Script

Stelle leaped down from the train.

Her companions' voices faded into the distance as she spread her arms, drifting unsteadily beneath the azure sky like a dandelion seed.

Her body sliced through the floating clouds, the wind howling in her ears as the icy gale lashed her cheeks with knife-like pain.

Such a dashing, parachute-like entrance ultimately ended with a splat as she crashed into the Outlying Snow Plains.

"Damn, that hurt... I should've known better than to try to look cool."

After much effort, Stelle pulled her head out of the huge snow crater. She rubbed her shoulders and kicked her legs, making sure she had not broken anything before putting her hands on her hips and surveying the scenery around her.

Honestly, the Outlying Snow Plains did not seem all that interesting.

Stelle started walking, her footsteps crunching in the snow as she glanced back at the human-shaped crater.

She should probably stop getting off the train in such heart-stopping ways. It was like skydiving.

The problem was, other people had parachutes. She did not. She had just jumped straight down.

Wouldn't it have been better to use a Space Anchor like a normal person?

That was what she thought, but as she continued onward, she had already covered half the Outlying Snow Plains.

Stelle could not help feeling deeply sentimental. Every step she took here was filled with memories.

She remembered that shortly after boarding the train, she had run into Uncle Sampo Cold Legs here.

She wondered how that man, who did nothing but steal and swindle, had been lately.

Rubbing her chin, she could not help recalling that he was also someone who believed in Elation.

Come to think of it, they really were fated. She herself now walked the same Path as Sampo. If two people who loved causing trouble got together, just how much fun could they stir up?

Her shoes crunched through the snow. As she walked, the footprints behind her were quickly swallowed by the wind and snow. At the edge of the snowfield, she stood quietly and gazed into the distance, where the tall buildings of the Upper District flickered in and out of view amid the endless white.

Stelle put her hands on her hips and shouted excitedly toward the Upper District, "Jarilo, your Trailblazer is back!"

Her echo drifted back and forth around her. Just as Stelle was about to head for the Upper District, a weak voice suddenly sounded behind her.

"Hey, old friend. It's been a long time. Could you lend me a hand?"

Huh? There was someone here?

Stelle scratched her head. The path behind her had been nothing but a vast expanse of white. She had not seen anyone.

Whoever this person was, they clearly were no ordinary figure. Their ability to conceal themselves was first-rate.

She turned around and followed the faint sound of breathing for quite a while before finally discovering a half-dead person buried in a snowdrift on the sheltered side.

When she walked closer, she found that it was quite the coincidence. Who else could it be but the fun-loving man who had appeared the moment she mentioned Sampo?

Old Sampo looked deathly pale, his face frozen white and ice crystals clinging to his dark blue hair. Seeing Stelle approach, he eagerly begged her to dig him out of the snow.

With Old Sampo's skills, even if he had been buried in snow, he should not have been unable to crawl out on his own.

Stelle was tired.

She had just arrived in Belobog headfirst, and leaving aside the aches all over her body, she truly did not have the strength to dig Sampo out one shovelful at a time.

So Sampo watched as his old friend, the Trailblazer, casually summoned her Flame Lance and charged without a word.

Sampo's voice turned pleading.

"Hey, hey, okay, okay! Don't kill me! There's no need to use something that huge, is there? Blades have no eyes—be careful not to hurt Old Sampo, who's always been so devoted to you—"

Stelle had originally intended to find a better angle and slowly melt the snowdrift, but after hearing him say something so delightfully irritating, it looked like she had no choice but to charge.

What a bastard. An absolute bastard.

Flames swept across the snow before her, and Sampo's figure emerged from the snowdrift. Only then did she realize that his hands and feet had been tied.

"What powerful person did you try to scam this time for them to toss you into the snow as revenge?"

Stelle looked him over in confusion, but her hands moved swiftly as she untied him.

Seeing him shiver so badly, she could not help sighing. Pointing toward the Goethe Hotel in the Upper District, she said, "Save your strength. Don't talk for now. Let's get to the hotel and warm you up first."

"Stelle, in the end, you're the only one who truly treats me well. Boohoo, I, Old Sampo, in this life—"

"Shut it."

Stelle shot him a murderous glare, and Sampo obediently nodded, no longer trying to flatter her aloud.

Just then, a piercing laugh suddenly rang out in her mind. Stelle did not need to think to know it was Aeon Aha of Elation. He seemed to be laughing while slapping his belly like a seal, as if he were laughing so hard that tears had come out.

"Hahaha! Elation! This is truly Elation! I've never seen such an entertaining side of Sampo before. Maybe it wouldn't be bad to make him an Emanator someday."

"So Sampo isn't an Emanator of Elation? I always thought he was."

"Who knows? Anyway, one thing is certain: you're the only Emanator I've acknowledged."

That guy Aha really could not be trusted to say a single truthful word.

"Is there anything else? Don't just talk in my head whenever you want. You're interrupting my thoughts."

Stelle dragged the nearly frozen, stiff-limbed Sampo toward the Upper District while viciously warning Aha in her mind.

"Come do a mission, Stelle." Aha's voice suddenly became very serious. "Win over Sampo. As a reward, I'll tell you the script."

"Script?"

Stelle murmured to herself. A script? Wasn't that Elio's specialty? Could Aha steal someone else's livelihood too?

"In ten days, you'll be warping to Amphoreus. It's a world that has never been reached by the Trailblaze. Without the help of omniscient and omnipotent me, I'm afraid you'll have little chance of returning from Amphoreus alive."

"The omniscient and omnipotent one is Erudition. What does that have to do with you...?"

Stelle silently mocked him in her heart. Just as she was about to refuse, an image suddenly surfaced in her mind.

That was the future. It was definitely the future.

March 7th was frozen atop a bed in a block of ice, her fate unknown. Dan Heng lay gravely injured beside a train car split cleanly in two. And she, the Trailblazer, scattered like a butterfly into a golden sea.

Stelle: Wait, there was no need to spoil an ending where the entire Express Crew got wiped out in advance!

Aha: "Well? Do you believe it? I'm asking whether you believe it or not."

"I believe you. Aha, you're my god. I have no choice but to believe."

Stelle shoulder-checked open the door to the Goethe Grand Hotel, threw old Sampo onto the bed, and panted heavily from exhaustion.

"Isn't it just winning over old Sampo? Fine. For the script, for the Express Crew's future, for the will of the Trailblaze, I'll do it!"

With the air of a martyr marching to her death, the girl stood with her hands on her hips, looking down imperiously at Sampo, who lay trembling on the bed as he pulled the blanket over himself. Her expression made it seem as though she might pounce at any moment.

Sampo looked up and met Stelle's gaze. His hand froze halfway through pulling up the blanket, then weakly moved to shield his chest.

"My dear family, what are you going to do to old Sampo? No!"