episode_0012

“Eachoo!”

A cute sneeze sound spread through the snowstorm.

It was Enoch’s sneeze.

We have now come north and used all the money we have to buy things to keep Enoch warm and clothe him.

As a result, Enoch transformed into a cute and round person.

When I came alone, I didn’t feel the cold, so I didn’t know Enoch would be this cold, but now that I see it, I understand why the North is famous for its murderous cold.

“Melting. Just hold on. It’s going to be North Pole soon.”

“Sister.”

“Huh?”

“How on earth do people live here?”

The pure, innocent thoughts of a child. These were the thoughts of Enoch, who was soon to become an adult.

Enoch knows everything, but he looks like a child and cute at times like this.

Always cute, but today was even more so.

Is it because it’s round?

“People here don’t wear padding or anything like that. That’s because they always carry weird jewelry on their bodies.”

“Jewel?”

“Do you know Seol-in or Seol-nyeo?”

“Yeah. I read it in a book. The snowman is tall and furry, and the snowwoman is pretty and a ghost who creates blizzards.”

My little brother. I’m so proud that he even reads books.

It might be because I didn’t spend much time with him when he was young, so he only had books to read, but I was still impressed.

Because you waited for me even while reading a book.

“That’s right. But that’s an old story. Now, some of them have evolved into incarnations, and they’ve become more and more human-like. That’s because what they wanted to become was a human who felt cold and embraced each other warmly.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I heard it from a friend of mine. That friend’s parents were Seol-in.”

“Oh~.”

The North held few happy memories for me.

The immigrants who came here lived drunkenly, and the only ones who actually did things were ghosts in the snow.

They tried to change into humans, and as a result, they acquired human appearances, but they could not bear to abandon their cores, the source of their powers, and so continued to have the characteristics of a snowman or snowwoman.

“Melting. Should I tell you a fairy tale?”

“Fairy tale?”

“Yeah. It’s a traditional fairy tale handed down from the North.”

“Want to hear it?”

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

I took out my family photo album and recalled the memories of the fairy tales I had read back then.

*

“Once upon a time, there lived an ethnic minority in a snowy field.

They were all beings born through people’s stories.

Those minorities prayed to the stars.

“Star, star, bright star in the sky. Please, make us human.”

The stars heard their prayers and made their bodies similar to humans.

The minorities were delighted with this.

Their bodies were studded with white jewels, but they were still happy.

The stars spoke.

[You, as humans, have been given a jewel. This jewel is essential for you to become human. If you remove this jewel without touching it and without anyone’s help, you will be able to become true humans.]

These people lived for a long time without removing their jewels, and then they met humans.

When humans saw their appearance, they let their guard down, but when they realized that they were originally monsters that had been passed down through stories, they called people to them.

Humans forcibly removed the jewels embedded in their bodies and used them to satisfy their own greed.

The monsters in that work… … .」

*

Bam.

Enoch collapsed, either because the story was too boring or because he couldn’t stand the northern cold.

I hugged Enoch warmly and started running quickly towards North Pole before the incarnation disappeared.

It was because Enoch’s heavy breathing was heard.

*

“Ummm… … .”

When I opened my eyes, I saw a ceiling made of logs.

There was an old woman next to me, knitting by the campfire.

The old man knew I was awake, so he ran quickly to the kitchen and handed me a bowl of the porridge he was boiling.

“It’ll be warm.”

I took a bite of that without a doubt.

It was a delicious meat porridge.

I don’t know what kind of meat it was, but it was tasty.

“But, kid. Aren’t you curious about who this old man is?”

“Yes. I’m not really curious.”

“Why do you think so?”

“It must be a safe place since my older sister brought me there.”

The old man smiled happily at those words.

I didn’t know why.

“I didn’t know there were still siblings who trusted each other like this. Well, first, eat some porridge over there. I have a present prepared for your older sister.”

“A gift? If it’s for your sister, why don’t you give it to her?”

“It’s not in front of me right now. So I’m giving it to you, my younger brother. Here, take this.”

My grandfather handed me a box. On the back of the box was written the word Christmas.

I opened the box.

There was one garment that was predominantly red, but had a tuft of white fur attached to it.

“Grandpa. What is this?”

“It’s a souvenir from a now-forgotten holiday. Even though we don’t know it now, there used to be a holiday called Christmas.”

“What holiday is it?”

“Um… … Simply put, it’s a holiday where good children receive presents from a being called Santa Claus.”

“But why is there such a holiday? Who is Santa?”

“I don’t know why this holiday exists… …but Santa is Santa. He’s a person who gives children dreams and hope.”

“Where do you use your dreams and hopes? Wouldn’t it be better to use them yourself?”

“Well, that’s a good thing. But before there were constellations, it was popular to share dreams and hopes. Santa Claus played a part in that.”

“Then where is Santa?”

“It’s in North Pole.”

“Are you dead?”

“He is dead now, but he may be resurrected someday.”

I couldn’t understand what my grandfather was talking about.

My grandfather smiled at my puzzled expression and cleared away the bowl of porridge I had finished eating.

“Thank you.”

“Okay. Come again if you want.”

“Yep.”

I left the house and looked at the sky.

The sky was still dark, but the darkness made the stars that formed the Milky Way shine brighter.

The aurora surrounding it was a spectacular sight.

I looked around and returned to what appeared to be the village entrance, carefully reading the sign welcoming us to the village.

Snowflake Village.

It was a town that made me wonder if it had been built too hastily.

But anyway, the people living in this village don’t seem to care much about the village name.

Because there are currently about 60 homes with smoke coming out of their chimneys.

I left the village and started walking through the snow again.

[Constellation, ‘The Corpse of the Falling World’ feels uneasy about the state of the incarnation.]

“Why all of a sudden?”

[The constellation, ‘The Corpse of the Falling World’ tells us to look at the state of the incarnation.]

I looked at my condition.

The body was fine.

But the snow was so high that it reached up to my knees.

If the ice were to freeze like this, it would be a big problem, but if it keeps moving, there won’t be any room for it to freeze.

Besides, there was a bit of a cooldown before my sister could use her incarnation, so I had to walk on my own feet to get to the ‘North Pole’.

I spread out the map and estimated the distance from Snowflake Village to North Pole.

Roughly speaking, it would take about 3 days if I walked at this speed.

“Wow. I don’t know how my sister was able to travel this distance and back in just a week.”

[Constellation, ‘The Corpse of the Sinking World’ is embarrassed by the sudden praise.]

[The holy relic, ‘Family Photo Album’, is activated.]

「”Wow, Mr. How do I get there? I guess I have no choice but to get the Eternal Snow Ginseng… … Huh? What about this?”」

In the photo album, there was my sister flying on a red-nosed Rudolph.

If it were my current sister, it wouldn’t take even a day to make the round trip, but if it was my sister’s clone with the physical abilities of a sixteen-year-old sister, it would take a week to go from the West to the North Pole.

This incident made me realize to my bones just how much of a monster my sister is.

Even when I was little, I was impressed by my older sister who didn’t flinch in this cold.

“Sister… … I’m cold… … .”

I warmed my body with a hot pack, but I was still cold.

Even though I ate rice, I wasn’t very full because I ate porridge.

[Constellation, ‘The Corpse of the Falling World’ searches for items that will help the incarnation.]

[Sponsor the item, ‘Automatic Tent’.]

[Sponsor the item, ‘Tick-Tock Hand Warmer x10’.]

[Sponsor the item, ‘Life Saving Food x10’.]

“Sister. Thank you.”

With those words, I went into my tent, ate some life rations, and fell asleep.

***

I clearly gave my brother enough food to last him for ten days, and he ate it all in one day.

I’ve been feeling hungry a lot lately and I feel like I’ve been eating a lot. I think it’s because I’m growing.

Even though I’m already over twenty years old, I’m still the same height as when I was in middle school.

Should I buy this… … a nutritional supplement and feed it to him?

“Well, what. When you want to grow up, you’ll tell me, right?”

I briefly displayed Noki’s sleeping figure on one screen, and watched for any wild animals approaching Noki on the other screen.

While making the next clone from time to time, I tested out various functions with the broken clone.

Among them were clones with abilities such as changing their appearance, creating appendages from their bodies, and pulling objects out of thin air.

As I continued to research clones, I contacted a friend who taught me how to create clones.

[Constellation, ‘The Corpse of the Falling World’ looks upon its own incarnation.]

“Oh my! Constellation! How have you been!!”

A woman with a gong bowing down to me.

She was stuck in her lab all day, doing nothing but research.

I liked her because she only studied to achieve her own goals without paying attention to men, so I made her my incarnation.

Although she showed no signs of transcendence, she possessed a dexterity that even the constellations covet, and she was of great help in creating my incarnation.

[Sponsoring the Holy Relic, ‘Clone Body No. 2 (Damaged)’.]

“Thank you. Well, let’s see… … What kind of materials was used to make this? ”

[Sponsor the item, ‘Blueprint for Clone 2’.]

“Thank you, Constellation. If I do well later, you know it’s all thanks to Constellation, right? Hehehe.”

Of course, I helped him only after seeing his skills.

That is why, if the day comes when I meet Enoch, I will go there myself and kill him painfully.

Just as the woman who stole Enoch’s lips died from the pain of amputation and the despair of losing her virginity due to the preservation.

Of course, as long as you don’t touch me, we will continue this relationship.

So, I hope you continue to focus on your research like this.