faint hope was better than despair.

Fanavena lifted her skirt, revealing countless festering sores covering her calves. "It hasn't gotten so bad that I can't walk at all yet, but... I can only barely make it back to the village." Through a gap in the window, Fanavena peered at the snowstorm outside. "If the blizzard arrives in a few days, you won't even have a chance to leave."

"Fanavena... do you really want me to leave that badly?" Denolan turned away, unable to look at Fanavena's legs any longer.

"Is that so?" Fanavena smiled without answering. Then she picked up the clay jar. "The holy water inside will only last a month even if we conserve it. Every additional person means one more person consuming it... Every person gone means we can last a little longer."

"In that case, I... I just... won't go back to the village."

"You're always like this..." Fanavena caressed Denolan's face. "You always make others say what you want to do before you say it yourself..."

"Fanavena..." Denolan held Fanavena's rough hands for a long time, unwilling to let go, preserving this final trace of memory from his homeland.

"Tomorrow, I'll take the flour and holy water back to the village. I'll tell Aunt Ridna and everyone what we discussed tonight. Rest well tonight." Fanavena turned and pushed open the room's door. "If possible, perhaps we'll meet again someday... but... it can only be a possibility..."

"Fanavena!" Without even a goodnight, Denolan's door slammed shut.

Heavy black snow slowly fell from the eaves. The moment it touched the soil, it turned into green rotten earth. Outside the inn, several dead vagrants lay slumped beneath one corner of the roof.

"What bad luck." The innkeeper kicked the corpses aside. "These paupers... If they have nowhere to hide from the black snow, then they can get lost in the forest! Don't hide beneath the corner of my house!"

"Madam, may I ask... where is the girl who came here with me yesterday?" Denolan came down from the inn's second floor with his belongings on his back. By then, the black snow outside had nearly dispersed.

"That girl took a jar of something and headed toward Bira Village." The innkeeper continued sweeping beneath her eaves. "Honestly, she gave me quite a fright. There are actually still people living in Bira Village. Winter has arrived, and the black snow is falling more and more often. The other villages are basically deserted, yet Bira Village, the one closest to the Elrina Forest, still has people staying there. How should I put it... the world is full of strange things. Don't you think so, young man?" By the time the innkeeper looked up again, Denolan had already vanished.

Brown snowflakes fell from the sky along the road. Curses, ill omens, and hunger surrounded all of Rabi Village—or rather, they hung over all of Canfor. Denolan hid in the temple where he and Fanavena had agreed to meet. He still had twenty silver coins and two hundred copper coins in his arms, the money left after buying flour.

"Should I stay in Canfor?" Denolan rubbed the copper coins in his hand, the money left from buying flour. "If I stay in Canfor, it won't be much different from staying in the village. I'll only live a few days longer."

"But if I leave Canfor... these copper coins aren't nearly enough to bribe the soldiers guarding the city." Denolan looked at the coins in his bag, then took out the parchment he had found on the merchant's corpse. "If I sell this, perhaps I really can... make something of myself... somewhere else."

The weather gradually improved. The dark clouds that had once roamed the sky had long vanished, and warm sunlight once more spread across the earth. Carrying a small bag of flour and half a jar of holy water, Fanavena arrived at the village.

"Good morning, Fanavena!" The village blacksmith, Bukir, emerged from his forge leaning on a crutch he had made himself. Although pustules nearly filled every wrinkle on the eighty-year-old man's face, Bukir remained remarkably optimistic.

"What a fine day. I haven't seen weather this good in a long time. Even dying in weather like this wouldn't be so bad. Haha!"

"Then... has Grandma Rita's condition improved?" Fanavena asked politely. "I bought holy water from the church yesterday, and I'll distribute it to everyone shortly. By the way, before I went to Canfor, Uncle Cosmor's condition seemed to have worsened. Is he all right now?"

"No problem, no problem. Everyone's doing fine... In the day since you and Denolan left, everyone has been safe and sound. We even hoped you and Denolan would stay outside and never come back."

"Is that so?" Fanavena sensed that something was strange about Bukir. "Rechina is still inside the house. I'll go see him first, then I'll visit you and Grandma Rita later."

"That's fine. Rita and I will be waiting for you."

"Ah... all right, then..." Fanavena hurried toward her family's inn. The silent village was lifeless, like a graveyard. Green rotten earth had crushed several empty houses. After the yellow-green sludge dried, it piled up as high as a small hill. Fanavena's own inn had also been completely buried beneath that decaying, lifeless soil, without the slightest gap left open.

"Rechina... Rechina?!" The moment Fanavena saw her home covered by rotten earth, she lost her mind and threw herself onto the disgusting sludge. The green mud carried a nauseating stench, and the slightest pressure caused yellow-green fluid to ooze out. Enduring the foul smell, Fanavena struggled again and again until she finally dug out her front door.

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Rotten earth had piled up on both sides of the door, ready to collapse with the slightest force. Fanavena pounded on the door, but there was no response from inside. She called Rechina's name again, but it remained just as silent. That unnatural silence seemed to confirm Fanavena's suspicions. Yellow-green slime covered her entire body. Exhausted, Fanavena closed her eyes and thought that perhaps being buried in this mire together with her brother... would not be such a bad thing.

The rotten earth she had dug open suddenly poured down. Darkness, warmth, and dampness enveloped her. When the rotten earth completely covered Fanavena, all negative emotions vanished. Fulfillment and tranquility filled her, and Fanavena felt as though she were about to merge with the earth and soil.

"Sister Fanavena?" Rechina's voice came from behind the door.

Boom— With a deafening crash, green rotten earth surged into the inn along with Fanavena. Wrapped in a patch-covered blanket, Rechina sat on a bench and watched Fanavena.

"Rechina!" Fanavena immediately stepped forward and hugged Rechina around the neck. "I called for you so many times outside! Why didn't you answer even once? You scared my heart nearly to a stop! You brat!"

"Sister Fanavena! You smell awful!" Rechina desperately struggled free from Fanavena's embrace.

"Ah..." Fanavena took a deep breath, then returned to her usual tone. "I imagine you're hungry too. Once I finish cooking, I'll go bathe immediately."

"Preparing food in such a state is terribly improper in my opinion..." Rosha emerged from behind Fanavena. "As a cook, you should make your guests—especially such a noble guest as myself—feel welcome. You should bathe and cleanse yourself, then pray properly and thank the Mother Goddess of Earth for granting you the honor of serving such a distinguished guest..." As she spoke, Rosha raised a delicate finger, picked up a piece of firewood nearby, and lightly lifted Fanavena's wet skirt. "Especially those tumors all over your feet. It is truly discourteous. Even the most perfect cuisine would lose its original flavor because of such a tremendous flaw..."

"You really are unpleasant in a way that defies description..." Rechina glared at Rosha unhappily from within his blanket.

"I'm an honored guest! How can you speak to such an honored guest as me like that? Especially when I've offered such constructive advice! How could any diner eat in peace after seeing the cook's feet covered in tumors?"

"This is..." Only then did Fanavena realize that there was a guest in her home.

"Hehe. Since you asked so sincerely, I shall generously and mercifully tell you. To prevent the world from being destroyed, to protect the peace of the world, to uphold the truth of life and death—the cute and charming ancient evil god, Rosha Kevin! I am the Demon King who commands rot and decay. As long as you submit to me, a future of fine food, jewels, and luxurious clothes awaits you!"

"That's it???" Fanavena grabbed Rosha by the collar and lifted her onto a high stool. "Grandma, although I don't know where my younger brother found you, given our family's current circumstances, please leave this village as soon as you finish lunch. This isn't a place for an elderly person like you."

Fanavena's unexpected calmness actually made Rosha somewhat embarrassed. Rosha felt a little like a clown, the kind who told awful jokes and ruined the atmosphere...

"Well... although this is... rather embarrassing, is this really how you treat such a noble guest as myself... I think that's a little discourteous..." Rosha's tone actually became somewhat normal. "I think... for a guest as honored as myself... you should provide meals for at least two more days."

"Huh?" Fanavena shot Rosha a sidelong glance. "Isn't that dress something my grandmother left behind before she died?"

"Then one day of meals... will do..."

"Forget it... I'll give you two more sets of clothes as well. The chances of black snow falling at noon are much lower. Leave the Elrina Forest as early as you can. If you leave too late and a blizzard comes at night, I won't be able to help you." Fanavena straightened Rosha's sitting posture, then went upstairs to fetch ingredients for lunch.

The fire before the fireplace was lit again. Rechina was peeling potatoes cursed by Rosha Kevin, while Fanavena went to the bathroom after collecting the ingredients, preparing to wash herself.

She had a lovely face and wheat-colored skin, but everything in the world had flaws. Looking at the pustules on her feet, Fanavena could not help sighing. "If it weren't for Rosha Kevin's curse, perhaps... by now... I would already be living a peaceful life..."

The pustules on her legs had begun creeping upward. Like Grandpa Bukir and Grandma Talia, Fanavena knew that one day Rosha Kevin's curse would climb onto her face, poison her mind, and eventually torture her to death in bed.

"Rather than wait until that day... I might as well..." Fanavena closed her eyes and tried to imagine a sharp blade cutting open her throat, warm blood covering her body, her corpse blooming like a rose.

"Sister Fanavena, I've finished peeling the potatoes!" Rechina shouted outside the bathroom door.

"Rechina... Rechina is still alive! He still needs someone to care for him. I can't leave this world first." Fanavena suddenly woke in the bath, gasping for air. Without realizing it, she had been in the tub for half an hour.

A few minutes later, Fanavena limped out of the bathroom. As usual, she put the potatoes, salt, water, and rice grains separated from wheat stalks into the pot before the fireplace in order. Once the potato soup was finished, Fanavena added a tiny drop of holy water bought from the church. Though such a small amount could not completely remove Rosha Kevin's curse from the food, it could at least purify it enough to make it barely edible.

"Rechina, there should still be some holy water left in our home, right?" Fanavena said after scooping a bowl of thick potato porridge for Rechina.

"Sister Fanavena, why are you suddenly asking that?"

"Mountain-Sealing Day is getting closer. We have enough food, but not enough holy water. Based on how much we used in the past, this amount of holy water won't get us through the winter." Fanavena took out the clay jar containing holy water and shook it. It was less than half full.

"So... what are you going to do?"

"There are only two people in our family. We usually conserve it, so we should have some holy water saved up. I want to pour in the holy water we had saved before... That way, perhaps we can last a little longer..."

"No!" Rechina turned away, wrapped in his blanket. "Everyone pays the same amount of money, and every time, you're the one who goes to buy it, Sister. But our family always receives the least holy water. And now they actually want us to give them what we saved ourselves? No! I won't!"

"In that case... we'll just consider ourselves to have already received our share of holy water." Fanavena calmly picked up the clay jar of holy water and the sack of flour, then walked out the door. "I'm going to distribute the holy water to everyone. Rest well."

"Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Sister Fanavena is an idiot!" Rechina shouted as he rolled around on the floor.

"Yes, yes, yes! Your Sister Fanavena is an idiot..." Rosha chimed in.

"What did Sister Fanavena do to offend you now?" Rechina stopped crying and fussing.

"Why? How could this kind of food possibly be worthy of entering my mouth?" Rosha complained endlessly while drinking the food Fanavena had made. "If other evil gods or Demon Kings found out that I had once eaten such food, it would be the greatest humiliation."

Gulp, gulp, gulp— Rosha drank the remaining half-pot of potatoes into her stomach.

"Grandma Rosha, do you have any right to complain about someone else's food?" Rechina pointed at the black, viscous liquid in the corner. "It was obviously purified with holy water, yet it looks even worse than before it was purified! Grandma Rosha is an idiot too! You're all idiots! Everyone... everyone might as well die together!"

"This... isn't my fault. I used to cook with premium beef and spices. How could an exalted god like me possibly cook with trash ingredients like yours? Oh-ho-ho-ho."

"Is that so? If... you don't know how to cook with lowly trash ingredients like ours, then please stop complaining while you eat!" Rechina angrily left the hall as well, retreating alone to his bedroom to sulk. Only Rosha remained at the entire dining table.

"Leaving the table like that is terribly rude... He has no potential whatsoever to become an elegant person." As Rosha spoke, she drank all the food Rechina had left behind. "Sure enough, only an exalted god like me... burp... understands how to dine elegantly... hic—"