The Plan In Motion: Retrieval of Happiness.
Inside the mansion, Reina was cleaning up the knights like they were nothing.
Even when they swarmed her, all she did was swipe her arm, and the walls, like it was another normal day for her.
Not even glancing to the side with the icy stare she wore.
She kept walking.
Count Juliq Herlon, in the study room where he was locked in, tapped his feet rapidly against the floor.
“What are those men doing?!” He slammed his hand against the table.
Two men stood beside him this time.
The butler to the left, and Captain of the knights, Zrek, to his right.
“Come down my lord,” Zrek spoke. “These men are well‑trained. They will not lose to an adventurer.”
His words dripped with confidence, but it was false confidence, seeing that his soldiers were failing to stop one adventurer.
The count also didn’t believe him.
“How can you say that when the fighting is still going, Zrek?!” Juliq snapped. “If that woman reaches me, I’ll have your head!”
Zrek only lowered his head. “As you wish, my lord.”
“…”
Count Juliq Herlon wasn’t very pleased with that response at all.
The likely answer he wished to hear was reassurance from Zrek that Reina would be defeated. But he simply agreed, which only made the count more anxious and irritated.
“…Have no worry, my lord,” the butler stepped forward. “Even if she reaches this room, I’ll give my life to protect you.”
He lowered his head and bowed slightly.
“Aa,” Count Juliq smiled a little. “You would now, would you? I would expect nothing less of you.”
“You honor me, my lord.”
As the count’s worries were being put to rest a little, chains clinked in the room, and all attention turned toward the sound.
Mariada, who was chained, lifted her nearly dead face and stared right at Juliq.
She was worse than those in the basement.
Her graceful hair was disheveled. Her glasses were missing, and she was dressed in clothes that fit a perversion’s weird fetish.
Count Juliq met her gaze and was instantly surprised by the oddly joyful energy she had, while being chained like an animal.
“What are you looking at, mongrel?!” Juliq said.
Mariada loosened her dried‑up lips to speak.
“There’s no… escaping your death,” she struggled.
“What?”
She caught her already struggling breath and continued.
“You should have run away. Now, not even the life of your trusty butler will suffice for kidnapping me.”
The butler moved from his position beside the count and walked toward her, enraged.
He squatted and grabbed her hard by the hair.
“How dare you frighten my lord like that?” he asked. “You’re not in any position to speak right now.”
She laughed a little.
“Hehehe. You don’t scare me…” she said, making the butler squint his eyes. “A man who was afraid of Shugal is no match for Master Reina.”
The room they were in began to feel cold, and even cold air could be seen entering from below the door.
Mariada was the first to notice, which is why she became even more confident in her words.
“You will die before the fight even begins.”
The butler became even more enraged, but this time he controlled himself.
He only snarled, shoved her face down, and stood up.
“Tch! We’ll see about that.”
“Is it me, or is this room beginning to get cold?” Count Juliq asked.
He shivered in his seat, rubbing his palms against his body.
“Yes, it is beginning to get chilly,” Zrek replied casually.
As they were questioning the sudden cold, the door to the room developed frost at an alarming rate. They gasped when they heard the crackling of ice.
Then, without warning, it shattered into pieces of ice.
Behind the door stood Reina, calm and cold as the ice she commands.
She glanced to the right and saw Mariada, who looked worse than she had in days.
Her expression softened.
Then she looked to the left and saw her enemies.
Her expression iced over.
They became alert, and the count even squirmed when the door shattered.
No one moved for a moment.
No one said anything.
Then the butler, wanting to prove that he was strong, reacted impulsively.
“Die! Reina Staciaaa!” he screamed. “Earth Magic: Great Earth Bullet!”
He placed his palm forward, and a dozen pointed stone bullets shot toward Reina at great speed.
They were powerful.
They were fast.
The perfect long‑range killing attack.
All attacks connected to something, forming a cloud of icy smoke.
The butler stood proudly when he saw the smoke, thinking he had dealt damage to Reina.
“You see that!” he shouted. “That’s how you kill someone! Hahaha!”
As he laughed, Reina emerged from the smoke, unaffected by the attack.
Everyone in the room gasped—except Mariada, who knew her power, and Zrek, who did not underestimate his opponent.
“But how?! That was my ultimate attack!” the butler screamed.
Reina appeared before him using her martial arts training.
She grabbed him by the neck and lifted him.
He gasped and struggled, but it was useless.
“Ultimate attack?” Reina calmly asked. “That was hardly tickling.”
He gasped one last time before being frozen into an ice block.
She threw him to the floor, where he hit the ground like hard ice.
One obstacle gone. One frozen human was left between Reina and the count.
Count Juliq’s expression made it clear—he didn’t want to be next.
Reina coldly turned to face the remaining obstacle standing between her and Count Juliq Herlon.
“Reina Stacia. The S‑Rank adventurer of Vismagia,” Zrek said, unafraid of what he saw. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise, Captain Zrek,” she responded.
The count could only watch as Zrek, his protector, exchanged pleasantries with the intruder.
Zrek stepped in front of the table where the count sat.
“Reina, I know you’re angry with us for destroying your mansion, but can—”
Before he could finish, she interrupted him.
“Angry?” she asked calmly.
“Huh?”
“If you think I’m angry over my mansion, you are more inept than I thought.”
“Then why destroy the count’s mansion?” he asked.
“…”
She stared at him, rage simmering beneath her calm.
“Enough of this,” she said coldly. “Zrek, give the count to me, and I’ll let you off the hook.”
Zrek met her gaze.
“I cannot do that. My duty is to keep the count safe.”
“…”
Reina stared silently.
Then Zrek spoke again, as if realizing something.
“I know. It’s that girl—Mariada, right? If you’re here for the demihuman, you can take her and leave.”
He pointed at Mariada.
Reina shifted her eyes to the corner of her vision.
Count Juliq exploded.
“What?! You can’t decide that on your own! I searched for that beast all my life!”
Zrek snapped back.
“Keep quiet, my lord.”
“What?! You scoundrel!”
“I’m trying to protect you here.”
“So what do you say?” Zrek asked Reina, opening his hand.
“No,” she replied calmly.
“I don’t understand. Isn’t your purpose to rescue that demihuman?”
“I may have come to take Mary back,” Reina said, “but I also have to pay the count back for his kindness.”
She rubbed the sleeve of her missing left hand while she glared at the count. He felt the cold stare and squirmed.
"Don’t let that woman get near me!" Count Juliq pointed with trembling fingers.
Zrek unsheathed his sword.
“Then I have no choice.”
Reina released her mana.
A blue aura erupted around her, cold and menacing. It distorted the area around her, as cold air surged in the room.
Count Juliq gasped.
Zrek felt a sweat bead along his cheek.
So the rumors were true, Zrek thought. She’s a beast herself.
Reina turned to Mary and raised her palm.
A solid wall of ice formed around her—her protection.
"Wait for me okay," She said, warth beneath her voice. "This won't take long."
She reassured Mariada who just listened and smiled lightly as she placed that ice wall.
“Are you not attacking?” Reina asked.
"You were not ready.”
She smirked.
Zrek would not strike while she protected someone.
Even if it cost him his life, etiquette came first.
Reina formed an ice sword.
Zrek smiled.
Then the fight began..
Zrek dashed for Reina with his great sword in hand. In his arms, the massive weapon moved so easily like a stick.
He swung it down with all his might, and the ice sword Reina carried cracked the moment it blocked that strike.
Then it snapped in half, leaving her defenseless.
At least, that was how Zrek saw it.
He took it as his chance, lifting his sword again and swinging sideways, as if cutting down a tree.
Reina was overwhelmed by that strength.
Yet even as she was pushed back by the sheer power behind the blow, she showed no worry. Swordsmanship was never her strongest suit. She had only learned it for fun.
The follow‑up swing came less than a second after her ice sword shattered. It looked as though she would be sliced cleanly in half—
But a snowflake, blue as the deep ocean, appeared directly in the line of attack.
Zrek gasped when his sword struck ice that formed out of nowhere, without incantation or warning.
An ice shield so dense that his blade failed to produce even a single crack.
It wasn’t that he had held back. In fact, the opposite was true.
He had poured everything into that swing, intending to end the fight in one strike.
As he strained against the shield, frost crept along the edges of his sword, slowly icing it in place.
He noticed the danger early and pulled back just in time, preventing his weapon from being trapped.
“I see,” he said as he straightened. “So you weren’t planning on using your sword at all. It was just a trick.”
“I am a mage after all,” she coldly responded. “Swordplay is something I do only for fun.”
Zrek studied her for a moment, calculating. Then he removed his coat and tossed it aside.
“…Is that wise?” she asked, not out of concern, but curiosity.
“It’s unnecessary weight,” he replied calmly. “And I need my speed.”
He gripped his great sword firmly and squared himself before Reina. His eyes burned with determination, his breath visible in the cold air.
“Suit yourself,” she said, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them again. “But it is truly foolish to remove your clothes when fighting an Ice Mage.”
Zrek was right to toss his coat, after all, ice was forming on it. But that meant the ice would form on his skin, to slow his movements even more.
I can’t keep this much longer, Zrek thought.
Reina discarded the shattered blade and bent down, gathering the broken shards of ice.
A handful of them collected in her palm.
Zrek took one last frosty breath and charged.
Reina reacted by throwing the pieces of ice toward him. They scattered harmlessly across the floor—
until she stomped her foot.
The fragments vibrated violently, and Zrek was suddenly caught in a crossfire as sharp stakes launched upward.
He grimaced. He dodged. He sliced.
Still, some slipped past his defense.
Luckily, the damage was limited to torn fabric and shallow scratches.
The attack was difficult to predict, as each stake rose in a different direction, and Zrek found himself at the center of it.
He didn’t dwell on it. That was the nature of battle—unpredictable.
He shrugged it off and charged again.
Reina watched as he moved to her left side.
Her missing arm.
Her blind spot.
She was unimpressed. The tactic was obvious, expected—like pointing out a bone to a dog, knowing full well it would go for it.
She allowed him to approach a little closer, then fired a dozen icicle lances in his direction.
This time, he didn’t dodge.
Instead, he proved he was no knight for show.
Zrek planted his feet and spun his great sword at incredible speed.
He screamed.
The blade became a whirling blender of steel, and his scream matched the sound it made.
The icicle lances were shredded into frost dust.
Reina turned fully toward him. She had expected him to stop or change direction—
instead he kept coming.
She raised her hand, frost gathering as she prepared another spell, but Zrek suddenly drew a short knife and hurled it.
Reina froze the knife mid‑air, saving herself—
Yet Zrek was already gone.
She searched for him, then looked up just in time to see him high above, arms fully extended, muscles bulging as he brought his great sword down in a killing arc that would break even her shield.
Even so, she raised the Snowflake Shield.
“That shield won’t protect you a second time!” he shouted.
“Tch!”
Reina was irritated now. This was not developing in her favor.
Zrek roared as she braced herself.
The great sword struck the shield. At first, nothing happened beyond frost creeping along the blade’s edge emitting a loud scraping noise.
But Reina began to struggle.
Zrek grunted, contracting every muscle he had, forcing one final surge of power into the strike.
As he poured everything into it, cracks spread across the shield, accompanied by loud, splintering sounds.
Reina clenched her teeth.
Zrek screamed—pushing.
At last, the shield shattered.
Zrek’s sword slammed cleanly into Reina’s front, striking her with such force that even the ground gave way beneath the impact.
Dust and frost burst into the air.
For a time, nothing was visible—neither Reina nor Zrek.
“It was a pleasure fighting you, Reina Stacia,” Zrek’s voice rang out.
He stood upright, victorious, while Reina remained unseen.
“If only you had accepted my request,” he continued, “you could have survived. And you could have saved your servant.”
He turned his attention to Mariada, encased within the ice wall. Her expression puzzled him.
Normally, watching your protector fall would leave you in despair, terrified of what came next.
But Mariada was calm. Almost carefree.
There was no distress on her face at all.
That realization made Zrek uneasy.
He swung his sword through the lingering dust in a desperate motion.
What emerged was not a fallen woman, but a shattered ice corpse.
He gasped and looked around wildly.
“What? Where is she?”
The answer came from the count, squirming like a frightened child.
Zrek turned—and froze.
Behind the table, looming over Count Juliq from the opposite side, stood Reina.
She stared at him, cold and unblinking. Her eyes carried nothing but contempt and bloodlust.
She said nothing. She did nothing.
She simply stood there, arm hanging low, her gaze drilling into Count Juliq’s soul.
“Get away from me, you brute!” the count screamed.
He threw anything he could grab at her just so they could all be frozen before they even touched her.
Silence followed.
Zrek didn’t hesitate. He rushed forward, fearing Reina would kill the count.
“My lord…!” he shouted.
He was too far to reach her in time.
So he hurled his great sword like a spear.
The weapon cut through the air like a rocket, aimed directly at Reina’s back.
“I’m done wasting time,” she said.
It was final.
With those words, she made it clear—to both Count Juliq and Zrek—that their free trial attempts at stopping her were over.
The sword Zrek had thrown became lodged in ice that erupted from the ground behind Reina.
And with that, the commencement of the end had begun.
