Laneige groaned as her Blessing rampaged inside her. “Ah! Ugh!”

The raging blizzard scraped against her skin, turning patches of it a necrotic purple. It felt as though sharp swords were carving through her flesh, causing an unbearable, slicing pain.

The wolf-masked man frowned down at her trembling figure. “I don’t understand. Why reject the easier path?”

She had definitely understood that the mana stone made it simple to control her Blessing.

After all, she had felt that power firsthand. So why? Why had she discarded the simplest solution in favor of such a foolish one?

He continued, “Do you not trust his power? If that’s the case, there are other ways.”

Even as she winced under the storm’s pressure, Laneige replied in a low voice, “No. I don’t know who this ‘he’ you keep talking about is, but I know the mana stone can really control the Blessing of the Frost.”

“Then why destroy it? If you didn’t want to follow me, you could have used that power to fight me.”

Laneige knew best that she couldn’t win against him without controlling her Blessing. Using the mana stone would have been the better choice, even if she used it only to avoid being dragged away.

She said, “You’re right. But if I wanted to rely on something like that, I wouldn’t have left the academy in the first place.”

The stone was powerful, but it could never compare to Dale’s fire. She could control the Blessing far more easily next to Dale’s flame than with the mana stone.

“In the end, if I can’t overcome this with my own power, nothing changes,” she added.

If her control depended on someone or something else, whether it was Dale or a mana stone, she could never truly wield her Blessing. And if she couldn’t wield it herself, she couldn’t stay with her comrades.

“That’s foolish,” replied the wolf-masked man.

Laneige stepped forward, her lips curving into a faint, fragile smile. “I think so too. But...”

The raging storm shredded her again. It was freezing, and the pain was unbearable. Yet, her unwavering violet eyes locked onto the wolf-masked man.

“I’m not giving up,” she said.

The man clicked his tongue, displeased. “Looks like the reports about your personality need updating.”

The reports described Laneige Maram as timid, weak-hearted, insecure, and overly dependent on others. But he could find no trace of that girl in the figure standing tall within the storm.

“Though, before that, I’ll just have to bring you to him!” he added.

He kicked off the ground, lunging forward. His massive greatsword cut through the swirling frost and swept toward her.

Laneige thrust out her hand with a sharp shout. “Haaap!”

The blizzard condensed into a wall of ice, thin, cracked, and ready to shatter at any moment. The wolf-masked man’s greatsword smashed through the wall, and shards exploded outward, showering them in razor-edged ice. However, the greatsword’s swing had sent a greater portion of the shards toward Laneige.

Groans escaped them both.

“Kugh!”

“Ugh!”

Laneige immediately muttered, “L-listen... to me!”

Just as the ice fragments were about to shred her skin, they froze. Laneige lowered her trembling arm and shouted, “Freeze!”

The fragments stayed unmoving in the air, but she didn’t stop, pouring her all into every word. “Freeze! Freeze! Please, freeze already!”

It was almost a scream, raw and desperate, with her soul scraped bare.

The wolf-masked man shook his head, pitying her. “Do you think yelling will help you control your Blessing?”

Suddenly, as though the air itself froze, the hundreds of suspended shards spread outward. The swirling blizzard tangled with them, blooming outward like petals. It looked like a giant snow blossom had unfurled in midair.

Surprised, the man muttered, “A snow flower?”

Panting heavily, Laneige stared at the enormous crystalline bloom. Instinctively, she knew how to control it.

“Blossom,” she said.

The petals burst open, releasing a violent storm. Ice fragments rained down toward the wolf-masked man, each one carrying a killing chill.

“Kugh!”

The man spun his greatsword like a windmill to block the onslaught. But that move lost its effectiveness in just a moment. Some shards slipped past the blade and pierced him.

He clicked his tongue quietly. “This will be troublesome.”

Realizing he couldn’t win, he turned without hesitation and fled.

Laneige tried to send the ice fragments after him. “Stop... right there!”

However, it was already hard enough for her to control her Blessing. She groaned, and the snow blossom shattered. The shards broke free of her control and burst in every direction. Wherever they touched the ground, ice swallowed the earth in seconds.

At that moment, a voice echoed near her ear, one far too familiar. “Laneige!”

Laneige’s eyes flew open. “Ah!”

They hadn’t even been apart for a full day, yet just hearing his voice made her heart pound so hard it felt like it would burst.

She muttered, “Dale...”

Dale approached her with a furious expression. “Damn it! Stay right there!”

Shards of ice were whipping through the air from every direction, hurling themselves at him, yet he didn’t stop.

“Get lost,” he said.

A burst of blazing embers flared up violently, instantly melting every shard of ice. Dale walked toward Laneige through the storm of ice, dissolving every fragment in his path.

Laneige bit her lip and shouted, “D-don’t come!”

Dale shook his head firmly and kept walking. “No. I’m taking you with me.”

“N-no! That’s not what I meant! If you come now, this will all become meaningless!”

He stared at her, dumbfounded. “What?”

Laneige clenched her fists and pressed a hand to her chest. “I can’t rely on your help!”

If she accepted Dale’s help, she could easily suppress her Blessing, which was currently running wild. But that would mean she couldn’t control it without him. It would mean she couldn’t stay by his side without becoming a danger to everyone else. It would mean she couldn’t protect her precious companions.

She reached her hand toward the raging blizzard. “I. I have to succeed with my own strength! Agh!”

The outstretched hand turned blue with necrosis, a hideous pain shooting up her arm. It hurt so much that the pain blotted out all thoughts, even though Dale was right in front of her.

“Aaaaaaaaah!” she screamed.

Unable to hold back any longer, Dale stepped forward. “Laneige!”

However, a massive spear of ice slammed into the ground before his feet. “I can... do it alone!”

Laneige grit her teeth and raised her blue, necrotic hand again. She could do it. No, she had to. Her entire life had been one long flight. All this time, she had only run—running from her mother, who killed her father; running from those who mocked her as a witch; and running even from the person she treasured most.

Closing her eyes, shutting her ears, and crushing down her heart, she had convinced herself that hiding was the only way to survive. But now, things had changed.

“I-I don’t want to run anymore!” she muttered.

She had finally grasped warmth with her hands and finally achieved the happiness she had longed for all her life. She wouldn’t let herself ruin it.

“I...!”

The blizzard roared wildly, and the rampaging Blessing of the Frost froze everything around her. Ancient trees that had endured for decades, rocks hard as steel, even drifting leaves, they all froze solid and shattered. A pure white field of snow spread wherever the frost swept through.

Ah! So, it was this. This is the place you lived in. This cold, this terrifying place, she thought,

Dale had told her once that he had wandered a continent turned into a frozen wasteland by her power, searching for the Primordial Flame. He had wandered for a time far too long to fathom.

Laneige didn’t remember what kind of being she had been in her past life. She didn’t know why she became the Witch of the Night, slaughtering tens or hundreds of thousands of people, and she didn’t want to either. But she did know one thing.

Kneeling on her knee, Laneige placed her hand on the white snow. Even her breath froze the moment it left her lips. It was a brutally cold, suffocatingly pale world.

With a small smile, she scooped up a handful of snow with her blue, necrotic hand. “Dale.”

Slowly, she stood up and pressed the handful of snow to her left chest. “I... won’t make you cold anymore.”

Just as Dale had taught her what warmth felt like, it was her turn to return that warmth to him. The raging blizzard got sucked into Laneige’s soul stigmata. The white wasteland melted away in an instant, revealing green earth beneath.

Dale muttered, “Laneige.”

Laneige beamed. “Hehe! I did it.”

Then she lost her balance and began to fall.

Dale sprinted forward and caught her in his arms. “Laneige!”

Even though he hadn’t used his Ashen Flames, a gentle warmth spread between them.

She looked at him. “Dale, I did it, with my own strength.”

“Yeah.”

“Hehe! I did well, right?”

Dale smiled softly and stroked her back. “Yeah. You did well. So, that means you’re not dropping out anymore, right?”

“Ah!”

Only then did Laneige remember she had technically run away from the academy without permission.

Her face flushed red, and she lowered her head. “Sorry!”

“It’s fine.”

Dale gently lifted her chin and kissed her.

Laneige’s eyes flew wide open at the sudden kiss. “D-D-Dale? W-why are you k-kissing me out of nowhere?”

Watching her flail in panic, Dale stifled a laugh. In the place the blizzard had ravaged, a warmth no one would associate with winter surrounded the two of them.