The Unfettered Ice Princess [ EN ]

Chapter 40 [ Future Spoilers ]

"Tell me all about my immortality."
Although the sentence was spoken casually. Cleopatra realized how much weight and pressure each word carried.

From now on Cleopatra really had to guard her words. She must not say anything wrong. If she offended Naeva, she would surely die instantly.

Cleopatra took a deep breath first, trying to calm herself down. Once she felt okay, the girl opened her mouth.

"Lady Naeva, before explaining about that. I must first explain how much I know about your past."

Naeva, "Continue."

"I saw flashbacks of your past from the shadow of the future. You are actually an ordinary human from a world that was made into a tutorial area by Tower. The boss of that area was the Ice Queen. Together with your friends, you were able to conquer the Ice Queen. But only you survived from there. As a reward for your conquest, you became the heir to the Ice Queen's ability that allows you to manipulate ice like now. You, who have become proficient in using it, finally enter the Tower as the Conqueror," Cleopatra explained.

Naeva quietly listened, she did not blame or correct anything Cleopatra explained even though her explanation was incomplete.

"But, Lady Naeva. Actually, the Tower only bestowed the Ice Queen ability on you. The immortality and other things you obtained were not gifts of conquest but rather someone's gift."

"Gift... Someone...? Who? And why?" Naeva wondered.

Naeva honestly didn't want to ask this. But a question kept nagging at her.
"Hearing you not call it a curse, but a gift... Can I assume that person meant me well?"

Cleopatra nodded, and it was an answer Naeva did not want to hear/see. She didn't want to think the source of her thousands of years of suffering was someone's gift. Because it would be easier for her if that person gave her a curse so that Naeva could return it without having to think twice.

Cleopatra wore an unpleasant expression.
"I don't know the details of what happened. What I saw was you telling Lady Ophelia far in the future that you could not and would not hate that person. Because after all, that person gave up everything to keep you alive."

"The person who gave up everything for me..." murmured Naeva reminiscently.

No matter how far Naeva dug into her past, she did not remember at all about the person who had such a close relationship with her before becoming an Ice Princess. All the people like that in her memory were dead before she woke up.

"Who was that person?"
Naeva gave up, it would be faster if she asked.

Unfortunately, Naeva's question was met with a shake of Cleopatra's head.
"I apologize, Lady Naeva. In all my future visions, I did not find any instance where you told me the details of that person."

Hearing that made Naeva frown. She knew it was in her nature not to share too much personal information. But still, it was a little annoying.

Noticing the change in Naeva's expression, Cleopatra quickly explained something else so that Naeva's mood wouldn't be ruined.
"But I know something that can help you discover the identity of that person, Lady Naeva."

Naeva, "What is it?"

Cleopatra took out a piece of paper and a pen from her pocket. She drew some arts describing certain floors in the Tower.
"Lady Naeva, one of your close friends besides Lady Ophelia once said that you found the answers to your life on these two floors."

"?"
Naeva brought her face closer to the paper.

In the first art, there was an area with many misleadingly shady trees and fog surrounding it. In addition, there were strange squiggles that formed cracks in the sky.