Prologue I: July 372 HE

Squeeze the ax handle.

Lift it up.

Swing it down.

Such simple actions, and yet the tiniest lapse of concentration

would cause the ax to miss its mark, sending a tremendous jolt

through the arms as the blade struck hard bark. Breathing, pulse,

speed, shifting of weight—all these factors must be perfectly controlled for the heavy ax head to properly unleash its power into

the tree and create the sound of its famed bite.

But understanding these things did not make them any easier

to execute. It would soon be the second summer since Eugeo had

been given this job, which was bestowed upon him in the spring

of his tenth year. At best, even now, he could produce this perfect

strike only one time in ten. Old Man Garitta, who had previously

held this position and taught Eugeo the ropes, could strike true

every single time. Garitta never looked tired, no matter how often

he swung the heavy ax, but it took Eugeo only fifty swings for his

hands to go numb, his shoulders to ache, and his arms to stop ris-

ing when he commanded them.

"Forty…three! Forty…four!"

He tried counting aloud the ax strikes against the tree as a

means of encouragement, but sweat blurred his eyes, his palms

slipped, and his accuracy fell further. He swung the tree cutter's

ax around madly, putting his entire body into the rotation.

"Forty…nine! Fif…ty!!"

The last swing was wildly off base, hitting the bark far from the

sharp, deep rut in the tree and producing an ugly ringing noise.

The vibration nearly caused sparks to shoot from Eugeo's eyes;

defeated, he dropped the ax, stumbled a few steps back, and

plopped down onto the thick moss.

He sat there panting until he heard a joking voice off to his

right. "I counted about three good sounds out of your fifty swings.

That makes, what, forty-one in total? Looks like the siral water's

on you today, Eugeo."

The voice belonged to another boy about his age, lying down a

short distance away. Eugeo felt around for his leather canteen

and lifted it to his lips. He gulped down the lukewarm water and

tightened the cap again, feeling human at last.

"Hmph! You've only got forty-three yourself. I'll catch up in no

time. Go on," he said. "It's your turn…Kirito."

"Yeah, yeah."

Kirito—Eugeo's closest, longtime friend and his partner in this

gloomy "Calling" since last spring—brushed back his sweaty black

bangs, lifted a leg straight up, then hopped to his feet. But rather

than pick up the ax, he put his hands on his waist and looked up.

Eugeo's gaze traveled to the sky with his.

The mid-July summer sky was astonishingly blue, and in the

midst of it, the sun goddess, Solus, unleashed all her light. Yet the

tree towering over them spread its branches so thick and wide

that nearly none of the light reached Eugeo and Kirito on the

ground.

With every passing moment, the great tree's leaves devoured

the blessing of the sun goddess and its roots sucked up the favor

of the earth goddess, Terraria, healing the damage that Eugeo

and Kirito were so painstakingly chopping into it. No matter how

hard they tried on any given day, by the next morning the tree

had refilled half the damage they'd cut into it. Eugeo sighed and

returned his gaze to the tree.

The tree—called by its sacred name of "Gigas Cedar" by the villagers—was a true monster, with a trunk four mels wide and a

height of easily more than seventy mels from the ground. Even

the bell tower of the tallest church in the village was only a quarter of that height, and to Eugeo and Kirito, who had just grown to

a mel and a half this year, the tree might as well be the Titan for

which it was named.

As Eugeo looked at the slice cut into the trunk, he couldn't

help but wonder if it was even possible to fell the beast with

human strength alone. The wedge was just about a mel deep now,

meaning the trunk still had three quarters of its thickness intact.

Last spring, Eugeo and Kirito had been summoned to the village elder's home, where they were given the duty of carving the

great cedar and told its mind-numbing story.

The Gigas Cedar had spread its roots throughout this land

ages before the village of Rulid was founded, and ever since that

founding generation, the villagers had ceaselessly put ax to trunk.

Old Man Garitta was the sixth-generation carver of the tree,

which made Eugeo and Kirito the seventh. Over three hundred

years had been spent on the task.

Three hundred years! It was more time than Eugeo could

fathom—he had only just turned ten. That hadn't changed now

that he was eleven, of course. All he could process was that over

his mother and father's generation, his grandparents' generation,

and generations even before that, the carvers had put a countless

number of swings into the tree, and all that work had combined

to produce this slice he was looking at now, less than a mel deep.

The elder told him in grave tones why it was so important for

them to fell the great tree.

The Gigas Cedar was so large and its vitality so powerful that it

was stealing the blessings of the sun and earth gods over a vast

region. No seeds could take root in the land over which its towering shadow reached.

Rulid was at the very northern end of the Norlangarth Empire,

the northern of the four empires that ruled over the realm of humanity—in other words, it was literally at the end of the world.

Steep mountains surrounded it to the north, east, and west,

which meant that the only means to expanding their cropland

and grazing pastures was cutting down the forest to the south.

Unfortunately, the Gigas Cedar was located right at the forest's

entrance, so the village could not grow until it was taken out of

the picture.

Yet the tree's bark was as hard as iron; no amount of fire could

induce it to smoke, and its roots stretched just as wide and deep

as the reach of its branches. So they used the Dragonbone Ax left

behind by the founders, a tool strong enough to cut metal, and

the task of carving the tree was passed down through the generations.

When the village elder had finished the tale, his voice trem-

bling with the weight and dignity of duty, Eugeo had timidly

asked, "If it's so hard, why don't we leave the Gigas Cedar and go

around it?"

The elder sternly informed him that cutting down the tree had

been the founders' deepest desire, and it was customary for two

of every generation to carry on the carver's Calling. Next, Kirito

had asked why the founders had bothered to start the village here

at all. The elder had been momentarily taken aback before exploding with fury and boxing first Kirito's ears, then Eugeo's for

good measure.

Thus, for the last year and three months, the boys had taken

turns chopping away at the Gigas Cedar with the Dragonbone Ax.

But perhaps because they were still inexperienced at the task, it

did not seem like they were making much progress on the existing slice within the tree. Three centuries of chopping had gone

into that cut, so it made sense that two children would not produce much in a year's work, but it was nonetheless very discouraging to have so little to show for their labor.

In fact, if they wanted to, they could be discouraged using

much clearer and more concrete evidence. Kirito had the same

thought as he glared silently at the Gigas Cedar and walked over

to it, reaching for the trunk.

"Don't do it, Kirito. The elder told you not to go around constantly reading the tree's life," Eugeo pleaded, but Kirito wore

only his usual mischievous grin when he turned around to look at

his friend.

"The last time I looked was two months ago. It's not constantly, just every once in a while."

"Oh, you and your excuses…Hang on, I want to see, too,"

Eugeo added. His panting had finally calmed down, so he flipped

up onto his feet like Kirito did and trotted over to his partner.

"I'm going to open it now," Kirito muttered, and held out the

index and middle fingers of his left hand, the others tucked away

into his palm. Using this brush, he drew a shape like a writhing

snake in midair—a primitive version of the sigil of dedication to

the goddess of creation.

Once the sigil was done, Kirito struck the trunk of the Gigas

Cedar. It didn't make the usual dry bark sound but instead rang

out soft and pure, like silverware. A little square window of light

appeared, as if shining right out of the tree's trunk.

Everything that existed in the world, whether mobile or stationary, was given "life" by Stacia, the goddess of creation. Insects

and flowers had small amounts of life, cats and horses more, and

humans even more than that. The forest trees and mossy rocks

had many, many times more life than humans. Every being's life

grew from its birth until a certain peak point, and then shrank.

When that life ran out at last, the animals and people would perish, the plants would wilt, and the rocks would crumble.

A Stacia Window displayed the remaining life in sacred script.

Anyone with enough sacred power could call one up by drawing

the sigil and striking the target. Just about anyone could bring up

a window for little things like rocks and grasses, but it was more

difficult for animals, and a background in elementary sacred arts

was necessary to open a human's window. Of course, everyone

was a bit scared to look upon their own window.

Normally a tree's window would be easier to see than a person's, but the monstrous Gigas Cedar was much more difficult,

and it was only half a year ago that Eugeo and Kirito had become

skilled enough to see it.

According to rumor, a master of the sacred arts who was

elected senator of the central Axiom Church in Centoria once succeeded in opening the window of the earth goddess, Terraria, herself after a ritual lasting seven days and nights. One simple

glimpse at the life of the earth was enough to terrify the wits out

of the senator, and he fled and disappeared, driven mad by what

he saw.

Ever since hearing that, Eugeo was afraid of looking at not just

his own window but at other large things like the Gigas Cedar.

However, Kirito was not bothered in the least; in fact, his face

was pressed up close to the shining window. Eugeo was reminded

that sometimes he just couldn't fathom his best friend, but eventually he gave in to curiosity and peered at the window for himself.

The purple rectangle contained a string of odd numerals written in a combination of straight and curved lines. Eugeo could

read just the numbers of the ancient sacred script, but writing it

was forbidden.

"Umm…" Eugeo murmured, sounding out the numbers one by

one as he counted them on his fingers. "235…542."

"Yeah…How much was it two months ago?"

"I think it was about…235,590."

"…"

Kirito threw up his hands in a dramatic gesture of defeat and

fell to his knees. He scrabbled his fingers through his black hair.

"Just fifty! All that work over two months, and we took it down

only fifty out of 235,000! We'll never topple this tree for as long

as we live at this rate!"

"Of course we won't." Eugeo smiled wryly. There was no other

answer to give. "Six generations of carvers have been working for

three centuries and only gotten a quarter of the way through. At

that rate, it'll take, um…at least eighteen generations and nine

more centuries to finish."

"Don't…even…start," Kirito groaned, looking up balefully at

Eugeo. Suddenly, he lunged and grabbed his friend around the

legs. Stunned, Eugeo toppled backward onto the local bed of

moss.

"Why do you always have to be such a goody-goody?! Try to

figure out some way to deal with this unfair duty instead!" Kirito

demanded, but he wore a huge smile as he straddled Eugeo and

ruffled his victim's hair.

"Ahh! Hey, stop it!"

Eugeo grabbed Kirito by the wrists and pulled hard. Kirito

yanked back on his own to avoid being hurled over, and Eugeo

took advantage of that momentum to roll upward and take the

overhead position.

"There, we'll see how you like it!" He laughed, tugging at Kirito's hair with his dirty hands, but unlike his own flaxen hair, Kirito's black hair already stuck out any which way it wanted, so the

attack did little. He was forced to switch to tickling instead.

"Agh! S-stop…n-no fair," Kirito heaved, out of breath, as he

struggled against the tickle attack.

Suddenly, a fierce, high-pitched voice broke the grappling

stalemate:

"Hey! You're slacking off again!"

Eugeo and Kirito instantly froze.

"Ugh…"

"Oh, crap…"

They both hunched their shoulders sheepishly and turned toward the voice.

Standing atop a rock nearby was a figure with hands on hips

and chest puffed out. Eugeo grimaced and muttered, "H-hi, Alice.

You're early today."

"I'm not early, I'm exactly on time," the figure snapped in a

huff, the long hair on either side of her head throwing off dazzling

blond light in the meager dapple that reached through the leaves.

The girl leaped nimbly off the rock, her bright blue skirt and

white apron flapping in the breeze. She held a large woven basket

in her right hand.

The girl's name was Alice Zuberg, and she was the village elder's

daughter. She was the same age as Eugeo and Kirito.

Custom in Rulid—in the entire northern territory, in fact—

stated that all children in the spring of their tenth year were given

a Calling and entered into an apprenticeship for that job. Alice

was the sole exception, as she attended school at the church. She

was receiving private instruction from Sister Azalia to capitalize

on her gift for the sacred arts, which was the most noteworthy of

any child in the village.

But Rulid was not a bountiful enough place to allow an elevenyear-old girl to sit around and study all day, even if she was the

elder's daughter and had a preternatural gift. Every able-bodied

resident needed to work together to combat the Mischief of the

Dark God Vecta—drought and flood, pestilence, and anything else

that threatened the life of crops or livestock—or there wouldn't be

enough to survive the winter.

Eugeo's father, Orick, raised a barley field on cleared forestland to the south of the village that had been in the family for

generations. He made a show of being delighted when his third

son, Eugeo, was chosen to be a Gigas Cedar carver, but inwardly,

he was disappointed. They'd be paid his earnings as a carver from

the village treasury, of course, but that didn't make it any easier

to replace that extra set of hands to work in the field.

The eldest son of each family typically received the same Calling as his father, with the daughters and further sons of farming

families usually following suit. The child of the general store took

on the general store, the sons of the men-at-arms grew up to

guard the village, and the village elder's child became the new

elder. Rulid followed these traditions for centuries after its founding. The adults claimed that this preserved the village and was

thanks to the blessings of Stacia, but Eugeo couldn't help but feel

something unsatisfying with the explanation.

He couldn't tell if the adults really wanted to grow the village

or if they wanted things to stay exactly the same. If they really

wanted more farmland, why didn't they just go to the trouble of

moving past the accursed tree to the lands farther to the south?

But even the village elder, purportedly the wisest of anyone, saw

no need to change any of their ancient traditions.

So no matter how much time passed, Rulid was chronically

poor, which meant that Alice could study only in the morning,

after which she would tend to the livestock and clean the house.

Her first task after school was bringing lunch to Eugeo and Kirito.

Alice leaped off the tall rock, basket slung over her arm. Her

deep-blue eyes glared at Eugeo and Kirito, locked in mortal combat on the ground. Eugeo hastily sat up and shook his head before

those lips could issue another bolt of lightning.

"W-we weren't slacking off! We finished our morning work,

promise!" he babbled as Kirito mumbled an affirmation from

below.

Alice graced them with another withering stare, then snorted.

"If you've got the energy to wrestle after finishing your work,

maybe I should ask Garitta to up your number of swings."

"P-please, anything but that!"

"I'm kidding. Come on, let's eat. It's a hot day, so we need to

hurry before the food spoils."

She set down the basket and pulled out a large white cloth,

which she proceeded to whip open and place on the flattest available bit of ground. Kirito immediately leaped onto the blanket,

his shoes already off, followed by Eugeo. The starving laborers

watched as more and more food appeared before them.

Today's menu was a shepherd's pie of salted meat and stewed

beans; thin sandwiches of black bread, smoked meat, and cheese;

several types of dried fruit; and fresh milk that morning. Aside

from the milk, they were all long-lasting types of food, but the hot

July sun was assuredly doing its best to steal away the meal's life.

Alice held the ravenous boys at bay as though she were ordering dogs to sit, then drew the appropriate sigil in the air to open a

window for each item of food, starting with the milk in its bisqueware pot.

"Yikes, the milk only has ten minutes, and the pie, fifteen. And

that was after I ran all the way here…You'd better eat all this

quickly—just make sure you chew properly."

A single bite of bad food whose life had expired could cause

stomach pains and other ailments in all but the extremely hardy.

Eugeo and Kirito gave a brief thanks for their food before tearing

into their pies.

For a while, all three ate in silence. The two hungry boys were

one thing, but it was surprising just how much food Alice could

pack away in that tiny body of hers. First went the three slices of

pie, then the nine black-bread sandwiches, washed down with the

pot of milk. Finally satisfied, the trio sat back for a breather.

"And how was the flavor?" Alice asked with a sidelong glance.

Eugeo answered in as serious a tone as he could manage.

"Today's pie was good. I think you've gotten much better at it,

Alice."

"D-do you think so? I felt like it was still missing a little something," she said, turning away to hide her embarrassment. Eugeo

shot Kirito a glance and they shared a secret smile. Alice had supposedly been making their lunches for the last two months, but it

was very clear which days she'd secretly received help from her

mother, Sadina. No skill was attained without long years of practice—but Eugeo and Kirito were just old enough to recognize

when it was best not to bring that up.

"So anyway," Kirito started, grabbing a yellow marigo from the

fruit container, "it's a shame we can't take our time eating such a

delicious lunch. Why does the heat make the food go bad so

quickly…?"

"Why?" Eugeo scoffed, shrugging. "Because all life drops

quicker during the summer, of course. Don't be weird. Meat, fish,

vegetables, fruit—it all goes bad if you just leave it around."

"I know that, but I'm asking why. During the winter you can

leave raw meat outside for several days and it'll still be good as

long as it's salted first."

"Because…the winter's cold," Eugeo answered. Kirito's mouth

twisted into a childish pout. His black eyes, rare among the

northern territory, sparkled with defiance.

"That's right, the food lasts because it's cold—not because it's

winter. So if we can keep them cold, our lunches should last

longer, even in the summer."

That caused Eugeo to lose his patience for good. He stretched

and kicked at Kirito's shin. "You make it sound so easy. How do

you make it cold when it's the heat that makes it summer? Are

you going to use the forbidden weather-altering arts to bring

snow? The Integrity Knights will swoop up from Centoria and

take you away the very next day."

"Hmmm…There has to be some way…Something simpler than

that," Kirito muttered, thinking hard.

Alice, who was twirling her long bangs with her fingertip as

she listened to their conversation, interjected, "That's interest-

ing."

"Wh-what? Not you, too, Alice!"

"I'm not suggesting using the forbidden arts. Why go to the

trouble of freezing the entire village if all you need is to make the

inside of this picnic basket cold?"

It made a lot more sense when she put it that way. Eugeo and

Kirito looked at each other and nodded together. Alice, now

smug, continued. "Some things are cold even in the summer. Like

deep well water or silve leaves. Maybe putting things like that

into the basket will cool it down?"

"Oh…good point," Eugeo noted. He crossed his arms to deliberate.

Right out front of the church was an incredibly deep well that

had been there since Rulid was founded, and its water was cold

enough to bite the skin, even in the summer. The leaves of the

rare silve tree that grew in the northern forest emitted a piercing

scent and a chill on the skin when plucked, and they were treasured as a treatment for bruises. Now that he thought about it,

putting well water in a pot and wrapping the pie in silve leaves

seemed like it would be enough to keep the food fresh in transit.

But Kirito shook his head slowly. "I don't think that will be

enough. The well water goes tepid just a minute after it's drawn,

and silve leaves don't give you more than a brief tingle. That

won't be enough to keep the basket cold from Alice's house all the

way to Gigas here."

"Are you saying there's a different way?" Alice snapped, unhappy that her idea had been shot down.

Kirito ran his hands back and forth through his raven hair for

a while. At last he said, "Ice. If we had a lot of ice, that would keep

the lunch cold."

"Oh, come on…" Alice groaned. "It's summer. Where are you

going to find ice? There isn't even any in the market at Centoria!"

she lectured, like a mother to her stubborn child.

But Eugeo felt foreboding creeping over him, and he watched

Kirito in silence. When his best friend had that look in his eyes

and spoke in that tone of voice, it always meant he had some

dreadful idea in mind. He recalled countless misadventures from

the past: the time they went to get emperor-bee honey in the

mountains to the east, the time they broke the hundred-years-expired jar of milk they found in the church basement…

"W-well, who cares? All that matters is to eat the food quickly.

If we don't get started on the afternoon work soon, we'll be late

returning home again," Eugeo urged, trying to divert the topic

away as he returned his empty plate to the basket. But the glint in

Kirito's eyes told him that his fears were about to become reality,

whether he liked it or not.

"…All right, what is it? What have you thought of this time?"

Eugeo asked, resigned.

Kirito grinned and said, "Hey…remember that story your

grandpa told us ages ago, Eugeo?"

"Hmm…?"

"What story?" Alice asked. She was curious, too.

Eugeo's grandfather, who had returned to Stacia's embrace

two years ago, had been an old man with countless old tales

stored in his beard that he liked to share with the three children

as they gathered around his rocking chair. He had hundreds of

stories—mysterious ones, exciting ones, scary ones—so there was

no way for Eugeo to guess which one Kirito was thinking about.

His friend cleared his throat and held up a finger.

"There's only one story about ice in the summer. 'Bercouli and

the Northern White—'"

"Oh, please. You've gotta be kidding!" Eugeo interjected, shaking his head and hands.

Of all the founders of Rulid, Bercouli was the most skilled with

the sword, and he served as the first chief guard of the village.

Given that he lived three hundred years ago, a number of stories

about his exploits had been passed down and inflated in the

telling, and the one Kirito mentioned was easily the most fantastical of them all.

One midsummer day, Bercouli saw a large transparent stone

rising and sinking in the Rul River, which ran to the east of the

village. He fished out the object and was mystified to learn that it

was a hunk of ice. Bercouli followed the river upstream until he

reached the End Mountains, the very boundary of the human

realm, where the river narrowed down until it met the mouth of a

massive cave.

Bercouli made his way inside, pushing against the freezing

winds that blew out of the cave, and, after braving many dangers,

he arrived at the great chamber in the very deepest part. In it, he

found an enormous white dragon, which was said to protect all

the borders of the human world. When he saw that the beast was

sleeping atop an immeasurable mountain of treasure, Bercouli

boldly snuck forward and chose a single beautiful sword from the

pile. He carefully picked up the sword so as not to wake the

dragon and was about to scamper off for safety when, dun-dundun—so the story went. It was called "Bercouli and the Northern

White Dragon."

Even mischievous Kirito couldn't intend to break the laws of

the village and cross the northern pass to search for a real dragon,

Eugeo prayed. "So…you're going to stake out the Rul and wait for

ice to flow down it?" he hedged.

Kirito snorted. "The summer will be over by the time I see anything like that. I'm not going to copy Bercouli and try to find a

dragon. Remember how in the story, there were huge icicles right

inside the entrance of the cave? Two or three of those should be

enough to test out my idea."

"You can't be serious…" Eugeo groaned, then fell silent. He

turned and glanced at Alice, pleading her to scold the ne'er-dowell in his stead. But the look of excitement in her blue eyes

turned his consternation into despair.

Much to their outrage, Eugeo and Kirito were considered the

two biggest troublemakers by the elderly in town, receiving scoldings on a daily basis. But few people knew that the driving force

behind their many bouts of mischief was the encouragement of

Alice herself, the village's perfect little sweetheart.

Alice put a finger to her plump lips and pretended to think it

over for a few seconds, then blinked and said, "That's not a bad

idea."

"Come on, Alice…"

"Yes, children are forbidden from crossing the northern pass

on their own. But remember the exact wording of the rule: 'Children must not cross the northern pass to play on their own without adult supervision.'"

"Uh…is that how it goes?" Eugeo asked, and shared a look with

Kirito.

The laws of the village, officially titled The Rulid Village Standards, were recorded on an aging parchment two cen thick that

was kept in the village elder's home. When children started going

to school at the church, the first thing they did was learn all the

laws. Parents and elders always droned on and on about "the laws

say this" and "according to the laws that," so by the age of eleven,

every child had them thoroughly beaten into his or her head—but

in Alice's case, she had memorized the exact wording of each and

every law.

She can't have memorized the Basic Imperial Laws as well;

those are twice as thick as the village's…Much less that other

thing, which is twice again as thick as that, Eugeo thought, staring holes into Alice. She cleared her throat and took on a fussy,

officious tone.

"Do you see? The law forbids us from going to play. But going

in search of ice is not playing. If we can extend the life of our

lunches, it will help not only us but the other workers in the barley fields and pastures, won't it? Therefore, we should interpret

this to fall under the category of work."

Eugeo and Kirito shared another look. His partner's black eyes

seemed hesitant for a brief bit, but that soon melted away like

their fabled ice in a hot summer river.

"Yep, exactly. You are correct," Kirito declared, crossing his

arms. "It's work, so it doesn't break the village law about crossing

the northern pass to the End Mountains. Remember what Mr.

Barbossa always says? 'Work isn't just what people tell you to do.

If you have free time, find something you can do on your own!' If

they get mad, we can just trot out that line in our defense."

The Barbossas had the largest barley fields in the village. Nigel

Barbossa was a stout man around fifty years old who, unsatisfied

with having over double the income of anyone else in the village,

would complain that Eugeo hadn't felled "that infernal cedar yet"

every time they crossed paths. Rumor said that he was petitioning

the elder to give him first priority on cleared lands after the Gigas

Cedar was removed. Whenever he heard it, Eugeo thought to

himself, Your life is going to run out well before that happens.

Kirito's idea to use Nigel's words against him if they got in

trouble was very tempting, but Eugeo was always the first member of the trio to invoke a "but," thereby holding back the others.

"But…it's not just the village laws that forbid going to the End

Mountains…There's that other thing, too, right? Even if we cross

the pass, we can only go to the foot of the mountains and not into

the cave…"

Alice and Kirito both sobered, if momentarily. What Eugeo

mentioned was not The Rulid Village Standards or the Norlangarth Basic Imperial Laws but an even more absolute, far-reaching set of laws that covered all the residents of the human world—

the Taboo Index.

The Index was upheld by the Axiom Church, residing in its

tower in Centoria that stretched nearly to the heavens. The heavy

books, bound in pure white leather, were given to every single

town and village in not just the northern empire containing Rulid

but to those in the east, west, and south as well.

Unlike the village rules and imperial law, the Taboo Index contained well over a thousand entries of forbidden actions, starting

with general things like rebellion against the Church, murder,

and theft, and going down to specifics like caps on the number of

animals and fish that could be hunted in a year or which types of

feed were forbidden to give to livestock. Aside from learning letters and numbers at school, the biggest priority was teaching children all the entries of the Taboo Index. As a matter of fact, the

Index forbade not teaching the Index in school.

But the absolute authority of the Taboo Index and Axiom

Church did not extend to all corners of the world. Beyond the End

Mountains that surrounded everything was a land of darkness—

what was called the Dark Territory in the sacred tongue. Naturally, the entry that forbade going to the End Mountains was

listed quite early in the Index, and that was why Eugeo said they

could go to the foot of the mountains but not into the cave.

Eugeo stared at his old friend Alice. Surely she would not dare

challenge the Taboo Index. Even considering such a thing was a

taboo.

Alice thought for a while, her long eyelashes dazzling in the

sun like fine golden threads. Eventually she raised her head, and

her eyes still had that adventurous gleam in them.

"Eugeo, your reading of the Taboo Index isn't entirely accurate, either."

"Huh…? N-no way!"

"Yes way. Here's what the Index says. Book One, Chapter

Three, Verse Eleven: 'Thou shalt not cross the End Mountains

that encircle the Human Empire.' When it says cross, it means

climbing over. Going into a cave doesn't count. Besides, our intention is not to go beyond the mountains but to get ice from inside them. There's nothing in the Taboo Index that says, 'Thou

shalt not search for ice within the End Mountains,'" Alice noted,

her crystal voice like the tiniest bell at the church. Eugeo had no

response. In fact, what she said was making a certain kind of

sense.

But the farthest we've ever been are the twin ponds along the

Rul, well short of the northern pass. We don't know what lies beyond that point, and this is the season where the itch-bugs come

out along the water…

Kirito roused Eugeo out of his hesitation by slapping him on

the back, just softly enough not to damage his life, and shouted,

"Alice studies more than anyone else in the village, so if she says

so, it's fine, Eugeo! That settles it—next rest day we're searching

for that white dra…The ice cave!"

"I'll need to make our lunch with ingredients that last longer."

Eugeo looked at his friends, their faces sparkling with excitement, and could offer only a reluctant "sure" under his breath.

2

The third rest day of July was shaping up to be a beauty.

Even the children over the age of ten who had been given their

Calling returned to their younger days and were allowed to go out

and play until dinner. Normally Eugeo and Kirito would go fishing or have play swordfights with the other boys, but on this rest

day they were out of their houses before the morning dew was

gone, waiting for Alice beneath the old tree at the edge of the village.

"She's late!" Kirito grumbled, conveniently forgetting that he

had forced Eugeo to wait several minutes, too. "Why do women

always put their own preparations ahead of being on time? In two

years she'll be like your sister and claim that she can't go into the

forest because it'll get her clothes dirty."

"She can't help it; she's a girl," Eugeo said, even as he considered where they would be in two years' time.

Given her status, Alice was still considered one of the children

without a Calling yet, so the village tacitly accepted her activities

with the boys. But she was also the village elder's daughter, which

essentially guaranteed that she would serve as the standard for

the other women of the village. It would not be long before she

was forbidden from cavorting with boys and forced to learn not

just the sacred arts but the proper manners and bearing of a lady.

And what would happen after that? Like Eugeo's eldest sister,

Celinia, would she marry into another family? And what did his

partner think about this…?

"Hey, stop spacing out. Did you get enough sleep last night?"

Kirito wondered. Eugeo nodded vigorously.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine…Oh, here she comes."

He pointed toward the village, where the sound of light footsteps was approaching.

Just as Kirito had groused, Alice appeared through the morning fog with her pristinely combed blond hair tied up with a ribbon and spotless white apron dress swaying. Eugeo looked at his

friend and stifled a smile. The boys greeted her in unison: "You're

late!"

"No, you're too early. Honestly, when are you two going to

grow up?" Alice retorted, handing Eugeo the basket and Kirito

the canteen with her nose in the air.

Once they automatically took the items, she turned to the path

leading north out of the village, crouched, and plucked a stalk of

high grass. She pointed the plump, fuzzy end of it toward the distant mountain and announced, "And now…we head off in search

of summer ice!"

Eugeo shared another look with Kirito, wondering how it was

that they always ended up being the princess and her two servants, and started trudging after Alice.

The road that ran north to south through the village was wellworn on the southern-heading side with the passage of travelers

and horses, but the northern-headed side had long fallen into disuse, littered with tree roots and rocks. Alice stepped nimbly over

all these obstacles, humming as she led the two boys onward.

Eugeo thought the way she carried herself was beautiful. A few

years ago, Alice could be seen practicing her sword fighting with

the other scamps from time to time, and somehow she usually

managed to knock Eugeo and Kirito on their backs with even the

finest of sticks. Their blunt sticks hit only the air, as though they

were clumsily fighting off wind spirits. If she'd kept training,

Alice could have been the village's very first woman-at-arms.

"A man-at-arms…" Eugeo mumbled to himself.

It had been a distant dream, a hope that he held onto until he

was given the Calling of a carver. If he'd been chosen as a guard

(the dream of all the boys in the village), he wouldn't have to use

a crude stick yanked off a tree. He could learn actual sword-fighting techniques and use an actual steel sword, even if it was a

hand-me-down.

It didn't stop there. The guards from all the villages in the

northern territory could enroll in the dueling tournament held in

the city of Zakkaria to the south every fall. Ranking highly in the

tournament earned a guard the actual title of Sentinel, accompanied by an official sword forged by a blacksmith in Centoria. And

not only that—if the sentinel garrison recognized your skill, you

could take the test for entry into the venerable Swordcraft Academy in Centoria. If you passed that considerable challenge and

graduated from the academy two years later, you could participate in the fighting tournament attended by the emperor of Norlangarth himself. Legends claimed that Bercouli once won that

very tournament.

After that, at the top of everything was the Four-Empire Unification Tournament administered by the Axiom Church, which accepted only true heroes from all over the human world. The winner of this event, which was watched over by the gods themselves,

stood atop the pinnacle of all warriors. He would be given the

holy task of protecting the order of the world itself as a dragonriding Integrity Knight, swooping into the Dark Territory to battle

the demons there…

Eugeo never imagined getting that far, but he once clung to a

vision in his head. If Alice left the village not as a sword fighter

but as an apprentice of the sacred arts, she might go to school in

Zakkaria or even the Artcraft Academy in Centoria. And perhaps,

dressed in the green and beige of the official sentinel forces at her

side, shining official sword on his belt, would be him…

"The dream isn't over yet," Kirito murmured to him, breaking

Eugeo out of his fantasy. That single comment had been enough

for Kirito to read every single thought that passed through his

head. He grimaced at his friend's perceptiveness and muttered,

"No, it's definitely over."

The time to dream of such things had ended. Last spring, it

was Zink, the son of the chief man-at-arms, who had received the

guard's Calling—despite the fact that his skill with the sword was

far below Eugeo's or Kirito's, not to mention Alice's. He felt a momentary surge of anger and even greater resignation.

"Once a Calling is determined, not even the elder can change

it."

"With one exception."

"Exception…?"

"When you complete your work," Kirito stated. Eugeo grimaced again, at the stubbornness this time. His partner still

hadn't given up on the preposterous goal of felling the Gigas

Cedar in their generation.

"If we knock down that tree, our job is done for good. And

then you get to choose your next Calling. Isn't that right?"

"It is, but…"

"I'm glad I didn't wind up as a shepherd or a barley farmer.

There's no end to those jobs, but there is for ours. There has to be

a way to do it. If we cut down that tree in three—no, two years…"

"We can fight in the Zakkaria tournament."

"Well, well, sounds like you're still in the mood for that,

Eugeo."

"I can't let you go and hog all the glory, Kirito."

It was strange how just joking about it with his friend made it

seem like less of a crazy dream. The boys continued on, grinning

at the idea of waltzing back to town with official prize swords to

show off to dumb old Zink, when Alice turned around up ahead to

glare at them.

"What are you two whispering about back there?"

"N-nothing. We were just wondering if it's time for lunch yet.

Right?"

"Y-yeah."

"You're kidding. We've barely just started walking. Anyway,

there's the river up there."

Alice pointed her grass stalk at a glittering water surface up

ahead. It was the Rul River, which started in the End Mountains

and flowed around the east of Rulid and then south to Zakkaria.

The road split there, with the right-hand path crossing Rulid

Bridge to the eastern forest and the left path continuing north

along the riverside. They would follow it north, of course.

At the fork, Eugeo knelt down at the water and sank his hand

below the clear, burbling surface. It would have frozen his skin in

early spring, but now that it was midsummer, the water was

much warmer. It would no doubt feel great to strip off his clothes

and jump in, but he couldn't do that in Alice's presence.

"It's definitely not a temperature that will support ice," he reported to Kirito.

Kirito in turn pouted, saying, "Yeah, that's why we're going to

the cave where it comes from."

"Fine, fine, just remember that we have to be back at the village by evening bell. Let's see…How about we turn back when

Solus reaches the middle of the sky?"

"I guess we have no choice. Let's hurry!" Alice commanded,

walking away over the soft grass. The boys hurried to keep up.

The branches of the trees on their left reached overhead like a

canopy, blocking the sunlight, and the river on their right brought

a cool breeze, so even when Solus was high overhead, the trio

walked in relative comfort. The one-mel-wide river path was covered in short summer grasses, and there were almost no holes or

rocks to trip them up.

Eugeo found it strange that it was such an easy place to walk,

and yet he had never set foot beyond the twin ponds. The northern pass, which the village laws prohibited children from crossing

alone, was much farther ahead. So he could have easily walked

past the pond without being scolded—yet there was something, a

kind of fear of the law itself, that naturally stopped his feet from

going farther.

He and Kirito often complained of how stuffy the adults were

about rules, but they had never even thought about breaking

them, much less gone through with it. This tiny little adventure

was easily the closest he'd ever come to challenging the Taboo

Index.

A belated anxiety visited Eugeo, and he glanced ahead at Kir-

ito and Alice, but they were singing a cheery shepherd's song together. It made him wonder if they'd ever felt afraid or even concerned about anything in their lives.

"Hey, you guys," he called. They looked over their shoulders

without stopping.

"What is it, Eugeo?" Alice asked.

He decided to lower his voice to scare her. "We're pretty far

from the village now…Aren't there dangerous beasts around here

to look out for?"

"What? I've never heard of any such thing," she said, glancing

at Kirito.

He shrugged and wondered, "Where did Donetti's grandpa say

he saw that long-clawed bear, again?"

"Near the black apple tree to the east. And that was about ten

years ago."

"If we see anything around here, it's going to be a four-eared

fox. You're such a scaredy-cat, Eugeo."

The pair laughed. Eugeo shot back, "N-no, I'm not scared, I'm

just saying…this is the first time any of us has been past the twin

ponds, right? Maybe we should be careful, that's all."

Kirito's black eyes sparkled. "You know, I think you're right.

Did you know that when this village was founded, the monsters

from the land of darkness—goblins and orcs and whatnot—would

come over the mountains and steal sheep and children?"

He leered in Alice's direction, but she snorted and then huffed,

"Listen to you two, trying to scare me. I know the story—an Integrity Knight came from Centoria and defeated the goblin boss

to put an end to it, right?"

"'And ever since then, on clear days, you can see the figure of a

knight riding a white dragon over the End Mountains,'" Kirito

said, quoting the end of a fairy tale that every child in the village

knew. He looked to the north, and Eugeo and Alice followed suit.

At some point, the white peaks of the mountains had come much

closer, blocking a large swath of the blue sky.

For an instant, they thought they saw a tiny light flash among

the clouds, but after blinking and looking harder, there was nothing. The trio looked at one another and laughed awkwardly.

"It's only a fairy tale. I'm sure Bercouli just made up that story

about the ice dragon in the cave, too."

"If you say that in town, the elder will put his fist down.

Bercouli is the hero of Rulid, after all," Eugeo warned. Alice only

gave him another chiding smile and sped up.

"We'll find out once we get there. Better hurry, or we won't

reach the cave by midday!"

But Eugeo didn't think they could actually get all the way to the

End Mountains in just half a day's walk.

As the name suggested, the End Mountains were the very end

of the world, the border of humanity's lands ruled by four empires to the north, south, east, and west. Just because Rulid was

at the north edge of the northern territory didn't mean it was

close enough for children to make the trip in just a few hours.

So Eugeo was stunned when, just before the sun reached the

midpoint of the sky, the narrowed width of the Rul disappeared

into a yawning cave mouth cut into the side of the mountain cliff

right before them.

The deep forests on either side abruptly stopped, leaving a

rough wall of gray stone before them. From here, the white peaks

piercing the sky were still faded with distance, but it was undeniable that this rock face was the very edge of the mountain range.

"Did we make it already…? These are…the End Mountains?

Wasn't that a little sudden?" Kirito gaped in disbelief. Alice's eyes

were similarly wide.

"Then…where was the northern pass? Did we just walk right

through it without realizing?"

She had a very good point. The northern pass, the absolute

boundary for the village children—and adults, too, perhaps—

couldn't have simply passed them by without their notice. There

had been a bit of up and down in the terrain about thirty minutes

after the twin ponds, but that couldn't have been the pass, could

it?

Eugeo turned to look back in disbelief and heard Alice whisper

gravely, "If that's the End Mountains…then just on the other

side…is the land of darkness? I mean…we walked about four

hours, but that isn't even enough to get to Zakkaria. I guess Rulid

really is…at the very edge of the world…"

Eugeo was stunned to realize just where in the world his lifetime home was actually located. Was it possible that no one in the

entire village realized just how close the mountains were? In

three centuries of history, were they the first to pass through the

northern forest after Bercouli…?

Something felt wrong, he decided. But he couldn't say exactly

what.

The adults woke up at the same time every day, ate the same

breakfast as the day before, then headed to the same old fields,

pastures, smithies, and spinning wheels. Alice claimed that it

took more than four hours to get to Zakkaria, but neither she, nor

Kirito, nor Eugeo had ever actually been there. They had merely

been told by the adults that it took two days of walking down the

road south of town to reach Zakkaria. For that matter, how many

of the adults had ever actually gone to Zakkaria and come back…?

Before the vague questions floating through Eugeo's head

could condense into a proper form, Alice sent them back into

oblivion by prompting, "At any rate, now that we're here, we

might as well go inside. Let's eat lunch first."

She took the picnic basket from Eugeo's hands and sat down

on the soft grass right before it turned to gray gravel. Kirito

cheered the imminent end of his hunger, and Eugeo joined them

on the ground. The delicious scent of pie was all it took to banish

his suspicions for good and remind him how hungry he was.

Alice slapped Eugeo's and Kirito's grasping hands away from

the food so she could open the windows of the dishes. Once she

was satisfied with their condition, she served the food: fish and

bean pie, apple and walnut pie, and dried plums. Lastly, she

poured siral water from the canteen into wooden cups and

checked to make sure that was good, too.

Once he had permission to proceed, Kirito said a quick grace

and tore into his fish pie. Through the food in his mouth, he

mumbled, "If we find a bunch of ice in that cave…then we won't

have to eat tomorrow's lunch so fast."

Eugeo had the manners to swallow first before responding.

"But if you think about it, how will we preserve the life of the ice

itself, assuming we find any? What's the point if it all melts by tomorrow?"

"Hmm…" Kirito murmured. Clearly this hadn't occurred to

him.

Alice confidently announced, "If we hurry it back and put it in

my basement, it should last overnight. I'm appalled that you

didn't consider that step first."

Properly scolded, Kirito and Eugeo sheepishly continued eating their lunch. For her part, Alice finished the pie and drank her

water faster than usual.

Once she had folded the white cloth and placed it back in the

empty basket, Alice stood up. She took the three cups over to the

brook and promptly rinsed them out.

"Yeek!" she yelped, and trotted back, showing Eugeo the hands

she had dried on her apron. "The river water is freezing! It's like

the well water in the winter!"

Sure enough, her little palms looked quite red. He reached out

to touch them and was surprised to feel that they were pleasingly

cool.

"Hey…stop that," she snapped, batting away his hands, though

her cheeks were now the same color. Eugeo suddenly realized he

had just done something he usually never did, and he shook his

head.

"Er…I didn't…I wasn't…"

"All right, you two—shall we go now?" Kirito suggested with a

knowing grin. Eugeo stomped lightly on his foot and picked up

the water sack, slinging it over his shoulder. He headed toward

the cave's entrance without looking back at them.

The clear, narrow brook they had followed was now so small

that it was hard to believe it was really the source of the great Rul

River. It was barely a mel and a half across. On the left side of the

opening in the cliff face from where the water flowed was a rock

ledge about the same width across. That would be their walkway

inside.

Three hundred years ago, Bercouli the chief guardsman had

trod on this very same ground—a thought that urged Eugeo forward into the cave. The temperature dropped, and he rubbed his

bare forearms.

Once he heard the other two following, he took another ten

steps inside. That was when Eugeo realized his terrible mistake,

and he turned to announce, "Crap…I didn't bring any light. What

about you, Kirito?"

They were barely five mels inside the cave, and already it was

hard to make out one another's expressions. Eugeo was disappointed that he hadn't even considered the obvious fact that it

was pitch-black inside a cave. The only response he got from his

partner was an oddly confident, "How would I remember something that you failed to remember?!"

"Okay, boys, listen up…"

Eugeo turned toward the faint shine of blond hair, wondering

how many times they'd already heard that annoyed tone today.

Alice shook her head several times, reached into her apron

pocket, and pulled out something long and narrow—the stalk of

grass she'd been carrying since they left the village.

She put her left palm to the tip and shut her eyes. Her little

lips moved, and she chanted a strange mantra in the sacred

tongue. Lastly, she made a quick, complex sigil in the air with her

left hand, and the rounded tip of the stalk of grass began to glow.

The pale light grew stronger and stronger until the darkness of

the cave was kept at considerable bay.

"Whoa!"

"Wow…"

Kirito and Eugeo could not contain their amazement. They

knew Alice was studying the sacred arts, but they had hardly ever

seen her execute them. According to Sister Azalia's teachings, all

the arts that drew upon the power of Stacia, Solus, and Terraria—

the dark arts of Vecta's servants excepted—existed only to protect

the order and tranquility of the world and were not meant for

everyday use.