It was chess. Not human chess, but a strategic board game played by Constellations. A white piece, like its queen. It was a form that had arranged the shape of that piece. He didn’t know exactly which piece it was—but the design was definitely based on a chess piece.
So that was why he’d thought it looked like a pillar at first.
Jaewon opened the text window.
```
[Director → Log]
I saw it. Is she into chess?
```
```
[Log → Director]
I suspect it belongs to the category of ancient strategy board games.
```
Jaewon set the crystal ball down on the table and thought for a moment.
A strategy game.
Someone who liked old things. Someone who enjoyed systematic, intricate calculation. If her daughter spent money on a game, it might not mean she had no interest in games themselves—perhaps she had simply never encountered a world she could accept.
Jaewon looked again at the patch notes on the table.
The signature line.
He still hadn’t signed.
“……”
Jaewon opened the text window.
```
[Director → Log]
Try talking her up a bit.
```
A brief silence passed.
```
[Log → Director]
Are you trying to stop the refund?
```
```
[Director → Log]
Yeah. It’s extremely risky, but give it a shot. Maybe mention the strategic depth?
```
```
[Log → Director]
……Understood.
```
---
Log waddled one step closer to the Queen of the Blizzard.
The woman, who had been looking out over the battlefield, lowered her gaze. She looked at the penguin.
Log said,
“Um, Constellation-nim.”
“……”
“The battlefield you’re seeing right now.”
Log lifted a flipper toward the battlefield. It was a short penguin flipper. At least it was pointing in the right direction.
“The dragon has laid down a smokescreen, the dwarves are adjusting their cannon placements, and the human army is moving along a detour. The three factions are each moving with different information and different calculations.”
The Queen of the Blizzard looked at the battlefield, then back at Log.
“Arcana Online is not a simple combat game. There is room for reading ahead. There is resource allocation. There is a long-term board state.”
Log continued.
“It is also structured so that Constellations can intervene strategically through sponsorship, and there are also methods of acting directly within the world through manifestation, like your daughter. While it is not unlike a strategy board game in nature, the difference is that it contains the variables of a living, moving world—”
“Wait.”
The Queen of the Blizzard cut Log off.
Her voice was low.
Log stopped.
Jaewon tilted the crystal ball and held his breath.
The Queen of the Blizzard slowly opened her mouth.
“Are you.”
“Yes.”
“Comparing Constellation Chess.”
A beat.
“To a game operated by humans?”
“……That was not my intention—”
“Do you know how many years of history Constellation Chess has?”
Log did not answer.
“One million years.”
Jaewon nearly dropped the crystal ball.
“A traditional strategy board game with one million years of history.”
The Queen of the Blizzard’s voice grew lower and lower.
“And you think a game made and operated by humans can stand beside it?”
Snow began to fall.
From a gentle drift, it suddenly started pouring down all at once.
The hill turned white in an instant. Log’s penguin feet were buried in snow. Ankles. Knees. Waist.
Log was gradually being buried.
Jaewon’s view through the crystal ball sank lower and lower.
Log’s eye level was about to reach the surface of the snow.
```
[Log → Director]
I am being buried in snow. Please save me
```
Jaewon closed his eyes.
“……”
Pure-White First Snow was a calm Constellation with a fairly low temperature.
Her mother, however.
Was the type that had wind added to that temperature.
Their faces were similarly beautiful. They resembled each other. White hair. White skin. But looking at this blizzard now—
“She only looks like that because she’s a Constellation.”
Jaewon thought to himself.
“She’s a total old fogey.”
Ten thousand years of history. A traditional board game. How dare a game made by humans even try to compare?
Jaewon felt slightly fed up by the fact that someone could look one way and be another inside. Of course, the one-million-year history might not be wrong. It was impressive, too. But to bring that up like that in the middle of a conversation—
“Hey, how old is your game’s history? How dare you.”
That was the nuance.
Jaewon let out a breath.
```
[Director → Log]
Let’s apologize first.
```
Log’s view lowered. The snow was right in front of his beak.
“……I apologize.”
Log spoke while buried.
“The comparison was inappropriate.”
The Queen of the Blizzard looked down at him.
The snow slowly eased. It did not stop completely. It lessened a little.
Log wiggled in the snow.
```
[Log → Director]
Please get me out.
```
Jaewon wrapped his hands around the crystal ball.
“How?”
```
[Log → Director]
Mr. Jaewon.
```
```
[Director → Log]
I’m thinking.
```
```
[Log → Director]
Think faster.
```
The Queen of the Blizzard was looking down at Log.
At the penguin buried in snow.
Her expression seemed to have changed slightly somehow. Whether her anger had lessened, whether she was flustered, or whether she simply found it absurd.
Jaewon watched that expression through the crystal ball and slowly tapped his finger on the table.
---
The Queen of the Blizzard opened her mouth.
“Fine.”
She spoke curtly.
“So.”
Her gaze returned to its original purpose.
“The refund—”
It was then.
---
A sound came from the battlefield.
The sound of wings. It was different from a dragon’s. Lighter, faster.
Jaewon picked up the crystal ball and opened the battlefield tab.
Log’s view turned with it.
In the direction away from the dwarven fortress. On the outskirts of the area where the battle was in full swing. A single wyvern was flying low.
And.
There was someone on its back.
White hair was streaming in the wind.
Jaewon tilted the crystal ball and narrowed his eyes.
“……Pure-White First Snow.”
She was near the war zone together with a wyvern. The wyvern had been prowling around the outskirts of the battlefield, and she had either climbed onto its back, or ended up on it somehow.
That wyvern was now flying this way.
Toward the hill.
Toward where the Queen of the Blizzard stood.
Jaewon gripped the table with his hand.
He opened the text window.
```
[Director → Log]
Look at that.
```
```
[Log → Director]
I am watching.
```
```
[Director → Log]
What should we do?
```
```
[Log → Director]
……For now, we wait.
```
---
The wyvern landed in front of the hill.
On the snow-covered rise. Right in front of where the Queen of the Blizzard stood.
Pure-White First Snow climbed down from the wyvern’s back.
After letting her down, the wyvern looked at the Queen of the Blizzard, then seemed to instinctively sense that she was something tremendous and edged back a step.
Pure-White First Snow did not step back.
She stood before the Queen of the Blizzard.
And.
She bowed her head.
Jaewon peered into the crystal ball.
“……”
Pure-White First Snow had her head lowered.
Completely bowed. Her white hair spilled forward as if trailing down to the ground.
Jaewon blinked once.
He had only thought she was calm.
He had thought she had no temperature.
Was that Constellation the sort of being who would bow her head like that?
The Queen of the Blizzard looked down at her daughter. Her expression was complicated. There was still anger there. But there was something else, too.
Pure-White First Snow opened her mouth with her head raised.
“Mother.”
Her voice was lower than usual. It was not cold. Just low.
“I used Mother’s card without permission and without responsibility.”
“……”
“I was wrong.”
The Queen of the Blizzard said nothing.
“However.”
Pure-White First Snow looked back once. The wyvern was there. It was wary of the Queen of the Blizzard, yet its body was leaning slightly toward Pure-White First Snow.
“This child.”
Pure-White First Snow looked at her mother again.
“Has become more precious to me than anything.”
The inside of the cabin was quiet.
Jaewon watched the scene, crystal ball in hand.
“I do not mind receiving this much less allowance from now on.”
Pure-White First Snow said,
“Please allow me to raise this child.”
Silence flowed.
The Queen of the Blizzard looked at her daughter. She looked at the wyvern. Then she looked at her daughter again.
Her gaze shifted to the side. Toward the penguin buried in the snow.
Log barely had only his eyes poking above the surface.
Jaewon tilted the crystal ball and thought to himself.
“...I don’t think she’s going to say okay in this situation.”
This was someone who had summoned a blizzard because a human game had been compared to traditional chess with ten thousand years of history. Her daughter had made unauthorized payments. She had even manifested personally. She had demanded a refund.
Just because her daughter said she wanted to raise a wyvern here....
Jaewon calculated the possibility of a positive outcome.
It was low.
At the very least, if Pure-White First Snow was sincere, and if she could feel that sincerity, then maybe...
He opened the text window.
```
[Director → Log]
Let’s just get the signature and end it. If we push any further, it’ll be a loss.
```
```
[Log → Director]
Agreed. I will complete the refund process and wrap this up.
```
Jaewon pulled the patch notes toward him.
He brought the pen to the signature line.
At that moment.
“……”
After a long silence, the Queen of the Blizzard opened her mouth.
“One month’s worth.”
Pure-White First Snow raised her head.
“Not one month’s allowance.”
The Queen of the Blizzard continued.
“One year’s worth.”
Pure-White First Snow froze.
“On the condition that you do not receive one year’s worth.”
The Queen of the Blizzard’s gaze turned to the wyvern. The wyvern edged backward again under that gaze.
“I permit it.”
Jaewon’s pen stopped in front of the signature line.
Pure-White First Snow bowed her head again. Even more deeply than before.
“Thank you.”
The Queen of the Blizzard made a sound almost like a snort.
“I don’t know whether this world is worth that much.”
She turned her gaze.
Toward Log.
The penguin still buried in snow.
“The refund.”
“……Yes.”
“Will be concluded with this one time.”
“Thank you.”
Log bowed his head in the snow. He was half-buried again.
The Queen of the Blizzard looked at Pure-White First Snow once more, then turned her head without a word.
And walked away.
Snow formed a path in the direction her manifestation walked. Coldly. Quietly. There were no footprints left where the Queen of the Blizzard had passed.
---
Jaewon looked down at the signature line.
The pen was still there.
He remained like that for a while.
Then slowly signed.
Scratch.
A short sound.
For the moment, the notice that the Queen of the Blizzard’s refund had been processed appeared.
Jaewon closed the patch notes.
He picked up the crystal ball and opened the balance tab.
The number had decreased.
Jaewon looked at that number, then outside the window—there was no window, so he looked toward the door.
It was closed.
“Log.”
He did not send it by text, but simply spoke.
Beyond the crystal ball, Log was shaking snow off himself and standing up on the hill.
“Yes.”
“Do you think that mother will come again next time?”
A brief silence passed.
“……I do not know.”
“I don’t know either.”
Jaewon set the crystal ball down on the table.
On the hill, Pure-White First Snow was stroking the wyvern’s back.
The penguin was waddling over to her side.
Jaewon closed the balance tab.
---