"Whew! It's going to be a cold day today. Children, be sure to keep warm and don't catch a cold."
The man, with his shoulder-length golden hair tied into a side ponytail, spoke with a smile to the children around him.
"Father, we'll be careful!" replied one of the older children, before leading his playmates to run freely in the snow.
The golden-haired man smiled as he watched the children laughing and playing. The carefree, pure smiles on their faces always brought a sense of healing, no matter how many times he saw them.
Perhaps it was precisely to protect such beautiful things that Kallen was so reckless.
"Hm?"
The golden-haired man, lost in thought, suddenly snapped back to attention. He looked into the distance. Upon the snow-covered land, a figure was slowly walking towards them.
Who would come here during a heavy winter snow? A lost traveler? Or a villain with ulterior motives?
The golden-haired man, known as Father, called the playing children back, telling them to return to the house behind him. He himself walked towards the figure with a smile.
Xin Yu looked at the building in the distance, clearly man-made and resembling a church. He breathed a sigh of relief; after walking for an entire night, he had finally found a place inhabited by humans.
Xin Yu glanced at the corner of his vision, wanting to see how long he had been walking. To his astonishment, he found that his constantly ticking countdown timer seemed frozen, as if covered by ice and snow.
The time seems to have stopped ticking. Does this mean that in this world I've transmigrated to, I won't be troubled by the countdown timer anymore?
Xin Yu didn't dwell on it further, instead looking at the figure walking towards him. It was a rather handsome man with a pair of emerald-green eyes, his shoulder-length hair tied in a side ponytail.
It was somewhat difficult to discern the man's actual age. He looked very young, perhaps between 25 and 30, but his demeanor and eyes, which seemed full of stories, suggested his real age might far exceed his appearance.
"Hello, sir. I am the director of this orphanage, Otto. The children call me Father. Are you lost?"
"...It's a bit complicated to explain, Mr. Otto."
Upon hearing the name Otto, Xin Yu's expression flickered slightly, but he quickly recovered. This is another world, after all, and it's probably just the same name.
"It's alright. If you have anything you wish to say, I am always here to listen. However, under these circumstances, it's not quite appropriate for us to keep talking outside. Would you like to come in and sit for a while? Although the children can be a bit noisy and mischievous, they are all good kids."
The priest named Otto glanced at Xin Yu's thin clothing. Noticing the youth's expression remained normal, showing no signs of discomfort from the cold, the smile on his face didn't change.
After the two entered the house, the sudden change in temperature—much warmer inside than outside—made Xin Yu shiver momentarily, but he quickly adapted.
He saw several children peeking their heads out from a nearby doorway, looking at him with curious eyes.
"Alright children, Father needs to attend to our new guest. Be good now, don't run around randomly, okay?"
"Okay, Father!" the children replied in unison.
The two arrived at a place resembling a study. Otto took out a tea set from a cabinet, brewed a cup of black tea for Xin Yu, smiled, and waited for the young man's explanation.
...
A short while later, Otto took a light sip of his black tea and said, "I see. Due to some unknown reason, you inexplicably transmigrate to other worlds without knowing when or how. And the reason you aren't afraid of the cold weather outside is because you encountered an Immortal during your travels who taught you immortal arts."
Otto looked at the young man before him and nodded. After a slight hesitation, he said, "...It might be impolite of me to say this, young man, but do you perhaps hold your own life in little regard?"
Xin Yu's expression froze slightly at these words. Do I disregard my own life? No, right? I've been persistently cultivating the immortal arts taught by the Immortal to survive, without any trace of slackening. How can that be considered disregarding life?
"You might not realize it yourself, but young man, you should know that your ability to traverse worlds, or perhaps your constitution, is incredibly bizarre and fantastic to most people. Not to mention, you also claim to possess immortal arts taught by an Immortal, capable of prolonging life and even granting immunity to heat and cold."
"And yet, you didn't treat any of this as a secret, telling me, a stranger you just met for the first time, everything without reservation. Either you believe from the bottom of your heart that even if these secrets are revealed, you can face any risk with your own abilities, or you simply don't care about these things at all, feeling that whatever happens is irrelevant."
Otto sighed, looking at Xin Yu.
"Personally, I believe you belong to the second category. Even if revealing secrets leads to something bad happening, you wouldn't care in the slightest. Because you truly don't view your own life as particularly important, am I right?"
Xin Yu remained silent for a long time before finally nodding slowly. He then told Otto everything he knew without reservation, even about being a transmigrator and being reborn after death.
"So, just as you said, I probably don't seem to care much about many things. After all, I've been constantly hovering on the brink of death."
Otto listened calmly to Xin Yu's account. He stood up, walked over to the youth's side, looked at his still somewhat immature face, and said in a steady voice, "Child, what you've told me is far too strange for me. I cannot solve the problems happening to you, because they involve existence far beyond my comprehension..."
"However, perhaps you can try learning something here. Try to find the meaning of your life here."
"Sometimes, knowing why you live is far more important than simply living."
"Just like me. When I found the faith to live for, when I understood the path I must walk, only then did I truly realize I was living in this world. Only then did I genuinely feel alive."
"If you don't mind, feel free to live here for a while. You can come to me with anything. I will also try to help you, try to answer your questions."
"...Thank you, Father."