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White.

White, white, silver, and more white, and a cold wind.

“Damn, it sure piled up.”

Come winter, Mount Kuguse got covered in snow.

The snow that kept falling all night long gave the mountain a thick make-up, transforming the wintry-desolated mountain into a snowscape. The dome-shaped house had started to look like an actual snow hut now. Just one step outside that house was a thick carpet of snow.

“I guess this is training too…”
“Ruh?”
“I bet dragons are fine with this, but a human’s thin legs would normally get frostbite!”

He took a breath and calmed himself down.

Lucella had been barefoot ever since he started living on this mountain. Because he had turned into a little girl, his legs had become even smaller, tender, and frail. In fact, at first, his legs were irritated even by pebbles, so it was tough just to walk. But before he knew it, he got used to it.

He had to get used to walking above snow similarly. He already knew the method.

—I have to imagine moving my magic power… No, that’s not it. It would put less burden on me if I imagine lighting a flame to keep the warmth in my body.

Lucella made a mental image of how to run his power through his body. He imagined the powerful flame breath of Kafal running about inside his body. And then, he took a step forward.

“Okay, this will work!”

He did feel cold from the leg he pushed into the snow, but it didn’t come with stinging pain, nor did it feel life-threatening either.

He started walking and leaving footprints on the area that could be considered the front yard of their house.

His feet sank into the snow up to the top of his ankles.

When he turned back and saw his footprints on the pure snow, he became strangely elated and he started feeling like doing something he shouldn’t have.

“Ruh? Ruh?”

As he started to roll a snowball and increased its size, Kafal peeked her head out of the house, puzzled at what he was doing.

“It’s human culture. I bet dragons would find it hard to make and roll snowballs.”

Lucella piled up three large snowballs and made a snowman for starters.

“Then this, and this…”

Then he started carving the lump of snow with his knife.

He stretched its neck like a spire while leaving the top part a bit bigger. Then he roughly added a big mouth and horns to it.

Then he piled up the snow behind it and made it sharp and long like a whip.

“Look, it’s you, Kafal!”
“Gruh!”

He finished making a small and rough dragon sculpture that was about as big as Lucella’s body.

Kafal moved her neck and closely inspected it from every angle.

“Mm?”

Eventually, Kafal sluggishly came out of the house and pushed her hand into the area that Lucella hadn’t touched yet.

“Woah!”

The snow exploded… Or so he thought, but that wasn’t quite correct.

Kafal had manipulated the snow with magic and made a big lump just like the time when she made the rock house by piling up the ground.

“Groo…Roo…”

She was shaving off the lump of snow with her strong claws while purring similarly to how humans hummed.

Her workmanship was surprisingly detailed.

The three-meter tall lump of snow was shaved down into the figure of a slim girl in the blink of an eye.

“Ruh!”
“Ohh…it’s me. I look bigger than you, though!”

A figure of a girl, white down to the pelt she wore, stood there, its height being double of the dragon sculpture.

The details were accurate and realistic. It seemed that dragons could accurately perceive even the details that humans grasped superficially. But the giant claws of a dragon couldn’t match humans in terms of dexterity.

“Sigh… So there is such a peaceful snow too.”

Lucella’s body was fine even as he rolled on the snow with nothing but a roughly worn pelt on him. He threw his body on the snow and gazed up at the clouds that still sprinkled light snow here and there.

He felt like his memories of snow weren’t very good. But this place was peaceful.

As Lucella lay for no reason, Kafal walked next to him and lay down in a similar fashion. But the space around their house was a little too narrow for a dragon to lie down, so some of the unfortunate trees got squished under and were moved down.

“…Yaah!”

Lucella jumped to his feet and threw a lump of snow he scooped up with both hands at Kafal.

Kafal looked wide-eyed at Lucella. He quickly went and rubbed his face at her to show that he wasn’t dissatisfied or hostile.

But then, Kafal swung her tail and sent a big wave of snow at him as payback.

“Aagh!”

Lucella did a spin, swallowed by the white mist.

He landed with a defensive posture and jumped to his feet, quickly scooped the snow, rounded it up, and threw it.

The white snowball hit the lying Kafal’s face and broke into pieces.

“Uu?”
“Hehehe, we call this snowball fight.”

Lucella rounded up and threw the snowballs in succession.

Kafal rose up in response and pushed her hands into the snow.

And then pulled them out.

…Holding a snowball with a diameter of 2 meters, apparently having gathered together with magic.

“Groar.”
“Wait, sorry! Time out! I’ll die! I’ll die if I get hit by that! Did you misunderstand this as training?!”

Kafal amusedly threw the giant snowball at the retreating Lucella.

“Wahh!!”

The snowball cut through the wind and toppled a tree.

Mount Kuguse saw more rain in the summer than it did snow in the winter.

But be that as it may, when it snowed it snowed a lot.

“It really brought a lot of snow.”

The snow was coming down with a heavy sound. From the slightly open entrance of their house, he could see the white wind mowing down everything in its path.

—But it’s warm here.

Lucella leaned against Kafal’s neck and gazed absent-mindedly at the blizzard outside.

Kafal didn’t bring magic beasts to have them fight Lucella in this weather. The time merely passed idly.

“Ruuh?”
“Don’t worry, I’m not cold.”

Lucella patted Kafal who called out anxiously. It was quiet and warm here, and the time passed gently.

The wind roared and dyed things in white.

When Lucella was given that name as a dragon’s daughter, his memories as a human faded away, but he still didn’t remember having any fond memories of the snow and snowy mountains.

—I feel like I have some depressing experiences associated with it…

The snow was white. And so was that woman.

“What is an amateur like you doing on a mountain in a season like this? Do you have a death wish?”

A long, white and flaxen spotted hair danced in the blizzard.

White clothes and white skin that melted into the snow. ■■■■■ also remembered that she was taller than him. A little older too.

The blade of the sword she held was equally white, however, it was dyed by a ghastly red.

“You’re lucky. Normally, you’d be eaten by the monsters before you even manage to freeze to death. Meeting me was your luckiest event. Since we met, I will at least save your life.”

A calm voice, hard to discern whether it was gentle or harsh, reached ■■■■■’s…

“H-Huh…?”

Lucella suddenly raised his face, apparently having dozed off at some point.

He felt that he saw something between dreams and reality.

“It…felt like I almost remembered something…”

It was a fragment of his broken memories. His heart was thumping hard. That was an encounter that changed ■■■■■’s world. The intense emotions that were burned into his heart were inexplicably sorrowful…

“Groah…”
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing.”

Lucella heaved a disarrayed sigh and relaxed his body.

Back when he was dying, before Kafal saved him, he seemed to have been thinking that he had to return. And now, he might have found the reason behind it.