I Killed the Player of the Academy-Chapter 241: Rest (2)
→ Rest (2)←
Border City.
Located at the center of the ongoing winter, its walls facing the north couldn’t stop the blistering cold nor the snow pouring down from above. The only saving grace was that the snow wasn’t at the level of a blizzard.
Thanks to the rapid increase in population, the snow was quickly being removed from the main roads but the same couldn’t be said to the streets and alleyways on the side.
A little deeper in from the main roads, there were still massive piles of snow that could make a leaping dog vanish from sight.
“Aiya~. We might even be able to make an igloo with this much snow.”
Although it wasn’t frozen solid, it was still a wondrous sight to behold.
“What are you doing?”
“Holy heavens!”
Surprised from the sudden voice from behind, I turned around and found Hua Ran in her usual nun clothes looking up with curiosity in her eyes.
“I was thinking about making a snowman.”
“A snowman?”
Hua tilted her head curious as to what a snowman was. The fact that Hua didn’t know about it… implied Ran didn’t know it either.
“Do neither of you know what a snowman is?”
“…Un.”
After some delay, Hua nodded and relayed what Ran said.
“She says she didn’t get to play much when she was young. Because she was sick.”
“Ah…”
Ran had spent her childhood days on the bed, waiting for time to pass by, and what happened after Hua’s birth didn’t even need to be mentioned.
As a result, it was only recently that she had begun living a proper, normal life.
“It’s okay. We can slowly do them one by one.”
We can build a snowman… make friends, and slowly build up one at a time. For that to happen, I had to win this war – not just for Hua Ran’s sake, but for everyone’s future as well.
“Let’s start with the snowman first.”
“Un.”
I handed her my gloves. They were a bit too big for her tiny hands, but I gave them to her regardless.
“We are going to roll up a ball of snow. So that it becomes bigger and bigger.”
“…What about you?”
Her eyes seemed to be asking, ‘What about your gloves?’
“It’s fine for guys like this oppa.”
“…Here.”
She handed one of the gloves back, suggesting we use one each. It was a cute act of kindness that I didn’t feel like turning down.
“Now now! Let us begin construction!”
“Speak normally.”
I started rolling a ball of snow across the ground. Hua appeared very lost and watched me for a while before starting to roll her own.
– Roll roll
The ball of snow that used to be the size of our fists slowly but surely gained size by absorbing the snow beneath.
“It’s gotten bigger…”
Hua stopped and widened her eyes in surprise.
It was heartwarming to see how this girl, who could dissipate the snow in front of us with a single punch, was surprised by a snowball becoming bigger. ṝ𝓪ΝőΒƐṠ
This again showed how she was just a young teenage girl.
‘I feel bad.’
As such, I found her case to be such a shame and felt sorry for her, because it made me feel like a bad adult dragging young kids into a battlefield.
If I told her this, she would scold me and say, ‘You’re the same age as me,’ but… technically I was a lot older than her.
“Don’t put too much force and take your time. That’s it. Just like that.”
The ball of snow was now as tall as her waist.
“Now, on top of this…”
I made a smaller ball of snow and put it on top, added a few twigs, a carrot and a few buttons to make a decent snowman.
“Ah. It’s like a man. A snowman…”
The girl, who didn’t know what a snowman was, was blinking at the sight of a completed snowman. I was also feeling slightly proud of my work, and how my skills hadn’t disappeared despite being so long.
“It feels like I’m back to being young.”
“…We’re still young.”
“Forget it.”
In any case, now that we warmed ourselves up, it was time to go all in.
“Anything you guys want to make?” I asked.
“Anything?” Hua asked back.
“Yeah. We can make a house or a bigger snowman.”
We had more than enough snow, after all.
This reminded me of one of the positive memories I had from the military. One day, the Major General opened a snow sculpture contest to alleviate his boredom.
It was a pretty big contest that involved everyone in the division, with the winner being promised a 5 day vacation…!
Everyone was fully invested in it like there was no tomorrow, and some of them even made a K9 Thunder. It was crazy… They built a freaking tank out of snow for a vacation.
Looking back, it was the military where I had met the most diverse range of people.
“House.”
“A house?”
“Ran… wants to build a house.”
“Too easy.”
We began working immediately. Building things with snow brought back some long-forgotten memories.
………
……
…
There was so much snow that we could make literally anything but what I decided to go with was a big hole in the snow.
Actually, I was trying to build an igloo but failed, but in any case, this reminded me of the time when I went camping with an exchange student from Japan – back when we dug a hole in the snow and had some instant noodles inside.
“Not bad right?”
Anyway, I finished making the… pseudo-igloo. I tried my best to imitate the bricks by scratching lines with a twig but… Hmm, hmm. Surely this wasn’t too bad.
“Let’s go in!”
It was a shame that I didn’t have any food we could have inside, but we could deal with that later. First of all, we crawled into the pseudo-igloo.
The ceiling was a little low and we had to crouch right next to each other, but it felt like we were out here camping, and didn’t feel so bad.
“Fufu. How do you like it?”
“…It’s very small.”
“But still, it’s good enough for a one night sleep.”
The hole I slept in with Estelle was even smaller than this. This was nothing compared to that atypical and… interesting experience.
“…No,” Hua blurted out.
“What?”
“We can’t… sleep here.”
Of course we are not going to sleep here. That wasn’t my actual intention. Why would we sleep here and not on our beds?
“Storks can’t come in…”
“Storks?”
What was this about storks? I was about to ask but was stopped by someone who shoved their face into the entrance.
“Korin! What are you doing here?”
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“Marie-sunbae.”
I crawled back out with Hua Ran.
“Sunbae. Perfect timing.”
“Huh?”
“Can I borrow your magic? Let’s build some snowmans and a mansion.”
“Snowmans? Hmm~. So that’s what you were doing.”
Marie said after looking around and finding the snowman.
“Sure. Doggo. Come out as well.”
– Woof!
Doggo popped out of her shadow with a bark.
I wanted to bury my cold hands into his fluffy fur to warm them back down, but he flicked my hands away before I could.
“What? How could you!”
– Woof! (Don’t touch me)
“What an unfilial child! No allowance for you next month!”
– Woof woof woof! Woof woof! (Sure~ I’m getting 2,000 gold coins next week)
This damn dog! Wearing branded shirts all day, which I’m not even doing myself, he forgot how to treasure money!
I immediately turned towards Marie.
“Marie-sunbae! Don’t give him any money!”
“Uh, umm… But what is he going to do if I don’t give him money?”
“Let him take care of himself!”
“No, but… he needs money to buy snacks, right?”
“Snacks? Snackkkks? With that money he can buy a whole store!”
“But… he’s saving the little bit of money he gets so don’t be mean to him.”
“Little… bit of money?”
2,000 gold coins… 2 million dollars is little?
We couldn’t come to a common ground. Our mindset when raising kids was way too different!
“Anyway, I want to try making a snowman too. Something bigger and cooler!”
“…”
I wanted to say something else, but couldn’t stop Marie, who was excitedly hopping around the snow.
“Freeze~”
Although Marie was also physically strong, she wasn’t the type of person who liked doing things manually. And it was okay for her, because she had a never-exhausting excavator called Doggo and magic.
“Let’s freeze that, compress that and… Go build some bricks, Doggo.”
Here we were rolling balls of snow with our hands to build snowmans, and yet Marie froze the snow into ice bricks, and rolled the snow with her magic. Without even… touching the snow with her hands, she created a snowman and a building.
Her finished snowman was an icy sculpture reaching 6 feet in height.
Was this even a snowman anymore?
“Fuu~ Let’s lower the temperature a little bit more, add water to decorate and…”
Ah… so this is why you needed to study hard to be a mage.
Mere knights like us were dummies who could do nothing but swing around swords and spears, and we couldn’t imitate even a fraction of that.
You were right, Park Sihu! I should have learned magic too!
“Done! Look, look, Korin! It looks good right!?”
There was even a set of stairs around the sculpture, which she walked over to scrutinize the construction. After completing it, Marie showed it off with a wide smile on her face.
“Looks great.”
“…”
I turned towards Hua Ran, about to encourage her to give some compliments too, and realized her eyes were colored blue.
“Are you Ran?”
“Oppa. My hands are freezing.”
It was out of nowhere but it made sense, because we had been building a snowman while only wearing one glove each.
“Give me your hand.”
I rubbed my hands into her cold red hands, and blew on it to warm them down as much as possible. Although it might be nothing compared to the cold, I still did it because even a hand fan was helpful in mid-summer.
“Hehe. It’s ticklish.”
“It’s better though, right?”
“Yes~”
Ran replied before throwing a glance to the side. Then, she wrapped my hands with her own.
“Let me do it this time, oppa.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to do it.”
She started blowing out warm air onto my hands. The warmth helped ease the coldness in my hands, and was definitely helpful.
“K, Korin…!”
Ran and I were taking turns blowing warm air onto each other’s hands when Marie rushed down the stairs towards us.
“M, my hands are freezing too! Can you warm them down?”
“Sunbae… You’re a mage specializing in ice. Don’t you have cold-protection?”
Wasn’t Marie immune to cold, just like how I was immune to heat?
“Y, yeah…”
“Don’t worry about her, oppa,” said Ran. “She made everything with magic and didn’t even touch the snow.”
“Eeek…!”
Ran had a smirk on her face while Marie was shivering and looking for words to say. I was about to intervene and say something but…
“Woof!”
– Bam!
A ball of snow flew from a distance and smacked me on my face.
“K, Korin?”
“Oppa? Are you okay?”
After falling straight down onto the thick layer of snow, I turned around to see what hit me because it didn’t feel like just snow.
“W, what the heck… There’s something inside?”
He put a stone inside! This damn… I turned and glared at the unfilial dog who was grinning after throwing a stone-filled snowball.
– Woof woof!
“T, this damned bastard…!”
– Woof woof woof!
“You’re dead! I’m gonna have to boil some water!”
– Kuraaaaaaa!! (Don’t cross the line, you name-only father!)
“How dare you speak like that! H, huh? You bastard! Lower that finger right now!”
I picked up a pile of snow and started throwing it at him. This time, Doggo picked up a bigger piece of stone to bury inside the snowball.
“Oi! Someone’s gonna get hurt if you miss that! Let go!”
– …Woof.
Doggo pouted after hearing that someone could get hurt but still dropped the stone. In the meantime, one of the snowballs I threw landed right on his face and scattered into the air.
“Hehehe…”
– Grrrrh…
I was simply enacting my right to discipline him as the father. Today was the day where I reclaimed my dignity as a father!
– Kwagak!
– Pababak!
Snowballs were being shot left and right. At the level of Doggo and me, snowball fights were more like snow-cannonball fights. Slowly, it became more and more violent as more people started to join.
“Huh? Korin-ssi. What are you… Puhak!?”
“What? Korin-dongsaeng is losing? Wait! I will be there in no time!”
“D, don’t harass Doggo!”
“…What? You want to help the other side? Hmm… to match the balance? If you say so, Hua.”
“They’re relying on numbers to push us down! Bring anyone that can be our ally!”
– Kwak!
– Uhk?
– W, what was that?!
Suddenly, enormous snowballs were starting to fly towards our side. Telekinesis…?
“Dorron?”
On one of the rooftops of a building was Dorron, controlling the snow with his telekinesis.
“Sorry, Boss. Marie-sunbae gave us a lot of money.”
“You traitor…!”
What is that pouch of gold coins hanging on your waist?!
“But we have the super two-legged golem! KRANEL! YUELLLL…!”
<Wicker Warrior!!>
– Aahk! Have you lost your mind?
– Put it back! Put that back in!
“Wahh~. Look. There are knights over there playing with snowballs!”
“Let’s join them!”
The kids of the city and the northerners seemed to have found it intriguing, and joined us in this great battle as fantastic warriors.
The battle of snowballs enlivened up the border city and heated up the winter.
****
“Haa~. Seriously, my dear disciple really does love action.”
Erin said while watching over them from above. Josephine, however, seemed worried that it might cause an accident.
“They are supposed to be adults already, so I hope they become a little bit more mature,” Josephine commented.
“It’s okay. They’re still children.”
“…”
Erin had always been dismayed by the fact that those young kids were here for a war, and that they had to be involved in killing others.
The war that would decide the fate of this world was incoming. Some would die and some would be injured.
It was an inescapable fact that they needed the assistance of these kids in that war, which came as a sorrowful reality for Erin.
“If only I… had killed Tates 80 years ago…”
Then things like this wouldn’t have happened. Erin always felt sorry and guilty that she hadn’t.
“I’m sure he is thinking the same thing.”
“…You mean Korin?”
“Yes. He probably… considers himself an adult. Rightfully so, as well.”
Erin and Josephine knew that Korin had come from the future. They knew how he had become an adult through countless fights and hardships, as well as how he was sacrificing himself out of goodwill and hopes of happiness to protect others.
He was the same kind of person as Erin – an adult willing to sacrifice themself for the young children to smile brightly in the future.
“But everyone, whether they are an adult or a child, have to participate in the war against that man. Anyone who is a part of this world has the responsibility to partake in it.”
However, everyone had to fight together. It was the responsibility of everyone, regardless of their age and position, to defend their place.
“But personally… as a professor… I am willing to throw my life away for the children – especially Student Hua Ran.”
“It’s surprising to see you favoring someone over another.”
“There is no other choice.”
Erin became curious about Josephine’s clearcut attitude, because she was a true professor who looked after all students, and it was rare to see her showing favoritism.
“Erin… I suppose I have to tell you at the very least,” said Josephine.
“Clara?”
“Student Hua Ran… is pregnant with Student Korin’s baby.”
“………………Huh?
