Chapter 3
‘I didn’t expect a situation like this.’
As she walked around melting snow, Clemen had thought it might attract attention. It wouldn’t be strange if the lord of the territory eventually heard about it.
That would be natural.
But to suddenly be dragged here and meet that lord face-to-face—only to find that he affected her strange constitution.
And even more than when she first entered the North, he made her feel comfortable.
“It’s cool. I feel like I can breathe again.’
Her chest felt as if a tight knot had loosened.
Almost entranced, she stepped toward him.
Then a sharp voice stopped her.
“Stop! Don’t come any closer!”
As if the moment had been an illusion, the heat that had weakened began to rise again.
It felt like waking from a dream.
Clemen narrowed her round eyes and examined him.
When she took a single step forward, he stepped two steps back.
“They told me to give you this. If you’re scared, I’ll leave it here.”
Clemen lightly placed the document on the desk and stepped back.
During that brief moment, however, Zephyrus had already retreated until his back pressed against the wall.
Ever since their eyes had met earlier, he hadn’t looked at her again.
‘What am I supposed to do here?’
She had always been someone people hated or avoided.
She was not someone people feared.
She had delivered the paper, so perhaps she should just leave.
Yet she couldn’t bring herself to step away.
There was one reason.
The wall behind the lord of the north was freezing over with loud cracking sounds.
He seemed like someone with worries similar to hers—though different in nature.
But unlike her, he had not yet overcome them.
A knight’s words from before she entered the room came back to her mind.
“The Fire Spirit will surely be able to do it.”
The knights must have wanted her to melt that ice.
That didn’t seem bad for her either.
She wanted to feel that refreshing coolness again—the feeling she had when she first stepped into the room.
The lord was releasing waves of cold energy.
There was a good chance she would feel that comfort again.
Most of all, she felt like she would regret it if she simply left like this.
She just felt that way.
“Um…”
She paused, wondering what she should call him.
Then she found the answer.
The lord of the territory!
“Lord! Aren’t you going to read it?”
“I will read it after you leave.”
His voice was cold and sharp, but his body language looked pitiful.
He was too distracted to even notice how strange the way she addressed him sounded.
“I’m curious too, so read it now. Or should I read it for you?”
“What? I told you not to come closer!”
Every time Clemen took a step forward, Zephyrus trembled, and sharp shards of ice formed around him.
Ignoring that completely, Clemen picked up the paper again and unfolded it.
“Ahem. While hunting monsters, we discovered the volcano of the Fire Spirit. We hope it will be helpful.’ What is this? That’s all it says, Lord.”
“…Isn’t that supposed to say ‘incarnation,’ not ‘volcano’?”
“What?”
Clemen stared carefully at the word again.
Soon the corners of her mouth drooped slightly.
“It… does look like incarnation.”
“No.”
His denial was firm.
Clemen pouted slightly and traced letters in the air with her finger.
She was memorizing the word.
Watching her behave so casually made Zephyrus relax a little.
It seemed like she wouldn’t approach any further.
“…Why did you come here?”
“Huh?”
“You seem to know nothing.”
It would actually be stranger if she knew anything.
She looked like a foreigner—someone from the desert he had only read about in books.
How could she possibly know that the Grand Duke of the North was cursed to freeze everything?
Even the Emperor of the Empire didn’t know that secret.
“People with swords laughed and cried while dragging me here.”
“…”
In other words, it had been difficult to refuse.
Zephyrus cleared his throat and asked again.
“More importantly… do you know what the Fire Spirit means in the North before claiming to be its incarnation?”
“I’m not sure what ‘claiming’ means, but I’ve never said I was a Fire Spirit.”
“Then you’re saying my knights decided that on their own?”
Clemen scratched her cheek.
Even if she didn’t know exactly what the Fire Spirit meant in the North, she did know the legend.
The Fire Spirit appeared in the founding history of the Terranova Empire.
But that was all.
No one had ever looked at Clemen and thought of a Fire Spirit.
In the desert, she was simply an annoying and dangerous existence.
Even the people she saved thought that way.
Others were no different.
“Hmm…”
Instead of explaining why the knights thought that way, it seemed easier to simply show what she could do.
She was also curious whether this “lord” would think the same thing after seeing snow melt.
“I’ll show you. Let’s go outside.”
Clemen winked playfully and held out her hand as she approached Zephyrus.
“If we go outside, you’ll understand.”
“Outside?”
“Ah. My name is Clemen. I’m not dangerous.”
“That’s not the issue! Is there anyone outside?”
Surely they wouldn’t leave him alone with a stranger.
Someone must be standing outside the door watching the situation.
Then someone should stop this woman from taking him outside!
“Gwen! Take this woman outside immediately!”
He called Gwen repeatedly.
But there was no reply.
He looked around for somewhere to escape.
But his back was already against the wall.
The woman stepped closer.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
Fear suddenly surged through him.
‘What if this woman freezes too?’
He didn’t want to see another person turn into ice in front of him.
“Stop! I told you not to come closer!”
CRACK!
His threatening shout echoed.
At the same time, the entire room froze over.
“Hah… hah…”
He panted heavily, his body trembling.
The fur mask covering his face slipped down, leaving only holes for his eyes.
Even though he couldn’t see her expression, he could imagine it.
He should look at her and tell her to leave.
But he hated the thought of seeing fear in her eyes after threatening her.
He was disgusted with his own foolishness.
“See? If you don’t want to die, leave immediately.”
He waited for the sound of the door opening.
He expected her to leave in fear.
He waited with a bitter smile.
Then—
“Are you really going to act like such a coward?”
Grab.
His head was suddenly seized.
The fur mask was forcibly pulled off.
Light filled his eyes.
The room was full of white steam.
And through that steam—
The woman leaned close to his face.
Something unreadable flickered in her slightly twisted eyes, but Zephyrus didn’t notice.
“Wait… you’re not freezing…?”
When she removed his mask, her fingers had briefly touched his forehead.
But she hadn’t frozen!
“I’m hotter than you. The ice you make is nothing.”
All Zephyrus could see in his dazed vision was her face.
A woman smiling brightly like a bonfire.
Outside the Room
“Is it really okay?”
“It will be fine.”
Gwen stared at the damp door with a stiff expression.
Zephyrus’s freezing power had exploded.
Yet the door hadn’t frozen.
That meant his gamble had succeeded.
“First, inform Lady Rosia. Tell her we’ve found someone unaffected by His Grace’s curse.”
Whether the woman was truly the incarnation of the Fire Spirit didn’t matter.
As long as she could help the young Grand Duke, that was enough.
Gwen could still clearly remember Zephyrus as a child.
As the years passed, Zephyrus’s voice had grown colder and colder.
Even if Gwen visited often to talk with him, it couldn’t erase his loneliness and pain.
‘If only he could find his smile again.’
With that thought, Gwen stood guard beside the door.
Inside the Room
“Are you a Fire Spirit?”
“…I’m human.”
“But the ice melts immediately.”
“Well, you’re someone who creates ice.”
“…Perhaps you also…”
Zephyrus trailed off.
He couldn’t casually ask if she was cursed.
“But are you planning to keep wearing that strange fur thing? Why hide such a handsome face?”
“What—!”
Behind the mask, Zephyrus’s face turned bright red.
If she weren’t a fire spirit, there was no reason to speak politely.
He cleared his throat and lowered his voice.
“Stop the pointless conversation. How did you meet my knights? Monsters rarely come down to the village.”
“In the mountains.”
“Why were you climbing the mountain?”
“Are you curious?”
“I’m interrogating a suspicious person.”
“Interrogating… interrogating…”
Clemen repeated the unfamiliar word to herself.
Then she smiled brightly.
“Then I’ll happily be interrogated!”
A quiet laugh escaped from behind Zephyrus’s mask.
She was a strange woman.
And he was strange as well.
Simply sitting across a desk and talking like this was already unbelievable.
Just because his curse hadn’t worked earlier didn’t mean it would never work again.
His mind kept telling him to send her away immediately.
The more anxious he became, the more ice gathered around him.
Objects around the room began freezing.
A sharp shard of ice forming near Zephyrus’s feet suddenly shot toward Clemen.
