Chapter 93

“Because the child’s wishes matter too.”

You couldn’t ask a child with such a vast spirit to confine herself to such a narrow space.

“...Yes. Understood.”

Knox went to find Aisha in her bedroom with a stiff expression immediately after that.

***

And now.

Following Knox’s guidance, I arrived at the office and—

“I’m going! I’m going, I’m going!”

Tap tap tap tap.

After hearing the general explanation, I excitedly hopped around Father like a rabbit.

“......”

Calypse stared at me, completely dazed.

Regardless.

Yahoo! I finally have something to do!

My body had already been itching for action, so this worked out perfectly!

Whoosh. Whoosh.

I narrowed my eyes into a determined triangle and bounced around while performing my frog combat technique.

“I don’t know who my opponent will be, but this is my chance to beat them completely and knock King Argen down a peg too...”

“Do you really think you’ll be the one who doesn’t get knocked down?”

At that moment, a long, straight finger lightly tapped my nose.

Father had already folded his knees and sat down, looking at me with displeasure.

“Going into a match without the power of ice means King Argen will look down on you and mock you. Aren’t you worried about that?”

Calypse asked with a concerned expression.

“Can’t I just win without using my power?”

But I asked back confidently instead.

As though he had expected that answer, Calypse sighed and continued.

“No matter how talented you are, the child King Argen chose as your opponent will also be skilled. If you become careless, you could suffer a serious setback.”

Oh.

The me who had been proudly throwing punches widened my eyes like a rabbit.

“I’m not allowed to lose?”

It was called a match, but wasn’t it just a simple event anyway?

Wouldn’t it be fine whether I won or lost?

“It wouldn’t matter if you lost. Of course it wouldn’t matter, but if you happened to get hurt...”

Father’s voice became quieter as he trailed off.

Then he finally lowered his head.

“No. Right. Children grow by getting hurt...”

He seemed as though he was about to change his mind.

“...Isn’t that not allowed?”

“Huh?”

With his head still lowered, he slowly lifted his gaze and looked at me.

At that moment, I saw it.

His previously calm eyes had turned sharp and fierce, shaped like triangles.

“Do you want to get hurt? Why are you always so eager to fight?”

What?

No, why was he suddenly going overboard...?

“Daughter. Hold my hand.”

“Excuse me?”

I was staring at him in disbelief when—

“Hold my hand. There’s somewhere we need to go.”

Father stood up with the same grim expression and suddenly held out his hand.

Gulp—

Our Father.

He had never exactly been the overly affectionate type, but could stress have somehow changed his personality?

I nervously glanced at Knox, but he only shrugged as if he knew nothing and made no attempt to interfere between us.

In the end, I had no choice.

When I took his hand, Calypse left the office and began leading me somewhere.

The two of us, who had been on the third floor, quickly descended to the first floor.

Are we leaving the castle?

That was what I thought.

But when Calypse walked to the end of the corridor and opened an old door, a creaking sound echoed, revealing stairs leading underground.

It looked like the entrance to an entirely different world.

As I stepped down one stair at a time, I thought I was walking across stone flooring, but before long, an icy chill cold enough to sting my bones seeped through the soles of my boots.

From that moment on, Father carried me down the stairs.

The deeper we went, the colder the wind became, making the tiny hairs on my body stand up. My hair, which had been framing my cheeks, fluttered lightly in the freezing air.

Eventually, we arrived at—

“...Father?”

“Your body has not adapted to the cold since birth, so the chances of failure are high. But we still have to try.”

It was an enormous ice cave shaped like a dome.

There was no ceiling, no horizon.

Only a dazzling spectacle of glittering ice crystals.

I stared at the unreal space with my mouth open in awe, when something cold touched my lower lip.

A snowflake drifting through the air.

“Normally, you should have spent time adapting here immediately after you were born.”

Calypse looked around before suddenly asking me:

“Can you endure it?”

“Endure what?”

“Ice power training. If you can last here for one week, there is still a possibility.”

“...Huh?”

I turned to look at Calypse, wondering if I had heard him incorrectly.

But when I saw Father’s expression—like he wanted to grab me and run away at any moment—I realized I had not imagined it.

And so, my power training began.

***

At first, I thought it would be fine.

When I heard that I would begin power adaptation training, Mai dressed me in fur clothing and a hat, while Father stuffed me full of sandwiches, saying that I needed to keep my stomach full.

And Lucas, after hearing the news, rushed over and put leather gloves on my hands.

Dandelion. If it gets difficult, call for your older brother. Your older brother will stay with you!

Kyle, who followed Lucas here, transformed into a cat and tried to cling to me.

Meow—!

Of course, Father grabbed him by the scruff and removed him.

And the Guide who came after them—

“L-L-Lady Aisha. Y-You’re really staying here for a week? Y-You’ll definitely be able to succeed.”

His words were encouraging, but he looked strangely uneasy.

It was not his usual frightened expression.

Even while speaking to me, Guide kept looking around as if he were hiding something.

As if he were searching for something.

It was a little strange, but? Anyway.

The good news was that the ice cave was not as cold as I had expected.

It actually felt nice. It looked like a cave that belonged in a winter fantasy story. It truly felt as though I had entered a novel, and my heart felt strangely warm.

“Now I’m... shivering.”

I take back saying it was not cold.

I take it back after only ten minutes.

“Gyaah.”

I was trembling on the ice chair, and as my fading consciousness made me sway, I [N O V E L I G H T] toppled over.

At the same time, my mind snapped awake.

The moment my skin touched the cold surface, a chill seemed to seep all the way into my bones.

The cave created by the power of ice had not been overwhelmingly cold from the beginning, but without realizing it, the cold had slowly crawled deep inside me.

Now it felt as though my entire body had become a block of ice.

“What should I do? Only ten minutes have passed. And I’m supposed to stay here for a week?”

I thought seriously.

Would I become a bear that became human after eating only garlic and mugwort for one hundred days?

Or would I run away halfway through and live as a beast like a tiger?

Bear or tiger.

...A tiger was incredibly strong too. Wouldn’t that actually be fine?

Smack!

“Get a hold of yourself!”

Only after hitting my cheeks with my palms did I finally regain my senses.

I had almost given up on gaining the power of ice.

“Anyway, I’m supposed to stay here alone for a week? It’s cold, but more importantly, can I survive being bored?”

Another problem was how I would spend an entire week here alone.

As far as I knew, ice adaptation training was normally done when one was a newborn who still needed care, so the baby would enter the cave together with a nanny.

Of course, that did not mean the nanny would gain the power of ice. The nanny was not part of the Kreutz bloodline.

Anyway, what I meant was that newborn babies did not know boredom.

But I was a five-year-old already tainted by the mundane world, so I was practically dying to do something.

“One, two.”

But the only thing I could do was count the snowflakes floating through the air.

I was staring blankly upward when—

“Three, four, fi...”

When I was about to mutter five—

“......”

I realized something.

The snowflake lying on the ground right beside me was slightly too large to be a snowflake.

It was a white lump so noticeable that I wondered why I had not noticed it sooner.

And unlike the ordinary snowflakes shaped like ice crystals...

It was fluffy.

Just like Kyle when he is in cat form...

No way.

A single possibility suddenly came to mind, and my face went pale.

Then I carefully pulled out the thought that had appeared in my head.

“...Kyle?”

So that was why he had obediently let himself be taken away.

Had Kyle secretly snuck inside?

When he turns into a cat, he’s just a tiny kitten! He won’t be able to endure this!

Following that worry, I quietly called Kyle’s name.

But the white ball of fur remained still.

Seeing that, I suddenly remembered Kyle dying at Ahili’s Circus.

“Kyle!”

I hurriedly stood up and reached out to pick up the fluffball.

But suddenly, the fluffball shuddered all over, vanished from before my eyes—

“Ah!”

Something covered my face.

My vision was suddenly blocked, and then I felt something soft and warm pressing against me.

A belly?

This feeling.

I think I had felt it once before...?