Chapter 3
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: North Sea Ice Palace
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North Sea Ice Palace.
Today, more than usual, Rachel's mood had been foul since morning.
Because today, she had to test her youngest son, who had only just begun to change.
Normally, she was a terrifying woman who wore a face as hard as frozen ice, fooling her opponents and extracting information from them. But when it came to her son, her icy walls crumbled bit by bit.
Especially for her youngest, who had been sickly, deprived of proper education, rejected everything around him, and suffered from mental illness.
He had finally come to his senses, unraveling magic formulas without issue.
And solving various problems without a hitch.
Impressive.
I hope it stays this way.
That wish as a mother made her hesitate over this test.
'...Ian hasn't resolved his sexual urges at all. It must be because of the trauma from that maid rape incident he spat out last time.'
If this state persisted, and for some reason he awakened his magic formula, he might end up tormented by a succubus or dream demon.
She didn't want to suspect him, but seeing how adeptly he handled the magic formula, some average succubus might have already taken over his mind.
It was a reasonable suspicion. Ian had been the shame of the Britna family, ignored by his brothers, utterly lacking in persistence and showing no signs of accomplishing anything. For him to change overnight like this, anyone would harbor doubts.
But even so, this method filled her with disgust.
Her unique magic: Illusion.
Making the target hallucinate, confusing them, stirring various emotions.
Undoubtedly, the easiest way to extract information here was through the emotion of love.
But this wasn't a mother's love for her son—it was the illusion of a lover's relationship.
Heaven's wrath might descend.
A married woman with a healthy husband seducing her youngest son in a test.
It was no better than the act of a street whore. If a succubus called her out for hypocrisy on this point, she had no defense.
It was something she could easily assign to her servants. But Rachel had a duty she had to fulfill herself.
'That child bears many sins.'
She intended to atone as well.
But—
Now it was too late.
-Crash!
"Are you alright...?"
Ian's nape drew close to her face, the long-forgotten masculine scent swirling roughly around her nose.
Bits of decorative furniture clattered down, nearly striking Rachel's head.
Thankfully, Ian had stretched out his arms on both sides, keeping them from touching her.
Arms far thinner than any knight's.
A pale man, white as a flower, almost like a girl.
He was different.
From that young fool who had screamed abuse at her, sobbing uncontrollably.
He seemed like a completely different person.
Not gripped by an inferiority complex.
Skilled in handling affairs.
And protective of others.
Not an exact copy of the husband she once loved,
but he had countless better qualities.
But that was only for a moment.
Rachel shook her head vigorously and pushed lightly against Ian's chest with her palm, pulling away.
But Ian grabbed her again in that instant.
Because more things, still not fully fallen, were about to crash onto her.
The carriage shook even harder than before, toppling violently—that was another reason.
A top-tier aura user like her wouldn't normally take damage from that, but since it was reinforced with various magics, it could have left scars.
And he went one step further.
Ignoring the swaying lanterns, the coachman's frantic shouts about the carriage, and his apologies.
He embraced Rachel tightly.
-The soft sound of flesh rubbing filled the quiet room.
In the pitch-black darkness without a single ray of light, Rachel's voice rang out.
"......Ian."
"Yes?"
He instinctively met her gaze, but his eyes held no particular emotion.
Relieved that there was no such feeling, Rachel managed to steady her trembling voice.
"...H-hand. Remove that hand."
She looked down at the plump, marshmallow-like mass she was clutching.
Warm flesh, steaming like freshly boiled dumplings.
It was Rachel's breast.
"S-sorry!"
"No need to apologize. You were trying to protect me... I'll go deal with those attackers first."
Rachel's face seemed to flush as she kicked open the carriage door and stepped out.
[Rachel's favorability has risen to 63 !!]
Ian stared blankly at the hologram window.
...Is she really an M?
Not Emmy or anything.
M... Mom...
Nah. No way. The author making a crazy bitch whose favorability goes up just because her son groped her breast.
It exists. It does.
Right here.
....
The thing that struck the carriage was none other than a Rahirino, commonly seen in the snowy plains.
A C-rank monster shaped like a rhinoceros.
In terms of hierarchy, it was at least 3rd rank.
It should have been wandering the forests originally.
But those bred by humans, with their cold resistance, became the main mounts for bandits.
"...For the Britna carriage to lack even basic artifacts."
The bandit who ambushed Ian and Rachel likewise looked down at the carriage from atop his Rahirino.
He had tailed them from the Britna estate's back gate all the way.
Of course, fools who stole valuables from slaves, pocketed bribes in secret, and fled in a carriage without even simple protective artifacts were bound to exist everywhere.
"Boss, wasn't there that maid who fled from the Britna family last time because of some incurable patient?"
"What about it?"
The bandit riding the same Rahirino beside him scratched his protruding nose with index and middle fingers, his mouth twisting up to his ears.
"Uh, well... Maids from noble families are a different class, you know. Since we're here, could you share a bit with us...?"
The bandit made a circle with thumb and index finger, repeatedly poking another finger through it.
The gesture said it all.
"Heh, I'll take the virgin, you guys can have the rest. Let's rip apart this rickety carriage first."
As he cracked the whip to smash the Rahirino's head into the carriage again—
-Crackle...
Frost whipped up in a frenzy.
The sudden icy gale made him reflexively raise his right arm.
No sound of the rhino's footsteps, no voices—nothing. Just his fingertips growing numb, tiny wounds crackling and splitting open with frost.
Through eyelids widened as if his eyes might pop out, only the wind's howl filled his ears like entering a tunnel.
Ten seconds felt like sixty, and finally, the wind died down.
No—it stopped being audible.
And simultaneously, without room to resist, his dantian cracked, shattering like glass in excruciating pain that assaulted his mind.
The pain he couldn't feel jolted his brain awake, but with his senses erased, they couldn't move a step.
Utter domination. He'd been a bandit leader for years, but he had no memory of being so overwhelmingly crushed and defeated.
If he had, he wouldn't have survived this long.
"Hmm, looks like I need to look into that escaped maid from last time again."
Rachel yawned and stretched, her hair turned pure white.
It was the famed Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace in action.
Rachel eyed the frozen bandit with interest.
"Oh? Still alive. Ian, come here for a moment."
"Impressive combat prowess."
Unlike the bandit's expectation that he'd peek out, gasp at the gruesome scene, the noble looked down at the eight frozen bandits with cold eyes, as if it were a familiar sight.
"Ah, this one's eyes are moving."
"Heh, you know it well."
Then the Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace kicked the bandit's calf, shattering it like a cheap statue with a sharp crack.
No blood flowed. That was why despair set in.
This was probably his first time experiencing his viewpoint drop so low.
"From the conversation, it doesn't seem like someone ordered them... Ian, can you kill a human?"
"..........Of course."
The bandits who raided the Britna territory vanished that day, and strange rumors began circulating in the slums.
...
The sensation of killing a human.
I considered this another of Rachel's tests.
Back in the carriage, I spent a while pondering my own humanity.
If this were the old me from my original world, I should have freaked out and backed away at the sight of a human corpse.
The sight of a human body frozen solid, shattering, leaving only a ruby-like ice sculpture with eyes still moving in the leg I kicked, then crushing the soft eyeball trapped in the hard ice—it wasn't a pleasant experience even describing it.
Vomiting wouldn't have been out of place.
'Strangely serene.'
Even seeing that scene, and after, my mind remained eerily calm.
Rather, Mother praised this trait and even promised to assign me a talented instructor to become my combat maid...
After acquiring a new carriage, my heart remained troubled all the way to the slave market.