Chapter 206 - Heartbeat After So Long
It had been truly ages since I'd felt a heartbeat like this. Not since becoming the heir to the Cloud Kingdom's throne, not since my heart had frozen over from the curse. I'd thought I'd never feel it again.
But as I teased the boy standing before me, I could clearly sense it. The door to my frozen heart cracking open, just the tiniest bit.
"Pathetic♡ Can't even handle that?"
"W-what the hell are you doing..."
"You're my footrest now. Stay quiet."
While I was in the middle of provoking him, I rested my leg on Frey's knee and, for a good while, rubbed it against him teasingly or wiggled my toes.
"Ugh, urgh..."
"What? Getting excited already? You're hopeless..."
When he lowered his head and let out a groan, I mocked him, and he made that ashamed face. The world knew him as a total sleaze who chased after women, so I'd never imagined he'd show such a cute side.
Maybe that's why.
"This is boring... Tell me a story or something."
"Huh?"
"Hurry up, anything."
The sudden urge to talk with him welled up inside me. Even now, I can't make sense of it, but back then, I was filled with the desire to drink and chat with Frey. As if it were an imprinted memory. As if I had to.
I relentlessly peppered him with questions, one after another, drinking with someone who clearly couldn't hold his liquor, lost in wild conversation.
"...So, you're a virgin?"
"Don't put it like that..."
"Pfft, hahaha! This is hilarious...! You really are pathetic?"
And our conversation.
"So, certified virgin by the Stone of Purity—why'd you buy up my family? Weren't you gonna use them as sex slaves?"
"...I was interested in you."
"Huh?"
"Used them as bait to lure you out... Eek."
Surprisingly, was quite enjoyable.
"Sounds like you're full of lies."
"...It's true?"
Of course, I didn't take his words at face value. The Stone of Purity could be faked easily enough, and there were hints of deception in what he said. It was only natural.
Still, the Frey I'd experienced here today felt distant from the "world's greatest villain." At best, a dim-witted, gullible playboy who fell for all my pranks?
Well, according to the rumors from my informants, the side he showed me was just a facade.
But that was hearsay I hadn't witnessed myself, and I was someone who trusted only what she saw with her own eyes.
"Not that it's the right thing to say in this situation, but... you're kinda pretty?"
"...Hitting on a girl my age? Total scum. Just die."
"W-we're only a year apart?"
"........."
Our talk dragged on for quite some time. At first, I'd seen him as nothing more than a toy I could torment guilt-free without mercy. But before I knew it, I'd started feeling something beyond mere interest.
That was the exact moment my frozen heart's door cracked open, ever so slightly.
...That voice isn't coming.
And at the same time, I realized it. The voice that had always desperately tried to drag me to ruin—it wasn't there at all.
Why had this boy, who stirred strange feelings in me for some inexplicable reason, brought back that odd sensation I'd felt once before?
So, after talking with him for so long, the conclusion I'd reached deep down was that I wanted a more ongoing relationship with the boy before me.
I wanted to know why my emotions, frozen since childhood, stirred this inexplicable feeling toward him. And why that damned voice fell silent whenever we talked.
"Ugh, urgh..."
"Does it hurt that much? What a weakling..."
That's why I decided to lift the curse. When I'd first transferred it to him, I'd meant to kill him for real. But now, my heart had thawed quite a bit since then.
Of course, resentment lingered, and rumors swirled that he was with the Demon King's army. So I planned to pretend the curse stayed as a check on him while secretly retrieving it.
But.
It failed spectacularly.
I'd clearly called back the ice bird inside his body, but for some reason, it wouldn't budge. Instead, his pain only amplified.
As I broke out in cold sweat amid this incomprehensible situation, trying desperately to retrieve the curse, he slowly opened his mouth.
"C-cold..."
His face, pale as death, came into view.
Had I gone too far? When I was teasing him earlier, had I messed up the temperature control?
"W-wait a sec."
I hurriedly dispelled the freezing magic. Even as a prank, I'd cranked it up a notch because of my grudge against him—and that seemed to be the problem.
"Ugh..."
As the cafe's temperature returned to normal, he slowly lifted his head from where he'd been slumped over.
"Feels better now."
He whispered with a weary smile.
"Th-that... wait. Just wait a—"
"I've gotta head out soon."
I tried to grab him, but he was already preparing to leave, exhaustion etched on his face.
"That offer from earlier... I'll take it."
Then Frey looked at me quietly and spoke.
"You can really fix my curse, right?"
"Uh? Y-yeah..."
"Fine then. I'll be your plaything as much as you want."
My eyes widened at his words.
"That voice... no, I've taken a personal interest in you too..."
He smiled at me, finishing his sentence.
"...Talking with you's been pretty fun."
He staggered to his feet.
- Creak... His trembling hand gripped a cane utterly unfit for a boy his age.
- Thud, thud.
Watching him shuffle painstakingly toward the exit, what I felt in that instant—was it pity? Or something else?
"S-see ya... Pathe—"
- Thump...!
"...Frey."
He left the cafe just like that, leaving me alone. I quietly clasped my hands over my chest.
"Hup...!"
Closing my eyes, I recalled pulling the bird from my chest at the slave market. With more focus than ever, I began circulating my magic circuits.
"Haa... haa..."
But the ice bird didn't return.
.........
"Th-this isn't right..."
The playful princess who'd been wearing a relaxed smile and mischievous grin while dealing with Frey just moments ago had vanished somewhere.
"This can't be happening..."
In her place sat a princess drenched in sweat, forcing her mana to flow, her face pale with terror.
"Why won't it retrieve...? Why... wait."
After sweating bullets for ages and finally stopping the spell, she began recalling the past.
"Th-that time... that voice..."
The conversation she'd had with that damned voice when she'd tried transferring the curse to Frey during the slave market raid.
"This curse? If I want, I can take it back anytime."
- But once transferred, you can never retrieve it.
"Nonsense."
Back then, she'd dismissed it as lies, of course. That voice echoing in her head since childhood had never once spoken the truth.
And the kingdom's sage who'd taught her how to extract the curse had said she could retrieve it anytime.
"N-no way. Maybe that pathe... pathetic guy's too frail. Once he's in better shape, it'll come right out. Yeah, obviously."
So, biting her nails, Aishi muttered to herself.
"Princess, pardon the intrusion, but why are you meeting that man?"
Her attendant, who'd stepped away earlier, approached with a furrowed brow. She turned to him.
"His reputation's the worst, and he's the absolute last person you'd want as a groom. Don't you know he's on borrowed time?"
"What?"
Hearing that, Aishi.
"He's been sickly since childhood, but after collapsing the day after the slave market raid, his condition plummeted."
"Ah..."
A wave of anxiety and dizziness hit her; she squeezed her eyes shut without realizing.
"No idea why it worsened so suddenly, but according to the intel you requested..."
The attendant tilted his head at her, then.
"He'll be lucky to last 1-2 years."
Drove the nail in quietly.
"......"
Aishi spaced out for a moment.
"So, just ignore a guy like that and—"
"Contact the royal mage. And that sage too."
She urgently commanded her attendant.
"Pardon?"
"Now!!!"
Urging her bewildered attendant, she bolted from her seat.
- Still won't believe it to the end? Serves you right.
The sinister voice, silent for so long, tossed out a mocking remark. She froze solid.
"........."
"P-Princess?"
Even after a long while, she stood there like a statue, blankly in place.
.........
"C-cold..."
After leaving the cafe and taking a few steps, Frey hugged himself and muttered.
"Ugh..."
For some reason, even separated from Aishi, he shivered in intense cold.
"F-Frey?"
"Master?"
As Frey, trembling for ages, finally entered the carriage, Irina and Lulu—who'd been waiting anxiously—widened their eyes.
"You, you met Aishi, didn't you? Idiot! I told you not to!"
"S-sorry... but I had no choice..."
"Dummy! Dummy dummy!"
Irina stomped her feet, staring at Frey radiating chill from his whole body.
"No helping it now—I'll cast a warming spell quick..."
She raised her hand, muttering, then.
"........."
Suddenly stopped, gazing down at Frey intently.
"I-Irina? Why all of a—"
Frey started panicking at her oddly intense gaze.
"Huh? Wha...?"
She lunged at him, stripping off his overcoat.
"Wh-what're you doing?"
"...What are you doing?"
"........."
Frey and Lulu—with her eyes turning icy—asked, stunned by her actions, but Irina, having tossed the coat aside, kept undressing him.
"Ugh, urgh..."
"Grrr... N-no... What the heck are you doing?!"
Soon after, as Frey's bare skin emerged, startled Lulu tried to intervene.
"...Hoo."
An owl flying in from somewhere glared coldly at Irina.
"It's essential for curse removal. Don't interfere."
"Eek?"
"H-hoo?"
Irina overwhelmed Lulu and the owl in an instant with an inexplicable aura she didn't even know she had.
"...This isn't 'lovey-dovey stuff'—it's 'treatment.' One tied to Frey's life. So it doesn't count."
She whispered timidly, staring into the owl's eyes.
"I-Irina... I'm cold..."
Irina looked down again at shivering Frey.
- Plop...!
Moments later, something fell from under her cloak.
""......!""
Frey and Lulu's eyes bulged.
Irina's top lay rolling on the carriage floor.
- Thud...!
"Irina? What the—?"
As her bottoms hit the floor too, Frey asked frantically.
"I have to melt the ice bird fragments embedded deep in your body directly."
Irina shyly parted her cloak a bit, avoiding his gaze as she explained, leaving him dazed.
"Can't set your whole body on fire, and regular dispel magic takes too long."
She swallowed dryly, eyeing Frey.
"So come in here, Frey."
Circulating magic to heat her body, she murmured.
"Need precise control over the cold energy mixed in you. So maximum skin contact..."
She kept explaining the "procedure" at length.
"...There."
Gazing at flushed Frey, she quietly finished.
"I'll melt you, Frey."
"........."
"Get in already."
Moments later, her cloak fully engulfed Frey.
"Eek..."
His bare skin touched hers; his frail, delicate body slipped into her ample embrace.
"Haaah..."
For a while, eyes squeezed shut, she felt every movement of Frey clinging to her, letting out a moan.
"I-I'll help too..."
"No—needs precise mana control. One slip and it's over."
She shoved aside Lulu clinging desperately, then.
- Shh...
Pushed Frey's head, poking out from the cloak, fully inside with both hands.
"Rest easy, Frey..."
Leaning back against the carriage seat, eyes gently closed, she whispered.
"...Remember this moment as a happy one."
Frey's heartbeat, fully swallowed by Irina's cloak, transmitted straight to her chest.