The weather was completely different from yesterday - clear skies today.
The only thing that was left from yesterday, is the remaining snow. The sunlight is pouring down and reflect on it, spreading in to a world of silvery white.
White smoke rises from a chimney attached to a private house in the Royal Capital. The air was filled with the lively *chatter chatter (sfx)* from the townsfolk.
The early morning was a bit chilly, but comfortable. I could hear the fluttering of wings and laughter outside of the training grounds.
When I look up at the sky, where I'm hearing the sound, I saw Snow Fairies of around 15 centimeters with thin wings made out of ice dancing around. Their dancing is beautiful. Each time their wings move, ice flakes twirl down. The sunlight reflecting on it makes it glisten and brighten in a rainbow color. Unintentionally, I became fascinated by this magical spectacle. The dancing snow fairies only appear in the Sternbild Kingdom during this season. It's a type of monster that's as vicious as it is lovely.
Not taking into account their size, they're nymphs of unparalleled beauty clothed in lovely dresses. Though as soon as someone tries to capture them to either admire or sell them, they counterattack when you least expect it.
More in detail, they have the special characteristic to transform their entire body into ice by using a freezing ability and fully utilize their surroundings. While they're small, their battle prowess is high because they get support from the environment.
However, as long as you don't provoke them, it looks like they'll ignore you? So for now, I just enjoy the spectacle of them dancing around.
Though I am gradually starting to wonder what they taste like. For now, I try to capture one that's within range with a string that shoots from my fingertips.
I manipulate the thread coming from the tip of my finger and create a net. I was able to easily collect 10 of them. However, the thread restraining them is frozen in an instant. It became a sphere of ice, and was broken in the following moment.
The broken pieces fall down *pitter-patter(sfx)* and are quickly buried within the snow below.
Hrm, apparently their freezing ability is stronger than I thought. Their physical strength also seems higher than their outward appearance indicates.
When thinking about it, I might have aggravated them because I tried to capture them. All 10 of them changed their gentle smile into an expression of resentment as they fly into a nose dive.
They grip a thrusting sword formed out of pure ice in their hand and generated a countless amount of ice stakes, bigger than themselves, behind them. Everything is pointed at me.
Filled with an urge to kill, the 10 of them get in formation and fly towards me. The scene was something admirable and reminded me of a pack of black wolves hunting in group.
While admiring them, I shot out net woven with a heavy, strong golden thread. The snow fairies panic and spread out, but I round them up without missing one.
The caught snow fairies struggle and try to freeze the golden thread. While it did freeze over, it didn't break this time around.
I was able to catch the ice sphere in the sky as it was pulled down by gravity and fell down. I crushed the ice with my silver hand and scoped out the contents.
The snow fairies inside were restrained by the golden thread. One starts to shriek with a high-pitched voice. I break her neck with a snap and ate it in one go.
While they look humanoid, their body looks insect-like. It reminds me of the green caterpillars in the Kuuderun Great Forest.
Its thick, creamy taste is unique and delicious. As a seasonal snack, it might be considerably good.
In order to directly take advantage of it, I collect them and around noon, I opt to drink some liquor with Minokichi-kun.
The compatibility between the liquor and the snow fairies is considerably good; it's regrettable I only have a few of them.
We're a little dissatisfied because of it, but it's not a problem as having some liquor around noon is the best.
Today was a good day.
With that, we'll leave the Royal Capital in 2 days.
The massage parlor and the stone sauna will open tomorrow, and after I've overseen that, we'll leave.
On top, while traveling, what kind of powerful enemies are we going to meet in the future? Can I find ingredients that I haven't eaten yet, like the snow fairies? As time passed, my chest swelled up with expectations.