The Lady's Butler: I Reincarnated To Serve The Villainess-Chapter 30: The Lady’s Breakthrough: Cold

Freezing cold.

That was what Renelle first felt when she regained consciousness. The last thing she remembered was her ice spirit evolving into a three tailed fox before....

Ah, that’s right.

She finally understood what was happening. Since her spirits evolution happened so suddenly, she was forced through a breakthrough to match.

But understanding it didn’t necessarily mean she could endure it.

The moment her awareness fully returned, she realized she could not feel any part her body.

All she could feel... was cold.

An endless, suffocating cold that seemed to have a tight grip over her, causing her to ceaselessly tremble.

Renelle slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she noticed was that she was in a world of white.

As far as she could see, there was white.

She realized that she was laying on the ground filled with snow, and raging all around her was an unforgiving blizzard.

It was slowly burning her in a layer of snow as she was unable to move a single muscle.

If she could see her face, she would realize that her lips had turned blue and that there were patches of frost slowly covering her skin.

She had been in this world, once, but at that time, she was prepared for the breakthrough and a lot stronger too.

But this one had come so unexpectedly that she didn’t even have a chance to prepare.

Whilst laying in the snow, the storm grew harsher and her thoughts began slowing.

The world around her slowly started dimming, as the blizzard was sounding more distant by the second.

It would be easy to just, let go and stop resisting, her eyes were so incredibly heavy and she wanted nothing more but to close them for a short while.

After all, hadn’t she already lived once?

Her line of thoughts were suddenly cut by a certain memory resurfacing.

One of that absurd, shameless man who spoke nonsense at the worst possible time.

’You smell like strawberries.’

"...What kind of idiot says that when there’s a dagger on your neck?" she muttered weakly with a chuckle.

After the laugh, she quietly lay in the bed of snowy ground, recalling each and every regret she had in her past life.

Not being able to save her parents, obsessing over the prince, becoming something she didn’t want to and almost freezing half of Avera.

And that’s when she realized, she didn’t want to die just yet. Not after just having a chance to set things right, especially now that her parents were still alive.

"No," Renelle suddenly spoke up, her voice was still weak, but the fire of determination slowly lit up within her, "I refuse."

The wind, seemingly responding to her, raged even more bringing more cold with it and trying to bury her in a snow storm.

"I did not return... just to die like this."

Her eyes suddenly snapped open as she looked up the sky. For a second the storm seemed to freeze before it continued raging on.

"This power belongs to me," Renelle said as the storm tried to bury her even faster, "I own it."

With her words, her blue eyes suddenly started glowing and finally, the storm stopped completely in its tracks, with snow flakes freezing mid air as if someone had stopped time itself.

A second later, it started moving again, but this time, the raging winds shifted direction, spiraling unnaturally as if drawn toward a single point.

Toward her.

Her body screamed in protest as the cold intensified, no longer just wrapping around her, but also flooding into her.

It felt like being torn apart.

It felt like everything within her was being frozen at the same time, and as the blizzard continued pouring into her,

CRACK!

Cracks started appearing on her skin, each revealing a glowing white light that came from within, multiplying the pain she felt multiple times over.

"I will not be consumed," she continued, "if anything—"

Her fingers dug into the snow and her body body, though still frozen, forced itself to rise... inch by inch.

"—it will be you that submits."

Deep within this snow, watching all this go on with a bit of worry, was her now three tailed ice fox, looking like a towering giant in this world.

As much as it wanted to help its contractor out, it couldn’t, after all, she had to go through it herself.

Luckily, that strange man and his scary spirit were helping,which was why Renelle could still absorb the blizzard without blowing up.

’Just a little longer, contractor.’

The fox spirit thought as it continued watching its contractor absorb all the power in the air whilst the cracks on her skin kept extending.

And through it all, she stubbornly held on, refusing to give up so easily.

The blizzard created som sort of vortex as it was pulled within her, before it suddenly started trying to pull back.

"Submit!"

Renelle commanded and the vortex immediately collapsed, all at once.

The remaining blizzard surged toward her in a single, overwhelming wave.

And then....

BOOM!

A wave of ice mana outward in every direction as everything immediately went silent.

She let out a sigh as she looked at the sky, noticing the gloomy skies were now gone, replaced by a clear, sunny sky.

The cracks on her face slowly disappeared before she turned to the side, noticing the large two tailed fox in the distance.

The spirit shrunk down and rushed towards its contractor, visibly happy that she had successfully broken through.

Renelle watched the approaching spirit with a small smile on her face, she realized that she might’ve worried the spirit, so she placed a hand on its head the moment it was close enough.

"I’m fine," she assured, and indeed she was.

She was more than fine.

Renelle lifted her hand and formed a mini crystal snow flake, one that floated just above her palm, before smiling.

"I’ve definitely gotten a lot stronger."