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That little bird had been alone ever since she was born into this world.

A sense of disconnection, as if the “world” were telling her, “You’re different,” “This isn’t where you belong.”

This feeling, experienced to varying degrees, was common to all beings once known as “Unknowns” on Earth.

A new Unknown, born from the snow of Hokkaido, at the northernmost tip of the island nation known as Japan. That little bird, too, was born into this world burdened by loneliness and rejection.

Standing alongside her kin, who looked exactly like her, she realized she was different from them. She was also different from the giant, two-legged creatures that occasionally looked at her.

Unable to grasp what she truly was, the little bird could never fit into the flock and was always alone.

Eventually, harboring hatred toward the other creatures who took their mere existence in the world for granted, the little bird set out on a journey alone. On that journey—where she hoped to perhaps encounter her own kind—she also met those whom humans called “abnormal beings.”

They were beings who shared the same loneliness and were rejected by the world. But they could not coexist; in the end, they fought and even killed one another. As beings adrift in limbo, simply standing side by side only magnified the discord between them. The little bird finally gave up.

At the end of that journey, she was captured by an agency tasked with rounding up “abnormal beings.”

Inside the facility where she was taken, she found only incompatible “abnormal beings”… and the very humans the little bird despised most. They positioned themselves as the “normal” ones, labeling those with power as “unknowns” and isolating them.

Faced with humans who acted as if they were the guardians of the “normal” world, the little bird’s anger and hatred grew.

She attacked any humans who caught her eye and lamented her confinement.

Amid such days, while in the midst of her usual escape—seizing a moment to freeze a researcher’s hair solid and dashing out of the room—she encountered a boy with a resigned expression.

The little bird, who had viewed everything as an enemy, heard a click inside her the moment she first laid eyes on him.

It wasn’t that her way of being or her characteristics—what the researchers called an unknown’s “singularity”—had changed. Nor had her emotions or environment undergone a complete transformation. Only one decisive thing had changed.

Later, other Unknowns who could speak human language would describe that change as follows:

“It felt as if the world had accepted me.”

From then on, the little bird’s usual spot was always by the boy’s side.

■■■■■

The boy had just lost a friend and was keeping his distance from the Unknowns. Subconsciously, he feared that if he became friends with an Unknown, it might vanish just like his friend had.

It was sad, but the little bird accepted the boy’s feelings. She understood his desire to bond with something that looked just like her and to seek companionship.

One reason for this was that, as if her previous frustration had been a lie, she was now spending her days with surprising peace of mind.

Sometimes they played together, sometimes they stole snacks, and sometimes they played pranks.

She would occasionally get stopped while plucking the few remaining hairs from that obnoxious, elderly researcher, which made her feel frustrated, but for the most part, the little bird was happy.

She’d caused him pain by trying to preen him when she wasn’t used to it, so out of frustration, she practiced on random people—and before she knew it, she’d gotten the hang of it.

She loved having her feathers smoothed out with a small brush. She also loved perching on his shoulder and sharing sweet buns with him.

Through the boy, she’d made friends with more and more Unknowns.

Her only complaint was the lack of freedom. She could no longer fly through the sky unbound by anything.

How wonderful it would be to fly through the blue sky with the boy, now that her heart was at peace.

But with her current powers, she couldn’t take the boy away, nor could she destroy the facility to protect him. Powerless, the little bird spent her peaceful days cherishing a small dream.

As peaceful days passed—the fateful day arrived.

■■■■■

Human magicians and the servants of an ancient god suddenly launched an attack.

The sentient Unknowns, who were being held in Sector 0 at the time, began to act according to their own emotions and objectives.

The Unknowns seeking destruction rampaged indiscriminately, targeting both staff and the enemy.

The Unknowns seeking freedom took advantage of the chaos to escape.

The Unknowns who were attached to the boy either chased after him as he was led away by his guards, or stood up to the attackers.

The little bird also took advantage of the chaos to escape. While fending off attacking human magicians with ice, she joined forces with Unknowns who shared her goal to search for the boy.

Although many Unknowns cooperated, the situation became extremely chaotic amid the fiercest battle ever seen.

The penguin wearing a plague mask, “Plague Doctor,” broke away to help as many injured people as possible.

The calico cat made it clear with their attitude that it “didn’t care what happened to the boy” and vanished somewhere. Upon finding traces of destruction—as if the cat had torn apart some powerful entity with her claws—the little bird sensed that, despite everything, the cat was worried about the boy after all, so she said nothing.

She also lost track of the Moving Stone Statue and the Puppeteer Teddy Bear along the way.

It was unclear what the former was thinking, while the latter likely didn’t try to approach the boy because he was frightened of it following a failed encounter.

Dodging human soldiers who attacked in an attempt to capture them, the little bird darted around the facility, which had turned into a battlefield.

That commotion came to an abrupt end.

Suddenly, a black vortex erupted from the facility’s basement.

Humans, tools, land, and creatures—all who had come into contact with that mysterious entity. The black vortex swallowed everything whole, erasing them from the face of the Earth.

It was as if Unknowns had never existed in the first place.

It’s unclear how much time had passed, but the little bird found herself spat out of the darkness into an underground cavern somewhere.

Struggling to see, she somehow made her way out of the cave and journeyed through a world that had been completely transformed. She fought against the gods who had taken up residence on the surface, encountered divine beasts and deepened her bonds with them, and eventually came to understand the true nature of this world.

During her journey, she encountered several familiar faces, and they encouraged one another on their respective paths.

When she returned to that first place, she was inwardly dismayed to realize it was her own birdcage—the box the researcher had called “Storage Facility No. 2.”

Waiting for the little bird upon her return to the cage was a penguin known as the “Plague Doctor.”

It seemed he, too, had continued his journey here, trying to save people. Concluding his story by saying that his time had come, the Doctor entrusted his mask to the little bird as a final act.

For the Doctor, who had carried the regret of never being recognized in his lifetime, there was no longer any regret left.

This world accepts the beings known as the “Unknown.” That is why he was able to fulfill his own will to the fullest.

The doctor, who had never been recognized by anyone, passed away with a look of contentment.

He entrusted the mask to the little bird, asking her to pass it on to the beloved child—who would one day come to this world—so that it might be of help.

The little bird, having seen off the one she could call a friend, also decided to pursue her own dream. In a world free of constraints, nothing stands in the way of carrying a friend on her back.

“Then, someday,” she thought, “let’s fly through the sky together.”

The snow spirit bird decided to seal off her entire surroundings with snow and fall asleep. Having grown stronger during her journey, this was no trouble at all.

To protect the grave of the friend who had passed away and the item meant for the friend who would eventually arrive, she sealed off the entire underground realm with a blizzard.

As time passed, her domain expanded, and the cave itself filled with ice. Many daredevils who ventured into the frigid cave perished… and that cave came to be known as the “Eternal Ice Cavern,” an unexplored realm ruled by a fearsome snow spirit.

The snow, which had once been confined to the cave, gradually dyed the land, and after a mind-bogglingly long time, transformed it into a vast snowfield.

It was worth the wait. For the little bird, that friend is a treasure beyond comparison.

Deep beneath the snow, dreaming for a meeting that will one day come.

And so her Frozen Wings dream of the Sky.

***
#Author’s Note:#

Having escaped the Eternal Ice Cavern, Alice and her friends set their sights due south.

Panadia, the city of eternal summer and a melting pot of cultures in the western part of the continent.

Alice and her friends set out to earn money to board a ship bound for Seerangh.

Though the group worked diligently, a new encounter once again stirs up trouble…?

Stay tuned for the next chapter in the Panadia arc: “The Morning Sun Always Shines on the Water’s Surface.”