"Have you been around here before?" Kurai questioned out of nowhere as he turned to Opal.

Opal shook her head before turning to Kesshō, who seemed to have fallen asleep already, her head resting on Kurai's side.

"I don't think it should be this cold or snowy this low, not when winter hasn't started yet at the very least." Kurai mumbled as he placed one of his hands at his chin, the other gently caressing Kesshō's hair.

"Do you think it's bad?" Opal inquired, glancing outside at the snowy ground.

"Not necessarily, could have been some natural disturbance, or some giant tundra monster which moved here, in both of which cases we have nothing to worry." Kurai answered turning back to her.

"Isn't a giant tundra monster something we should worry about?" Opal inquired, hugging herself as the temperature seemed to have fallen even lower.

"No, it isn't something we need to concern ourselves with. An Adventurer's Guild would assign a commission to take it out based on what type of monster it is, which won't be needed in most cases. Some monsters big enough to cause something like this are not hostile at all, they are simply nomadic and travel around randomly, in which case the guild will issue a notice about its location and path," Kurai explained.

"Why do you know so much?" Opal inquired, her breath visible in the air now.

"Come here and I will explain." Kurai commanded, startling Opal slightly from the change in his voice.

Opal stood up and walked over to him hesitantly, sitting right in front of him. He gestured her to turn around, to which she complied. Gently grabbing her shoulders he pulled her closer, right after which she felt a pinch at the back of her neck. She pressed her hand to it, only to find nothing there.

"You are lucky this one is still small." Kurai informed as he held out his hand in front of her, showing a small spider like creature.

There were many icicles protruding from the back of its body, it's razor sharp legs similar to them in appearance. Its mainly white body adorned with cyan icicles, glimmering as it crawled around in Kurai's palm, making its way up at an excruciating slow pace.

"Hold out your hand." Kurai mumbled to Opal, lightly tapping her on the head to snap her back to attention.

She did as told, extending her hand as close to the spider as she dared. Grabbing her hand Kurai slowly brought it closer to the spider, Opal having closed her eyes already from fear. After a few moments of not feeling anything on her palm Opal opened them, finding the spider on her palm, closer to her wrist than she expected, making its way up her arm at the same pace as it did on Kurai's.

"Do you feel anything?" Kurai inquired, to which Opal shook her head. "Exactly, these things can crawl onto your body and you won't even feel a thing. Try to throw it off your palm, without using your other hand." Kurai suggested in an amused tone of voice.

Opal shook her hand slowly, causing the spider to stop moving, but failed to shake it off. She again shook it, with all her strength this time, but to no avail. The spider did not seem to move in the slightest, sticking to her hand with all its strength, and even then she did not feel it there. Opal glanced back at Kurai, pleading him to remove the spider as she did not like it being on her hand.

As Kurai extended his hand to remove the spider, he accidentally bumped into Kesshō's head, who woke up a few moments ago and seemed curious about the spider, two of her tails right by her head, also inspecting the spider along with her. After a few moments of inspection during which no one else moved, the spider also having stopped moving, Kesshō decided to bring her face even closer to the spider.

When her face nearly touched the spider, it resumed motion, reaching it's claw upwards to grab onto Kesshō's face, which she withdrew just out of its reach. After a few moments of trying, the spider again stopped moving, allowing Kesshō to come closer again, when it again attempted to grab onto her.

This time, as Kesshō withdrew her head the spider launched itself onto her face with surprising force, causing Kesshō to roll backwards from being startled. She seemed to wrestle with herself, rolling around in the back of the wagon, Kurai and Opal barely holding their laughter. After a few moments she stood back up, walking back to Kurai and sitting beside him, her mouth ever so slightly moving.

"Did she just?" Opal gasped, covering her mouth with her hands in shock.

"She can eat anything without any worries," Kurai sighed. "And she will eat just about anything, so yes, she ate it."

"What was it exactly?" Opal questioned as she glanced at Kesshō, who already seemed to have gone back to sleep.

"A Hypo-crawler. They are parasitic arthropods which kill their prey by feeding on their body heat, causing their body temperature to fall unbearably low and ultimately kill them, after which it burrows into their body and eats them from the inside out." Kurai explained, gently patting Kesshō on the head with one hand. "That is the reason why you felt so cold all of a sudden, and got colder at such a fast rate."

"That brings me back to my question, why do you know so much?" Opal questioned, turning halfway to Kurai, her face towards the entrance as she rested her head on his chest.

"It's simply experience, you will also learn a lot as you grow older." Kurai answered with a shrug.

"How old even are you?" Opal questioned, glancing up at him as she attempted to estimate his age.

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"Very old, much older than I look, I have lived several lives so trying to estimate my age is futile, even I am unaware of my own age." Kurai informed, glancing back at her.

"Another question, what is she to you?" Opal questioned.

Kurai glanced briefly at Kesshō before turning back to Opal. "I think she is like a daughter to me, that is how I see it at the least. She can be very troublesome sometimes, but I don't really mind putting up with her at all."

"Why do you take care of her? And why does she follow your orders?" Opal questioned as she turned around and faced Kurai.

"I am aware of what she has been through when on her own, I don't want anything of that sort to happen again. As for why she follows my orders, that's because she trusts me, and she knows if I tell her to do something then there is a reason behind it." Kurai explained with a sigh, glancing at Kesshō with a frown as he thought of something.

"Just making sure you didn't misunderstand me there, I just wanted to know, I did not doubt you." Opal mumbled as she stood up. "I am going to sleep so wake me up when we reach there." Opal walked back to the opposite side, slightly to the back, before lying down and curling up to keep herself warm.

Kurai rolled his eyes at her with a sigh as he continued to keep an eye on the outside, snowflakes slowly falling outside by now.

When they reached their destination it seemed to be some time after midday, though the sky covered with a sheet of dark gray clouds refused to give away the time. Snow fell at an average rate, the environment outside the city being much colder than the rest of their journey.

"Do you think this untimely winter originated from the city?" Opal questioned as she looked outside, hugging herself for warmth, knowing from experience hugging Kesshō would not be helpful.

"It's a possibility, but I won't count on it." Kurai replied as he stretched his body, having woken up just recently.

Kurai's coat rested on Opal's shoulders, having been placed on her by him while she slept. She didn't mind it, more so due to the unbearable weather. She slipped her arms in the sleeves and wore it over her own clothes, though due to her small size the coat dragged behind her as she stood up and took a few steps in the wagon to examine herself.

"I don't really have anything smaller to suit you." Kurai shrugged with a nervous smile.

"I don't mind, its warm enough anyways." Opal replied, hugging herself tightly. "Moreover, aren't you cold?"

"Not really, this is nothing for me, I have been through much worse." Kurai responded as he hopped out of the wagon, Kesshō following behind him without delay.

Not having any other option, Opal did the same. She only glimpsed as Kurai handed the wagon driver a small bag of coins and sent him on his way. They stood right outside the city, a massive wall built around it, the gate being right in front of them, large enough for a dragon to walk in without bumping into anything.

"This way, I don't think either of you need a gate of that size." Kurai called from the side as Opal and Kesshō stared at the gate in awe. He gestured to a much smaller gate, human-sized, right beside the large one.

Both Opal and Kesshō pouted as they followed behind him, knowing very well why he said that. The two let Kurai do the talking as they waited, simply standing near him during that time. He showed the guards a few cards before they moved out of the way and opened the gate, allowing the three to walk right in. One of them looked in shock as Opal passed by him, a look which Opal also noticed.

Kurai led them away from the gate and further into the city, heading directly towards the castle built at the heart of the city. All buildings were arranged in neat rows, roadwork separating each structure. From nearly each path a straight road to the castle could be easily seen, most likely something planned by the king, and most probably to show his castle to every traveler.

"Did everyone assume that I died?" Opal questioned as she walked right beside Kurai, opposite to Kesshō.

"Why do you think that?" Kurai inquired as he looked around the city, all the streets entirely empty.

"That guard at the gate seemed really surprised to see me." Opal informed, starting to walk faster to keep up with Kurai.

"I doubt that, it's most likely something else, and I would recommend you to stay close and alert just in case they are plotting something." Kurai adviced, lightly tapping on Kesshō's head and pointing slightly to his right. Kesshō turned to the direction he pointed in, nodding to him after a quick glance. "Stay alert, we are under surveillance." Kurai informed Opal as he grabbed her hand and tugged her slightly.

"I can't walk this fast, my legs are too short for this." Opal complained, straining her feet to keep up with Kurai.

"Right, I should have realised that." Kurai sighed as he slowed down. Kesshō rolled her eyes at him from several steps behind, receiving a sigh from Kurai.

After a long and tiring walk, they finally reached near the castle, seperated from the city by a deep moat filled with water. There seemed to be a retractable bridge near them so the trio circled around the moat to it, Kurai waving his arm at the guards on top of the wall to lower the bridge, though they didn't seem to notice.

"Don't you know the process to meet the king?" Opal questioned as she turned to Kurai.

"I am not all knowing, I have been in this city but not to meet the king. I know the city's layout but not how to make them lower that bridge." Kurai replied with a tired sigh. "Kesshō, draw their attention please."

Kesshō nodded understandingly as she took a few steps to the side, making some distance between her and the two. She lifted her hands to the air, the same bow of flames forming in her hands. Pulling the string she lowered it slightly towards the castle, the same pink-blue arrow forming in her hand. She released it after a few moments, an explosion occuring just above the castle wall, brightening the area in a pink-blue glow and causing several heads to peek out from above the wall.

Kurai waved at them as Kesshō allowed the flames to be extinguished, attempting to show that she meant no harm. To their surprise, they lowered the bridge without much delay, and the guards standing at the gate as it opened did not seem to be very cautious either. Kurai chose not to think much about little details that could be misleading, but to keep the possibility in mind nonetheless. Some of the guards led the three right to the king's hall, stopping right outside the door.

"We must request you to leave any weapons here." One of the guards informed, pointing to a table to the side of the door.

"Alright." Kurai sighed as he removed his sword from his belt and placed it on the table. After the sword, he retrieved fourteen throwing knives from inside his coat, before retrieving other eight from his sleeves and two knives strapped to his legs. "I think that is all I brought today." He shrugged with a smirk.

The guards and Opal stared in shock at his armory of weapons, all the knives having runes carved into them. Runes of decay, poison, death, fire, plague, and many others. Opal shrugged as the guards turned to her, not having brought any weapons with her. Kurai turned to Kesshō just as the guards did, lifting her up and placing her on the table.

"I think she counts as a weapon herself so I will be leaving her right here." Kurai sighed as he patted her on the head. "Stay and wait, you can see the moon in the misty winds till then." He smiled to her as she stared at him.

Kesshō nodded after a moment as Opal turned to Kurai, tilting her head in confusion as she wondered what he meant. The guards exchanged confused glances and shrugged before opening the door and allowing the two inside. Kurai and Opal waved at Kesshō as they walked in, who simply sat at the table flailing her legs, bobbing her head from side to side, seemingly singing in her mind.