The Frost Flower Knight

Chapter 3

“I wish your daughter well,” Leonard said to Duke Rosenthal while sipping his wine.

“I am most grateful, Your Highness. Now, please excuse me.”

Once the duke retreated, Leonard’s eyes flashed sharply.

“How boring.”

His face also clearly showed that he was bored. There were many glamorous and beautiful things in the banquet hall, but none were enough to draw his attention.

The only reason he had stayed for the entire party was because it was his birthday, and he had hoped to see Yulia—because she was going to become his person. But she never showed, meaning he didn’t feel the need to stay any longer.

“I think I will retreat to my chamber now.”

Leonard’s aide, Luca, looked at him in surprise.

“Already, Your Highness?”

Leonard scoffed. “I won’t be getting what I wanted out of this banquet, so I have no need to stay. Besides, I’ve grown quite weary of these avaricious eyes staring at me.”

Luca sighed as the crown prince gestured toward all the ladies who kept looking at him with greed.

“One of those ladies may become your princess, Your Highness.”

“No, they will not.”

“But how can you know for sure, sir? I’m sure you know that if His Majesty decides on a partner for you, you will have to follow his will regardless of your wishes.”

It was true that if the emperor picked out a princess for him, he as the crown prince had no right to refuse. But due to his wide range of accomplishments for the empire, he figured his father would allow him to express his own wishes and reject such an arrangement at least once.

“Luca, I do not wish to trouble you with these matters.”

“I am terribly sorry, sir, if I have displeased you.”

“Not to worry. Now, I don’t want to say anything more at the moment. Let’s wrap it up.”

“Then, we shall conclude the banquet now.”

“Proceed as such,” Leonard said as he left the banquet hall.

Once he left, the mood in the hall dropped a few notches for obvious reasons. The only reason these nobles attended was simply to gain the favor of Crown Prince Leonard. The ladies were especially disappointed, gazing bitterly at the crown prince’s empty seat. He had not once looked in their direction. All their efforts to look glamorous so that the prince would at least give them a glance had gone to utter waste.

And so, the curtain fell on the much-anticipated banquet, filled with the disappointment of those in attendance.

***

After leaving the mansion, Yulia headed toward the Laimir Mountains. This mountain range, located in the southwest of the Crowne Empire, was known as a haven for monsters and thus appropriately designated as a prohibited zone. Naturally, it was a headache for the empire because the large population of monsters meant they often came down to pillage the villages. To limit the damages done to villagers, the governing body of the empire regularly sent their forces down to the mountains to reduce the monster population.

Yulia’s reason for coming here was clear: There was no other place that would push her to the limit quite like this place because it was unpredictable when and where danger would strike, and that would happen frequently.

She hadn’t told anyone at home that she was coming here of all places because she knew that if her father knew, he would drop everything and come with a whole legion of knights to look for her. On the outside, he was a serious man with a cold demeanor, but deep down he was full of warmth. He always embraced her and gave her hope, telling her that outer appearance wasn’t important and that she could go back to her original form if she trained in the ways of Frozen. This made her heart ache more as she thought about him.

I’m sorry, Father. Yulia apologized to her father again in her heart, then entered the Laimir Mountains. It was time to begin her arduous training.

The mountains were inhabited by a variety of monsters. From lowly goblins to ogres, known as the kings of the monsters, they all lived in their respective territories. Yulia knew exactly which areas were inhabited by particular types of monsters because she had hunted them more than she cared for in the past. She had also been part of the regular expeditionary forces sent to eliminate them.

“Come to think of it, my coming-of-age ceremony is soon.”

On her eighteenth birthday, she was supposed to go to the imperial palace and officially become a knight of the empire. At the same time, she would have to pledge her loyalty to the damned crown prince.

“Just you wait. I’m going to shock you all.”

For that, she had to succeed.

“Once I reach the pinnacle…”

The exhilaration of transforming—she wanted to feel it again. It was her main reason for coming down to the harsh mountains because no matter how much she strengthened her body and swung her sword back home, she couldn’t maximize her abilities completely.

I will get there, no matter what… at all costs!

And so, Yulia began hunting monsters left and right. Starting from the weakest goblins, she killed every monster in sight, all the way up to orcs and trolls. Thanks to her, the homes of these monsters were ravaged. But even then, she still felt incomplete. She needed something that would put her life in greater danger, something that would take her to the brink, to give her a near-death experience.

One thing she realized while hunting was that she was much too gifted for a seventeen-year-old. It was no wonder since she was already called the greatest knight in history when she was killed at twenty-five. Eight years from now, she would be brutally murdered after being used like a convenience over and over, all because she was ugly. When she thought about why she had died, she shuddered.

“I’m going to live only for myself from this point onward.”

I will break the curse and confidently go out into the world with a new look.

“Whew. I should call it a day. It’s already dark.”

She returned to the cave she was staying at. She started a small bonfire and munched on some dried meat. This isn’t good enough, she thought, putting her hands close to the fire. After a month of staying in the mountains, the only conclusion she had come to was that she needed to find stronger monsters.

“I need to start hunting ogres.”

Orcs and trolls weren’t challenging enough for her. She needed a greater challenge and figured ogres could give her just that.

Ogres were giant beasts commonly referred to as the kings of the Laimir Mountains. Their green skin and glowing yellow eyes struck fear into those who lived to tell the tale. Over three meters tall, their brute strength was a force to be reckoned with. Their main weapon, the cudgel, was a powerful club that could uproot several trees with a single swing. It would be dangerous, but there was no other way.

“Tomorrow, I will head over to where the ogres are.”

Since she had been in these parts plenty of times before, she knew where to find different types of monsters, including ogres.

Yulia slowly shut her eyes and drifted off to sleep. As soon as she woke up the next morning, she marched to the ogre-inhabited area.

***

Constant, heavy sighs could be heard coming from the office of the Rosenthal mansion.

“Are you worried, Your Grace?” Gilbert, the butler, asked, looking worriedly at the downcast face of the duke.

The duke smiled bitterly and said, “Gilbert, should I round up a group of knights and go looking for her?”

A month had passed without so much as a single letter from his beloved daughter. He didn’t even know where she had gone to train. He couldn’t help but worry that something might have happened to her in a dangerous place.

Gilbert smiled gently and reassured him.

“Lady Yulia is strong. I am certain she will return safe and sound, so please do not worry so much, Your Grace.”

“I’m aware. But you know what occurred to me? That she’s only seventeen,” the duke said sorrowfully.

“She is young, yes, but she was born with the greatest talent in Rosenthal history. She will come back unscathed after accomplishing what she set out for. I am sure of it,” Gilbert asserted.

As the butler noted, Yulia was tremendously gifted. She had quickly learned to use mana, and her ability to master the sword was second to none. Her only weakness was her looks. Because of her hideous features, she couldn’t go out with any confidence and socialize, nor did she have the courage to attend events like balls that pretty much everyone went to. If only she weren’t cursed with these looks, she could be the shining star of the empire. It was why he wished more than anything for her to finally break free from the curse—it was all he could ever want.

“Well… All I can do right now is to place my faith in her.”

He would have liked nothing more than to just get up and leave to go and find her. But as the duke, he couldn’t abandon his duties as the head of House Rosenthal just like that.

He decided to wait a little longer. If she still didn’t return, he would go looking for her with a group of knights.

Please, Yulia, come back to me in one piece.

***

It wasn’t hard to find ogres—the problem was their numbers. Including the infant ogres and all the adult females and males, there looked to be more than thirty of them.

“This is way too many. When did they multiply so much?”

This was a highly undesirable situation. More ogres meant there was less food for other monsters because they hogged all the food sources nearby. Then the starved lower-class monsters were bound to come down from the mountains to look for food, and the closest village would become a target.

Clang! Clang! Slash!

“Huh?”

Despite how these thoughts distracted her, Yulia heard the sound of swords swinging. As she looked in that direction, a blue-haired man rushed into the ogre’s den and swung his sword.

Yulia was stunned. “Who is he? Charging into ogre territory all alone…”

Facing off against this many ogres alone was basically a death wish, which was why Yulia couldn’t also simply charge in. It was difficult even for her to take on this many ogres at once. But this man had gone in by himself with no support.

“Wait, what? Is that Aura Blade?” Yulia exclaimed in shock.

The blue-haired man’s sword was coated with a deep red aura.

“Is he for real?”

Aura Blade was an exclusive ability of swordmasters. The fact that he was using Aura Blade meant he was, in fact, a swordmaster. Now it made sense that he had rushed in there by himself. He was one of the few people who had reached the pinnacle of his sword technique, which was what Yulia was ultimately trying to achieve. If she became a swordmaster of Frozen, she would be freed from the curse.

“I wonder who he is.”

Swordmasters weren’t very common—there was only a handful of them in the empire. But she had never heard of a swordmaster who was such a young man.

“Wait. Blue hair?”

If she wasn’t mistaken, she had heard of a swordmaster with blue hair, but she couldn’t remember too clearly. She became greatly curious about him.

“Who could he be?”

Such graceful strokes of the sword, precise movement, and flawless technique—with every swing of his sword, an ogre’s head dropped to the ground. His skill was worthy of applause. But while she was in awe of the man’s fighting prowess, she had forgotten one important thing: If this person wiped out all the ogres, there would be none left for her to fight, which would be detrimental to her goal.

“Oh, no! This is no time to idle! What do I do?”

Even so, she couldn’t just jump into the battle. He had the right to take down these ogres, as he was the first to start the fight. Besides, if she joined in, she would only be a hindrance. It was also very rude to get in on someone else’s battle.

However, at that very moment, a dark shadow suddenly appeared over Yulia’s head. She looked up reflexively. As a large club was barreling down to crush her skull, she instinctively jumped out of the way.

Crash!