The Lady's Butler: I Reincarnated To Serve The Villainess-Chapter 14: The Final Test {Final}: Welcome To The North

"Let’s just hope I’m right," Adrian muttered as he waited for the Yeti to make its move.

The yeti roared again and lunged, its massive body moving across the frozen surface with terrifying speed.

But instead of retreat, he also ran towards the yeti, leaving his shadow behind again. The creature lifted its fists again, slamming it down the moment Adrian was close enough.

Fortunately, he managed to slide under it, avoiding being turned into paste before continuing his run forward.

For a moment, even the yeti seemed surprised by the sudden change in direction before immediately giving chase.

Adrian’s boots slid slightly across the frost-covered lake as he pushed himself faster, ignoring the protest from his ribs, a couple of which were probably broken at this point.

The lotus hovered peacefully above the ice, its crystal petals radiating waves of condensed frost mana that flooded the entire cavern.

The closer he got, the heavier the air felt, the mana here was so dense it almost forced him to the floor, but he held on.

Behind him, the yeti quickly closed the distance rapidly, he could already feel the tremors of its footsteps shaking the lake.

Five meters.

Four.

Three.

The creature raised its fist, but Adrian didn’t slow down.

Two.

One.

The moment his hand reached the lotus—

BOOM!

The yeti’s fist descended, and at the same time, he vanished.

He switched places with his shadow at the last possible moment, reappearing several meters away near the edge of the lake while the creature’s massive blow crashed down where he had been standing.

But this time, the lotus was gone.

Adrian slowly stood up straight as a faint smile formed on his face.

There was nothing in his hand because the moment he had grabbed the lotus, he had immediately sent it into his shadow vault and the effect was immediate.

The glowing rocks on the cave walls immediately started dimming and the temperature immediately started rising.

Even the cracks on the surface on the surface of the frozen lake had stopped sealing themselves.

And the Yeti?

ROAR!!!!

Well, it was a lot angrier now that the lotus was gone.

"I guess I was right after all," He said, his grin getting a bit wider only for him to remind himself that this was an expression unfit for the lady’s butler.

His face immediately turned calm as he waited for the yeti to make its move.

Even though the lotus was gone, the yeti didn’t immediately lose all its strength or terrifying speed in one go.

In fact, it seemed to have gotten faster, seemingly using up every bit of the lotus’s remaining mana within it in order to crush this bug and retrieve the lotus.

The beast had not grown stronger, it was simply spending everything it had left.

The yeti appeared in front of him almost instantly, its claws sweeping across the air with enough force to rip him to shreds.

Adrian managed to step back just in time as the claws passed inches from his chest before creating a deep trench on the cave wall.

The creature didn’t relent, instead, it swung its other arm immediately, but again, Adrian dodged the attack just before it could reach him, allowing it to slam into the ground with a deafening boom.

CRACK!

He then jumped back, barely escaping the impact zone as the frozen lake exploded shattered.

Chunks of frozen mana shot into the air.

One of them grazed Adrian’s cheek, drawing blood, but he ignored it.

Instead, his gaze remained fixed on the creature,its movements were still powerful.... clearly.

But it seemed to be getting desperate to retrieve the lotus by the second, so its movements were also wild.

"Let’s try this again," he muttered as his shadow moved towards the Yeti’s back.

The moment it was in place, the shadow transformed into a spike again, launching towards the Yeti’s back, catching it off guard since its focus was still on Adrian.

Unlike previously, the shadow spike went straight through the beast’s back, coming out its chest.

ROAR!!!

It let out a pained roar, turning around to see who its attacker was...that was a mistake.

The moment it realized its mistake and turned back around, it was already too late, Adrian was already descending towards it with a dagger made of shadows in his hand.

He jabbed it directly into the creature’s skull, its tip extended the moment it was within the Yeti’s head, wrapping around its brain.

Adrian then pushed himself off the creature before its hand could reach him, leaving it standing there for a second.

The Yeti’s eyes were fixed on him with so much hatred before he folded his hand into a fist and the shadow wrapping around its brain suddenly exploded, causing its eyes to roll into its head.

The yeti then collapsed onto the frozen lake with a thunderous crash that echoed through the cavern.

Silence followed.

The only sound left was Adrian’s slow breathing.

He stood there for a moment longer, ensuring the creature truly wasn’t moving before finally relaxing and letting out a sigh.

He might’ve looked calm, but the fight had caused him quite a fair bit of struggle and his mana pool was almost empty, plus he was too tired to move right now, so he just sat calmly on the cave’s floor and closed his eyes.

It should take a while before other beasts notice that the yeti guarding this place was gone, especially given that its mana was still in the air, so he should be able to get some rest and recover some of his mana.

Behind him, Noctis lazily opened one eye again.

«You know,» the cat said, stretching its paws, «if you had just promised something of equal value to the lotus, the fight would’ve ended much faster.»

He ignored that comment as he focused on refilling his mana.

***

[Present]

Adrian sent the Lotus back into his shadow vault and continued forward.

He was now completely out of the Frozen Forest, and had stepped unto the snow filled path that led to the North gates with Noctis comfortable on his head.

Well, ’The North’ wasn’t actually the name of this place, but it was what the author preferred calling it, so much so that Adrian had forgotten its original name.

"Halt!" A voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts, causing him to look up and notice he was now standing in front of two massive gates.

Two guards stepped forward from their posts, their spears crossing slightly in front of the entrance as they looked him over.

One of them, a younger soldier, frowned suspiciously.

"Identify yourself," he demanded. "State your name and purpose for entering the North."

Adrian stopped a few steps away, his expression calm as ever as he looked at the two, he really couldn’t be bothered to deal with them, but for the sake of not wasting time, he opened his mouth to answer.

But before he could even respond,

SMACK!

The younger guard yelped as the other soldier suddenly slapped the back of his helmet.

"Idiot!" the older guard hissed.

The younger one staggered slightly, rubbing the back of his head, "what was that for?!"

The older guard pointed at Adrian before speaking up, "look properly before opening your mouth next time."

The younger guard was a bit confused at what his senior meant, before his eyes slowly moved over Adrian again.

The perfectly tailored uniform, he silver embroidery along the cuffs, and most importantly—

The Ardent crest stitched neatly over the left side of his chest.

The young guard’s face immediately went pale.

"O–Oh..."

He quickly straightened his posture.

"S-Sir!"

The older guard sighed in exasperation before turning toward Adrian and bowing his head slightly.

"My apologies, sir. He’s new," he then stood up straight and tapped the wall that barred the gates as a small entrance opened by it.

"Welcome to the North."

With a nod, Adrian walked through the gates, leaving the two behind. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Behind him, the younger guard was still staring in disbelief.

"...He came out of the Frozen Forest," he whispered.

The older guard glanced toward the distant treeline where the blizzard-covered wilderness stretched endlessly.

Then he exhaled quietly.

"Yeah."