Viola used all her knowledge as a reader to desperately think of why this had happened.
‘It can’t be explained logically.’
Both these people were incredibly intelligent. Trying to make them understand with hasty logic could have had the opposite effect. Thus, she decided to explain based on emotion rather than logic.
“It was because my father was kind.”
Hickson raised his eyes at those words. He suddenly cleared his ears.
“That’s strange. Is there something wrong with my ears?”
He asked again with a serious expression, “It was because your father was kind? Your father is violent.”
Hickson clearly remembered what Viola said. She said this while holding out that small, delicate fern-like hand to herself.
‘My father is indifferent to me. Throwing me into the wilderness like this and being so indifferent to me is a kind of violence.’
How was Duke Heron kind? It was something Hickson could never understand. He didn’t even want to understand.
“He gave me a ring.”
Hickson seemed to be displeased with something.
“I know. I heard he harvested the entire marguerite flower garden, right?”
“Uh-huh. But it was no ordinary flower garden.”
“Then?”
“It was a flower field grown with Arena.”
Arena was water from the spirit world, called the ‘elixir of eternal life,’ and could only be taken out from the spirit world once, even if it was by a spirit king. In order to grow his first flower garden, Pom-Pom airlifted a large amount of arena and sprinkled it on the flower garden.
Medea seemed quite interested.
“If it’s Arena… is it the spiritual water of ‘eternal life’?”
“That’s right. My father would have known that those marguerite flowers were filled with Arena.”
Actually, Viola hadn’t even known that. She wondered if Heron knew about it or not.
“I think that’s why he put those flowers in a ring and gave it to me.”
Hickson’s expression became increasingly worse. He sat down with his legs crossed and responded with a sour expression on his face.
“What do the flowers grown with Arena have to do with the gift he gave you?”
“The sword I learned is the Grass Sword.”
“So?”
“I think my father wanted me to learn with a spirit sword. This ring gives great power to those who have mastered spirit swordsmanship.”
Hickson wanted to shout, ‘Gibberish! That damn guy had just wanted to give flowers to his cute daughter!’
He wanted to say that but, on the other hand, he thought that Viola might be right.
‘That guy is so thorough.’
After a moment, Hickson thought that it really must be the case since Heron was someone who could see far into the future.
‘It is a ring filled with flowers grown with spirit water…’
Hickson frowned and muttered, “It must be a flower garden that grows infinitely within the ring.”
It was entirely possible, thanks to the power of the miraculous spirit water ‘Arena.’ It was also a self-evident fact that Viola’s compatibility with spirits was so good that it went beyond imagination.
“All you would have to do is draw out that power through the spirit sword. Your spirit affinity is the best on the continent, so you would have been able to use the power of the flowers containing spirit water to a greater advantage than anyone else.”
Slurp.
Viola slowly drank her cocoa. Hickson’s self-talk was teaching Viola.
“Hmm. Now I understand little by little.”
Hickson continued.
“However, in order to contain that level of power is a miracle, so it had to be an artifact that surpasses miracles…”
Hickson scratched his head. As he pondered, it seemed like everything Viola said was true.
‘Did he really prepare this arrangement?’
He thought it was just a nice gift, but it turns out it wasn’t that. If it was simply a gift, it wouldn’t have been designed this way.
“So that’s why he was looking for the magic master Kurumkrum!”
It takes a miracle to contain a miracle. So it seems that the power of Kurumkrum, the master of miracles, was needed.
“There is also a rumor that Chief Designer Carlo’s teacher was Kurumkrum.”
“Indeed, there seemed to be a strange connection between the ring and her dress.”
“Did you feel that way too?”
“I think it reacted to Viola’s spiritual affinity and organically created a flow of mana. Thus, she was able to handle the tremendous spirit power generated by the ring without much difficulty.”
Medea smiled.
“It seems that Viola’s lively voice was the key to awakening the power of the dress.”
“That dress must have been the pride of the magic master.”
Thanks to the characters being smart, Viola was able to learn as she waited, drinking cocoa.
‘Ah! So that’s how it happened. That’s why I was so strong.’
The cocoa tasted sweet.
* * *
Butler Carlton was deep in thought as he looked at the moon.
‘The Duke’s return is delayed.’
The duke had headed alone to the Northern Forest, ‘the place where the snow blows,’ ready to fight monsters. Contact had been lost for a long time and Carlton was secretly suffering.
‘He is strong, but the monsters are also strong.’
If the monarch of the Winter Castle had not been Heron Bellato, the Winter Castle might have collapsed long ago. Heron has already subdued several types of monsters that could be classified as ‘disasters.’ The peace enjoyed by the people of the world was thanks to Heron. At least Carlton thought so.
‘Let’s wait a few more days.’
If the duke’s return was delayed any longer than that, he would have to secretly form a search party and head to the Northern Forest. Carlton spent the night with his eyes open.
* * *
Heron walked down the road braving the bitter cold.
‘This ‘place where the snow blows’ is truly a place where the snow blows hard and visibility is poor.’
But it didn’t matter to Heron.
“Isn’t it here too?”
He looked around. It seemed like night had already arrived.
‘The Northern Forest is a place where the boundary between day and night is unclear.’
That meant, sometimes it was bright and sometimes it was dark. The snow was deep but there were also places where hot springs flowed.
“A world of its own, far removed from the common sense of the ‘normal’ world.”
That’s how Heron defined ‘the place where the snow blows.’
“It will take a little more time.”
Heron chased something day and night but he didn’t get tired even after walking for a long time, and he didn’t need to eat or drink.
Heron opened his mouth and spoke.
“I have no intention of killing you, so stay still.”
He was speaking to the numerous monsters surrounding him. Although it was human language, it contained Heron’s intent and the monsters were able to understand that intent instinctively. Every time Heron took a step, all kinds of monsters took a step back. In the eyes of the ferocious monsters was clear fear; a prey’s instinctive fear of a predator. The monsters of ‘the place where the snow blows’ that mankind was so afraid of were afraid of Heron.
Heron didn’t pay much attention to the monsters and continued walking. Using the fluctuating mana in ‘the place where the snow blows’ as his friend, he read the traces of that ‘something.’
“Is it here?”
He took out the famous sword, “Extreme Cold,” and swung it towards the ground. A storm arose and the endless driving snow cleared the ground, then caused it to crack.
Heron’s eyes looked down into the cracked earth where he saw something huge lurking down below. It looked like a monster from hell crawling out of the underworld. It was to find this monster that he went on an expedition alone to the Northern Forest.
‘I have no grudge against you, but this is also a law of nature.’
He swung his sword once again. A sharp sword wind arose with cutting force. Heron jumped lightly and landed deep below the ground. After all, he had come all the way here to hunt this guy.
“It’s a very special type of mealworm that only lives in extremely snowy places.”
Because of its overall rainbow color, it was called the ‘Rainbow Mealworm,’ but only a few people, including Heron, knew about it. It was a very difficult species to hunt because it only lived underground and could reach a size of about 30 meters. Moreover, its shell was so hard that it couldn’t even be scratched unless you had the strength of a 5th-class knight or higher.
‘It would be better to divide it into small pieces.’
He cut the mealworm into small pieces, just like he had pulverized the marguerite flower garden. Heron looked satisfied after hunting down this subterranean, powerful, high-species monster.
‘I won’t have to worry about food for a year.’
His hedgehogs had very picky tastes, they wouldn’t eat anything other than rainbow mealworms. He had no choice but to come hunt for rainbow mealworms about once a year.
‘I have to go back.’
He walked towards the Winter Castle.
* * *
Carlton let out a sigh of relief and went out to meet the Duke.
“Have you disposed of the monsters?”
“Yes.”
Even though they didn’t invade human territories, if you wanted to be specific, rainbow mealworms were a species that belonged to the ‘monster’ category.
“Lady Isabella is waiting.”
Heron met Isabella and heard many stories. Among them, there were topics that Heron was greatly interested in.
“Zenon gave me this report verbally. I will pass it on to you verbatim.”
“As a result, she fell into a very comfortable sleep and is currently chewing on her hair. She’s probably having a good dream, like eating an egg tart.”
Isabella studied the duke’s face carefully. There must be secret information hidden in the report.
‘What is it?’
Observing the duke with keen eyes, she brought out the power of the Qualton family, reading the subtle movements of the shadows.
‘His shadow is shaking.’
It means that there had been a change in his heartbeat.
‘Clearly, there is something.’
Isabella continued to tell the duke everything that had happened.
“In the recent duel, Viola won an overwhelming victory. Princess Selvin did not use the potion I gave her.”
“…I see.”
She saw his shadow shaking again. It was almost the first time she had read this level of agitation from Heron. What was it that made Heron’s heart fluctuate so much?
“The swordsmanship that Viola has learned is called ‘The Grass Sword,’ and it is reported to go very well with the ring you gave her.
She then asked cautiously, “May I ask whether you gave this gift with The Grass Sword already in mind?”
“I will leave it to your judgment, my lady.”
Actually, he never had anything like that in mind. It was actually the first time he even knew that there was a swordsmanship called The Grass Sword.
“Of course. And I have one more important piece of news.”
Isabella closed her eyes for a moment. Actually, this news was the most important.
“All of Mariantu’s guardian knights were annihilated. It was a disaster that occurred eight days after they left Winter Castle.”
The guardian knights were completely wiped out and Princess Senna went missing.
“It looks like there was probably a secret insider. Mariantu immediately formed a search party and asked for our cooperation. Currently, a search party led by 1st Princess Medea is looking for Princess Senna.”
Heron, who heard everything, walked off somewhere.
“Where are you going?”
“I will go to the 6th Princess.”
Isabella’s eyes narrowed as she watched Heron retreat. Immediately, as soon as he heard her report, the place he headed to was Viola’s room. There was definitely something hidden between Viola and Heron.
‘What are they going to do?’
Isabella managed to suppress her desire to spy on them and Heron soon arrived in front of Viola’s door.
—————————————————————
Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released on April, 2.
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