I Ended My Engagement With The Woman Who Despised Me

✦  Chapter 6 — Warmth Begins to Bloom (2)  ✦

「Translator - Creator」

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In the North, when heavy snowfall made finding food extremely difficult, people were forced to make value judgments;  this meant those who couldn't procure food immediately were classified as worthless, while adults capable of gathering food from outside were deemed highly valuable.

In such situations, the North sacrificed the elderly and children first.

The elderly and children, unable to gather food, were assets of the future rather than the present, rendering them temporarily worthless. If one invested in the worthless out of sympathy, the entire family could starve to death.

Paradoxically, the only way to save crying, hungry children was to secretly consume frozen food scraps before heading out to hunt.

The North was a harsh, desolate place where everything was directly linked to survival, forcing emotions to freeze.

In this sense, the North I witnessed in the middle of the city was excessively empty. Heavy snowfall covered everything, and the only people moving about were hunters and a few adult males.

They passed by, eyeing me with suspicion; to them, outsiders were merely competitors coming to steal their share. Moreover, powerful outsiders could potentially destroy everything they had barely managed to build.

That's why they avoided and were wary of me.

Feeling like I had fallen alone into a one-eyed village, I summoned the sun spirit, placed it on my palm, and spoke, "Will you help me?"

The sun spirit nodded quickly, as if eager to do anything I asked.

I synchronized with the spirit’s energy and began to generate warmth.

Harnessing the spirit’s power wasn’t particularly difficult — I just had to commune with it and envision what I wanted to achieve.

However, perhaps due to my lack of skill, the process placed a significant strain on my mind, and I was struck by a splitting headache.

Still, it was manageable. I gritted my teeth and endured, unleashing the sun spirit’s energy in a wide radius.

"...Huh?"

The startled voice of someone nearby broke the silence as the relentless snowfall began to subside.

Of course, I couldn’t cover the entire city; the range was limited to an area roughly the size of a schoolyard around me.

However, it was enough to draw the northerners, who had been hiding from the cold in their homes, out into the open.

"It's not snowing here."

"It's warm here...?"

As the relentless snowfall ceased and turned into rain that melted the surroundings, the northerners slowly stepped outside one by one, their faces blank with disbelief.

Although the warmth I produced wasn’t entirely sufficient to bring about a truly comfortable temperature, it was miraculous enough for them; the townspeople began gathering around me, letting the rain fall upon them.

"Everyone seems to like it," Loraine said with a small smile, watching people gazing up at the sky.

I nodded in her direction, suppressing the headache that continued to throb in my temples, and slowly surveyed the area.

The snow continued to melt.

People, never expecting such a sight in the North, stood on the muddy ground and began to pray.

Some wailed prostrate in the mud, calling out names.

"Oh Goddess..."

"If only... if only it had gotten warm a little sooner. Then, E-Elena could have lived."

"Ha... haha, it's warm."

The Sun Spirit, it seemed, possessed more than the ability to generate warmth. Its power carried the energy of life itself, causing flowers and grass to sprout and bloom rapidly, erasing the desolation.

The barren, frost-bitten surroundings were gradually painted green, drawing even more attention and summoning more people from their homes.

Most of them, however, seemed too preoccupied with the sudden change in temperature to realize that I was the one who had made it happen. Though I felt a twinge of disappointment, I reminded myself that it didn’t matter as long as Elysia acknowledged it.

Just as I was shaking off the thought, a voice called out.

"Here, big brother!"

A young child held out a freshly bloomed flower.

I glanced at the small blue flower in my hand, about to thank the child, when a woman—likely the child’s mother—quickly pulled the child away and hurried back into their home.

To them, I was still an outsider, someone to be cautious of.

Still, I consoled myself with the fact that at least one person had acknowledged my efforts.

"Young master... what exactly did you do?"

Loraine stared at me with an expression full of shock and doubt.

“It’s just… something I can do.”

At my vague response, Lorraine squinted, her expression riddled with doubt, before muttering under her breath, ‘so that's what it was,’ and nodding to herself.

Though I felt she was misunderstanding something, I was too exhausted to address it and instead turned my attention back to the scene around me.

Snow no longer fell in the city.

Instead of the quiet murmurs of despair that had hung in the air, I now heard laughter.

Looking at the place where hope had begun to blossom, I thought to myself how much Elysia would love this sight.

And with that thought, I smiled.

𓆩♱𓆪

After six grueling months of effort, the North no longer trembled in the cold.

The chill that had surrounded the city vanished, and countless forms of life began sprouting from the once-frozen earth where proper life had refused to grow.

The North, no longer deserving its reputation for harshness and desolation, flourished with numerous crops.

And trade, previously extremely limited, expanded significantly, bringing various goods to the streets; though not yet considered wealthy, the city was filled with laughter as it no longer suffered from starvation during heavy snowfalls.

'Above all, they've found hope.'

Those who once hunched over in fear of losing what little warmth they had while watching strangers with suspicion now stood tall and began embracing new possibilities.

They started working with the belief that things would improve, breathing life into one another.

However...

'Perhaps the problem is that they're starting to take this warmth for granted?'

Not to brag, but the North's warmth was entirely my doing.

More specifically, I was 'temporarily' maintaining the city's warmth by borrowing the sun spirit's power.

In other words, if I stopped focusing my energy on keeping the North warm, it would quickly revert to its previous state.

'Since it requires so much energy, I wish they would develop on their own if possible.'

However, it seemed that as they began to view this warmth as natural, they had stopped exploring ways to maintain it on their own. This worried me.

Still, it wasn’t a significant issue—after all, as long as I could endure it for Elysia’s sake, I didn’t mind shouldering the burden alone.

'Well, what matters most is about Elysia anyway.'

Incidentally, perhaps due to my consistent efforts over the past six months — sending her greetings, sharing tea, and ensuring the north stayed warm — she no longer told me to leave the moment she saw me.

'Not that it means we’ve grown particularly close…'

Our relationship hadn't changed dramatically from six months ago.

At best, we'd moved from being bitter enemies to something akin to unfamiliar neighbors. Still, I was quite satisfied with this progress. As I was preparing to bring her tea, I discovered something quite interesting.

"Elysia!"

Having found something good, I hurriedly headed to her office to show her. Elisia stared at me blankly with an expressionless face.

I gestured toward the hallway as I looked at her and spoke.

"Come with me for a moment!"

“…Damian, I’m sorry, but I have a lot of work piled up. I can’t leave right now.”

"It's fine, just come!"

Perhaps it was because I didn’t usually behave this way, but she, surprisingly, didn’t flat-out refuse.

Well, she didn’t follow me willingly either —  she allowed herself to be dragged along, reluctantly stepping into the hallway as she spoke.

"I hope this is meaningful."

Her subtle warning sent a small wave of nervousness through me, but I was determined to show her this, so I swallowed my unease and quickened my pace.

“............”

Shaking her shoulder to pull her attention away from the documents she had been glaring at, I pointed toward a window in the corner of the hallway and said,

"Would you look here?"

"...Hah."

Though she clearly didn’t think it was worth the effort, she must have decided it was better to just humor me.

With no change in her expression, like an emotionless marionette, Elysia turned to look out the window.

At that moment, for the first time, her expressionless face transformed — her eyes widened like someone who had found hope after despair.

‘She probably already knew, at least on paper, that the northern region had changed significantly…’

But having spent all her time holed up in her office, buried in documents, this must have been the first time she was seeing the transformation for herself.

I watched as she gazed at the view, her expression filled with wonder, as though she were looking at something precious. Teasingly, I asked,

"Do you like it?"

I expected the usual emotionless responses like 'Not interested,' 'Not bad,' or 'Yes.'

I wasn’t holding out much hope for anything different, but —

"...Yes. I... I like it very much."

Her unexpected answer caught me completely off guard.

I blinked, startled, as I stared at the smile spreading across her face. For a moment, it felt like the world had flipped upside down.

She turned to me and, with an expression full of gratitude, said,

"Thank you for showing me this sight."

A strong gust of wind swept through, causing her snow-white hair to flutter in all directions. Under the sunlight, her hair seemed to gleam brighter than anything else, and I found myself staring at her in a daze.

Still smiling, she turned back to the lively and vibrant cityscape outside and spoke again.

"What I've been doing wasn't meaningless after all."

“Huh? Oh, yeah, that’s right.”

“Really… that’s such a relief.”

Completely stunned by these unexpected words, I could only blink and nod. She continued to gaze out the window for a while before turning her attention back to me.

“Well then, I suppose I’ll have to work even harder now.”

Unlike before, she began walking down the hallway, an expression now brimming with vitality.

Watching her retreating figure, I was reminded once again why I had fallen for her in the first place, and a small smile spread across my lips.

Or at least, it did.

Until the moment an overwhelming horde of monsters poured out from the rift, shattering all sense of normalcy.

And that event…

“Lord Damian, we’ve received reports that you’ve been venturing into the deep forest every night. And this sudden warmth… no matter how I look at it, it seems connected to the rift.”

…was also tied to the annulment announcement I would soon face.

END of CHAPTER

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