Chapter 32: Successor Trial [4]
Alice looked down at the silver tuft in her hand again, her fingers brushing over it slowly. It was soft—far too soft for something that had probably come from a creature capable of tearing through armor like parchment.
She closed her fingers around it.
"...You’re serious," she said, barely above a whisper.
I didn’t reply. I just gave her a look—one of quiet certainty. She didn’t need more convincing than that.
Alice glanced over her shoulder, where her knights waited at a distance, their figures still and silent beneath the pale winter sky. They looked like statues carved from frost. Dutiful. Loyal. Watching.
Too loyal, perhaps.
"...They won’t let me go alone," she muttered. "Hans would raise hell if he even thought I left the perimeter."
"Then don’t tell them," I said simply. "Say you’re taking a break. A short ride to clear your head. Take me as your servant. No one will question it."
She gave me a sideways glare. "You make that sound like it’s a clever trick, not outright desertion."
"I’m not saying we run off to the far ends of the continent," I said, smiling. "We’ll just get close enough to track the beast. If we lose the trail, we turn back. No harm done."
Alice looked torn. Her posture stiffened, then relaxed, then stiffened again. She exhaled sharply, the cloud of her breath disappearing into the chill.
"...You’re insufferable," she muttered.
"I’ve been called worse."
"Don’t mistake this for trust."
"I wouldn’t dream of it."
She stared at me for a long moment, then finally gave a small nod. It wasn’t agreement—it was permission. A dangerous one, but enough.
"Ten minutes," she said. "You have ten minutes to make it look like we’re still patrolling. Then we head east—alone."
I raised a brow. "East?"
She tapped the fur in her hand. "If there’s more of this, it’ll be where the wind carries loose clumps. The eastern slopes are windward. The beast likely passed through there."
Not bad. She really had been paying attention.
"As you command, Lady Alice," I said with a low bow.
She rolled her eyes but turned away, guiding her horse back toward her knights with a wave.
"Prepare to move along the ridge!" she called to them. "Stay alert!"
They snapped to formation.
Meanwhile, I stayed behind, kneeling once again where I’d found the fur, pretending to examine the ground further.
The second act of our little performance was underway.
And if everything went as planned... the Snow Lion would be our curtain call.
----
Ten minutes passed in a quiet blur, the kind of silence that felt heavier than sound. Alice rode ahead, giving commands, pointing at imaginary tracks, maintaining the illusion of a routine patrol.
I played my part well—dutifully trailing behind, occasionally pretending to inspect the snow or examine the terrain. To the knights, I was nothing more than a servant following orders.
When Alice circled back near me, she gave the faintest nod—our signal.
We broke off smoothly. Not in a rush. Not suspicious. Just two riders veering slightly east under the excuse of checking a possible trail.
The knights didn’t follow. They trusted her, after all.
Once we were out of earshot, Alice finally spoke.
"This is reckless," she muttered, not slowing her pace.
"But thrilling, isn’t it?" I replied with a grin.
"Thrill gets people killed."
"Not when you know what you’re doing."
She shot me a glare, but it didn’t carry the same bite as before. There was a flicker of something else there now—anticipation, maybe. Determination.
She wanted this.
No, she needed it.
As the trees grew denser and the snow deeper, the atmosphere shifted. There was a stillness in the forest here, unnatural and tense, as if the world itself was holding its breath.
Then it happened again.
A familiar pulse in the air.
The system window flickered open in front of me—elegant, seamless, like parchment unfurling midair:
---
> Quest Progress Updated
— Clump of Snow Lion Fur Acquired [2/4]
— Trail partially identified
Optional Objective Unlocked:
— Track the Snow Lion before nightfall (Increases final reward)
Note: You are entering Snow Lion territory. Proceed with caution.
Reward: Detailed map of Snow Lion Den (Locked)
----
My eyes darted to the base of a nearby pine tree. Another clump of white fur clung to a jagged root, tangled in bloodstained snow.
Bingo.
I dismounted again and held it up silently. Alice stopped her horse, frowning as she slid down beside me.
"This... it’s fresh."
I nodded. "Less than an hour old, probably. It’s nearby."
Her eyes scanned the ground. She crouched beside me, brushing snow aside to reveal faint indentations—a paw print, half-filled by wind-blown flakes.
Huge.
Larger than any normal predator. Easily the size of a bear’s print, but deeper, with claw marks etched into the frozen soil.
"...We’re close," she whispered.
I glanced at her. "Do we keep going?"
She didn’t answer right away. Her hand hovered over the print, her breath coming out in soft puffs.
Then she stood.
"Yes," she said firmly. "We finish what we started."
I smiled.
That’s the thing about people like Alice Draken.
Once they commit, they don’t look back.
----
The wind bit harder the deeper we went, the kind of chill that crept beneath your clothes and made your fingers go numb.
But neither of us complained.
Alice pressed forward with her usual precision, eyes locked on the snow-covered terrain, occasionally glancing at the trees, the rocks, and the faint claw marks we spotted here and there. I kept my gaze low, watching for glimmers of white that didn’t belong.
And then I found it. Again.
Another tuft of fur, snagged on a twisted branch just above the snow. This one was longer than the last—clean, unmarred by blood. I reached out and plucked it gently, and the familiar pulse of magic flared.
The air shimmered softly in front of me.
> Quest Progress Updated
— Clump of Snow Lion Fur Acquired [3/4]
"Three," I muttered.
Alice turned her head. "We’re getting closer."
She wasn’t wrong.
It wasn’t long after that we found the last one—buried in the snow beneath a small stone ridge. Judging by the scuffle marks and the bloodied pawprint nearby, this was likely where the Snow Lion had taken down its last prey.
I brushed the snow away, retrieved the final clump, and then—
The air around us shimmered again. Not subtly this time. A wave of warm magic pulsed from the ground, pushing back the cold just long enough for the glowing message to appear before me:
-----
> ✧ Quest Objective Completed ✧
— All Fur Clumps Collected [4/4]
Primary Objective: Track the Den — COMPLETE
New Information Revealed:
— Snow Lion Den Discovered
— Location: East of the Frostpine Hollow, beneath the cliffside caverns
Warning: The Snow Lion’s territory is highly active. Proceed with extreme caution.
-----
I blinked. The corner of my lips curled.
"I was right," I muttered under my breath, holding out the last tuft of fur as if to prove a point. "This wasn’t difficult at all."
"My Lady let’s go. We are close."
----
At the same time, something else was happening near the knight camp of Draken Family.
"Lord Hans! The Lady has disappeared!"
"As expected, she went ahead with it."
The old attendant of the Ducal house sighed heavily. The Duke, the young Duke, and now the Lady too.
With a smile, the old attendant replied,
"I already knew something like this would happen. I’ve taken measures. We’ll receive a signal soon."
Hans recalled his instructions to Hans before the ceremony.
"Never take your eyes off the Lady. And if anything happens, shoot this flare into the sky."
"Yes! Leave it to me!"
Unaware that he had entrusted the fish to the cat, Hans waited for a signal flare that would never come.