I Have Become The Snow Maiden I Created

Translator: Marctempest

Editor/Proofreader: TempWane

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Chapter 2: Reincarnation as the Snow Maiden (2)

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a Snow Maiden?

Each person might have a different answer, but most would likely imagine a blizzard-filled scene or a cold-faced woman dressed in white.

For those interested in Snow Maiden folklore, they might even conjure up specific stories.

Stories of her appearing before travelers trapped in a snowstorm, stealing their lives with her icy breath.

Or leading them astray intentionally, leaving them to freeze to death on their own.

It may seem unfair to portray the Snow Maiden as a purely malevolent figure, but many tales do describe her that way.

The depiction of Snow Maidens as beautiful and benevolent beings is a relatively recent phenomenon.

This shift likely arose to make her image more palatable to modern audiences.

I, too, based my Snow Maiden character on folklore but added various elements to enhance her charm.

It seems human creativity often follows similar paths.

Still, if asked to name the most beautiful Snow Maiden, I would undoubtedly point to Quellière, the one I created.

Admittedly, my subjective standards played a large part, but she was undoubtedly the best Snow Maiden.

“Not that there’s any real competition, anyway.”

In the world of Four Seasons War, the Snow Maiden race doesn’t exist.

Thus, in this world, Quellière was undeniably the best Snow Maiden, with no room for dispute.

Of course, this was a meaningless, solitary glory.

It was nothing more than a small comfort for the peculiar situation of suddenly becoming a Snow Maiden.

I stretched out my arm to examine the sleeves and the overall design of my clothing.

The pure white dress was exactly as I had designed it.

Its plainness might make it seem modest, but it suited the Snow Maiden better than any other attire.

“As expected, the basics are the best…”

I lifted my head and slowly scanned the dressing room.

It was filled with costumes I had painstakingly acquired or crafted myself.

Many were variations of the white dress, adorned with different colors and patterns, though there were quite a few entirely different outfits.

Seeing them made my heart gradually race.

Though it wasn’t obvious, I could feel my hands trembling slightly.

There was a growing urge to sort through the outfits and try them on.

It was a familiar sensation I’d occasionally felt while playing the game, but experiencing it in reality made it all the more intense.

Logically, spending time here wasn’t the wisest choice.

Even if there was no immediate danger, the possibility of unforeseen threats always lingered.

Moreover, the castle was vast, with many places left to explore.

Lingering over costumes that offered no practical benefit was undoubtedly foolish.

And yet, and yet…

“…How can a veteran player resist the allure of fashion?”

It felt like instinct.

Even without an avatar to dress up—or even if I had become the avatar myself—this impulse was unshakable.

With a flushed face, I began pulling out nearby outfits.

I exited the dressing room after some time.

It had been an enjoyable experience.

No, it was the most enjoyable moment I’d had since arriving in this world.

Naturally, the reality of seeing the outfits firsthand was on an entirely different level than simply viewing them on a screen.

I tried on a variety of outfits, and none of them looked bad, which only made it more fun.

After all, I had carefully curated these costumes, so it was no surprise.

With a body like this, anything would look good.

“Do women choose outfits like this too?”

The thought suddenly crossed my mind.

Even though my body had changed, I had been a man until recently and knew little about typical female behaviors.

However, since women tend to put more effort into appearance than men, it seemed natural to think along these lines.

They say stylish women often own at least a dozen outfits.

Although my mind was still that of a man, and I couldn’t fully grasp the reasoning, recalling how I had eagerly rummaged through my outfits just now made me wonder if I had done something similar.

“…No, no. I was just treating it like a game.”

I shook my head, rejecting the notion.

Yes, it was no different from the game.

Quellière was my character, and dressing her up in new outfits or equipping her with weapons was a common pastime for most gamers.

The only difference was that I had somehow become this character.

It wasn’t about adorning myself; it was a matter of customizing my avatar.

That mindset was far from what one might call “feminine.”

As long as I retained the memories of a modern human who had lived as a man, my identity wouldn’t change.

Even if my body had transformed, my way of thinking would remain the same forever.

“Sigh. If I had to be reincarnated, couldn’t it have been as a man? I’d have gladly welcomed being the Black Knight or something.”

Letting out a sigh of regret, I glanced out the window.

I didn’t know how much time had passed, but it was already dark outside.

Of course, predicting the time in this snow-covered land, where sunlight was scarce, was nearly impossible.

I tried calculating it for a moment before giving up.

This was no longer the world I once knew.

Everything around me had changed, so there was no need to concern myself with time as I had before.

“Normally, that thought would be despairing.”

Strangely, I felt nothing of the sort.

Instead of despair, there was only a slight sense of relief at no longer being bound by the clock.

That was all.

Had I finally lost my mind?

Or was it the Snow Maiden’s traits affecting even my psyche?

There was no need to find out.

Accepting it for now seemed like the better choice.

“One thousand years before Four Seasons War…”

The Four Seasons War II: The Birth of Calamity.

To think I’d get to “play” the game I’d eagerly awaited since its announcement in this manner.

The world truly works in mysterious ways.

Although I had been a seasoned player in Four Seasons War, I was a complete novice in its sequel.

Sure, my accumulated playtime in the original game wasn’t going anywhere.

If I pieced together all the scattered information about the past that I’d picked up, it would amount to a decent sum.

But would that be enough?

The answer was no.

Which leads me to my point.

“What am I supposed to do now?”

In typical reincarnation novels, a godlike entity or author usually assigns the protagonist a goal.

But why was there nothing of the sort for me?

In stories without such guidance, the protagonist often knew the original ending was a disaster and intervened to survive.

A disaster ending, huh?

Certainly, Four Seasons War had its share of final bosses or shadowy antagonists.

The immensely powerful calamity spread darkness across the world, causing countless incidents.

If the player failed to stop it, the world would meet its end.

“But that’s a thousand years from now.”

Indeed.

The original game’s timeline was set a millennium in the future.

Even then, the world wouldn’t be destroyed immediately unless the player made catastrophic mistakes.

In other words, no matter how things unfolded, the world would remain intact for the next thousand years.

“That really doesn’t feel urgent at all.”

There’s a movie called The Day After Tomorrow.

Its original title in English literally means “the day after tomorrow,” but it was intentionally mistranslated when released in Korea.

The reasoning was that Koreans wouldn’t consider it urgent if the world were ending the day after tomorrow.

That’s an exaggeration, of course.

But what if the apocalypse wasn’t the day after tomorrow, nor even a year away, but a full millennium into the future?

I guarantee that most Koreans wouldn’t change their daily lives in the slightest.

And so, my own attitude remained relaxed.

“Let’s take a look outside for now.”

I hadn’t fully explored the castle yet, but that could wait.

For now, I wanted to see the outside world.

There was no pressing need, so I decided to do as I pleased.

Leisurely, I descended the stairs to the lower floors.

Despite the castle’s vastness and height, following the stairs didn’t take too long.

I arrived on the first floor and stepped out through the main gate.

Leaving the Snow Castle behind, I was greeted by a breathtaking snowscape.

The twilight had already fallen, but the flurry of snow was as relentless as before.

“There really is nothing here.”

Snow fell relentlessly, and the wind howled, yet I remained unaffected, calmly observing my surroundings.

Not a single blade of grass was in sight.

There were no trees, no insects, no people.

Just an endless expanse of snowfields stretching across a barren wasteland.

Though I had expected as much, seeing it in person left me speechless.

“I don’t think I could handle this with a normal mindset.”

At that moment, I felt grateful for the ceaseless snowfall and for being embodied as Quellière.

In a land devoid of even insects, the only sounds were the shifting winds, and the solitude that would drive most humans mad was manageable thanks to the Snow Maiden’s cold logic.

Still, with the scenery so bleak, there was little joy in simply admiring the view.

“It’s amazing that anything could live in a place like this.”

Despite this desolate landscape, there were beings that dwelled here.

Or rather, they ruled here.

Though not human, they surely had emotions—how else could they endure countless ages in such isolation?

Was there some hidden backstory I had yet to uncover?

Truthfully, I didn’t know much about them.

However, as someone obsessed with Four Seasons War, I had read every snippet of lore that the developers released.

Among these, there were characters from the distant past who never appeared in the original timeline.

One of them was the guardian of the Snowfield.

From this, I knew she wasn’t inherently evil.

So, even while sharing the Snowfield with her, I wasn’t particularly worried.

For someone of her stature, I suspected she’d sense my presence, yet she hadn’t approached me so far.

Maybe she simply didn’t care.

“Even better.”

I hoped she’d continue to ignore me.

Getting caught up in trouble was the last thing I wanted.

Sure, a castle had appeared out of nowhere, but the Snowfield was vast; surely, she’d permit one person to live here unnoticed.

With that hope in mind, I decided to push thoughts of her to the back of my mind.

“Let’s see… is this how it works?”

Shaking off my idle thoughts, I tried out an idea that had suddenly come to me.

As in most fantasy worlds, this one also had magic and mana, and according to the lore, Snow Maidens could wield it.

Magic was one of the few tools I had for offense or defense, so I moved quickly to test it.

Whoosh—!

“Oh… ah!”

Mana permeates the atmosphere, existing within all living beings.

Instinctively, I managed to channel my inner mana to generate magic.

But as soon as I succeeded, something strange happened.

A blizzard erupted instantly, dense mist obscured my vision, and a fierce gale swirled around me.

Startled, I hurriedly suppressed the magic.

“What’s going on?”

I had just intended to create a simple snowman.

But as though something ignited within me, an abnormal phenomenon occurred.

When I looked down at my hands, they flickered, becoming transparent and returning to normal repeatedly, like blinking lights.

Watching this happen and feeling my heart race wildly, I began to piece together the situation.

“Mana exhaustion… no, not that. Overload?”

Such symptoms could happen to anyone who used mana, so it made sense.

One of the settings I’d created for the Snow Maiden was that excessive magic use made her body turn transparent.

The sudden surge of magic had overloaded my body, causing my heart to react violently.

But why had I reached such an overload without casting any significant spells?

That, too, began to make sense.

“Thinking about it, it’s only natural.”

Magic depends heavily on innate talent and is difficult to train through normal means.

Even those born with talent must undergo rigorous practice to master it.

For someone like me, who had just arrived in this world, failing to control magic right away was expected.

In short, I was in a state of zero control.

I couldn’t even take my first steps yet, let alone consider my mana reserves or magic efficiency.

“I’ll need to practice.”

It wasn’t like I had anything else to do, so this worked out nicely.

For the time being, I could spend my days training in mana control.

Unlike tedious book study, experimenting with magic firsthand—something I’d only ever seen in games—was quite enjoyable.

As the runaway magic settled down, the raging blizzard also began to subside.

They say uncontrolled magic can trigger random spells.

Was my status as a Snow Maiden the reason it manifested as a blizzard?

While visually impressive, it didn’t seem particularly threatening compared to other offensive magic.

At least I didn’t have to worry about accidentally hurting myself, which was a relief.

“Huh?”

Just before the blizzard completely vanished, I noticed something strange.

A blue shard, crystalline in appearance, hovered as if formed from condensed ice.

Instinctively, I realized it contained my mana.

“A spirit?”

The word came to mind spontaneously.

Spirits, formed from pure mana, were indeed a part of the in-game world.

However, this wasn’t exactly a spirit.

It was more like a fragment of one—a remnant, or something that failed to fully manifest.

Sure enough, the shimmering crystal dissolved like melting snow moments later.

Watching this curious phenomenon, I felt a spark of possibility.

“How did a spirit form?”

Spirits, remnants of divine energy, were incredibly rare.

In a world where gods had vanished, spirits grew scarcer by the day, nearing extinction by the game’s timeline.

Everyone knew this, yet no one had discovered a way to increase their numbers.

Spirits are beings of pure mana, and only gods or Spirit Kings could create them.

No mortal creature could artificially create a spirit.

“So, does that mean I…?”

It seemed I needed to revisit my settings.

There must have been something I’d overlooked, something connected to what had just happened.

The Snow Maiden, according to her lore, was not a living being or a spirit but a phenomenon.

She was said to possess mana of the purest form, free of any impurities.

Now that I thought about it, I had created such lore.

It was intended to portray the Snow Maiden as not just a race but as an embodiment of snow and winter itself.

Back then, it was just atmospheric flavor with no practical implications, so I’d forgotten about it.

“And now it’s led to this.”

I had performed magic for the first time without employing any tricks.

Yet it had resulted in the creation of a spirit shard.

This “pure mana free of impurities” had the potential to create spirits merely by being concentrated.

To create spirits…

As a veteran player, I had never encountered such a mechanic before.

Yet here, in this new reality, I was experiencing it firsthand.

The world is truly full of surprises.

“Spirits, huh…”

Perhaps having something that moved would make the loneliness less overwhelming.

It seemed I had found a new purpose for the time being.