Walfred was taken aback. Margaret, on the other hand, nodded calmly.

"That phenomenon happens on occasion. Mainly when the gate boss refuses to come out into the world. Permafrost was a textbook example of it."

In any case, thanks to Permafrost vanishing, the situation back then ended peacefully.

Only, at the time, they had no idea.

That the gate that had disappeared would appear again.

"Then, two days ago, ’Permafrost,’ which had abruptly vanished a year ago, reappeared in the West Philadelphia Station plaza, looking exactly the same."

Now, with not a single S-rank hunter around.

Entering Permafrost, finding the gate boss, and exterminating it was next to impossible.

"Judging that a raid would be too difficult, I decided to leave Philadelphia before the gate was liberated."

Generally, it takes about 72 hours from a gate’s first appearance until it’s liberated. Taking that into account, she hadn’t been dragging her feet.

According to what he’d heard earlier from the men on guard, she’d finished her preparations within a single day.

"But I never imagined the gate would be liberated just 24 hours after appearing..."

Margaret bit down hard on her lower lip.

After that, downtown Philadelphia was overrun with spirits, and it became impossible to carelessly venture out aboveground.

The moment anyone ran into a spirit, they’d attack, leveraging their overwhelming numbers. Letting out a heavy sigh, she looked at Walfred once more.

"You asked earlier what the ice pillars are, right?"

The heart of the matter, finally raised.

"A year ago, while searching for the gate boss in Permafrost, we found three ice pillars in the territory of the frost spirits. And while investigating them, we realized a shocking fact."

Margaret’s face grew steadily more rigid.

"The ice pillars’ formal name is Frost Crown Stone. They’re offerings created to be presented in tribute to a being that will one day be born and wear the ice crown."

Ice crown. Tribute. Offering.

Add to that the SSS-rankProfessor’s post he’d seen on the community. The information related to the frost spirits came together as one, like pieces of a puzzle clicking into place.

And a little while later.

Walfred’s eyes went wide, as if he’d realized something.

"W-wait a second. Don’t tell me...!"

"What you’re thinking is probably correct."

Margaret’s gaze wavered.

"From what we’ve gathered, once the number of ice pillars, the Frost Crown Stones, reaches ten..."

She let the rest of her words hang.

With a stiff face, Margaret said:

"A spirit king is born."

"...!?"

Walfred’s expression hardened in turn.

Because the worst omen he’d vaguely anticipated while reading the SSS-rankProfessor’s post had become reality.

As a quiet silence followed.

A question suddenly flashed through his mind.

’But still...’

How had Margaret figured all this out?

No matter that she’d entered the gate before, at the time she’d been nothing more than a B-rank hunter.

And on top of that, she’d retreated without even meeting the gate boss, so how had she gotten her hands on information about the relationship between the Frost Crown Stones and the spirit king?

When he asked about this, an answer came back right away.

"Ah, that’s information my older brother figured out."

"Your brother, as in...?"

"The only S-rank hunter who took part in the raid back then was my own brother."

A nature-attribute S-rank hunter, Liam.

He supposedly had a skill that let him understand the language of every being born of nature, and interpret their writing.

Spirits were no exception.

"There were spirit characters carved into the surface of the Frost Crown Stones. My brother interpreted them, and as a result, he obtained the information I just told you about."

The source of the information was now clear.

And one more thing.

Margaret added a further explanation.

"The Frost Crown Stones aren’t simply things that indicate the progress toward a spirit king’s birth. As I said earlier, they also serve as the offerings to be presented in tribute to the king."

Tribute. And offering.

As Walfred chewed over those two words, he suddenly recalled part of the SSS-rankProfessor’s post.

[A spirit king is an S-rank-or-above Boss Monster, on par with dragons and Frost Dragons. Of course, a newly born spirit king is only a little stronger than a high-ranking spirit.]

There had definitely been content like that.

Right after recalling it, Walfred realized what the offering Margaret mentioned was.

"Don’t tell me the snow made of pure mana that was inside them..."

"Sharp of you. That’s right."

Margaret cut in and answered.

With a slightly surprised expression.

"Pure mana is condensed inside the Frost Crown Stones. It’s a special nourishment, you could say, meant to rapidly grow a newly born spirit king."

"..."

It was the moment the reason snow made of pure mana had been stored inside the Frost Crown Stones came to light.

Only, right now not a single word of Margaret’s explanation was registering in Walfred’s ears.

There was only one reason.

’I already ate all of that, though...’

The only one left was the Frost Crown Stone in the West Philadelphia Station plaza.

The other eight Frost Crown Stones had been smashed to pieces long ago. And the spirit king’s special nourishment stored inside them, he’d eaten every last bit of it along with Elsa.

’So what happens now?’

Along with the curiosity that struck him in that instant.

He quietly raised a hand.

"Um, by any chance..."

"...?"

"If, and I mean if, hypothetically..."

Walfred repeated and stressed the word "if" several times. Then he swallowed dryly and asked in a cautious tone.

"If a Frost Crown Stone were destroyed and the mana stored inside it disappeared, what would happen?"

"That could never happen."

Almost before his question was finished.

Margaret answered flatly.

"Despite appearances, a Frost Crown Stone isn’t an ordinary chunk of ice. Its resistance to every attribute is over 90%, so it would be next to impossible to break by ordinary means."

"..."

"And the mana condensed inside it exists in the form of snow or ice crystals. It’s so incredibly cold that you couldn’t even touch it carelessly."

So there’s no chance of it disappearing.

Margaret said it as if to drive the point home. At that, Walfred shook his head with a sigh.

"No, what I mean is, let’s suppose. I’m talking about a hypothetical situation."

"Why would you go out of your way to suppose that...?"

"...Something’s been bothering me."

Walfred gave a vague answer.

At his repeated request, Margaret crossed her arms and began to think it over seriously.

"Hmm, well. In that case, the spirit king wouldn’t grow rapidly. Instead..."

"Instead?"

"To fill its lacking mana, wouldn’t it attack every living thing around it, indiscriminately?"

"..."

Walfred’s complexion turned pale.

To think eating the snow made of pure mana would come back as a butterfly effect like this.

As he felt his throat going dry.

"Well, whether the Frost Crown Stones break or not, the outcome won’t be all that different anyway."

Margaret shrugged.

As if it didn’t really matter.

"Once a spirit king is born, the frost spirits’ territory will expand far beyond what it is now. It might even spread across all of Pennsylvania."

"The territory expands..."

Right after hearing that, part of the SSS-rankProfessor’s post came back to him once more.

The two conditions under which spirits attack first.

The first of those conditions was carelessly setting foot in the spirits’ territory. Meanwhile, Margaret mentioned something similar.

"Every spirit has its own unique territory. And they intensely dislike, even loathe, anyone entering that territory."

Margaret frowned.

"So the frost spirits will surely try to wipe out every being other than themselves."

"Ah, so that’s why earlier..."

"Yes. That’s why I said the outcome won’t be all that different whether the Frost Crown Stones break or not."

If the Frost Crown Stones were intact?

The spirit king would absorb the pure mana inside them and grow into a complete S-rank adult.

And then it would move to clean out every outsider within its territory.

’And conversely, if the Frost Crown Stones are destroyed...’

The spirit king would hunt every living thing nearby and absorb their mana for rapid growth. In other words, regardless of the choice, the outcome was the same.

It was a situation of pure despair, yet ironically, Walfred felt relieved.

"Haah, that’s something of a relief at least."

This way, he’d avoided an ending where everyone suffered because of what he’d done. Hearing this, Margaret tilted her head.

"Huh? A relief?"

We’re all about to die, so what on earth is?

Her expression seemed to ask exactly that. Walfred scratched the back of his head and said:

"The thing is, actually..."

And he explained the whole story.

Since it would come out anyway, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

A little while later, after the story was finished.

"...? W-what did you say...?"

Along with a voice clearly tinged with alarm.

Margaret’s eyes grew wider and wider.