Baek Yu-Seol was finally able to savor his winter break about two weeks after it began.
He shed imaginary tears over spending most of his vacation in recovery, but considering the remarkable progress he had made during that time, he found some solace in his thoughts.
With the break fully underway, Stella Academy's principal office was eerily quiet. Even Flame had shown no intention of lingering in the empty academy.
Summer meant beaches; winter meant ski resorts.
Most students followed that simple pattern, and Flame was no exception. Just a few days earlier, at the crack of dawn, she had suddenly announced she was heading to a ski resort and departed without looking back.
Normally, people would be brimming with excitement at the prospect of a trip, but for some reason, Flame didn't seem particularly enthusiastic.
Still, with over twenty people in her group and the burden of being appointed treasurer, she had no choice but to go along.
'Hey. Don't go causing any trouble while I'm gone, alright?'
'Do I look like a kid?'
'Who causes more trouble than a kid?'
'... Whatever. I'll deal with you when I get back.'
Even Eisel, who adored ice, had joined the trip, leaving Baek Yu-Seol with absolutely nothing to do at the academy.
At the start of the semester, he'd always had something keeping him occupied, always preoccupied with tasks.
He'd been fully capable of managing on his own - he still was - but recently, whenever he found himself alone, an unfamiliar sense of loneliness crept in.
For someone like Baek Yu-Seol, who had spent his entire life in solitude, it was a foreign feeling.
Even before becoming Baek Yu-Seol in the world of Aether, his life on modern Earth had been no less lonely.
Feeling the gentle rhythm of the train as it rolled along the tracks, Baek Yu-Seol blankly gazed out the window.
While everyone else was off enjoying ski resorts or winter beaches, he was on a quiet journey to the Orchard of the Dreamtree, nestled beneath the Third World Tree.
The train rumbled through a forested path, where snow lay heaped in thick blankets.
The scenery should have been mesmerizing, yet Baek Yu-Seol found his attention drawn to his enhanced vision.
The swirling snowflakes and gently swaying branches seemed far clearer than before.
It was as if he had upgraded from a 60Hz monitor to a 144Hz pro-gaming display. The world appeared in stunning detail, sharper than ever.
While Baek Yu-Seol gazed out the window, a sudden voice called out to him from the hallway.
It came from a group of two high school girls and three boys, all dressed in crisp uniforms. Though he didn't recognize the emblem on their blazers, it wasn't hard to guess they belonged to a prestigious academy.
After all, the only people crazy enough to wear their uniforms during winter break were teenagers who wanted to flaunt their elite school status.
'... Was I like that half a year ago?'
He vaguely recalled something similar but decided it was best to erase the memory altogether.
"Excuse me... Is this you?"
One of the boys stepped forward, holding out a newspaper clipping. The headline covered the recent 'demon sighting' incident, which had dominated the news for days.
Right in the center of the page was Baek Yu-Seol's face.
For a brief moment, he froze, but thanks to the Blessing of Pink Spring Moon, he quickly regained his composure. Without so much as a flinch, he replied calmly.
"Whoa... This is my first time seeing you in person!"
"It's my first time seeing you guys too, so I guess we're even."
"Um... Could we get an autograph?"
The boy fidgeted nervously, looking every bit like a modern teenager meeting a celebrity.
The word sounded strange to Baek Yu-Seol.
He hated attention, couldn't sing, dance, act, or tell jokes, and didn't even consider himself particularly good-looking. His life had always been remote from anything resembling fame.
"I don't have an autograph or anything like that."
"T-Then, maybe just your name...?"
Taking the newspaper, Baek Yu-Seol casually pulled out a magic ink pen from thin air.
The moment he accessed his subspace, the students' eyes widened in awe. Their reactions were so amusing that he had to fight the urge to laugh.
He wrote [From: Clear and Pure Baek Yu-Seol★] in their newspapers and notebooks and even added each student's name.
They were thrilled over something so simple.
"Alright, you guys can go now."
When he waved them off, the students hesitated for a moment.
"Uh, but... We're third-years..."
"Oh? You look younger than that."
Baek Yu-Seol just stared at them with a 'So what?' expression.
Flustered, the students quickly gathered their autographs and scurried away.
'Phew, at least we got his autograph.'
'He's sharper than he looks...'
'He's younger than us, but we were still intimidated.'
As he overheard the students' whispers fading down the hall, Baek Yu-Seol finally understood why they had emphasized their ages so much.
'Wait... Am I eighteen now?'
Since Aether World followed the Korean age system, and it was already past January 1st, he was indeed 18 years old by their standards.
In other words, he had unknowingly spoken informally to students older than himself.
In truth, his actual age was more than a decade older than the body he now inhabited. Feeling annoyed at himself for worrying about such trivial matters, Baek Yu-Seol leaned back, pulled down his eye mask, and prepared to rest until his destination.
"Um... Are you Baek Yu-Seol...?"
It seemed sleep was not in the cards.
While Aether World had tropical regions, the World Trees weren't part of them.
The Orchard of the Dreamtree, which turned completely white with snow every winter, held an annual World Tree Birth Festival similar to Christmas.
Unfortunately, the festival had already passed.
He pulled his hat low and carefully walked through the orchard's snowy paths.
With his face plastered across the news so often in the past year, more and more people had begun recognizing him. He wasn't eager to draw attention... or worse, be invited to formal receptions by the Dreamtree elders.
That would be troublesome.
Ever since Baek Yu-Seol had unknowingly done the elder a favor, he had become something of a treasured guest in the orchard.
Yet, he hadn't visited in quite some time, and he still remembered the elder's disappointed letter about it.
'Come to think of it... I haven't checked my mailbox lately.'
Thanks to his connections with both the Alterisha Department and the Starcloud Trading Company, letters had started piling up endlessly.
But after being bedridden for over a month, he hadn't had the chance to sort through them.
'I'll check it as soon as I get back.'
Walking through the forest no longer felt like a chore.
With his vastly improved stamina, even steep slopes felt as easy as strolling through a park.
At the sound of Baek Yu-Seol's voice - carrying the weight of a 30-year-old but still appearing like a high schooler - Leafanel, the divine spirit who had lived for over 1000 years, quickly sensed his presence and cleared a path through the garden.
It had been a long time since he'd last seen her physical form, and she looked far healthier than before.
However, something far more surprising caught his attention.
"Wait... You can move now?"
She was walking through the garden on her own two feet.
— I even go outside for walks sometimes.
Leafanel beamed at him, her expression brimming with childlike joy.
Yet, as her heart had grown stronger, it seemed her physical form had also matured. She looked taller than she had the last time he saw her.
— Are you here to visit?
"Yeah, something like that."
— Recently... I was surprised because my voice couldn't reach you.
"Sorry. I lost consciousness for a bit."
— It's okay. Florin visited often and kept me company.
The Elf King hardly seemed like the type to have the time to keep someone company, but if Leafanel said so, then he'd just accept it as fact.
— Can you tell me what's been happening outside?
As Baek Yu-Seol sat down, Leafanel quickly ran over and leaned against a rock opposite him.
Her eyes sparkled like a child eagerly waiting for a bedtime story, and seeing that look, he couldn't bring himself to refuse.
"I went to the Elf Kingdom ruled by Florin as an exchange student. While I was there..."
In truth, one of the main reasons Baek Yu-Seol had come here was to check on Leafanel's condition.
But there was another reason... one he couldn't ignore. He needed to investigate the ancient sword once wielded by Ha Tae-Ryeong.