The Frozen Layer Beneath

The magic orb lit up the surroundings, its ghastly white light outlining the uneven, twisting lines of the ice. Together, they formed a small, quiet, upside-down bowl of an ice chamber. In response to Brando's question, Quhua merely looked at him and smiled faintly, her gaze calm. She neither argued nor refuted him. Nearby, Grand Duke Anlek leaned silently against the ice wall. He had smashed his forehead open, and his wrinkled face was covered in blood, making him look utterly miserable.

This left Brando in a difficult position. Was he really supposed to stab her? If she had been some vicious monster, it would have been easy, and he would have had no psychological burden. But as things stood, she seemed no more than a harmless young girl. Her existence might lead to a terrible future, leaving many people homeless and causing countless others to lose their friends and family, but that was only a possibility. If the girl had been eager to argue, he might have assumed she was harboring evil intentions. Yet Quhua was extremely clever. Her silence instead made her seem frank, leaving Brando with no way to strike.

Brando had long held his sword in his hand, but in the end, he sighed and lowered the dark blade. He could not bring himself to kill someone over a nonexistent possibility.

I really am too softhearted.

Brando could not help shaking his head. If Antitina saw this, she would certainly take him aside and warn him again that anyone who wanted to accomplish great things could not afford to be so indecisive. What he did not know was that Antitina remained loyal precisely because of this indecisiveness that set him apart from the other nobles. Adviser Miss was not made of stone; she was merely afraid