The light shone down upon the bed through the windows as a cool breeze blew into the room, billowing out the curtains like pale flags and casted a shadow on the bed like wind does on the sea. On the bed was a girl, no older than eighteen years old with glowing silver hair that was messily sprawled on the pillow sheet. The youth was curled up against her companion, her arms pressed against her chest while the blanket was wrapped around her body.

”Ngh.” she grunted, dark eyelashes fluttering open, revealing a pair of gorgeous blue eyes that was almost as bright as the morning sky. With bright rays of sunlight blaring down on her, she concealed her eyes with her hands so as to prevent herself from being blinded as she gazed out of the window through the tiny gaps between her fingers. ”It’s already morning.” The mumbled words escaped her lips and threw her arm to the side of the bed, which dangled by the edge. It felt like she had been asleep for a few hours only and seeing how she felt so grumpy, it was an obvious sign that she was not a morning person.

Snowflake tossed the blanket off her body and her bed would creak upon doing so, causing Vysella to be awake. Her ears twitched slightly before she lifted up her head and glanced around the room. The little fox seemed to be collecting her memories since she had just woken up. ”Good morning, Vy.” With a gentle stroke on her companion’s head, she placed her feet on the cold marbled ground and stood up reluctantly to proceed towards the bathroom.

After she had finished cleaning herself up, she exited the bathroom with a towel hung around her neck and her hair tied up into a messy bun. Her usual attire was a tight black dress that had large slits on the side until her waist, revealing a white bodysuit underneath. The hem of the dress was embedded with silver and white patterns, similar to the ones on the chest area. A piece of clothing had been cut off from the chest, exposing much of her cleavage. Slipping into black tights and white gloves, she finished off her outfit with a pair of black heels that supported her height. She used a black headband to keep her unkempt hair tidy before wrapping her eyes with a piece of cloth.

The mage gazed upon her own reflection in the mirror and twirled slightly to ensure that she looked perfect. Snowflake invited Vysella to come along, with a small gesture of her hand and the two would exit the room that she had rented on her arrival. Her gloved hands idly brushed against the handles of the staircase as she began her laborious descent down the wooden stairs. Since she had been staying at the inn for quite a while now, the employees and other guests already considered her as one of the familiar faces around the area. Although she did not wish to engage with people quite often, she would sometimes return her greetings every now and then.

It had been a while since Snowflake had gone out together with Vysella. She figured they could walk through the streets for some fresh air and perhaps, even explore some places she hasn’t been to yet. As soon as she stepped out of the inn, a gush of warm air blasted into her face, startling her for a brief moment. The temperature was warm, now that the cold season was over and excitement could be heard from the whispers of the people as the citizens prepared themselves for the changing season to come.

Eyes would turn in her direction, both welcoming and unwelcoming, most likely due to the fact that her own physical appearance was slightly strange from those around her. From the whispers, she could hear them making comments regarding the cloth she was wearing around her eyes. Some questioned whether she was blind and some wondered if she was just dressed up. The random accusations that were thrown at her were nothing but merely trivial matters to her. She roamed through swirls and eddies of people, her gaze wandering within the area, in search for something that attracted her attention.

Beads of sweat glistened on everyone’s forehead due to the growing heat. Clothes clung onto her body like a child to its mother and the roots of her silver hair remained stuck against her sweaty neck. Summer was drawing close and it would only get hotter each single day. Unlike most people, she hated summer. Even with her metallic body that was made to accustom such temperatures, some of the parts would get hot and it made her extremely uncomfortable. Winter was the same but instead of warming up her body, the temperature would force her body parts to get jammed but she didn’t mind since it was one of her favourite seasons.

As she travelled further away from the centre of the town, there would be less people with less buildings as well. The noises from a distance started to grow louder and she would wonder what all the ruckus was about. She approached closer to the source of the sound and began to catch sight of people hammering away the nails, the sawing of woods and other materials and so on. Her eyes glided over the scene before she finally realised that she was at a construction site. The girl would immediately turn around, wondering how on earth she had gotten to this place. The labourers were too busy with their work to notice a stranger was there at the scene.

All of a sudden, a sharp whistle was blown off from the middle of the site and the workers would immediately cease whatever they were doing and began walking towards the centre. Curious, she would follow their lead, hiding between the crowd and there she saw a man standing on top of a chopped off log with a whistle in his hands.

”Attention gentlemen! I’m aware that we don’t have enough people on the site but we cannot slack any further! We have tons of work to do and I want them completed soon!”

Groans and loud chatters erupted within the crowd and she could see that the workers were already extremely tired from the hard labour they have been doing the entire day. They would be immediately shushed by the man, who appeared to be the leader of the project and the workers were forced to return back to work with disappointed looks on their faces.

Snowflake watched the labourers returned to their workplaces, hammering away while some were up on the side of the tall buildings cementing bricks together and moving the metal pieces up to the building for the base. The entire process of constructing houses was confusing to her since she had no particular interest in this sort of field. Most of the men were bulky, their height taller than average with muscles protruding from their chest and arms. These people were highly suited to lift heavy objects, move around materials easily and so on, unlike her. Males were technically stronger than women, or so they say but no one permitted her from taking part in this activity.

The leader of the project was walking around the field, observing each and every single procedure whilst writing down notes and talking to the labourers to provide whatever materials they needed to finish the construction. Snowflake walked up towards him greeted, ”Hello sir, I assume your workers as well as yourself need some help with the reconstruction of the building.” The man turned around to face her before looking beyond her as if he was expecting someone else, particularly a male and not a young girl like herself. She tilted her head and raised her eyebrow, still waiting on the response from the man that stood in front of her. He did his best to ignore her, but seeing how persistent she was, there was no point for him in doing so.

”Sorry, we don’t accept females in this field.”

Snowflake couldn’t help but chuckle softly at his remark, in a way of mocking him. She crossed her hands behind her back, her fingers tangled with each other and chided in.

”Sir, I think you’re under-estimating me too much. I am a mage and I’m confident that my assistance will help you finish this building by noon.”

The man immediate response was a raise in the eyebrow. He seemed to be impressed with what she had just stated and somehow, her convincing skills worked since he began to examine her from head to toe.

”You can’t work with that outfit. I’ll give you a spare one.”

Snowflake nodded, accepting his request and then, she would follow his lead into the little building that was set up beside the construction site. Inside there wasn’t anything much apart from paperwork and mostly office related stuffs. It was a small room, large enough for only one person to stay and it was no doubt, the man’s office. He tossed over a pair of trousers and a shirt before commenting that it might be slightly too big on her body then, guided her into a separate room to allow her to change into old clothes. It was a plain white shirt with some holes in them, paired up with orange pants that was too baggy for her. The man would stifle a giggle upon seeing her appearance: the sleeves were too large and the trousers were on the verge of slipping off her waist.

The man handed her a pair of boots that were most likely too big for her feet but she had no other choice for she did not want to ruin her heels nor her outfit either. Snowflake rested her clothes on a vacant chair and slid on the boots. She was then instructed on what she should be doing on the site, mostly the basic duties, although she would not have minded if she was to do the heavy labour as well but she decided not to voice her own opinions. With a nod, she accepted the demands and walked out of the room only to have eyes of the labourers fixated on her. It seemed that they were not used to seeing the sight of a woman working on a construction site.

With the leader of the project walking up behind her, the workers would immediately return back to their work. She would be introduced as a new worker to the site and much to her surprise, she was welcomed by the labourers with pleasant smiles on their faces, despite how exhausted they looked. By the help of the townsmen, she learnt how to do the things at the construction site and upon their requests, Vysella and her would go to and from between places, transporting the materials between the workers. It was a tiring job admittedly but she was able to adapt into her surroundings pretty well and it was a good thing that the townsmen were really friendly, always looking out for her. She noticed that her presence at the site made the place was livelier and with her assistance, the work went faster than everyone had expected.

During lunch and dinner, she would help carry the trays filled with bowls of soup and watched the labourers devoured the food like animals while Vysella collected the empty bottles that were discarded and threw them in a bin. It was apparent that they were tired and hungry from all the work they had been doing however, they seemed to be enjoying the day more than they usually did. Cheers and laughter erupted among the townsmen while they worked and before they knew, the day had already come to an end. The sky had grown dark and the moon had already ascended upon the skies. The work was finally done and the reparation of the building was accomplished. It was ultimately the time for the workers to get paid.

After changing back into her attire, the manager of the project approached her with a content smile on his face, glad that they managed to achieve their goal just on time. Handing Snowflake her well-earned rewards, he also gave a pat on her back. Before she returned home, the townsmen made sure to thank her and each of them would say farewell to Vysella with a final cuddle with the little fox.