Earlier that day...

"So freaking cold!" Kazuma was shivering. It had been about two weeks since the lake house incident, and winter had come hard and fast. He'd known it was coming, but he hadn't expected temperatures to straight up nose dive. 'I hate, HATE this world!' he mentally roared.

Cremea and Fio had gone out on another quest by themselves, slaying white wolves. They had decided to make it a sort of weekly thing where they did that to get a break from the party shenanigans, and Kazuma didn't blame them at all. He knew they could be a little much.

"It is cold, isn't it?" Aqua agreed. "We might be able to bring spring back sooner though!" she said brightly, holding up a quest.

"Killing snow sprites?" Kazuma asked as he took the quest.

"They're no threat to humans, and for each one you capture or kill, it's said that spring comes half a day sooner. Plus, it pays great!"

'...if it's that easy, offers that kind of benefit, and pays well, then why the heck did no one else take that quest? Seems too good to be true...' Kazuma thought. However, a gust of wind through the wooden walls of the guild hall killed his doubts fast. 'Fuck it, whatever gets us out of this season sooner! Honestly, I can't take the term "when Hell freezes over seriously anymore, because I'm pretty sure this IS Hell!'

...

They were out in the snowy forest, and sure enough, there were multiple snow sprites floating about. Fluffy white creatures, it was as Aqua said, they weren't harmful at all. A few darted at Kazuma, but didn't attack. "...I actually feel bad about killing these, so I'll just capture them... They emit cold, so we can use them as a fridge," Kazuma mused, grabbing several and stowing them into his cloak. Even so, he couldn't shake a bad feeling. He turned to Darkness, who was grinning and shivering, and he sweat dropped. That masochism of hers would get her killed one day, she hadn't dressed warmly enough for this...

"This is taking too long," Megumin said suddenly about half an hour in, before she charged an Explosion, making Kazuma's eyes widen.

"Megumin don't-!" Kazuma shouted, but too late. KABOOM! The blast proceeded to bury them in a deluge of snow.

Popping up, Megumin said, "See? No more snow sprites here! And I gained a level!"

"...it would have worked out better if you didn't bury us in snow..." Kazuma grumbled, shaking his head off. "Still, looks like we're sitting on over a million more Eris from that!" he celebrated.

"Oh no..." Aqua suddenly paled, looking into the snowy winds.

"He's come..." Darkness muttered in anticipation.

"...wait, who?" Kazuma asked, nervous.

"I forgot about that!" Aqua wailed as a figure started walking into view. "Kazuma... You wanted to know why no one else took this quest? It's because of him, an entity of winter itself, he comes when you kill or capture too many snow sprites, General Winter!" On cue, the snowy winds seemed to part, revealing an ethereal, icy blue samurai, staring intently at them.

"You idiot useless goddess, how could you forget something like that!?" Kazuma shouted.