Bang! Bang!!
Kicking the gate to the boss room as hard as she could, the child was desperate to get back inside.
"My liege!!! Eric! Please be alright!! Please!!" The child exclaimed.
The bad feeling she had felt earlier because of that light, hadn't faded yet. It was as if it was a foreboding to a horrifying future that the child sensed.
..Whether it was a false alarm or something, the child felt concerned about Eric and what was happening inside.
Having her parents gone was already too much for a child like her, thus if something was to happen to the child, she would…
"Please.."
RUMBLING!!
In the end, she suddenly perceived the ground trembling beneath her feet, staggering as she tried to stand properly.
It was clear that the child would be shocked by this. "An earthquake..?!"
Flash!!
And as to accompany this unexpected earthquake, the child noticed another flare of light escaping from that room, causing her to feel anxious about Eric even more.
"I need to do something!" The child thought.
{ Frostina looking at her child self, felt regrets and guilt at the same time. While she wished to fix everything, it was already too late.
Because the past cannot be altered no matter how hard one tries to change it…
'It's only going downhill from here.' Mused, Frostina shut her eyes. }
"..! Maybe..!"
As if an idea emerged within her head, she quickly took out the item that Eric had given to her.
"NPCs like me can't enter this place.. So maybe if I.."
CRASH!
Out of the unexpected, a ruckus from the other side of the door banged with an ear-piercing sound, enough to bewilder the child as she saw the gate quaking from the noises inside.
"Eek!" Stunned, the child exclaimed when she backed away from the gate.
Clattering!! Clattering!
Annoying noises that were being made from the inside of the boss room, were getting seriously out of hand.
"..I must go..!"
On the other hand, the child was ready to go in such a place with only her own determination.
Even though she appeared to be extremely nervous to the point of trembling from the thought of entering the room, she must do it for Eric who had saved her life.
By then, the child uttered with great confidence. "My liege, wait for me! I'm coming to save you this time!"
[Oh my.. a child?]
At that perfect moment, the child heard a voice and swiftly shifted her gaze onto that person. As she laid eyes on such a creature, she noticed that this person was..
..An archangel.
The surprised child gasped, admiring this archangel for a minute before snapping herself out of it by smacking her cheeks.
'This is not the time for daydreaming!'
There was no point in being flabbergasted by this archangel's beauty nor her attractive wings, the only thing on the child's mind was Eric and him alone.
Needless to say, it was truly a fortunate thing that this 'Helper' came at the right timing for the child.
[What are you doing here?]
"Let me in!" The child uttered with courage.
Flabbergasted by how rude this kid was, the archangel informed the child. [I can't do that. Only Players can enter it.]
"Will this change your mind?"
[..Hm? How did you get such a thing? I see.. So that's how it is..]
———
In the meantime, the Ice Dragon had saturated the entirety of the boss room with its frost, freezing the already frozen walls of the temple.
Including the players who dared to come into its lair, the Ice Dragon had already taken down half of the players here.
When it thought it would have a good meal before its hibernation, the gate to its lair suddenly and abruptly opened with a bang as it revealed a young girl standing on the other end.
It was truly shocking for the dragon to witness such a scene, and mostly because an archangel was floating beside that said child.
[Here you go. I won't make you change your mind, so good luck, Player '500'.]
The archangel smiled softly at the child before she vanished in thin air, leaving behind a child with a literal dragon.
{ Despite being in despair of her past, Frostina with her blood boiling from hatred, was glaring her cold eyes toward the archangel, wishing to give a vicious punch to this 'Helper' so badly that her expression couldn't hide it properly.
"You..! I'll make sure to make you suffer for what you did to my liege! I swear!" Bawled, Frostina directed her furious glance at this archangel. }
"Alright.. I can do this!" The child convinced herself as she began to observe the place with her focused gaze.
Searching far and wide for Eric, the child concluded that she didn't manage to spot where he was. If he weren't with that group of players, then that meant he must be next to the throne.
"This..looks terrific."
Nonetheless, how can the child get there when the Ice Dragon was standing over that throne?
..That wasn't all.
Not only was it challenging already by having the throne underneath the Ice Dragon, there were players who were trying to attack whoever was on the throne.
The child baffled as she cried out. "What are they doing to the throne?! Stop!"
In spite of not knowing whether or not Eric was alive, the child prayed for him to be somewhat close to the throne.
So when the child witnessed how tons of players were attempting to shoot their attacks at the throne, she grew insanely furious.
Not just that, even her parent's murder was doing the same as those players.
Frustrated, the child grumbled while she glared at her parent's murder. "That fool.. Is he trying to kill my liege after he had killed my parents as well?!"
Expressing her outrage, the child had sprinted swiftly toward the throne at the best of her abilities. It seemed like the berries Eric gave her to eat, came in handy by improving her stats.
The child cried out, running as fast as she possibly could. "My liege! Please be safe!"
Learning from Eric by his previous battles against other creatures, the child was attempting her utmost to follow what Eric did.
In no time, the Ice Dragon spotted the child who was charging toward it, but even if the child was doing this, the dragon found no need to be afraid of a kid.
[Poor child.]
Which was why the dragon blasted one iceball toward the child, thinking that it would be enough to put a stop to the kid.
As what the dragon thought, it went back to dealing with a much bigger problem..
..The problems being the players who were trying to put an end to the Ice Dragon's life.
[Why are you humans trying to hurt one of your own?] The Ice Dragon calmly asked the players.
Swoosh!
When the child heard that question, she had witnessed a gigantic iceball shooting her way. In an instance, her mind went blank for a second, wondering what her next move was going to be.
Eventually, the scared child thought long and hard. 'What should I do? What should I do?!'
At a loss for no way to escape this iceball, the child was expressing her fright on her desperate face, forcing her head to come up with an idea quickly.
..And that was when she realized.
"I'm a Player…!"
[Player '500' has activated her Hidden Skill, 'Fusillade of Icicles' Lv. 1.]
Even if her Hidden Skill was at level 1, it should be enough to do some damage or delay the ineludible dilemma she was in.
"Haaa!!!"
The child exclaimed as a mountain of icicles began to shoot from behind her, unleashing them all toward one area of the iceball as though she was trying to make a hole.
'Quickly!' The child thought when she watched how the iceball was closing in on her extremely fast.
"No!"
CRASH!!!
…
…
…
{ "..." Frostina frowned. }
———
Clattering.. Clattering..
..Sounds echoing from where the Ice Dragon and the players were, didn't even notice the huge ice ball that had hit a poor child.
..It's not as if they would even care about a child who had walked into a death room all by herself.
…Whether the child was dead or not, it ain't their businesses…
"Ack…"
From the iceball, a hole made by the Hidden Skill, 'Fusillade of Icicles', had a hand emerging out of that said pit.
During a short period of time, that hand which was the child's, had climbed out of that hole with great effort.
She groaned. "Argh…!"
In spite of her appearance looking too rough and injured enough to make her fall, the child still got up from the iceball.
As she groaned, she suddenly staggered a little. "For..my liege.. I must.."
Immediately standing with her head high, the child pulled out a whip from her sleeve that the archangel had given to her earlier.
Whoosh!!
At that moment, she instantly used that whip and swung it at the throne to fling herself over there, flying toward the throne at an incredible speed while the Ice Dragon was distracted.
"Uack!!"
..Speed that may not be good for a first timer, was no doubt causing the child to knock into the throne with her already damaged body.
"Eek! O-Ouch!!"
..Cries of agony were leaving from the child's mouth one by one without an end, it just showed how much she was suffering to get to Eric's side.
"Urghh!!!"
Pains arising from every inch of her body were forcing her to have a difficult time getting back up on her feet.
Not just that, blood was bleeding a lot from her nose that got severely hit to the throne, along with her head aching from the head injury.
..Even still, the child uttered in desperation. "Eric.. he should be here..!"
Anguished and distraught, she used her hands to drag herself to the front of the throne, not once paying any attention to her clothes nor the intense bleeding she was having.
BOOM!!
"Gahh!"
..Without expecting it, an explosive fireball that was originally targeted for the Ice Dragon, had landed quite close to the throne, sending sparks and fire blowing toward the throne as well as the child.
The fur coat that Eric had handed to the child, was now being used as a cover to catch the fire. And since it was on fire, it was without a doubt that the child needed to get rid of it.
"..."
The child, saddened by Eric's gift burning to ashes, ignored the fur coat hopelessly before proceeding to crawl toward the throne.
In due course, she quickly saw a leg from the front of the throne, noticing that someone was sitting on this throne.
"Does that mean?!" With hope, the child gasped in joy.
…By the way, the throne wasn't facing the gate, so it made it hard for the child to see whoever was on the throne.
'Could it be..? My liege!'
{ "I thought my liege would be fine because he was sitting on the throne, but isn't that foolish of me at that time?"
Frostina spoke with an awful tone and a grin that was extremely bittersweet and miserable… }
Thrilled by the thought of Eric being safe and sound, the child felt more motivated to stand up. She then did exactly that by grabbing hold of the throne, using it to support herself to stand.
…At long last after all the hardships she endured, the child could now be beside Eric once again.
Since she felt guilty for letting Eric be the one to take the crown back when she should have been the one to take it, she wanted to apologize to Eric so badly.
'If I hadn't told him to do that, he wouldn't have been bullied by that murder..!' The child grunted.
After such a thought, the child shook her head to remind herself of her object which was being by Eric's side again, thus she called out excitedly. "My liege!"
Beaming a smile on her injured face, the child got up close to the person seated on the throne.
"My lieg—!"
…
…
"…Eric…?"
…A smile shifted to that of a confused one which prompted her to say Eric's name instead of his usual nickname.
{ "..." Frostina, the one who already knew, couldn't help but frown with her eyes slowly turning teary. }
Rustling…
..Because in that moment, when the child first laid eyes on the person she wanted to unite again, she finally understood why she had a bad feeling earlier.
…He was Eric, but… Was he truly Eric?