Chapter 74: [The Empress’s Frozen Garden]
The cloaked figure, still restrained, watched the smile on both Adrian’s and Renelle’s face.
He then turned towards their attack dogs, the corrupted humans, that had been turned into ice sculptures and only one thought formed in his mind,
Monsters!
That was the only way he could describe the two.
According to their Intel, the Ardent’s young mistress was only supposed to be an E-rank, and yet, the scene before him told a different story.
Corrupted humans, capable of taking down C or even B-Rank spirit mages, were now nothing but ice sculptures.
And then this monster, in the skin of a butler, once terrifying, his aura now seemed like that of a puppy in front of his lady.
If one could only see auras and saw him in both scenarios, they would think that they were looking at two different people.
"I was doing some cleaning up," Adrian gestured to the cloaked figure, "but I ended up neglecting your safety my lady, I apologize."
Renelle looked at him for a few seconds, knowing very well that he hadn’t interfered on purpose.
After all, he could be by her side in a heartbeat, if she needed him to be.
Still, she decided to play along, gently setting her tea cup on the table by her side and standing up.
"A simple apology won’t do, my dear butler," she slowly approached him, stopping just a few feet away from him."a punishment is in order."
"As you wish," Adrian bowed a little, awaiting her next words.
"As punishment, you are banned from talking to any female that approaches you at the academy," Renelle said without a single change in her expression.
But one thing was obvious,
She definitely was jealous at the attention he got from the opposite gender, thanks to that ridiculous rumor.
But he wasn’t going to point that out, instead, he just gave a light smile as he bowed again, "as you wish, my lady."
Their moment was interrupted by a sudden chuckle, pulling their attention back towards the cloaked figure.
"I see," he started, "so the damn butler is just a puppet and the Grand Duke’s daughter has been deliberately hiding her rank all along."
Either that or their previous informant had been feeding them wrong information, which was impossible since no one would dare betray the cult or the master.
"I see you brought back a pest," Renelle’s eyes seemd to glow as she looked at the cloaked figure.
"I thought you’d want to personally send their gift this time," Adrian answered with a nod.
Renelle slowly walked towards the restrained cloaked figure, look at him for a second before a small dark ice shard formed in her palm and she launched it towards him.
The figure closed his eyes, prepared to turn into an ice sculpture, but all he felt was a bit of cold going through his chest.
After a few more seconds of nothing else happening, he opened his eyes noticing that Renelle had turned back around, heading towards her chair again.
"Adrian," She said without turning back.
"Yes, my lady," the demon butler answer.
"Release him."
Without hesitation, the shadows wrapped around him let got, completely freeing him.
The cloaked figure stood surprised for a few seconds, contemplating whether he should attack,but from what he had seen so far,
He decided otherwise.
Besides, he already had valuable information, and although the master would be displeased at his failure, he’d be able to keep his life.
Or even if he couldn’t, he’d at least be useful to the master before his death.
He looked at the two, slowly took out a circular magic tool from his robe but before he broke it he started,
"You’ll regret —"
He didn’t get the chance to complete his words before he suddenly vanished, taking the place of Adrian’s shadow back in the alley.
"Getting in the way of the cu—" the cloaked figure stopped talking when he noticed that he was now in a different location.
With an annoyed sigh, he broke the magic tool and disappeared again.
***
Back in the shop, Adrian had finished up with clean up duty...which just included him sending everything into his [Shadow Vault].
He neither questioned why Renelle let the cloaked figure go nor did he doubt that decision.
The moment all the corpses were gone, the mist cleared up to reveal that they were still within the boutique.
Fortunately, no damage was done to the merchandise around, since Renelle had made sure to encase them in hollow ice.
"You can come out now," Renelle said as he picked up her tea cup again.
The next second, a wall behind Renelle’s chair moved and the head of the shop owner peeked out, just to make sure it was truly safe.
Isla stepped out first and slowly walked towards Renelle, stopping just by her side.
"U-um," she hesitated for a while, but finally asked, "a-are you okay?"
Renelle froze for a second before a warm smile appeared on her face and sen nodded before patting the girls head,
"I’m fine."
Meanwhile, the shopkeeper slowly approached, their gaze moving between the three, as a complicated look appeared in their eyes.
"...I must say," they began carefully, "this is the first time my boutique has hosted... such an event."
"My apologies for the inconvenience," Adrian calmly said.
"Inconvenience?" the shopkeeper repeated, glancing around again, "I would hardly call—"
They seemed to reconsider their word and the earlier situation before chuckling and adding, "at least none of my merchandise was destroyed, I thank the lady for that."
Renelle just nodded as her attention was fully on Isla who was standing close to her with Crystal on her shoulder.
"Since that’s out of the way," the shop owner clapped their hands lightly, their earlier energy returning as if a switch had been flipped, "shall we continue?"
"Continue," Isla asked.
"Yes, yes," the shopkeeper said, already moving, "we were in the middle of something far more important."
They gestured dramatically toward the racks of clothing.
"Dressing you up."
***
Meanwhile,
"I wish to be connected to the master," the cloaked figure from earlier said as he reached one of the cult’s bases.
He was currently in the room of worship and on the alter was a magic tool that allowed communication with the Master himself, operated by the cloaked figure beside it.
His position was highlighted by a dark red cloak instead instead of the black one every one wore.
"Why do you intend to speak with the Master?" The figure with the red cloak asked, "and what makes you think you’re qualified, failure?"
"It’s about the Mesmerling’s new care takers," the figure with the black cloak started, "they’re —"
Before his words could be completed, he suddenly felt cold. It was so intense that it completely caught him off guard.
He felt something pricking his palm and he slowly lifted.
"Huh?"
In the palm was a rose made completely of ice, something that would be a beautiful sight if it wasn’t literally growing out of a human.
The next second,
[The Empress’s Frozen Garden.]
Before anyone could understand what was going on, a wave of cold energy exploded outwards from the figure with the black cloak, quickly enveloping everything.
The figure in the red cloak didn’t even have time to react as the wave hit him, immediately causing multiple ice flowers to start blooming on him.
He was then encased in a layer of ice, but that was far from the end.
The energy spread through the entire base, freezing anything in its path, until the very building itself was encased in solid ice within minutes.
Back in the worship alter, the figure with the black cloak was still kneeling, his face finally revealed, showing that his mouth was open, mid scream.
His entire body, like most here was riddle with translucent ice petals, turning him into a centerpiece.
Outside the ice encased building, a figure floated above the building looking towards it with narrowed eyes.
Even though the light from the sun was brightly illuminating every, the figure’s form still seemed completely shrouded, as if something was actively hiding it.
"So that’s how much she has grown," for a man whose puppets have just been murdered, he sounded completely unbothered.
The space by his side suddenly cracked and shattered, revealing that he had never left his spot in the royal capital.
With a smile, he muttered,
"This game of ours just got a lot more interesting, V@i#."
"First, let’s remove your anomaly," he continued, turning to the side where a magic tool, observing Adrian, Renelle and Isla step out of the boutique, was, "this annoying butler."