* * *
“They’ll come out if I count to three.”
As Enten casually surveyed their surroundings, Haimar responded as if it didn’t concern him, while Ben remained unconvinced.
“Are you being serious right now?”
“Well, do you want to drag them out by force instead?”
“No. Counting seems like a very democratic and reasonable method.”
Ben quickly shifted his stance at the nonchalant remark, though he wanted to deny that the icy-blue eyes staring at him were laced with amusement.
He dusted the snow off his shoulders, feigning indifference, though he had a feeling Haimar saw right through him.
Ignoring Ben, Haimar started counting.
“One.”
Ben didn’t actually believe someone would come out just because they counted numbers.
If that were the case, every missing person in town would just appear the moment someone counted to three.
He simply didn’t want to argue against the alternative—dragging someone out by force—because who knew what might happen to an innocent person in that case.
“Two.”
Liran and Enten, who shared Ben’s unease, stood frozen, their expressions caught between hesitation and anticipation as they stared at Haimar.
“Three.”
Nothing would change just because of this—
“Huh?”
When Haimar’s low voice faded into the snowfall, Ben was still skeptical.
But as moments passed, what had been a near-blizzard began to ease.
At first, he thought it was just his imagination.
But gradually, the heavy snowflakes shrank, becoming lighter and lighter, until eventually, they stopped altogether.
The world slowly returned to its original state, as if the snowfall had never happened in the first place.
The only remnants were the snow-covered buildings and the thick layer of white on the ground.
But although the snow had ceased, the Esper responsible for it had yet to show themselves.
Ben had been about to say something when he stopped short.
Haimar’s claim had turned out to be half right—but also half wrong.
“Come out before I bury your Guide first.”
The casual counting had vanished, replaced by a cold, cutting voice that sent a chill down everyone’s spine.
At this point, the person in question should have been grateful enough to step out voluntarily, but with words like that, even someone already on their way out would probably reconsider and run the other way.
“……”
A brief silence.
“THAT’S TOO CRUEL—!!”
A shrill male voice rang out from somewhere nearby.
Turning their heads, they saw a silhouette charging toward them at full speed, kicking up the snow as they sprinted.
The ground rumbled under each forceful step, their voice booming through the air.
The sheer intensity of their approach was—well—
Like an out-of-control locomotive.
“How could you say something so awful?!”
The closer the man—presumably the one responsible for the snowfall—got, the faster he seemed to be moving, his speed showing no signs of slowing down.
It was one thing to flaunt an Esper’s physical abilities, but this was beyond excessive.
At this rate, a full-on collision seemed inevitable.
“Ah, shit! He’s gonna crash—!!”
CRASH!
Enten, who had been thinking the same thing as Ben, shouted out a warning.
But just before the man could collide with Haimar and Ben, his entire body was sent flying and crashed into the ground.
“Guh—!!”
……What the hell just happened?
Ben blinked.
Did he just witness that, or did he miss something despite staring right at it?
As he processed the bizarre scene, the muffled groan from the snow-covered man gave him a rough idea of what had transpired.
“Don’t cling to me.”
The sheer coldness in Haimar’s voice was staggering.
His face looked gentle, yet his words dripped with frigid detachment—colder than the riverbed in the dead of winter.
Despite having just tossed the man aside with zero hesitation, Haimar casually brushed the lingering snowflakes off Ben’s hair.
The contradiction in his demeanor was almost comical.
“You’re just as awful as ever!”
Liran and Enten shot the fallen man a look of pity.
But unfazed, he got up and dusted himself off as if this were a routine occurrence.
This time, rather than running, he walked toward them at a normal pace.
His hair was a peculiar mix of white and icy blue, braided loosely to one side, and his pale violet eyes gleamed with a catlike sharpness.
He had a delicate, almost boyish beauty, his slightly upturned eyes and small, pursed lips reminiscent of a sulky aristocratic maiden.
At most, he looked to be in his early twenties.
“I was planning to come out after enjoying the snowfall a little longer, but how could you say something so cruel?”
“You were probably just sulking by yourself, weren’t you?”
“I wasn’t sulking! I just had a tiny, tiiiny argument!”
Despite the weather not being particularly cold, the man had a thick brown scarf wrapped tightly around his neck.
As he buried his face into it with a pout, he looked even more like a grumpy child.
“But you over there—could you stop looking so terrified? My synchronization is stable, and I’m in perfect condition.”
“…I wasn’t exactly terrified, but… my apologies.”
Manipulating snow across such a wide area required an Esper to be in sync with their Guide.
That’s why Liran had been watching him with concern.
But as he confidently claimed, he was in top form—at least for now.
“I, uh, greetings. I’m Enten Nebail, Deputy Director of the Central Branch of Eternita.”
“I’m Elgran, an Esper affiliated with Integra.”
As Enten hesitantly stepped forward from where he had been standing awkwardly beside Liran and extended his hand, the man grasped it without hesitation, returning a light handshake.
His uniquely colored hair, which cascaded down past his shoulders, shimmered as he moved, and the braid swayed along as if dancing.
For now, it was fortunate that the cause of this snowstorm had shown up in response to Haimar’s call, but there were too many unanswered questions—why was an Integra Esper suddenly in this place, and where was his Guide?
The one who could give the clearest answer to all of this was Haimar.
However, knowing Haimar’s personality, he wasn’t the type to go out of his way to explain things.
Rather than asking him, Enten decided it would be better to inquire directly and smoothly continued the conversation.
“Pardon me, but may I ask what brings you to Eternita? I hadn’t received any notice from the main Central.”
“I sent one. It just arrived later than I did.”
“I see… Then, where is your Guide?”
“Why are you asking about my Guide? Are you interested? Huh?”
Enten’s question had been neutral, devoid of any sharpness, yet Elgran narrowed his eyes and answered in an irritated tone.
Enten was momentarily taken aback, but Elgran didn’t seem to care in the slightest.
His cat-like, sharp eyes thinned even further.
“Honestly, being so popular is such a hassle. Don’t get any ideas. We had a bit of a fight, that’s all. My Guide should be arriving in the capital Central soon. I was just planning to enjoy watching the snowfall and head back quietly.”
It was undeniable that he held strong feelings for his Guide—perhaps a bit too strong.
Meanwhile, Ben found Elgran fascinating.
Until recently, he had mostly stayed in small towns on the outskirts of the capital, and his experience with Espers and Guides had been limited to just one pair—Liran Siu and Moria Iren.
While he had caught glimpses of the affection between them, it had only been glimpses.
Elgran, on the other hand, seemed to shower his affection in every direction for all to see.
“So, was this whole heavy snowfall just… a coincidence?”
“A coincidence, of course. Well, even if it weren’t, I’d still do whatever I wanted. Who cares if others drop dead? As long as Lus and I are safe, that’s all that matters.”
An extreme case of self-centeredness.
Ben was appalled.
It seemed that Integra was a group quite different from the dreamlike peacekeepers he had imagined.
“And what exactly brings you to Eternita?”
“There are a few reasons… Oh? Who’s this?”
Elgran, who had been counting on his fingers while recalling his reasons for coming to Eternita, suddenly let his violet gaze sweep over Ben.
“Hello. I’m Ben Plaskun.”
“Wait… are you Haimar Elec’s Guide?”
At Ben’s ambiguous nod, Elgran’s eyebrows arched into a dramatic curve.
His gaze darted between Haimar and Ben, his initial surprise quickly giving way to sheer disbelief.
His mouth gaped open, and for a while, he was too stunned to close it.
“No one believed it when I was in the main Central, but—seriously? You’re really his Guide? I mean, sure, the first thing I wanted to do upon arriving in Eternita was to see that monster’s Guide’s face, but… you’re way more ordinary than I expected!”
“…Sorry for being so ordinary.”
What exactly had he been expecting?
Did he think that Haimar Elec’s Guide had to be equally as striking in appearance or possess extraordinary abilities?
Honestly, if someone had written that down as a requirement, it wouldn’t have seemed out of place.
But the way Elgran was gawking at him like a zoo animal wasn’t particularly pleasant for Ben.
* * *
