Two months had passed since little Mui had found relief in his heart and stability in his mind. Even though he still received sharp, cold looks from the townspeople, he mostly ignored them; he was finally happy with the people who actually cared for him.
On a bright morning, Mui climbed a small mountain path where his big brother, Leon, and their friends Ryuuken and Rui were waiting.
"Hey! What are we going to play today?" Mui asked excitedly. In his haste, he tripped and fell face first into the snow. The three older boys immediately rushed over to check on him.
"Are you okay, Mui?" Leon asked, inspecting his younger brother. Mui raised his hands with a wide, toothy smile.
"I'm fine, big brother! What are we playing?" Mui asked, looking up. Leon sighed in relief, Ryuuken laughed, and Rui simply smiled. However, Leon noticed that Mui had accidentally gouged his leg when he tripped.
"Show me your leg." Leon didn't wait for an answer as he began to examine the injury.
"Damn, kid, you're actually hurt," Ryuuken noted as he looked closer.
"How strange... he isn't even crying," Rui said with a thoughtful expression.
"Doesn't it hurt, Mui? You have to be more careful, you know," Leon said with a sigh. He let go of Mui's leg, wondering what they should do now.
"I'm fine, big brother. I can still play. Let's play!" Mui insisted, acting as if he felt no pain or perhaps he simply refused to acknowledge it. During these two months, he had grown incredibly close to his brother and his brother's friends. Leon had stopped taking missions to spend every moment with him. Mui had never felt this much happiness before, and he wanted nothing to come between him and this feeling.
"You're clearly not fine, kid," Ryuuken said, scratching his head.
"Hey guys, the activity we have planned for today doesn't require him to run, remember?" Rui said, glancing at Ryuuken and Leon. Leon's face lit up as he remembered their plan.
"Oh! Where are they, anyway?" Leon asked, looking at Rui.
"Right there. They just arrived. Let's go!" Rui pointed into the distance. Ryuuken's eyes lightened with excitement as well.
"Yeah, let's go!" Ryuuken shouted. He hoisted little Mui onto his back and began to run. Mui didn't know what they were so excited about, but as soon as he saw the surprise, his eyes widened with joy.
"I want to ride them!" Mui screamed in excitement. Before them stood a pack of Huskies with a large sled tied behind them. In this snowy region, these sleds could be rented for travel or sport.
"It was your idea, wasn't it, Rui? I can't believe you thought of something this amazing," Ryuuken said, his eyes shining. Rui smiled proudly, and Leon looked at his friend with deep gratitude.
"Thank you for thinking of my brother and spending time with him," Leon said softly. Ryuuken and Rui looked at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter.
"Don't be a nerd! Friends don't say 'thank you,'" Ryuuken said with his usual confident grin.
"Yeah. Besides, your brother is our brother," Rui added, reaching out to pet Mui's head.
"Come on now, little buddy, let's ride!" Ryuuken said, setting Mui down in the front of the sled. Ryuuken sat right behind him, followed by Rui, with Leon taking the last spot.
"Let's go down!" Ryuuken shouted. The Huskies, understanding the command, lunged forward, pulling the sled down the slope.
The four boys shouted in pure exhilaration as they descended at full speed. Little Mui was screaming with happiness.
"I want to be happy with you guys forever! I hope nobody ever takes this away the mountains, the snow, the animals, and you guys... I hope nothing ever takes my happiness away," Mui cried out. Ryuuken was the first to answer.
"Don't worry, little buddy. Nobody can take the mountains or anything else. This region has never been conquered because the weather is too cold and the terrain is too steep. Soldiers can't move in a straight line here; they'd need too many supplies," Ryuuken said, looking back at Mui.
"Yes, don't worry. Your father defended this land with just three hundred men twenty years ago against a Great Noble House. Now we have over a thousand soldiers well, less than twelve hundred, but it's enough to protect all of this," Rui said proudly. Leon smiled.
"Nobody will take you away from us, either. No matter what happens, we will always be with you," Leon said softly, like a sacred promise.
"Yeah! And once Leon becomes the head of House Corvus, I'll be an Imperial Knight to defend him. We'll be together. Friends forever!" Ryuuken laughed, but the words carried the weight of a vow.
Later, the boys stopped by a freezing lake to go fishing. Mui watched in awe as his brother caught the most fish. They set up a mini-picnic by the frozen shore and began to cook their catch. As they waited for the food, Rui decided to sing to entertain them.
"In a frozen land,
Were four friends,
Dreaming sweet nothings,
And saying nonsense..."
Rui sang as if he were born to be a diva. Ryuuken and Leon nodded their heads to the rhythm, but Mui just rolled his eyes.
"What was that? You sounded like an old man with back pain!" Mui laughed, but the other three boys looked confused.
"Don't be rude, Mui. That was actually decent," Leon said with a sigh, while Ryuuken looked genuinely puzzled.
"It's fine, everyone has their own taste," Rui said positively, refusing to let Mui's teasing hurt his feelings.
"Maybe you're just tone deaf, brother," Leon joked.
"Tone deaf? What's that?" Mui asked curiously, but nobody answered him.
"You wouldn't understand," Leon said, turning his focus back to the cooking.
Despite the teasing, the four boys enjoyed their time as they always did, eating lunch together in the crisp air. As evening fell, it was time to part ways. When they reached the House Corvus estate, Leon waved to his friends.
"See you tomorrow, guys!" Leon said. Ryuuken and Rui nodded.
"We're going to play so many games tomorrow!" Mui shouted excitedly from his brother's back, watching as the two boys walked away, waving back at them.
"Now, go to bed. You hurt your leg, and you need to rest. I'll wake you up when dinner is ready," Leon told his brother firmly but gently. Mui pouted but complied.
Leon entered the estate and tucked Mui into his bed.
"Big brother... I want to be happy always," Mui whispered, falling into a deep sleep almost instantly, exhausted from the day's adventures. Leon looked at his brother for a long moment before pulling the blankets over him and leaving the room.
Time Skip
Mui woke up to the sound of his stomach grumbling. His brother had promised to wake him for dinner, but the room was dark.
'I'm so hungry. Did big brother forget about me?' Mui thought as he climbed out of bed. The night felt strangely quiet, there was no sound of servants moving through the estate. Mui walked through the halls, but saw no one. A chill of fear began to settle over him.
"Big brother... where are you?" Mui called out, wandering into the main hall. He checked everywhere the kitchen, the basement, the living room. Even his father's office was empty.
He stepped out into the garden, but it was deserted as well. There was a very unpleasant, metallic smell hanging in the air. Desperate to find his brother, Mui ignored the stench and wandered beyond the estate gates.
"Big brother, where are you?" he cried again. Suddenly, he tripped over something in the snow and fell. He felt a surge of anger and frustration, his injured leg throbbing with pain.
"Stupid rock!" Mui growled. He reached back to grab whatever he had tripped over, but as soon as his fingers closed around the object and he pulled it into the light, his eyes widened in pure horror.
"H-huh... w-what is this?" Mui stared, paralyzed. He was holding a severed human arm, the flesh torn and the bone jagged. He slowly looked around the area. Human heads lay scattered on the ground like discarded toys, their faces frozen in eternal screams. Eyes had been torn from sockets, and hearts had been ripped open. Genitalia lay on the snow, sliced away like parts of a butchered chicken. Only then did Mui realize that the emergency bells were ringing a sound he had ignored in his desperate search for Leon. He collapsed into the snow, staring at the carnage, unable to process what to feel or how to react.
The world around him began to shudder as if an earthquake were striking. Massive blue flames began to crawl toward him at a slow, deliberate pace, as if they were being controlled by an unseen hand. The bells continued their frantic, rhythmic tolling, like a countdown.
Paralyzed by the sheer scale of the horror, Mui couldn't find the strength to move. Then, through the smoke and fire, he finally saw signs of life.
A woman, standing 195 cm tall with a presence that seemed to swallow the light, stepped forward from the shadows. Her long silver hair flowed behind her like a river of moonlight, stark against the dark, blood soaked ground. She was breathtakingly beautiful, possessing a face that seemed carved from divine marble, yet her beauty was terrifying the kind of beauty that made one think of a sharpened blade.
Her eyes were a shade of blue so deep they looked like the abyss of the ocean, cold and devoid of any human empathy. She didn't look like she was in a battle, she looked like she was taking a stroll through a graveyard she had just finished creating. Her sword was no longer steel; it was a solid, vibrating red, coated so thickly in blood that it appeared to be made of rubies.
The blue flames followed her with a life of their own, swirling around her ankles and rising behind her like the wings of a fallen angel. The heat was so intense it didn't just melt the snow, it vaporized it, creating a thick, haunting mist that clung to her figure.
Mui didn't dare move. He wanted to scream, to run, to hide but his body had reached its limit for fear. His legs stopped shaking because they had gone numb under the weight of her mana. His heart stopped its frantic beating, surrendering to the pressure she exerted on the very air. It was a serene, graceful terror.
She looked down at him, her expression as calm as a frozen lake in the dead of winter. There was no hatred in her gaze, no anger just a terrifying void. To Mui, she didn't feel like a person. She felt like a Law of Nature. As if She was the Goddess of Death, beautiful and absolute.