Chapter 3: The Frost’s Fury

Neither the power of a mighty aristocratic family, nor the enormous wealth piled up like mountains, nor the tens of thousands of troops loyal to the family, could protect her in a truly critical moment.

It was a brutal truth that Yelena Frost etched into her heart, swallowing the boiling rage, when she was just nine years old and her carriage was attacked on the way back from a journey.

She could only watch as her mother was ravaged and murdered by monsters.

Since that day, Yelena had lived obsessed with the sword.

Under the compulsive belief that the sword was the only means to protect herself, fueled by anger at her own weakness.

To never forget that desperate helplessness.

The girl, who had abandoned everything, trained herself in the deadly cold of the northern continent.

However, Yelena Frost was ultimately just a young girl.

When she suffered serious injuries wielding her sword, she wanted to cry, and on days when her whole body ached with muscle pain, she wanted to put down her sword and rest, even if just for a day.

There were days when she missed her parents, who had left early.

There were days when she sobbed silently, starving for affection to fill the void in her heart.

But the memory of her childhood, embedded like a curse in her mind, did not allow rest.

There was no one to come to Yelena, who was already broken.

When she wanted to rest, Yelena swung her sword like mad dog.

She slaughtered as many monsters as she wanted to cry.

If she stopped, the memories of that day kept resurfacing.

Determined to become stronger than anyone else so as not to lose anything again, Yelena gradually became the complete guardian of the North.

A genius cannot surpass a hard worker, and a hard worker cannot surpass a hard-working genius.

And Yelena was a hard-working genius who worked like crazy.

Therefore, no swordsman of the same age could defeat Yelena.

No one could exist.

It had to be that way.

“Sian…was it?”

Yelena closed her silver eyes, recalling the name of the girl she had met two days ago.

Until they collided, she had barely noticed her presence.

As the guardian of the North, as a swordsman who had reached the pinnacle.

It was a truly humiliating experience.

If the opponent had been an assassin or someone approaching with malicious intent, she would have had to feel the misery of the weak once again.

Of course, Sian had trained her stealth to the limit to survive as an adventurer, but Yelena, unaware of this, could not accept this fact.

She wanted to prove to herself that she was not weak, even if it was in this way.

“So, that too…”

So, the reason her cheeks had heated up when Sian called her pretty must have been anger at her own loosened state.

Pure-hearted praise and embarrassment were too unfamiliar to Yelena, who had lived her whole life focused only on the sword.

The memories that surfaced when she met Sian again after a few days, her face turning red from embarrassment, the soft atmosphere of that moment.

She excused it all to herself as a mere coincidence.

“A coincidence.

It’s just a coincidence.”

Yelena gripped her sword hilt tightly.

Unaware that her own expressionless mask had even momentarily broken, she stepped onto the dueling platform.

I checked the fingerless gloves I wore to hide my Stigmata and stepped onto the dueling platform.

The gazes of numerous students were overwhelming.

“Is that…the opponent?”

“Who is she? I don’t think I’ve seen her before…”

“Since she doesn’t have a last name, she must be a commoner, right?”

“Just a mere commoner?

Why on earth…”

The voices coming from under the dueling platform were harsh.

A student’s jealous mutter, wanting to look good to Yelena.

A student looking down on my status as a commoner.

There was even someone who muttered loudly as if to make sure I heard.

Even while hearing those voices, I silently stood facing Yelena.

Anyway, I wasn’t afraid of those guys, even if a truckload of them came.

To lighten the heavy atmosphere, I carefully asked.

“Um…

is this, because of what happened last time?”

But what returned was mechanical silence.

I forced a bitter smile and drew my sword.

Naturally, thoughts about Yelena surfaced in my mind.

Yelena’s settings, which I had already seen countless times.

Yelena Frost.

The daughter of the Frost Duchy, which had protected the northern part of the Empire, and a talent expected to be the next Swordmaster of the Empire.

A Stigmata holder like me.

A powerful being on a completely different level from ordinary academy students.

That was Yelena.

“If it’s because of that incident, I’m really sorry.”

I closed my eyes, placing my hand on the sword hilt.

“However, I have no intention of losing easily.”

“Neither do I.”

“The barrier is activated!

Everyone, please step back at least 2 meters from the ring!”

A booming voice echoed through the hall.

At the same time, a blue পর্দা began to surround the ring.

[The barrier grants the player the status effect: ‘Pain Reduction’]

[The barrier grants the player the status effect: ‘Critical Injury Immunity’]

[The barrier grants the player the ‘Blessing of the Church’.

If the player suffers a critical injury, the player will recover all wounds, and the barrier will be immediately deactivated.]

[Main Quest – Chapter. 1]

[Accept the duel with the top student of the academy, ‘Yelena Frost’.]

-Reward: Status window function unlocked.

-Failure: Status window function deleted.

I pushed aside the notification windows that appeared before my eyes and assumed a sword-drawing stance towards Yelena.

“The duel ends when the barrier disappears!”

The referee’s voice faded into the hall, and a suffocating silence settled heavily.

“Begin the duel!”

The referee’s voice broke the tense silence and echoed.

At the same time, the temperature of the training hall plummeted.

Mana swirled around Yelena, who had assumed a sword-drawing stance.

Yelena’s frosty gaze fixed on me.

The moment our eyes met, Yelena drew her sword without hesitation and leaped towards me.

A linear, orthodox, and arrogant strike came crashing down.

Despite being a simple downward slash, it contained mana beyond the level of a student.

It was a strike that dared me to block it if I could.

Sian thought that even that was very much like Yelena and gathered mana in the hand holding the sword hilt.

At the same time, a flash-like sword draw was unleashed.

Clang!

The tingling sensation felt at her fingertips was something Yelena had not expected at all.

The sword was deflected, causing ripples in her calm silver eyes, and Yelena’s center of gravity momentarily faltered.

Sian’s eyes, having crossed countless lines of death as an adventurer, did not miss that tiny gap.

With a light leaping sound, Sian’s body shot forward like an arrow.

An adventurer’s sword in the flow has no form.

Countless possibilities unfolded before Yelena’s eyes, who was flustered by the unfamiliar sword path, and most of them ended in her defeat.

“Tsk.”

However, the weight of Yelena’s life was not light enough to be broken by an attack of this level.

Yelena’s silver eyes found an escape route in the blink of an eye.

Yelena’s longsword barely blocked the lightning-fast thrust, twisting its path.

The flash aimed at her heart went astray, and Sian’s expression, which had been certain of victory, hardened.

The sensation felt at her fingertips was shallow.

She had thrust her sword with the intention of finishing it for sure, but it only grazed her side, the sword stirring the air.

Sian quickly widened the distance and adjusted her posture.

She could feel that Yelena’s once arrogant momentum had become a little sharper.

Yelena’s second phase, which appeared as a duel event.

The posture of the girl she had seen countless times on the screen unfolded before Sian’s eyes.

“…!”

Memories from before the possession flashed through her mind.

The start of Yelena Frost’s second phase was a thrust at an unreactable speed.

The moment the pattern came to mind, Sian quickly leaped back.

Whoosh.

At the same time, Yelena’s sword appeared without any warning.

A strike that exceeded the limits of perception grazed her cheek.

The shockwave alone pushed her body back.

“Ugh?!”

Sian swallowed the stinging pain felt on her cheek and readjusted her grip on the sword.

She couldn’t let her posture collapse at this point.

Yelena had consumed half of her mana with that attack, but the momentum had already shifted to Yelena.

I’m at a disadvantage in both skill and mana.

If I falter even a little, I’ll lose.

Maintaining a sharp state of tension, she parried the incoming slashes.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

The cheerful metallic sounds echoed one after another, and the tempo of the battle accelerated by a beat.

The trajectory of the longsword emitted faint light in all directions.

Yelena’s longsword, which seemed to thrust sharply one moment and swept in all directions like a storm the next.

Sian gritted her teeth and widened her eyes.

What she had to believe in was her own memory.

Thousands of hours of playtime, hundreds of playthroughs.

Thousands of attempts to clear the duel event boss, Yelena Frost, without taking a single hit.

Recalling the sword paths of Yelena that she had forcibly crammed into her head at that time, Sian swung her sword half-unconsciously.

The words of the students who looked down on her.

The overwhelming gazes.

Even the sharp gazes of the professors evaluating them.

Forgetting everything, splitting one second into dozens, Sian moved to parry Yelena’s sword.

All incoming sword paths were blocked by Sian’s one-handed sword.

Even if she missed a sword path, even if her posture collapsed, all of Yelena’s patterns were in Sian’s memory anyway.

“…”

Yelena gritted her teeth, looking at such Sian.

She had lived her whole life obsessed with the sword.

She had abandoned hobbies, abandoned relationships, and even reduced her sleeping hours to swing her sword to become stronger than anyone else.

Thus, a masterpiece called Yelena Frost was forged.

The sword of the Frost family that protects the North, which will not be broken by anyone.

Therefore, Yelena could not accept the current situation.

It was a sword path that shouldn’t have been visible.

She was certain that she had even broken her posture.

But Sian was naturally parrying all the sword paths, as if she was predicting one step ahead.

No matter how much she swung her sword, it wouldn’t reach.

Moreover, Sian was gradually getting used to Yelena’s speed.

“…I can’t accept this.”

Perhaps that was why Yelena’s heart became more impatient.

Against an opponent who her lifelong sword was ineffective against, there was nothing she could do.

The helplessness she had forgotten since childhood slowly ate away at her body.

“You’re the first person of the same age to push me this far. You can be proud.”

“Um…

thank you?”

“So.”

At the same time, a blue light began to bloom near Yelena’s heart.

The temperature of the already cool dueling hall dropped vertically.

Stigmata.

The star’s trace engraved on the human body descended, emitting a cool blue light.

“…!“

A gasp close to astonishment escaped Sian’s lips.

In an instant, the temperature inside the dueling hall dropped below zero.

The deadly cold of the North unfolded from Yelena’s fingertips.

“From now on, I’ll go seriously.”

With those words, Yelena readjusted her grip on her sword and opened her eyes.

The ice crystal of the northern continent that is said to have embraced the sky.

Sky-blue eyes reminiscent of a ten-thousand-year-old glacier stared at Sian.

At the same time, a snowstorm began to rage inside the dueling hall.