Chapter 330

Chapter 330

* * *

It was fine for the first day. It was too much mana, he thought, and he needed to prepare to melt the ice. Cadel must be trying to do something within the ice, he believed, and he needed Cadel to help him suppress the mana as much as he could, to weaken the magic as much as possible. He hugged Cadel tightly against his cold body and kissed him repeatedly. He couldn’t feel Cadel’s body temperature.

By the second day, he was terrified. He would wake up from a light sleep, open his eyes, and immediately shudder at the fear that washed over him like a tidal wave. What if Cadel didn’t wake up? Had he really killed them all, had he killed Cadel with his own hands? Was Cadel’s soul already gone, only the unbreakable ice binding his body, and if so, was it better not to break the spell?

On the third day. Cadel woke up. He couldn’t do anything even though Cadel was in front of him apologizing for leaving him alone. He could see the clock tower across the street. Every time he blinked, it drew closer, and inside it, he saw another Cadel, and himself, kissing. This was his twelfth hallucination. The uncontrolled mana swelled, threatening to tear him limb from limb, but he persevered. He couldn’t let any more mana out, even if it destroyed his body.

On the fourth day, Lydon had an epiphany.

‘He’s only frozen because I’m around.’

[Permafrost] was a wide-area spell, so if the caster was far enough away, he could change the scope of the spell. To melt Cadel, he must first distance Cadel from the source of this magic, and then.......

‘......How long should I stay away?’

What if Cadel’s mana vessel broke and he couldn’t dispel the spell until he died? The world around him would always be frozen. No one would want to come near him, and he wouldn’t be able to see anything properly. Perhaps he would spend the rest of his life seeing nothing but white snowy fields mixed with hallucinations. Alone, without Cadel, without any of my comrades.

He didn’t want that. He never wanted to experience that. But if he didn’t make sure Cadel wasn’t out of range, Cadel might actually die.

The question that had been bothering him since dawn hadn’t been resolved by daylight. Lydon crouched down beside Cadel and stared blankly up at the sky. The noon sun rose overhead. It hurt his eyes just to look at it, and its scorching rays couldn’t even melt his frozen fingertips.

“......Cadel.”

A hoarse voice called Cadel’s name. He hugged his legs and rubbed his cheek against the cold ice. But still no response. Beside him, Cadel was slowly dying.

Lydon had no choice; he didn’t want Cadel to die. He wanted a free and fun life, but in the end, it was all about Cadel. Without Cadel, no experience was free, and freedom was useless, so he had to leave.

His soft blond hair fluttered in the bitter wind. He rubbed the corners of his eyes and slowly looked around. His eyes scanned the frozen faces of his comrades as if imprinting them in his mind. His calloused hands clenched into tight fists. Finally, his eyes settled back on Cadel, and he spoke in a whisper.

“I’m leaving, Cadel. I’m going far away, and you’ll have to come get me when you wake up. ......Promise.”

He made a valiant effort, but his footing wasn’t quite right. Choosing to walk when flying would have been faster, Lydon looked back at the gate every three steps.

Outside the gate, nothing had changed. The Empire was still frozen, and so were the humans inside. Turning back to the front, Lydon pushed his way through the icebergs of demons and frozen monsters.

The air was cold. Cadel was sensitive to the cold. He must be freezing right now, and normally Lydon would have run to him and hugged him tightly, but Lydon couldn’t do that now. He knew he had to get out of here quickly so he could keep Cadel warm. Lydon’s pace barely picked up.

But even that didn’t last long.

“What if Cadel can’t find me?”Diiscover new stories at nove/lbin(.)c/om

Because he was terrified. He knew Cadel wouldn’t abandon him. But Cadel wouldn’t be able to find him if he didn’t know where he was. Everywhere he went would be frozen, and no human would be able to deliver the news.

“What if he’s too busy?”

Cadel cared about the humans, and he couldn’t bear to see them hurt, so finding Lydon might take second place to protecting the Empire.

Lydon shook his head vigorously at the gloomy thought. That was fine. He was better than anyone at waiting. He could wait, even if it took years.

He told himself, but his heart told him otherwise.

“Still, can you come see me first......?”

The confession Lydon made so long ago still sticks in the back of his mind. Cadel felt bad for not answering that until now.

“......I love you, Cadel.”

His fairy, who burst into tears once more, already seemed happy enough.

「Knight ‘Lydon’ ’s favorability has increased by 10.」

「Current favorability: 90/100」

Cadel smiled brightly, putting aside all his worries for a moment.

* * *

“Can’t I come with you?”

Lydon’s eyes narrowed pitifully as he tugged slightly at the hem of Cadel’s robe. The sobbing, pleading face was so adorable that it was tempting to leap to his side and demand to know what he was doing, but Cadel held back like a grown-up.

“It takes more mana to melt the ice when you’re around. I’m only going to melt down a few people, so you can focus on mana control here. Never do anything to hurt yourself.”

“But.......”

“Come here, Lydon.”

He pulled Lydon’s wrist, which was holding the hem of his clothes, and kissed him without hesitation. Even after the brief kiss, Lydon’s face was still sullen, and Cadel tickled Lydon’s lips so many times that he made a muffled sound. Only then did his eyes gently fold. Cadel ruffled Lydon’s hair as if he thought he was cute and let go of his wrist.

“You can wait, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. When I get back, let’s take care of that damn mana lump I fed you.”

“Come back soon, Cadel!”

That brief moment after the end of the past story, when he was about to enter recovery mode again. Cadel had recovered some of Kunra’s power, which he had used to defend the Empire people from Lydon’s magic. It was a gamble, capitalizing on the brief window of time before his body and soul were fully bound to the system.

Fortunately, the attempt succeeded, and the power of Kunra freed him from Lydon’s magic, and Cadel realized. The fairy he’d expected to be out there, running free, was holding back his mana, afraid of his own power.

He’d been abusing his body, barely escaping a rampage, to keep his mana locked up. As a result, the power of the [Frozen Core] had been maintained for an unnecessarily long time. In order to thaw this frozen world, he must use up all of the mana in the [Frozen Core].

But if they removed the spell now, the barrier against the enemy would crumble and the entire faction would collapse. With reinforcements still nowhere in sight, it would be impossible to defend the Empire with the forces left here.

‘And if Lydon’s right, it’s been four days already, so it doesn’t make sense that there’s still no reinforcements in sight.’

As far as Cadel could tell, Lydon’s magic froze humans, demons, and even the magic circle fragments of the Empire. Even with Kunra’s power, it was a difficult spell to defend against, and even if reinforcements had arrived, they wouldn’t have been able to get close. The Empire would not have wasted troops in such an unanswerable situation.

‘We need to bring back reinforcements and reduce the number of demons to as few as possible before we can melt the Empire. In the meantime, if we use up some of the power of the [Frozen Core], Lydon’s body will not suffer.’

It would be easier if he could use his magic to awaken the high-ranking knights first. And for all of this to work, he needed the Emperor to inform his allies of the current state of the Empire.

Cadel hurried to the castle, casting a traveling magic circle so that Lydon wouldn’t have to wait long.