Hundreds of insect-monsters prostrated themselves on the ground in unison.
Even the usually proud Icecl Araña and the ever-graceful Frost Mose were crawling on the ground like mere insects before the absolute ruler.
Watching this scene, I once again realized the hierarchy of this world.
“How… Can you even control bugs like this?” Prostia marveled.
“Rien, you’re truly amazing…”
I was puzzled by her words.
How could the absolute ruler of Shia Kalt not know her own subordinate’s abilities?
Perhaps the growth of Lycoris that we had observed for the past fortnight was also new to Prostia.
《Master!》
Lycoris’s roots proudly etched words onto the snow.
Seeing this, memories of the past two weeks flashed through my mind.
That existence, which had once only instilled fear, could now write words and express emotions.
“Ahh… It can write now.” Prostia’s voice was filled with awe.
“But Master? Just Prostia… No, this is good too…”
Her smile carried genuine affection.
At that moment, I realized there was a profound bond between them that we couldn’t even imagine.
“But, what are these humans?”
Her sudden change in tone froze me.
Every cell in my body detected danger.
Even I, who had lived my entire life in battlefields, had never experienced such absolute fear.
《Pathetic! Humans! Lycoris trained them!》
“Interacted with humans?”
In an instant, the surrounding temperature plummeted dramatically.
This wasn’t mere cold.
It was the chill of death.
Everything inside me felt frozen.
The sound of Brian’s sword clattering to the ground reached my ears, but I couldn’t blame him.
I too couldn’t properly grip my shield.
“But we…”
Marianne opened her trembling lips.
Her courage was impressive.
But it also seemed foolish.
Our words held no meaning before the absolute ruler.
“Silence.”
As expected.
Her words were cut off cleanly.
《Lycoris! Language! Learned!》
Lycoris’s writing made Prostia’s expression subtly change.
It was as if she were calculating something, or perhaps discovering new possibilities.
“Hmm… Interesting…”
She muttered.
With those words, a small spark of hope arose within me.
Perhaps we might survive.
“Originally, I intended to kill you all and feed you to Lycoris…”
Alldin’s face paled instantly, and Kevin seemed to have already lost half of his consciousness.
I had never seen such weakness in them.
But neither was I any different.
《No! Master!》
《Good! Humans!》
Lycoris’s handwriting was rougher than usual.
The sound of its roots tearing through the snow could be heard in its urgency.
At that moment, I felt a strange emotion.
Does Lycoris truly worry for us?
Or is it just an act to preserve its plaything?
Prostia gently stroked Lycoris’s petals.
Her cold gaze slowly melted, like ice under the spring sun.
“Hmm…” She sighed.
“Transient humans like you…”
Her contemptuous words pierced my heart.
We were merely fleeting existences, specks of dust in her eyes.
As an A-rank adventurer, my pride crumbled in an instant.
“I’ll let you live. If Lycoris wishes it.”
The chill of death slowly receded.
Only then did I realize I had been holding my breath.
“But…” Her voice became icy again.
“If I see you again, your blood will become fertilizer, and your corpses will turn into manure.”
Lycoris’s roots swung toward us.
In that moment, I noticed its petals slightly trembling.
As if… Apologetically.
We hurriedly took steps backward.
Behind us, Prostia’s words echoed.
“Now, shall we spend some time together?”
Countless sweet fragrances and pastel-colored pollen spread across the snow.
Prostia’s gentle laughter echoed through the Shia Kalt Mountain Range.
…
We walked for a long time.
No one spoke.
Our minds were filled with different thoughts.
“We… We lived.”
Havell was the first to speak.
Her trembling voice broke the tension among us.
“Arthur-sama…” Brian cautiously asked.
“Was that truly Prostia, the ruler of Dami Palace?”
No one answered.
Everyone knew.
That was the legendary being, the absolute ruler of Shia Kalt.
All I could do was keep moving forward.
“Hurry.”
My voice was hoarser than expected.
It felt like I was still standing in that place.
The moment when I was reduced to a mere insect under the absolute ruler’s gaze kept replaying in my mind.
We stopped when we saw the village.
The peaceful daily life of the village seemed strange to us.
It was a scene too different from the terror we had just experienced.
People choosing goods at the market as usual, children playing in the alleys…
“They wouldn’t know,” Alldin muttered.
“What kind of existence awakened beyond those mountains…”
“But still, Lycoris… helped us, right?”
At Marianna’s words, Havell laughed coldly.
“Helped? It was just trying to protect its toy in front of its master.”
“I can’t agree with that.” Brian shook his head.
“The conversations we had for two weeks, the sincerity…”
“Sincerity?” Rien interjected.
“What sincerity were you expecting from a monster?”
I fell into thought.
Did Lycoris truly raise its voice for us?
The time we spent together for half a month came to mind.
The moments when it painstakingly communicated through clumsy writing.
It seemed too pure to just be an act.
“First, let’s go to the Guild.”
…
On the way to the Guild, people gathered.
“A-rank party has returned!”
“What happened!?”
“What was that entity known as Scent and Crimson Moon?”
“Why did it take so long?”
“Where did the monsters go?”
Questions came pouring in.
But I was looking for someone.
“I need to see the Guildmaster.”
At my words, the crowd parted.
While heading to the second floor’s office, I wondered how to start the story.
Who would believe this?
“Enter.”
The Guildmaster’s voice came even before I could knock.
As we entered, his sharp eyes scanned us.
He stood by the desk, looking out the window.
“You have seen something…”
His sharp intuition, honed over decades leading this small village’s Guild, was never wrong.
Brian stepped forward.
“I… It may sound unbelievable…” He began.
“We saw Prostia.”
The air in the room froze instantly.
“What… Are you saying?”
“The legendary being, the ruler of Shia Kalt…” Brian’s voice trembled.
“The one that destroyed a kingdom several hundred years ago…”
“Unbelievable!”
Someone shouted.
The office was already filled with several residents.
“Prostia is just a legend.”
“Just an old tale.”
“You aren’t actually believing that…”
Voices of disbelief continued.
It was a natural reaction.
I would have reacted the same way.
“I saw it.”
Everyone fell silent as I spoke.
As testimony from an A-rank adventurer carried weight.
“A huge ice dragon appeared…” My voice wavered.
“It transformed into a silver-haired woman in an instant. And…”
The story that followed made everyone hold their breath.
The encounter with the monster-flower, the appearance of Prostia, and the absolute fear we experienced.
“When I was young, my grandfather told me a story.”
The Guildmaster looked out the window as he spoke.
“It was a pitch-black winter. Black snow fell for a week, and even at noon, only a faint moonlight-like glow illuminated the sky. People didn’t know then that it was a harbinger of Prostia.”
Taking a deep breath, he continued.
“Then the dragon appeared. It was hundreds of years ago. As my grandfather said, a kingdom knelt before the absolute ruler. But after that… No one who saw the dragon ever returned.”
The Guildmaster’s voice grew quieter.
“Now, that entity has awakened… Although the black snow hasn’t fallen yet…”
His words trailed off.
There was no need to finish.
“Damn…” Alldin sighed deeply.
“Something awful is going to happen.”
The room buzzed again.
Voices filled with fear and anxiety echoed.
“Prostia has returned…”
“What about our village…”
“Will another kingdom fall like in the legend…”
I looked out the window.
The endless Shia Kalt Mountain Range stretched before my eyes.
Did Lycoris truly raise its voice for us?
Or was it just protecting its toy?
Did Prostia truly spare our lives?
Or is there a bigger plan?
One thing was certain.
We had come face-to-face with an entity we thought was just a legend.
And that fact was now driving us all with fear.
*
“Miss Saint, are you really going to Shia Kalt?”
The Archbishop of the Temple of Light asked worriedly.
The moonlight illuminated the Saint’s white ceremonial robe through the stained glass.
“Lord Mikel gave me a vision.” Seraphina’s voice was serene.
“I’ve been seeing it every night in my dreams. The snowy peak of Shia Kalt, and… His flower.”
She hesitated for a moment before adding,
“The flower stained with blood was praying in Lord Mikel’s name. This must be a sign. There must be someone I need to meet…”
Her words trailed off.
With a forlorn smile, she gazed at the distant snowy peaks beyond the window.
