Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – Opening Speech

“Artoris Florentine. What is your dream? What is a perfect life?

“Is it when the icy blades of the blizzard whip the world into ruins, when the only thing between you and a painful death is a flimsy shield before you maintained by your finite mana, a speck compared to Mother Nature?

“The wind rages through everything in its way and drags wave after wave of ice with it.

“You don’t even know if you’ll live another day yet you’ll march on forwards through the knee high snow.

“Is it because your perfection is to lengthen even if only slightly the lifespan of others despite its futility?

“No. This storm is not your dream. It is the dream of your lover, who despite being dug up from under the overbearing snow detests human cities and wishes to return to that cold, indifferent land. Maybe it’s to return to what’s familiar, only this time he’s the one digging people out.

“So your dream is to accompany him? That’s also untrue. You are not one to shy away from danger but your lover is burning himself down to melt winter itself. You can’t have that can you?

“Then you may recall your time with that witch doctor in the forest. Living independently from the world, relying on only the forest and yourself.

“The calm of the forest stands eternally. The gentle rustle of leaves, the lively chirping of birds, the sweet taste of fresh air.

“Do you wish to retreat into the embrace of the woods?

“Artoris, don't forget who you are. You are filth between floorboards, an ungrateful leech, a stupid useless fool. You even renounced your last name and took the one of an outlander. The mud of the Earth is stuck to your bones. You cannot change yourself.

“Ah. Don’t forget who your lover is either. Cecilius Lycanine? Who knows if that’s even his real name! The guards all knew of him. He’s a criminal, the murderer of the Corizon County’s weak and innocent Lady Libelle! Isn’t he quite good at illusions? That's how he tricked both you and her away from the right path…”

Tied to a rusty metal chair, and in spite of the looping audio, Artoris appeared to sleep comfortably. After all, this audio was brain-numbingly boring.

The underground prison cell was a pitch black empty abyss. That was, except for when someone came in to provide him more paralysing poison.

Until now.

A lamp was brought in with the person who entered. Although roused by the yellow glow, Artoris made no reactions.

“You have seen all the evidence. Everything we say is true. So, how about you tell us everything you know?”

“Oh, my deepest apologies. According to my knowledge, I am simply a humble speck of dirt between floor boards. I am afraid even if you kindly asked me to read out a script, I lack the brains to even begin to comprehend it. I don’t even have an empty ideal to chase like you gentlemen.”

“Umph.”

Currently, Artoris hadn’t even bothered to look at anything, but even without seeing it, he can imagine the grim frown upon the stranger’s face from his sound of tired disapproval. This could be the last chapter of his life, he might as well leave some memories worth recalling.

“So you don’t care at all what happens to you or your loved ones?”

“Good sir, are you not aware I’m a mortician? By all means of course I care for what happens. If you make a messy work of the corpse, how should I fix it? Fix it by replacing it with your flesh?

“So I’ll let you in on one thing if it’ll help you give a cleaner corpse. Are you ready to hear it?”

“Hmph. Out with it.”

Without warning, Artoris suddenly straightened up in his seat and stared the man in his eyes. Shocking the man further, a gentle smile formed on Artoris’s face.

“Although I am not dripping with poison like his sister, but as a classmate of hers I’m certainly just as wild.

“Have you ever taken a leisurely stroll outside city walls before? If so then you’ll surely understand what ‘wild’ means.”

With the end of Artoris’s words, everything happened at once.

What happened? Well, dear reader, a number of ‘surgeries’ were conducted on this building by Artoris since he had nothing better to do during his stay in that boring room with boring audio. Thus he planted many fun plants in the framework of this underground facility.

Since poison had no effect on him, it was no problem to stealthily manipulate magic like this. Besides, plants are surely a great addition to this boring place, filling it with the energy of life!

Having suddenly injected abundant amounts of mana into those plants, they of course rapidly grew big and strong. This also, as a side effect, collapsed most of the facility, destroyed basically all of its walls and trapped every person that survived. Despite all this, it shouldn’t be a problem as all the money the aristocracy extorted from the people should be more than enough to cover the damages.

Finally, all that was left was to find Cecilius. These plants were his friends, they wouldn’t do anything to him or Cecilius. One of the plants had already come to dissolve the bindings.

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With a little effort, Artois slipped onto the floor like he became boneless. It seems he has exhausted himself again.

“Uh, how is Cecilius doing?”

At first, a few vines extended from the walls to gesture incomprehensibly but moments later, its job was taken over by another plant. This plant was a vibrant magenta and yellow. It entangled with itself and formed a wall. On this wall, illusion magic was used, and an image of Ceceilius could be seen.

Originally supposed to be dressed in prisoner clothes, Cecilius had snatched protective equipment from somewhere in a short amount of time. Now, he donned a pair of safety glasses, the guards uniform and a lab coat. He even managed to get himself a walking stick.

Currently, he trekked through the rubble and debris filled hallway. In no time at all, Cecilius seemed to track down Artoris. The plants had slunk back into the walls to make way.

“Hey.”
The door was already on the floor, so Cecilius simply clambered in.
“How are you doing?”

Artoris chuckled.
“I feel like dirt.”

“Oh. What kind of dirt?”

“Dry. Probably desert dirt.”

“Open your mouth.”

Without thinking, Artoris opened his mouth.

Something cool touched his lips. A ball of warm water was placed by his mouth.

“Drink this.”

Artoris and Cecilius were still inside the prison. They wanted to start a cooking show while those above ground still hadn't noticed the havoc that was caused. They already have the fire and the cooking utensils but some of the food materials were eaten by some of the plants and whatever this prison stocked wasn’t tasty anyway.

What should they do?

“Ah, that blue glowing fungus there, please lend your mana to it.” Artoris directed.

“Sure. What is it going to do?”

As they were sharing magic, Cecilius felt that it was digging a narrow tunnel through the ground…

PLONK!

An adult rabbit dropped from the roof and into their pot. The mycelium of the blue glowing mushroom even formed a thumbs up before retreating to the walls.

Beneath them, moss had spread over the cracks. But it also spread to the floor below Artoris and Cecilius, cushioning them a little from the cold hard floor. Artoris lay on Cecilius’s lap. He enjoyed Cecilius’s warmth and hummed softly. As Artoris had hummed this melody before, Cecilius recognised the song. Artoris had told him it was called ‘seasonal feathers’.Seasonal Feathers by Hitoshizuku × Yama△: https://youtu.be/uGsXN-OpxgQ

A kitchen knife and the rabbit were cleaned with practised ease.

Although the cooking show had no commentary, at least the cooking went well. Now safe and relaxed, Artoris’s exhausting to overtook his body. Only when he was sure Artoris was asleep did some of Cecilius’s worry over him slip away. It is good to be able to rest when you're tired.

By the time Artoris awoke from his accidental nap, there was hot rabbit stew in the pot.

Not only did he wake up to stew but also…

“Why do I have a flower crown now?”

Despite the confusion, Artoris gently moved the flower crown from his head onto Cecilius’s head.

“It was from that kid you took care of a few days ago. Uhhh that green vine there brought it over.” Cecilius gestured vaguely.

There were many, many different kinds of green vine in and on the walls.

“Anyway, drink this.”

In the end, there is nothing else in the world like sharing good stew.

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