It was a war without mercy.
We pursued them to the edge of the snowfields and doggedly crushed the breath from their throats.
And at last.
In Norheim, the name Blood Fang vanished completely into history.
The annihilation of an entire tribe.
But throughout those fierce two years of war.
And even in the moment we wiped them out.
Before my eyes, that red phantom would occasionally rise like a shimmering haze.
A sense of déjà vu brushing past me like a warning, or as if telling me not to forget.
But there was one decisive difference.
In the future within that phantom, I did not exist, and Kara, left all alone, always had sorrowful eyes.
Empty, lifeless eyes, as if she had lost the entire world.
But now was different.
“Varg! It’s all over!”
Upon the snowfield where the war had ended.
Kara, having washed away the blood that had covered her, smiled brightly and waved at me.
Behind her, a hale and hearty Gorgon was laughing boisterously as he encouraged the tribe members.
Kara ran over and threw herself into my arms.
The sky-filled eyes looking up at me were sparkling with life.
Yes, this was enough.
This was the future I had changed.
There was no proof.
My instincts were merely bearing witness to it.
* * *
The war was over.
Victory was sweet, but cleaning up afterward was bitter.
This time, however, it was different.
Because it differed from the future shown by the red phantom.
Gorgon had died, and Kara, become the young head of the household, had been forced to bow her head to the envoys and conduct a “servile negotiation for survival.”
The tribesmen had been forced to abandon their homeland and migrate as if being chased away.
But now.
“We’re in no hurry. The one who’s desperate is your archduke.”
The surviving Gorgon looked down at the head envoy and laughed heartily.
The expressions on the envoys’ faces looked as though they had accidentally bitten into a frog and spat it out.
The assassination had failed, and the Blood Fang tribe had been exterminated.
The plans of the Northguard Archduke, ruler of the North, had gone completely awry.
In the end, they could not return empty-handed.
They granted the Winterclaw tribe a castle called Wintersword, but they had to stamp their seal on a humiliating agreement guaranteeing gradual migration and autonomy.
It was a perfect victory.
At that negotiation table, the red phantom once again flashed through my mind.
Kara, bowing her head in humiliation.
『With this… our tribe…』
But when I blinked, what stood before me was Kara, proudly lifting her chin.
‘It changed.’
Relief swept over me.
A future where my existence had been erased.
A new timeline created by my intervention.
Of course, the future had not changed perfectly.
‘In the end, we still have to migrate.’
Slowly but surely, the temperature of the snowy mountains was changing.
In order to survive the division to come, we had no choice but to enter inside the fence.
Moreover, the future in which we received Wintersword Castle, with its impure intentions, had not changed either.
And though Gorgon was alive and the archduke had lowered his tail for now, the connection to that bastard had not been severed completely.
Someday, he would bare his fangs again.
‘But it’ll be different then.’
I clenched my fist tightly.
Because when that time came, I—and we—would tear into the nape of his neck.
And so, times that belonged wholly to us continued, untouched even by the red phantom that was like a prophetic dream.
As if it were a dream.
* * *
One night, Kara and I sparred alone together.
Upon the snow, sword and axe clashed.
Clang!
Kaaang!
Movements not like killing intent, but like a dance.
In that moment when our breaths mingled and our gazes intertwined, there was no red phantom.
Because that future did not exist.
“Haa… haa…”
Kara, panting harshly, aimed for an opening and drove in.
Ordinarily, it would have been a sharp sword strike aimed at my neck.
But.
“Huh…?”
Her feet tangled.
It was a clumsy, awkward mistake unlike Kara, who roamed the snowfields as if they were her own home.
Kara’s body lurched and came tumbling into my arms.
“Kara!”
I reflexively threw away my axe and caught her by the waist.
Thud.
Entangled together, we rolled across the snow.
Instead of the cold sensation of snow, each other’s burning body heat wrapped around our entire bodies.
When I came to my senses, I was straddling Kara.
“……”
“……”
We were close enough that the tips of our noses nearly touched.
Kara’s sapphire eyes trembled.
“Ah. I. Fell. By. Mis. Take.”
She did not push me away.
And, looking aside, she offered an awkward excuse.
“……”
When I gave no answer, Kara wrapped her arms around my neck and whispered in a trembling voice.
“…You’re not moving?”
At that one sentence, the last thread of my reason snapped.
Suddenly, Gorgon’s hearty laughter brushed past my ears.
『Kara’s mother couldn’t hold back and pounced on me. Wahahaha!』
Ah.
So those words had been true.
They say blood will tell.
Instead of answering, I swallowed Kara’s lips.
“Mmph…!”
On the cold snowfield, hot breath rose.
As if devouring each other, we rolled across the snow and shared a passionate kiss.
That night, at Moonlight Lake.
We immersed our naked bodies in the cold lake and felt each other’s warmth.
“Varg, are you warm?”
“Yeah. Because you’re here.”
Even speaking such childish lines did not embarrass me.
There was no red phantom in that moment either.
Only my other half, smiling shyly in my arms, existed there—not the Kara with sorrowful eyes.
Another day, we climbed Sandra’s Cliff together.
Originally, I had intended to climb it alone.
Because Gorgon had once told me something while drunk.
『Varg, if you’re a man, you must risk your life when you propose. In my day, I plucked a snow violet blooming at the end of Sandra’s Cliff and… ahem!』
To follow that romantic advice, I started climbing the cliff at the crack of dawn.
A precipice that made screams echo.
One wrong step, and you would be on the road to the underworld.
When I had climbed halfway up, panting heavily.
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
Beside me, clinging to the sheer cliff, I saw a familiar head of silver hair.
It was Kara.
She, too, was relying on a single rope and climbing the cliff in exactly the same state as me.
“You… why are you here?”
“What about you? Why are you here?”
We blinked at each other.
And then, at the same time, our gazes turned to the single violet flower blooming at the top of the cliff.
A snow violet.
For a moment, a strange silence flowed between us.
Gulp.
And then, as if on cue.
“It’s mine!”
“Move, you mutt!”
A romantic proposal?
There was no such thing.
Suddenly blinded by a burning sense of rivalry, we began climbing the rock face like mad, shoving and pulling at each other.
“Get out of the way! I’m plucking it first!”
“Don’t make me laugh! My arms are longer!”
After a life-or-death race in which we grabbed each other’s ankles and collars.
Tak!
My hand snatched the flower stem first by a hair’s breadth.
“Ah…!”
Kara let out a regretful cry.
I climbed onto the top of the cliff, gasping for breath.
“Tch… Must be nice being tall.”
Then I lifted Kara, who was pouting, and set her down atop the cliff.
At the edge of the cliff, silver hair fluttered in the wind.
And sky-blue eyes flushed red.
I grinned and handed her the flower.
“Here.”
“……”
Kara accepted the flower with a sullen expression.
“…Tch. I was going to pluck it first and give it to you.”
At her grumbling, I suddenly remembered the rest of Gorgon’s story.
『…Actually, I wasn’t the one who plucked it for her. Your mother-in-law climbed up first and was waiting for me. I ended up being proposed to while clinging to the cliff. Hahaha!』
Ah.
A chill ran down my spine.
I almost ended up just like my father-in-law.
‘What a relief.’
That I plucked it first.
At least I avoided being asked, “Will you marry me?” while dangling from a cliff.
I let out a sigh of relief and spoke to Kara, who was sitting at the edge of the cliff.
“I’ll make you happy for the rest of my life, noona.”
There was no grand proposal.
But at those words, Kara’s eyes went round.
“…Noona?”
Then she let out a laugh, as if dumbfounded.
“Ha, you finally called me noona? When we were little, you wouldn’t say it even if it killed you.”
“……”
“But if you’re a man, isn’t it a blow to your pride to call the woman you’re marrying noona? Barbarian males hate that sort of thing, don’t they?”
Kara’s question was sharp, but it did no damage to me whatsoever.
For an instant, a strange sensation brushed deep through my unconscious mind.
I felt no aversion at all to calling the woman I was going to marry “noona.”
Rather, it felt natural.
As if modern people did not think much of couples where the woman was older and the man younger.
I grinned and hooked an arm around Kara’s waist.
“So you don’t like it?”
I slyly pulled Kara into my arms.
“If you don’t like noona, I’ll just call you my woman.”
“…Tch.”
Kara’s face flushed red like a ripe apple.
Then, holding the flower, she buried her forehead against my chest.
“I love you, Varg.”
Even in that moment, the red phantom did not appear.
Only the rising sun filled in the red that would have belonged to the red phantom.
* * *
The meeting of the families was simple, but more sincere than any other.
We had lived under the same roof from the start.
There was no need for formality.
That night, we sat around a bonfire and shared strong snow ale.
As the alcohol took hold, Gorgon brought out an old sword that had been set aside in a place of honor.
It was the keepsake of his wife, Kara’s mother, Flina, who had left this world before him.
“Flina. Are you watching?”
Gorgon stroked the sword and spoke in a hoarse voice.
“Our little girl… is getting married. To the very bastard I picked up, no less.”
With bloodshot eyes, he stared intently at me.
“I watched him for twelve years. What kind of man he is. How tenacious he is, and how much he cherishes our Kara.”
“……”
“So rest easy. I’m vouching for him. Our Kara met a good man.”
At that rough sincerity, a corner of my chest grew heavy.
Kara, too, held her mother’s sword with moisture gathering around her eyes.
“Mom… I’ll live happily. I won’t make Dad worry, and I’ll be happy enough for your share too… truly happy.”
I knelt before them and pressed my forehead to the sword.
Words were unnecessary.
‘I will protect her. Even if I must offer my life.’
My father-in-law, and my father.
My mother-in-law, whose face I had never known.
And my bride.
I carved into my heart the heaviest oath I could offer them.
As the atmosphere turned solemn, Gorgon sniffled and forced out a hearty laugh.
“Ahem! Now, that’s enough gloom! Then the day will be next month’s full moon. Tell Granny Baba to choose an auspicious date.”
And finally, the day of decisive battle dawned.
No, the wedding day.
In the tribe’s square, a massive bonfire blazed as if it would burn the sky.
Across the pure white snowfield, red flames and the cheers of the tribe members swayed.
“The groom enters!”
At the officiant’s booming shout, I walked out.
At the sight of me dressed not in my usual leather clothes but in ceremonial robes decorated with wolf fur, the tribe members cheered.
And across from me.
“The bride enters!”
The tent was drawn back, and Kara walked out.
For an instant, it felt as though all the noise in the world had been cut off.
Kara wore ceremonial robes woven from snow-white frost fox fur.
With her usual tied hair let down, her long silver hair flowing, she was not a warrior, but the goddess of the snowfield herself.
‘She’s beautiful.’
We stood facing each other before the bonfire.
Granny Baba, who was officiating, cried out in a solemn voice.
“Now, begin the ceremony! Let’s get this over with quickly!”
There seemed to be a hint of irritation mixed in.
I took out a dagger and cut off a handful of my hair.
Kara likewise cut off her own silver hair and handed it to me.
Black hair and silver hair.
The two colors mingled and were thrown into the bonfire.
Whoosh!
Acrid smoke rose and soared into the sky.
The moment our souls became one and reached the ancestral spirits.
“Now swear your vows!”
No sooner had Granny Baba spoken than I pulled Kara fiercely into my arms.
“Varg…!”
Kara looked up at me with startled eyes.
Vows?
Vows spoken in words were far too light.
I bent her back in my arms and slammed my lips onto hers.
“Mmph…!”
A soft, gentle kiss did not suit us.
A beast’s kiss, sharing breath and mingling souls as if devouring each other, was just right.
“Waaaaaaaah!”
The cheers of the tribe members shook the snowfield.
We did not part our lips until we could no longer breathe, until the world spun around us.
In that moment when our saliva mingled and our body heat became one.
I was certain.
This was the perfect happy ending I had won for myself.
“Graaah! Our Kara…!”
From some corner, I could hear Gorgon’s huge body folding in on itself as he sobbed, but we did not stop.
Until this night was over.
Until these flames burned out.
We loved each other, and loved each other again.
Everything was perfect.
‘In all of these moments… there was no red phantom.’
Because this was the true future we had won.
A new happy ending we had created with our own hands, freed from the red phantom.
And so, our fiery newlywed life began.
========================================