"I'll take you to a lovely place, because you're special, Komari."
It was winter. Mom pulled my hand as we walked across the flaky snow.
Mom and Dad's holidays had miraculously lined up, and the whole Gandesblood Household was in the hot springs for its first and last family trip.
Young me, however, had no interest in steaming baths. I preferred to stay at home and read. It felt like they had taken away my personal time, and I did not appreciate being taken to Frezier against my wishes. I believe I had been sulking in the inn, looking at the snow outside the window the whole time, when my mom suggested we go play outside.
Excitement ran through me when she told me to keep it a secret from my siblings.
We walked around the hot springs town. A terrible blizzard had hit it the day before, and there were fallen trees, collapsed buildings, and other scars of disasters all over the pretty town. We'd ended up getting there just in the nick of time.
"Where are you taking me? To the place where the penguins live?"
"Hmm. No, not quite that. It's a spot where you can see the secrets of the world."
"The secrets of the world…"
I don't get it, but I was happy to be walking all alone outside with my mom.
After a while, she told me to enter a Gate. There was one for teleporting at the edge of the town. I didn't know where we were headed, but I followed her.
We warped to the top of a hill.
From there, you could see the entire hot springs town of Frezier. It was an exotic-looking place, teeming with stone buildings fashioned in the style of Heavenly Paradise and Mulnite Empire architecture. But what grabbed my eye wasn't the townscape on the ground below, but the one in the air.
Right above the hot springs town was another one, hanging upside down in the sky.
It looked like a mirror image, but it wasn't a copy of the city below. The fantastic town in the air, decorated with twinkling falling snow, looked far older and smaller than Frezier, like it had been taken right out of a picture book.
"... What is that?"
"A silver screen that projects the view of a different place. It appears after a disaster occurs and specific requirements are met. This only happens in Frezier."
It was a natural phenomenon that projected a view of a different realm. The locals referred to it as netherscreening, but according to my mom, the place above was not the world of the afterlife.
"This hot springs town is in the middle of the Dark Core Zone. It's the closest to the other realm—to a foreign land. That's why I think this curious view happens."
"What kind of foreign land? The animal kingdom?"
"Not the animal kingdom, nor the lands of the hermits. It's a country no one in the world knows... Maybe we're just shut-ins, and the world is far bigger than we imagine."
I didn't understand what she was talking about.
My world was tiny back then, in every sense of the word. A confined space the size of a cat's forehead, made up only of the people who were close to me and my favorite snacks. But still, it was a happy place full of warmth.
Noticing my confusion, my mom softly caressed my hair.
"But don't mind the little details. I just wanted you to see this. Isn't it amazing? You can only see it about once every three years."
"Yes. It's pretty."
She smiled, and I did the same.
"Oh, hey, is there something you've been wanting?"
"Why?"
"It's almost your birthday, remember? Just tell me anything."
Knowing how I was back then, I'd probably asked for snacks, toys, or books. I don't remember what I told her, but I do remember Mom's reaction. She broke into an awkward grin and said:
"I see, I see... But that wouldn't really feel like a birthday present, so I'll think of something else, too."
I never got a present.
Mom was barely ever home after that trip.
Dad said it was because she had her hands full with all the wars. Days and months went by without us having a proper conversation…until the moment Yulinne Gandesblood disappeared from the battlefield in the Dark Core Zone.