Alice and Yvette reached the lake, which had been frozen by Lucas. They were shocked immensely at the sight.
The ice was crystal clear but was humming with a strange energy. It was different from the stellar energy they knew of. The chill oozing out from the ice present was enough to make them shiver even while they were protecting themselves with a layer of stellar energy.
They walked cautiously without touching any protruding ice shards and reached the epicentre of the chaos. There, they saw a lone man frozen in an ice crystal. He had his eyes closed with a peaceful expression.
He was no other than Lucas. Seeing the young master frozen in the ice, Yvette thought that someone may have attacked him out in the open and raised her guard.
“Young miss, be careful.”
She tried to share her thoughts with Alice. But Alice didn’t have any eyes and ears for anything else except Lucas. She dashed straight in his direction to pull him out of the ice enclosure.
“Lucas, what has happened to you? Wait, big sister will save you out from here.”
Without giving any second thought, she put her palms on the ice crystal and tried to pour out her stellar energy. She wanted to use her stellar energy, which had fire-related attributes, to melt the ice enclosure.
But her efforts were in vain as the ice melted very slowly and was able to re-freeze within a short moment of time. On the other hand, the cold from the ice spread through Alice’s hands. Her hands had turned numb within a few seconds and were slowly turning blue from the cold.
If she continued to be stubborn and used the same method for a long time, then her hands may freeze completely, and she may become a cripple.
But Alice didn’t care for those things. She was desperate to save him. Although something had happened between them, she believed that there might be something affecting Lucas. And she had an intuition that this ice field was something related to that.
So, even with her hand turning purple, she still kept her hands on the ice crystal. And disregarding the side effects, she increased the stellar energy output.
Though the ice started to melt due to the increased heat, the fire-attributed energy surging through her hands intercepted the freezing coldness in her hands that, resulted in a big mishap.
The two opposing attributes collided with each other, and the resulting energy explosion harmed the internal blood vessels and tissues, leading to her hands getting injured and bleeding.
Still, Alice didn’t give up and continued her efforts to melt the ice crystal and save Lucas. Unbeknownst to her, the person whom she was trying to save was able to come out of the crystal on his own. But instead of doing that, he watched coldly the young girl's frantic attempts at saving him, even with the risk of her hands getting incapacitated forever.
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I watched as my sister, Alice, tried to melt the ice surrounding me. Her desperate attempts, even to the degree of injuring herself, didn’t elicit any emotions from my heart.
(Did I ever love her? Can I love her still? Will she betray me, too?)
I felt unattached from her. I could feel the disgusting presence of the colour related to ‘betrayal’ swirling inside her body. I wondered if she, who had lived with one of her past lives as Alessa, could ever be trusted.
I couldn’t find any positive answer. And thus, I wanted to make her suffer the pain I felt when ‘she’ stabbed me from behind. But, there were many other objectives that I had to complete, such as the rebellion against the Vangan empire. So, it would not be good if she harmed her arms as she was one of the important pieces in the upcoming war.
I had fully understood the creation and control of the black flames and ice. With the newfound control over them, these flames and ice could now be an integral part of my repertoire.
I named them ‘Nether Flames’ and ‘Skadi Ice’ respectively.
Controlling 'Skadi Ice', I absorbed the ice surrounding me. To not let my powers be known to the other two, I absorbed the ice gradually, making it seem as if Alice was the one to melt the ice using her power.
After the 'thawing' of ice, Alice looked at me with tearful eyes and hugged me fiercely.
"Waah, it is great that you are okay. How many times would you trouble me? Your big sister cannot handle your whimsical actions anymore."
The feeling of being embraced by her didn't feel pleasant at all. I wanted to push her away in disgust, but a part of my heart didn't desire so.
So I just let her hug me on her own for a while. After a few seconds, the repulsive feeling overcame me, and I pushed Alice away.
Both she and Yvette were surprised by my actions but didn't pay any attention to them. Yvette was the first to come back to her senses and ask the critical question.
“Young master, how were you encapsulated with an ice crystal? Was there a powerful opponent that froze you?”
Lucas was ready for that particular question beforehand.
“I particularly don’t remember much. I wanted to take a bath and thus jumped into the lake. But some sort of beast was lurking in the depths of the lake. It started to pull me down using its long limbs.
I tried to swim upwards and cut off its limbs, but the beast retaliated with an unknown force, rendering me unconscious. I don’t know what happened after that.”
“I couldn’t sense any other strong beast nearby…”
Yvette still had some suspicions, but I didn’t care to explain and left everything else to her imagination. I started walking in the direction of the carriage, but they were still standing in the same spot in their own thoughts.
"Let's go. We are still ways away from the capital Angor."
I instructed them coldly after giving a glance back. They hesitated for a second but still followed me back to the carriage.
The way back was silent, with no one uttering a single word. After reaching the carriage, I turned towards Yvette.
"From here onwards, I will drive the carriage. You can join her inside the carriage or can move separately in the shadows."
I pointed towards Alice and gave her the suggestion for further action. After talking, I moved towards the front of the carriage and took the position of the driver.
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Yvette looked at the back of the cold and detached Lucas and then turned towards the despondent Alice. Even she was slightly perturbed by the sudden change in his behaviour. The way he addressed her was also frosty.
And what could be said for Alice, a young woman who was greatly affectionate to him?
She was absolutely crushed by his loveless actions. Her day worsened with each passing second. And her feelings were in anguish and forlorn.
Yvette couldn’t do anything for Alice except give her some comfort. So, instead of her natural choice of action of monitoring and protecting the two siblings from the dark, she chose to spend time with Alice instead. And then a sudden thought struck her.
(Lucas had explicitly given me the choice to spend time with Alice inside the carriage. He may have known that Alice will be sad, so he wanted someone to comfort her. Maybe all love is not lost then. Is this his Tsundere phase?)
With a sudden ray of hope for the relationship between the two lovebirds, she pulled the glum Alice into the carriage along with herself. She started patiently consoling Alice in matters related to love.
“Young miss, it is only natural that there might be some moments of coldness and a little hostility within a couple. There may be times when one could hurt their partner unknowingly, leading to the ire of the partner. Also, it may be because of stress due to the upcoming war, and as such, the young master may have become irritated.
So you should not remain down and should do something to win him over.”
The tearful Alice listened to Yvette’s words attentively and made some speculations about her situation. She acknowledged the thought of winning over Lucas back but didn’t have any prior knowledge. Thus, she could only pleadingly ask Yvette.
“Sister Yvette, then what should I do? You must have your own experiences beforehand. Please help me out."
