“By Serena, do you mean the Serena from ‘Serena’s Ice Palace’?”
“Yes.”
I gathered the letters. Only some letters without replies were left, but even with these one-sided letters alone, there was no problem in confirming the situation.
Lee Hye-won and Lee Jae-eun caught their breath around me as I frantically read through the letters. After reading all the letters, I raised my gaze. At Lee Hye-won’s gaze that seemed to be waiting for an answer, I slowly opened my mouth.
“I think I know roughly what happened in here.”
“What happened?”
“It would be better to talk about that when everyone is gathered.”
Saying that, I asked Ray inwardly:
‘Did you remember everything?’
—Of course.
I picked up the leather pouch placed on the desk. According to the contents of this letter, that item should be here. The moment I opened that pouch, a window appeared before my eyes.
[You have discovered the ‘Key Item’ of the repeating world.]
Key Item?
As soon as I read those words that appeared in that window, my vision began to black out.
* * *
When I opened my eyes again, I was standing alone in an unfamiliar space. Even my body wasn’t normal. I frowned looking at my body that had become transparent like a ghost. What is this…
The people who had been around me were all gone. I tried to open my mouth to call the people who had been around, but I couldn’t open my mouth comfortably as if I had entered water.
‘Ray!’
I called Ray, but Ray’s voice couldn’t be heard. To think even Ray disappeared.
In the end, I gave up calling the people around and began to scan the surroundings.
Soon I realized that this was the castle ‘unfrozen’.
Although it was a place I had thoroughly searched while staying for several days, the castle not covered in ice felt unfamiliar as if I had come for the first time.
I slowly moved my steps forward.
A space I came to after touching the Key Item. Is it planning to show me what happened here?
If it’s that, I had a rough idea.
It’s clear where I should go. I moved my steps to a place I had never thought of going directly until now.
The spire.
Not long after coming out to the corridor, I encountered servants moving around here, but naturally, the servants’ gazes never turned towards me. I slowly scanned their faces. The servants’ faces weren’t much different from those living on Earth.
Servants chatting while cleaning here and there also caught my eye, but their conversations couldn’t be interpreted at all.
Unlike the 3-stroke talent Translation, Interpretation was 5 strokes. It was regrettable that I couldn’t understand their words, but they weren’t the important ones.
I slowly climbed the spire. Although a few guards were guarding the spire as if to prevent strangers from entering, I comfortably slipped between them. Being a ghost, this one thing is good.
I was finally able to reach the room at the top of the spire. And slowly passing through the door, I could face the protagonist who caused all this.
Count Hermann said that what was in this spire was a monster, but the woman I was looking at was too beautiful to be called a monster.
Silver hair as if melted silver was drawn out, blue eyes shining like jewels. Even skin shining white as if it would be transparent. On top of that, her pure and clear expression as if she didn’t know anything made this woman look several years younger than her actual age.
The woman was sitting on her canopied bed with a fairy-like appearance that could only come out in fairy tales.
I slowly looked around the room in the spire that I had only heard about from Han Seo-hyeon until now. As Han Seo-hyeon said, this room was nicely decorated in a cute way. It was Serena Helen, Count Hermann’s wife, who brought furniture into this room that had been empty.
This child’s life was sharply divided into before and after Serena came.
Was that why?
The child really liked Serena. Even though they had never directly met face to face.
Knock knock, a maid entered opening the door. The maid tried to suppress her fear and forced a smile. But the woman didn’t notice the maid’s fear and just welcomed her.
The maid delivered ‘Serena’s letter’ to the woman as always. Even though she must have been hungry, the woman reached for the letter before the meal. The maid who had delivered everything to give to the woman left as if escaping from this place.
The woman’s eyes fell on the letter.
Fortunately, there was no problem moving mana even in here. I used ‘Translation’ to peek at the letter.
[Hello, did you have a good day today too?
I’m worried about you being alone in the always cold spire.
I’m sorry I can’t do more for you.
Do you know winter is coming soon?
This land of Heron is always warm, but when winter comes, cold winds scratch your cheeks.
So today, I’ve specially included a potion that will make your winter warm.
If you drink the potion after finishing your meal, it will help you spend this winter warmly.
Then with love for today too.
—From Serena Helen,
Who wants to be your mother.]
The woman smiled like a child reading that letter.
But I couldn’t smile. Because I knew what that potion the woman was holding was.
After finishing her meal, the woman swallowed the reddish potion without knowing anything.
I closed my eyes.
The potion’s effect was fast.
Thump, thump. The mana flowing through the woman’s heart began to run wild all at once. The woman pressed down on where her heart was in confusion, but her heart beat crazily.
An enormous amount of mana was sleeping in the blood of the woman, a hybrid of Mein and human.
And that potion…
Made that mana run wild.
As the blood flowing through the blood vessels, the mana dissolved in that blood began to run wild, the woman’s blood vessels began to shine brightly.
“Aaaagh!”
The woman screamed, twisting her whole body in pain. The sight of the woman twisting her body while emitting light was grotesque. Unable to bear watching that sight any longer, I tightly closed my eyes.
“Huh, huh, huugh!”
Agonizing groans echoed through the tower, but no one cared about what was inside.
The maid who must have heard these groans, the guards too. No one came up.
Because this woman’s life or death wasn’t an important matter to them. No, rather they were people who had only wished for this woman to die.
But this wasn’t just something painful for the woman and ending there.
This was the beginning.
In pain, the woman finally let go of all her mana that she had been suppressing until now. The destructive mana completely dominated her brain. The woman who had raised her staggering body let out an ear-piercing scream instead of painful groans.
The woman who lost her reason literally turned into a ‘monster’.
Her surroundings began to freeze. In an instant, the beautiful room in the tower turned to ice.
After that, things I had expected happened.
Breaking the window of the spire and coming down, she looked around. People who belatedly noticed this situation came to stop her, but it was already too late.
The fully awakened she wasn’t weak enough to be stopped by a few soldiers.
Ice chunks that appeared following her hand gestures began to pour around. Those hit by ice chunks instantly froze and hardened.
Even if they were lucky enough to avoid the ice chunks, just standing near them made their bodies start to freeze. If your toes freeze, it’s all over.
A few people screamed, grabbing their gradually freezing bodies.
At the rapidly dropping temperature, people began to breathe out white breath.
The ground where green grass had been sprouting immediately froze white, and the trees with leaves, and black bricks were the same.
Everything began to turn white where she passed.
Whether people or objects.
Everything, all of it.
Those who realized this fact began to flee from her. Servants first screamed and ran away, and a few nobles followed behind.
Even the knights who had boldly drawn their swords soon threw down their swords and began to run, seeing their comrades freeze in front of them.
But no one could escape from her.
And so the castle that had been full of vitality froze just as I had seen it.
An ice palace without a single living being.
Taking away all life, all vitality, the woman wailed sadly.
At that moment, a faint voice echoed in my head.
—I want to stop.
‘Ray?’
No, it’s not Ray. This voice was too high for that. Like a woman’s.
—I don’t want this.
The voice soaked in agony resonated inside me.
‘You…’
—I want to stop this.
‘I understand, I understand you’re in pain, but…’
—Please stop me.
How exactly? I wanted to ask her that.
Before I knew it, that ‘Key Item’ was in my hand. As if that was the only thing that would end all this.
—Please.
A yellow potion that had come out of the pouch was in my hand before I knew it.
‘What am I supposed to do with this? Throw it at you?’
Before I could continue speaking, I was driven out of that world.
* * *
When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on a bed. Lee Jae-eun screamed looking at my face.
“Kyaaah!”
“What is it?”
“Y-you suddenly collapsed and then suddenly got up! I was surprised!”
“I’m sorry about that.”
“Are you alright?”
At Lee Hye-won’s voice, I nodded.
“By the way, you say I suddenly collapsed? How long has it been since I collapsed?”
“Not long. Only about 10 minutes have passed.”
I rubbed my face.
“I think I’ve figured out how to conquer this Gate.”
At my words, the people there lit up their eyes.
“First, please gather everyone here.”
At my request, Lee Jae-eun immediately went outside the room. Team Leader Lee Hye-won asked me:
“What did you find out?”
“Yes. I saw what happened here, the truth of that day.”
“You saw?”
I held up the pouch.
“Yes, as soon as I touched this, what happened that day flowed into my head. Let’s talk about the details after gathering everyone.”
Soon Lee Jae-eun brought everyone. Even Yoo Seon-je, who looked quite displeased, took his place leaning against the wall. Yoo Seon-je was telling me with his eyes.
It had better really be the ‘conquest method’.
I had found out all the stories entangled with this ice palace.
“The one who made the castle like this was a woman named Serena. The owner of this room, and Count Hermann’s second wife.”
I slowly brought out the story entangled with her.
To Serena, who came here aiming for the count’s power, the child in the spire was a thorn in her side. But a way to kill the monster that wouldn’t die by any method didn’t easily appear.
But one day, a person approached her and whispered.
That there was the surest way to kill that child.
Serena followed exactly what that man said.
To feed medicine to the child, Serena hid her true intentions and acted kindly towards the child.
In fact, it probably wasn’t that difficult.
Because all she had to do was just write letters with some sweet words without even visiting directly.
When the child trusted Serena, and felt happiness for the first time.
Serena handed over the medicine that would turn the child into a monster.
But instead of self-destructing, the child went berserk and began to freeze this castle itself.
I took out the medicine from the pouch and said:
“They said if we just sprinkle this medicine, the rampage will subside. If she can just regain her reason, that woman will no longer be a threat.”
I spoke, recalling the voice that had echoed in my head.
That desperate voice that had cried out to save her, to stop her.