Chapter 17: Lily Blanch

On my way to the garden, passing by some people who are leisurely waking around under the starry night. Upon arriving at the scene, I looked around to catch the sight of Lily but there are no traces of her anywhere.

While continuing my search, I stumbled upon a bewitching goddess sitting comfortably on a bench, gazing at the starry night sky wearing a snowy gown. The breathtaking scenery that beholds right before my eyes captivated me. Her seductive tender red lips, pointy ears, eye-catching golden hair in a waterfall braid with golden circlet, and at the center of it was a dazzling crystal, blooming white skin, and lastly her gorgeous cerulean eyes. It was Lily.

What a marvelous sight to behold.

Despite locating her, I hid behind the bush, still in proximity to where I can jump in case of something happened. That way, I can easily lunge for an attack on the drunken bastard—I waited patiently.

Time has passed, chilling night breeze graze my skin which I shivered. I’ve been watching Lily for quite some time right now, she’s still gazing at the sky. I’ve been waiting, but nothing has happened, nor any traces of the man I’m waiting for, enduring the coldness of the night. The clothes I’ve worn are thin layers of fabric, and I have no undershirt, which made it harder for me.

I’ve been wondering why Lily was watching the sky, so I gaze into the sky and saw countless stars shining brightly—It’s a sight to behold, indeed. I doze off while observing the starry sky laying on the soft grass, but it got cut off short because of a scream near me.

“Ahhhh—!”

Lying flat with my back on the ground, I pulled my legs up to my chest, putting my hands pointed toward the top of my shoulders and kicked my leg up directly into the air, creating this momentum that made me land on my feet. Right away, I looked in Lily’s direction as my hands were clenching, ready to knock the shit out of the guy.

However, an unexpected outcome blooms before me, sending a shiver down my spine. The strong chilling stench of blood entered my nose, all the hair in my body stood up as the temperature suddenly dropped to an excruciating coldness as if all my hair got frozen. Because in front of me, a man was impaled by a pillar of ice, devoided eyes, and a pool of blood dripping down from the pillar.

The horrific, gruesome scene in front of me almost made me vomit. Throughout my life, I’ve never seen anything gruesome like this. Furthermore, the pillar of ice seems to come from Lily’s feet, plus I remember that her spirit attribute is ice—A wolf-like mythical being, or in short a Fenrir. The Fenrir is one of the strongest beasts, as its prowess can be comparable to the White Dragon, a Deity Beast. This means she’s the one responsible for creating this scene.

Lily was standing there, gazing at the man impaled in ice, cold-blooded, although there’s a hint of sympathy showing through her cerulean eyes while looking at the man. Slowly, my feet started backing away, escaping the murder scene. Thoughts after thoughts started appearing in my head.

Why? I don’t remember the scene turning out like this. Does that mean the world doesn’t really revolve around the storyline of the game? If so, there is no protagonist nor a hero in this world? Or probably because of my existence in here, there’s a butterfly effect that happened? But the scene of Lily here still appeared, although with a different outcome. What if this isn’t the party of the incident? But, there’s a man, and the setting match well and it's a human...

As I slowly back away, Lily’s eyes laid upon me, to which I shuddered. The person in front of me right now is a stranger whom I’ve never met. If things go south, I need to prepare and protect myself because I stand no chance for a person with a guardian.

I may have quintessence, which is like the better version of mana from my understanding, but that doesn’t mean it can protect me from anything. From understanding its principle, it acts like mana, but it’s more condensed because its medium is my soul, which means I don’t share it with anyone other than myself and the output will be greater. However, I still can’t even control it plus it’s sealed by Pix which means I'll have a hard time controlling it.

“I’ve been monitoring your presence, disciple of the Saint.”

I halted and replied. “How come you knew?”

“Smell.” Lily pointed to her nose.

“The... What?”

“My nose became sensitive to people when I got my guardian.”

Does such a thing exist?!

“Right... So, what can I do for you?”

Not moving an inch, cold sweats started forming on my back. The situation drastically turned for the worst, her face doesn’t show any emotions at all. That’s why I have my guard up around her. I’m having a hard time figuring out what she’s thinking.

“That’s what should I be saying, you pervert stalker.”

“Huh?”

“You’re just like any other guys that my family always told me. Boys are wolves under their skin who wanted to prey on beautiful girls just because it gives them a sense of pleasure. I noticed you kept looking at me upon entering the banquet, that’s why I’ve been observing you. Neither did I expect for you to follow me all the way here.”

At that moment, I’m extremely dumbfounded by the things she said. First, I suddenly got called a pervert stalker for some apparent reason. I do admit that I acted like a stalker, but a pervert, too? Also, instead of misgendering me, she figured out that I’m a guy. Yes, it made me happy, but at the same time, something inside me died.

“Haah... I apologize for my rude behavior. I’m truly captivated by your highness’s beauty, but I have no intention of bringing harm to your highness. I sincerely apologize for my actions if I made you uncomfortable. “ I bowed gracefully to her.

“So, you do admit that you’ve been stalking me?”

“Not stalking, just following you in curiosity.” I nonchalantly replied.

Lily knitted her eyebrows. “What’s the difference?”

“No idea.” I shrugged my shoulders.

“Are you messing with me right now?”

“No.”

It only made her annoyed, pinching the bridge of her nose while closing her eyes then she said. “So, what’s your reason for following me? Are you really just following because of curiosity or something else? Plus, how can you move that fast if you don’t have any mana? What are you?” Lily looked at me with dagger eyes.

When she did that, I felt an ominous aura shrouded my body which made my chest tightened. I jumped a few feet back, as my senses screamed danger. I furrowed my eyebrows. The entire atmosphere temperature drastically dropped by a large margin—Probably because of Lily. I could feel my skin freezing.

“I’m Claude, the disciple of Master Irene.”

“I said, ‘what are you.’ not who you are.”

“Huh? What are you saying? I’m human.”

“You’re not answering me.”

After saying that, a chilling aura exploded that came within her body, creating this suffocating atmosphere around me. Lily extended her hands, masses of ice needles manifested around her directed aiming at me—She then fired all those needles at me. Upon seeing the tremendous amount of projectile aiming at me, I evaded all of them by jumping a few feet high in a split second.

Upon landing, I immediately dashed sideways to avoid the incoming attacks, but while running I got blocked by a ginormous ice wall that made me halt on my track. When I was about to punch the wall, I felt goosebumps on my back which made me instinctively jump then saw a bridge of icicles below me. I used that as leverage to jump into the air once again, and then the unexpected happened.

It caught my attention that the entire platform of where I’m standing became covered in ice, which baffled me. That made me almost slip and lost my sense of balance.

“Whoa—! What the...”

Before I could even mull over it, a fast-moving bridge of icicles emerged from Lily, approaching me. Because of the slippery platform, I focused my mind on defending it instead of running away as there's a chance of me slipping, then I concentrated the quintessence around my entire front body to create a protective layer against the icicle spikes, and blocked it with my arms crossed, destroying the ice wall behind me and sending me a few feet away.

“Arggh—! Ack—!”

A hard-surfaced collided with my back, to which I groaned in pain. I’m currently sandwich between a hard surface on my back with the enormous icicle in front of me. I thought it’s finally done, however, the icicle continuously started growing, completely entrapping me. Entrapped by these icicles, a voice entered my ears.

“Now, are you ready to tell me? I’m totally curious about what you are, a manaless person who could do ridiculous movements and be even able to withstand the attacks of a spirit. What’s more, the ice spike sharp enough to penetrate a metal with ease, yet isn’t even able to graze your skin.”

Instead of escaping or breaking the ice, I didn’t move as I pondered on my next course of action. The slippery platform could hinder me from running away since I’m wearing black shoes, a shoe that’s not meant for icy ground. Then I thought of something incredible which can save my ass.

“Just what are you?”

“You mentioned being human, but I find that not plausible.”

“If one of the saints made you a disciple, that means you’re something spectacular.”

I didn’t answer her questions, as I waited patiently until Lily got closer so I can break free and attack her, before running away. That’s the only best course of action I could think up with. It may have been a bad idea because I’ll attack her despite my disadvantageous circumstance, but it’s better than dying in here. The memory of the man in the pillar earlier is still fresh in my mind.

Xeoz

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