On a day when the sky is dark despite being daytime, with heavy snow falling abundantly.
Heavenly Demon, who came at her usual time, looks at me with a puzzled expression.
It’s not strange to make such an expression when Soo-oh isn’t here at exercise time and I’m just alone doing something.
“What are you doing?”
I stopped rolling the snowball.
“Making a snowman. First time seeing one?”
She looks at me with an expression asking what that is.
What? You really haven’t seen one before?
Why don’t you know these things when you’re literary-minded?
I briefly searched through Heavenly Demon’s memories. She never made things like snowmen as a child. She has no memory of seeing such things at all.
Ah, no one taught her.
Or maybe this world doesn’t have the culture of snowmen.
Is that possible?
If you don’t know, I can teach you.
I pointed to the snowman on one side of the yard. A small snowman in figure-8 shape, with arms on both sides and a face made with twigs.
It only comes up to my knees in size.
It’s a snowman I made just earlier to demonstrate to Soo-oh.
“It’s a game where you make something like that but bigger. It’s hard to exercise when it’s snowing like this, right?”
I said that and turned my head back to roll the snowball again.
This is something I made because the faded man’s memories suddenly shone.
A snowman made in the distant past. Have to make one on a day like this.
Of course, there are other reasons too.
Though I don’t expect much from this, I make the snowman while thinking how far it might go.
I can see Heavenly Demon’s gaze going back and forth between the snowman and me rolling snow.
Of course, I’m not making eye contact with Heavenly Demon, but I can tell even without that.
She’s flustered because she doesn’t know what to do. So I raised my hand and pointed to the forest.
“Soo-oh went to get materials, so go check on her if you’re bored. Or come roll snow like me.”
I left the moderately made snowball and sat down again on the ground, pressing the snow tightly with my hands. Then rolling it gently.
By the way, I’m not using bare hands.
I’m using worn-out clothes bundled up like gloves.
Since it’s just cloth, I’d get frostbite if I use it too long, but it’s good for brief use.
Roll roll.
I make the snowball bigger by rolling it.
Maybe because there’s little pollution, or because so much snow is falling that it doesn’t touch the soil on the ground, the snowball is completely white.
Heavenly Demon doesn’t do anything else, just stands still watching me.
I roll the snowball with all my effort. Rolling it here and there, changing direction several times while packing it to prevent it from becoming cylindrical.
As I roll the snowball past the fence that’s now just traces buried in snow, before I knew it, the snowball grew past my waist up to my chest.
Ah, mistake.
I messed up the size control while rolling mindlessly. This.
It’ll be too big when I get to where I made the body…
Let’s think after going!
I drove the snowball again and parked it next to the snowball I had made earlier when Heavenly Demon arrived.
As expected, the snowball is too big.
What to do with this.
Can’t help it, I’ll just complete it. I lifted up the smaller snowball. Choseol is quite strong.
Lifted it lightly and shoot!
Hmm. It landed perfectly. The snowball stacked properly in a figure-8 shape.
But with the lower body being excessively large, according to what the man in the faded memories knew, this is it.
Argh, the mass!
It means thunder thighs.
I went into the house, leaving the snowman behind.
Then came out with old clothes I had stashed in a corner of the room. These are all Soo-oh’s clothes.
These are all clothes scheduled for disposal.
Unlike me, Soo-oh’s clothes get damaged quickly because she’s so active. However, since Heavenly Demon sends new ones frequently, we have plenty of spares.
I brought just the top and dressed the snowman.
Then I picked up some stones scattered near the house and put them in for facial features.
Soo-oh is running back now with twigs in hand, so it’ll be complete soon.
But isn’t she staring at me too much even if my appearance looks strange? I approached Heavenly Demon. And raised my arm to point at the kitchen.
It’s an especially warm place in winter.
“Snow’s piling up on your head. If you want to watch, stay in the kitchen instead of standing in the cold.”
She blinks her eyes at my words.
She makes an expression like she heard something very strange. So I asked Heavenly Demon again.
“What is it?”
Just as Heavenly Demon was about to open her mouth.
“Master!”
Soo-oh discovered Heavenly Demon and comes hopping along with arms full of long, thin twigs. Even with snow piled up everywhere, she’s not slowed down at all. Behind the jumping Soo-oh, her footprints are marked sparsely.
I’d sink deep if I walked there…
If nothing else, I envy that method of movement.
Then the faded man’s memories pull out something strange again.
Not snow walking traces. Insufficient training. Such words sparkle. What is this memory demanding from a kid who’s been learning martial arts for less than half a year?
Anyway, we need to complete the snowman. I spoke to Soo-oh who brought the materials.
“Soo-oh. Give me the twigs.”
“Wait!”
Lately she seems more rebellious.
Her independence is growing. That’s excellent.
At this rate, it seems I could leave here within 2-3 years. Then Choseol’s age would be 17-18.
At that age, in this world, that’s definitely an adult.
Until then, I’ll do what needs to be done before leaving.
Memories.
Though it seems like meaningless experiences, sometimes these things unknowingly support people.
The number of times someone can grit their teeth differs between those who have nothing and those who at least have this.
Gritting teeth is an essential skill.
Of course, having such memories doesn’t guarantee anything, but if we can increase the probability, we should work on it.
Since she’s learning from Heavenly Demon, she’ll definitely grow strong. She’ll cut down those who block her path and give me warm warmth.
Hehe.
I hope she causes something like the blood catastrophe in the faded man’s memories.
Though hoping for that much might be too excessive.
“Master! Make snowmen together with us!”
When Soo-oh said this with a bright smile, Heavenly Demon made a very troubled expression. It’s really funny. She’s exactly like an adult who’s flustered because they don’t know how to play when a child asks them to.
Though her childhood days are already past, it wouldn’t be bad to try sometimes.
That’s that, but why isn’t she coming when we need to finish quickly?
“Stop holding onto Heavenly Demon and come quickly.”
“Yeees.”
Finally she’s coming.
When I pointed down with my finger, Soo-oh dumped the twigs she had collected on the ground. I found branch-like twigs among them and stuck them on both sides of the snowman that only had face and body completed earlier.
Hands installed!
While at it, I added small decorations to the body and head too.
“Complete.”
A snowman with added Oriental sensibility stands in the middle of the yard. Though it’s regrettable that the lower body is a bit fat, these things happen sometimes.
Clap clap clap.
Soo-oh claps her hands while smiling brightly.
I looked at the delighted Soo-oh and Heavenly Demon beside her who was troubled not knowing what to do.
She doesn’t know how to play. If I made one like this, shouldn’t she be making one right away?
“Now, Soo-oh make one too. While we’re at it, together with Heavenly Demon.”
“Me?”
When I added that last part, Heavenly Demon startles. This person. She’s been weird since earlier.
“You two won’t get frostbite, right? If you will, wear gloves. You saw how to make it, so try it.”
“No, I should train Soo-oh…”
“Nothing bad will happen from playing for one day.”
Heavenly Demon’s expression isn’t good at all. Is it because she’s lived a life never doing things like this? How should I guide her?
Lead in an easy-to-understand way.
Several faded memories come up…
Let’s go with this.
“Are you so lacking in hand skills that you can’t even make one snowman?”
“I’ll make it much more beautifully.”
Hmm! Excellently provoked!
Like I did, Heavenly Demon also sits on the ground, packs snow together and rolls it around to make snowballs.
Soo-oh also follows along beside her, laughing squeakily while doing the same.
But amid the heavily falling snow, the sight of a blue-skinned beauty in Oriental clothes making a snowman looks quite like modern art.
In the world where the man from the faded memories lived, this would be difficult without CG or makeup except in modern times.
After all, completely blue skin is hard to see except on corpses, right?
Heavenly Demon and Soo-oh make snowmen together amicably.
I went to sit under the eaves. When I take off the slightly wet gloves, my fingertips are red. Seeing how Soo-oh’s fingers don’t turn red no matter how much she touches snow, Heavenly Demon probably doesn’t need gloves either.
I watched the two making snowmen and looked up at the sky.
Snow falls heavily from the dark sky covered in black clouds.
And it’s very quiet around here.
That’s because the snow acts as a sound absorber.
But it’s not quiet for me. Rather, it’s very noisy.
Because I’m watching over a hundred harvesters moving.
Even with so many people, the cold doesn’t decrease. I need the warmth inside light, not connections.
The freezing cold that freezes breath, the fingers with mild frostbite from snow, are different from the cold I feel. Rather, this is hot.
I thought heat would torment me, but cold torments me more. It clearly reveals that the cold I feel isn’t due to temperature.
I looked at my fingers that had turned red at the tips.
This is frostbite. I pressed down on reality.
Then my fingers immediately turned white. They returned to their original color as if they had never felt cold in the first place.
Not just my fingers, but the cold that filled my body disappeared too. But the truly deep cold remains the same.
Seems I won’t come to like cold winters.
While blankly staring outside, the two finally worked together to make a snowman.
When the finished result was a three-tiered snowman about three times human height, laughter burst out.
Indeed, where there are people, there must be snowmen.
In this place, there are two people.
Hehe.
So, Heavenly Demon.
Do I look like a person to you?
Am I living a human-enough life to cover up the truth that I’m a monster?
I learn from failures.
A second Eunjae won’t do. It’s too much to try not to call by dangerous names.
So I’ll be your friendly neighbor. So that even if you die someday, you’ll think it’s okay to call me when you see the traces you left behind.
Let’s get along well.