Chapter ???

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Dungeon Factory, Command Center.

"You know, even having visited what's left of Afghanistan, and knowing that it isn't just a permanent desert, I'm still surprised to see snow here."

Emilia blinked, and looked up from her book.

"Oh ? Ah, yes !" The vampire girl gazed at the snow covered landscape of the dungeon town on the screen. "A lot of people think the same about wastelands. Some of them truly are deserts, like here to some extent, but a lot of them have very temperate climates." Emilia sighed as she looked at a group of adventurers currently busy throwing snowballs at each other. "It reminds me a lot of home..."

Alexandra perked up at the nostalgia and sadness in her advisor's voice.

"It's very snowy, right ?"

"Yeah. The manor is high up in the mountains, above the permanent snow line. It's...peaceful."

Alexandra had to stop herself from coughing. She'd seen an image of the 'ducal manor' belonging to Emilia's parents. If that was a manor then she was a Martian. The thing was basically a giant fortress embedded into the mountain. Granted there was some good pieces of civilian architecture at the top, but everything under that was a giant castle.

"And cold."

"Well, yes, but you don't really notice it as a vampire." Emilia smiled. "Or as a dungeon core for that matter. We do have visitors from time to time from those we advise."

"I'd thought you would be...closer to the dungeons."

Emilia shrugged.

"Dungeons are very used to long distance relationships, and so are we. After all, most dungeons have ties to others, but they can hardly just pick themselves up and go visit, and avatars are rare and pricy. There is still the occasional physical visit though."

"We'll have to do that sometimes."

"After you've found a way to justify having an avatar, please."

Alexandra smiled. She didn't intend to just arrive with her avatar, and she was fairly sure showing up with an airfleet or an army would be a tad bit harder to explain than a single body. Probably. These peoples had weird priorities sometimes.

"Of course !"

"Good." Emilia sighed. "Well, I'll go to the communication room, I have a few questions to ask mom about, you know, CQ and the whole succession shenanigans."

"Right." Alexandra gazed at her advisor as she slowly left the room, the vampire girl giving the screen one last longing look, and sat back in her seat, before tilting her head, and turning around on her stool.

"Say...Ella ?"

The vampire maid, who had almost faded into the background of the command center, blinked.

"Yes milady ?"

"Those spells you looked at with Emilia, the ones for moving water...Could they be used to move frozen water ? Like, say...snow ? A lot of snow ?"

The maid looked pensive for a second, before giving Alexandra the first truly warm smile she'd ever seen on the vampire's lips.

"A believe they could milady. Why is that ?"

"You probably already guessed it. Could you please get Sarah here ? I know she's supposed to follow Emilia around today, but surely she can excuse herself for a bit. I'll get Jared and CQ to join us as well."

"Yes milady, at once !"

Alexandra looked back at the screens as the maid bowed her way out of the room, and all the screens flickered at once, before being replaced by views of the second floor.

Now, let's see if she remembered that lecture in Quebec, the one about the snow cannons...

*****

"Hey Alex, I came as fast as I could. What's going on ?" Said Emilia as she stepped into the water temple. Oddly enough, despite the dungeon being closed for the night, Alexandra was accompanied by a small group of Praetorian guards. Actually, the guards looked a bit...singed.

Emilia's eyes narrowed. There was only one reason her dungeon core's bodyguards would look like this.

"Did you do an experiment behind my back again ?"

Alexandra smiled.

"Something like that." She held up her hands quickly as the vampire girl stepped forward. "It's perfectly justifiable ! Look, Ella and Sarah helped me, and they think so as well ?"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Emilia frowned, and looked to the side at the two maids, who solemnly nodded.

"Alright then. What is it ?"

"Oh I think you'll love it." Said Alexandra, mysteriously, before activating the drawbridge...and Emilia's jaw dropped.

The second floor...The second floor was like a scene taken straight out of a fairytale. The ruins were covered in snow, and slowly a curtain of the white flakes continuously fell down from the ceiling.

It took Emilia a solid ten seconds to stop staring, before looking back at Alexandra, the dungeon core smiling wildly.

"What...H-How ?"

"Well, I saw the way you were looking at the adventurers playing in the snow outside, and decided it'd be a good time as any to try out making artificial snow. Turns out, not that hard with enough mana. And ample amounts of experimentation. I also accidentally created a frost explosion spell, but that's another discussion entirely."

"Right..." Emilia looked around the floor, before focusing on CQ, who was currently busy making a snow man, with her pet manticore 'helping' as best it could. Which is to say it ran around a lot and occasionally brought the bit of debris or golem to stick in the slowly growing...sculpture. "I see someone is already having fun."

"Oh yeah." Alexandra smiled. "I might have taught her how to make a snowman. She kept asking what was the point of all that white stuff." The Earth-born coughed slightly. "I might have also taught her how to make snowballs. But she kind of just ordered her guards to mass produce them for her and hand them over to her to throw."

"Jeez, I wonder who she gets that from ?" Asked Emilia, her voice dripping with sarcasm. They exchanged a look, and burst out laughing. "Alright. Well, if we're meant to have fun..." Emilia's gaze became outright devious, and Alexandra gulped. "I challenge you to a snowman building contest ! I obviously get Ella and Sarah on my side. Try to keep up !"

Alexandra's mouth opened, and closed as the vampire girl giggled, and started sprinting towards the fields of snow.

"H-Hey ! No fair !" Said the Earth-born as she sped after her advisor, frantically calling golems to her rescue.

*****

"Well, if nothing else, it is helping with morale. Even among my men."

Allya chuckled as she gazed upon the snowy vista of her city.

"Wait until it starts getting everywhere, and people start getting sick. Then they'll begin cursing it with all their hearts."

Anders laughed;

"Probably, yes. People will always find something to complain about. Especially soldiers."

"Yep." Allya blinked as she heard the door to her mansion/residence open, and turned around to see Pyn walk out of the door. "What the-" The ex-assassin looked up and down at her girlfriend, desperately holding back her laughter...before failing miserably.

"What ? I want to keep warm !"

Allya, with a supreme effort of will, stopped laughing for a second to answer.

"Honey, there's a difference between keeping warm and turning yourself into a giant pile of...this !"

Pyn huffed in annoyance, tried to cross her arms...and failed, making Allya fold over in laughter.

The reason why was apparent to anyone even gazing at the elf. If it wasn't for the slit that allowed her to see, or her pointed ears, people could be forgiven to mistake her for a golem made out of clothes and blankets. So many of them were stacked on top of the poor elf that she could barely move normally, and even then looked like some kind of horribly mutated penguin in doing so.

Anders let out a more restrained cough, hiding his smile behind his hand.

"It might be a bit more advisable milady to strip down some layers."

The elf grumbled something about 'freezing hellscape' and 'I'm no snow elf damn it', before disappearing back into the residence, and Allya's laughter finally dried up.

"Well that was something." Simply said Anders, before looking suspiciously at the baroness. "And strangely out of character. Tell me milady, would you think someone, hypothetically of course, might have impressed over our dear knight that the weather would be much, much more colder and hostile when it was snowing than it truly would be ? After all, lady Pyn is from the Confederacy and their equatorial forests...And is unlikely to have ever seen snow in her life."

Allya bit her lower lip, before regaining her composure.

"That might have happened captain. However I can assure you, I have not the slightest idea who might have planted such ideas in our dear knight's head. I for one, as a native of the Erisian Core, was completely truthful in my description of snow and cold weather."

"Of course milady, of course." Said Anders, his face showing he was perfectly aware who had gotten the elf so worried about snow, before shaking his head. "Well, in that case, I'll be going. I have guard posts to review." And probably break snow balls fight in.

"Of course captain. And I will...assist lady Pyn in, ahem, shedding some layers as you so succintly put it."

Anders nodded with his best poker face, before leaving, and making a note not to disturb the two nobles, or expect them to come out until the evening...Or even tomorrow knowing them.

*****

Allya groaned as she heard the insistent knocking on her door, and withdrew her head from her warm pillow.

"What ?" She barked at the door as she touched a rune inlaid into her bedside table, deactivating the sound proofing enchantment, and heard a bit of shuffling behind the door.

"Apologies milady, but guildmaster Starvak has sent for you. He says it's about the dungeon." Answered Éclair, and the baroness started swearing for a few seconds, before taking a deep breath.

"Alright, tell him I'll be there in a bit."

"Yes milady !"

Allya let go of the rune, and sighed.

"What's going on ?"

Allya turned around, and saw her 'warm pillow' move as Pyn sat up, and stretched, which had a nearly hypnotysing effect on her upper anatomy, before shaking her head and cursing Crystal.

"Apparently something happened with our resident dungeon. I've gotta go. You can stay if you want."

The elf shook her head.

"If you're going, I'm coming with you." She waggled her eyebrows. "If nothing else once we're done, we can pick up where we left off."

Allya blushed furiously, nodded, and then dashed to their clothing closet, pretending not to hear the elf's laughter, not trusting herself to say anything without either sounding like a sappy idiot or just pouncing on her girlfriend.

*****

"She what ?" Said Allya as she stared incrediously at the guildmaster.

"She covered every floor in snow. The first adventuring party that went through is also reporting seeing strange new golems. According to them they have been equipped with some kind of strange hats, and bags bulging with miscallenous loot."

Allya opened her mouth, and closed it.

"...Okay. So what you're saying is that we have a snow filled dungeon...And a bunch of santa golems running around ?"

"In short ? Yes."

The baroness sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose, before looking up.

"Let me guess, the adventurers are getting crazy ? Again ?"

"Very much so. There's also been an...interesting offer made by Crystal via one of her golems at the entrance, which I believed you would be very interested in hearing."

"Which is ?"

"She is proposing to double the amount of adventuring parties allowed today. Specifically a party every 30 minutes. To 'test my capability to sustain delves to it's fullest extent', or so she said."

Allya licked her lips.

"That is...a very interesting proposal." In fact it was far more than that. If it became the norm her flegling principality's income would literally double. Allya mentally shook herself as she pushed back her greed. There was a catch, there had to be. "I suppose she had some conditions to it ?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact. She insisted that adventurers be made aware that due to this, they might encounter golems meant for other adventuring parties...on their way back up, if they do not make it past a boss and take the elevator back."

Allya winced. That...would be a slaughter. She knew adventurers all to well, and most parties would stop only when they feel like they're about to get their asses kicked...and then get trapped by a bunch of golems as they tried to fall back.

"That's...going to result in a lot of casualties."

"That's my assessment as well. But I am planning to warn any volunteering party about the inherent dangers."

Allya chuckled.

"Do you believe they'll listen ? At least well enough to actually take precautions when more loot is just around the corner ?"

The guildmaster winced, and Allya shook her head.

"Alright, well, tell me how it went tomorrow." She looked to the side at Pyn. "I have, ah, business to finish."

Starvak nodded, smiling.

"Of course !"

*****

"Well, if nothing else this is working nicely."

Emilia nodded, and smiled widely as she looked at the group of adventurers trying to fight the golems of the second floor through the snow. And failing miserably.

"Yes, yes it is ! Quite the cherry on top for today, wouldn't you agree ?"

Alexandra hid a wince. She was glad her dungeon advisor was feeling better, but she would have hoped it would have come at less of a cost, especially as the vampire girl had decided that whoever won the variety of increasingly improbable snow art contests would gain the same thing from their bets. Emilia alone had been bad enough to compete against, but with the expertise of her maids they'd just rolled over her and her hastily composed team. Even with CQ and Jared to help they'd only managed to hold back the onslaught. Maids, let alone ex special forces soldiers, had no rights being that good at making snowmen, or other types of snow art ! At least they'd won the contest before they'd limited the size of snowmen, and banned her from just designing it in her interface. They could design pretty things, but with a thousand golems at her finger tips, she could build big.

"Yes, indeed."

"Soooo, about those 16 hours of design..."

"14 ! I won the last contest !"

"A cathedral made out of snow doesn't qualify as a snow house !"

"Yes it does !"

The two fell into their familiar bickering, and CQ and the maids watched in fascination as Sarah unobtrusively began passing around some popcorn.

Some things never changed, Christmas or not.