Whoooooosh!

A blinding white blizzard roared across the land. Everything it touched—trees, rocks, the very ground—froze solid in an instant.

Iris and Yurina shouted at me, their faces tense with panic.

“D-Dale!”

“Dale!”

Groaning, I tried to move closer to Laneige, but the raging storm swirling around her forced me back several steps.

What the hell is this? I thought.

The Blessing of Frost, the same power that once froze half a continent in my past life, now raged before me. It was so potent that even I, who carried the Primordial Flame within my body, could barely withstand its chill.

Shards of ice materialized midair and shot toward me like a volley of arrows.

“Dale!” Yurina drew her sword in a blur and struck the shards aside just before they reached me. “W-what’s happening all of a sudden?”

“There’s no time to explain,” I replied.

I dodged another burst of ice and quickly retreated to a safer distance, biting my lip hard as I looked toward Laneige, standing in the eye of the storm.

Curled up on the ground, she repeated the same words over and over like a broken machine. “Abandoned. I’ll be abandoned, abandoned, abandoned, abandoned.”

She had completely lost herself. It didn’t take a genius to see that she was beyond reasoning.

“First, we need to subdue her,” I said.

Yurina grimaced, squinting at the raging frost swirling around Laneige. “And how exactly do you suggest we do that?”

Having recently grown stronger, she could clearly sense that every single snowflake carried terrifying energy.

“We’ll just have to figure something out.” I clenched my jaw and drew upon my mana. “Burn.”

Ashen flames erupted around me. A thin veil of gray smoke flowed from my pores, wrapping around me like armor.

Iris’s eyes flashed with seven colors. “Dale! I’ll hold off the blizzard! Get to Laneige while you can!”

A radiant halo burst forth around her. “O Seven Gods! Shield Your child from harm!”

A brilliant curtain of light spread wide, holding back the howling storm. It was a shock to me. To hold back the Blessing of Frost itself, that barrier was no ordinary magic.

It wasn’t just Yurina who’s grown stronger, I thought.

Iris was a support-type mage, so her growth hadn’t been as obvious. But watching her barrier withstand that overwhelming blizzard, I could tell that she had achieved something extraordinary. Even so, the foe before us was none other than the Witch of the Night, who had once frozen half the world. No barrier could last long against her.

“Ugh! Dale! I can’t hold it for long!” Iris said.

“Just hang on a little longer!” I stomped forward, flames surging around me.

“I don’t want to! I don’t want to! I don’t want to!” Laneige screamed, clutching her head as massive spires of ice burst from the ground.

“Haaah!”

I executed Ashen Flame Style Second Form: Flame Fang. Flaming sword energy shot forth, shattering the rising ice pillars into glittering shards. Cold air washed over me like knives, biting into my skin. I gritted my teeth and forced another step forward through the storm.

Laneige slowly lifted her head, her vacant eyes locking onto me. “Aaa! Uh!”

The blizzard flared even more violently.

Iris said, “Ugh, Dale! I can’t!”

The barrier shattered like glass, scattering in the wind. The full force of the storm surged forward, and a towering tidal wave of snow, like a colossal beast with jaws wide open, rushed straight toward me.

Yurina shouted, “Dale! Look out!”

She kicked off the ground, swinging her sword to intercept. But her blade was flung aside instantly, the impact numbing her arm. Though the clash lasted barely a second, frost already crept up her fingers, her skin turning purple from the cold.

She bit her lip hard, glaring at her trembling hand. “This won’t stop me!”

She tore the pendant from her neck and threw it aside. A brilliant golden light exploded, and her golden hair turned to shining silver. Having returned to her true form, she gripped her sword tighter, ignoring the frostbite spreading across her hand.

“Haaah!”

From the soul stigmata on her chest, a huge amount of mana erupted, engulfing her in a radiant silver aura. It spread like wings, majestic and blinding. Dozens, no, hundreds of sword energies shimmered around her, flowing like a school of fish before circling in a perfect ring. It was as though a full moon had risen in broad daylight.

“I will protect Dale!”

The silver moon split the blizzard in two.

“Nice one, Yurina!” I said.

Seizing the moment, I dashed through the gap in the storm. Ashen fire flared around my arm as I reached forward and grabbed Laneige by the shoulders.

“Laneige!” I shouted.

Had my voice reached her?

Light flickered in her once-empty eyes. “Dale? I... what’s happening to me?”

Her voice trembled as she looked at me, at the blood seeping down my arm from where the ice shards had grazed me. Her face went pale as she staggered back, horror filling her expression. “I-I hurt you?”

The light in her eyes began to fade again.

I grabbed her shoulders firmly and shook her. “Snap out of it!”

The dimming light in her eyes reignited. “Ah! Uh!”

Laneige bit her lip hard, gazing at the swirling storm around her.

She reached out her trembling hand toward the raging blizzard. “Come back... Please, I’m begging you.”

Her voice trembled with desperation. Tears streamed down her cheeks, glistening as they fell. “I-I don’t want to hurt Dale.”

Her command seemed to have worked. The raging blizzard around us began to calm, the storm shrinking until it slowly flowed back into her body.

Laneige groaned in pain, wincing as she staggered. The snow and wind, halfway reabsorbed into her, began to thrash violently again.

I grabbed her shoulders, gently patting her back like I were comforting a crying child. “It’s okay. I’ll never abandon you, so don’t be afraid.”

A ripple spread through her eyes. “Ah!” 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Clenching her jaw, Laneige turned her gaze toward the swirling frost. “Return.”

It wasn’t the fragile voice of a frightened girl; it was the commanding tone of a queen addressing her subjects. The furious snow instantly stilled, then was completely absorbed into her body.

Laneige collapsed to her knees, panting as though she had just run for miles. She stared down at her trembling hands in confusion. “What? What just happened?”

Suddenly, she raised her head, as if a long-forgotten memory had just struck her. She tried to stand. “D-Dale! Are you— kyaaa!”

However, she stumbled, her balance giving way. I caught her hand and pulled her upright.

“I’m fine,” I replied.

“I-I don’t know what happened to me.”

“It’s fine. Don’t think about it right now, just rest.”

Her eyes quivered as she bowed her head, sobbing. “Dale. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. You saved me, and yet I...”

While I was still comforting her, two voices cut through the silence.

“Dale, what in the world just happened?”

“That blizzard earlier, it did come from Senior Laneige, didn’t it?”

Iris and Yurina approached us, both staring at Laneige warily now instead of with concern.

“Sorry. I’ll explain later. But there’s no need to worry about Laneige,” I replied.

Still looking uneasy, they nodded.

“Fine.”

“If you say so, Dale, I’ll trust you.”

Laneige quickly bowed to them, tears dripping from her chin. “I-I’m sorry! I don’t really understand what happened either, but I swear, I had no intention of hurting you! Please believe me!”

Iris sighed and placed a hand on the trembling girl’s shoulder. “Alright. Lift your head.”

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” Laneige wiped at her eyes, then turned toward Yurina. “Yuren, I’m sorry to you too— Huh?”

Her eyes went wide as she stared at Yurina. “Yuren, you’re a girl?”

“Ah!” Yurina froze, realizing too late that she wasn’t in her disguised form right now. “Well, since Dale said it’s okay to trust you, I’ll tell you.”

And so, Yurina explained everything, about her true identity and how she had been disguising herself all this time.

Laneige’s eyes grew wider and wider. “All this time, you were pretending to be a man using a disguise magic tool?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Laneige looked at her with a sorrowful expression. “That must’ve been... really hard.”

She knew all too well the pain of having to hide one’s true self.

But Yurina shook her head gently. “No.”

She turned to me with a bright smile. “I’m okay since I have Dale with me.”

“You have Dale?”

Something flickered in Laneige’s eyes. She glanced between Iris and Yurina, her voice faltering. “W-wait. Don’t tell me... both of you are dating Dale?”

A chill ran down my spine. No way!

If she found out I was dating both of them, who knew what kind of disaster would happen next? I quickly tried to intervene before Yurina could speak, but I was too late.

“Yes. I’m also dating Dale,” she said proudly, glancing at Iris with a defiant grin.

Laneige’s mouth fell open. “Dale has two girlfriends?”

Her voice was dazed, her expression blank. I shut my eyes tightly, clenching my fists. We’re screwed.

I had barely managed to calm her down once before, but if her power went berserk again, there would be nothing I could do. In the worst case, I would have to stop her myself.

A faint laugh slipped from Laneige’s lips. “Haha!”

I braced myself and slowly opened my eyes, only to see her smiling.

Her face was glowing, brighter and happier than I had ever seen before. “Ahaha! I see, I see! So, Dale isn’t limited to just one girl, huh?”

Huh? What? What’s happening right now? Why is she happy about this? I wondered.

Laneige smiled sweetly, her eyes full of hope. “Hehe! What a relief!”

I could barely hear her whisper under her breath: “That means, I still have a chance.”

At that moment, I finally understood why she had lost control earlier. My having a girlfriend wasn’t what had made her lose her sanity; it was the fear of being abandoned because of it. Now that she knew I wasn’t committed to just one person, she probably felt relieved, thinking that maybe she could become the third.

If I put all that together, I just prevented the awakening of a witch because I was apparently two-timing. What the hell kind of feeling was this? I basically stopped half the world from freezing over and saved tens, no, hundreds of thousands of lives. So, why did I feel like absolute trash right now?