Baek Yu-Seol was finally able to savor his winter break about two weeks after it began.
He shed imaginary tears over spending most of his vacation in recovery, but considering the remarkable progress he had made during that ti, he found so solace in his thoughts.
With the break fully underway, Stella Academy's principal office was eerily quiet. Even Fla had shown no intention of lingering in the empty academy.
Sumr ant beaches; winter ant ski resorts.
Most students followed that simple pattern, and Fla was no exception. Just a few days earlier, at the crack of dawn, she had suddenly announced she was heading to a ski resort and departed without looking back.
Normally, people would be brimming with excitent at the prospect of a trip, but for so reason, Fla didn't seem particularly enthusiastic.
Still, with over twenty people in her group and the burden of being appointed treasurer, she had no choice but to go along.
'Hey. Don't go causing any trouble while I'm gone, alright?'
'Do I look like a kid?'
'Who causes more trouble than a kid?'
'You?'
'... Whatever. I'll deal with you when I get back.'
Even Eisel, who adored ice, had joined the trip, leaving Baek Yu-Seol with absolutely nothing to do at the academy.
It was strange.
At the start of the sester, he'd always had sothing keeping him occupied, always preoccupied with tasks.
He'd been fully capable of managing on his own - he still was - but recently, whenever he found himself alone, an unfamiliar sense of loneliness crept in.
For soone like Baek Yu-Seol, who had spent his entire life in solitude, it was a foreign feeling.
Even before becoming Baek Yu-Seol in the world of Aether, his life on modern Earth had been no less lonely.
***
Clunk!
Feeling the gentle rhythm of the train as it rolled along the tracks, Baek Yu-Seol blankly gazed out the window.
While everyone else was off enjoying ski resorts or winter beaches, he was on a quiet journey to the Orchard of the Dreamtree, nestled beneath the Third World Tree.
The train rumbled through a forested path, where snow lay heaped in thick blankets.
The scenery should have been srizing, yet Baek Yu-Seol found his attention drawn to his enhanced vision.
The swirling snowflakes and gently swaying branches seed far clearer than before.
It was as if he had upgraded from a 60Hz monitor to a 144Hz pro-gaming display. The world appeared in stunning detail, sharper than ever.
"Umm..."
While Baek Yu-Seol gazed out the window, a sudden voice called out to him from the hallway.
It ca from a group of two high school girls and three boys, all dressed in crisp uniforms. Though he didn't recognize the emblem on their blazers, it wasn't hard to guess they belonged to a prestigious academy.
After all, the only people crazy enough to wear their uniforms during winter break were teenagers who wanted to flaunt their elite school status.
'... Was I like that half a year ago?'
He vaguely recalled sothing similar but decided it was best to erase the mory altogether.
"Excuse ... Is this you?"
One of the boys stepped forward, holding out a newspaper clipping. The headline covered the recent 'demon sighting' incident, which had dominated the news for days.
Right in the center of the page was Baek Yu-Seol's face.
For a brief mont, he froze, but thanks to the Blessing of Pink Spring Moon, he quickly regained his composure. Without so much as a flinch, he replied calmly.
"Yep. That's ."
"Whoa... This is my first ti seeing you in person!"
"It's my first ti seeing you guys too, so I guess we're even."
"Um... Could we get an autograph?"
The boy fidgeted nervously, looking every bit like a modern teenager eting a celebrity.
"An autograph?"
The word sounded strange to Baek Yu-Seol.
He hated attention, couldn't sing, dance, act, or tell jokes, and didn't even consider himself particularly good-looking. His life had always been remote from anything resembling fa.
"I don't have an autograph or anything like that."
"T-Then, maybe just your na...?"
Taking the newspaper, Baek Yu-Seol casually pulled out a magic ink pen from thin air.
The mont he accessed his subspace, the students' eyes widened in awe. Their reactions were so amusing that he had to fight the urge to laugh.
"Here you go."
He wrote [From: Clear and Pure Baek Yu-Seol★] in their newspapers and notebooks and even added each student's na.
They were thrilled over sothing so simple.
"Alright, you guys can go now."
When he waved them off, the students hesitated for a mont.
"Uh, but... We're third-years..."
"Oh? You look younger than that."
"We're nineteen..."
"...?"
Baek Yu-Seol just stared at them with a 'So what?' expression.
Flustered, the students quickly gathered their autographs and scurried away.
'Hurry, let's go!'
'Phew, at least we got his autograph.'
'He's sharper than he looks...'
'He's younger than us, but we were still intimidated.'
As he overheard the students' whispers fading down the hall, Baek Yu-Seol finally understood why they had emphasized their ages so much.
'Wait... Am I eighteen now?'
Since Aether World followed the Korean age system, and it was already past January 1st, he was indeed 18 years old by their standards.
In other words, he had unknowingly spoken informally to students older than himself.
'Whatever...'
In truth, his actual age was more than a decade older than the body he now inhabited. Feeling annoyed at himself for worrying about such trivial matters, Baek Yu-Seol leaned back, pulled down his eye mask, and prepared to rest until his destination.
"Um... Are you Baek Yu-Seol...?"
It seed sleep was not in the cards.
—------
While Aether World had tropical regions, the World Trees weren't part of them.
The Orchard of the Dreamtree, which turned completely white with snow every winter, held an annual World Tree Birth Festival similar to Christmas.
Unfortunately, the festival had already passed.
He pulled his hat low and carefully walked through the orchard's snowy paths.
With his face plastered across the news so often in the past year, more and more people had begun recognizing him. He wasn't eager to draw attention... or worse, be invited to formal receptions by the Dreamtree elders.
That would be troubleso.
Ever since Baek Yu-Seol had unknowingly done the elder a favor, he had beco sothing of a treasured guest in the orchard.
Yet, he hadn't visited in quite so ti, and he still rembered the elder's disappointed letter about it.
'Co to think of it... I haven't checked my mailbox lately.'
Thanks to his connections with both the Alterisha Departnt and the Starcloud Trading Company, letters had started piling up endlessly.
But after being bedridden for over a month, he hadn't had the chance to sort through them.
'I'll check it as soon as I get back.'
Walking through the forest no longer felt like a chore.
With his vastly improved stamina, even steep slopes felt as easy as strolling through a park.
"You're here, Oppa."
At the sound of Baek Yu-Seol's voice - carrying the weight of a 30-year-old but still appearing like a high schooler - Leafanel, the divine spirit who had lived for over 1000 years, quickly sensed his presence and cleared a path through the garden.
It had been a long ti since he'd last seen her physical form, and she looked far healthier than before.
However, sothing far more surprising caught his attention.
"Wait... You can move now?"
— Mm-hmm...
She was walking through the garden on her own two feet.
— I even go outside for walks sotis.
Leafanel bead at him, her expression brimming with childlike joy.
Yet, as her heart had grown stronger, it seed her physical form had also matured. She looked taller than she had the last ti he saw her.
— Are you here to visit?
"Yeah, sothing like that."
— Recently... I was surprised because my voice couldn't reach you.
"Sorry. I lost consciousness for a bit."
— It's okay. Florin visited often and kept company.
The Elf King hardly seed like the type to have the ti to keep soone company, but if Leafanel said so, then he'd just accept it as fact.
— Can you tell what's been happening outside?
"Of course."
As Baek Yu-Seol sat down, Leafanel quickly ran over and leaned against a rock opposite him.
Her eyes sparkled like a child eagerly waiting for a bedti story, and seeing that look, he couldn't bring himself to refuse.
"I went to the Elf Kingdom ruled by Florin as an exchange student. While I was there..."
In truth, one of the main reasons Baek Yu-Seol had co here was to check on Leafanel's condition.
But there was another reason... one he couldn't ignore. He needed to investigate the ancient sword once wielded by Ha Tae-Ryeong.
Currently, Baek Yu-Seol's weapons consisted mainly of modified Teripon Sword and a few staffs enhanced with the help of Alterisha, but all of them had clear limitations.
This was mainly because magic sword techniques had never been properly developed in this era.
While it was understandable in a ti focused solely on staff-based magic, it remained a constant source of frustration.
'I need to try everything I can.'
***
The Witch Queen, Scarlet.
Punished for breaking the law she had set herself—'Do not love humans'—she lost all her magic and was now facing her second trial.
"It's that boy again?"
Witches were long accustod to hiding among human magical societies and had beco nearly impossible to identify. Only witch hunters retained the ancient thods needed to uncover them.
Thanks to this, Scarlet could sit comfortably in a bustling café, sipping coffee in broad daylight at the heart of a major city.
"That's right. The recent demon-slaying incident has boosted his reputation. And because of it, even Florin's claims about purifying Dusk Soil Moon have gained credibility."
"Oh, really? Is that so?"
Dusk Soil Moon.
While she was leaving Stella, Scarlet had secretly handed the Root of Life to Baek Yu-Seol.
Yet even then, she hadn't the faintest idea how or where he would use it.
She had simply given it to him on impulse, guided by instinct rather than reason. She had simply passed it on because she felt compelled to do so.
Yet, against all odds, Baek Yu-Seol had used it at the perfect mont, in the perfect place... So flawlessly that calling it coincidence seed almost laughable.
If Baek Yu-Seol hadn't possessed the Root of Life, Dusk Soil Moon might have destroyed the World Tree and fallen into eternal slumber as punishnt.
It ant that the fate of this world had drastically changed at the hands of just one boy.
"Master, if you drink cold coffee in this chilly weather, you might catch a cold."
"Oh my, Windy. Didn't I tell you to call 'sister' outside?"
"There's nothing strange about calling you 'master' in a master-servant relationship."
"I just want to hear you call sister."
"... Fine. But please refrain from drinking cold coffee."
"Why?"
"The Kingdom of Adolevit is the birthplace of coffee. They absolutely despise cold coffee."
Just as Windy said, a few passersby cast disapproving glances at Scarlet's cup.
Ice floating in a glass of coffee was a sight the people of Adolevit hated most.
"Hmm... But I like cold coffee."
"You never even glanced at coffee before."
"That's true! But after visiting Stella, I noticed that Baek Yu-Seol likes iced coffee."
"..."
"Oh, I wish I had been there too. Aren't you curious about what happened? Windy, how about you go check it out?"
"Elthman's sharp eyes are too intimidating."
"Haah... I suppose so."
Scarlet grumbled as she sipped her iced coffee through a straw, and Windy cautiously spoke up.
"Master."
"Didn't I tell you to call 'sister'?"
"Are you planning to repeat the sa mistakes of the past?"
Scarlet's lips paused mid-sip at Windy's words. Her expression dimd, but Windy was naturally outspoken and rarely held back her thoughts.
Not even in front of her master.
"I just want you to live a little longer and a little happier, Master."
"Oh my, really?"
Scarlet, who had been staring blankly at her coffee, suddenly smiled brightly.
"But you know what?"
There was sothing strange about her tone, and Windy's gaze wavered slightly.
"I... have only been happy once in my entire life. But that mont disappeared far too quickly at the hands of the mages."
"... Is that so?"
Windy wanted to say sothing, but in the end, she couldn't.
"It's fine even if I can't use magic. I've already held power great enough to change the rules of the world, so I have no regrets."
"I don't care if I die right now. I've lived so long that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I've witnessed the entire history of this world."
"So trying to grasp a small happiness right in front of ... for , it's a challenge that cos without any cost. I have nothing to lose, so what is there to be afraid of?"
Scarlet rose to her feet and stretched, her movents graceful yet unburdened. Windy, who had been staring blankly at her back, quickly gathered her belongings and stood up to follow.
'A challenge without cost...? She could lose both her life and her magic.'
To Windy, who had aligned herself with the Witch Queen for the sake of survival and personal desires, the idea of risking both life and magic was sothing she couldn't begin to fathom.
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