About

Approximately once every thousand years, the world is visited by a Century of Cold that lasts for a hundred years. The world, which once budded with greenery, teemed with monsters, and overflowed with the vitality of conflict and competition, is now painted entirely in white. The snow falling from the sky has frozen the world, stripping the hearts of living creatures of their vigor and fighting spirit, sinking the entire world into stagnation. Due to this cold and the magical power of the snow, wars and useless conflicts between humans have vanished, and people have chosen cooperation and a quiet life in order to survive. The average temperature of this world is around 0 degrees Celsius; even on the warmest days, it only rises to about 10 degrees, and during severe periods, it drops below minus 10 degrees. The surfaces of rivers and lakes are covered in thick ice, making it possible for people and carriages to use them as pathways. To adapt to these extreme conditions, monsters living on land and in the sky have either grown thick fur or developed magical organs that generate intense heat within their bodies. On the other hand, monsters that originally inhabited icy regions have expanded their influence and become even more ferocious. In the ocean, many monsters hide in the warm deep sea to avoid the freezing surface, but dangerous ice-sea creatures also exist, drifting toward the coast with the ice floes. Weak creatures and monsters unable to withstand such cold have disappeared into underground cavities or caves with hot springs, quietly enduring until the long winter passes. Human life is closely tied to the cycles of nature. People primarily cultivate cold-resistant root vegetables such as potatoes, turnips, and radishes, and they obtain meat and winter gear by hunting animals and monsters with cold-resistant fur or heat organs. During the brief warm periods, they harvest crops in explosive quantities, processing and storing them to survive by slowly using them up throughout the long winter. During the winter, most humans live quietly within their communities. They spend the long winter until the next spring engaged in hobbies, magical research, craftsmanship, or winter hunting. Spring brings dramatic changes to the world. As the accumulated snow and frozen rivers and lakes melt over several weeks, water overflows and a thick mist begins to hang over the land. This flood and mist serve as the signal to begin cultivation, and simultaneously, creatures that were hiding underground or in warm places all emerge onto the surface at once. Life flourishes from spring through summer, and with the arrival of autumn, they begin preparing for winter once again. And then, the world returns to another 100 years of silence.