Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers

"You two are tourists?"

The village elder sat by the west-facing window, his entire body slumped into a wooden rocking chair. A full bearskin covered him from his chest to his ankles.

He idly flipped through an old book with yellowed, brittle pages in the light of the setting sun, asking without even looking up.

Mikael took off his gloves, rubbed his hands together, and breathed on them before answering, "Yes, yes, we are. My little sister and I are from a place where it rarely snows, so we thought we'd come up north for the winter break to see the snow, hehe…"

Upon hearing this, a strange sense of familiarity flashed through the village elder's mind.

He gripped the armrest and struggled to sit up, pinching the temple of his taped-together reading glasses between two fingers and sliding them down his nose, then lowered his head slightly, peering over the glasses at the young boy and girl in his room.

Sometimes things aren't absolutely right or wrong, nor are they absolutely beneficial or detrimental.

Like these reading glasses, for example, they're very clear and convenient for looking at things far away...

"?"

Wait a minute! How are these two even remotely like siblings?!

Their hair and eye colors are completely different, not to mention their features... He didn't even understand how the boy could so brazenly say the word "siblings"!

But when he looked again, a second and third time, his mind quickly became muddled-- their appearances naturally had no similarities, but their straight posture, the way their eyes stared at their shoes, and the subtle awkwardness they showed when they noticed his gaze...

That actually did make them seem more like siblings.

Perhaps adopted?

"Alright, alright!"

He reluctantly closed the book, then looked a little puzzled again:

"How did you even find this place? We haven't seen outsiders in years, especially in winter. I've lived this long, and I haven't seen enough outsiders to count on both my hands. Last time… when was the last time we saw outsiders… was it four or five years ago?"

The more the village elder spoke, the more guilty Mikael felt. He quickly interrupted the elder before he could recall their previous visit: "Oh, it's all because we were chasing thrills, you know? Who knew that after entering the snowfields, we'd walk for three or four days, maybe more than two hundred kilometers, before we finally stumbled upon this little village..."

"Sigh, now that the snow outside is so thick, so, elder, would you be so kind as to let us stay here for a while?"

The village elder stared silently at Mikael, his expression seemingly indifferent, without desire or attachment.

"A while, huh… This snow is pretty thick. It probably won't start melting until March or April, right? You'd have to stay here for at least two months."

"Ah... that long..."

Mikael feigned disappointment, but his hand deftly slipped into his pocket, pretending to pull out a compass, and handed it to the elder.

The village elder's withered hand quickly shot out, snatching the compass, then tucked his hand back under the bearskin.

"…" Hua was in awe of the elder's speed; it wasn't just fast for an old man. Even judging by her knowledge of ancient martial arts, it could be described as "still as a virgin, swift as a rabbit"…

Then, she vaguely realized why Mikael had given a compass as a reward, and why the elder's movements and gaze were like a person who hadn't eaten for three days smelling food-- they were just too…

Starved.

Here, the frozen soil is covered by thick snow for half the year, and the land itself is barren with little grain production (otherwise, why would they put such strange things in their bread!). Thus, hunting in the birch forest had become one of the main ways for the people to obtain food.

Looking at it that way, for this small village with almost no contact with the outside world, the value of a compass was far greater than any amount of money.

"Well, young man, help me put this book in the storage room, and then have my old lady take you to the wooden house across the way. It hasn't been lived in for a long time, so you'll have to get some firewood and chop it yourself. Oh, right, it won't be long before it's time for our wonderful dinner. My old lady should be baking pies by now. Once you're settled in, come and eat with us!"

The old village elder, gently caressing the new compass under the bearskin, was suddenly satisfied. His attitude toward Mikael and Hua instantly improved.

Mikael picked up the old book from his knee. Without saying anything, he quietly backed out of the bedroom.

The village elder's house was a common Eastern European-style wooden house, rectangular in shape with a door in the middle of the long side. On the left was the bedroom, on the right was the kitchen, and in the middle was a small storage room.

Of course, the space under the pointed roof allowed for an attic. Mikael vaguely remembered that the village elder's grandson, who was about his age, used to sleep in the attic. He wondered why he hadn't seen him today.

Hua seemed curious about the old book the elder was reading and kept glancing at it. Mikael smiled and handed the book to her. On the leather cover, there were a few blurry cursive letters, but only the last few words were clear:

"...Fables and Stories"

"..."

Mikael turned the latch and the storage room door slid open. He casually placed the book on a wooden shelf and turned to push open the kitchen door.

The village elder's wife was a stout woman with a large frame. She had tied two aprons together and wrapped them around her waist. When Mikael entered the kitchen, she was stuffing a mixture of bear meat, fish, rat meat… a strange mixture of all kinds of meats into an iron pot that was already lined with a layer of flatbread.

Mikael briefly repeated his conversation with the village elder. She simply gave a soft "oh" and didn't say anything else.

Mikael wasn't in a hurry. He quietly watched her fill the pot with meat, then take a few more pieces of flatbread, place them over the meat filling like a lid, and pinch the edges of the bread tightly against the side of the pot, making a decorative pattern.

Then, she lifted the entire iron pot. Mikael quickly moved aside, watching her walk into the bedroom and place the iron pot inside the fireplace -- that's right, this so-called kitchen was just a place for handling ingredients. As for cooking... that probably didn't exist.

Once she had finished all that, the village elder's wife ripped the apron off her waist, grabbed a thick leather coat from the wall, and half-dragged it onto herself. Then, she numbly gestured for the two children to follow her.

The moment the wooden door opened, the wind "whooshed" inside. Even with the sturdy village elder's wife blocking the way, Hua still stumbled. Fortunately, Mikael steadied her shoulder and subtly stepped in front of her.

The houses in the village were arranged in a circle. To reach the "house across the way," they had to pass through the open area in the middle, the so-called square.

Compared to the size of the village, the square was surprisingly large.

This was the place Hua was most curious about. She had imagined that these semi-primitive people, so far removed from normal human civilization, would be like the ancients, performing rituals in the center of the village, singing and dancing.

The square would be covered with various totems she couldn't understand, remnants of humanity's most primitive beliefs...

But none of that was there, at least not what she saw.

She only saw short stone walls buried under snow and ice. The walls were about her height and appeared to be unfinished. There may have been totems engraved on the walls, but they were hidden beneath the ice and snow.

And what the low wall surrounded, in the very center of the square...

Was a lifelike sculpture.

The sculpture was centered around a huge totem pole, thick iron chains, like withered branches wrapping around a tree trunk, tightly binding a man to the pole.

The wind and snow covered the statue with a thick layer of silver. Ice crystals hung all over the man's lowered face, obscuring his features, but there was no doubt, he looked completely at death's door.

Who left such a realistic sculpture here? Hua didn't think the people of this small village could make something like this. Or rather, the sculpture's existence as a work of art was in stark contrast with the isolated, benighted village.

No, maybe it wasn't so out of place after all. The bizarre totem pole, the man bound to it and suffering, the thick chains that made it difficult to feel rebellious…

That sense of primitive, benighted, violent, despairing, and lonely feelings seemed to fit perfectly with this village.

"Can I get a closer look?"

Hua whispered to the village elder's wife, repeating the question two or three times, until Mikael repeated it loudly two or three times as well. Finally, the village elder's wife stopped walking.

She didn't say anything. She just turned around slowly, glanced at Mikael and Hua with lifeless eyes, then slightly tilted her head, signaling them to do as they pleased.

Hua and Mikael gradually approached the sculpture, until they were standing under the totem pole, within arm's reach.

Suddenly, Hua had a strange feeling. As her gaze moved upward, the hairs on the back of her neck almost instantly stood on end—

The man, as if he was a real sculpture, lightly exhaled white air from his mouth and nose. Then, slowly, he opened his eyes which were almost frozen shut.

They were eyes like flames burning fiercely.