Cold winter has once again fallen on the northern wilderness.

Halfway through October, the first snow fell. By the end of October, the thick snow had completely covered the yellow weeds, and the boundless white was once again the only color in the vast land.

The temperature can drop very low at night. But a savage friend had taught him how to camp in the snow - Ed Singhal dug a half-sunken hole in the thick snow upwind like a rabbit and crouched in to stare at the snow outside.

Now the world was as silvery white and silent as he had hoped a few months ago, but he began to miss the flowers that covered the meadows in May, the stars in the midsummer night sky, and the sweet and succulent wild fruits of the short autumn......

Well, he was homesick.

He misses Kriesburg, he misses Naria and Is, he misses Norvi, Tess, Akhan, he misses his father...... and mothers.

Scratching my heart and lungs.

- But he didn't have the face to go back.

He didn't really know what he was trying to find when he ran away...... Even now, I don't know. For months he wandered the wasteland alone, trying to keep himself alive without relying on spells. He learned a lot and he got some peace. Once tumbled like magma in his heart, endlessly tormenting his disappointment, despair, resentment, and sorrow...... In the wind that swept through the northern wilderness, in the silent passage of time, gradually subsided.

But he was still confused...... And lonely.

More and more lonely.

He had tried to find his barbarian friends he knew, but he had stumbled upon a truly savage battle. That's near Deer Lake. When he heard the sound from afar and felt the earth tremble, he thought it was a large herd of reindeer running by......

But that's people.

As Mock feared. Without an external enemy, the barbarians are again plunged into endless infighting, as before. A bloody battle can be provoked between different tribes for the slightest dispute, let alone for the territory of several tribes weakened by necromancers who can no longer survive on their own.

Ed stood in a daze in a small wood, listening to the deafening war cry resounding across the plains, watching the tall, strong bodies crash together, heavy swords and clubs flying in the air......

They are even more ruthless to each other than the undead.

Ed's eyes darkened for a while, and he didn't even dare to make out if there was a flag or face he knew.

He could not understand such a fight. It's like he can't understand the deception, betrayal, and killing he's faced.

It wasn't a fight he could stop either. It's like an irretrievable loss.

He has no prestige, no wisdom, and only God-given strength to rely on...... And the barbarians don't believe in God at all.

The deep sorrow and powerlessness that had calmed his mind were once again in chaos, and all he could do was run away. Don't look. I don't listen to it.

He silently turned east and avoided either camp.

Nutka once said that her tribe was in the easternmost part of the plain, on the edge of the ice sea. He thought he might be able to check out the Ice Sea, and maybe find the island where Iss had been hiding, and the treasure left by the Silver Fang that had been frozen in the ice......

One man's adventure...... Sounds like a good one, too.

But loneliness is enough to erase all the excitement and anticipation. He became more sullen and listless day by day, and began to look up at the sky countless times. Just like almost a year ago, expect to see a white dragon fly over his head.

The last time was in the hope of finding Is. This time it's in the hope that Isis will come to him.

If anyone comes to him...... He can go back.

Maybe a little bit of a little bit of perseverance, but he'll go back - he really wants to go back......

He spit on such a weak self, but he could not give up such hope.

But Isis did not show up.

After numerous disappointments, he began to suspect that his friends had abandoned him...... It's like he abandoned them and said goodbye without saying goodbye.

-- He did it to himself.

When the snow covered the land again, Ed Singal fell into a deeper depression and self-loathing than he had fled to the wasteland.

He curled up in a small ball in his snow cave, and as he fell asleep, he could hear Tess clucking and Norvi's gentle whispers, he could hear Akan secretly roasting tomorrow's dinner on the campfire, and he could feel Narya pass him, grumbling under his breath as he put a warm, thick blanket on him......

When he woke up, he looked around blankly, and it took him a long time to realize that it was just a dream...... He was the only one here, lonely, and inseparable.

No, not even a shadow, because the fire is out.

This made him even more frustrated.

For a moment he curled up there motionless, fantasizing sadly that he had died here alone, his body buried in the snow and ice, frozen hard, and weeping sadly when Isis and Narya found him, regretting that they hadn't come to him sooner......

He jerked off the ground, blushing - fortunately no one would see him.

This was a fantasy he often had when he heard his parents arguing as a child...... He would fantasize about himself dying silently in various ways while they were arguing with each other, leaving them in grief and remorse for not paying attention to him...... That's probably some kind of revenge.

But he never really died, but at the age of twelve, he ran away from home once in a nutshell, and that time his mother's tears and his father's shaking hands finally made him realize how stupid and selfish he was.

It's not that they don't care about him, it's just that he is not all their lives. Even if there are some things he can't do, at least he can make less trouble.

So now...... Is he so depraved that he is not even as good as his twelve-year-old self?!

He buried his hot face in his knees, barely breathless. It wasn't until his chest was about to explode that he raised his head and let out an angry growl.

The sound sounded muffled in the small snow cave, somewhat taking away a bit of the depression that had accumulated in my heart. Ed took a deep breath, slapped his face hard, stretched his stiff limbs, and stood up.

He's ...... Even if someone came looking for him, he didn't have the face to go back.

He had to at least...... What to do?

As he tried to think, he pulled away the snow that had buried almost the entire snow cave, got out of the hole, and shivered several times in the cold air, thinking that if the snow was a little bigger, he would probably really suffocate in the cave unconsciously......

His gaze unconsciously swept over the white snow around him, and then froze on a strange trail.

It was like a pattern drawn by the wind on the snow. The gentle arcs are opposite, and the snow on both sides is slightly concave downward, almost perfectly symmetrical......

Ed's eyes widened, and then, the corners of his mouth grinning almost to his ears.

He'd seen this - only a dragon could leave such a trace.

A dragon had flown here, facing his small camp, and although it did not fall to the ground, it stayed low for a long time, flapping its wings slowly......

"Is!!"

He jumped up and shouted, looking up at the gray sky in a circle, almost tempting to summon a strong gust of wind to disperse the clouds.

His voice was heard far away in the snow, and when the aftermath had faded, there was silence all around, and his friend did not respond.

"Is...... Naria?"

Ed screamed again, but it was much quieter and a little timid.

Still no response.

He stood there dumbfounded, realizing that Iss was probably no longer around—and even if he was, he wasn't going to show up.

He found him...... Perhaps Naria rode on the dragon, looked at the small fire in the snow cave, knew that he was still alive, and although worried, she did not want to hinder him from "finding his way...... Because that's exactly what he wanted, and that's why he didn't say "goodbye" and fled so far alone.

Ed furrowed his eyebrows, not knowing whether to be annoyed or happy. Sometimes friends are too considerate and full of embarrassing ...... They can at least meet each other......

- Or are they still angry?

He thought apprehensively, sniffling.

But in any case, they did not forget about him. Based on this alone, even if he has really been frozen into a hard corpse, he is willing to come back to life for this.

He wrapped up the deerskin he had peeled with his own hands, and lingered in place again with a little unwillingness, and looked around for a long time before he regained his spirits and walked forward, considering how to get himself something to eat.

He rarely uses magic now. In such weather, if you can't catch prey, it's common to go hungry a few times...... But it would be foolish to hold on to the point of starving yourself to death.

The wind pushes up the dune-like slopes on the snow, and it is very difficult to walk one foot deep and one foot shallow. Ed crawled over a snowy slope on all fours, and when he looked up, he saw a figure walking slowly towards him in the vast expanse of snow in front of him.

"Yi ......!"

The syllables blurted out in surprise broke off the tip of his tongue. Ed soon discovers that it is not Is...... Certainly not Naria.

That's a barbarian. Still very tall compared to humans, but not very strong.

He was already very old, and the vast majority of barbarians did not live to his age. The body wrapped in the animal skin was slightly rickety, walking slowly but steadily, the sparse hair on the top of the head was blown out of strange shapes by the wind, and the red tattoos on the face were still eye-catching.

He stopped, looked up at Ed, grinned with many missing teeth, and extended his withered right hand in a gesture of unknown significance.

“...... Sio?"

Ed screamed in surprise but with delight, sat down, and slid down the slope.

(To be continued......)