Suddenly, the sounds of their footsteps felt louder, their presence more striking, and that look she gave more spine-chilling.
"Woah, who are they?" Yuriko asked.
"They're maidens from the Ember Shrine," the old man replied. "They must be coming back from a funeral procession."
He turned back to see Lloyd staring at them without so much as a blink.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
He jolted up suddenly and said, "I'm here!"
"Are you okay?" Miyuki asked.
"No, it's nothing," he replied, his eyes turning slightly to the side. "I just got distracted for a second."
A smirk crossed the old man's face as he said, "I see how it is."
They all looked at him confused, Lloyd especially.
"I get it," he continued. "You're young, so seeing a few pretty ladies pass by does spark something, doesn't it?"
"W-what?!" Lloyd replied, flustered. "That's not it at all. I swear!"
"Your reaction begs to differ," Yuriko said while the rest looked to be holding back their laughter.
He just looked up and sighed, then turned back to the old man with a straight face, a change so sudden that it startled him.
"Who was that woman sitting in the palanquin?" he asked, softening his expression.
By the time he asked that question, the procession had passed, so the wagon started moving again.
"That was the head maiden of the shrine, the Shrine Priestess," he replied. "She was probably the one who conducted the funeral."
"If you don't mind me asking, what is that shrine about?" Lloyd asked. "I haven't really seen one before, so I'm curious."
"Well, how do I explain it?" he said, with his hand over his chin. "I guess the best way to explain them is that they're a religious order of all women that is based in this town. The shrine itself is almost as old as the town."
"An all-women shrine, really?" Yuriko exclaimed. "I don't think I've ever heard of that either."
"How was it formed?" Takae asked. "Did it come from outside the town, or was it born here?"
"A bit of both, actually," he replied, but all he was met with were confused looks.
"To understand how it was formed, you need to know how the town came to be in the first place," he continued.
"About a century ago, it was just a normal village like any other, but according to the older generation, a group of djinn attacked it and kept the village hostage for an entire month until a single warrior came and beat them."
He stretched out again and yawned before continuing.
"They say he took them down all on his own, with the forces of an inferno and a blizzard at his side."
Izumi's eyebrow rose, and he looked over at Takae and Yuriko.
"Seems a bit far-fetched, doesn't it?" the old man said.
"Yeah, what are the odds of something like that happening?" Yuriko added with an awkward smile.
"Did—" Izumi said before stopping midway.
"Did he have a name?"
"Maybe he did," he replied, "but it's been such a long time that it was forgotten. But it's not like he was forgotten completely. The people of the town refer to him as the Ember Snowflake."
"It's a strange name, I know, but that's just what they call him," he continued. "There's even a statue of him toward the right edge of the town."
"A statue?" Miyuki asked, confused.
"A statue is like a carving of someone made from materials like stone," Lloyd answered, "but I thought that they were uncommon in this region."
"They are," the old man replied, "but apparently this one was sculpted by a single young lady who was saved by him, all by herself, with her only assistance being from her brother."
"Just a single girl did all that?" Lloyd asked. "I thought sculpting people from memory was extremely difficult."
"Well, I wasn't there to see it for myself, but they say that her work was incredible," he replied. "A mirror image, some called it, but over time it lost a lot of its details."
"Can you tell us more about her?" Yuriko asked, her eyes full of childlike wonder.
"I don't know that much about her, sorry," he replied. "All I know is that some of her relatives are alive here in the town."
"Now that I think of it," he continued, "I think they're also artisans like her, but last I heard of them they were going through some family problems."
An awkward silence followed until Lloyd spoke up.
"You were saying something about the shrine?" he asked.
"Oh, sorry for rambling on," the old man said as they took a turn. "The shrine was built by some travelling priestesses. They built it alongside a lot of other people who were moving to the village."
"They were struggling at first, but after a while they started gaining a lot of attention with their guarantee that belief through them was what was keeping the djinn at bay," he continued.
"At first they were treated like crackpots, but after a while people started to believe in them since by then there had been no attack for at least a decade."
They passed by a group of children playing, and they all waved at him.
He waved back with a smile before turning to face the road again.
"Before long, they had a massive following, from ordinary farmers to traders whose donations helped them thrive a lot," he continued.
"How did the original villagers take it?" Izumi asked.
"Most of them remained skeptical, as you'd imagine," he replied. "They believed that it was the Ember Snowflake who saved them and that he was probably the one who was keeping the attacks at bay."
"Did it stay that way?" Miyuki asked.
"No," he replied. "The shrine insisted that he was nothing but an extension of their faith that was brought to save them and could very well turn against them if they defied their beliefs."
"How underhanded," Lloyd said, shocked.
"It was a risky move, but it worked," he said, waving to a man in a blacksmith's shop. "The old villagers slowly started accepting them until they blended seamlessly into the growing town."
"Today they are a big part of the community here, with everyone from high-ranking merchants to ordinary townspeople paying their respects," he added. "They even have ties with the merchants' council that runs the town."
"So they're that respected then, huh?" Lloyd said while contemplating something.
"It has even become a custom for families to send their daughters to join the shrine until they are ready to be married, since it is regarded as a place of purity," he added.
They made a turn toward an area that seemed bustling, and the wagon came to a stop.
"Looks like we've made it," he said as he stepped down. "This area is full of inns, so take your pick."
They all stepped down too, leaving the bags of rice they had displaced properly stacked.
"Thanks a lot, sir," Miyuki said, bowing to him. "You saved us a lot, from the journey here to even getting through the gate. We're grateful."
"That's a small price to pay, really," he said, ushering her to rise. "If you need any help, just ask around for the name Ito and they'll guide you to where I work."
He got back onto the wagon but turned to them, saying, "Oh, and before I forget, the statue is right around that corner. You can go and take a look if you want to."
"Take care," Yuriko said, and he nodded before taking off.
They watched as his wagon rolled away until it was out of sight. Then they started to look around.
"What should we do first?" Lloyd asked.
"I'd like to say we find an inn first," Miyuki replied, "but why don't we go and see that statue first? Yuriko seems really eager herself."
"Who, me?" she said, hearing her name as she turned back from looking in the direction they had been pointed. "Was I that obvious?"
"Do you even have to ask?" Takae said as she walked toward her. "Let's go and see it before the sun sets."
The rest nodded, and they started walking toward it.
The crowd wasn't especially large, but it was much bigger than any the four of them had encountered before, so they awkwardly weaved through it while turning heads.
Only Lloyd seemed accustomed to the crowd, but even he was having trouble keeping up with them because of their fluctuating speeds.
Once they turned the corner, they didn't have to search to find it.
There it stood: a statue of a warrior carved from stone, made with such precision down to the folds of his robe. It stood atop what seemed to be a large rock carved into the shape of flames.
As they got closer, its features became more distinct.
It was carved at the height of at least two adults, yet it seemed so intricate.
From the faded expression on the face that looked off into the distance to the perfectly shaped fingers of the hand that rested on the hilt of the sword at his waist.
Once they were right beneath it, Lloyd noticed a pedestal at the bottom with kanji engraved on it.
"What does it say?" he asked.
Miyuki took a closer look at it and said, "Let's see. This here reads ember, if I'm not wrong, and this part here is rain?"
Takae also took a look and said, "You missed the bottom. Without it, it does read rain, but with that last part it means snow."
"You're right," she said, just noticing it. "I couldn't see that part very well."
"So he's the Ember Snowflake, huh," Lloyd said, looking at the statue. "Now that I'm this close, he looks so young. I wonder who he could have been."
Then he turned to Izumi, who was staring at the face of the statue.
"I guess it really isn't him," he thought.
Lloyd nudged him.
"What were you so focused on?" he asked.
"It's nothing," Izumi replied. "It's just that it looks so real. To think that a person could make something like this."
"I guess you learn something new every day, huh," Lloyd said as he turned back to it.
Then suddenly they heard a commotion from behind the statue, and they went to check it out without thinking.
They found two men and a boy who seemed to be sixteen or seventeen facing each other by what looked like a house being built.
It seemed like an argument, but they didn't interfere.
Everything seemed fine at first until the boy said something that made one of the men suddenly punch him across the face.
His head turned to the side, and the cotton headband over his head came loose and fell to the ground.
As his head remained turned, Izumi noticed something peculiar about him, as did Yuriko and Takae.
His head of spiky black hair had a streak of white running through it.