A Highest Rank in Another World!

Walking through the snow that swallowed his foot with every step, Meduz finally managed to reach a place that appeared to be a road. It was not full of snow since the road appeared to have been cleared.

"Have someone come by and shoveled the snow? What a tough job..." Meduz looked at the road that was beginning to fill with snow again. 

"They must have to do that almost every day. Well, I appreciate that. I can move on without feeling my feet freeze." Meduz sighed, letting out a large amount of steam from her mouth because of the cold.

Then she started walking towards the north, which was where the road was going.

And so her walk began. She was walking down the mountain.

The amount of snow was decreasing and the number of trees and vegetation was increasing with each passing hour.

"I guess de I think I'll camp around here. I don't want to have to run down there."

As the fog thinned and the clouds stopped clouding her vision, Meduz could see that she was still kilometers up. When she looked down, she could see for a long distance.

Around her, there were also mountains, no civilization.

Down below, she could see great plains and green mountains, plus a large forest far to the east.

"Once I come down from this mountain, the first thing I'm going to do is look for a place to live. But first I'll have to change that appearance."

Meduz walked to the side of the road and began to set up her little camp.

She took some branches from the few trees she had and then began to set up camp. She then used fire magic to melt the remaining snow there so she could sit down.

"I don't have anything that can serve as a bed, I wish Mofo was here...." Meduz bowed her head dejectedly.

Trying to ignore the cold and also the strong icy wind that seemed to cut her skin, Meduz set fire to the branches she had picked up and made a fire to warm herself.

"It's starting to get dark, I hope no monsters show up, I don't know if I can fight in the cold."

Meduz's chin started to shake and her body started to get so cold that she thought she would have hypothermia.

"Why do I feel colder here than up there? Maybe because the wind is stronger?"

####

Despite the cold and the possible dangers, Meduz slept by the side of the road.

"Hey, little girl, are you okay?"

Hearing a voice, Meduz rolled on the ground and then went back to sleep.

"Hey? Are you okay?"

"I don't know, this girl is weird, look at her."

"I think she's cute. What do you say we take her home?"

"Our mom would kill us, just leave her and let's go."

"But..."

"If she's here, she should be fine."

"Hey, will you shut up? I'm trying to sleep here!" Listening to the two men's conversation, Meduz suddenly stood up while shouting at them.

"Waa~~"

"Ah~~"

Getting scared, the two boys jumped backward.

"Hm?" After waking up Meduz started to look around and noticed the presence of the two.

She then wiped her eyes with the back of her right hand.

"So, who are you guys? What did you want to do to me? Depending on the answer I might let you two live."

Meduz stood up and activated her fire magic. In her hand, a large flame appeared.

"It's nothing, we were leaving now"

"Brother, don't ignore her, she is a magic-user."

"But..."

"All right, I'll explain. Little girl..."

"Call me Meduz."

"So, little girl Meduz-"

"Stop calling me little girl, just call me Meduz." Meduz gritted her teeth out of irritation.

"Meduz, we didn't want to do anything. We were walking up the mountain and ended up finding you here lying on the side of the road. We just thought we'd help."

"... I heard one of you saying that you wanted to take me."

Hearing this, the brother who was silent pointed to the one who was talking to Meduz.

"It was him, he who gave that stupid idea."

"Could you explain that?"

"Well, I just wanted to take you to our house so we could take care of you. I thought you were a lost child, I'm sorry about that."

"I see. I am not a child and I am lost."

"You are lost?"

"Yes, could you take me to your home? Or perhaps to your village? Apparently, you are not human."

"Ahahaha, yes, we are not."

"And what race are you?"

"We are mountain ogres, or maybe snow ogres. Call us whatever you want. But, strangely, you don't know about us, we are a predominant race in the whole world, you know?"

"I see... Could you guys take me with you? I won't cause any trouble."

"Sure."

"Brother, it's not a good idea, I already said our mother will be angry."

"She won't be, trust me. Now let's start walking, we have a long way to go."

"You guys are really going up the mountain?"

"That's right, why? We are coming back from some shopping, as you can see." The brother pointed to a cart they were pulling. It was a wooden cart with special wheels for snow.

Inside it was full of items.

"I wouldn't want to have to go through that, but I will have to go up the mountain the mountain again..."

Meduz said despondently, drawing the brothers' attention.

"What? Don't you like snow?"

"My feet freeze and I can't walk very well in snow. As you can see I'm pretty short."

"I see. You can get in the cart if you want, we'll take you. We're pretty strong and you don't look heavy. It won't be much of a problem."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, get in."

"Thank you very much."

Seizing the opportunity, Meduz jumped into the shopping cart of the two brothers and then they began to go up the mountain.

####

After walking for some time and talking with the two brothers, Meduz discovered that the two lived in a village behind the mountain, where she had not visited. She hadn't even seen the village because of the poor visibility.

She also discovered that the two brothers were not as young as they looked.

Although they looked like teenagers, they were already over 50 years old. And speaking of appearance, their only characteristics different from a human were their bluish skin and their canines that were larger than normal.

Meduz also noticed that they had a lot of muscles, but this could be acquired by any race.

And about their names. The younger brother, shyer and fearful was called Drog. He was 52 years old.

And the older brother who talked to Meduz the most was called Maukil.

By the way, he was 58 years old, he was already close to entering adulthood, 60 years old.

Humans at 60 would already be considered old, so it was quite a difference.

"Okay, are we getting there yet? I'm almost freezing to death here." Meduz took a small blanket that was inside the cart and covered herself, but the freezing wind was almost freezing her.

She looked at the two ogre brothers and they were walking through the snow in casual clothes as if it was no big deal.

They are monsters who live here and are used to this temperature, but Meduz didn't fail to be impressed.

"We're almost there, we're almost at the top of the mountain already."

"One question, why don't have a road up here? Do they just clear the road back there?"

"It wouldn't do much good to clear the roads here. Sometimes some people work to remove the excess snow, but it's no use. As you can see, the snow never stops falling." Maukil looked up and then took a deep breath.

"May I ask a question? Maybe it's a silly question to do..."

"Don't you guys feel any cold at all?"

"Oh yes, we do. As much as we are 'Snow Ogres' we also feel cold. But we only feel cold during snowstorms or when the temperature drops a lot. Today doesn't even compare to the coldest temperature we've ever faced."

"I see... I wonder what it must be like here during the winter."

"Winter is still a long way off to happen, but when it does, you better not be here, hahaha." Maukil giggled a few times and got a little punch from his younger brother.

"Pay attention the way."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Hey, little girl, you see that over there?"

Meduz stood up and then looked to where Maukil was pointing.

She could see some faint orange lights in the mist.

"Yes, what are those?"

"It's the lights of our village, we're almost there! Let's hurry, brother!" 

"Yes, brother!"

After that, the two brothers started walking quickly, making the cart sway. Meduz who was standing got out of control and fell backward

"Ouch" 

Hitting her back and head on some things inside the cart, she felt a huge pain in her body.

"YOU IDIOTS, DON'T RUN! I'M HURT NOW, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" Meduz shouted angrily.

But the brothers just ignored her and moved on.

"I can see the gate now! YHAAA!"

"Faster, faster."

"You silly ogres!"