The early arrival of night in the mountain village signified that the season had come quickly as well.
When the brutal, chaotic, yet delicate and violent task of pulling out every tree root from the forest after logging was complete, an early winter had come to the mountain village.
Time had passed.
It had passed too much.
In such thoughts, all that Reinhardt could do was to simply carry out the tasks he had to do.
He had already grown accustomed to maintaining his Magic Body Strengthening throughout the day. It had become a stage where he could maintain his Magic Body Strengthening more naturally than breathing.
Reinhardt, who had already entered that stage, could even maintain his Magic Body Strengthening while sleeping.
Unconsciously, his Magic Body Strengthening was always maintained.
Now that the task of pulling out the tree roots was done, turning over the soil and filtering the remaining roots and stones would mark the end of the work Luna had assigned him for the summer.
Yet, not satisfied even at that stage, Reinhardt thrust his shovel into the forest.
-Clang!
However, the metal blade of the shovel struck the ground, producing an unpleasant sound.
“...”
The early winter had frozen the ground.
-Clang!
Reinhardt, who had thrown down his shovel, now picked up a pickaxe.
-Thunk!
Instead of digging into the ground, the pickaxe collided with the frozen earth.
Once again.
-Thunk!
The swung pickaxe struck the exact same spot as before, colliding with the ground.
How many times had he swung like that?
-Thunk!
As he lifted the pickaxe that had dug into the ground, the soil beneath was revealed.
“…”
As if entranced, Reinhardt turned over the soil and picked out stones, throwing them away.
As if there were no other tasks for him to do.
As if he had forgotten all other tasks except for this one.
-Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Reinhardt, swinging the pickaxe as if possessed, and the faint blue mist of mana emitted from his swinging pickaxe.
And so, one day.
Two days.
A week.
A fortnight.
A month.
Naturally, as winter deepened, the work of breaking, crushing, and digging into the increasingly solidly frozen ground became more and more difficult.
The task of digging and leveling the ground became one of breaking and crushing the frozen earth.
Even when snow fell on the mountain village, Reinhardt remained in the forest.
Without using his divine artifact or the flame of Tuesday.
As if facing his fate, Reinhardt broke the ice in the pouring snow and dug into the ground, even as the snow turned to ice.
“The snow is falling too heavily. At least wait until it stops.”
Unable to bear watching Reinhardt digging with a shovel and pickaxe in the open ground during winter, Luna grabbed his shoulder and spoke.
“Ah……. When did you arrive?”
Reinhardt, seemingly unaware of Luna's arrival, replied with a drained expression.
Due to the heavy snowfall, enough to sink one's feet, Luna was also covered in snow from walking through the knee-deep snowfield.
However, upon seeing Reinhardt, Luna forgot her words.
Reinhardt did not have any snow piled on his head or shoulders despite the heavy snowfall.
The snow that touched his head, face, and shoulders melted away because his body was overheated.
“You didn't answer no matter how much I called.”
“Ah……. Really?”
“Yes. Do you realize how ridiculous you look right now?”
Luna covered her mouth and laughed as she looked at Reinhardt.
“How ridiculous?”
“You look like an angry teapot.”
The sight of steam rising from his head was no different from a boiling teapot.
"Take a break today. It's an order from the village chief of Rezaira."
"…Yes."
At Luna's words, Reinhardt walked along the steep mountain path, carrying a pickaxe and shovel on his shoulders.
"It's not a job for winter. Haven't you ever thought that?"
Luna, who had been walking ahead, spoke up.
Reinhardt, of course, knew what she meant.
Naturally, leveling the ground was not a job meant for winter.
It was something that had to be done when the ground thawed, and it was time for sowing.
But as if cursed, Reinhardt had to do the hardest job at the hardest time.
"That's why I like it more."
Reinhardt followed Luna, carrying the pickaxe and shovel, and said.
If the task was easy, the reward would come easily as well. However, by doing a difficult task during the hardest time, there was more to gain.
"I'm glad you think that way. I was worried you might think I gave you this hard job just to torment you."
"…You didn't?"
At Reinhardt's words, Luna sighed deeply while walking ahead.
"Well, I know you're a twisted fellow by now. But I can't say I had no intention of tormenting you at all. I did want to give you a bit of a hard time."
"I know very well that you, Mother, can be quite mischievous in your ways."
At Reinhardt's remark, which was quite similar to an attack, Luna furrowed her brow.
"…You never let anything slide."
"Why should I?"
"Know when to yield."
Luna walked ahead, as if she no longer wanted to engage in the conversation.
The snow had piled up to the point where walking was difficult, and as the heavy snow continued to fall, their steps were even more sluggish.
After trudging through the snow for a while, Luna spoke softly.
"Aren't you worried about matters outside?"
At some point, Reinhardt had become so absorbed in his work that he never mentioned anything about the outside world.
Now, Luna had to be the one to ask him about it.
"You told me to trust you."
"I did. I certainly did."
"If something goes wrong, I'm going to think it's all your fault, Mother."
"…"
Luna stopped in her tracks and looked back at Reinhardt, taken aback by his sudden nonsense.
Luna's gaze narrowed as she stared at Reinhardt.
"So, you found peace of mind by deciding to blame me for anything that goes wrong? As long as you follow the path you're supposed to take, you'll feel at ease?"
"Ah…"
"I'll blame you for the rest of my life if something goes terribly wrong later. Just so you know."
"Seeing your stubbornness, you must have been in Rezaira for quite some time."
At Luna's words, Reinhardt chuckled.
"I have been here for a while."
Reinhardt looked at the snow falling off the tree branches.
He had stayed in Rezaira for two seasons.
"I'd love to have something warm for dinner tonight."
"…Looking at your growing audacity, it seems you've become too comfortable."
-Thwack!
"Ouch!"
Luna smacked Reinhardt in response to his words, clicking her tongue.
"Don't get too comfortable in Rezaira."
Luna added as she walked ahead quietly.
"You'll have to leave someday."
He had to leave.
At Luna's words, which seemed to draw a line, Reinhardt's expression hardened.
He had to leave Rezaira as soon as possible.
But at some point, in a corner of his heart, he realized he didn't want to leave.
Luna's words had just made him realize something.
Although I didn't know much about rural life, I had come to learn that in the mountain villages, winter was a time when the ground froze and the lives of the residents froze along with it.
In places where all four seasons existed, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that life in the mountain villages was dedicated to enduring the winter, a season when everything froze.
Preparing preserved food and storing grains were all acts carried out to prepare for the winter when food could not be easily obtained.
Thus, the villagers' activities during this time were extremely limited.
There wasn't anyone else like me, who seemed to be possessed by something and kept at it relentlessly.
Winter was both a long period of rest and a time of anxious anticipation for it to come to an end.
Of course, since Rezaira wasn't an ordinary rural village, the villagers had strong vitality, and there was no issue with food.
Firewood for the winter?
I had prepared enough this summer to last until next year.
The village's firewood storage was filled with an enormous amount of wood that I had chopped and the villagers had dried.
People would burn the firewood they had prepared during the past season, nibble at the stored food, and wait for the frozen ground to thaw and the new spring to arrive.
However, since it was snowing heavily now, the villagers were busy clearing the snow.
"Go up on the roof later and clear some snow."
"But you told me to rest."
"..."
That's right.
Why are you trying to make me work as soon as I come back when you told me to rest?
Luna's lips began to jut out slightly.
Look at this.
This.
Her sulking because she has nothing to say.
"Fine, rest. If the roof collapses because of the snow that's piled up overnight, you, who sleeps on the second floor, will be the one to get hurt the most."
"Mother, do you know this? People can be really petty when they pretend not to be."
"I know that very well."
Her calm admission of it made her seem the pettiest.
"I used to think you and Ellen had the most similar faces, but now I see that your personalities are even more alike, right?"
"...Our personalities?"
At my words, Luna tilted her head as if she had never heard such a thing before.
"Yes. You both sulk and jut out your lips when you have nothing to say and subtly say things as they are."
"I don't want to admit it, but if we judge by your usual behavior, you're insulting both your mother-in-law and your wife at the same time. Truly an extraordinary son-in-law."
"See, this is what I mean. This is how you sulk."
"Fine, you're very skilled at making people's tempers flare. Let's drop it since you're in the wrong."
The fact that we could have such a casual conversation made me realize how long I had been in Rezaira.
We walked along the path the villagers had cleared of snow. The snow kept falling, so we would have to keep clearing it.
When would this heavy snow stop?
"Did we really resemble each other?"
That was Luna's sudden question.
"Yes, you did."
People wouldn't be unaware of the resemblance.
Perhaps she was thinking about the fact that I had said their personalities were alike as well.
Looking at Luna's expression, she seemed pleased to hear that she resembled Ellen and smiled.
"Isn't it pretty normal for parents and children to resemble each other?"
"Hmm. I suppose so."
Luna continued to smile.
"But isn't it all the more mysterious?"
"The fact that a being resembling me, yet not me, can originate from me."
"The fact that a being, born from me but not me, can be born and live."
"How beautiful it is."
"Sometimes, I find it too marvelous and endearing."
I didn't fully understand Luna's words.
Perhaps it was because I had no children of my own, or maybe Luna was thinking on an entirely different level.
"Why do you like Ellen?"
It was a sudden question.
Perhaps it was due to the snowfall, but for some reason, Luna and I talked more than usual today.
Why do I like Ellen?
I had been in Rezaira for quite some time, but she had never brought up the subject.
I had been avoiding the topic because I knew that one day I would have to confront Ellen, and so had her father, Ronan.
Why do I like Ellen?
I thought about it for a long time, and there was only one answer I could give, though I had pondered it alone as well.
"...I don't really know."
Honestly, I couldn't say when or which event had been the decisive factor that made me feel that way.
I didn't know either.
There was nothing else to say beyond the fact that it just happened at some point.
"A satisfying answer."
"I'm not sure if it was a good answer, but I'm glad you think so."
"Isn't it because you've spent so much time together that you can't properly explain it?"
"Is that... how it works?"
"Of course."
Luna walked with a smile on her face.
What will become of everything in the future, and what is happening now?
It wouldn't be enough just to have a good past without a good future.
-Ah! Ahh!
-Save me!
People were busy clearing snow, but the children who knew nothing of it were happily playing, building snowmen and throwing snowballs.
Snowball fights.
And snowmen.
Naturally, something came to mind.
"I once made a snowman with Ellen."
"...Really?"
"It wasn't so much a snowman as a human-shaped snow sculpture... More like a snow person. When I asked her what it was, she said she always made them that way with her brother."
"Ha, yes. Both of them had extraordinary dexterity."
Luna laughed, reminiscing about a long-lost memory.
I regretted mentioning Ragan Artorius only after I had spoken his name.
"Arta and Lena tried to imitate it too. Lena gave up, saying she couldn't do it, and Arta tried so hard to make a better snowman than Ellen that he stayed up all night and caught a severe cold... That's when Ragan helped Arta make the snowman... Yes... That happened..."
Luna spoke with a gentle smile.
"Those days... existed..."
Her voice was tinged with both sorrow and joy as she recalled memories of the past.
"I'm sorry."
Luna turned to look at me after hearing my words.
"Bringing up a pleasant memory is nothing to be sorry about."
Luna continued walking.
"Thank you, Reinhardt."
I felt as if I had been accepted as a family member by Luna at some point.
I couldn't tell when or on what day it had happened.
It simply occurred at some point.
As if I didn't know that exact moment.
There was no way Luna could know either.
What would it have been like if Ellen had been here?
It would have been nice if that were the case.
On a winter day with heavy snowfall.
I couldn't help but force a bitter smile as I imagined a scene that could never exist.
