The weather was cloudy.
Ice stared up at the sky, once again amazed by how realistic everything looked. It felt great to be back.
Next to him, Bloody and White Light stood, likewise looking around.
“It’s been eighty-four years”, Bloodless Sunset mumbled.
The Ice Emperor tilted his head, a bit confused.
“That’s one very old reference.” White Light shook his head and clicked his tongue. “Why do I feel like you didn’t watch the movie but rather learned about it somewhere on the internet?”
“Of course I did. One of my friends is into that kinda stuff so he keeps on spamming me all day.” The wolfman smiled sheepishly while tugging at his clothes. It had been a while since he was last here, after all. The leather and fur felt weird on his skin. “I got dragged into it.”
The two of them talked. Ice quietly called up his friendlist, checking who was online.
Blackstone didn’t have time – she actually had classes, but another kind from what they expected. Even a model like her had to constantly practise and keep her body in shape. She had been quite unhappy about missing the opening time, but there was nothing that could be done about it.
Knightrider wasn’t around, which was a bit odd.
Little Droplet wasn’t online either.
Absinth he ignored, and Spiderlily had already sent him a message about waiting in front of the castle.
“Shall we go?”, he asked the other two men, who stopped their bickering and nodded.
The guards at the castle entrance let them inside without a fuss after Ice presented his badge. One of them accompanied the party, also ensuring to inform one of the servants to call for Damien.
The lion beastman approached them with a subtle frown creasing his forehead. He bowed lightly, every move perfect, and waved his hand to invite them to follow.
They were brought into the same room as before.
“One of yours has already handed in a report”, Damien said, watching them with scrutinizing eyes.
Bloody clicked his tongue. Absinth must have run into the castle, gotten some info and teleported right out of it. “It’s not-”
White Light put a hand on his shoulder, quickly silencing him. He spoke up politely. “We apologize, there were some… difficulties in working together. Could we ask what she informed you of?”
“The castle exists. There are various strong guards patrolling the area, akin to an army”, Damien repeated. It was unclear whether he was hiding any further information.
White Light’s brows furrowed. The information was not exactly falsified, but it did bring everything into the wrong light. “If His Highness is willing to listen, we’d like to add a couple of things to the report.”
“You may”, Damien responded in the prince’s stead. It was impressive how a butler had his aura, but lion beastmen were known for their unmistakable charisma. It did not matter whether he bowed in front of someone or spoke politely – there was always something proud and dominant about him.
White Light exhaled secretly. He kept his polite smile as he spoke. “It’s correct that we saw a number of strong guards, however, we did not see them do anything other than patrol the area. We also cannot confirm that there are enough for it to be an army – the castle grounds weren’t large enough to keep one and we encountered no more guards.”
Damien hummed – a low, deep sound like a purr.
“As far as we know, the castle owner is a sickly man. The servants sing his praises and they appeared to be very relaxed. We currently assume that the castle owner might be an ice mage. So far, we have spotted no signs of aggression.”
Ice turned his head away. He did not mention the dragon living under the castle.
“I see. That is very interesting. I shall report it to His Highness – would you mind waiting?”
“Not at all.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ktf ilbc yfjrawjc ifoa.
Dibbvs’r ajli wbnfv jgbecv klat alcs pfgxr, tjlg gjlrfv eq. “Cccbslcu… Qjr rtf ublcu ab rajga j kjg?!”
“Qf klii rff tbk la aegcr bea”, Vqlvfgilis rjlv mjiwis, gfralcu tfg tjcvr bc tfg ijq jr rtf ibbxfv bea bo atf klcvbk, ecqfgaegyfv. “Qf mjccba mtjcuf la jcskjs.”
“That’s true, but…” Bloodless Sunset grumbled to himself for a while, the sound half a growl.
The maids left snacks and beverages for them as they waited. Damien returned almost an hour later, most likely having discussed things with the prince. He had everyone’s undivided attention the moment he entered the room again.
“The reward for the mission has already been handed out to Absinth”, he declared without a movement of his face. “Please approach her directly about it.”
The wolfman crossed his arms and blew up his cheeks. It was obvious he was pissed about losing his reward, but the prince wasn’t going to care too much about it. After all, the reward was peanuts for him – nothing he needed to get involved with.
“However, he did say that he trusts the words of the Ice Emperor. He wishes to send a delegation to the castle to talk to its owner for now… We will see whether they truly aren’t hostile.”
The words he spoke were a hint of what was to come and the end of their first quest part. The Ice Emperor stared at the message he got.
【Completed: World quest – A castle made of ice (Mountain questline part 1)
Reward: None】
One day later, every player in Haven that had left the newcomer village gained a quest. It wasn’t always the same type, but it always had the same basic description.
【World quest – Up high in the mountains】
【A group of Foreigners have confirmed the existence of a castle hidden in the mountains. Currently, the unknown owner is assumed to not be hostile.】
The other details depended on the player.
A number of lifestyle players got tasks for creating warm clothes and machinery to clear snow. Fighters were called to accompany groups that would begin to create a path up the mountains, at least halfway.
Others… were offered to prepare for war.
Ice had expected there to be factions in the kingdom that would automatically assume the strange force to be hostile. If players helped prepare for war, they’d be safe in case of an attack – but if the other side wasn’t hostile, they might misunderstand that behaviour.
Hostile or friendly?
Only a minority was called to help out with the neutral task of clearing a path. Most players were put in front of a choice that wasn’t only their own. No one knew where the line was, and so everyone had to decide for themselves which side they wanted to support.
There was no reward or punishment for their decision. There was no true right or wrong… even if the capital was engulfed in a war.
Everyone sat together in a room – Absinth excluded, of course.
“I’ve got a task for helping with feeding the troops in the mountain”, Blackstone told them. Her eyes were vacant, staring at her questlog rather than the people around her. “Since I’m a blacksmith, there’s an optional task of preparing armor, but I’m not gonna do that.”
“I got offered to be part of the delegation”, White Light said, exchanging glances with everyone. Spiderlily and Knightrider nodded along.
Bloody read it out loud.
【A delegation has to officially visit the castle to sound out the intentions of its owner and offer the capital’s greetings.
Reach the castle and confirm the intentions of the castle’s owner.】
He cleared his throat. “I won’t participate, though.”
“Hm? Why?” Knightrider’s eyes widened.
“Well,” Bloody said with a shrug. “Ice isn’t gonna do it. I’m gonna go level with him.”
“Jian Lin, why would you reject the quest?” Knightrider frowned deeply. Displeasure was written all over his face as he took on a tone like he was talking to a disobedient child. “Participating in this quest can only be advantageous.”
“I’m not suitable to be part of a delegation.” Ice’s eyelashes fluttered.
“That’s true. A delegation has to talk a lot, after all. You were likely invited as a follow-up from the last quest.” White Light easily diffused the tense atmosphere.
For once, Bloody kept his mouth shut. The reason was – he wanted to drop this topic as quickly as possible.
Because Ice had lied.
In the first place, he had never gotten the quest. The quest he had gotten was a completely different one.
【Dragons are neither hostile nor friendly. Dragons never take a side.
Confirm Tiamat’s intentions while not angering her.
Leading quest (Can be shared. Any positive or negative results by other members will be shouldered by the original quest taker)
Duration: Has to be finished before the delegation hands in their quest
Reward: Tiamat will not leave the chasm, information about Tiamat’s intentions
Failure: Tiamat will leave the chasm】
…The implications of the reward being her not leaving the chasm sent shivers down his spine.
He had told Bloody about it, like he always talked to him about all his quests, and the beastman had quickly voiced his intentions to accompany Ice on the quest.
Ice personally thought it was fine to involve the rest of the group, but he did not want Knightrider to hear of it, so he stayed quiet for the moment.
“Who else is part of the delegation?”, Bloody asked around, changing the topic. “Do you know?”
“I’m pretty sure Woodcutter is one. That was announced, anyway”, Blackstone remembered.
“Bleh.”
Bloody pulled a face that was impossible to miss. A tad bit surprised, White Light let his eyes wander over the beastman. “Now that I think of it, you do not get along with him, do you? He is also very hostile towards Ice, for some reason.”
“Aaaah, yeah.” Bloody rubbed his neck. He heard the unspoken question. “That guy… He’s my ex.”
Silence fell over the room.
White Light blinked. “… Ex?”
“What? Can’t I have been in a relationship before?” Defensive, Bloody’s fur bristled. “It might have been a bad one, but he still was my boyfriend, so now he’s my ex. He kind of didn’t like it very much that I broke up with him – the guy has an ego that reaches up to the sky.”
“I just want to say that he looks like a horrible boyfriend, even at first glance.” Blackstone didn’t mince her words.
The contrast of Bloody’s words and his childish tone was a bit shocking. He didn’t seem to think of the matter as anything important, which Ice admired a bit – he had no experience with relationships of that kind, after all.
“He is. He was a perfect gentleman at first, but he got super possessive and dominant after a couple of months. I didn’t like how he was treating me and he wasn’t willing to change it, so I left.” Bloody spread his fingers in a helpless gesture. “I mean, why would I stay with someone who treats me like garbage? It’s just that he can’t take being dumped, so now he hates me. And he hates Ice, because he hates literally everyone who is nice to me now.”
Also because he couldn’t stand seeing Bloody being featured in so many advertisements together with Ice, but Bloody didn’t say that. He didn’t want Ice to feel singled out.
“I have to say, I’m shocked. I didn’t expect you to have been in a relationship before.”
“A?” Bloody blinked, then awkwardly coughed. “Ah, yeah.”
Vaguely, very vaguely, Ice recalled Bloody mentioning the words girlfriend or boyfriend in a couple of conversations before. It was never the main topic and always only mentioned on the side, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t always the same person.
On one hand, he envied Bloody a bit for having had a lover before… but then again, none of those relationships had sounded that happy.
“I don’t even have time for that”, White Light absent-mindedly complained.
As he had said during their meeting, he was busy taking care of several siblings. It was an interesting fact, mostly because Ice had often felt that White Light acted a bit like a responsible brother or even father. The way he took care of groups was fundamentally different from Knightrider.
“Aaaanyway. Back to the topic?”
“I think this is a very interesting topic”, Blackstone laughed heartily. “I like gossip. You’re welcome to talk about him.”
“No way. Long story short, I have a terrible eye for potential partners, so now I’ll do it like Ice: Bide my time and wait for the right one to appear.”
The Ice Emperor wasn’t aware that he was doing things like that. In fact, he didn’t have romance on his mind at all. Maybe Bloody meant that?
“If your ex is on the team, it might be good that you aren’t. I’ve met Woodcutter before, and you’re right to say that he has quite the ego. It won’t do the dynamic any good if you’re there.”
“I don’t like him”, Spiderlily agreed.
“He’s a good player, but he’s also buying a lot of his so-called luck. There’s dozens of people running around just to prepare everything for him perfectly. What’s his status in reality?” Blackstone fiddled with a piece of wood as she talked. Her thick fingers moved with surprising dexterity, leading a knife to cut away at its form.
“I won’t say he’s a rich second-generation kid, but his family does have a bit of money. There’s a tiny war going on for company shares, where his family is involved in. He knows a lot about business relationships thanks to that…”
“He’s not polite, though. He’s very aggressive”, Ice sighed, keeping his eyes on Blackstone’s hands. The piece of wood was quickly being cut into the form of a person.
“He’s only polite if he thinks it’s worth it. If you get to know him better, you’ll find out that he thinks the world should bow at his feet.” The wolfman roughed up his own hair and groaned. “Why am I so unlucky when it’s about relationships! Ice, console me!”
Hearing the soft whine, Ice returned his attention to his friend. He thought about it, then wrapped Bloody into a very loose hug and gently pat his head. “There, there… It will all turn out fine in the end?”
“You seem to have a good eye for friends, at least. Maybe you should use that as a base”, Blackstone hinted at something that Ice didn’t quite understand.
Bloody snickered, letting himself be pet. He didn’t grace the comment with an answer.
Author’s note
Poor little puppy was very unlucky so far. Anyone surprised he’s got experience?
If we put labels on it for a moment; Bloody is bi but with a preference for guys, while Ice is demi (as in, rarely feels attraction) but doesn’t care about gender at all.
Also, I surprisingly managed to finish writing the first arc already, which means I might throw in a bonus chapter here or there~
Little Theater
Blackstone: “Hurry up, hurry up before I decide to steal him away!
Bloody: “……….”
Blackstone: “No? Alright. Ice, I’ve always wanted to meet your mom, do you mind if I visit~?”
Ice: “…Well… Fine….”
Bloody: “No!!!! Hands off!!!”
Blackstone: “Good boyfriends are hard to catch. Put in some more effort!”
Hehehe Blackstone is a good at telling the future~~~~
Also Ice awkwardly comforting Bloody, cuteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Nice chapter, aside from Absinth’s backstabbing (okay, we already knew that) and running away with their reward. And again it is Knightrider who attracts negative attention :’D Super rude and calls Ice by his real name. Okay, they’re in their little group atm but I bet he would do the same with strangers around. Aaah… I can’t stand him D:
Buut I look forward to their new visit to Tiamat. And I hope there won’t be a war with the new/old/second/first/whatever Ice Emperor :’D
Thx for the ch ٩( >ヮ<)۶
Thank you for the chapter!
definitely feel iffy about knightrider..
but Bloody and Ice are too cute!! “console me!” gah! and so far I like White Light as well.
thanks for the chapter <3
Thank you for the chapter 💜
I would like to specify that demisexual and demiromantic mean that you only feel those types of attraction after you’ve gained an emotional connection. Graysexual and greyromantic are where you only feel those types of attraction occasionally. Demi is still a good label for Ice, I would assume, but the wording you used sounds closer to grey.