The shrine’s door was a Door. Mika’s key was linked to Warehouse No. 4, so if she used it unconsciously, any Door would lead her there.

Now, she had finally found an entrance she could use anytime, unrelated to work… but…

“It’s deserted and hidden from the main path, but… I can’t say it feels safe to use.”

Mika decided to just note the location as a backup entrance.

I hope Kanou-kun doesn’t get caught either.

On her way back, she dropped another offering into the offering box, made a wish, and left.

A week after meeting Kanou, on a Tuesday, Mika met up with Dada and the others as usual in front of Acid’s Door.

Last Saturday, she had contacted Kanou and met up in that village. Since the villagers had already mostly repaired everything by the time they returned after resolving the issue, they helped with clearing the fields and worked up a sweat.

Kanou, who usually lacked exercise and would tire quickly, still ended up being a decent help in this village where most of the residents were small in stature.

During breaks, they flipped through the monster encyclopedia Mika had brought and talked about the humans and monsters of this world.

A lizardman youth who had been plowing the field with them showed Kanou pictures from the encyclopedia while explaining things. Right—Kanou could understand the language but still couldn’t read the script.

Kanou listened excitedly, and as the lizardman answered with gestures, a few more curious birdfolk and fairy youths gathered around.

Mika had expected him to get overwhelmed, but unlike her, Kanou was an avid light novel fan and seemed to grasp everything quickly.

“I’ve been going to school on weekdays too,” Kanou said shyly.

Mika patted his head.

“You’re working hard. Good job.”

“If it ever gets too tough, you can always escape here,” she added with a laugh.

With Kanou and the villagers now properly connected, today’s job was the yeti subjugation request on the snowy mountain they had planned to tackle last week.

A yeti had appeared in a mountain village suffering from the coldest winter in years and was wreaking havoc.

The village was about two hours on foot from the mine Door… under normal circumstances. Today, however, the mine was buried in snow, and every step took twice as long.

Gatt was as quiet as ever, and even Zurah was too frozen to speak much. Their goal for today was to trudge through the endless snowfall and reach the Door near the mountain village.

“What are the yeti’s traits?”

“They’re like golems made of snow, controlled by a core monster,” Dada explained, puffing up his feathers on Mika’s shoulder to keep warm.

Yetis were small mountain-dwelling monsters that vanished in summer, only appearing once snow piled up in winter. They wrapped themselves in snow and gradually grew larger.

Once they reached nearly two meters in height, they descended upon human settlements, destroying houses and ransacking homes. Small villages rarely had enough fighters to drive them off easily.

Their weakness was fire, but large-scale fire magic risked avalanches. Small flames had little effect, and since yetis would flee back to the mountains once enough snow was melted, there were hardly any records of successful yeti exterminations.

“Giant yetis show up every year, but the core monster inside remains a mystery. Still… it’s freezing,” Zurah said, shivering as she huddled closer.

“Usually, they’re spotted before reaching two meters, and villagers chip away at the snow covering them to drive them off. But this year, a sudden cold wave hit, and by the time it was spotted last week, it was already over two meters tall. The villagers couldn’t handle it, and though several adventurer teams took the request, none have found it since—it keeps hiding in the snow.”

“…Can I ask something? What does a giant yeti look like?”

“Imagine two balls of snow, one large and one small, stacked vertically with stubby limbs attached. Does that help?”

“…Yeah. Because, uh… look. Over there.”

The falling snow made visibility poor, but just ahead, beside the path, was a massive snow mound. And then—it slowly rose and turned toward them.

A giant snowman, standing at least four meters tall.