Usually, I don't wear my winter cloaks. I've had them since I was a child and they were useful during all the times I had to leave the house when it's snowing. There's even a cloak that's meant to be worn in church ceremonies, a leftover from my acolyte days and something I can never wear casually unless I want to get hunted down by the church.

  Ever since I got my class and started power leveling, I've decided not to put on a cloak anymore, doing this has a few benefits, like potentially getting the cold resistance passive. Mostly though, I just consider it useless nowadays, and baggy cloaks can be pretty hefty to wear.

  The reason why I'm wearing one now is because I don't want Ifira to figure out I've increased my levels, putting on that kind of act is important if I don't want her to start increasing her levels as well, god knows how dangerous an Ifira who takes herself seriously as a child can be.

  The small possibility where she starts collecting passives and sub classes is also something I should be careful about, even if it's futile since her getting sub classes and passives is inevitable, it's fate for her to become strong.

  Not giving her years to work on them at least does something.

  "You look like you're thinking about something," she mentions when I step into dry land, not a fleck of snow is on her clothes despite standing here for who knows how long. Her dress is suspiciously dry as well.

  "I am, yeah, I'm thinking that you don't really need me to accompany you like this right? You're strong enough to defend yourself."

  Ifira looks away, her expression conflicted, like something inside her is having a war. I waited for her to reply, then she said, "it's only right that as my servant, you accompany me."

  Servant my ass! I was forced to do this shit! Both by you and my mother! Saying that is unfortunately a death sentence so I can only nod in agreement, "yes, you're right. I should have thought of this sooner."

  "Really?" Ifira glares at me and I start wondering if I'm going to die on the way to Ghorise. You really can't make this person happy huh? "What are you really thinking?"

  "... I'm mad, I don't want to do this."

  "Then go." Ifira rolled her eyes, but there's no denying there's some hurt in there. "You think I need you? I can defend myself just fine. You don't have to come with me."

  "What are you talking about? Of course I'm gonna go with you!" Is she serious? Does she also hate my presence or something? Now I'm gonna accompany her out of spite. "I'm already here anyway so I might as well!"

  "I thought you don't want to do it?"

  "I'll force myself too." I met her confused gaze with one full of determination. Now since I refuse to lose, I'm gonna offer her the sandwich and eat it on the way there. I know she's gonna refuse, and I know she's gonna be jealous of me eating but won't be able to say anything thanks to her pride.

  "Do you want a sandwich?"

  "Yes."

  Wait what?

  "Are you sure? You said that?.." I'm confused, she's confused, now we're both staring and treating each other like they've gone insane.

  "You offered, didn't you?" Why is she confused?! Does she expect me to give her a sandwich?! "Are you gonna give it to me or not?"

  "Here!" I shoved the bread into her hands.

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  "Thank you?" Stop acting like I'm the weird one here! My glare didn't deter Ifira, she's amused if anything. "Can you tell me what those are? Are they meant to be used during war?"

  She was pointing at the group of Igloos a few dozen meters away from us, the group of dome shaped buildings do look like something you'd see in the middle of a battlefield, and maybe they can be used that way in the future. Right now though, they're houses.

  Most of the people from the pier are living in them, if I remember right they are grouped by families or something? Orphans can choose to go with whoever, and criminals are tossed out.

  Where the last group goes is beyond me, all I know is that there will be bodies to collect come spring.

  "Nah, those are houses, they keep the people inside warm and I'm pretty sure some of them even have hearths in there." How does that even work? Wouldn't the ground be too wet? Then again, our house also has one and we're on top of a swamp so what do I know?

  "It's made of snow and ice."

  "Yeah, and? Snow can keep you warm, even inside blizzards, you do realize that some animals hide underneath it to keep themselves warm right? If snow is so deadly then everything would just die." I explain lengthily.

  "Is that so? I've never heard of that, it does make sense now that I think about it, I don't see any dead animals during winter, only people." Ifira nods, she takes a bite out of her sandwich. "This is what peasants eat right? It doesn't taste that good."

  "The actual thing tastes even worse, we actually put salt on our food you know?" And several other spices, but I doubt Ifira would know about plant flora. "We try to make it taste good for our customers."

  "That so?" She nods in approval, "good, at least your family is trying to actually be serviceable to the populace, your store isn't as bad as I thought it would be."

  "Thanks, I guess?" The compliment is nice but also redundant, of course our store would be serviceable, that's the bare minimum for a business.

  "You are welcome." She takes another bite, this time larger than before. "You aren't as bad as I first thought you would be, I don't think trying to survive is a bad thing, you did well trying to suck up to me the first time we met."

  "Uhuh," I felt being sarcastic and the emotion somehow seeped into my reply. She wants me to be brave when dealing with her? Fine. "Do you even know how scary you are?"

  "Yes." She didn't even hesitate. "My family often avoids me and everyone in the mansion is scared of me, just merely talking to them causes them to quake in fear, it is quite fascinating."

  "That's kind of fucked up." Really, how can she sound like she's enjoying that? "What happens if they mess up because they're scared of you?"

  "They get killed, or I suppose if it's not bad enough then I break their arm and force them to a healer." Again, how is she so calm when saying all this? The brave front I'm putting up is crumbling and we're only having a casual conversation, albeit with an abnormal topic.

  What happens if we actually start talking about more dangerous stuff? Will I just piss my pants?

  "Okay, wow. I need a bit of time to process that," I rub the back of my head, my hand touched my neck and I briefly felt my quickening pulse. I heard a giggle, "what? Why are you laughing? This is fucked up already."

  "No, it's just, how come you don't say that it's bad? People commonly tell me not to do that." So she wants me to scold her? Is she serious?

  "... I've seen dead bodies before, I used to be an acolyte and part of my duties is to make coffins, I've had to hammer down wood while being in the presence of a corpse countless times." I admit, the confession felt stale and I wondered how Ifira would react to it.

  "That's brave of you," a compliment and a respectful tone wasn't what I was expecting. "Staring down the people you know while you make coffins for them is tough, I know how harsh it can be to lose someone you hold dear."

  "You sound like you personally went through something similar." I pry, curious if she'll answer me honestly. She nods, I frown, "really? Was it a sibling or something?"

  "Yes, my older brother. He... Was the only one who cared about me, and yet my family threw him away. I was too young to understand what happened to him at the time of his death, as time passed however, I realized that the heir to our house was murdered in cold blood because my father supported my younger brother."

  "And what happened to your younger brother?" I can't help but ask, Ifira's family situation was never explained in the game.

  "Dead." A cruel smile crossed her lips. "My first ever kill, I grabbed him by the throat during dinner and forced my family to watch as I slowly take his life, they begged for me to stop when I cut off his fingers, then cried and pleaded when I started breaking his arm, and I savored every second of it—"

  "Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there." I told her. "You don't have to go into extreme details for me. I understand what you're trying to say."

  She laughs, "you're scared?"

  "More like disturbed." I drawl, I'm supposed to be scared but she's just acting like some kind of edge lord.

  "Very well, I'll stop then." She grinned.