Chapter 203

It was while we were walking down the street.

Yulan ran around excitedly.

Having just finished a meal, he was bursting with energy.

He looked to be a man a little over forty, but the sight of him acting like a child was somewhat bizarre.

“What is this, Shion?”

“It’s a roof.”

“What about this?”

“It’s a streetlamp.”

“Then what’s that on your forehead, Shion?”

“It’s a vein. It means I’m starting to get annoyed.”

Yulan, who had been pointing at my forehead, giggled as if it were funny.

How could he be so innocent?

Even though he had lost all his memories in the Underworld, it seemed his nature had a childlike aspect to it.

I grew curious about what kind of person he had originally been.

“More importantly, where did all the people go?”

Yulan tilted his head.

On the wide street, there was only Yulan, me, and Amethus.

Even though the day was bright, not long after noon.

“It feels like we’re the only ones in the whole world.”

“That’s right. It was crowded when we entered the restaurant. What’s going on, Shion?”

At Amethus’s question, I opened my mouth.

“Let’s head to the inn first. I’ll answer you there. So, Yulan, save your questions for a bit later…….”

“Ah! What did you say that was again?”

“A streetlamp! I just answered you.”

I raised my voice, but Yulan paid no mind.

He looked up at the sky and raised his finger.

“Then that is……?”

“……?”

Amethus also looked up.

From the eastern sky, a giant mass was moving as if sliding.

I followed them and looked up as well.

It was a cloud.

However, it pulsed as if it were alive and was so massive it seemed to cover the entire sky.

Moreover, it was a golden color, like an autumn wheat field.

“…It’s a dragon cloud.”

“A dragon cloud?”

“It’s a type of mana cloud. They often form around magical beasts that fly in the sky. Though not always…….”

When mana mixes in as a cloud forms, a mana cloud is created.

The dragon cloud is a peculiar type among them.

It is peculiarly large and holds peculiarly strong mana.

“Is it normally golden like that?”

“No. It’s rare for the color to be different.”

I turned my head.

“Isn’t that right, Amethus?”

“Yes. It’s the first time I’ve seen such a vivid golden color. The size is also immense. How on earth did such a dragon cloud……”

As we were talking while looking at the sky, we heard footsteps.

From the other side of the street, the clanking of metal and footsteps approached, then charged at us with a shout.

“Hey, you people!”

There was a man holding a spear.

He was wrapped head to toe in iron armor.

“What are you doing right now!”

***

The man with the spear ran like an arrow.

Seeing him dash like that while wearing full iron armor, he didn’t seem to be an ordinary person.

He had a leather armband around his shoulder, on which the emblem of this city was drawn.

He appeared to be a city guard.

“What are you doing on the street at this hour?”

The guard unhesitatingly thrust the tip of his spear at us.

The spearhead was sharp and blue, as if maintained daily. He spoke as if growling.

“Do you want to be brought before a tribunal?”

Amethus found his strange aggressiveness odd.

He wondered if being on the street around 3 PM was a reason to be threatened with a blade.

Besides, for a city guard, his armor was excessive.

The jade-eyed man felt a sense of incongruity.

The incongruity soon turned into displeasure.

He conveyed his meaning to me with a glance.

‘Should I cut him, Shion.’

‘No. Stay still.’

I conveyed my meaning back with a glance and stepped forward.

I opened my mouth with a polite tone.

“I’m sorry.”

There was no hesitation in my apologetic attitude.

“We are outsiders and don’t know the situation here well. Did we do something wrong?”

“…Outsiders, you say……?”

The guard slowly lowered his spear.

From that movement alone, Amethus saw through the opponent’s skill.

That spear seemed to be made twice as heavy as a normal spear, and seeing him handle such a spear with ease, the opponent was no ordinary guard.

Of course, it didn’t matter much to Amethus.

“…Hmm…….”

He glanced at me, Amethus, and Yulan.

Considering our accents revealed in conversation and our appearances, he could easily accept that we were outsiders.

The guard completely withdrew his spear and gestured.

“…Hurry and take shelter somewhere with a roof. There’s no time.”

“Why must we take shelter?”

“There’s no time to explain! Do you have an inn?”

“We’ve got one.”

“Where?”

I gestured across the street.

“The name was Rose Brick.”

“…Rose Brick? Damn it, that’s Brecht’s place. It’s on the opposite side of the city…….”

The guard looked at the golden dragon cloud in the sky.

It had already arrived near the city.

“…Can’t be helped.”

He clicked his tongue with a ‘tsk’ sound and gestured.

“Come to the guard post, now!”

***

We hurried our steps to the guard post.

Upon arriving at the guard post, the guard immediately bolted the door.

There were four locks. And only after meticulously checking to see if any windows were left open did he let out a deep sigh.

“It’s Pound.”

The face under the helmet was deeply wrinkled.

“I’m the captain of this city’s guard.”

“I thought as much.”

“I’m sorry for pointing a spear at you out of nowhere. But you people, you were almost in danger.”

Pound slowly took off his iron armor.

Inside the iron armor was leather armor, inside that was cloth armor, and inside that, he was wrapped tightly in linen bandages.

He didn’t seem to have any injuries, which made me wonder why he was wearing so many layers.

“Didn’t you hear the bell?”

“The bell?”

Yulan expressed his doubt.

“I didn’t hear it.”

“I heard it.”

“Yes? Mr. Amethus, did a bell ring?”

“…It rang very loudly. It seems you didn’t hear it because you were in the middle of a meal.”

Amethus said.

“Was there some meaning to that bell sound?”

“That’s an alarm.”

Pound said, clicking his tongue.

“It means snow will be falling soon, so hide under a roof.”

“…Snow…….”

The jade-eyed man stroked his chin.

Beside him, I was smiling faintly.

The regressor prince, as always, likely knew many things.

About the golden snow, and the reason the city people were hiding.

But as always, I don’t say much.

It is because I have many secrets.

“The restaurant owner said so too, to be careful of the golden snow.”

“You have to be.”

Pound stood up.

“Care to take a look?”

He drew back the curtain covering the window.

Outside, everything was glittering.

The sight of the entire street filled with gold was beautiful beyond comparison.

“…Golden, snow…….”

It was snowing.

The golden dragon cloud was scattering golden snow all over the city.

The village filled with gold dust looked like something out of a fantasy or a fairy tale.

“…How beautiful…….”

Yulan couldn’t hold back his admiration.

“So snow was originally golden.”

“No.”

I interjected.

“Only that snow is golden.”

“I want to go out, would that be alright?”

“I can’t allow it, Yulan.”

I said firmly.

The guard captain, Pound, twitched his eyebrow.

“You there, do you know about that snow?”

“A little.”

“Why didn’t you warn your companions?”

“I had a countermeasure.”

“…Hmph. I suppose it’s not my place to interfere. Still, if you had done wrong, we would have met in a courtroom.”

“But that didn’t happen, did it?”

“…Are you a nobleman? You speak so well.”

“I can’t say I’m not.”

Having received titles in several western countries and holding the status of an Upper House member in the Dawn Brotherhood, it wouldn’t be strange to call myself a noble among nobles.

However, I had no intention of boasting about my status.

In the first place, I was a prince of the Great Empire, but I hated that status, did I not?

“Anyway, explain to your companions now. Just how damn wretched that snow is…….”

“I was just about to.”

So there was nothing to do here.

“Alright, focus. I have to tell an old story again.”

***

“Mimic Crumb.”

I said.

“That’s the academic name for that snow.”

Whoever named it, wasn’t it poetic?

I didn’t bother to explain who had named it.

Some information is more beneficial when not told.

“It’s a weather phenomenon that has been occurring in central Schmeizen at the same time every day for the past 14 years.”

Amethus flinched and raised his head.

He had no choice but to notice at the mention of 14 years ago.

Was that the first calamity?

Amethus asked with his eyes, and I answered with a small nod.

The four calamities scattered by the Empire.

The first among them, the true identity of the ‘Calamity that Falls from the Sky’, was that golden snow.

“It looks like snow, but it’s not. According to the research results announced by Hohopran Magul, it’s closer to a type of seed.”

Before my regression, I had also participated in the investigation, so I knew the details well.

“Usually, they don’t germinate and just scatter in the air, but if a certain condition is met, they bear a very vicious fruit.”

“…A certain condition?”

“To come into contact with human skin.”

I chuckled.

“They store the appearance and mind of the person they touch at that moment.”

The guard captain, Pound, who was listening to the story, shuddered at the terrible memory.

He remembers 14 years ago, when that golden snow first fell.

He could never forget the tragedy that occurred because they were completely unprepared.

“After touching human skin, if it seeps into the ground, it germinates after three days. And the fruit takes the form of a person.”

“…….”

“It begins to perfectly mimic the appearance and mind of the person it first came into contact with when it was a seed.”

“……Does it create a replica of a person?”

“Exactly!”

I turned my head towards Pound.

“The confusion must have been severe, wasn’t it?”

“…It was beyond that.”

Pound trembled.

“Suddenly, my wife, my son, my friend, there were two of them. With the same face, saying the same things…….”

He shook his head.

“And besides …damn it, if I even become two people……. If I come face to face with something that has my face and speaks like me…….”

“I can’t imagine forgetting that.”

“…I’m still afraid sometimes. Am I the real me? What if the real me died 14 years ago and I’m just an imitation……?”

Pound trembles with anxiety.

I shrugged my shoulders as if to say, ‘see?’.

“Like this, the original and the clone fear each other and try to eliminate one another.”

“…If this has been going on for 14 years.”

“People can’t trust each other. When they can’t even trust themselves.”

The regressor prince twisted the corner of his mouth.

“Do you see now? What kind of calamity that golden snow is.”

“…….”

“It’s a very simple yet powerful calamity that twists the human heart.”

I looked out the window.

It had stopped glittering at some point.

I patted Pound, who was trembling with anxiety.

We had only met for a brief moment and would likely never meet again.

But a pat of comfort doesn’t necessarily need a reason.

“Let’s go now.”

I kicked my seat and stood up.

“The snow has stopped.”

***

“We’re going to the capital of Schmeizen.”

Amethus nodded.

Yulan, lost in some thought, had become remarkably quiet.

“The situation there is much worse than here. That’s why I showed you this city first.”

“…The security must be tight.”

“It’s beyond tight. The city has probably become a personification of a state of war of all against all.”

What an elegant expression. I chuckled.

“And once we’re in the capital?”

“The more we delay, the more things get twisted. I can’t give the Empire’s bastards hiding there any leeway.”

My blue eyes sank deep.

“We go straight to the imperial palace.”

Amethus’s mouth was firmly shut.

“I have to make the Widow Queen and Yulan meet.”

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