Chapter 4
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: On the Road to the Imperial Palace (3)
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Frost began to settle across every corner of the restaurant.
“W-What...? Why did it suddenly get so cold...?”
“That bastard! It's gotta be him!”
One of them pointed at me with the tip of his sword.
Sunweed, the dangerous narcotic that drives people into endless frenzy.
For me, that weed used solely for pleasure and excitement was nothing more than a stabilizer to suppress my cold output. I'd just spat it out moments ago.
One of them smirked amid the chaos, curling the corner of his mouth.
“Putting on a show, huh? Because of the girl who was with you?”
“You're misunderstanding something. She's not my type.”
I was still lounging with both feet propped up on the table.
The food here tasted awful, which put me in a foul mood, and I was still hungry... I sorted through the tangle of emotions while idly twitching the spoon I'd grabbed with my fingertips.
“Which of you should die first? Decide the order.”
Their bodies jerked violently in unison, as if enraged.
“...!”
Their widened eyes immediately darted to their own ankles. They'd tried to kick off the ground dramatically, but failed, looking bewildered.
It was only natural. I'd frozen their feet to the ground first.
“Don't come closer. Decide from there.”
“...We knew you'd pull some petty trick. Who the hell are you?”
“At least a prospective son-in-law of the Emperor.”
“You're out of your mind.”
“I've never been in my right mind.”
Always, already, right now. It had always been that way.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
That's when one smashed his ankle's ice with his club. Regaining freedom of movement, he kicked off the ground with all his might.
“Quit trying to play tough and die nicely, you punk!”
I silently watched the guy leaping at me, club raised high.
In my mind, on that blank white canvas, I dripped mana like paint. A few spells and the thug's frozen form sketched themselves into a single vivid picture.
The image in my head slowly overlapped with reality.
The moment they aligned perfectly, I simply flicked my finger.
Crack!
His body split cleanly in half, the pieces flying past me to either side. The cut surfaces froze instantly, so no blood sprayed messily.
He died with a face that hadn't even registered his own end. The fierce roar frozen on his features in a pathetic corpse. Pathetic.
“...I told you not to come closer.”
I muttered as I glanced around. Their momentum had wilted considerably. As if they'd never burst in ready to devour the whole place.
Their feet were still frozen to the ground. I pointed at each of their heads in turn with the tip of my spoon.
“Now, who should die next?”
They exchanged glances. One asked,
“...Can't you just let us go? We'll keep quiet.”
“Oh, asking to be sent back now?”
They tensed as I pretended to ponder.
“Fine. I will.”
“Ah...!”
Their faces lit up instantly.
I jerked my chin toward the back, and all heads turned that way. At the same moment, their elated expressions froze solid.
At the edge of their vision waited a door encased in ice, evoking the mouth of a northern snowfield cave. Not just blue-tinted, but bristling with icicles.
“How about it? Think you can open it and get out?”
“...”
The faces turning back to me brimmed with venom.
Natural enough. When facing an enemy who won't accept surrender, resistance until your last breath is the only option.
“Ever pondered something like that?”
I crunched a small ice shard instead of Sunweed.
“If I were to freeze forever in a single pose, what pose would be best... Ever thought about that?”
“Hiiyaap!”
They answered with roars, kicking off the ground as one.
But it was just a shout to overcome fear, and cold is always cold. Freezing lacks mercy by nature.
I closed my eyes and slowly extended one hand.
My target: the unmoving blue silhouettes. Eyes shut, my vision sharpened instead, specific spells rising clearly. The cold, diffused abstractly as gas, appeared sharper than anything to me.
Thus, a light incantation.
"Freeze."
⟨ Freezing Magic ⟩
Silence followed.
Everything I'd sensed through my perception faded.
The approaching presences, the vicious killing intent billowing out, the desperate thrashing for survival... All of it. Without exception.
Whoosh—
A cold gust brushed my nose, and only then did I open my eyes.
“Hmm.”
They were all frozen mid-charge. Like exhibits.
I stared at them blankly for a while.
“There were better poses, you know?”
No reply, naturally.
The moment I pulled out a Sunweed from my pocket,
Bang! Bang!
Small objects punched through the frozen door, shattering the icy corpses in an instant. Like stone statues crumbling.
A seasoned mage's dynamic vision is nothing to scoff at. I tracked the flying objects and felt a strange familiarity.
“...Cube fragments?”
The bits from the cube Anes had been fiddling with in one hand.
The cube grains danced wildly in the air as if alive, then gathered at the restaurant entrance, compacting neatly in Anes's palm—her bobbed hair calmly in place as always.
Telekinesis
Cube fragments launched as projectiles
I addressed her, who had boldly smashed through the door.
“Telekinesis user? Unexpected.”
“Your intel gathering is lacking. Sloppy.”
Anes replied as if she'd been waiting.
Seemed she'd been holding onto everything I'd said.
“Long grudges aren't attractive in a woman.”
“Good thing, then. No guys like you chasing me.”
I leisurely chewed the Sunweed. Biting down hard released a small pop in my mouth, with a delightful carbonated tang.
“So, why butt in so late?”
“Just finished assessing your level.”
“Not that— I worked hard on that door, why smash it?”
“...I'll ignore that. His Imperial Majesty's orders: transport without delay.”
I chuckled dryly and nodded.
“Gotta obey the Emperor.”
The carriage raced nonstop for days afterward.
After freezing Anes's cubes solid, Zekiel had endlessly teased her, filling her head with him against her will.
She stared blankly at the notepad in her hand.
[Strong. Proficient in Freezing Magic.]
At the time, Anes had left one cube grain inside the restaurant to observe, letting her witness and hear everything.
Her conclusion in four letters: bizarre.
Anes asked the soldier beside her.
“...Why hasn't a mage this strong ever been rumored?”
“That's what I've been wondering.”
The soldier answered promptly, as if he'd bottled it up too.
“Apprentice mages are pure prey, but their ceiling far exceeds scroll users, right? The structure guarantees fame the stronger and longer they survive.”
“Exactly. Yet the villagers seemed clueless too.”
Anes recalled how the villagers had treated Zekiel—subtly, like any ordinary loafer. Nothing more.
“It's weird. Unless info was deliberately erased, it doesn't add up. Too many loose ends.”
“...That extreme? Even from the palace?”
“Just saying. High-rank mages are that rare.”
The starkest difference between scroll users and true mages emerges when comparing the realm called 'Transcendence.'
Scroll users start high with access to various spells from the get-go, but only proper mages can reach transcendence.
The soldier whistled.
“High-rank mage... Doesn't suit him. Personality's downright weird. Fits Fatal better.”
“Yeah. Not right in the head.”
That needed noting too. Anes quietly jotted it down.
[Suspected mental abnormalities.]
It was then that a majestic vista unfolded before Anes and the soldier.
“Ah, finally here. Always an awe-inspiring sight.”
“...The empire's capital. Artiel.”
A cluster of refined skyscrapers was art in itself. Nestled at its heart, slumbering, lay the Imperial Palace—the empire's capital, Artiel.
The mysterious man they were carting off in a carriage... what was he?
—At least a prospective son-in-law of the Emperor.
“...No way in hell.”
Ridiculous. Not just impossible—absolutely not. That guy marrying one of the princesses, pure as heavenly daughters? No. If that happened, the world might as well end.
Well, whatever machinations were afoot, she'd learn soon enough.
Right, she'd learn later, but...
One line that stuck oddly from what she'd overheard.
—She's not my type.
“...”
It nagged at her. The more she tried to forget, the more it resurfaced. I'm just doing my job quietly, so why does this guy keep spouting nonsense? So rudely, no less.
Anes furrowed her brow and added one more line to her notepad.
[You're not my type either.]
...Her mind felt much clearer.