Adventurer PoV

I've never regretted taking an escort request more than right now, If you were to ask me why I'd tell you because one it's at the end of winter, and two the Son of the Noble I've been escorting has been ogling me for the past few weeks. Aside from that it's only gotten colder as we headed to the Counts territory.

I wouldn't have even taken this request on my own will if they hadn't specifically asked for me. I say ask but it's more like I was forced, you see when a named request for a B ranker and up comes in they can't refuse unless they have a good reason, fortunately only Nobles and guild masters can put named requests in however it puts us veterans in a difficult spot making us essentially guild workers.

God I wish I could quit, sadly I lack just about every skill aside from fighting and even then I'm only good with the bow and sabre, I'm the only one left of my original party initially there were 5 of us, we had all come from the same village 3 boys and 2 girls, it was about a month after we started adventuring that we lost our first member, he was our scout however sadly he lost his life during a goblin subjugation because we had over estimated our abilities, We were all about 14-15 at the time it's pretty shocking to see someone you've known your entire life ripped apart by goblins.

he killed himself along with most of the goblins by using fire magic to burn himself and all the surrounding goblins. After that experience we only took quests we were sure we could handle.

About 5 years later the other girl in the party and one of the guys decided to get married and go live in our home village, at this point it was only me and another guy he was a magician I was an archer so we decided to recruit some more people for the vanguard.

4 years later our party disbanded because the Magician got married to a Noble girl who had taken a liking to him, afterwards I continued adventuring alone eventually reaching S rank after about 6 years of work now I'm 30 years old and I've gotten too old to keep doing this my biggest regret was letting him die to all those goblins I can only imagine that perhaps he would have taken me away and we could've gotten married, I didn't realize it until after he died that he was all I wanted in life but now I simply adventure because that was his dream, but now I feel he would've wanted me to move on.

I think that every day but I just don't know when to quit.

"huh... snow"

the snow started fairly soft as did the voice contained in it, at first it was unnoticeable a quiet murmur the odd sob imperceptible to the ear

the snow got harder over time about an hour later the snow had blanketed the ground in a thin layer, though by this point it was clear that it was an eerie phenomena, because as the snow build the murmur grew louder to the point where I could hear it though because the rest of the group were humans and I was a beastman they couldn't hear it even I could barely hear it, it was soft and sorrowful I almost thought it my imagination but when I covered my ears it stopped.

an hour later there was about 30 centimeters of snow and it only kept coming by this point the sobbing was loud enough for everyone to hear, by this point it was clear that the origin of the sobbing was a young girl, but no one could figure out where it was coming from because it seemed to emanate from the snow, and it became accepted that the voice was a prank from the spirits, but I thought otherwise simply because of an old poem from my family.

She cries the snow

She for her plight

For she it flow

For she it blights

the poem has been passed down in my family for hundreds of years and has since been reduced to it's current state. It's just a story is what I thought until today, it's simply to accurate to the current situation, so there has to be a girl somewhere around here otherwise the snow wouldn't be falling.

we continued for another hour the weather could now be classified as a weak blizzard but however weak it is I figure it'll only get stronger I've maintained vigilance to try and find the source of the crying but at this point it's so loud it feels like my ears will bleed it's at the point where I've wrapped a spare shirt around them to dampen it.

The carriage got stuck in another half hour by this point the blizzard is quite strong and the sobs are as loud as they were before I put the shirt over my ears, and my jacket is no longer keeping me warm, I feel I may die in this blizzard.

But then I saw something in the woods, it was a girl who I could only describe as white walking away from the road and further into the woods.

I chased after the girl leaving the escorts and nobles behind

she appeared completely unaffected by the blizzard, and I had to keep my eyes on her the entire time because she didn't leave any tracks, in fact from what I can tell she walks on the surface of the snow without breaking through it even a little.

after a while I stumbled into a cave I thought I saw her walk into, but once I got inside I didn't see anything even with my night vision activated it was like she disappeared, but then I heard it.

"~suuu~ Grandpa..."

a small murmur was heard from behind me, and when I turned around I saw her, small and dainty though she clearly was a monster but sentient monsters are allowed to integrate into society though they are called demons once they gain sentience, all demons are humanoid and have incredible variation between them, but this is the first time I've seen a Satyress they are demons but are very rarely seen.

As I was staring at her she suddenly looked up at me while the tears streaked down her face and formed Icicles on her jaw then she opened her mouth.