The piercing cold wind still howls in the north of the continent. As winter approaches, in some places, the wind and snow have accumulated so much that the snow is even higher than a person. The world has become an expanse of whiteness.
The Snow Elves can walk on the snow, needing some magic assistance. However, living in such a region, this kind of magic is almost released instinctively, as Elves naturally possess a talent for magic.
This is somewhat difficult for Charlette; she is a very special anomaly among the Snow Elves because she is not very good at using magic.
Among Elves, this is a symbol of failure. If she were a Forest Elf, she would probably be ostracized by the group for this. But being born in the snow, as a Snow Elf, perhaps it’s her luck or her misfortune—Snow Elves cannot easily abandon any tribesman. Perhaps the icy world tempered Charlette’s will; realizing that she lacked magic talent, she instead took the path of a Warrior.
The Elf Race is not particularly suited to becoming Warriors, but her will, stronger than the harsh winter, allowed her to continue advancing on this path.
So, whenever this time comes, Charlette tries not to go out much.
After all, her presence outside would be sensational; unable to use magic to walk lightly on the snow, she can only carve her path through the ice and snow with her blade.
Usually at this time, the Snow Elves would prepare to stop their activities, having already gathered enough food to last the winter. Only a few would go out for regular patrols to check for unusual situations; if none were found, they would spend the winter in their dwellings.
Therefore, the Snow Elves have a habit of accumulating various magical documents, using this time to patiently study magic at home.
Hence, Snow Elves usually give the impression of being "elite" individuals.
"Charlette, the supplies have been retrieved, when shall we start?"
Charlette looked around at the people surrounding her; almost all the elite of the Snow Elves were here.
They were basically unchanged from the past... no, rather, they’ve become even worse.
Long ago, Charlette encountered the Hero A·Gedora, and the Snow Elves once moved from the remote Northern Lands back to the center of the continent and lived relatively easier lives.
They jointly accomplished the great feat of conquering the Demon King. Even though in that final battle, none could truly intervene, they, the Snow Elves, contributed their share of strength to the Allied Forces, never holding back.
However, after Gedora suffered "betrayal," everything took a drastic turn.
Not to mention, the appearance of Snow Elves itself has some relation to Forest Elves. Long ago, the two Elf species actually belonged to the same Elf Race, so now the Elf Kingdom doesn’t truly accept Snow Elves... as a "minority race," Snow Elves were naturally targeted by humans.
In fact, before the Demon King fell, Snow Elves were excellent "slaves."
On one hand, the women of this race meet everyone’s expectations, characterized by white skin, beautified appearance, being tall and voluptuous symbols. On the other hand, the race’s combat power was strong, making them useful slaves, though capturing Snow Elves in the icy wild was exceptionally dangerous, and the Snow Elves were remarkably united.
So, Snow Elves as slaves were always an "in-demand but unavailable" commodity.
Of course, even though humans targeted Snow Elves, no matter what, Snow Elves were a race that contributed in the Great War, impossible to turn against them over a few words—
Originally, Charlette believed so, but the shift in opinion towards A·Gedora made the then Snow Elves’ leader, Charlette, feel frightened.
She did not believe it.
Because she had close interactions with Gedora, she didn’t believe that Gedora would betray humans, and couldn’t believe Gedora did anything excessive to Charlette as rumors suggested. To put it bluntly, if Gedora merely wanted to bed women, there were plenty of beautiful ones. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel[f]ire.net
Everyone would approach willingly.
But that wasn’t the most important thing. What’s most important is Charlette believed in Gedora.
If Gedora could change so drastically overnight, then what about the Snow Elves?
If humans, or rather the alliance, decided to turn against them, what would become of the Snow Elves?
Thus, after the incident with Gedora, Charlette made a swift decision, taking the Snow Elves back to the cold Northern Lands overnight—the Allied Forces couldn’t possibly send many soldiers to conquer the barren snowfields. She also took quite a bit of resources along.
It was just returning to their former state.
If they were turned against in the central continent, they wouldn’t even have a chance to escape then.
Of course, the behavior of the Snow Elves was noticed by many minority races. Some races made the same choice as the Snow Elves. Some races, however, didn’t share the same thoughts...
In the past decades, the Human Empire became the Human Central Empire.
Even though no wars had occurred, though everyone seemed immersed in the joy of defeating the Demon King, though everyone seemed to be absorbing the legacy of the Demon King, and everything seemed to thrive and develop, the Human Empire had become the Human Central Empire. What happened behind the scenes, Charlette did not know.