Caelus didn't have much to prepare. The previous night, while setting up his room, he had already stuffed all his non-essential junk into the row of chests along the wall. His backpack contained only his baseball bat, the Wings of Wind, the parts from the Doomsday Beast, a crafting table, and a stack of alloy blocks for boosting his strength. He was ready to go at a moment's notice.
March 7th also shook her head. She scooped up her camera from the sofa, clipped it to her waist, and patted the lens cap.
"This girl is good to go with just this!"
One after the other, they passed through the carriage connector into the next car's aisle. The door to the Archives slid open just as they approached, and Dan Heng walked out to meet them.
He saw Caelus and March 7th standing side-by-side in the aisle and paused. He likely already had a good idea of what was happening.
"This Trailblaze expedition… Himeko wants me to go with you two?"
Caelus and March 7th nodded in unison.
Dan Heng didn't ask any more questions. "Alright. I'll go get a few things."
With that, he turned and disappeared back into the Archives.
March 7th watched his back vanish behind the door, then turned to Caelus and waved a dismissive hand.
"Don't mind him. Dan Heng just likes to act all cool, but he's actually a really good person."
Caelus wasn't too bothered by it. Though they hadn't known each other long, he could already tell Dan Heng was a decent guy.
"Let's go back and wait for him."
---o---
The two returned to the parlor car. They had only been sitting on the sofa for a few minutes when Dan Heng re-emerged from the connecting door.
Himeko turned from the window, her gaze sweeping over the three of them.
"All ready?"
March 7th stood between Caelus and Dan Heng. She glanced left and right, saw them both nod at her, then grinned and planted her hands on her hips.
"Reporting, Ma'am! The Trailblaze team is ready for deployment!"
A pillar of light descended from the sky, striking the snowy plains of Jarilo-VI and kicking up a cloud of fine, crystalline powder. As the light dissipated, the figures of the three trailblazers materialized on the vast white surface.
The wind wasn't strong, but the cold was biting. March 7th couldn't help but hug her arms. Even though she was an ice user and had the blessing of the Trailblaze, the sight of this landscape still made her feel cold on a subconscious level.
Caelus, on the other hand, seemed perfectly at ease. As long as there was no fine snow falling, the cold didn't bother him.
March 7th hugged her arms and surveyed her surroundings. A blanket of white stretched from their feet to the edge of sight, where the skyline and the ground seemed to melt into a single color.
"It really is a world of ice and snow."
Caelus stood beside her, hands on his hips, and echoed her tone perfectly.
"It really is a world of ice and snow."
March 7th's elbow shot out, jabbing him squarely in the waist.
"You're such a copycat!"
Caelus chuckled and didn't dodge.
Standing a step behind them, Dan Heng took out his phone and glanced at the screen. It displayed several landmark coordinates he had researched in the Archives beforehand. The nearest one was less than two kilometers away in a straight line.
"There are signs of human activity not far from here. Let's check it out first."
The other two nodded. The trio formed a loose column—Dan Heng in the lead, Caelus in the middle, and March 7th bringing up the rear—and set off in the direction of the coordinates.
To guard against ambushes, Caelus kept an eye on the mini-map in the corner of his vision as he walked. The snowy plain offered no cover, and the map was completely clear, save for the three green dots representing them.
After they had walked for about five or six hundred meters, a yellow dot suddenly appeared on the edge of the mini-map.
Below the dot was a line of text.
[Masked Fool · Sampo Koski]
Oh? Masked Fools? They sound pretty impressive.
Caelus stopped in his tracks.
Dan Heng and March 7th, who were ahead of him, took a few more steps before they noticed the absence of his footsteps and turned around.
"What's wrong?" March 7th asked.
Caelus raised his hand and pointed to a spot about a hundred meters to their front right. There was a lumpy snowdrift there, irregular in shape and slightly taller than the surrounding snow. It didn't look particularly conspicuous in the vast, white landscape.
"There's someone hiding in that snowdrift over there."
March 7th and Dan Heng followed his finger. March 7th squinted, trying to make it out for several seconds, before turning back to Caelus.
"How can you tell from so far away?"
Since they started walking, both she and Dan Heng had been scanning the area ahead, but they hadn't seen anyone run over and hide in a snowdrift.
"You can just think of it as a little ability of mine."
Caelus didn't elaborate. He reached into his backpack, pulled out his baseball bat, and gripped it in his right hand as he started walking toward the mound of snow.
Seeing this, March 7th and Dan Heng didn't press further, instead drawing their own weapons.
Dan Heng summoned his Cloud-Piercer spear, quickening his pace to position himself half a step ahead of Caelus, the tip of his spear lowered, ready to strike at any moment. March 7th followed behind them, her bow already in hand with an arrow nocked.
---o---
When the distance closed to about thirty meters, Dan Heng and March 7th finally believed what Caelus had said.
That snowdrift was shaking.
There was no wind, and the surrounding snow was perfectly still. Yet that one mound was trembling, subtly but continuously. The frequency was high, but the amplitude was small, as if something were curled up underneath, shivering uncontrollably.
March 7th relaxed the tension on her bowstring, calling out to the snowdrift with a voice caught between laughter and exasperation.
"You're already shaking like that. Aren't you going to come out?"
The snowdrift gave no response, but the frequency of its shaking increased.
Dan Heng took half a step forward, his spear tilting slightly.
"March, the simplest and most direct way to deal with someone plugging their ears to steal a bell is to smash the bell on their head."
Just as Dan Heng was about to make his move, Caelus reached out and stopped him.
"Hold on, Dan Heng. We're supposed to be the good guys, right? Let's try diplomacy before force."
Dan Heng glanced at Caelus and retracted the forward tilt of his spear.
Caelus cleared his throat, a hint of a smile in his voice as he called out to the perpetually trembling pile of snow.
"Excuse me, are you Mr. Sampo Koski of the Masked Fools?"
The shaking of the snowdrift stopped dead.
Silence for two seconds.
Then, the surface of the snow exploded. Snow chunks flew everywhere as a figure shot out from within. His head and shoulders were still dusted with clumps of snow, and his face was twisted into a mask of utter shock.
Sampo, a head full of snow, stared at the trio with a dumbfounded expression, his gaze darting between them before finally settling on Caelus. Based on the direction the voice had come from, it had to be this man who had spoken.
A complete stranger. I don't know him at all.
This fact only made Sampo panic more. No one on the entirety of Jarilo-VI knew his true identity. How did this person in front of him know?
"Hey, come on, buddy! I just… borrowed a few antiques! I haven't done anything unforgivable! You don't have to dox me for that, do you?!"
---o---