Leif was lying down in his bed and was staring into the empty ceiling. His entire mind was racing as he thought of what had happened in just these few months.

From living an idle life in a village near a lake he was now living a life full of adventure, travel, and danger.

But still, he wanted to return to the time he lived with his family.

He struggled to sleep and was simply lying down.

Suddenly he heard a voice outside the door. He sprang up from his bed and grabbed his glaive.

[ Author's Note: Glaive is a weapon with a single-edged blade on the end of a pole ]

Nowadays he used a glaive after Diane advised him that he has a better affinity for using glaives.

Surprisingly he found it rather comfortable using it rather than using a saber or sword.

As he opened the door there was no one other than him in the entire corridor.

He carried a table lamp with him and walked through the entire floor but he found nothing strange.

Lief was confused but did not dwell more on this and walked back to his room.

"Was I mistaken? Who cares, I need to work on my snow element's training. After I break through to the 2nd ring, my snow element would undergo a qualitative change altogether." Lief said to himself and closed the door.

After some time a dark shadow materialized and stared at Lief's door before gradually fading away.

***

It was a new day, the new sky, the water, and the land ever the same and ever-evolving. The sun is bright, and the sunlight is warm and not harsh. The birds keep chirping, and the breeze is cool.

The leaves of the plants are covered by dew drops.

It felt like an ordinary morning in all aspects but Lief could not stay still for some reason and had a bad premonition. This was some kind of weird ability he acquired after that disaster that had occurred in the past.

But he suppressed this and walked out of the room listlessly. Eline was not up yet but Diane was silently meditating in the open.

As she saw Leif coming her way she stood up and walked towards him and said casually, "Are you coming with me? We can go around the city."

Leif did not mind this and accompanied her outside.

It was the early morning and there were not many people but all the people outside even peddlers and homeless men were all merry and smiling vividly.

Both Diane and Lief felt weird about this but did not say anything about this.

"Lether shoes for 40, socks for 2 each! Come now and don't miss this opportunity!" The market was full of activity and many residents were buying from various stalls.

Diane felt curious about this and approached the market when all eyes turned on her. Every people from the slaves to the merchants looked at her curiously.

Leif hurriedly held her hand and led her from there and went down the alleyway without stopping.

There were still many abandoned places all over the city and Leif led Diane to one such alleyway quite far from the market.

The alley had potholes full of filthy water, flattened cardboard boxes, and piles of wood. It was quite filthy.

Diane could not hold it in and blurted it out, "Leif what is going on? Why is everything in this city so strange? Lady Elaine is not giving me an answer and avoiding the question."

She gripped his hands even tighter and was feeling rather tense.

Lief also felt on edge, "Ever since I entered the city I've been feeling as if there was something ominous lurking around here. But I could not bring myself to accept this fact."

" Anyway, we need to find more about this city and figure out why so many odd things are happening here. Are you coming with me?" Leif said to her with a face filled with a sense of righteousness and justice.

The feelings Diane held for him bloomed and this image of him was already imprinted in her heart.

"I would love to!" Diane replied immediately with a sweet smile on her face. Leif held her hand and jumped to the roof of the building right next to them.

The entire city of nightfall was quite large but this part of the city was quite cramped and was hard to transverse.

But both Lief and Diane were peak 1st ring beings and had no major issue traveling.

As they were rushing forward, Leif suddenly stopped and looked at a certain badly worn shop in the road. As Leif was a being who is creating his path he had a unique affinity with path energy and was able to sense it from far.

The shabby shop had 'path' fluctuations of an ordinary 1st ring martial artist. After observing for some time Diane also figured it out.

"Lief, I think we should knock out this person and find out some information from him. I am more capable than you in sneak attacks and I have done this before. How about I deal with this?" Diane was quite confident.

"Don't underestimate your opponent and be careful. I will make sure that no one enters during this time." Lief nodded and with some hesitation gave her a slight hug.

Diane was also surprised at this and hurried off with a red face.

Leif who was also feeling quite embarrassed suddenly looked at the sky with an amazed expression.

"Wow! It is snowing. But why would there be snow at this time of the year?"

The snow fell all over the city and the tree branches were filled with dense snow. A chilly wind blew freezing many people in the city.

As the snow filled the city a melancholic voice seemed to be heard in the depths of the snow.

"Love fell just like snow, first slowly then harder and burying me inside forever."