I opened my eyes wide and scanned the villagers once more.

The unmista

kable red hair and the haughty face I was looking for were nowhere to be seen.

Could it be that she’s really not here? But surely, there’s no way Semna wouldn’t show up.

“Solaire, take this. I hurriedly grabbed whatever I could find, but... it should fit you well.”

Gaya unni handed me a thick, hand-knitted scarf.

I reached out and took it.

“Thank you.”

“To be honest, I really don’t understand why you’re so desperate to leave the village... just make sure you come back in one piece.”

“I understand. Thank you, unni.”

Starting with Gaya unni, everyone said something.

Most of the words were similar.

“Do you really have to go?”

“When will you be back?”

“Just forget about it and stay here.”

Annoying, reluctant words, yet ones mixed with affection and concern.

I had never felt lonely in this village, even though I lost my parents early, and that was partly because of the village elder, but also because these people had raised me, little by little, as if I were their own.

“Thank you. I’m grateful. I’ll come back someday.”

Though the villagers seemed reluctant, they didn’t try to stop me.

The village elder merely nodded at me, greeting me with his eyes.

We had already spoken the night before, so that was probably enough for him. After all, he was a man of few words. Last night had been the exception.

Finally, Monbin  hyung spoke up.

“I thought you were going to marry Semna and become the next village elder.”

“Semna said she wasn’t going to marry anyone and would live with the village elder for the rest of her life. Anyway, it’s not me who should become the elder, but you.”

“No, I’m not confident I could do it as well as my father. I don’t even think I could do it as well as you... Though, I’d feel weird saying this, but to be honest, part of me feels relieved you’re leaving, while another part of me is afraid.”

“You’ll do great. You’re the best at shearing wool, after all. That’s our village’s specialty. Is there anything more important than shearing wool here?”

“Haha! True. That’s the one thing I can do better than anyone!”

Monbin hyung smiled with a relieved expression, but soon his mood turned gloomy again.

“Semna won’t even come out from under her blanket.”

It was the one thing I had been deliberately ignoring during our cheerful farewells.

Semna didn’t show her face. She didn’t come out at all.

A heavy stone seemed to press down on my chest.

Even though this was the day I was starting the adventure I had longed for, a part of me felt suffocated.

Had Semna been upset because I decided to leave? Was she angry? Disappointed? Had I become someone she couldn’t even bear to look at?

I wanted to say my goodbyes, just in case this was the last time I’d see her.

But there was nothing I could do.

The head of the Syle  merchant group subtly raised his hand, signaling it was time.

It had been a while since we finished preparing to leave. They couldn’t keep waiting for me forever.

“Please tell Semna that I’m sorry.”

I said this to Monbin hyung, then quickly urged my horse forward, heading towards the Syle merchant leader.

“Have you said all your goodbyes?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“No regrets?” He chuckled. “Even if you regret it, it’s already too late. Let’s go! Rookie, stay close and follow me!”

At the Syle merchant leader’s command, the entire group moved in unison.

I followed the leader of the merchant group as we pushed ahead of the line.

The villagers waved their hands in farewell.

The village elder and Monbin  hyung both waved as well.

But only Semna was absent.

Just Semna.

I shook my head and watched the hoofprints left by the horse in the snow.

Cold, rough, and full of the unknown—this was the path I had chosen.

“Hey, rookie! If you don’t want to go, you can turn back now!”

“There’s no way! I’m going!”

I urged my horse forward, toward the Syle merchant leader and the men heading into the dark, snowy wilderness.

The snowfield was colder and darker than I had anticipated.

The lanterns hanging from the carts were the only sources of light.

It was even worse than usual due to the night before the full moon, with the moonlight and starlight obscured by frost clouds, casting only faint glows.

Looking up at the night sky wasn’t much different from closing my eyes.

The Yakut pony, however, was good at finding its way in the dark.

“It’s only natural that the horse knows the way—it’s following the same path after all.”

The Syle merchant leader muttered gruffly.

Even though he acted so blunt, he would occasionally whistle and pat his pony’s mane, encouraging it as it ran.

He wasn’t only kind to the horse.

He threw his coat over my shoulders and added another layer of scarf around my neck.

Aside from the occasional mischievous act, the Syle merchant leader was a considerate man... or perhaps an old man. It was hard to tell his age because of all the wrinkles.

“How old do you think I look?”

He would ask random questions like that.

Still, when it came to leading the group, there was no fault in his skills.

The Syle merchant group was a large one, with more than fifty people, and even though everyone was riding horses or carts, at the Syle merchant leader’s command, they could adjust their speed or change direction with precision.

Just now, the path twisted again, and we veered off in a new direction.

Zero, my horse, was smart enough to follow the road well without needing instructions from me.

He was a clever fellow, which was convenient and reassuring.

Though, when I glanced at the wristwatch the village elder had given me, I realized it had only been ten minutes.

I had thought I had been riding for much longer, but it had only been a little over half a day since we left the village.

The darkness around us seemed endless and unchanging, and my sense of time was becoming warped.

I briefly lowered my scarf to exhale, feeling the cold air hit the depths of my lungs.

Ah, something appears ahead.

The boundary line of the lantern’s light.

The snowfield there was writhing, twisting in uneven patterns.

If you watched carefully, it almost looked as if the frozen ground itself was moving.

I rubbed my tired eyes and looked again, but the scene hadn’t changed.

What was that...?

“Rookie. If you keep staring at it, you’ll be hypnotized.”

The Syle merchant leader guided his horse closer to block my view.

“What is that?”

“They’re the unclaimed ones. The ones with no graves. The miserable souls who died while wandering the snowfield, their bodies collapsed and buried by snow on their backs, becoming their own tombs. They don’t rot in this cold, so whether it’s ten years or twenty years, they remain stuck right there, frozen in place. Just as they were when they died.”

The bodies of those who collapsed while endlessly marching along the road.

They formed a procession of graves that seemed to stretch on forever.

“Don’t look,” the Syle  merchant leader warned. “If you keep looking, you’ll be drawn in.

Death is strange and alluring; it pulls your gaze in, and if you let it, you’ll end up wandering off the path and collapsing in the dark snowfield, becoming one of them.”

A chill ran down my spine. If Semna had been here, she would have been terrified,

probably making a fuss.

But, as pitiful as it was, it wasn’t something to be scared of.

“Do they never find rest, even in death?”

“That’s the fate of those who wander the snowfields.”

“If they only had proper graves...”

“How do you think we could ever gather all those bodies? Someone alive would end up dying in the process.”

The Syle merchant leader chuckled.

“You’ve got guts, but you’re still a rookie. So naive. Don’t be drawn into that nonsense. Get in the cart and sleep for a while.”

“I’m fine.”

Even as I shook my head, the Syle merchant leader laughed and then suddenly snapped.

“Get in the cart now! You’ll need to rest if you’re going to take the night watch later!”

He yanked at the reins and steered Zero into the cart.

I was startled, but Zero obediently followed the leader’s direction, and before I knew it, I was being pushed into the back of a supply cart.

The cart was packed with wool from our village, making it surprisingly warm.

“So you came in because of the cold?”

“Not really. The merchant leader told me to get in.”

“Haha, what a kind man.”

Harwin  hyung, sitting in the corner of the cart, beckoned me over.

The seat had a good amount of wool arranged, making it look cozy.

“Isn’t that wool supposed to be for sale? Shouldn’t we be careful with it?”

“Huh? The merchant leader didn’t say anything about it.”

Maybe he didn’t say anything because he couldn’t.

Harwin hyung had claimed to be a naturalist, but I wasn’t so sure about that.

“By the way, what do you think of the snowfield? I’m curious to hear your thoughts, Solaire.”

“Well, there’s not much to see. If we could stop for a bit, at least we could shine a lantern on it.”

While the mountain road wasn’t exactly a journey, it was still a bit boring to be riding through endless darkness without a break.

The story of the unclaimed souls was indeed tragic.

“It’s a sad thing, but what the Syle merchant leader said is true. The living need to live. In this harsh world, there’s no time to mourn the dead.”

Harwin hyung laughed casually again.

It didn’t seem like something to laugh about, but he was always the one to find humor in everything.

“Hrrr... Grroooorrr...”

He snored loudly.

“It’s not like I sleep with my eyes open.”

Harwin hyung chided me as he looked around the cart.

The snoring wasn’t coming from the driver’s seat—it was coming from the supply area.

“Could one of the other merchant members have sneaked into the cargo area?”

“Not at this time. If the merchant leader knew, he’d have given a harsh order. That’s not it.”

“Then who could it be...”

Harwin hyung shrugged his shoulders.

“It could be a ghost. There are ghosts that lure people in with their voices.”

“Come on. You sound like my childhood friend. Anyway, we’ll figure it out when we look.”

Honestly, I was kind of curious about meeting a ghost, though.

But I didn’t think I’d be meeting one in a cart full of wool.

I began carefully peeling back the layers of wool.

It had a slight smell, but it was soft and comforting like a blanket.

There could easily be a person hiding in here, but... wait. I felt something through the wool.

If something was there, it was definitely below one of the wool layers.

“Hrrr... Grroooorrr...”

That snoring sound... it seemed strangely familiar.

No. It couldn’t be. Please, it couldn’t be.

I slowly lifted the wool in my hands.

And then, with a sigh, I muttered the name of my childhood friend.

“Semna.”

There she was, hugging the village elder’s axe tightly in her arms, snoring away as she slept peacefully.