Deals and Desire

The girl's imagination was ultimately limited, and she couldn't recall the details of that pillar of light at all.

But whenever she thought of that pillar of light, she would always feel angry.

Behind every action a person took, there was a reason.

When people felt their shame and weaknesses painfully exposed, they became angry.

Angry at their own weakness.

Angry at the existence of whoever had exposed their pain.

Even if they were merely making life difficult for themselves, they would still feel that way.

When a person couldn't reconcile with themselves and couldn't fully integrate into society, their inner demons would grow wildly like weeds.

In an instant, she seemed to return to that moment once more.

The impact of the heat struck her in the face. Everywhere she looked, she saw a scene from hell.

The ground was nearly melting, vehicles lay overturned, human bodies had been destroyed in an instant by the shock wave, and the ores had been roasted red by the searing heat before slowly cooling.

And behind the pillar of light.

Silver hair drifted slowly in the wind stirred up by the impact, while golden eyes coldly looked down on everything happening below.

Without blood or tears, as if this were the world's most merciless sneer at humanity.

But whom should she hate?

Should she hate that pillar of light?

But if not for that pillar of light, she would never have been saved, and her abilities would never have awakened. It was the exact opposite of that searing heat: the power of extreme cold had branded itself onto her like an inescapable mark. Whenever and wherever she sensed her abilities, the feeling of being shaken by that scene from hell and overwhelmed with fear would never leave her.

Then whom should she hate?

Her little mind couldn't find an answer, yet this incident became a nightmare she could never escape.

An eternal nightmare, an indelible mark.

Originium Arts were powers directly linked to the heart, the form of fantasy after it materialized in reality.

The cold wind gradually twisted into shape in midair. It was a sign that the Originium Arts were about to run out of control.

Yet the girl didn't notice. She remained trapped in the nightmare, unable to pull herself free.

Until—

"What are you daydreaming about now?"

A familiar voice suddenly sounded behind her, accompanied by warmth brushing against her shoulder.

"Ah!"

Anyone lost in thought would flinch if they were suddenly patted.

Little Yelena jumped. The cold current that had been about to take shape instantly dispersed, leaving only her slightly reddened eyes and a pitiful expression that made her look as if she had been wronged.

Chlorine Sodium had noticed that something was wrong with the girl. Of course, if she couldn't sense that cold current and the gradually activating energy fluctuating in the air, she might as well stop using this body and find herself a job.

It was her big sister.

The young woman still wore that expressionless face. People who didn't know her would always think she was difficult to get along with, since she was constantly frowning.

Yet the outpouring of emotion was genuine.

Emotion stood out through actions and the understanding behind them.

In other words, contrast.

What stood out beneath that contrast was her clumsy companionship.

"Sniff... Big sis..."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"Big sis..."

"???"

In the next moment, the girl suddenly burst into tears with a loud "Waaah" and threw herself into Chlorine Sodium's arms.

It left Chlorine Sodium completely baffled as to what had happened.

"Uh... Was what I said really that frightening?"

The middle-aged man driving the vehicle scratched his head awkwardly when he saw the girl's extreme reaction.

"She's just a little timid. Don't worry about it."

That was how Chlorine Sodium explained it...

PS: I can't believe someone came here to demand an update for this book. Damn it, stop urging me, stop urging me! I'm writing it! I'm writing it! Just wait a little longer. Quality and speed can't both be maintained!

That book won't be abandoned. At worst, I just won't be able to update it daily. You have to know that I'm writing two books right now. Alexander is already dying from all the demands for updates. Sob, sob—please spare me.

It'll probably be updated in the next two days... probably.

Probably, maybe, should be, seemingly—assuming nothing goes wrong.

By the way, why have there been so few comments on this book lately? Leave more comments. That way, even when I'm taking a break, I'll have more motivation.

Or are you actually shelving the book to accumulate chapters? Don't do that, don't do that. Leave comments to motivate me, please. Sob, sob, sob.

Section 25: Chapter Twenty-Five—The Deal and Desire

"Did you get what I wanted?"

Late at night, in the duke's territory.

Inside the lord's castle, Koschei sat before the chessboard, looking at the pieces on it.

Across from him, the silver-haired girl sat in the opponent's seat, holding a cup of hot tea.

She had changed out of the extremely conspicuous clothes she wore as a Herrscher. She had not revealed even the Herrscher's distinctive wings or golden eyes, instead restraining her energy and coming here as an honored guest of the ducal household.

"Of course, of course. With the commotion you caused, miss, making things happen was easy for me. But I truly didn't expect you to like this kind of Eastern beverage."

As he spoke, he handed over a document.

"Your chess style is just as fierce. It seems you don't like staying behind the scenes."

On the chessboard, the white side was clashing head-on with the black side. White was attempting to shatter Black's defensive formation through the most brutal exchanges of pieces and seize the final victory.

"I hate wasting time on the wrong things, even when they have to be done."

After taking a sip of hot tea, Chlorine Sodium set down the cup and opened the folder. It contained quite a few reports, but only the several pages marked in red contained the information she needed.

This was the deal between them, a trade of intelligence.

Koschei needed someone to accelerate a process, while this taciturn new friend needed a skilled informant who could betray anyone. Thus, the deal was made.

The information being collected concerned anything that might be related to the protagonist: secrets behind the world, prototypes of classified projects, a prince from some country who had been expelled after a palace coup, a useless nobody who had fallen from prosperity to ruin, and so on.

In short, they had to cast a wide net for any intelligence that might be connected to something like the protagonist, whether or not it actually yielded anything.

One of the pages caught her attention.

It was an archived record from many years ago.

A mining record from a small mining company under the Ursus Boris Group, concerning its operations in the southern mountains.

A black-and-white photograph was attached to the report.

The image was very blurry, but it was possible to make out a group of workers dragging something outside.

"What is this?"

"Oh, excellent eyes. This is extremely classified information, and it took me a great deal of effort to obtain it."

Koschei lifted his coffee cup and spoke.

"It happened more than ten years ago. A small mining company under the Boris Group excavated a set of... unusual devices in the southern mountains."

After considering his wording, the duke ultimately chose the word "unusual" to describe the object.

"No one knows what it is. Even the people from Ursus's technical department couldn't make heads or tails of it. The only conclusion was that the object's history might predate Ursus itself."

A secret behind the world? If this thing was a prototype, then it might very well be the protagonist's destined machine.

After all, protagonists loved experimental prototypes. Few of them piloted mass-produced models.

But judging from the photograph...

The silver-haired girl narrowed her eyes and examined it carefully, but she couldn't tell what the thing actually was.

"Where is this thing now?"

"Good question, but unfortunately..."

Koschei interlaced his fingers and spoke.

"This thing is a core-level secret of the empire. Even for me, obtaining it would be extremely difficult. There are still clues, though. If you want to look for it, try Chernobog. As for our future cooperation, just continue with what you're doing for now. Accelerating this process will benefit us both."

"In that case..."

The Earl spread his hands.

"—A pleasure doing business."

The girl nodded and left.

She really was the action-oriented type. She left as soon as she finished speaking; that was hardly a noble's habit.

But so be it. People were different. Someone like Koschei always preferred to take things slowly.

After all...

—Being decisive before moving a piece was an art.

Knowing the danger of chess, yet sitting back and watching the situation unfold.

"This thing is your method for dealing with the Snow Demon?"

Chernobog's sarcophagus, secret testing grounds.

They had deliberately avoided the military and, under the nobles' banner, independently taken the lead in cooperating with external financial conglomerates. The benefits would be split evenly, like a lever turning something that had not existed into something within easy reach.

Of course, the price was doubled as well.

But that was how gamblers were. With little capital, they had to gamble if they wanted to gain anything.

Although this style was unlike the people of Ursus, it was more reminiscent of the people of the East Country.

"Yes. What do you think, Director Kal'tsit? Doesn't this feel like an artifact crafted by the gods themselves?!"

The deputy director stared at the mechanical creation before him, his face full of fanaticism and excitement.

Yet the female lord beside him, a woman named Kal'tsit, did not show the surprise he had imagined. She merely stared coldly at the thing, her expression utterly unchanged.

The Snow Demon was an unidentified entity that had recently appeared in northern Ursus and run rampant there.

To this day, no effective footage had been captured. They had only managed to photograph fleeting moments of the Snow Demon's presence from a great distance.

No one knew what the thing truly was. Even the name "Snow Demon" was merely a code name used to refer to it.

After all, it appeared and vanished unpredictably, never revealing its true form. Whenever it appeared, it caused massive casualties, just like the Snow Demons of legend.

Only this thing was far more capable in a fight than the legendary Snow Demons.

For that reason, the noble forces above seemed unable to bear the disturbance, yet they also had certain political conflicts. They had specifically extended an olive branch to the sarcophagus research group.

These new nobles were not as corrupt and hidebound as the old military nobles. They had even found outside partners under the nobles' banner, though this was also the result of the deputy director's efforts.

Human greed and desire: the new nobles yearned to unravel the mystery behind the Snow Demon, while external technology conglomerates coveted the Snow Demon's abilities. They were all pursuing the answers behind the gods.

As for what the research group wanted, it was more funding, along with the deputy director's personal promotion.

Human desire had no limits. People dared to pursue even something this dangerous.

Of course, their confidence was not unfounded.

Because they had a trump card: the enormous creation before Kal'tsit.

A monster encased in metal and sealed within a cage.