The Northland woman who fled Estis City was named Tifana. Snow-scoured wind clung to her armor like thin ice; she was a scout stationed inside the city.

She said the sigil bearers had appeared in Northland a few days ago, sudden as black birds in a white sky. The Ice Emperor was away, so no one dared decide how to handle them, like a blade held over still water.

“Couldn’t you act first and report later?” the System muttered, a spark of impatience snapping in the cold air. “Northland’s self-sufficient way of life usually bars outsiders, right? If you don’t even know who they are, shouldn’t you be more cautious?”

How did you just let it slide?

“Mm… you two may not know,” Tifana said, voice soft as frost. “We did have a strict rule against outsiders, but that was in Moragus’s era. Things changed with time, like ice thawing under spring sun.”

“Because of the continent’s economic shifts and our need to develop, His Majesty the Ice Emperor ordered long ago: anyone entering Northland—if they don’t stir trouble—can be left alone, like drifting snow that doesn’t block a path.”

“After all, anyone who braves Northland’s killing cold to reach our main city has courage and grit the deity of Deepest Winter has already recognized.”

“And then Estis City got taken by the very people your winter deity ‘recognized’?” Nana Shi said, eyes half-lidded, her words a thin blade under velvet.

Tifana paused. “….”

She hated to admit it, but the truth weighed like packed snow.

No one expected someone would covet Northland right now, and just when the Ice Emperor was away, the stars crossing like ill omens.

“Do you know where they came from?” Nana asked, her voice like a lantern under wind.

“No idea…” They showed up across the six states of Northland, many as drifting crows. Who knew from which horizon they flew?

“What about the temperature shifts in Northland?”

“Mm… also unclear,” Tifana said, scratching the back of her head, shame like red on pale cheeks. “But one thing is certain: the temperature started changing the day before His Majesty attended the continental UN summit.”

The day before the summit…

Nana remembered: the Ice Emperor found those sigil bearers the day before she decided to attend. The timing threaded like a tight knot.

“Seems the Ice Emperor knows some inside story about the sigils,” the System whispered, a quiet bell in Nana’s ear.

“Maybe if we find His Majesty, all these knots will loosen,” it added, hope like a warm ember.

“Don’t bet on it,” Nana said, brows tightening like a storm front. “Everything’s unfolding too smoothly. It feels arranged, like footprints set before snowfall.”

“You mean…”

“Biyanhan likely knew I’d come to Northland to find her.” Nana’s tone was winter-steel. “With how she protects her own, she wouldn’t vanish unprepared. She dumped her mess on me to clean up—just to make me gag on it.”

Next time I see that woman, I’m getting my payback. The thought burned like a coal under snow.

The System fell silent. “….” Classic Host.

“If that’s true, then the Ice Emperor’s tangled in trouble and can’t break free,” said Yan Xiao through shared data, her voice traveling from Chronos City like a wire in the wind. Ningyi relayed the message with steady hands.

“I heard Northland’s Ice Palace keeps unique research tech and historical records,” Yan Xiao said. “Nana, you might find clues there, like inscriptions under frozen walls.”

“But first, we need to enter Estis City,” she added, practical as iron. “The sigil bearers block the road like a snow-dam. If we don’t clear them, we’re stuck.”

“How long from Estis City to the Ice Palace?” Nana asked, looking at Tifana, gaze a thin flame.

“With transport, two days,” Tifana answered, earnest as frost on glass.

“….”

Two days to reach the Ice Palace? With transport? Was it built on the other side of the planet?

Nana could tour the whole continent in her own ship in a single day. How could Northland outsize the continent, like a map that swallowed its frame?

“Uh, pardon the question—what ‘transport’?” the System asked, a prickle of doubt like sleet.

“It’s a people-cart!” Tifana chirped, cheeks bright as cherries under winter light.

“?”

A what? A human cart?

Nana traded a look with the System, neck tilting back, disbelief like a cold splash. A cart pulled by people?

“Don’t tell me Northland’s tech can’t build a ship,” Nana said, frowning. Their comprehensive tech wasn’t low. Why no vehicles?

“Uh… we can build them,” Tifana said, embarrassment coloring her voice like dawn over snow. “We just don’t use them.”

“Why?”

“Mm… because… forcing our lower bodies to overwork—honestly, isn’t that super exhilarating?” Tifana cupped her cheeks, shy as first snow, words wobbling with heat. “That delicious fatigue in our legs, and the ache from bearing His Majesty the Ice Emperor’s weight—guhehe—just imagining it makes certain places feel… not quite decent.”

“……”

“……”

Hey, hey, hey! You just sped right past the guardrail!

Dropping your kink in front of us like that—these people’s brains run curiously crooked, like sleds off a trail.

Nana and the System were stunned. So Northland’s “transport” is the Ice Emperor’s dom tools? Do some serious work, Ice Emperor!

Your frosty persona’s getting weird, twisted by a flock of eager masochists.

“Anyway… since His Majesty doesn’t need transport, and we common folks aren’t used to it, we never lit that branch of the tech tree,” Tifana explained, logic lurching like a cart in ruts.

Even though Nana and the System had witnessed Northland’s masochist streak before, this was hard to swallow, like ice shards in the throat.

Fine. Two days it is.

She’d weathered bigger storms. She could use the time to learn Northland’s customs, like reading wind over snow.

Mouth twitching, Nana followed Tifana north. They walked for about a day and a half, until Estis City finally rose like a dark silhouette on a white horizon. Hard to imagine how Tifana had dragged a wounded body this far alone, like a fox running on torn paws.

“Host, at this distance I can detect life-sign fluctuations in and around Estis City,” the System said, its scanner humming like a hive for a day and a half.

Seeing they were close, Nana chose a hidden cave, still as a winter den, to rest and sort intel. Daytime had warmed, but night still bit like a steel-toothed wind.

“Can you count how many people are around?” Nana asked, tossing kindling onto a campfire, sparks like fireflies.

“About three hundred,” the System said, numbers falling like cold beads.

“Why so few?” Nana’s brows thinned into lines. Estis City had tens of thousands. How did three hundred take it? And Northland natives have stamina like iron wolves.

“Uh… this is shameful,” Tifana murmured, scratching her cheek, voice shrinking like a candle in a gale. “We Northlanders do have exceptional stamina. But those sigil-bearing outsiders aren’t weaker. They crushed us physically and freely controlled Spirit Energy. To protect the city and civilians, we kept retreating, step by heavy step.”

Her voice faded at the end, like snow blown thin.

Nana set the fire straight and stared into the flames, thoughts curling like smoke. “Sigils can boost the body so much they overpower Northland natives…” Her understanding shifted, ice cracking under weight.

“Can you tell who has high-tier sigils? Mid-tier?” she asked the System, voice level, eyes sharp as blades.

“Mm… can’t,” the System said. “I don’t have the data. Unless we see the sigils fully, not even my master could tell.”

Fair enough.

Nana lowered her head, thinking lines like tracks in fresh snow.

The System cut in, a tap on still water. “Oh, right. My master asked me to pass a message. According to her backend stats, only one or two high-tier sigils exist on our planet. So don’t worry about running into high-tier bearers.”

“What about mid and low-tier?” Nana asked. She hadn’t fought them yet. Strengths were unknown clouds.

“Master says don’t worry. Just charge. She’ll handle the aftermath in Chronos City,” the System answered, blunt as a hammer.

Nana fell silent. “…” That woman wants me dead in Northland, doesn’t she?

“‘Don’t worry, just charge’? At least say how strong they are,” she muttered, frustration like a blade on bone.

Forget it.

Those two have never been reliable. Not before, not now. In the end, she had to rely on herself.

A tight ache pressed in her chest, like winter night settling.

“Rest up,” Nana said, voice steady as packed snow. “At first light, we go and test the waters.”

They’d been out almost two days already. Whether she could find the Ice Emperor within the next five was a question drifting like frost in the air.