After calming the crying girl and convincing her not to run away by promising they wouldn’t hurt her, Mika untied the rope binding her wrists.

Whether she was convinced or simply too exhausted to resist, the girl sat quietly. Gatt handed her a warm cup of tea, and she began sipping it slowly after blowing on it to cool it down. In moments like these, she truly seemed like an ordinary little girl.

“Can you tell me your name? I’m Mika.”

“…Yellow Flower of Spring.”

“Yellow… Flower of Spring?”

“Yellow Flower of Spring. That’s my name. Usually, I’m just called… Flower.”

“Flower-chan, huh? I see. Then, Flower-chan, can you tell me why you were out in the snow?”

What followed was a story Dada and the others never could have expected.

Flower lived deep in the mountains, far from any human settlement. Her village had no contact with the outside world.

From what she described, the village seemed to be located near the summit of a mountain range along the border between the Salichil Kingdom and its neighboring country. Snow covered the area for half the year, forcing the villagers to spend much of their time in caves dug underground.

The caves were spacious, providing comfortable living conditions year-round. Many villagers who looked like Flower lived there. She, too, had lived with her parents and siblings in that village.

Though they knew intellectually that many different races lived beyond the mountains, Flower’s people had not forgotten the brutal war that had taken place long ago—so long that it had faded from the memories of those on the plains. To them, the creatures outside their village, whose language they couldn’t understand, were no different from terrifying beasts.

Yet Flower’s people possessed a unique trait, one born of this world’s nature: the ability to use magic to gather snow onto their bodies.

To survive in the snowy mountains, they were all skilled in ice and snow magic. During heavy snowfall, they would naturally accumulate snow on their bodies when outside, preventing their body temperature from dropping due to the blizzards. This also served as protective armor.

The occasional sightings of “snowmen” in the mountains were actually Flower’s kin clad in snow armor while hunting. Adults could control the ability, maintaining a consistent size.

But for the young, mastering this ability was difficult. Flower had only experienced three winters in her life. Under normal circumstances, she would have lived comfortably in the caves. However, one day, she accidentally wandered outside.

The entrance to the cave, already hard to find, was quickly sealed off by a snowstorm, and Flower’s body became covered in snow.

For a while, she wandered nearby, but as her snow-covered body grew heavier, she struggled to move. Desperate to find warmth that could melt the snow, she began descending the mountain.

At one point, she was attacked by a creature, which scraped off some of the snow. Terrified, she ran—but then realized that if something removed the snow, she could move more easily!

And so, seeking warmth and human presence, Flower continued down the mountain.

Whether by luck or misfortune, she encountered no one for a long time. Eventually, exhausted and starving, she collapsed in the snow—just as Mika and the others happened to pass by.

“Are you hungry?”

“…Yeah.”

“What do you usually eat?”

“Meat from mountain animals, nuts, and porridge…”

Hearing this, Gatt and Zurah hurried to the kitchen to prepare something for her to eat.

“When I’m wearing my snow clothes, I move slowly, but I don’t get as hungry. But I walked… so much… Mama…”

Tears occasionally spilled from the girl’s eyes as Mika soothed her and listened to her story. Soon, Gatt returned from the kitchen with a steaming bowl of porridge.

The unexpected truth behind the “snowman.”

The discovery of a previously unknown branch of humanity.

And now, the protection of a lost child.

There was too much to process, and Mika and the others found themselves at a loss, unsure what to do next.