Chapter 146 :
Episode 29 : Frostina's Past (5)
The Ice Dragon who had been defeated against the attacks of the remaining players, was all thanks to the child.
Because the child had slain the Ice Dragon's vassal who was Eric Stephen, it had lost quite a lot of its power, forcing it to be weakened and disadvantaged in the battle against the players.
SHRIEEKKKK!!
..But it was none of the child's business.
All she cared about was the death of her friend, Eric…
What's the point in winning against the Ice Dragon when the person you wanted to be with is dead?
"Ergh.." The child sniffled.
The forlorn feeling of being left alone with Eric's corpse, the stinging pain of her body undergoing serious injuries and the immobilized body that was left in a position of hugging Eric..
No more to shed her tears, and no more energy to let out her howl of misery, the child stayed in one place with a broken heart..
Too depressed to move, too unwilling to leave Eric's side, she remained in an extreme mental shock..
"..My liege.." All she could do was to say his name and the nickname she called him.
CRASH!
An abrupt slam of the Ice Dragon dropping to the icy floor because of the players, prompted a gale of cold air whooshing away from its impact.
Whoosh!
Fluttering the child's hair when she shivered slightly from the cold, but in that moment, it was as if her body was too weak to even quiver from the chilliness.
"Eric…" The child mumbled weakly.
The unfamiliar system messages that were emerging out of nowhere beside the child and in front of her, dinged with a beep sound every time she tapped to remove it from her sight.
..It's true that she's a player, but does she want to remain in that role?
"..I want to withdra—"
Her words were unexpectedly cut off by the players who had gone up from behind her, standing at her back when one of them shouted at her.
"So you're still alive, ha?!"
At that moment, the child knew who it was, the person who ruined everything, and the player who brought about misfortune to her loved ones.
..A murder..
Left with a sore throat after screaming her heart out, the child was unable to reply to that murder, despite that, it wasn't like she wanted to talk to that fool.
"Ah?! Are you ignoring me, NPC?! I'm talking to you right now!!"
He can sprout whatever he wants, but the child will always remain silent.
The child thought with a somewhat angered expression. ‘This murder doesn't deserve to get attention from me..’
"This little wretch!! Just cause you were saved by someone, doesn't make you ignorant to not talk to me!!" Bellowed, that fool.
{ "..My liege.. Please hurry and set me free from this nightmare.." The dispirited Frostina spoke with her shaking hands laying on the dead Eric's cheeks. }
Needless to say, the child knew she would be in big trouble since she's not only injured, but also mentally drained to even move a muscle.
"Urkk!" The child shrieked when a hand grabbed onto her hair.
"What's so good about being by this jerk's side?! Huh?! Holy shit! This wretch tried to keep all this guy's stuff for herself!!"
"Eek..!"
"Well, isn't it too bad for you? Don't worry, his items will be safe with me since they're mine now! Haha!"
A hand of a fool gripping the child's hair didn't disgust her, it did however make her feel severe pain.
..Yet, it was different when it came to Eric.
In the spur of the moment, the child watched as this murder's hand was slowly approaching Eric's knife, and it seemed like this fool wouldn't stop with just a knife until he got all the items from Eric.
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Ba-Thump!
Would the child really allow a pathetic fool like this murder to even dare lay his hand on Eric's corpse?
Ba-Thump!
..Thus, her eyes and heart shook like crazy from that thought.
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HIM WITH YOUR FILTHY HANDS!" The child exclaimed at the top of her exhausted lungs once again.
..The answer was a 'Hell no'.
[Player ‘500’ has activated the Hidden Skill, ‘Cryokinesis’ Lv. 1.]
RUSTLE!!!
The frost that was unleashing out from the child's yell, instantly freezed the hand of the murder's arm.
As the ice began to spread on this man, he panicked greatly before he asked one of his fellow friends to use fire to melt it.
..Sooner or later, when the ice started to die down, the murder's fury increased devastatedly as he demeaned the child.
"You brat!! You got the nerve to do this when you're just a weak NPC!"
SLAP!
"Ack!"
An unexpected slap that brought a reddish color to the child's bloody cheek, was leaving quite a mess with her beautiful cheek.
SLAP!!
..And that wasn't the end..
SLAP!
"I'll teach you some manners, wretched NPC!"
SLAP! SLAP!!
..After a short yet tormenting period of time, the murder had caused the child to be in a life-threatening condition than before, not only was her cheeks as red as blood, her face was getting swollen enough to bleed.
The child groaned painfully. "A..argh.."
..It was without a doubt that the child couldn't handle the continuous slapping section, eventually she had fainted during that moment.
Slap! Slap!!
..Woken up by a slap and fainted by a slap, the situation definitely was turning out to be the worst of the worst.
‘How can it get any worse..?’ The child asked herself, already knowing by asking that.
..She knew her future didn't look bright..
"Hey, stop that. She's only a child." One of the murder's friend jumped in to save her.
The moment the child heard that, she was shocked when she thought she found the tiniest of hope within this group of players.
Enough to make her reconsider the harshness of most of the players bit by bit, she slowly rested her glance on this kind person's face to remember him.
..Until she realized that..
"Bro, let's just wait until she's old enough, so we can have some fun with her as much as we want."
..Her hatred for players would forever be completely full of contempt..
None of these people were kindhearted, instead they were cold-hearted fools who only seek for their own foolish desires.
"Kekekekekeke."
Even their laughs were so awful that it could make everyone puke from their pathetic laughter.
In disgust, the child murmured with all her hopes lost. "You all are.. foolish fools.."
Thud!
Getting thrown to the throne aggressively by the murder, the child crashed on the throne and was damaged again which only furthered the wounds she already had.
"Gah..!"
And since that wasn't even enough, the murder even went ahead and grabbed the child's hair again just to pull her like a puppet.
"You little wretch! Shut up while we're discussing what to do with you!!"
Cruel like none other, these players were planning to do horrible things to the child once she grew old.
..And they wouldn't want to change their minds once they made up their loathing minds.
{ "Satan.. Please.." Frostina, begging for JoonChul to arrive quicker, was expressing her nausea through her pale face.
Frostina, the person who was forced to watch her past replaying before her, was getting more and more depressed as she felt like vomiting out the pains and sufferings she experienced.
One can tell that she couldn't hold the emotion the way she did before, because her body endured that past of her and remembered it terribly enough to puke it all out… }
———
By the time the players started to get through the next stage, they were already having their pleasures satisfied by the child, torturing her as their way of relieving their stresses.
Tormenting the child every chance they got, they kept her chained or locked up somewhere so that she wouldn't misbehave nor escape from them.
Without feeding her nor giving her water to stay hydrated or stuffed with food all the time, she became skinner and more fragile..
It was the players' way of telling this child that she can't escape from their sights, including the fact that she wouldn't try to think about running away with that weak body of hers.
And sadly for the child, the players were very eager to keep her with them no matter the costs..
..Because without this child, how will they unleash their desires?
In the end, the child became aware that there was no point in being expressive with her pains and agony.
Because of the endless suffering she had to endure through the trip to the stage, she couldn't bear it anymore…
By then, she began to show less and less of her emotion, making a straight or uninterested look whenever the players tried to hurt her.
..It was her only way to annoy the players by being undesirable for the players' needs.
Of course, it did end badly with the increase in the duration of her abuse..
"..."
At one night when she couldn't get any sleep, the child mumbled with a lack of hope in her eyes. "..Is this how my life is supposed to be..?"
Looking at the moon which was shining it's moonlight upon her, a rush of sorrow proceeded to flood her mind before prompting her to release all of her suffering through shredding tears.
"...Eric… I miss you.. wherever you are.."
Cuddling up into a ball, the child cried and cried her heart out while she still could until she had peacefully fallen asleep from her sadness..
"..Eric.." She whispered in her sleep.
..It's only a matter of time until she gets back up from her nap to be beaten again tomorrow..
{ "..I.." Speechless because of despondency, Frostina was feeling emptied with hope from her past.
It was just like how the mirror was doing the same tricks over and over again from the past and right now, she was experiencing the same thing again and again.
"There's no end.."
Just because one witnesses their pasts re-enact right in front of their settled eyes multiple times, doesn't make it a piece of cake to watch it time and time again.
In the end, Frostina uttered in defeat as though the mirror had devoured her. "The past shouldn't be cared about.. But I kept dwelling into my tough past.."
"..Aren't I a fool?" She smiled bitterly to herself while watching her young self suffer days and nights.
"If only there was a way to forget about it…"
During this despairing time, Frostina got down on her knees with her head lowered, avoiding to look at her past and covering her ears to not hear the bawl of her past abusers.
…
…
…
Quietness slipped in soundlessly when her ears were covered by her pale hands and her heart that was beating from every second, was lessening her hopes bit by bit.
…
But without a warning when the silence broke in one second, Frostina suddenly heard something that was the odd one out.
Crack!
"..!" Surprised, Frostina flinched.
Crackling…
All of the sudden, the ghastly past that was playing out in her point of view, was being easily shattered like a flimsy mirror.
Shattering..
And Frostina knew exactly who it was that caused this to happen..
"My liege!"
Frostina exclaimed with pleasure written all over her face while appearing like her hopes had been restored.
"..Forgetting the past is impossible, I know that very well.. But with that past, you became what you are now, Frostina Iclyn.."
The voice of reassurance was resounding to Frostina's ears perfectly after she stood up from her position, reaching her desperate hand out toward her liege's hand.
"I understand it all, Satan." Frostina with tearful eyes from sighting JoonChul uttered gleefully.
Tap..
In no time, their hands were grasping together firmly which led to Frostina Being pulled out of her nightmarish past by JoonChul, hearing her liege speaking to her yet again.
"..I'm sorry for being late, Frostina."
His apology was filled with deep sincere and genuine sorrow toward Frostina. And it was what made Frostina blushed affectionately and happily.
Satan or whatever his countless lives bestow upon him his new names, Frostina knew clearly what to call him..
Grinning delightfully while she could toward him, Frostina whispered her gratitude for her liege.
"Thank you, my liege." }
———
One faithful day, the child who was suffering from abuse all her life and was left behind in a small house by herself, was met with a chance right in front of her.
SLAM!
With a crash, the door to the room the child was in, was kicked open as sunlight began to resonate in the darkened room.
"..who.." Tired and anguished, she mumbled as her eyes got stained by the bright light. "..eek.."
Creak..
Slowly but surely, the door opened fully to reveal someone..
..There stood a person in front of the child.
His eyes that were welling up with grief-stricken and broken-hearted, were laying it directly at the grievous child.
"..are you..?" The child tiredly finished her question.
A person who had the essence of Eric within her viewpoint, was full of tears in regrets of his late arrival.
"Frostina…!"
The doll-like child who could feel the despair in his voice, felt a sense of liquid rushing to her eyes.
Lips trembling, the child spoke with tears flowing down her cheeks nonstop. "My.. liege..?"
"Yes, I'm here, Frostina.. I'm sorry for being so late.." The man right in front of her, the one who she missed, finally came to see her once again.
"..My liege..! Uwaah..!!"
Tears upon tears of happiness and gratification, the child and the man embraced each other firmly since no matter how long it lasted, it was a matter of affection and longing for them.
..Yes, they truly have reunited again after all the hardships they went through..