Ch.2The girl ran toward the starting point.

Seo-rin realized she was alive. She could feel the bitterly cold winter wind and her body growing colder.

The moment her sense of touch awakened, her hearing, smell, and sight came alive as well.

“Huk…!”

She inhaled roughly, like someone who had been holding their breath for a long time. Her shrunken lungs expanded beyond their limit, making her chest swell.

The first thing Seo-rin did upon rising was to survey her surroundings cautiously. She had fallen while facing an enemy. Her memory had been cut off after that, so this was a natural reaction.

However, no enemy was in sight. The surroundings were quiet and devastating. She was the only survivor.

‘They’re all dead…’

She stood up and looked around. Seo-rin’s gaze fell upon the cold bodies of her tribesmen.

Then suddenly, she spotted a strangely familiar corpse. While all her tribesmen looked familiar, looking at this particular body gave her the feeling of staring into a mirror.

Seo-rin slowly approached the corpse.

The hair was white. Like the snow that had settled around them. Only three people in the tribe had this hair color: herself, her younger sister, and their mother.

Seo-rin frowned. Her mother and sister had female bodies. But the corpse before her clearly had a male body structure.

‘No way’

Even as she denied the reality, Seo-rin turned the corpse over. The stiffened male body felt incredibly heavy.

The face of the overturned corpse was revealed. Though the expression was rigid with rigor mortis, she knew all too well whose face it was.

The corpse’s face was her own.

Her breathing became rough. Seo-rin exhaled short, rapid breaths as she felt her own body.

Her arms, once full of muscle, were now slender. The sword wound that should have crossed her chest was gone. Why was her face so small, and why was she wearing so many ornaments?

Only then did Seo-rin realize.

This body was her younger sister, Sei-ran.

It was difficult to comprehend. She couldn’t understand why she, who had died, had opened her eyes in her sister’s body.

“Sei-ran… Sei-ran… Are you there?”

She touched her cheeks as she asked the question. But no answer came. The unfamiliar yet familiar voice flowing from her throat gave her goosebumps.

Just then, she sensed a strange presence behind her. It was a feeling difficult to describe—light yet solemn, faint yet clear.

Seo-rin quickly turned around.

There stood a snow-white wolf. Unlike the ordinary wolves of this snowy plain, it showed no hostility, nor did it run away.

Rather, it circled around Seo-rin as if showing some affection.

In that moment, the wolf scattered and disappeared in the wind. Only then did Seo-rin realize that the wolf was a spirit.

‘Is it visible because I’m in my sister’s body?’

She was breathing and seeing the world through her sister’s body. It wasn’t an impossible story.

After hesitating briefly, Seo-rin began to move. Standing still wouldn’t make the crisis she faced disappear.

First, she worked hard with the small body to organize her surroundings.

The first thing Seo-rin did was make graves for her tribespeople. With an untrained girl’s body, there was no way she could make proper graves.

So she simply covered them with snow and erected wooden markers at the village entrance. That was the best she could do now.

Seo-rin looked at the marker placed in a separate spot. It was a marker with her name on it. She had carved a marker for herself, Seo-rin, even though she was still alive. Because Seo-rin’s body had died.

Then what was she? The whereabouts of the soul that should have been in this body remained a mystery.

She was starting to think she might be going mad.

Seo-rin moved to survive. She gathered intact food supplies and usable weapons. After all, she had to live. She couldn’t let her sister’s body die too.

‘This is the limit.’

She gathered necessary survival items and left the tribe. In truth, staying within the tribe would have been better for survival. Despite the damage, walls and roofs remained to block the cold wind.

Yet she didn’t stay because of other tribes. Seo-rin’s White Frost tribe had oppressed other tribes with force. They had received regular tributes of food and women, which must have caused immense resentment.

If other tribes discovered that the White Frost tribe had perished, it was obvious what would happen to her sister’s body.

She couldn’t let her sister’s body be defiled.

‘She must have done something with sorcery.’

Seo-rin thought as she walked across the snow-white plain. That her sister had used sorcery to do something. She was a child whom the tribe’s sorcerers had praised with great fuss. She must have used sorcery that deeply involved spirit and body.

After leaving the tribe, Seo-rin made a small cave her shelter. Though her strong body was gone, her knowledge and experience remained.

‘I’ve brought enough food for now, so survival won’t be a problem for the time being.’

While immediate survival wasn’t an issue, the future looked bleak. How could she survive in this harsh snowfield with such a fragile body?

Perhaps she would have to leave this land where she had lived her entire life. Beyond the great mountain range lay the land of foreigners. They said it was a warm region where snow didn’t accumulate, making survival much easier than here.

***

Seo-rin’s cave life began. She conserved the food she had brought and set traps outside. It was a hunting method that relied on luck, but it was also the best hunting method this weak body could manage.

The only thing she might be able to catch directly would be snow rabbits. But going hunting right away was too much.

This wasn’t a trained body. Growth hadn’t finished. Arms and legs were shorter than before. It wasn’t a body suitable for hunting.

Also, everything she had trained for her entire life was gone. How to walk, how to breathe, how to suppress her presence—all the movements ingrained in her body had disappeared.

So Seo-rin began retraining from the basics of breathing. All actions of the White Frost tribe had characteristics of the predators living on this snowfield.

White Marten’s Breath

The marten is a very clever hunter. It knows how to hold its breath and conceal its presence. Sometimes it boldly reveals itself to drive away stronger beings. The White Frost tribe had well incorporated these characteristics of the marten into their own techniques.

“Hoo…”

Her low breath scattered white. As her lungs contracted to their limit, the supply of fresh blood flowing throughout her body also stopped.

As blood stopped circulating, bodily functions gradually ceased. Seo-rin maintained that shallow breath for a long time.

It wasn’t difficult. It was like retracing a path she had already walked. Knowledge hadn’t disappeared, so she just needed to help the body become accustomed to it.

After learning how to breathe came learning how to walk. Seo-rin maintained shallow breathing as she slowly moved her steps. She kept her posture low and moved with her feet almost touching the ground.

The snow wolf hides its body in the snow and moves silently. Unless one is a skilled warrior, they cannot detect a wolf’s approach.

Frost Wolf’s Step

Low breathing and silent steps combined. The small girl glided like a ghost inside the dark cave.

Seo-rin repeated these actions until they became second nature. She even maintained the marten’s breathing while eating.

Late evening, just before sleep, was time for conversation with her sister.

Seo-rin leaned against the cold cave wall and talked to herself.

“Today I learned how to breathe. If you ever get your body back, you’ll feel strange.”

“Walking will also help… No one will notice your approach.”

Of course, there was no answer.

She had mastered breathing and walking. Next was learning how to use weapons.

Seo-rin looked at the weapon she had brought. She usually used a spear. But this time, she had brought something else.

The cold blade had the power to easily cut through thick leather. It was a weapon called a sword.

She had never used a sword for hunting. But Seo-rin was confident. She had known her talent for a long time.

Seo-rin looked at the oily-smelling sword. It was the sword her father, the previous chief, had used.

It was crude. Not an excellent sword. But having absorbed much blood over many years with the chief, the sword emanated a strange energy.

Small hands gripped the sword.

‘Ah’

She could see it. Seo-rin couldn’t help but marvel. She had to, because the numerous memories engraved in the sword told her what battles her father had fought and what thoughts had driven him to wield the sword.

Hunting for survival, killing for the tribe. He had lived his entire life that way. He pursued efficiency, not style. Surviving and cutting the enemy’s neck was his only priority.

When the blood-covered chief swung his sword, silent death unfolded.

Straight lines and speed.

The crudely extended sword path pursued the best speed he could muster.

It was swordsmanship using the White Marten’s Breath. Hold your breath until just before attacking, then explosively pump the heart to supply blood to the body.

Shiiik-!

She demonstrated the swordsmanship from memory. But it was awkward. Clumsy. The swordsmanship displayed at the girl’s fingertips was incomplete.

The sword fell from her weakened hand.

“Hmm…”

There was still a long way to go. Seo-rin sighed as she massaged her wrist.