## Chapter 282 – Winter Sonata
The girl was as clear as if carved from winter itself, and more beautiful than anything. Her white-tinged blue hair was as serene as snow falling at dawn, and her pure white skin felt like winter’s own.
…She’s not human.
—Thud.
Suddenly, she turned her head, and I met her eyes.
—Blue eyes with a chilling, ghostly aura.
And the clearly cold energy surrounding the girl. Her beauty was abnormal, utterly bewitching.
Because she wasn’t human, she was inhumanly beautiful.
Perhaps this was a similar feeling to seeing the magnificent beauty of nature.
However.
“…”
I instinctively realized that the thing before me was a serial killer at the extreme end of the unorthodox path. The Kim Katte danger-sensing system began to operate fiercely, strongly stirring my brain.
“…Shit.”
Feeling extreme fear, I slowly backed away.
So did Copson and Meria. The adventurers who had smashed the ice spirits and leveled up had long since returned to their mothers’ arms.
“T-That’s a spirit…”
Meria, holding her shield in front, murmured in shock.
“A spirit…?”
“Yeah. Judging by the fact that it’s taken human form, it’s no ordinary one… We have to run!”
Certainly, a monster with the ability to ‘disguise’ itself as a human would be extremely dangerous. Why would a monster take human form? To seduce and devour people, that’s why.
In conclusion, the girl there might look human, but her essence was that of a violent ghoul.
Realizing that, the thought of ‘I’m screwed’ strongly gripped my heart. Winter… you shitty season! You goddamn bastard! Nothing ever goes right!
“W-We’re screwed… This is really screwed, Barbarian.”
“Okay. I understand. Slowly. We’re getting out of here slowly.”
If we rashly turned our backs and ran, we didn’t know what we’d be subjected to. Knowing this well, we slowly retreated, never taking our eyes off the girl. Calmly, so as not to provoke the cruel beast.
Please, just let us go while we’re asking nicely, you bitch.
Please.
—Rustle.
Then, it took a step.
“T-That goddamn thing…”
Should we just hide among the trees and run away blindly?
No, we can’t do that.
In the first place, spirits use magic. And if it’s that thing taking human form, it would definitely wield considerably powerful magic.
The moment we turn our backs, a huge hole might appear in our heads.
“What do we do, what do we do… S-Should we just run away blindly?”
“That doesn’t sound like a good idea, Meria.”
We were slowly retreating, and the spirit girl was matching our pace, walking towards us at a leisurely speed.
Could it be… is it toying with us?
If it’s that intelligent, it’s dangerous.
Cruelty is proportional to intelligence.
—Swish!
At that moment, something flew and I urgently raised my arm to defend!
“Kugh!”
—Thud!
“Barbarian!”
“Wh-What!”
What flew was an ice pick. My forearm was slightly numb, but fortunately, I reflexively used my gauntlet to block it, so there was no significant damage.
But something like that suddenly flying at us?
“Oh, oh shit! What the hell are these bastards!”
I was shocked!
“This can’t be!”
“We’re doomed!!!!!!”
—Swoosh…
Ice spirits were floating all around us! Floating between the trees and behind the rocks, they were approaching!
No, you son of a bitch!
No one knew until this shit happened!
Perhaps because they were spirits, they made no sound! More than anything, we were so focused on the girl in front of us that we didn’t notice!
We’re screwed!
“Shit! Goddamn it, we’re screwed!”
“Mommy!”
“B-Barbarian! What do we do!”
Complete encirclement!
We were surrounded…!
First, we hid behind a tree to cover ourselves. It’s dangerous to move any further from here. If there are that many ice spirits, we’re likely to become human honeycombs if we run away.
Calm down, calm down, Kim Katte…!
There’s definitely a way out!
Even as we did, the ice spirits were closing the distance little by little. Then suddenly, they stopped in mid-air.
“What is it, you bastards!”
The reason the spirits stopped was because of the girl.
“Ah… Ah, ah. You guys.”
The girl standing in front slowly opened her mouth and made a sound! Seeing that, our expressions began to sour, and I shouted in surprise!
“This is unbelievable! Sh-She’s talking!”
A monster is talking!
I felt a strange ominousness and primal unpleasantness here…!
It was because I was reminded of a terrible legend that jungle monkeys mimic human sounds to lure children and devour them horribly.
Besides that, in the remote regions of South America, there is a malicious killer bird called the Murder Parrot that roams the skies, cursing at people and attacking them to eat them.
Clearly, that spirit girl is an existence in a similar vein to those!
—Thump, thump.
My heart was about to burst.
“Sh-She’s talking…!”
“Agh! This isn’t real!”
“C-Calm down! If we panic, we’re all dead!”
My heart was beating fast.
But if we act foolishly, we’ll only meet our end here. I have a mission to return…!
I barely stopped my heart by imagining Claudia’s naked body and assessed the situation.
She’s talking.
Then she has intelligence.
Then.
Then that means we can resolve the situation through conversation.
The spirit girl seemed to have noticed that we had reacted to her words, and stood still, looking at us. And the ice spirits were also frozen in place. Is she controlling them after all?
Anyway, the spirit girl was short.
Just looking at her appearance, she looked exactly like a rich family’s child. Strangely enough, she was wearing a blue dress-like outfit… Then let’s try talking to her as if she were a young girl.
—Gulp.
Swallowing my saliva, I moved my frozen tongue and attempted to converse.
“Ah, hello? Wow, the weather is really nice. I, I like winter. When I see a world covered in snow… my heart feels at peace. So my name is Kim Winter. My parents also liked winter. I was even born in winter? It’s really nice to meet you like this, Ice Princess!”
That’s bullshit.
“You like it too, right?”
I produced a feeling like a friendly and kind uncle and chattered appropriately with a bright smile. At the same time, behind the smile, I sharpened a death blade with murderous intent condensed within.
Will a surprise attack work? What if it doesn’t?
Compared to this place covered with trees, if I ran out towards the lake where the girl was standing, I wouldn’t be able to hide and would be torn to shreds by the ice picks flying in an instant.
Decide… Kim Katte!
—Tilt.
As I was thinking, the spirit girl tilted her head.
“…You guys. You killed my friend.”
And then she said that.
“Friend?”
“…That thing.”
The girl stretched out her finger and pointed at me. Then a blue light began to emanate from my pouch… What is this?
—Ice Spirit.
You son of a bitch!
That was it! That thing is friends with this girl!
The ice spirit we smashed earlier was this girl’s friend!
We’re screwed!
“Ah, this.”
The incomprehensible situation instantly turned red.
Without needing to see more, it became a hostile situation. No matter what we say, we killed that girl’s friend.
“Those guys tried to kill us first. So we killed them. So it can’t be helped.”
Changing my attitude, I said coldly.
“Are you going to blame us? It was these bastards who shot ice picks at us first when we were just standing there.”
It’s true, but this won’t work at all.
There’s no one in this world who cares about right and wrong or the order of things when a friend has died. No matter who did it first, once blood has been shed, you have to fight. You have to cut off the bad blood with a sword.
If you kill, you get killed.
If you’re attacked, you pay it back.
There’s no room for good and evil or order in that absolute principle.
That’s what this world is.
“…One person.”
The girl, who had been listening to my words, said that.
One person?
The fact that there was no context in the story and no rebuttal was proof that this thing was a monster. Perhaps it’s an existence that only says what it wants to say, or it doesn’t have high-level conversational abilities.
Or maybe it’s not interested in me.
Anyway, we can’t communicate and conversation doesn’t work.
That’s what an inhuman existence is.
“One person?”
“…I’ll spare two people. Leave one person behind and the two of you leave.”
It was a voice colder than ice, and above all, a ruthless sentence.
“What?”
“…”
No answer came back.
This.
You son of a bitch.
The soaring anger purified the brain that had been seized by fear. So, she was saying that she would sacrifice one of us as a price for killing her friends.
What, what a chilling evil this is…!
This girl is a monster after all!
—Thud.
As I clenched my teeth, Copson grabbed my shoulder. I could feel a tremendous vibration from his hand. He was terrified.
“B-Barbarian… L-Let’s draw lots here.”
“What nonsense are you talking about, you crazy bastard!”
Copson, in a panic, was babbling nonsense.
“Yeah! Copson! Bad!”
“But there’s no other way!”
“Get a grip, Copson! We can all live!”
He had been firmly captured in his mind by an unrealistic existence.
Generally, spirits are almost beings that can be called goblins. Their substance is unclear, and they are so magical that they approach adventurers as beings of terror, like ghosts.
It’s natural that Copson panicked.
But I steeled my heart.
First of all, the opponent had removed some of its mystery by speaking. At the same time, courage soared. Compromise and escape are almost impossible.
Then I have to fight and overcome it!
The soul of the Heavenly Demon!
A powerful warrior!
If words don’t work, use a sword!
That’s Kim Katte, the Heavenly Demon!
“Bullshit! I won’t hand over anyone! Kim Katte, the Heavenly Demon, never abandons his friends! Meria! Copson! We’re living! We’re going to live! We’re going to live and get out of here!”
Hiding behind the tree, I shouted powerfully, gripped my sword tightly, and concentrated my strength on my lower body.
The spirit girl is definitely a professional magician-type monster. She was constantly thinking of ways to win and made us talk to buy time.
“Spirit! What is your name!”
“…I have no name.”
“Then you are a nameless monster!”
Monsters don’t need names!
A corrupt existence that doesn’t even have a name!
Surely even its birth was marked by curses!
“I can’t hand over my friends, including myself, to a monster like you.”
“…”
“If you want to kill us, fight. But, if you do, your precious friends, the ice spirits, will die a lot. Like these guys in my pouch… Hehehe!”
As I tapped my pouch and smiled bitterly, the girl silently raised her hand.
—With that, the battle began.
“Take cover!”
“Ugh, ughaaaa!!”
I shouted fiercely and turned Copson’s panicked mind around. As a signal, the two who jumped out each hid behind a larger tree and a rock.
—Swoosh.
Following the girl’s gesture filled with magic, icicles were embroidered in the air. Sharp and strong-looking arrows of cold!
—Whoosh!
And they were fired in succession and flew towards us!
“Kyaaaaaaack!!”
“Lower your body!”
Leaping like a frog, I cut down one ice spirit and immediately hid behind a rock. —Thud! Thud! Thud! The flying icicles collided with the rocks and trees and shattered.
It’s a tremendous force. But after all, because it’s ice, there’s a clear limit.
It’s not enough to completely destroy the tree!
“Its attacks can’t penetrate our cover! We’ll destroy the ice spirits and create an escape route! Do you understand! Answer if you heard!”
Then there’s definitely a possibility if we take cover!
“Y-Yes, I understand!”
“I understand, Barbarian!”
Quickly looking left and right, I searched for an escape route… But there are too many ice spirits. It’s not possible yet! Fortunately, Copson and Meria were taking cover in suitable places, so they were not exposed to the attack.
But the ice spirits and the girl were approaching little by little. We have to jump to another place again. Of course, taking the risk!
“Kieeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!”
Roaring like a beast, I immediately got up.
As a result of blocking the ice spirit’s needles with the gauntlet earlier, it was determined that they could be safely blocked if there was an iron plate.
The problem is the hidden trump card of the girl.
First, block the girl’s attack using the cover and slaughter the ice spirits!
“Illusion Sword Technique—!!!!”
I scan the space.
As it is, I jumped out of the rock and ran towards the ice spirit, swinging my sword. —Thwack! The spirit, split in one blow, left behind a marble and returned to an ice lump.
“Copson! Meria! Don’t be scared and kill them!”
