The Last Place Hero's Return

Chapter 250: The Frost (5)

A cold silence settled over the frozen city. Seria let out a chuckle as she touched the cheek Laneige had struck. “My daughter, your manners have gotten quite bad while I wasn’t looking, haven’t they?”

When Laneige didn’t respond, Seria continued, “I’m sorry. It’s because Mommy couldn’t stay by your side all this time, right?”

Laneige bit down hard on her lip and glared at Seria. “Snap out of it, Mom.”

“Oh my? Snap out of it? I’m perfectly fine right now, though.”

Laneige shook her head firmly. “No. You weren’t like this, Mom.”

She recalled the memories of the past. Though they were now faded, bleached by time, she remembered them clearly. Even if they were hazy, even if they were worn and pale, she remembered them all—her mother smiling gently, patting her back, and the warmth of their skin touching.

Tears slid down her cheek and pooled at the tip of her chin. “I don’t know what turned you into this, but please. Please, come back, Mom.”

For a moment, a glimmer of light flickered in Seria’s once-empty eyes. But it lasted only an instant. Soon after, she burst into hollow laughter, cackling loudly. She spread her arms wide and smiled brightly. “Come now, look here, Laneige. Mommy’s already back, isn’t she?”

Laneige squeezed her eyes shut. Then, with a faint smile that looked as though it would snap at any moment, she nodded. “Yeah. That’s right. I understand.”

The mother she remembered no longer existed. She would never again feel the warmth of that day. Now she knew. She hadn’t wanted to know, but she knew. Her soul stigmata flared with brilliant light. The raging blizzard gathered in midair, blooming into white snowflakes.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” she muttered.

Seria’s eyes widened as she gazed at the beautiful snowflake blossoming in the air. She had never taught her daughter how to wield her power. So, when she saw Laneige use a force so similar to her own Frost, a soft laugh escaped her.

“Oh my! It seems blood really doesn’t lie.” Seria slowly drew up her dark mana, and pure white frost swirled violently around her. “But. You’re still a long way from catching up to your mother, you know?”

Snowflakes and frost collided. The ground froze solid as a bone-cutting chill swept through the area. It was a cold so extreme that an ordinary person’s lungs would freeze solid just from breathing.

Laneige moved first. Letting out a sharp cry, she thrust her arms at Seria. From the snowflakes blooming in the air, hundreds of shards of ice formed and shot toward Seria. Seria narrowed her eyes as she watched this sight. Both she and Laneige wielded the power of ice, yes, but Laneige’s power was fundamentally different from the ice magic Seria used. Unlike conventional magic, built upon theory, mastery, and rigid laws, the cold Laneige wielded bordered on pure instinct. Just as people could breathe without carefully calculating each breath, those born with blessings could wield techniques others spent their entire lives mastering as naturally as breathing.

“My daughter, it looks like you were born with a blessing.” Seria’s gaze sharpened. “This is making me a little jealous.”

For someone like Seria, who had devoted her life to mastering ice magic, it was a talent that inevitably stirred envy. Of course, even so, Seria’s magic was not something that could be surpassed by talent alone.

The hundreds of ice shards flying toward Seria shattered into pieces. The broken fragments rained down upon Laneige. Transparent shards pierced into her flesh, soaking red with blood.

***

While the backlash of my Flame Body state had held me back earlier, when Seria counterattacked, I rushed toward Laneige in alarm. “Laneige!”

I hadn’t fully recovered yet, but I couldn’t leave Laneige alone to face an Archbishop-class demon, especially the Archbishop of Frost, one of the strongest among them. However, just as I gripped my sword and moved to stand in front of her, Laneige grabbed my hand and pulled me back.

“Dale, rest for now and leave it to me,” she said.

“Laneige?”

She bit her lip softly, staring straight at Seria. “Please. This is something I have to do.”

I didn’t know why, but even though I knew, rationally, that I shouldn’t let her fight alone, I couldn’t bring myself to stop her. So, I just said, “If it gets dangerous, I’ll step in.”

“Hehe. Thanks, Dale.”

Laneige smiled brightly and walked toward Seria.

* * *

Just meeting her mother’s eyes brought back the nightmare from sixteen years ago, making her tremble from head to toe. She repeatedly told herself she could do it. No, she had to do it, for both herself and her mother.

Seria wore a deep smile. “Oh my! My, my! You’ve grown so much since I last saw you. This makes Mommy feel like she’s going to cry.”

The daughter who once could only shake in fear was now standing before her as a full-fledged hero, blocking her path.

Laneige clenched her fists tightly and drew in a deep breath. “Mom!”

Her soul stigmata burned brighter. Amid the intensifying blizzard, Laneige stretched out her hand. “I’ll let you rest peacefully, very soon.”

White snowflakes bloomed in the empty air. Dozens of snowflakes adorned the sky. Panting, Laneige swept her outstretched hand toward Seria. “Bloom!”

The snowflakes blossoming in midair poured down toward Seria in a torrent.

“Hm. You’ll let me rest in peace, you say. I appreciate the sentiment, but,” Seria curved her lips into a faint smile and extended both arms toward the cascading snowflakes, “I’ve only just been revived. Wouldn’t it be a shame to rest already?”

Snowflakes and frost collided once more. Unlike the first clash, where Laneige had been pushed back almost effortlessly, neither side had the upper hand this time. The struggle was perfectly balanced.

Seria looked genuinely surprised as she watched Laneige hold her ground. “Oh? My daughter, just how powerful a blessing did you awaken?”

Even accounting for a blessing, she had assumed it wouldn’t be difficult to subdue Laneige with her own strength. But the power Laneige was displaying now far exceeded Seria’s expectations.

Laneige replied, “Haa, haa! I-I mean, if I’m your daughter, this much... should be normal, right?”

“Ahahaha! Of course! That’s how my daughter should be!” Laughing brightly, Seria drew up even more dark mana.

Laneige was being pushed back, little by little. The power of the Blessing of the Frost itself was still going strong, but it was only for now. And she knew that if she drew out any more power here, it would go beyond what she could control, like last time. However, without drawing out more power, she couldn’t face Seria.

Groaning in pain, she just staggered backward, pondering her next steps. While she hesitated, the frost storm Seria had unleashed finally pierced through the dozens of snowflakes and engulfed her. A storm of frost wrapped around her. A cold so intense it felt like it would freeze her very soul swept through her.

Laneige hugged herself tightly, shivering uncontrollably. “Ah! Ugh!”

It was cold. Like being submerged in a bathtub filled with ice, like shards of ice flowing through her veins, it felt unbearably cold. Her thoughts slowed. As if even time itself had frozen, everything in the world began to move sluggishly.

Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold.

Then, a wave of warmth touched her shoulder. “You’ve done enough, Laneige.”

I’ve done... enough?

No, nothing had been resolved yet.

* * *

Laneige straightened her crouched body. Forcing herself to resist the urge to lean into the warmth and let it melt her, she took a firm step back into the extreme cold. “Dale. Can you say the mantra of courage for me?”

I frowned at the sudden request. “What?”

She turned back toward me with a faint smile. “You know, the one we did at the training hall.”

“Oh.”

Was she talking about that roleplay from back then?

“Please.”

If that was what Laneige needed right now, I had no choice but to do it. “Laneige. There’s something I never told you.”

“Okay.”

“Remember when I went to the Empire? Well, back then, the Empress actually confessed to me. She asked me to become her consort.”

Laneige’s eyes flew wide open. It was the first she had ever heard of this. “What?”

I continued, “I’d heard a lot about how beautiful Empress Camellia was, but seeing her in person, I realized she was even more stunning than the rumors. Platinum-blonde hair like melted gold, those languid eyes... Honestly, she was incredibly charming. And her figure, too, was voluptuous. Even thinking back now, Whew!”

Laneige shouted, “W-wait, Dale! That wasn’t part of the roleplay setting!”

“They say imitation is the mother of creation,” I replied.

The light slowly drained from Laneige’s eyes. “So, that means, you really got confessed to? By the Empress?”

“Yeah.”

Complete silence ensued. Then, terrifying mana erupted from Laneige. “O-oh. I see. S-so that... wasn’t just roleplay, after all?”

She nervously bit at her fingernails. Blood welled up between the torn nails. “I-I... didn’t even know that. Aha, haha!”

Her eyes lost all focus. Empty and hollow, her gaze sank into a darkness even deeper than Seria’s. “I believed you...”

The raging blizzard swallowed the entire city. Buildings that had barely endured sixteen years of relentless freezing cold finally collapsed one after another.

Explosive energy surged from Laneige. “I believed you, believed you, believed you, believed you, believed you! Y-you... womanizer!”

Watching the scene unfold, Seria stared at us, dumbfounded. “You two, what exactly do you think you’re doing right now?”

“What does it look like? I’m casting a mantra of courage on your daughter,” I replied.

Yeah, to anyone else, it probably looked ridiculous. But at least in terms of effectiveness, it was a Laneige-exclusive courage mantra.

Laneige muttered, “Th-this won’t do. I-I need to q-quickly deal w-with Mom, a-and then p-punish D-Dale.”

Something felt very wrong about this. Erm, did it work too well?