Become their wicked yet gentle lord.

Judging from age and time, Ryuka looked at the girl magician, the little girl, and Melanie in front of her.

"It can't be..."

The young sorceress coldly swung an ice ball, knocking the little girl to the ground, causing her to wail even louder.

The punitive expedition also burst into laughter, and one of them grabbed the little girl by the hair and pulled her up.

"Look closely, this little rascal has a good foundation; he might grow up to be a beauty!"

"She's a family member of that heretic hunter, isn't she? Come to think of it, they haven't been settled yet."

The young mage smiled and said, "Leave it to me. I need to prepare a secret spell, which requires some offerings."

Her words caused everyone's expressions to change; some were suspicious, while others were wary.

The priest stepped forward and asked, "What do you mean?"

"It's nothing. To defeat that heretical White God, we always need to use some special methods, right? I need half a month to prepare a secret technique to increase our chances of success... After all, I'm determined to get that blue crystal."

The magician just smiled like that, seemingly unconcerned about what others thought.

Magic involving human sacrifice is generally forbidden. Even those who know it wouldn't openly discuss it to avoid trouble, especially in front of the church.

But at this moment, the young magician looked at the priest and asked in a tone that was not at all like a question:

"What? You don't believe me, or you won't allow it?"

The priest thought for a moment and then laughed.

"If the sacrifice is made from heretics tainted with cults, the goddess will forgive it, right? Half a month, is that right?"

"Well, before that, I'll leave her and her family in my care, and I'll keep a close watch on them in the dungeon."

Amidst the fearful gazes of the crowd, the girl bound the little girl with ice shackles and led her away from there...

Half a month later, the expeditionary force was fully prepared and ready to set off the next day.

"Well, before that, I'll leave her and her family in my care, and I'll keep a close watch on them in the dungeon."

Amidst the fearful gazes of the crowd, the girl bound the little girl with ice shackles and led her away from there...

Half a month later, the expeditionary force was fully prepared and ready to set off the next day.

However, the young magician and the hunter's family disappeared, along with the hunter's mangled corpse.

If there was anything else, it was the corpses of the other guards—a knight and a novice knight, both killed instantly by ice spikes piercing their hearts.

Just as everyone was discussing what had happened, in the sweltering late summer, the sounds of ice and snow shattering and the earth shaking came from the high mountains.

The heavy snow began to fall...

Only Ryukyu and Melanie knew what had happened that night.

Amidst the fear and hatred in the eyes of the hunter's family, the young mage silently killed the other guards and used her ice blade to force them to leave Linhu Town with her.

She offered no explanation.

Upon reaching this point, the light shifted and began to blur, eventually coalescing into two figures in front of Ryūka and Melanie.

The petite figure, wearing a large wizard's hat, stood quietly beside Melanie, looking at the tall, long-haired woman.

The long-haired woman knelt on the ground, and Vitry was lying on her lap, fast asleep. The white figure was gently wiping away her tears.

The two figures did not make eye contact, and even if they did, Ryusha and Melanie could not discern their emotions from the shadows that lacked eye contact.

Is it resentment, reconciliation, or something else...?

Finally, the magician's shadow scattered into specks of light, hovered for a moment over the glass water pouch at Melanie's waist, and then vanished without a trace...

The shadow of the White God only raised its head at this moment, looked at Ryusha and Melanie in front of it, as if it wanted to say something, and finally fixed its gaze on Vitry.

She gently lifted Vitris's head and looked at the two of them. Ryuka seemed to understand something, stepped forward, and helped Vitris up.

The White God seemed to smile, then nodded to Melanie, before dissipating into fragments of light.

Everything before her eyes turned pure white, and Ryuka couldn't help but close her eyes. Then, she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

……

"Lucia...Lucia!"

"It's so noisy... Can you please keep your voice down?"

Ryuka opened her eyes and complained that she was lying on Kania's lap. Her body was still a little cold, but she didn't feel like she was about to freeze to death like before.

Before her was Kania's bewildered expression. Seeing that this was the first thing she'd said upon waking, Kania irritably pushed her head to the side, causing it to thud against the floor...

"hiss……"

Ryusha rubbed her head as she got up, her body still not quite moving smoothly. She noticed that besides Kania, Kira, Anyaberg, and Lindsay were all there.

Hetia held her sword to Melanie's neck, looking somewhat smug, but then a little resentful when she saw Ryusha.

"Why did you leave my sword lying around?"

Melanie seemed to have woken up earlier than him. She was sitting quietly on the ground, her clothes still bearing the bloody holes he had stabbed with the fork, but her skin was as white as ever.

Her gaze quietly lingered on Vitris, who was sleeping against the blue snow spirit sculpture. Everyone seemed somewhat at a loss as to what to do with this unfamiliar white-haired girl.

"Mr. Ryuka, do you always pick up new girls every time you go out?"

Anjaberg asked somewhat mischievously.

Liu Xia rolled her eyes at her and walked over to Vitry's side. The snow spirit sculpture she was leaning against seemed to have a gentler expression than before.

“She’s asleep.” Ryuka stroked Vitris’s soft hair. It didn’t feel like human hair, which has a silky texture, but rather like the soft fur on an animal’s body, specifically, like the fur on a cat’s belly.

"What exactly happened?" Kania asked. "If it weren't for the strange light emanating from this cave entrance, we probably wouldn't have been able to find you for days and nights."

"It's a long story." Liu Xia shrugged and walked up to Melanie.

Hetia was full of anticipation. Although she didn't know what had happened, she saw the two of them lying unconscious on the ground as soon as she entered. She easily captured Melanie and seemed impatient to see Melanie's cold and proud face being toyed with by Ryūsha into all sorts of infatuated states.

"Is that little girl your mother?"

Ryuka's words left everyone puzzled, but Melanie's eyelashes twitched twice, and she nodded.

"Yes, she was my teacher and also my aunt. She came from a small noble family in the capital. However, she was always eccentric and withdrawn, rarely interacting with even her family members. My mother rarely mentioned her or her."

"Before learning magic from her, I didn't even know she existed. Even after I started learning from her, she rarely mentioned anything outside of magic, so I'm more used to calling her 'teacher' than 'aunt.' The rumors here are just pieces I pieced together from other people and some clues."

"She was very peaceful before she died. She just looked into my eyes for a long time, handed me this glass water pouch, and told me to go to the snow mountain in Linhu Town when I had time. Ha... I thought she was still obsessed with the crystal that could amplify magic power. What wishful thinking..."

"Looking back now, back then, my eyes and hair hadn't changed because of practicing ice and snow magic; they looked more like my mother's... and also like my uncle's, which is why the teacher..."

"Is that so?" Ryuka's voice was very soft as she looked at the stunned Melanie, suddenly unsure of what to say.

"What are you talking about?" Hetia asked, somewhat annoyed. She didn't want to see the subtle, knowing glances between Ryusha and Melanie.

Kania and Kira looked at the Snow Spirit sculpture in front of them, then at Vitry, seemingly lost in thought.

"It's nothing, let her go." Liu Xia shook her head.

"Release her?!" Hetia exclaimed in surprise. Her old nemesis had finally fallen into her hands!

Melanie was also a little surprised. She stared at Ryusha for a long time before laughing.

"Is this sympathy, pity, or an attempt to increase my favorability?"

"Both," Liu Xia readily admitted, picking up Melanie's staff and tossing it to her. "Also, you and your aunt... teacher, have very similar personalities. She's a ruthless person; forceful methods definitely won't work on you, right? I don't want a cold-blooded, ruthless lunatic by my side~"

Ryuka laughed. As long as Xue Ling's Holy Stone was still with her, Melanie wouldn't run away. Moreover, based on what she had learned in the illusion just now, Ryuka understood that Melanie was the kind of person who needed to be played hard to get to win her over.

"So, this is what you learned from that story?" Melanie seemed a little sentimental, but she still managed a dignified smile.

"I suppose so. Besides, even if we capture you, the Third Prince's faction will send new people. Why not keep you here? Perhaps we can... cooperate?"

At least in front of Hetia, she didn't want to show her vulnerable side. After all, it seemed that only Ryūka had ever seen that side of her.

Ryusha's words were mainly for Anyaberg's ears, and then he gave Hetia a look, who had no choice but to release Melanie in dissatisfaction.

“You won’t regret it.” Melanie nodded to Liuxia. “If necessary, I will help you pass on some messages from the Third Prince’s faction. After all, my sister is on your side.”

"Huh? A sister?" Hetia and Anyaberg exclaimed in surprise. As students of the Imperial Military Academy, they had never heard of Melanie having a sister.

Their gazes toward Vitry and Ryusha became strange.

"She should be your older sister, right? She should be older than you."

Ryuka's words left the two even more confused, staring at the white-haired girl in front of them who looked no more than seventeen or eighteen years old and was dressed in only thin, primitive clothing...

“I’m more mature, both mentally and in appearance.” Melanie glanced at Sister Lindsay beside her, omitting the phrase, “Sherling’s age cannot be judged by common sense.”

So Melanie insisted on being the older sister, and then, taking advantage of Hetia's inattention, forcefully ripped off her cloak.

"Snowfield!!!" Hetia drew her sword and was about to rush forward, but Anyaberg held her tightly with both hands and feet.

"Senior Hetia, calm down!"

After all, they were classmates. When Anjaberg and the others were captured, Melanie didn't do anything to them, except for saying that the engineering department was useless, which was quite infuriating.

Melanie, meanwhile, smugly used Hetia's cloak to wrap the broken steel fork on the ground, preparing to take it away.

"Is it his?" Ryuka asked, watching her actions.

"Ah."

"Is it really such a coincidence? All hunters' are the same, right? I have the same one too."

"So, men always overlook the details that women notice. You're still a long way from pretending to understand women's hearts~"

Melanie suddenly came to Ryusha's side and kissed him on the cheek.

Then, she stirred up the snow and flew towards the cave entrance.

Kania didn't care, while the quiet Lindsay blushed at the bold move in front of her, and Anjaberg's eyes lit up as she gossiped between Kania, Ryusha, and Melanie.

This is... a love triangle?!

No… it’s a love quadrangle, Kira said, glancing at Hetia from behind before looking at Vitris, who was still unconscious.

Perhaps... it could be a love triangle? And one of the couples might even be sisters?

But then she looked at Lindsay, whose ears were red, and thought of her own twins, and shook her head uncertainly.

As Melanie flew away from the cave entrance, she turned back and glanced into the dark shadows of Snow Spirit City, then smiled thoughtfully.

Hmm... is it a love triangle?

He just thought it would be fun to tease that brat and make Hetia angry.

"Goodbye, Ryukatsu-kun, and that certain red-haired, violent girl~"

Melanie flew out of the cave. It was already daylight outside, and sunlight shone on the pristine snowfield. The wind and snow had stopped, and all was quiet, bringing a long-lost sense of warmth...

Chapter 1 Hot Spring Resort

The weather in Linhu Town is gradually getting hotter, but the high mountains remain cool. This mountain valley, which is like spring even in the wind and snow, seems to have forgotten about time and entered summer.

The villa was completed during this period thanks to the concerted efforts of the townspeople, the various magical tools made by the engineering students, and the high-concentration magical crystals from the Snow Spirit Cave.

As the snow melts, the snowfields transform into grasslands, and the cooler climate compared to the foothills makes it a well-known summer resort. If one doesn't mind the effort, the higher peaks remain in winter, where activities like skiing and rock climbing will attract aristocrats and wealthy city dwellers in the future.

After a tiring day exploring the snow-capped mountains and grasslands, the hot springs at the cozy mountain resort can wash away all your fatigue...

"You pretend to say 'goodbye,' but you come here every few days, don't you?"

Inside the resort's large courtyard, Liu Xia soaked by the hot spring pool, looking at Melanie holding a wine glass in front of her with a headache.

"What's wrong with Lai Lai? Today is the celebration party for the completion of the manor. Without the magic crystals provided by my sister, you wouldn't have been able to finish so quickly, would you?"

Melanie, wrapped in a white bathrobe, raised her long legs from beneath the water's surface. Warm spring water flowed down her slender calves to her round, fair heels, finally dripping into the pool.

She didn't feel shameless at all, and every now and then she would come to Ryūka to freeload meals and drinks, using her identity as a 'Vitliss family member' and 'intelligence agent'.

“She’s the older sister,” Ryuka corrected them on their age difference.

Melanie smiled slyly, feigning ignorance and misinterpreting Liuxia's words, completely unlike her usual cold and aloof self: "That's right, I'm the older sister."

Liu Xia sighed, looking helplessly at the woman in front of him. Melanie clearly didn't like warm things, yet she had come to soak in the hot springs many times before the resort was built.

To this, Melanie simply remarked, "It's nice to be warm and cozy."

"You've come to see our Ryuka again today, Miss Melanie."