A day before Danzel raised the natives as his undead and summon upon the nightmarish Anabast's, the last remaining survivors of this village.
Alka that held the baby was walking upon those frozen lands.
She held the baby of the couple inside her clothes to her chest while also stuffing her fluffy tail inside her front in order to keep the baby comfortable and warm, despite how uncomfortable it was to hold her tail in such a position.
She held both her tail and the baby with one hand while the other was just hanging there.
She suddenly felt a pinch of pain in her tail.
Once she turned her head down, she saw how the baby was drawing the fur of her tail and attempting if the hair could be drawn out or not. While doing so, the baby had a smile and was giggling to herself.
Seeing such an innocent smile after having seen her whole village destroyed, put a bitter smile on her.
"You really a lucky girl...if not favored by the gods themselves..." Alka mumbled as she quickly made a prayer to the god of the hunt.
Though once she did, her thoughts were broken by those ethereal dark green eyes that she saw. Making her hand hang to ache in pain.
'We really are lucky to escape...' She tried to remember what she saw, the cover with the metal darker than she had ever seen and strong enough that even the axe her father couldn't even penetrate the dark metal.
Just raising his ominous sharp metal, the monster fell to the knees with means beyond her very understanding and it send shivers through her body.
"Maybe it's the cold getting to me..." She mumbled as though the distance he saw several builds much bigger than her village to form.
Looking at her legs, they were bright red from the cold.
If it weren't for the boots that her mate had gifted her, her legs might have long ago given out.
If it weren't for her mother had bought the Bekai'mou milk not long ago, the baby that she was carrying would had starve.
Though her mother got the milk for her, she was sure that she would forgive her for using it like this.
The meat that her father brought, despite just being dried meat, kept her from falling into exhaustion.
"S-Sorry everyone...sorry that I Ieft you all."
Despite knowing that it wasn't her fault and it was only of those ice troll hunters, she still felt guilty.
So she started running towards the distant houses despite her body screaming for a break, just so that she would get distracted by such thoughts.
As she came closer, Alka started seeing two figures.
'They must be the guards' She thought as she continued running as her vision started to become teary and blurry.
She knew running like that will make them worry, but she couldn't stop now, if she did her body will collapse from the accumulated exhaustion.
"Hey, you~! Stop~!"
She faintly heard their warnings.
At this point, her whole world was shaking from dizziness. Which made her trip face forward.
Luckily, she used her hand to barely catch herself so as to not fall on top of the baby.
"Haah~Haah~" With her heavy breathing while her head burning, she fell to the ground sideways.
Using the same hand that caught her, she put it to her chest and brought out the baby, and placed it on the ground with the little strength that she had.
She could faintly hear the baby crying and the two guards coming her way.
"T-The baby..." She muttered before her hand fell to the ground. The accumulated exhaustion finally reached its peak and forced Alka's body to fall unconscious.
The guards that swiftly arrived, were surprised to see a young girl collapsed with a baby pushed towards them.
"Hey! Alright!?"
One of them went to his knees and checked at Alka and the other picked up the crying baby and awkwardly moved it back and forth to calm her down.
"Sghhh~ there, there, you are safe now~. Do you know her?" The one carrying the baby asked.
The other shook his head.
"No, I don't recognize her, must be from a village."
"But why did she come here alone? She even brought a baby with her..."
They were quite unsure of what to do as guards with an outside coming and falling to the ground.
And as they were discussing what to do, suddenly a woman with a white wooden mask appeared behind them with a man holding a shepherd's staff running towards them.
Seeing who it was, the two guards were surprised, but upon recognizing her, they calmed down.
"My Lady~"
"My Lady~"
They said while slightly tilting their heads down.
"What are you doing? Bring the baby and her inside, they will die outside with this cold." The woman with the wooden mask said as she reached out to Alka.
And as she did, she accidentally shifted her front cloth a bit to the side, allowing the woman with the wooden white mask to see something black on her skin.
"Huh?"
Frowning behind the mask, she pulled on her cloth so to reveal her shoulder and arm.
Though once she did, her eyes behind the mask widen in surprise upon seeing a large spot of her hand being wither and black from severe necrosis.
The man with the Shepherds arrived and looked at black skin of Alka shocked.
"My lady, this is~"
Before he could finish, the woman with the wooden white beat him to it.
"The mark of death..." She said with a grave voice as she looked at the two guards.
"Take her to my house and provide her baby with care. I won't take a no as an answer."
The guards were for a moment hesitant upon seeing Alka's black skin, but they nodded regardless of how they felt.
"Let me help you carry her." The man with the shepherd's staff said as the guards nodded.
The woman with the wooden white mask stared at their backs, deep in thought.
'First the guardian and then her with the mark of death...' She thought as she turned around to see where the young girl came from.
"This might be more serious than it looks like..."
She went to one of her knees and took a prayer position.
'Hear me thee O primordial god of the wild hunt, is a trial waiting for my people? Or the wrath of the gods?' She prayed.
***
Shiro's POV:
Opening slowly her heavy eyelids, Shiro gazed left and right, scanning the room that she was in.
"Where am I?" She mumbled as she tried to stand up, only for her whole body to ache in pain.
"Agh..."
Giving up on standing up, she let her body fall and stared at the wooden ceiling aimlessly.
"It seems that it happend again..." She said while her finger raised her now longer hair to see.
Remembering the pain that she had to go through once more, she almost wanted to cry herself to sleep.
Almost.
Her throat was feeling extremely dry and she was practically starving. Not only that, but she also felt that her clothes were full of dried sweat.
She felt extremely uncomfortable, sleeping again.
"He must even bring me here..." She mumbled to herself as she let herself experience the bed that she was on. Though she was used to sleeping in rough places as she traveled with her grandpa constantly, the few days on those snow-filled lands were one of the worst places to sleep.
And while she was thinking of what to do next, an ice-cold voice arrived in the room.
"About time you woke up." The cold voice said, coughing Shiro's attention.
Looking at the door, she saw how the dark green mist was escaping through the gaps of the wooden door and slowly gathering to a single place and forming an under with dark armor.
'Scary...' Shiro said internally as she looked at the death knight manifesting in front of her.
She stared at the dark green mist in fascination, trying to figure out how to make one mana to have the such result, though she had no idea of where to begin.
"Rue..." She said in pain from her dried throat.
"You are aware that you were extremely close to dying no? If I weren't there, your mana would have eaten upon your whole vitality." Danzel said as he walked towards the side of her bed.
"Albeit you would have probably survived because of a certain trait of yours, a body with no vitality is similar to a corpse. Quite interesting to be frank, though you dying on me will make my efforts till now meaningless." Danzel said as he started down on her.
He next brought various items out of nothing from his storage ring.
Shiro felt somewhat jealous of him having such a convenient magic item in his hands. Though such thoughts were quickly gone after seeing the best meal ever since she arrived on those frozen lands.
Danzel, in turn, wasn't much interested in her excitement and simply took her staff that he placed near her bed before and place it to the side of her.
"First of all, eat those and restore your nutrients, I found them in the other house nearby and as far as I am aware, they should be eatable..." Danzel said as he continued throwing food in front of her.
"As I expect you to know, for the living to regenerate their bodies, they need nutrients regardless of the circumstance. Though others use fewer nutrients than others to heal the exact same amount, they fundamentally need them as fuel for their healing. As something can't appear without some sort of energy." Danzel explained as Shiro looked at him confused.
"Once you restore a certain amount, use your magic and heal your body. then repeat. The staff should make your magic more efficient so use it, despite not having done its runes. Repeat till you reached your peak condition. As I couldn't feed you while you were asleep.
Hearing all that, Shiro was frankly quite stupified as she looked at the staff and her food and then back at him.
She understand what Rue was trying to do, but, she was suspecting that he didn't know that the living had first to digest their food and couldn't just throw whatever was labeled as food and make it to nutrients.
'Should I explain it to him or not?' She thought internally to herself.
Of course, seeing her silence, Danzel took it as hesitation.
"What are you waiting for? I still need to hear how that growth of yours happens and why." Danzel said.
Shiro felt he was staring at her with an expression that said "hurry up and finish" despite his skull having no facial features. Though his flaring scary eyes had pretty much the same effect.
