Koyuki Kazahana was drinking.
When they first boarded the sky battleship, the crew had warned everyone that they couldn't bring flammable or explosive materials on board, it was too dangerous.
But she still hid a small bottle of alcohol.
Koyuki knew this was wrong and unsafe, but the moment she thought about going back to her homeland, fear rose from deep inside her chest. Only alcohol could make her feel a little better.
That's how she had always gotten by over the years.
When she saw Ryosuke, Koyuki quickly hid the bottle behind her back, avoiding his gaze. Her heart was guilty and nervous. She silently prayed he'd just walk away.
But Ryosuke walked toward her.
"...Tch."
Koyuki lowered her head, bracing herself to be scolded.
Suddenly, a cup was handed to her.
"Pour me one too."
Koyuki looked up at him, then at the glass. "I thought they said no alcohol on board?"
Ryosuke nodded.
"That's right. No alcohol allowed on the sky battleship. If there's a fire, it'd be too dangerous. That's why," he said calmly, "I'll have to help you drink it quickly, so it's safe."
"What kind of logic is that."
Koyuki rolled her eyes but still took the bottle out from behind her back.
After pouring half a cup for each of them, just as Ryosuke said, the bottle was empty.
Ryosuke thanked her quietly but didn't sit beside her. Instead, he sat on the other side of the sofa, gazing silently out the window at the stars and clouds flashing by, occasionally taking a sip.
Koyuki waited for a while, thinking he might say something.
Back then, it was through Kakashi that she had asked Ryosuke to reclaim the Land of Snow. Later, when it came to evaluating the intel and deciding whether to take action, all communication had gone through the Intelligence Department. From start to finish, they had never directly spoken about taking back the Land of Snow.
She looked at Ryosuke's side profile. Her eyes were deep, filled with countless unspoken questions.
Maybe it was the frustration of being ignored, or maybe the fear of returning home mixed with alcohol, Koyuki couldn't hold back the question buried in her heart.
"Do you really look down on me that much?"
"I know I'm not ready to be a 'queen,' but I can learn, I can try, "
Her voice stopped.
Ryosuke had finished his thoughts, and his deep eyes now rested on her.
In that brief moment of eye contact, all the resentment that had been ready to erupt in Koyuki's chest suddenly fell silent.
"I don't look down on you," Ryosuke said.
"It's just that, in the world I envision, there's no need for hereditary kings, only leaders. A leader isn't chosen by bloodline or appointed by me, but someone who rises from among the people of the Land of Snow themselves."
"When I take back the Land of Snow, I'll let you hold the title of 'queen.' But you won't inherit it, and you won't have absolute authority. You'll just be a temporary symbol, to help people more easily accept the change of eras."
"Are you willing?"
His words were blunt, like a knife stabbing straight into her heart.
The centuries-long rule of the Kazahana royal family would end with her decision.
If one day she joined her ancestors in the afterlife, how could she face her father or the generations of Kazahana elders who came before her?
But...
She thought of the citizens in the Land of Snow, suffering in misery, while she, a royal, had done nothing, living comfortably abroad as an actress. Koyuki wasn't afraid of returning home. She was afraid of seeing their pain and being devoured by guilt.
"I'm willing."
Koyuki raised her head, eyes firm.
"As long as you can save my country, I'll do anything."
Clink!
Ryosuke gently tapped his glass against hers.
"Now you're starting to look a little bit like a queen."
They both downed their drinks.
When they set their glasses down, a flake of snow drifted past the window.
They had entered the Land of Snow's airspace.
———
The Land of Snow was a small nation.
One central capital, a dozen satellite cities, and beyond that, scattered villages. Altogether, maybe not even 100,000 people.
You could take two random districts from Kyoto and they'd already have a bigger population than the whole country.
But though there were few people, the land was vast.
Since it was covered in snow most of the year, it was wide but sparsely populated.
When Koyuki's father was still alive, the government had been lenient and benevolent. The citizens weren't rich, but they could eat, stay warm, and even buy new clothes during festivals.
For ordinary people living in this harsh world, not starving, not freezing, finishing work during the day and returning home to a warm bed and family, that was happiness as good as any god's.
But everything changed when Kazahana Dotō seized power.
Even the tyrannies of great nations at least pretended to care about appearances. No matter how disgusting their acts, they'd hide them like the Land of Water once did, or dress them up with noble excuses like the Land of Wind.
The Land of Snow's tyranny, though, had no disguise at all.
Kazahana Dotō treated all one hundred thousand of his people like personal slaves.
He looted food, forced conscription, dragged people into labor without warning, truly treating human lives like weeds.
Reading through the intelligence reports, Ryosuke thought that overthrowing this regime ten thousand times over still wouldn't be excessive. But, "I still need to see it for myself."
After all, this was about overturning an entire nation. Ryosuke wanted to see with his own eyes what the Land of Snow had become.
"Can you bring us along?" Koyuki asked.
Ryosuke nodded. He needed someone familiar with the land.
In the end, Ryosuke, Koyuki Kazahana, and Asama Santayu went ahead to investigate.
The Explorer hovered in the sky, waiting for Ryosuke's command.
The three landed in a small village about forty miles from the capital. It was around four in the morning, the sky just turning pale. Farmers were already at work.
Looking around, Ryosuke noticed they were all elderly people and women.
Just as the reports said, the young men had been taken for forced labor.
Then, Ryosuke heard panting nearby.
An old man, past sixty, was struggling to push a donkey cart. It had snowed last night, and the wheels were stuck in a rut. The old donkey was too weak to help, and man and beast alike strained in vain.
Ryosuke walked over and with a light tug, pulled the cart free.
The old man quickly thanked him.
His name was Nagano, a local farmer. Today was the day his grandson got a short break from labor duty, and he was on his way to the capital to bring the boy home.
Ryosuke and the others introduced themselves as hunters heading to town to buy food, suggesting they travel together.
Of course, Nagano agreed. The four of them set off toward the capital. Ryosuke occasionally patted the donkey's rear, sending gentle ripples of energy through it, the old donkey let out a spirited bray and began trotting lively and fast.
Along the way, Nagano kept talking about how obedient and smart his grandson was, clearly proud. Curious, Koyuki asked, "You keep talking about your grandson... what about your son and daughter-in-law?"
Nagano went quiet for a moment, then gave a simple, honest smile.
"They're dead."
"My son was conscripted. Died during training."
"My daughter-in-law went to collect his body, said something in anger, and got killed too."
He said it with a smile, but Ryosuke could tell, he wasn't smiling because he wanted to. He was smiling because, for a poor farmer like him, it was the only way to face tragedy, to not look weak.
It was the only way to survive.
"I'm sorry," Koyuki said softly.
Nagano waved his hand and smiled again. "It's fine. As long as my grandson's healthy, that's enough for me."
This time, it was a real smile.
———
Meanwhile, in a factory in the capital, a boy had an arrow through his thigh, pinning him to the ground. Hot blood gushed out, quickly freezing into red ice crystals. Scattered around him were dolls, toys, snacks, little trinkets.
He was Nagano's grandson.
Today was his scheduled rest day, so his co-workers had given him small gifts to deliver to their families. Cheap little things, but meaningful, the only link they still had with their loved ones while trapped here like prisoners.
But the moment he stepped out of the factory carrying everyone's hopes, an arrow shot through his leg, nailing him to the ground.
A Snow Ninja lowered his longbow and said coldly, "Lord Kazahana Dotō's orders, for the safety of the nation, production will increase. Anyone who slacks off is a traitor, execution without mercy."
The boy wasn't dead yet.
But no one dared help him. No one dared pull out the arrow.
They just watched as his struggling slowed, and the light in his eyes faded away.
By the time Nagano arrived, his grandson had frozen to death at the factory gate.
A lifetime's instinct, seventy years of smiling through pain, told him to smile now too. But he couldn't. His features twisted together, not in sorrow, not in anger, but in a hollow daze beyond words.
Nagano got off the cart, walked up to his grandson's body, and grabbed the arrow with both hands, trying to pull it out.
"Back off," a Snow Ninja barked coldly from inside the factory.
Nagano snapped his head up, eyes bloodshot. "You bastard!"
He grabbed a shard of sharp ice from the ground and, with sudden strength bursting from his frail body, charged like a wild beast toward the Snow Ninja.
The other workers nearby clenched their wrenches tight.
They hated the Snow Ninjas to the bone, but none dared take a step to help.
Not because they were cowards, but because they had families.
Those brought here for labor were mostly men with dependents back home. If they fought, they'd die, and their families would too.
That was the rule of the Land of Snow.
Many shut their eyes, unable to bear watching Nagano's death.
The Snow Ninja sneered and pulled out a kunai to finish him. But then, he suddenly couldn't move.
He struggled to glance down.
A spinning metal sphere had silently struck his abdomen.
Every muscle in his body lost control, leaving him frozen like a wooden stake, watching helplessly as Nagano reached him, raised the shard of ice, and drove it toward his eye.
Shhk!
The icicle pierced through the eyeball.
But the ice was too brittle. It shattered after a few centimeters.
The Snow Ninja tried to beg for mercy, when Nagano opened his toothless mouth and bit deep into the man's throat.
Blood sprayed across the snow, blooming like crimson plum blossoms.
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/XenosX
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰