Ch.1Chapter 1

“Puaah!”

I opened my eyes in shock as a water bomb suddenly splashed onto my face.

The unpleasant sensation of water droplets trickling down my neck made me instinctively scrunch my eyes.

Half-asleep, I momentarily thought of my college roommate, but then remembered that I was well past college graduation age.

So who would be rude enough to douse a sleeping person with water?

Looking around in a daze, I saw iron bars in front of me and realized I was in a room with brick walls on three sides.

Beyond the bars, I could barely make out a corridor made of pebbles, and it was absolute darkness.

“Huh.”

I might not have been the tidiest person, but my place was never this gloomy.

No, this is clearly a prison cell.

Why? Why am I here?

I hadn’t committed any crimes—if anything, my mother had scolded me for being such a shut-in that I should try to create some scandals.

Let me calm down first.

I tried to recall what I had been doing before this.

I had made myself some instant ramen with soft tofu—a genuinely difficult dish to prepare—and then, feeling sluggish, I wrote some criticism about a recommended post on an online community.

Then suddenly, a mod recommendation appeared in the comments.

The mod was called Super Coward Mod.

Right, I had installed the Super Coward Mod to make “Snow Castle” more enjoyable.

I launched the game to test the mod.

The fact that I couldn’t remember anything after that told me something must have happened.

I needed to figure out where I was before I could think more deeply, so I looked around the prison cell when a familiar feeling made me flinch.

Why did I feel like I’d been in this prison before?

I tried to get up to examine my surroundings more closely, but my body wouldn’t move freely.

When I shifted my gaze to my wrists, I saw they were bound with wooden handcuffs.

“What is this?!”

Wooden cuffs instead of metal rings in this day and age?

I was so bewildered by this incomprehensible situation that my voice unintentionally grew louder.

My voice was louder than expected, startling even myself as I covered my mouth.

Idiot, what if you provoke whoever’s outside by raising your voice like that?

Fortunately, I heard no footsteps approaching, which was a relief. But as I was looking at the wooden handcuffs, I sensed a strange presence behind me.

Was someone there that I’d missed because it was too dark?

Slowly turning my head in that direction, cautious of any potential threat, I could faintly make out a human figure.

And I could tell they were fidgeting.

For a moment I thought they were angry, so I tensed up and lowered my posture, but strangely, I didn’t sense any hostility.

Looking more carefully, I could even hear faint breathing.

They were laughing at something.

“Pfft, finally looking this way?”

“A woman…?”

“Yes, I’m a woman. You like that?”

Unable to respond to her nonsensical question, I just watched as she continued to snicker.

Only after my eyes fully adjusted to the darkness could I see that she was a woman in black clothing with her hair tied back.

It seemed she was laughing at how I had shouted and then panicked at my own voice.

Why hadn’t I sensed her presence?

If she was laughing hard enough to shake like that, I should have noticed someone was there.

I tried to start a conversation, but watching this woman who couldn’t stop laughing made my face flush slightly.

Come on, anyone would be startled—she’s laughing too much.

As I observed her, I noticed she was holding something.

Looking closer, it appeared to be a water bottle… with its cap open and droplets forming at the mouth.

Ah, could it be?

I looked back and forth between the bottle and the woman with a displeased expression. She shook both her head and her bound hands simultaneously as she spoke.

“Pfft. No, I wasn’t trying to make fun of you! Absolutely not! Khuph…”

This damn woman?

I don’t know who she is, but splashing water on a stranger is not cool.

I was about to express my anger when I felt a strange sense of déjà vu watching her continue to laugh.

No, what is this feeling?

Is it déjà vu?

But it feels more like I’ve actually seen this before, not just a sense of familiarity.

I tried to recall the source of this feeling but couldn’t.

“Quiet down, thief.”

“What, there’s someone else…”

“Hehe, sorry. It’s been a while since someone interesting came in.”

This time, it wasn’t that I hadn’t noticed; it seemed the other person had been deliberately keeping quiet.

But this voice also sounded familiar…

Ah,

A sudden realization sent an unpleasant chill down my spine.

As if telling me to stop denying reality, my frontal lobe forcibly awakened, bringing a tsunami of memories.

My creaking neck turning to see the person leaning against the side wall delivered the final blow to my understanding.

The Outer God Slayer.

The Outer God Thug.

The Outer God Killer Man, as he was called.

The protagonist of Snow Castle, The Huntsman.

The Huntsman was slowly moving his head, his breathing amplified by his cloak, as if evaluating whether to take us along during his escape or leave us behind.

#

The thief, unaware of the situation, spoke to me as her new comrade.

“Why the long face all of a sudden? I guess it is strange to be laughing in prison, huh? Hehe.”

The thief beside me, who had introduced herself as Aghartha, was chattering away.

Now that I realized this world was the world of Snow Castle, I could recall who this woman was.

There was a thief talking with The Huntsman in the prologue, and that must have been Aghartha.

I hadn’t recognized her earlier because she was just an extra who died instantly during the prison break.

“By the way, what crime brought you here?”

After talking about herself at length, she was finally curious about me.

But I couldn’t answer.

Or rather, I wanted to ask:

Why am I in prison when I didn’t even reincarnate as the protagonist?

When I didn’t respond, she seemed to take it as me not wanting to answer, and Aghartha moved closer to me.

“Ignoring me? But I’m curious about you.”

As she drew closer and I could see her fully, the fact that she was indeed a woman became physically apparent.

Hmm.

This is uncomfortable.

Even if I wanted to answer, what could I say?

“I don’t know.”

“What? How can someone not know who they are?”

Surprisingly, such a person exists right here.

I wish I at least knew who I had possessed.

The thing is, in the original prologue, it was just the protagonist and Aghartha chatting.

That meant there was no one else.

“Ah, could it be?”

I wondered what nonsense she was about to spout, when suddenly she made an incredibly embarrassing gesture with her finger.

“Looking so innocent, but maybe you were caught for poking around where you shouldn’t have?”

I wanted to refute her ridiculous suggestion, but the thought that it might actually be true made me keep my mouth shut.

Usually in these situations, a status window pops up to show your information.

Oh, maybe I actually need to say “status window” out loud for it to appear.

“Status window.”

I whispered it almost inaudibly, but nothing appeared.

Damn, what a shitty game.

“What did you just say? Status window?”

Wait, she heard that?

I whispered it so quietly it was barely audible!

I guess that’s what makes her a thief?

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You clearly did. You can’t fool my ears.”

Her words sounded serious, but her expression showed a mischievous smile, as if she’d found something new to tease me about.

I didn’t know because she died in the first chapter, but she really deserves a flick to the forehead.

As I was trying to calm my inner frustration, Aghartha opened her eyes wide and pointed at me.

I tilted my head in confusion, and the thief said:

“Oh? There’s a paper in your pocket.”

Could it be a note explaining my identity?

I tried to reach into my pocket to check, but found nothing.

“What are you talking about? There’s nothing—”

It wasn’t that there was nothing.

She had snatched it away at a speed I couldn’t detect.

With a cat-like expression, as if she’d stolen some precious treasure, she began to unfold the paper.

Whatever was written on it made Aghartha’s expression turn serious as her eyes darted back and forth across the paper.

What is it? What’s written there?

Did I possess some extremely dangerous murderer who threatens the game’s world?

Sweat trickled between my wrists and the handcuffs.

The unnecessarily tense moment passed quietly, and soon Aghartha, having apparently finished reading, dropped the paper and began to tremble.

Even her lips were quivering, as if she was trying to hold something back.

I quietly swallowed.

The trembling gradually intensified until…

A booming laugh erupted, assaulting my ears.

“PUHAHAHA! Kheuk! Heuut, with content like this, I can see why you’d want to hide it.”

Aghartha clutched her stomach and cackled.

It was so funny to her that she fell backward and wiggled her feet.

What on earth was written there that made her laugh so hard I wanted to flick her forehead?

I snatched the paper she had put down.

Let’s see. What’s so funny?

After quietly reading the paper, I crumpled it with both hands and threw it into the corner.

「I’m sorry, I have a mental illness that makes me see strange things. Please understand if I suddenly get startled.

-Raedan Tanthyn」

Damn it.

Out of all the possibilities, a mental patient?

Having wiped away tears of laughter, Aghartha placed her hand on my shoulder.

“A mental illness is enough to get you locked up. What, did you strip naked and run wild in the city, Mr. Raedan Tanthyn?”

I gently pushed Aghartha away with a blank expression, unwilling to accept this reality, but her smiling mouth wouldn’t close.

No way, it can’t be.

Sure, this paper happened to be in my pocket, but I might not be this Raedan Tanthyn person.

That’s right, maybe I killed Raedan and put his paper in my pocket.

Why do my excuses sound increasingly pathetic?

As I remained silent, Aghartha looked at me, mockingly, as if I really were mentally ill.

“I am not mentally ill!”

Whether my desperate protest worked or not, Aghartha nodded with an understanding face.

“That’s what such people typically say.”

“Why don’t you consider that this paper might be lying?”

“Then what was that ‘status window’ you just called out?”

“That was… argh, anyway, I’m not!”

“Oh my, really? Mr. Tanthyn, I’m actually someone who was brought to this prison without committing any crime.”

Is what I said that ridiculous?

As I was about to protest, The Huntsman, who had been sitting in a chair watching us, frowned and shifted his gaze away from the thief.

“Don’t you have any more convincing jokes? That’s rich coming from a woman who openly reeks of decaying corpses.”

“Eek, that’s too harsh.”

Hurt by The Huntsman’s words, Aghartha suddenly leaned against me with a pitiful expression.

I was alarmed, expecting the stench of decaying corpses he mentioned, but surprisingly, there was no foul smell at all.

If anything, she had a soft, feminine scent.

With a tearful face, Aghartha mumbled:

“Do you think so too, Mr. Tanthyn?”

Normally, I would have told the truth, but feeling annoyed at how she had just been mocking me, I decided to lie.

“Not a lot, but enough to be noticeable…”

Shocked by my words, her pupils contracted dramatically, which I found quite amusing.

“Is, is it that bad?”

“Even if you try to hide it with perfume, there are some smells that won’t go away.”

As The Huntsman gently lowered his head and spoke, Aghartha, seemingly quite upset, said in a slightly sulky voice:

“What about you then? Being here means you committed a crime too, right?”

“I’d rather not be lumped in with you.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I don’t see why I should tell you.”

I knew why The Huntsman was imprisoned.

There was an Outer God buried in this underground prison.

He had deliberately gotten himself captured to catch that Outer God.

“Huh! So we’re all innocent, wrongfully imprisoned people gathered here!”

Aghartha gestured to herself, me, and The Huntsman.

Clap!

She clapped her handcuffed hands to draw attention and focus.

She was naturally building up to something.

“Then we shouldn’t stay here. How can we achieve salvation if our heads are unjustly chopped off?”

The mention of heads being chopped off was quite chilling, but it was a common occurrence here.

Snow Castle had a dark fantasy setting, after all.

As The Huntsman and I fell into deep thought, Aghartha smiled between us.

“So, shall we break out of here?”

Despite her extremely unplanned proposal, her unique smile somehow made the idea appealing.

And that’s how it began.

The story of The Huntsman, the thief, and the mental patient.