Happy?

"Damn it's cold."

That statement couldn't have been any more true than it already was. The blizzard was currently working overdrive, making it so that Kai could barely see in front of him. He had to keep shielding his eyes with a hand just so that the snow didn't end up blinding him.

Another day had passed and he was obviously back out hunting, eager to meet the quota for his daily Molten Cocoa.

By now, he had earned more than enough Units to be able to buy a Molten Cocoa every day for the next five months, but it wouldn't hurt to keep hunting, it also helped with his training after all.

But with each passing day, each hunt got a little more difficult. For some reason, it was much harder to find one of those rhino bears today, making Kai feel as if something was off.

Sure the snowfall was much stronger today, but that wouldn't have been enough to send all of the bears into hiding, right?

As Kai continued to prowl the freezing wilderness, he slowly got more and more upset. The cold was too overbearing, there was too little bears...

Was he seriously going to have to give up his hunt for today?

A moment later, an ingenious idea popped into his mind.

If he couldn't see, why not just become a human torch?

Just as Kai was about to activate Soul Flame and have it wrap around his entire body, he felt a shiver run up his spine.

Suddenly, he felt that becoming a human beacon in this unforgiving blizzard probably wasn't a good idea, who knew what sort of monsters lived out here that could sense heat?

After deciding not to light himself on fire, Kai got back to trying to find something to hunt.

To be honest, it's not like he needed to actually hunt a bear today. Today he had accepted a request from a sort of antique shop that was in the city, and they gave a pretty ambiguous request of just something that was valuable.

Actually, now that Kai thought about it, that might just be harder than finding a bear, where the hell was he meant to find something valuable out here?

Not unless the snow gave in under his feet or someth-

Ah, who was he kidding, that wasn't going to happen, the last month had been incredibly regular with nothing out of the ordinary. If anything, the strangest thing that had happened was that Anastasia had toned down her teasing.

Kai continued to wander the wilderness, hoping that something interesting would happen or pop up. Throughout all that time, the blizzard gradually got worse and worse, only making Kai's search even harder.

The snow kept falling, he kept trudging, the world kept spinning-

Well, that was assuming that this place was a planet, there was also the possibility that it was just flat or something else entirely.

Just when Kai was about to give up his search, he spotted something in the snow beneath his feet.

It was the horn of one of those rhino bears, in even better condition than it would have been if Kai hunted it himself. The cut was so immaculately clean that he almost didn't believe it.

Surely this would be considered valuable.

Crouching down to pick it up, Kai-

"BRARGH!"

Was knocked to the ground by a shockwave that came from somewhere in the blizzard. Instantly, he gripped his ears in pain as he felt something warm dripping from them.

"Fuck!"

That roar was unlike anything that Kai had ever heard before. Just the sound of it managed to rattle his bones and even knock him to the ground, and he didn't even know what it came from. In fact, it felt like whatever the sound originated from wasn't close at all.

At least, that's what Kai thought until he noticed the rhino bear's horn start trembling weakly in the ground.

Then, it's shaking started growing and Kai struggled to stand up and keep his balance.

Whatever that roar had come from... was getting closer.

Gritting his teeth, Kai grabbed the horn and pulled the compass out of his spatial storage. After watching the red dial adjust itself for a few seconds before finally settling on the direction directly behind him, Kai put it away and started sprinting as fast as he could.

God knows he didn't want to be anywhere near a beast that could make his ears bleed just by opening its mouth, and the fact that it could make the ground shake just by getting closer meant that it either had to be immediately large or immensely powerful, and both of those scenarios were just as bad as the other.

The snow swallowed Kai's feet with every step, making the act of running away even harder. It was like he was running in water, having to put extra power into each step just to not stop and trip over, possibly dooming himself.

It was lucky that this had happened today. If this had happened yesterday when the blizzard was weak, who knows what he would have seen?

... Or what would have seen him.

Kai lost track of time as he ran. In a sick and perverted way, the current situation reminded him of his first encounter with an abomination.

He was exactly the same now as he was then, too weak and powerless to do anything, all he could do was run away and hope that he ended up reaching the city before whatever was behind him ended up reaching him.

Only this time, there was nothing to help him, no daunting moonlight that could stun whatever beast there was.

He had no idea how long he had been running for, or even how far he ran, all he knew was that if he stopped he was probably dead.

By now, the tremors in the ground had weakened by a lot, but Kai didn't stop running, who knew what would happen if he did?

Worst part was, his hearing was still fuzzy and his ears were killing him. He wasn't sure if they were still bleeding, but he thought that he felt something trickle down his cheek at one point before freezing over before it could even drop off his chin.

His legs grew tired, but he didn't stop. Unlike the last time he was in this situation, Kai had much more Stamina, meaning he could run for much longer, so that's what he did.

And luckily, it paid off.

As soon as he spotted the gate leading into the city, Kai pushed himself even more so he could reach the guard, offering him some sense of protection.

Reaching the gate, Kai placed his hands on his knees and hunched over, spitting onto the snow below. Lifting his head and wiping his chin, Kai looked at the guards, but they didn't pay him any attention.

"Uh... Be careful? There was something out there."

It was as if they hadn't noticed that Kai was there, or they were just ignoring him. It was only after a couple of seconds did one of the guards turn their head to stare blankly at Kai before nodding.

Well... okay then.

Once back inside the city, Kai let out a sigh of relief. He was safe. Still, he was a little surprised that the guards didn't even run a single test on him.

Lifting his hands up to his ears, Kai wiped away all that he could before deciding to just clean himself thoroughly in the bath tonight.

A couple of minutes later, Kai reached the antique shop that had commissioned him for today and pushed open the door. He put on a smile before saying:

"Here you go, I hope this is valuable enough."

The shopkeeper, a rather old lady with gray hair and a hunched back, turned to face Kai, a soft smile on her wrinkled face. Once she saw the horn in Kai's hand, she slowly reached out and said:

"Oh, this should do nicely, thank you young man."

However, before she grabbed the horn, the old lady softly grabbed onto Kai's fingers and said:

"You know, sleep is very important for a young man like you, make sure you're getting enough."

Kai could only smile weakly in response. This was the first time he had been called a young man. He was only seventeen after all, did he look older or something?

After grabbing the horn, the old lady placed a pouch in Kai's palm and turned around, slowly making her way back to her desk.

Kai quickly left after that, feeling strangely uncomfortable in that antique shop.

Once he had left, he made his way to the Singing Vixen, eager to get his daily fix.

God, if someone heard me they would think that I'm an addict.

Making his way into the busy establishment, Kai walked up to the counter that Annie was working at and placed his order.

He made some small talk with her, but it felt pretty strained today, making Kai think something was up.

After his Molten Cocoa arrived, Kai paid the girl and asked the question he asked every day.

"What do you think of your life?"

Annie stared at him blankly before answering, her eyes strangely dull.

"Life is good."

Kai frowned slightly, but didn't say anything. This was the first time in over a month that she didn't say she loved her life.

Maybe something happened with her husband... No, they love each other too much, right?

After leaving the tavern, or brothel, or adventurers guild, or whatever you wanted to call it, Kai once again admired all the sights on the streets.

The children playing.

The rats roaming the alleyways.

The adults talking and laughing.

The red patches resembling blood on the snow in the street.

Kai suddenly stopped and blinked. What were some of those things he thought he saw?

After looking around and seeing that all was normal, he let out a soft sigh.

"Oh... I must have even imagining it."

Still, if was a rather creepy thing for him to imagine. But why would he imagine something like that in the first place?

After making it back to the castle, Kai found himself doing the same things as yesterday in the bathroom, only today he was more thorough as he had to get rid of the remnants of blood from his ears.

But once he was done, Kai looked into his mirror and smiled.

He was... happy?