Chapter 16: The Autumn Spirit Awakens

“I told you to look for camellias, yet you’re playing around.”

I-gyeol, who had been watching Myeong’s antics, finally spoke up.

“Before, Suha…”

“Was that guy the only friend you had?”

Every time Myeong opened his mouth, it was Suha this, Suha that. I-gyeol frowned, unable to understand what was so important about that person that Myeong kept bringing him up.

“Suha wasn’t anything like me. He wasn’t even my friend.”

“Is that so?”

Myeong rubbed his palms together as he continued. No one had ever befriended someone as insignificant as him, someone without a name.

“I saw a snowman once. It could move on its own, but the one I made doesn’t.”

“That’s because the snow doesn’t have any life in it.”

I-gyeol personally stirred the wind and gathered the snow together. Soon, the snow began wriggling and rolling on its own, gathering at Myeong’s feet.

“Is it alive?”

“It’ll disappear once its energy runs out. But where did you see a snowman?”

“Suha showed me.”

“…”

‘What? Didn’t he just say Suha wasn’t his friend?’

Feeling strangely irritated, I-gyeol crushed the moving snow beneath his foot. Myeong was startled and struggled to move I-gyeol’s foot, but I-gyeol merely looked down at him coldly.

“Why did you do that?!”

“I suddenly feel strange.”

“Pardon?”

“But where did that guy get it, anyway? Snow that moves with winter energy.”

“…Where would we find a camellia?”

Myeong, who possessed at least enough sense to realize the situation was becoming dangerous, tried to change the subject. But it was never going to work on I-gyeol.

When I-gyeol pinched his cheek and demanded an answer, Myeong had no choice but to speak.

“He said he got it from a mountain in the land of Winter.”

“A mountain?”

A servant of Spring climbed a winter mountain?

It made no sense.

I-gyeol stood still, looking down at Myeong.

“Yes…”

“You lied to me, and you even stole winter snow.”

Even after sleeping for such a long time, had Winter’s authority really fallen this far?

Myeong had at least paid the price for carelessly speaking of ice flowers by being thrown into a lake and ordered to search for camellias. But that wicked servant of Spring had not.

Another thing to complain to Spring about.

I-gyeol irritably gave Myeong, who was watching him cautiously, a light knock on the head.

“Ow!”

“Don’t be so dramatic.”

I-gyeol walked away with quick strides. Myeong covered his head with one hand but followed after him anyway.

And as they walked, Myeong stared absentmindedly at I-gyeol’s black hair, which seemed to absorb the light, finding it beautiful until I-gyeol finally called for him.

****

They arrived at a gorge where a waterfall had frozen exactly as it had been when it was still pouring down.

Myeong stood there for a long while, gazing at the frozen waterfall in wonder.

It was magnificent.

When Myeong tugged on I-gyeol’s clothes to make him look, I-gyeol roughly pulled the hem out of his hands.

“Don’t pull on my clothes.”

“It’s amazing. The land of Winter is beautiful.”

But Myeong didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.

No matter how often the wolf dropped him, smacked him on the head, or treated him coldly, he always ended up being gentle with Myeong in the end.

Knowing this, Myeong could afford to be bold around him.

“Hey. Go look for camellias. Do you have time to waste like this?”

“Yes! I’ll find them right away.”

I-gyeol pushed Myeong in the back impatiently, and Myeong answered with determination.

His confidence, however, was hardly convincing.

After leaving Myeong near the waterfall, I-gyeol began controlling the icy energy.

The energy writhed like lava, dangerous as though it could erupt at any moment.

Mystical white air gathered around I-gyeol and swirled in a circle.

He intended to temporarily seal away his power within the waterfall, which was composed of pure crystal ice.

“This is all because of humans.”

All this trouble over something so insignificant.

I-gyeol briefly recalled the past.

Something that had once seemed so trivial had spiraled into this.

“Lord I-gyeol.”

While he was calming the biting cold, a fierce gust of wind swept toward him.

Asha had returned.

“Did you find out?”

“Yes. It’s somewhat serious.”

Asha looked around, then noticed Myeong digging through the ground nearby and lowered his voice.

“It’s fine. Look at how distracted he is.”

I-gyeol gestured toward Myeong, who was busily digging through the snow, urging Asha to continue.

“The Autumn Spirit has been born.”

“What?”

I-gyeol raised his voice at the unexpected news, and Myeong, who was far away, immediately lifted his head in surprise.

“I couldn’t sense even the slightest trace of Autumn energy. How could it have been born?”

“It was born, but… It’s not normal.”

Asha whispered the last part.

“Good heavens…”

It was an event capable of shaking heaven and earth.

I-gyeol ran a hand down his face and sighed.

Even so, the Spirit King who ruled Autumn had been born.

With the seasons already collapsing, the future seemed hopeless.

“Hello.”

“…”

Sensing the unusual atmosphere, Myeong returned to I-gyeol’s side cautiously.

He bowed politely to Asha, whom he had met before, but Asha merely gave him a vague nod instead of answering.

“Why is Spring lying down? Is it related to this?”

“Spring? Why? The God of Spring is lying down? What do you mean?”

Myeong was startled by I-gyeol’s words and hurriedly tugged at his clothes, asking about Spring again.

Asha tensed at the sight of Myeong casually grabbing the Winter King’s clothes and looked at I-gyeol’s face.

Asha expected the little servant of Spring to be killed by I-gyeol any moment.

“You, shut your mouth for a moment.”

But contrary to his worries, I-gyeol simply covered Myeong’s mouth with his large hand, then removed it, repeating the motion.

Myeong tried to turn his head away, but soon a hand caught him by the back of his neck, forcing him to face I-gyeol helplessly.

“Mm, mmm, mmm…”

“You talk too much.”

After amusing himself with Myeong for quite some time, I-gyeol finally pushed him away with an arm and resumed the conversation.

“So?”

“Did something happen to the God of Spring?”

Myeong hurriedly returned and fixed his gaze on Asha.

I-gyeol looked utterly exasperated but nodded toward Asha, telling him to continue.

“I heard that the God of Spring fell ill after giving some of his energy to the Autumn Spirit. According to the reports, he’s nearly at the point of extinction.”

The strength left Myeong’s legs.

He sank to the ground and stared at Asha.

That couldn’t be true.

Before leaving the land of Spring, the buds in the gardens had been blooming again. The God of Spring had recovered enough that his energy had overflowed beyond the palace.

Myeong struggled to suppress his pounding heart.

“No. That can’t be right. He was sick for a while, but he recovered soon afterward. He was so full of energy that the power of Spring was surging beyond the palace.”

“Hey.”

“You must have heard wrong. I have to go. Right now…”

Myeong shook off I-gyeol’s hand when it grabbed his shoulder and stood up.

I-gyeol stared at his hand, which had been shoved away, then clenched his teeth.

“Stop making a spectacle of yourself.”

“I’m a servant of Spring.”

“So what are you going to do there when you don’t even have a name? Do you really think you’ll be allowed to see the face of Spring if you go back?”

“…”

The harsh words burst from I-gyeol’s mouth.

Myeong bit his lip and glared at him.

It hurt.

But everything I-gyeol had said was true.

“Lord I-gyeol.”

Asha hurriedly stepped in front of Myeong to shield him from I-gyeol, but I-gyeol’s anger was nowhere near subsiding.

He bent down until his eyes met Myeong’s defiant gaze.

“You still haven’t found the camellia spirit’s shoe.”

“I’ll find it. I’ll check on the God of Spring’s condition and come back.”

“Who said you could leave Winter? Do you think I’m a joke?”

Did Myeong really think the land of Winter was somewhere he could simply come and go as he pleased?

In the end, I-gyeol exploded in anger.

At the surge of biting energy, Asha immediately dropped to his knees.

Myeong, too, trembled and collapsed onto the ground beneath the razor-sharp cold he was experiencing for the first time.

“I’m sorry.”

Asha apologized first on behalf of the trembling Myeong, trying to calm I-gyeol.

I-gyeol glared at Myeong, but when Asha intervened, he reluctantly turned his gaze away and forcibly suppressed the raging power within him.

The snowstorm swirling around them gradually died down with it.

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