Chapter 2: The Threshold of Change.

“Ugh…”
I sniffled and stepped out of the house.

I had only one outfit prepared for the winter, and even that was a gift from a boy from a hunter’s family.

Despite the cold season, the boys in the village kept showering me with gifts.

Once this winter ends, Emily will turn 14, meaning that—by this world’s standards—she will be of marriageable age.

The boys were desperate to marry Emily.

As winter began, my mother started dropping hints.

While she waited for me to choose someone I liked, she subtly tried to arrange meetings with boys she thought were good matches. It was driving me insane.

‘My identity as an adult male is still intact.’ Just talking to these little village boys felt like torture, let alone marrying one. Honestly, I’d rather freeze to death.

As usual, I headed toward the gatekeeper’s cabin. Despite spending so much time with him, I still didn’t know his name. All I did was diligently train with the sword techniques he taught me.

“You’re here again?”

The gatekeeper greeted me warmly, bundled in thick fur clothes. Visiting the cabin had become a daily routine. I bowed my head slightly and picked up the wooden sword resting in the corner of the cabin.

The wooden blade was frozen stiff from the snow that had fallen the night before.

Perhaps the gatekeeper liked seeing my persistence, because once winter set in, he began teaching me proper swordsmanship.

Of course, I had no way of knowing how skilled his techniques were, but since he was a retired knight, I learned without question.

After all, I didn’t have any other options.

I enjoyed moving my body. My heart raced as my stamina improved day by day.

I almost shouted with joy the first time I cut through a falling leaf with my faster sword strikes. In a world where everything felt boring, swordsmanship became my only form of entertainment.

“Hyat!”

Today, too, I trained until I collapsed from exhaustion. Shouting fiercely, I swung the frozen wooden sword wildly.

The calluses on my palms grew thicker without me even noticing.

That evening, my family gathered for dinner.

“Do you like it?”

My mother held up a white dress for me to see. Its hem was covered with intricate floral decorations, making it look expensive.

Judging by the fabric, it wasn’t meant for everyday wear.

A strange sense of foreboding crept over me as I looked at it.

“What… is this?”

“It’s the dress you’ll wear for your wedding.”

I had always planned to leave this house—no, this village—someday. I just didn’t expect it to be today.

My mother kept talking, but her words barely registered. My mind felt hazy.

The fact that a wedding dress had been prepared could only mean one thing: my marriage partner had already been decided.

Not that I cared to know who it was.

“What do you think? Isn’t it beautiful?”

I kept my mouth shut. My mother mistook my silence for shyness and burst into laughter.

That laugh was the last straw.

I nodded quietly.

Late that night…

I quietly rose in the dead of night when everyone was asleep.

The cold morning air felt like it could freeze my lungs, but I held my breath and moved carefully.

I gathered a thick fur coat, my mother’s emergency stash of coins, and the leather bag my father always carried.

Inside, it was packed with dried jerky. Collecting my things wasn’t difficult; I had long planned to leave this village, so I already knew where everything I needed was.

Once my preparations were complete, I stared blankly at the crackling fire.

From the way the flames flickered, it looked like the fire would die out by morning.

I glanced over at my sleeping parents, then tossed two logs into the fire.

Crack!

Though I intended to leave without a word, my feet wouldn’t move.

In the end, I tore a corner from a storybook lying nearby and wrote on it with charcoal:

I am leaving to find my dream. Please don’t look for me.
—Emily

The elegant handwriting satisfied me. After nodding in approval at the note, I quietly left the house.

The village streets were eerily silent in the late-night hours.

A cold breeze blew through the forest, producing strange howls.

The wind carried the scent of damp grass, thick and suffocating as it blew back out into the open.

“Haa…”

The breath I exhaled turned into a white mist, quickly dispersing into the air.

I headed toward the gatekeeper’s cabin. It wasn’t my destination, but it was a path I had to take to leave the village.

As I approached the cabin, moonlight streamed down from the sky with a crisp sound.

Thunk!

While I stood there in a daze, I felt a familiar gaze land on me—it was the gatekeeper.

“Emily?”

“Hello.”

I gave him a small bow in greeting. He tilted his head, puzzled by my sudden appearance at such a late hour.

I must have seemed suspicious.

Splintered firewood lay scattered around his feet, and the sword in his hand indicated he had been splitting wood with it again.

The first time I met him, he had also been chopping wood.

Without a word, I turned away from him and started walking toward the village’s outskirts.

“Wait.”

“Yes?”

“Where are you going at this hour?”

“Outside the village.”

At my response, his face twisted in disapproval.

“Are you out of your mind?”

I didn’t answer. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was in my right mind. Was it normal for a young girl to carry the consciousness of an adult man?

“Come here and sit down for a moment.”

The gatekeeper’s tone was gentle. I knew he wouldn’t stop me—his personality wasn’t the type to hold someone back.

Although puzzled, I walked over to him. He offered me an uncut log to sit on, as if it were a chair.

It looked like good firewood—dry and well-seasoned.

“Why do you want to leave the village?”

“My mom wants me to get married.”

“Married…?”

“Yes. I’ll be fourteen after winter ends.”

“Then just get married.”

“I don’t want to.”

The gatekeeper fell silent for a long time. After a moment, he reached into his coat and pulled something out—a thick cigarette.

He seemed to debate whether or not to light it but ultimately decided against it.

“Is that why you’ve been learning swordsmanship?”

I blinked in response. It wasn’t exactly because I wanted to avoid marriage.

It was just that, with the mind of an adult man, swordsmanship was the only thing I could seriously throw myself into.

“Sort of.”

“So, are you planning to become an adventurer?”

“Why can’t I be a knight?”

At my question, the gatekeeper remained silent.

After some time, he stood up, as if he had made a decision, and asked, “Do you have money?”

“I took my mom’s emergency stash.”

I opened a small leather pouch, showing him one gold coin and five silver coins inside.

When he saw it, he let out a long sigh and gestured for me to follow him into the cabin.

“Take this.”

He handed me a heavy iron sword and another leather pouch, equally weighty.

I checked the contents of the pouch—five gold coins.

“This is…”

The gatekeeper said nothing more. Instead, he lit his cigarette with the fire from the hearth, inhaling deeply.

Ssshhh…

I stared at him, confused.

Shouldn’t he be trying to stop me? As the village’s gatekeeper, he’d surely face trouble with the chief if I disappeared.

“Shouldn’t you be stopping me?”

“Would that make you stay?”

“You speak as if you know me well.”

“I do. A sword tells you a lot about a person.”

His answer left me silent.

I had expected him to be the biggest obstacle to my escape, but instead, he was the one pushing me forward.

“Go.”

With that, he slouched into his rocking chair.

He stretched out his legs toward the fire and closed his eyes, preparing for sleep.

I doubted he would wake, even when it was time for his shift.

Just before leaving the cabin, I turned back to ask him one last question.

“Sir.”

“…What?”

“What’s your name?”

He fell silent, ultimately choosing not to answer.

Since I hadn’t expected a reply, I hesitated only a moment before stepping out of the cabin.

At the village’s main gate, I paused to catch my breath at the edge of the world.

Emily’s memories encompassed this village entirely.

This was the end of the world for her, and her young mind was a thickly layered shell.

But the mind of an adult man, not Emily’s, knew that beyond the vast expanse of the sky, another world existed.

I understood that there was an endlessly expanding universe and countless brilliant stars.

However, knowing something and physically perceiving it were two different things.

The girl’s body seemed frozen in fear, reluctant to move toward the end of the world.

Suddenly, a laugh escaped me. The fear I felt was entirely mine, hidden beneath the guise of a small girl’s mind.

How could I not feel fear at the first step toward an unknown world?

Accepting the emotions I had been ignoring allowed me to move my body.

Crack!

I took a big step forward. The frozen ground shattered beneath me, creating a loud noise.

It sounded as if a thick shell was breaking apart.

Crack!

I continued to move forward, with ice shards flying in every direction as the frozen surface cracked underfoot.

As my speed increased, my heart raced, feeling like it might burst.

My body felt heavy, but my mind was as light as a feather.

While I was running down the path in a daze, the dark, narrow forest trail began to disappear, and my vision suddenly cleared.

I gasped, staring blankly ahead.

A wide expanse of open field stretched out before me, covered in pure white snow.

The sun began to rise between the horizon where the earth and sky met.

As brilliant light surged across the pristine snowy field, a new world unfolded before my eyes.