"So, Subaru... aren't you a native of Lugnica?" Cedric asked as we walked together.

「Uh? I thought I had made it clear to him that I was not going to talk about my past…」

"I couldn't tell you, honestly. I guess so. I don't think my parents would have traveled from another realm just to leave me lying around, right?"

Cedric smiled sheepishly at me, looking at the ground awkwardly.

"When you say it like that, it sounds more heartless than it really is, haha... But yeah, you're right."

We were on our way to register for the guild after having breakfast of hot milk and a cake with excess sugar. It was unusual due to how expensive it was, but I had agreed with Cedric to go to the register.

If everything went as we both expected and we obtained our identification plates, we would go in the afternoon to buy my weapon or take measurements for my equipment. Cedric was really willing to make me part of the group, and of course, there was no reason for me to refuse.

However, as we were walking leisurely and talking about the explorable territory outside of Lugnica, I noticed that the day, which had been warm and sunny since very early, suddenly began to cloud over.

"Did you also notice, Subaru?"

"Huh?"

When I turned to Cedric, he was already looking at the sky.

"I've been here for weeks, and I've never experienced such a drastic climate change..." Cedric's voice was much more serious than normal, and he was even raising his eyebrows in an expression that I saw for the first time.

"Can't it be magic? Some spell?" I asked as I noticed the confused expressions of the people on the street.

"No. It's not possible. Before traveling here, I researched the laws and rules of Lugnica so as not to break them. From what I know, it is against the law to use magic in public, even artistically."

「And if someone were to cast a spell powerful enough to change the weather itself, there would definitely be a much bigger scandal…」

But what I saw around me were simply eyes of curiosity and concern.

"Aside! Out of the way! Move!"

A man ran past me, bumping into my shoulder. When I was about to complain out loud, I saw that he was dressed in black with a round hat and a cape on his shoulders.

"The Public Guard?"

The Public Guard seemed different from the guys I had seen on the way to the Guild; they were dressed more formally and elegantly, maybe akin to private security.

The point was that this particular Guard was in too much of a hurry.

"¡Let's follow him, maybe he's heading towards whatever is causing this effect!" Cedric said, taking my arm and dragging me along.

When we reached where the Guard had stopped, my legs began to shake.

"Wh-what…? Why is there snow here?"

The cold had entered my bones. Steam was persistently rising from my lips, almost as if being expelled from my body was the last option.

"Doesn't this confirm that it's magic, Cedric? Cedric?"

As I passed by Cedric's side, I saw that his countenance was pale, as if he had seen a ghost.

"This is ridiculous... It's impossible."

"What are you talking about? Hey, Cedric? What's wrong with you all of a sudden?"

My questions seemed to hit a wall because Cedric didn't even blink to look at me. His eyes were fixed on the crowd of people surrounding some event.

I also felt that the source of the cold came from there, but what I didn't understand was why so many people were piling up precisely at that point. So, ignoring Cedric's state, I started walking towards the crowd.

With each step I took closer to them, it became increasingly clear that the crowd was not moving.

This was not a fact fueled by human curiosity; I was talking about them being physically frozen, not moving at all. Their backs weren't going up and down because they weren't even breathing.

When I reached them, I put my hand on the shoulder of a man who was wearing short sleeves and carrying a hammer.

"Excuse me? Do you mind telling me what happened? We came from…" Before I finished speaking, I realized that I was actually speaking to a corpse.

The man's face was noseless, and I could see the holes and flesh of his exposed nostrils. His eyes were like glass, made of tears, and not a single strand of steam came out of his immovable open mouth.

Stunned, I took a few steps back, accidentally bumping into a woman. When my body met hers, the top half of the woman split apart, leaving me to see part of her spine and the bottom half of her intestines. Her guts hung from her waist, and she held together with the other half of her body lying in the snow. There was no blood, no smell; she was just frozen.

I could see all kinds of people, men, women carrying their babies, children, and grandparents. There was also the Public Guard who had bumped into me.

All of them were dead.

When I wanted to take another step to get out of there, my leg failed me, and I fell face down, but the snow supported and eased the impact, so I was still conscious. Looking back, I could see that Cedric was still in his place, in the same way as everyone else.

He too had died.

When my gaze met my foot, I realized it was missing, and when I thought about moving, the lower half of my body did not respond to me.

I turned around, accepting that I too was going to die without first discovering the cause of all this.

So, when I looked ahead and saw a cute little cat, I felt betrayed. This cat was resting on a girl; she was beautiful with her white hair and her dress of the same color. But she had blood on her chest; she had been attacked, and she was probably already dead.

And before my time would come, I memorized her face, engraved it in my soul, while a single thought crossed my mind before I died.

"Even cats have magic, and I don't?"