Chapter 284: The Art of Freezing Time (Part 2)
Cold.
I’ve always disliked the cold.
There wasn’t a particular reason.
I just hated it since I was very young.
But you, called the Heart of Winter.
To think I’ve become fused with something like you.
What good does this do?
Right?
It’s hot.
I’ve never been fond of the heat.
There wasn’t any grand reason.
It’s been that way since I was born.
But you, were you saying your name is Lloyd Frontera?
After becoming fused, it’s a bit more difficult than I thought.
What’s with human bodies and being so hot?
Don’t you think?
This is ridiculous.
I never asked to be fused.
I didn’t permit you to babble in my subconscious.
But barging in and babbling away, where did you learn such manners, really?
Right?
This is absurd.
Who’s the one absorbed haphazardly?
I was only slightly interested in you.
But to absorb the divine artifact on your own and then complain, what kind of situation is this, really?
Don’t you think?
Hey, you’ve been openly mimicking my soliloquy since a while ago.
Are you doing this on purpose?
You, you’ve been coming at me quite sharply for a while now.
Are you doing this intentionally?
Yes, I’m doing this on purpose.
If you’re going to fuse with someone’s body without permission, at least bring a gift.
If it’s a gift you’re talking about, I’ve already brought it.
You brought it?
Yes.
Where?
Here. Right here. Right now. Before your very eyes.
Lloyd opened his eyes.
Had he been dreaming for a moment?
Or had he been tossing and turning for a while?
Or perhaps…
‘I passed out.’
Blinking his eyelids, first squintingly, then more clearly.
His vision focused.
The scenery around him came into view.
The first thing he saw was the clear blue sky.
It was bright.
Dazzling.
Direct sunlight poured into his eyes as if drilling into them.
“Ah, my eyes.”
He grumbled, squinting at the overwhelming brightness of the blue sky, when someone poked their head from the edge of his view.
“Lloyd, are you conscious?”
Silhouetted against the backlight, a head appeared.
But even just the shape of the head was emitting an overwhelming aura of handsomeness.
“Harvey?”
“Yes, Lord Lloyd. It’s me.”
The guy faintly smiled, the breeze stirring his silver hair.
Only then did Lloyd realize he was lying on the ground.
He could feel the concerned gazes of many around him.
The tunnel work crew he had been with until moments ago.
“Everyone, here…”
Lloyd sat up abruptly, only to be hit by a wave of dizziness.
Harvey quickly reached out to support him.
“We’re outside the tunnel. You’re safe now. So please, rest a bit more.”
Indeed.
Lloyd looked around.
One, two, three, four, everyone.
All the workers from the face were there without missing a single one.
Each wrapped in thick blankets or winter quilts, drinking warm water under the warm sun.
Ppo-Dong and Bang-Wool were also squirming in his arms.
He finally grasped the situation.
‘Everyone escaped safely. I’m safe too.’
He recalled the events.
The unfamiliar explosion and vibration while supervising the upward vertical tunneling, the Heart of Winter, and then the storm of cold…
Then he had saved people.
Carrying them out one by one.
He had repeated this over twenty times.
Exhausted and on the verge of passing out.
Or had he made a decision?
‘Quick Charge.’
He had used that card.
After that, he had no memories.
Which was natural.
During a Quick Charge, one becomes utterly oblivious.
Unaware of any circumstances or changes around them.
‘What happened after that?’
Lloyd looked up, turning to Harvey supporting him.
“Hey.”
“Yes, Lord Lloyd.”
“Did you save me?”
“Perhaps, yes.”
“And the last ones in the face, Ppo-Dong, Bang-Wool, and the foreman, did you save them too?”
“That is, um, well…”
Harvey faintly smiled, his answer vague.
Lloyd tilted his head.
“What do you mean by ‘well’?”
“I did rush here first to assist you, Lord Lloyd, but whether I saved those you mentioned is uncertain.”
Harvey’s smile turned into a bitter one.
A knight of silver hair thought to himself how ambiguous his answer must seem.
Yet, he couldn’t provide any other explanation.
The reason was simple.
‘How do I explain what happened back then? I have no idea.’
Harvey recalled the events just after assisting Lloyd’s Quick Charge.
Was it right after the Heart of Winter merged into Lloyd’s Mana Heart?
Lloyd had then lost consciousness.
Or more precisely, lost his mind.
Like a sleepwalker.
Or someone drunk to the point of unconsciousness.
Staggeringly getting up as if in a trance.
Zombie-like, he had headed deeper into the tunnel.
It was terrifying.
Rushing after him, trying to stop him.
Asking why he was heading deeper instead of seeking safety.
Then that fake Lloyd had turned sharply to face him.
Looking straight into his eyes.
‘I’m the one responsible here.’
It was baffling.
Then Lloyd’s drunken mutterings continued.
‘There are still people inside. The foreman. He trusted me to work on this site. So I have to bring him out. Right?’
‘But Lord Lloyd, in that case, let me go inside…’
‘I have to be the one to bring him out. It’s my responsibility. I’m in charge here. The person in charge.’
Words fell on deaf ears.
Stubborn and headstrong.
That’s when it started.
Worried that the fake Lloyd might collapse.
Following him inside the tunnel, still somewhat filled with cold, listening to his stubborn soliloquies.
About the site manager, the supervising company, the construction and project teams all being corrupt. How could it be? Someone fell and got injured. If only the safety net had been properly installed. A person’s spine shattered. Forced to live in a wheelchair for life. But they said they weren’t responsible. It was more the fault of the person who climbed up there. Does that make any sense?
‘Why do they live like that? That’s not how it should be. But the world goes on like that. Really, it’s not right. So I cursed them in my mind. The site manager who pretends to be nice but eats up everything behind the back. All those people. I decided not to become like them. When I get my knight’s license and take charge of the design, I want to make sure such things don’t happen on my site. That’s why.’
‘If I don’t do this now. If I run away because I’m scared. Then I’m no different from those I cursed. That’s not right.’
‘Lord Lloyd.’
Fake Lloyd.
What kind of life have you lived?
In what world did you live?
Harvey shook his head.
It was utterly incomprehensible.
He thought he couldn’t even guess.
But one thing was clear.
The sincerity in that fake Lloyd’s grumbling and grievances.
That he was staggering into the tunnel despite losing consciousness.
Somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to stop or hold him back.
While he pondered this, Lloyd had reached the face.
He had carried the almost unconscious foreman.
Despite hardly being able to walk himself.
Yet, he had managed to carry the foreman, shrink Ppo-Dong and Bang-Wool, and walked out of the tunnel.
Climbing the towering vertical shaft ladder.
Only after laying the foreman under the warm sunlight did he collapse and lose consciousness completely.
That was what Harvey had witnessed from Lloyd.
Perhaps today, he had glimpsed the most honest side of the fake Lloyd.
Suddenly, that thought crossed his mind.
‘And the Heart of Winter. It was absorbed. Completely. Without leaving a single piece behind.’
Lloyd using Quick Charge.
Because he had assisted him, he could feel it.
Through the Mana Heart and circle connected to assist Lloyd, he could distinctly sense it.
At the end of Quick Charge.
The moment the mana absorption exceeded its limit.
The raging Heart of Winter suddenly calmed.
It was absorbed as if seeping into Lloyd’s Mana Heart.
‘Does this fake Lloyd know about it?’
Harvey looked at Lloyd with a mix of hope and concern.
Now that he had absorbed the divine artifact, the Heart of Winter.
What consequences it might bring.
Whether it would harm the fake Lloyd.
Or gift him with immense possibilities.
He decided to keep a close watch on Lloyd.
Meanwhile, Lloyd was also fully aware of his condition.
‘Wow, this is a disaster.’
He had swallowed the Heart of Winter.
Just thinking about it made him gulp.
‘I just used Quick Charge to recover my strength from exhaustion, to refill my mana and escape from there.’
But he had never dreamed of absorbing the Heart of Winter itself.
He hadn’t even considered such a possibility.
‘Of course not. It’s the Heart of Winter. One of the Magenta Royal Family’s three divine artifacts.’
It was an artifact of great significance.
On the other hand, his Quick Charge?
‘It’s a remarkable technique, sure. It took down the Undead Mastodon and the Hell Knight. But it has clear limits.’
It can absorb an immense amount of mana.
But there’s a limit to that too.
It couldn’t absorb mana beyond the limit of Quick Charge.
Like when he tried to subdue the Bonedragon with Quick Charge.
‘The total amount of mana the dragon had was enormous. Quick Charge? It only managed to absorb a bucketful of water from a lake.’
It barely inflicted any meaningful damage.
Naturally, he thought it would be the same this time.
Even if Quick Charge was powerful, it couldn’t absorb the royal family’s divine artifact, the Heart of Winter.
At best, it would absorb some of the rampaging cold storms around it.
But even that would be enough.
To refill the empty Mana Heart.
To regain strength and escape with Ppo-Dong, Bang-Wool, and the foreman.
That’s all he had thought.
‘But this, wow. Was the Heart of Winter’s mana capacity that meager?’
He couldn’t help but think so, given the unexpected outcome.
It was good, in a way.
But the value of what he had absorbed was so immense that he was seriously worried about the aftermath.
‘Tch. Should I just make something up? Say the Heart of Winter was destroyed in a rampage. After all, that would be more believable to others. Who would believe I absorbed it?’
As Lloyd thought this far, he glanced sideways.
He looked at Harvey’s profile.
Feeling his gaze, Harvey turned towards him.
And then he whispered something unexpected.
“Lloyd, just say it was destroyed.”
“…Did you know, about the absorption?”
“Yes. Thanks to the Asrahan technique. I felt it. That’s why.”
“…”
“Others don’t possess the Asrahan technique. If we both keep quiet, no one will know.”
“But it’s a divine artifact of the royal family that’s been shattered. I’m surprised you’re the one suggesting I cover it up.”
“There’s nothing surprising about it. My loyalty is not to the royal family, but to my lord.”
“So you want to prevent any trouble that may arise from me absorbing the Heart of Winter from causing a scandal for the family?”
“I haven’t heard anything. I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I have no knowledge of it.”
Harvey closed his mouth after saying that.
Looking at him, Lloyd smacked his lips.
‘This guy can be quite blatantly sly sometimes. Anyway, I’ll have to say the Heart of Winter was destroyed in its rampage. The aftermath will still be a headache, though.’
He might have to take responsibility for the loss of the divine artifact.
Even if not, he would still be responsible for the site management.
But Lloyd wasn’t overly worried.
The queen would be on his side.
And today, he had saved everyone.
‘Divine artifact or not. At least I saved lives. That’s enough for now. Let’s be satisfied with that.’
Thinking this, he felt somewhat relieved.
And shortly after, he received more good news.
The royal magician he had first evacuated.
The news that the magician, who had been in a critical condition due to an inexplicable stabbing, had received emergency treatment and safely passed the crisis.
‘Was it because the wound was frozen by the surrounding cold?’
That must have reduced the bleeding.
It must have saved his life.
He felt relieved.
A weight lifted off his shoulders.
Then, something he had been vaguely aware of since a while ago caught his eye.
It was a skill message notification.
‘What’s this?’
Lloyd’s gaze shifted.
[A new Mana Heart skill option has been unlocked.]
[Mana Heart Skill Exclusive Option ⑤: Time Freeze]
‘Time Freeze?’
Lloyd felt puzzled.
A newly created option was Time Freeze.
‘Could this be an option created by absorbing the Heart of Winter?’
It seemed likely.
Feeling a rising sense of anticipation, he opened the detailed information about the option.
Dingdong.
[Skill Exclusive Option ⑤: Time Freeze – Manifest the power of the Winter Heart nestled in the Mana Heart to freeze the flow of time in the world. During this, the caster can arbitrarily designate an unfrozen area where the freeze does not apply, and the range of the unfrozen area is determined by the total amount of mana the caster possesses. Within the unfrozen area, time flows normally.]
[Detailed Information (1): The range of the unfrozen area cannot be changed until the option is deactivated, and the option’s maintenance limit is 1 year.]
[Detailed Information (2): If the caster leaves the unfrozen area, the option is immediately deactivated.]
[Detailed Information (3): All living beings (including the caster) moving within the unfrozen area can act freely. However, due to the effect of the Winter Heart’s cryogenic freezing, they do not experience aging.]
[Detailed Information (4): Activating the option requires a cost of 3,000 RP per use.]
“…Insane. Amazing.”
After reading through the detailed information of the option, Lloyd muttered unconsciously.
