"What is this..? Eric, are you okay?"
Trembled not because of her terrible injuries, but because of her concerns for Eric, the child fazed by this unexpected view as her eyes quivered wildly.
..Slowly but surely, the child extended her hand toward Eric's cheek, holding it before noticing she had been bleeding from her hand as well.
It could be because of the bruises she got by climbing out of a freezing ball of ice, but her hand, which was extremely cold already, felt much colder when resting on Eric's cheek.
"..aah! No ."
..It was as if his warmth that once embraced the child countless times, were fading along with his darkest hair.
"Eric! Please! Open your eyes!" The child cried out as she desperately climbed on to his laps.
{ "..I can't ever get over the emotions I used to feel in the past. It's just too depressing, isn't it..?"
"Forever torment over this, is this my punishment…?"
Mumbling to herself, Frostina watched this whole situation unfold despite already knowing about the upcoming event of her past. }
Exhausted, damaged, dumbfounded and concerned, these were all the emotions the child was feeling at a time. Yet, she still managed to put herself below Eric's well-being.
"My liege..! P..Please!"
..However, mental damages weren't the only thing she was experiencing.
The child moaned in anguish. "Arghh.."
A constant flow of blood streaming down this child's cold nose, drizzled off her pale blue face caused by the cold.
Her hands that were white and graceful, looked rough and wounded by how much frostbite she had sustained all because she wanted to get back to Eric.
"..urgh.." Groaning nonstop, the child wiped and wiped her blood away.
At a continuous pace, her blood was running down her nose while it was also making her breathing lacking little by little.
..Needless to say, physically and mentally she was both harmed in a way.
..It was really not looking good..
In spite of that, she placed Eric first as she kept snapping him out of it. "My liege! This is not the time for napping!!"
"Wake up! Eric!!"
..Eric, just Eric.
No more using 'her liege' to call Eric, because it was obvious that the situation right now was in a dire need to be fixed quickly.
"Eric!!"
"Eri—!"
RUMBLE!!! RUMBLE!
[Who goes there?!]
Sudden and unexpected, the earth began to vibrate from the Ice Dragon's full-throated roar, resonating the entire room to quake before its might.
"Eek!"
Without a doubt, the child held tightly onto Eric to keep herself beside him and to not fall off the throne.
For the reason that the child used up a lot of her energy by arriving at the throne, it would be out of the question to even think of crawling back to Eric's laps again.
"Ha.. huff.. "
Panted, the child breathed through her mouth after she wiped away the blood on her lips.
Dumbstruck, the Ice Dragon asked the child. [You? How are you still alive from that?]
Whoosh!
"...!" Scared by the dragon's head moving close to her, the child held Eric tight as if she was protecting him.
[Poor child. Were you this man's acquaintance?]
Frightened to say a word to such a creature, the child glared her eyes directly at the Ice Dragon.
Even though she knew she shouldn't be doing this toward the boss of this room, her daggers eyes still remained on the dragon's.
[It seems so. Have you wondered why these Players were trying to harm your friend?]
"...?" That caught the child's attention, causing her to loosen her guard a bit.
[No? Then I shall tell you.]
{ "Curse you, lizard.." Frostina muttered under her lips. }
Swoosh!!
In a blink of an eye, loads of attacks came forth, aiming at only one area which was undoubtedly the throne.
[Nuisance.] The Ice Dragon scowled before breathing in a ton of air.
BANG!
In a flash, a beam of frost proceeded to unleash out of the dragon's mouth, striking it toward all the players that stood in its way.
It was a devastating frost beam that led to players getting frozen by a slight touch, even the atmosphere was decreasing in temperature by the leftovers frost.
"Urgh.."
..The child's severe body couldn't endure the cold as she shivered from it, she wouldn't have to tremble upon the cold if she had Eric's fur coat with her, but..
Sadly, she had to throw it away so that she wouldn't be burned…
"Ha… ugh."
Upon staying in such a place, people assumed that they were literally inside a freezer or something far colder than that.
[Silence..] The Ice Dragon smiled when it noticed the quietness slipping in.
..The ambience was to the dragon's liking until the dragon suddenly became aware of its connection to its vassal being slightly cut off.
The Ice Dragon exclaimed in shock. [..!? How?!]
As the dragon wasn't the only one surprised, the child was fazed by Eric's eyelids that were slowly opening to unveil his eyes.
"Eric…?"
To be frank, the child was witnessing something odd when she had laid eyes on Eric.
Despite her knowing full well that Eric was already looking weird because of the crown, she was now baffled by his appearance again.
The child spoke in concern. "...What is this..?"
If the crown were to turn Eric's hair to completely white, then Eric would definitely resemble the Ice Dragon.
With almost white hair, came his eyes that should have been black, were changed to that of the Ice Dragon's eyes color…
Shimmer…
..Golden yellow irides..
In this surprising moment, the child gulped down her saliva as she was hesitant to ask him. "Eric.. Is that you?"
..In all honesty, the first words that were about to exit out of Eric's lips, brought upon shock and puzzlement for the child's ears to comprehend.
"Kill me."
"W..What?"
"Do it, quickly!"
[How could a mere human be able to fight back my raw power? Don't you want it for yourself?]
"..Shut up.." Eric bellowed without much energy, almost as though he was attempting to fight back the Ice Dragon's manipulation.
{ "..." Saddened, Frostina shut her eyes.
"..If only there were players with amazing skills, my liege would have been fine.. But since this was the early part of his lives.."
Frowning again and again, Frostina hardened her expression. }
[You'll fail eventually.]
Not at all afraid by its vassal fighting back, the Ice Dragon continued on handling the players who were being quite a hindrance.
In actuality, the dragon was bewildered by this Eric person breaking free from its control. So just in case, the Ice Dragon trapped Eric's hands onto the throne's armrests with its ice chains.
BOOM!
[Urgh! Humans!]
Out of the blue, a ball of explosive fireball had knocked into the dragon's face, blinding its eyesight with the smoke and flame of the fireball.
RUMBLE!
Outraged, the Ice Dragon stomped its foot to the ground which forced a rise of ice spikes popping up from the ground. Not long after that, it started to launch another frost beam toward those players.
..However, when it was preparing to shoot, it was as if the players were waiting for this timing that the dragon immediately got a wave of attacks shoved into its mouth in one go.
BANG!
Blasting on what was in its mouth, the dragon didn't manage to finish its beam as it began to cough continuously.
The Ice Dragon grumbled in fury. [Tricky humans.]
———
In the meantime, the child who was flabbergasted by Eric's request, expressed her inability to do what she was being told to do.
"I can't.. do that.."
Eric, who was struggling to fight back, was groaning by the stinging sensation of the Ice Dragon's absolute power.
Power that was convincing him to yield his life for the Ice Dragon, was faintly taking over him at a rapid pace.
{ "My liege.. The only reason he hasn't given in, is because of his hidden skill.."
Murmured, Frostina stared unhappily at Eric, seeming like it was too difficult to keep her eyes from tearing up.
"If.. his skill had levelled up more, wouldn't he have been able to resist that lizard's control completely..?"
Though, that's a question that doesn't need an answer… }
"..! Eric!" The child cried out when she saw Eric suddenly tilted his head down.
Out of worries and perturbation for Eric, she cried out immediately. "Are you okay?!"
"I said quickly! Kill me! There's a knife in my pocket, so take it and stab me in the heart!" Eric tiredly exclaimed.
He continued tiredly. "Just one stab and I'll be dead! My HP is already low enough, so do it, Frostina!"
Obfuscated by Eric, the child responded back to him as she was enraged and depressed by Eric's request. "Why would I do that!?"
"Because I don't want you dead.. You must not get killed by the dragon! I can't allow that.."
"..but what about you?!"
"I'll be fine."
"No! You're the only one I have left! If I kill you, who will be by my side in this cold world..?"
"..."
"..you can't do this to me.. this is not fair at all.."
"..."
"I don't want this… never.."
"...kill m—"
"With my own hands?! I cannot..!! You're too cruel.. my liege.."
"I'm.. the Ice Dragon's vassal. If I die, the dragon will lose most of its power, and it'll be easy to kill."
"..isn't there another way..?"
"..From my knowledge, this is all I know.. I'm so sorry, Frostina.."
..The child cried her heart out when she found out the explanation of why Eric wanted her to kill him.
The thought of killing the person who was by her side and was also her savior, caused her to be heartbroken.
{ "..." Meanwhile, Frostina turned away from this endless scene while tears were racing down her cheeks already.. }
Drizzling…
..Cried and sniffled, the child was bursting into tears with her hands placed on Eric's cold chest.
"I can't...bring myself to do this to you..my liege.. Eric..!"
"..."
"It's just… too hard.."
…
…
…
..When the child realized how quiet Eric was, she faintly called out to him as her eyes grew wider. "My liege..?"
"No..! Don't fall for the dragon's trick! Open your eyes!! Please!!" The child at a breaking point was hopelessly smacking Eric's chest.
"..I came here.. to save you.. not to end you..! Ahhh..!!!!"
Letting out a cry of despair, the child slowly but surely slid her hand into Eric's pocket to take his knife.
…Her hand shook when she grasped this knife within her hand, afraid of herself and this knife that would put an end to Eric's life.
{ "Stop.. Please.." Muttered, Frostina.
Frostina's eyelids quivered, seeming as if she was trying to shut her eyes close despite it already being closed to the end.
"What is this… nightmare..?"
No matter how much she witnessed this sight, Frostina's frozen heart shattered whenever she saw her past self breaking down from this. }
In the end, the child with the knife in her shaking hands was leaning the tip of the blade toward Eric's chest.
"..ahhh!!"
Screaming by how nightmarish this moment was, the child forced herself to stab Eric's heart as she could feel the blade sinking into his heart bit by bit.
Stab!
"...urk.." The child, unable to breathe properly because of how much she cried, released her numbed hands off the knife.
With no doubt in perplexation, the child fazed by the knife staying inside Eric's chest, shifted her eyes toward her hands that had murdered Eric..
..Sooner or later, those hands were on the child's head as she sniffled, going insane from killing her one and only friend in this place.
"We'll meet again, Frostina.." Eric's last words slipping out of his fading lips caused the child to..
"...AHHHHH!!!!!!!!"
…A howl filled with unbelievable suffering from killing her friend, the guilt of being the one who told her friend to get the crown, and the agonizing misery of not being able to save her friend.
SCREECH!!!
…But regretfully for her, the child's heart-rending scream was being overshadowed by the Ice Dragon's miserable shriek.
"ERIC!!!!!! WAAAHH!!!!!!"
..No one would ever get to hear the child's anguish wail nor feel the depth of her sorrow drowning her at that moment.
Only she alone knew..
{ "..eek." Cried from watching this..
Slowly but surely, wiping her tears with her sleeves, Frostina bit her lower lips and took a look at those murderous hands of hers.
Finding it to be extremely unbearable to remember this past of her. "..why..?"
"I'm sorry.. My liege.. I'm sorry…" }