"Snow and kelp, the foxes kelp, rain or shine.

　What's the rest of this?　I doubt I can even remember the first verse in the first place. I'm sure it was something along the lines of "the cat curls up in the kotatsu" at the end...

Al sings funny songs sometimes, don't he?

　As we're walking down the snowy road, Thor turns around and says.

　Strange, does that mean I'm tone-deaf? It's going to be a bit of a dent in that.

"Huh?　Really?

'It's kind of a waste of time, like he has a good sense of pitch. That was something I've never heard around here at all.

　What a relief. You're not tone deaf?

　Well, it's true that the rhythm of the song is totally different from the songs the villagers sing. It's kind of difficult to sing the village song because it's sung in a big chorus and the lyrics are long. It looks like something a pirate would sing.

But I like Al's song, it's shorter and easier to understand than the village song. It's shorter and easier to understand than the village song.

　Asmo, walking next to me, said something very pleasing to me.

　By the way, Asmo is the same age as Thor and is seven years old. I'm not sure if it's because of his initial flirtation with me that he doesn't use honorific language at all. It's easier and more comfortable for me too.

Thank you, Asmo. By the way, you're in a very depressed state, are you okay?

　If you look, Asmo is buried deep in the snow due to his own weight. How can you walk with that? Every time Asmo goes forward, there's a big hole in the ground.

"Wouldn't it be faster to roll?

Thor is so smart!

Yeah. There's no way I'm going to roll over!

　Despite his sharp prodding, Asmo walks with a large stride to avoid getting his feet caught in the snow, but he sinks each time. Hey, hey, are you okay? You're sinking fast.

I'm fine. The snow is deep over there, come here.

Oh.

　I pull Asmo over to me.

'Ooh!　Wow!　You've got the butt marks of Asmo's footprints on you!

　When I looked at the spot where Thor's finger had pointed, I could see that there were indeed marks here and there that looked like Asmo's buttocks.

　I see that the snow is deep in that area.

　Thor is looking into the deep hole with great interest. This is also the outfit that makes me want to drop it into the pit.

　When I look next to him, I see that Asmo is also itching to get out.

　When he noticed me looking at him, he smiled a black smile.

　I smiled along with him. There's only one thing to do.

''Se-no!''

'Oh?　What, eh?　Bufu!

　Thor, pushed back by me and Asmo, falls helplessly into a deep snow hole.

　Ooh, it came from my face. It's cold.

"No, yeah!

　Me and Asmo were able to beat our hands together with satisfactory results.

　This guy's pretty good at it. Asmo and I laugh at each other and strengthen our friendship.

'No, yeah!　I ain't!　You pushed me down a hole!　I mean, this place is pretty deep.

　It seems that the hole was deeper than I thought, and Thor is having a hard time getting out of the snow hole.

　It's about the size of Thor's chest. It's difficult to use his feet in thick snow shoes, and it's not so easy to climb up on the snow with only his arms.

　This was interesting.

I'm not going to be able to get my hands on it. Hey, hey!　Stay away from me, fatty!　Oh, I'm sorry!　I'm sorry, don't bury me!　Hey!　And Al, don't snowball silently!　No, oh no, oh no!




　× X X X



　This is how I arrived at the village of Koliat.

　The golden ears of rice that always greeted me first are now covered with dirt and lots of snow. Every hut and fence in the village is covered in snow and looks like it's made up.

　We had a lot of fun playing in the snow on the road and it was hard to get going.

　Thor sulked on the way there, but the information from Elinora's sister put him in a good mood. Thor is a bit of a dick.

　He's still happily walking in front of us. Thor suddenly turned around and started shouting excitedly.


"Hey!　It's already started!

What?

There's a snowball fight!

　Asmo and I hurriedly followed Thor as he ran towards us, and there were villagers having a snowball fight all over the place.

'Let's go team Roland, whoa!

"'Yoo-hoo-hoo!'

"Enter Team Wester.

"'Oooohhhhhh!'

　If you look, you'll see two groups of villagers, yelling and running with snowballs in their hands.

　Teams of mixed children to adults stand around and throw snowballs at each other, using the hut as a shield.

　Hey, hey, I hope you guys are doing your quota for the inside job properly.

'Keieeeee!　Come and get it!

Let them die!

Ehrman is down!

How dare you play Ehrman!

No, I mean, I haven't passed out yet--

Touche!

"Phew!

How dare you, Ehrman?

No, wait!　I just hit one snowball and you knocked me out--

Lardo hit Ehrman and knocked him out.

What?

"Who's Lardo?

It's Miss Celia's husband!

"'Heh, yeah. That's good to know.

What? That's none of my business!

I got my ass slapped in public.

'I was just staring at Miss Carla's ass and resenting being slapped as hard as I could with a tray.

"A grudge against my family for telling me how much I was spending on dinner.

'That's not me, that's all Celia!　Tell him.

""There's no way I can do that."

'What the hell is that?　No guts!

""Shut up and get your ass in gear!"

I don't know about you guys, either!

'Yeah, yeah!　Get it done!　Take out your daily grudge!

Bury it.

It hurts!　I mean, hey!　There's a stone in the snow, this one!

Ouch.

　What a violent snowball fight. It's a different kind of scary than Bartolo's this morning.

"Hey, Thor, are you really going to mix in here?

Yeah, right. Why don't we get away from the adults for a while and do it as kids?

　Thor walks off the edge, probably spooked by the exchange between the villagers earlier.

　Asmo seems to agree, and we slowly advance through the shadows of the hut, bypassing the battlefield.


'Hahahahahaha!　What's up, Wester!　Aren't you going to attack me?

　In the direction we're going, Roland is hiding in the hut, naked in the upper half of his body despite the fact that it's this f*cking cold, and he's shouting loudly.

'Shit!　You're not fair!　How dare you use my house as a shield!

　A little further down the road, Wester, also topless, is holding a snowball and shouting angrily.

'Hmm?　What are you talking about?　You just happen to use it to hide yourself, okay?

'Ugh!　It's so white!　You know, I went to the trouble of hiding in a place like this.

What's up?　Why don't you go throw it?　Are you afraid to throw it?　I love it!

　Gritting his teeth and looking frustrated, Westa avoids the snowball released by Roland.


　Westa tries to throw the snowball to fight back, but Roland quickly ducks into the shadows of the hut.

'd*mn it!'

　That old Roland guy is pretty good at using people's houses as shields.

What's the matter with you?　Ain't you gonna throw it?　I know what I'm talking about. The walls in here are just brittle!　The windows in here are almost broken already.

Don't go touching people's houses.

　The snowball thrown with Wester's voice heads for Roland.

　The snowball hits the window and the sound of crushing is heard.

'Wester bastard destroyed his own house by himself.

"...I don't care about home anymore!　f*ck you, Roland!

　Wester, desperate, throws a bunch of snowballs at me.

'Hey, hey!　You're in your own house!

　Wester threw a powerful pitch that mercilessly scraped the brittle walls of the hut.

'I'll have Ehrman fix it!

'I didn't know we had a plan!　Excellent!　Come on!

　Eventually, when they ran out of snow, they started to grab each other.

'I always think those two are always fighting,'

　I asked Thor and Asmo about something that had been bothering me for some reason.

'Well, there's a lot going on with those guys,'

Yeah, yeah. I've got a lot going on.

'What?　What's that. I'm curious.

Okay, okay, let's go over there. It's not safe out here.

　I asked Thor and Asmo, but they wouldn't tell me, so I pushed back and headed for the edge.

　Huh?　What happened to you?