The Curse of the Ice Snow Dragon (2)
The continent was home to dragons. These were the arrogant beings often called the origin of magic, the ones who enjoyed playing around in human affairs. Perhaps the Ice Snow Dragon was something similar.
‘Why would something like that…?’
The dragons I knew didn’t even treat humans as proper living creatures. A few unusual ones might have been wary of them, but those were the extreme minority. I had never met one myself, but I assumed this world was largely the same. The idea that such a creature would place a curse on a human felt strangely off.
‘She’ll tell me.’
I didn’t dwell on it too deeply and simply waited for Circe to continue.
“First of all, the Ice Snow Dragon is the alias of one particular dragon that wields extreme cold.”
She spoke calmly, picking up where she had left off.
“They say that dragon can freeze the entire world with a single gesture. Most dragons are like that, actually.”
“……Then how are the demons still alive?”
It made sense, didn’t it? If beings with power beyond human comprehension attacked the demons all at once, no matter how many there were, they shouldn’t have been able to survive.
Circe nodded, understanding my question.
“You might think so, but according to my father, the dragons made a pact.”
“What kind of pact?”
Her expression grew serious.
“Good and evil. No matter the situation, they will remain neutral.”
“……Isn’t that too vague?”
Neutrality was a rather relative concept. Some people would say crossing the line by even a finger’s width meant you were no longer neutral, while others might claim that stepping over it by a full palm still counted as being neutral if you were only halfway across. In that sense, such a pact felt awfully ambiguous.
“Still, it was spoken by the dragon called the Lord, so it should be fine.”
The Dragon Lord. The ruler of all dragons. The one leader who commanded even those supremely arrogant beings. If that existence had said it personally, it was somewhat believable.
“Anyway, that’s enough about dragons. You asked about my body, right?”
“Yeah.”
“The Curse of the Ice Snow Dragon is the dragon’s energy inside me lowering both the external and internal temperature of my body to below absolute zero. If it weren’t for the frost, I would have died long ago.”
“……Are you okay right now?”
I had always sensed that she felt cold and preferred warm things, but hearing the words absolute zero changed everything.
‘It’s more dangerous than I thought.’
Absolute zero was a cold no ordinary human could endure. Even though I could withstand extreme heat, saying that felt wrong now. Circe’s situation was completely different from mine.
‘A curse.’
And not just any curse—the Curse of the Ice Snow Dragon, complete with its own title. The extreme heat I endured and the dragon’s extreme cold she endured were probably on entirely different levels. In fact, I was starting to wonder if she was just pretending to be warm right now.
“I’m fine. Your flames suppress it, so it feels really warm.”
Circe smiled as if to say not to worry. It didn’t seem like a lie at all.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Hm? What is it?”
“……”
It was all good information. What kind of dragon the Ice Snow Dragon was, how dragons lived, why they hadn’t eradicated the demons, what the curse actually entailed. I understood all of it. But one question still nagged at me.
“Circe. Why did you get cursed in the first place? You’ve only ever lived inside the Helen family mansion, right?”
I had heard it briefly from Christina before. She had never once left the mansion before turning twenty. Circe had said the same thing, so the fact that she had been cursed in such a short period of time felt strange.
“……”
The face she made now looked like someone recalling a painful memory.
“If you don’t want to talk about it……”
“No. I’ll tell you this too.”
She cut off my attempt to say she didn’t have to speak if she didn’t want to. Staring into the path of flames as if recalling someone, she continued.
“I inherited a strong share of my mother’s blood. It wasn’t something I needed to worry about. Who would dare insult the child of the great Helen family?”
The way she proudly straightened her back while showing off her pride and confidence in the Helen family only made her look cute.
“But the problem happened when I was five. The Curse of the Ice Snow Dragon that had been engraved on my mother’s body appeared on mine as well.”
The fact that Circe had been cursed was largely due to Lady Helen’s blood.
“Is there a way to break it?”
“The only way to break a dragon’s curse that has been discovered so far is to kill the dragon that cast it.”
She hadn’t asked for the curse. Yet there wasn’t a single trace of resentment in her tone. She truly was a pure and strong woman.
“If my father had been in the middle of the Demon Realm back then, I probably would have died by now, wouldn’t I?”
“……”
The way she smiled while saying she would have died made me feel strangely sorry for her.
“Well, I’m alive now, so isn’t that enough?”
Suddenly, Circe turned her body completely and hugged me tightly.
“I get to do things like this too.”
When I lowered my gaze a little, I saw her wearing a playful smile.
“Are you really okay with my flames?”
I still couldn’t quite believe it.
‘It really feels warm because of my flames?’
It didn’t make sense that a dragon’s curse would be pushed back by one person’s energy. I still felt like Circe was lying to keep me from worrying.
“It’s true. If you don’t believe me, should I show you?”
“Show me what?”
“The Curse of the Ice Snow Dragon. Its energy, I mean.”
“If it’s really okay, then show me.”
She would have to draw up the energy. The pain that came with the recoil would all fall on her. If it wasn’t her own free will, I would feel uncomfortable.
“Adel, I’ll only open it so you can feel it, so brace yourself.”
“……?”
No matter how powerful a dragon’s curse was, it had already left its owner’s hands. I wondered if it was really that serious. Before I could even prepare myself, it began.
Crack… crackle… crack…
A sound like everything was freezing echoed as the temperature around us dropped. The steadily falling cold penetrated not just my body but even deeper inside. Normally I could see flames after just a few steps, but now the cold was so intense I could barely endure it.
“……”
Time passed. The slowly flowing seconds made even the blink of an eye feel like an eternity.
“……”
The world had frozen solid. The mana devoured by the single energy of the Ice Snow Dragon had all gone quiet as if suppressed, refusing to approach me. It felt like a scene that would last forever. Just trying to continue my thoughts brought a headache that felt like my skull was splitting open.
Snap.
“Haa… haa…”
The moment Circe snapped her fingers, the world returned to normal and I could finally breathe again.
‘This is the curse?’
It was impossible. This wasn’t something a human could endure every single moment of every single day.
“Three seconds. If it had gone past five, it would have been dangerous.”
“……Circe, you live like this every day?”
“No? This is what it feels like on the worst days of the curse. Luckily it only happens about once a year. And even then, I take medicine.”
“What kind of medicine?”
“Medicine my father made himself. It contains power that resists the Ice Snow Dragon’s energy. It’s essentially my father’s own energy. Lately I’ve built up some resistance, so it’s manageable.”
“……That’s a relief.”
It really was. If she had to feel that pain constantly, she would have lost her sense of self.
‘Is there nothing I can do to help?’
I wanted to do something. I didn’t want her to have to endure that agony even once. If possible, I wanted to break the curse for her.
“……Can you release the energy at its weakest?”
“That’s not hard, but why?”
“……”
I stayed silent. Saying it was for her felt a little embarrassing.
“Okay.”
Circe nodded willingly and released a faint trace of the Ice Snow Dragon’s energy.
Crack… crackle…
The freezing sound rang out. But unlike before, the surrounding temperature was only slowly dropping.
“Still cool, right?”
“Yeah.”
I could still answer normally. Crack… crackle… Hearing my response, she increased it further. The gradually falling temperature reached a point where I would struggle without raising my flames.
‘Is this what it’s like normally?’
It felt exactly like that. Whoosh. I summoned flames around myself and looked at Circe.
“Yes. This is my usual state. It’s better like this, right?”
Just barely better. Without the flames, I would have already suffered severe frostbite.
‘……So she endures this cold every single day.’
She might have cold resistance, but this would pierce right through it. Circe gave a bitter smile.
“If I didn’t have the cold resistance from the frost……”
She reached out and placed her hand against my flames.
“I wouldn’t even be able to do this. I’d be stuck in bed.”
Hummmm.
“……?”
I stared at the sight in confusion, then became startled.
‘Resonance?’
It was a phenomenon that occurred when identical unique mana touched. But it felt slightly different to me.
‘The same?’
It reminded me of yesterday, when I had absorbed the flames. The sensation was similar.
‘Why?’
Flames and frost were completely different. They couldn’t possibly be the same. They were opposites.
‘Does Circe know?’
Kali hadn’t noticed. But if Circe had deliberately placed her hand there, she might know something. I stared at her intently.
“Hm? Why?”
Her innocent reaction made it seem like she truly didn’t know.
“……It’s nothing.”
I looked back and forth between the flames and the Ice Snow Dragon’s energy, thinking.
‘……It might work.’
I couldn’t try it right now, but maybe tomorrow. Perhaps I could actually help Circe.