“Barely.”

Deep blue eyes, resembling the Islian Lake where icebergs float year-round, scan me from head to toe as I sit on the bed.

“Merely.”

The sharp gaze of Duke Frost Ielheim, the Northern Guardian chosen by Iello, the Ice Sword – one of the four sacred swords protecting the Yustera Empire – furrows fiercely.

“This kind of thing to me.”

A wintry killing intent, colder than the winter sea, flashes in the blue eyes revealed beneath long silver frost-like eyelashes.

“This kind of thing?”

I instinctively reached for my waist out of habit, but all I grasped was the fluttering chiffon dress and a painful realization.

‘Ah. Right. I’m now just Yuriella Grande.’

Feeling dejected, I looked up at Frost, who was leaning awkwardly against the bedroom doorway. The white moonlight filtering through the window shattered noiselessly on his silver thread-like hair.

‘Thank goodness. At least you’re not confined to bed, Frost.’

Frost closed the distance in just four steps with his long, slender legs and lifted my face with one finger.

“It seems Duke Grande doesn’t want to live long. You’re telling me the bride he pushed into my bedroom is just an illegitimate daughter who wandered as a dancer in a medicine peddler’s troupe?”

I flinched at the icy cold touch on the tip of my chin.

“How adorable. Acting so demure as if it’s your first time with a man’s touch, when you boldly intruded into my chambers.”

“Are you… always this cold?”

“Is there any particular reason I should be warm towards you?”

No, that’s not what I meant.

“Your hand is cold as ice. Is it cold because you’re in pain? Or is your body temperature naturally like this?”

Although we had stood shoulder to shoulder countless times on the battlefield, this was the first time I had directly felt his body temperature. I couldn’t help but worry if this was also due to Flama’s demonic poison…

“You keep speaking informally.”

Frost pushed my shoulder with his fingertip. It stung my pride to fall back as lightly as a dandelion seed.

“Ugh.”

Before I knew it, Frost’s thick arms and legs had caged my body like giant bars.

“Didn’t the Duke teach his hastily created daughter any manners?”

We had been on informal speaking terms as equal owners of sacred swords.

It’s unfair, but should I use honorifics for the conversation to flow?

“If it displeases you, I will speak formally, Your Grace.”

“You. You’re not trembling?”

“If you prefer me trembling, I can do that too.”

I purposely shivered my shoulders as if frightened. Seeing it had no effect, the furrow between Frost’s brows deepened.

“Did your father promise you the wealth and glory of a Duke’s daughter that you’ve never enjoyed before if you could give me an Ielheim heir before my life ends?”

At least he’s not a fool swayed by the greedy Duke. That’s a relief.

“The Duke must have been in quite a hurry. Judging by how he pushed his daughter into the bedroom without following proper procedures.”

He did seem to be in a great hurry.

Although it was top secret that the Duke had become terminally ill after being struck by my sword, rumors inevitably spread among his vassals.

If the Duke were to die without an heir, all his territory and wealth would be confiscated by the state treasury.

Under the pretext of ‘protecting the North,’ large and small northern families began to slyly move to bring in their daughters or nieces as the Duchess.

Unfortunately, Duke Grande, the eternal second-in-command of the North, had no daughter. True to the family’s reputation for having only sons, there was no bride of marriageable age to be found even among the collateral branches.

The last card chosen by the anxious Duke Grande was an illegitimate daughter he had abandoned before she was even born. Yuriella, the daughter born to a lowly maid.

I couldn’t even imagine becoming Frost’s companion, so I persisted in refusing no matter how much the Duke starved or beat me.

[No medicine is effective against demonic poison, and divine power doesn’t work either. No one can save the Duke. Unless perhaps the lost sacred sword of healing, Aeri, were to appear after 500 years.]

I changed my mind after hearing the Duke’s words.

Wanting to know if I could save the Duke, I immediately called for Aeri, but it seems she’s still not showing herself, perhaps still angry.

Then I’ll have to face this alone for now.

“Let’s… get married.”

Becoming his personal healer would have been a better option, but it was unlikely to be accepted.

Even poor commoners who couldn’t afford a doctor’s help often avoided Eastern Continent acupuncture.

How could the Duke’s household, with resident physicians and high-ranking priests at their beck and call, allow unfamiliar acupuncture on their precious master’s body?

“Why should I marry the likes of you?”

“…”

Even if I answered that the healing energy shared by the spirit of the sacred sword Aeri was flowing through my body, he probably wouldn’t believe me. Aeri had also urged me to keep her existence a secret.

“Answer.”

“Um… because I’m pretty?”

I’m not sure about the standards of beauty, but after possessing Yuriella’s body, I couldn’t help but understand the meaning behind the sticky gazes of men.

And not just gazes. Remembering those who approached with surreptitious, sensual touches made my teeth grind.

“Hahaha. Not even funny.”

You say it’s not funny, but you’re laughing quite well. But looking at Frost up close, I could understand.

Yuriella may be pretty, but Frost up close was exceptionally beautiful.

If Emperor Justin, called the most handsome man in the continent, was like a splendid rose exuding an intoxicating fragrance, then Frost Ielheim was cold and mysterious like an ice flower crafted from the perennial ice and snow of the North Sea.

“Disgusting.”

At the words that slipped out without my realizing, a crack appeared on Frost’s smooth forehead.

“What?”

“Huh?”

“What you just said.”

“Ah. Not you, Your Grace. I was thinking of someone else.”

For some reason, the Emperor’s disgustingly handsome face overlapped with the Duke’s, though they looked nothing alike. Is it because they’re cousins?

“Someone else?”

Frost twisted the corner of his mouth with an expression of disbelief.

“You thought of another man while on my bed?”

“What? No, that’s not- eek!”

Frost’s nose tip touched my nostril! Panicking, I pushed his face away and quickly covered my lips with both hands. Frost snorted with a look of disbelief.

“Are you refusing? If you leave like this without any results, I don’t think your greedy father will let you live.”

“A-are you trying to seduce me now?”

“You should be the one doing the seducing. Isn’t that why you snuck in?”

His breath tickled my skin, making my face itch. For some reason, my stomach also felt ticklish and my toes curled.

Though cornered like prey caught by a beast, the cooler judgment and wit needed in desperate situations is what separates a great general from a mediocre one.

Not wanting to lose to the chilling blue light emanating from his deeply sunken eyes, I looked up at Frost with determination.

“So? Will you fall for me?”

“You’d become the bride of someone who could die at any moment?”

“If you don’t want a bride, how about hiring me as your healer? I recommend that more.”

“I have more than enough healers. No quacks allowed.”

“What if I’m not a quack?”

I reached out and started unbuttoning Frost’s shirt from the top. If I show my skills, he’ll understand.

Frost’s broad back, which had been looking down at me leisurely, trembled, and his hand roughly covered mine.

Could it be? Is he feeling shy?

“I need to see the wound to treat it.”

“You’re going to heal me?”

“They say even renowned priests and famous doctors have given up, right? This isn’t just a wound from a sword, but a wound from Flama… no, from Flama that has become a demon sword.”

I started unwrapping the bandage, wriggling my fingers under Frost’s large hand.

“I will heal you.”

This time, Frost didn’t stop me but removed his hand and just watched what I was doing.

“Your seduction is truly clumsy. How would any man fall for this?”

“I’m not trying to seduce you. And you’re not the kind of man I want to seduce.”

Huh. Frost’s breath, laughing in disbelief, lightly ruffled the hair on my forehead.

“I know you’re considered the second most handsome man in the Empire. But I happen to dislike handsome men. Quite a lot.”

“You dislike them but want to marry?”

I was about to suggest being hired as a healer instead of marriage again, but I forgot my words. The wound revealed under the bandage soaked with pus and blood took my breath away.

“What the hell…!”

My fingertips holding the bandage trembled. Reality is always more horrific than imagination.

The sword wound slashing diagonally from Frost’s side to his abdomen hadn’t healed and was melting down in a dark red color. It looked even more terrible in stark contrast to the smooth surrounding skin of tightly packed muscles.

It had clearly worsened since I’d glimpsed the wound at the last battle of Colina Rosa.

“Bastard! What the hell did he do to Flama…!”

Seeing Flama turn into a demon sword, I had briefly suspected the Duke. I’d heard a story a few years ago about the woman called the Empire’s greatest black magician being arrested and imprisoned by the Duke.

But how could he fall victim to a demon sword he created himself? And to such a horrific, terminal state…

If not the Duke, then it must be the Emperor’s doing. But what reason could he have had for turning his prized sacred sword into a demon sword?

“Solas,”

Suddenly hearing my name, I stopped my thoughts and held my breath.

“…What about Solas…?”

“…Never mind.”

Frost got up and tidied his unbuttoned shirt.

Hearing my name after months felt somehow unfamiliar.

Solas Moretti, more famous in the North as the Emperor’s dog than by name. A fool who wielded her sacred sword without realizing it had turned into a demon sword. And yet, branded a traitor, beheaded, and displayed on the Imperial Palace walls… or so they say.

“Leave now. I’m tired.”

Despite the order to leave, I remained frozen, unable to move.

Many words surged from my heart to the tip of my throat.

I wanted to ask. How much pain had he endured because of me? How could I atone for the sins I committed against innocent northerners? If that was even possible.

But I couldn’t say anything. When Solas’s life ended, the chance to ask for forgiveness disappeared with it, and I knew that forgiveness is not something the sinner should seek.

“I said leave.”

I couldn’t leave. I hadn’t yet accomplished the purpose for which I came here.

I took out a silver needle about two knuckles long from my dress pocket. As I focused, a shimmering green light gathered on the silver needle.

I quickly approached Frost and tried to insert the silver needle into his abdominal and side wounds!

No, I tried to, but…

‘Why won’t the needle go in?’

It seemed the needle had bounced off his muscle instead of the wound because Frost reflexively twisted his body to avoid it. What kind of muscle is as hard as stone?

In an instant, Frost’s hand roughly grabbed my wrist and knocked me to the floor. And before I could dodge, he straddled my body.

Frost’s clear, clean silver hair flowed down over his forehead.

I involuntarily shuddered as deep blue eyes like the midwinter sea gazed at me intently. Was it because my body had changed? An overwhelming fear I’d never felt before trickled down from the crown of my head along my spine.

I bit my lip hard, my pride stinging.

It was frustrating to realize I could never overpower Frost with this weak body. But what could I do? I had to handle him in a way suitable for this body.

“Ah! My arm! Aaah!”

Frost hesitated and loosened his grip, allowing me to escape from him. But after a few steps backward, my bare back hit the cold wall.

Slowly rising, Frost approached me without taking his eyes off me. The killing intent he emitted made the air in the room feel as if it would freeze.

“So you’re not just a simple illegitimate child. Did the Emperor send you?”

Frost’s icy blue eyes coldly glared at the silver needle I was holding.

“An assassin with a strange skill.”

Frost sneered chillingly and stretched his right arm to the side.

– Zing.

A blue and clear aura swirled around his hand, and the ice sword Iello revealed its transparent blade.

The sacred sword Iello. The longsword made of ice can cut through any strong enemy and never breaks or melts.

It possesses the power of ‘immutability,’ rejecting decay, aging, and deterioration, and depending on the owner’s ability, can even isolate the opponent from the flow of time, sealing them eternally in ice that never melts.

“W-wait! There’s no need to bring out Iello just to deal with me!”

As Frost lightly twirled the sword a few times, a bone-chilling cold air swooped in.

“True. It’s too precious a sword to use on you. Close your eyes and consider it an honor.”

As Frost raised his sword high, a violent sword energy swirled, and my nape felt cold.

I ended up squeezing my eyes shut.