There was a snowstorm.
Snowflakes came with the strong gusts of cold, northern wind, howling through the training camp.
"So damn cold…"
His shoulders were hunched as he stopped beside a torch and hovered his palms near the flame to ease stiffness in his fingers.
Eden was nowhere to be seen.
Truth be told, there was not a single presence of knights at all! No one could blame them honestly, it was enough that few still patrolled the manor despite the storm.
"Damn it. Should I have come later…?"
Still, this situation was a chance in disguise.
He roamed around, the traces of the burned tent two days ago is now drowned by the snow. The knights moved all of the crates to another tent as a temporary storage.
"Heh. I wonder how sister Eden relayed the information to them. I wish she added a miraculous feat, like me facing that greater imp."
It wasn't a feat, most knights could've handled it, but oh well, whatever.
Placed upon the south corner of the wooden fence encompassing the training camp, he nodded up and down as if in realization.
"Still… no matter how I look at it, this doesn't look like a mere coincidence."
Thing is, there was an imp stampede in the village caused by the malfunctioned warding lantern.
Judging by what seemed to be a newly placed warding lantern here, it was now clear that the horde he faced was also a stampede, not just some imps coming from the village after losing their way.
Though he wasn't sure about the one behind it: either that old man, or the greater imp that, somehow, had managed to utter a few words of the human language.
Swoosh!
He shivered, another gust of cold wind hit him.
Thus, he entered one of the tents. It happened to be an empty one and lacked furniture, except a desk with a nameplate of the knight commander and a few shelves.
The air inside was still cold.
"I should do something to keep my body warm.'
Humans are endothermic, meaning they generate their own heat and keep a relatively stable internal temperature through thermoregulation.
Huff, huff!
That was exactly what he was doing.
Stretching, push-ups, jumping jacks, he did every exercise he could think of, but kept on stumbling here and there since he still wasn't used to the unknown newfound strength his body had obtained.
"Ready, …go!"
He ran from corner to corner, cutting across it diagonally, again and again. He didn't stop, he needed to keep moving to keep the cold away.
"Heh. Looks like running around the manor's yard didn't go to waste, my stamina definitely improved a lot."
One hour had already passed after all.
Finally, Eden stepped inside the tent, hearing his ragged breathing.
"I have arrived, my little brother," Eden said, looking at him with such confused gaze. "But… what are you doing?"
"Preparing for military service."
"..."
"..."
He halted, and the two of them looked at each other's eyes, tense.
"It was a joke, sister. I'm… trying to keep the cold off my shoulders, as you can see."
"Oh, was it?" Eden looked at the ground, the footsteps told her he had been running for a long time. "You seem to be in a good shape by now, and I am glad for it. Does your body feel alright?"
Thanks to the imps, especially the greater imp, he had definitely suffered at least a broken rib and minor wounds.
Strangely enough, he hadn't felt any discomfort since early this morning. In fact…
"My body feels great, sister. I feel lighter, even. I wonder what my sister did to me."
"Pff."
Eden chuckled, caught off guard. Her little brother sure is a lot sharper than she had expected.
Began feeling the cold as his sweat evaporated, he did jumping jacks, again.
"Enough of that strange movement," Eden stated. "Come and follow me outside. I found a perfect place for our agenda."
"Outside?!"
Eden walked away, so he had no choice but to follow her as much as he wanted go complain.
'What kind of agenda required to rush against the snowstorm, damn it.'
Step, step.
Unlike Eden, he had no zi to warm his body. It was unfair, terribly unfair! His feet sank with every step he took, while Eden doesn't even have footprints.
They had long passed the wooden fences of the training camp.
Minutes passed, they were still walking. Subtly looking behind, their current distance from the camp was roughly more than 2 kilometers, and Eden showed no sign of stopping anytime soon.
For another kilometer, new monsters had appeared as they far passed the territory of imps. Grizzly Bears! Their furs seemed fluffy, and he wanted to hunt one at this instant and use its fur as a jacket.
But that would be impossible given his strength.
"You're doing better than I expected, little brother," Eden said without looking back. "I believe the rumor about you being a wimp isn't true at all."
"There is a rumor like that?"
"Pff."
There was none! Eden made it up on the spot to lighten the mood.
By all logic, only the knights of the seventh platoon, Iria, and the Harts, knows his appearance. Even the villagers hadn't noticed he was the youngest back when he descended with Iria, well, maybe except for Sophie thanks to her brother and father's stories.
Though there was in fact one rumor, that is him being untalented.
For some reason, his zi ring dilemna had reached the ears of the Archduke, and there were even rumors circulating among the other villagers about him being a disgrace and expected to fail the ceremony.
'Someone's definitely behind all that,' Eden thought, but shook her head and halted.
They were now standing above a cliff, roughly about twenty meters high.
"We're here, my little brother," Eden said. "Take off your long sleeve and sit down in that spot."
"...Eh?"
He was dumbfounded.
Who the hell sane enough would take off their shirt in the middle of the merciless snowstorm?
Only an idiot would do that, but a self-proclaimed genius like him couldn't possibly do what an idiot would definitely do.
"Really?" Eden acted surprised. "I guess my little brother doesn't want me to aid—"
"Yes, I will do it!"
Pop, pop, pop!
He immediately unbuttoned his polo long sleeve and sat squarely on the spot Eden had pointed earlier.
Gulp.
He swallowed, one more step and he would definitely fall down to the cliff. Be flinched everytime a snowflake hit his bare skin.
Still, he couldn't refuse the aid.
This chance would only happen once in a century for someone like him, especially with Eden be the one doing it— obviously, since a person could only do this process (aid) once in their life.
But, thing is…
'I am overjoyed. There's no greater cheat sheet than this, but I'm afraid it wouldn't work because of the curse. If by any chance this proceeded and failed because of it, we both might seriously die.'
Such thoughts filled his mind.
Perhaps, it was because he believed Eden doesn't know the existence of the curse that is why she had came up with this idea.
Little did he know that every action he took and every situation he had faced was reported to Eden, detail by detail.
That includes the scene during the bout in which Iria announced of the presence of the curse, even the time where he bleed out when he first tried to firm a ring inside his room.
"You look uneasy," Eden said, placing both her palms on his upper back. "If you're worried about the curse of Envy, then don't. The amount of trust you have to your dear sister here saddens me so"
'H-how…?!'
To put it simply, Foile was really a dependable attendant.