Autumn deepened, and a heavy snowfall suddenly swept over Nagu Town. By morning, everything was blanketed in white. I sat by the window, chin propped in my hand as I watched the snow falling outside, my feet swinging idly. Firewood crackled in the stove, orange flames dancing over the coals. The warm air made me drowsy.

Just then, someone knocked at the door.

Who could it be? In this snowstorm—is it an emergency?

Before I knew it, I’d become the town doctor and earned everyone’s trust. It was a good thing, sure, but it also meant I was often called out for emergencies. Could someone really need medical help in weather like this?

“Who is it?”

“It’s me, Elsa. Please, you have to help me.”

When I opened the door, sure enough, it was Faenda. This show-off was the second-best hunter in town. First place belonged to Rosen, known for his experience and level head.

“Faenda, what happened?”

I invited him inside and poured him a cup of tea.

“The thing is… it’s hard to talk about…” Faenda looked devastated. “But, Elsa, you’re the only one who can help me now. So… please, no matter what, help me!”

He was crying his eyes out. I couldn’t help wondering what could’ve hit this show-off so hard.

“Don’t panic. Take your time and tell me.”

“Um… I…” Faenda’s eyes darted around. “I… recently married Layla…”

I knew that already. The wedding had been just three days ago, and I’d attended it myself.

“But there’s a problem. Elsa, I’m afraid no one else can help me! Please, you have to help!”

“What exactly is the problem?” I was getting more and more curious.

“Well… um… I…” He hesitated. “After three days of going at it, I suddenly can’t get it up anymore.”

Uh… what? Weren’t you always bragging that you were a cold-blooded, merciless super jackhammer—that you got hard once a day and stayed hard all day? You’ve only been married for three days. How did you suddenly go limp?

“Elsa…” Faenda grabbed my hand. “I heard there’s a medicine that can bring a man’s… thing back from the dead. Please, make me a bottle. Once I’ve got Layla taken care of, I… I’ll be back in fighting shape!”

Hey, man, is it really okay to talk about not being able to get it up with an underage girl who’s only fifteen? Still, I think I can make an energy tonic. It might improve that sort of ability.

“Wait here. I’ll see if I can make one.”

So I turned and went into the alchemy lab. I followed the recipe shown by the system, placed the herbs on the alchemy table, and poured in my magic. Amid flashes of red lightning, a blue potion appeared out of nowhere, almost like it was being 3D-printed. I picked it up, still crackling with sparks, and checked its quality. Platinum grade again. It seemed like every potion I made turned out top quality.

“Faenda,” I said, handing him the potion, “this should boost your energy, but I don’t know if it’ll solve your problem, so I won’t charge you. If even this doesn’t work, then I really can’t help you.”

“Thank you so much!” Faenda was overwhelmed with gratitude. “Layla, here I come! This time, I’m getting my revenge!”

With that, he vanished into the falling snow in a flash, and my room grew quiet again. I had a nagging feeling I’d done something a little irresponsible, but the potion didn’t have any obvious side effects, so I soon forgot all about it.

Who knew that three days later, the men of the village would be lined up outside my house?

“Elsa, I’d like to buy an energy tonic. One bottle, please.”

“Five copper coins. Thanks for your purchase.”

“I want ten bottles!”

“Hey, people in the back! You can’t just buy them all up!”

The men argued noisily while I wore a twitching smile and sold three hundred bottles of energy tonic in one go.

That night, the sounds of passionate lovemaking echoed over all of Nagu Town, keeping me awake until morning… You bunch of idiots! Do you get so bored staying home during a snowfall that all you can do is bang all day? The snow kept falling for a whole week, and the week-long sex fest went on right along with it. At least it finally came to an end when the skies cleared. I had a feeling Nagu Town’s population would be a lot bigger next year. I just hoped that wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Winter sunlight slanted through the window, casting the shadow of the window frame across the wooden floor. Outside, the sky was cloudless and a beautiful shade of blue, so vivid it seemed ready to pull your soul right into it. The weaker sunlight was definitely a good thing for me as a vampire. I used three fire flasks to deal with the thick snow piled up in front of my door, then cleared away some of the loose snow with a shovel and quickly dug my way out of the entrance, which had been completely blocked by the snowfall. Almost everyone in town was shoveling snow. The children were having a snowball fight in a nearby clearing, while the hunters’ dogs burrowed through the snow, chasing and tumbling after one another. Those dogs were happier than the people.

I saw Rosen leading a group of hunters and villagers to inspect the stone wall between the fields and the forest. They cleared the snow from the outside of the wall to make sure wolves and wild boars couldn’t use the snow as a ramp to climb over it and invade the town.

“Elsa,” the mayor called to me while I was shoveling snow. “Come over here. I need to talk to you.”

“What can I do for you, Mr. Mayor?”

“First of all, I want to thank you for making such a major contribution to Nagu Town’s population growth.”

Can we not talk about that? My face was practically on fire.

“There’s something else,” the mayor said, pausing for a moment. “Chili Village hasn’t sent anyone over in two weeks. Their last message said some strange illness had broken out. I’d like you to go with Rosen and the others to see what’s going on.”

Chili Village lay north of Nagu Town. It was a small frontier settlement, and now and then its villagers came to town to sell furs and dried meat at the market and buy grain and vegetables. They said it was deep in the forest, with hardly any farmland, so winter was a harsh season there. As the town’s only Alchemist (apothecary), I felt I should help.

“No problem. When do we leave?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“All right.”

Early the next morning, I followed the frost-covered road to the square. Rosen and the others were already ready to depart. Luka was with them, and so was Faenda. Including me, there were ten people in the group. It seemed nearly all the town’s capable hunters had joined us. The mayor had prepared two sleds loaded with supplies, while the hunters traveled on skis. I got a pair of birch-bark skis too. Eager to give them a try, I tested them out on the slope by the town gate. I shot forward like a fighter jet launched from an aircraft carrier, then plunged headfirst into a snowbank like a cannonball, leaving only my feet sticking out. The startled hunters had to struggle for ages to dig me out. The humiliation… Damn it!

In the end, they wrapped me up like a bundle of cotton and loaded me onto a sled, sending me off to Chili Village like a neatly packed parcel.