Transmigrated into a Female-Oriented Card Game - C.330

* * *

It was fine for the first day. It was too much mana, he thought, and he needed to prepare to melt the ice. Cadel must be trying to do something within the ice, he believed, and he needed Cadel to help him suppress the mana as much as he could, to weaken the magic as much as possible. He hugged Cadel tightly against his cold body and kissed him repeatedly. He couldn’t feel Cadel’s body temperature.

By the second day, he was terrified. He would wake up from a light sleep, open his eyes, and immediately shudder at the fear that washed over him like a tidal wave. What if Cadel didn’t wake up? Had he really killed them all, had he killed Cadel with his own hands? Was Cadel’s soul already gone, only the unbreakable ice binding his body, and if so, was it better not to break the spell?

On the third day. Cadel woke up. He couldn’t do anything even though Cadel was in front of him apologizing for leaving him alone. He could see the clock tower across the street. Every time he blinked, it drew closer, and inside it, he saw another Cadel, and himself, kissing. This was his twelfth hallucination. The uncontrolled mana swelled, threatening to tear him limb from limb, but he persevered. He couldn’t let any more mana out, even if it destroyed his body.

On the fourth day, Lydon had an epiphany.

‘He’s only frozen because I’m around.’

[Permafrost] was a wide-area spell, so if the caster was far enough away, he could change the scope of the spell. To melt Cadel, he must first distance Cadel from the source of this magic, and then…….

‘……How long should I stay away?’

What if Cadel’s mana vessel broke and he couldn’t dispel the spell until he died? The world around him would always be frozen. No one would want to come near him, and he wouldn’t be able to see anything properly. Perhaps he would spend the rest of his life seeing nothing but white snowy fields mixed with hallucinations. Alone, without Cadel, without any of my comrades.

He didn’t want that. He never wanted to experience that. But if he didn’t make sure Cadel wasn’t out of range, Cadel might actually die.

The question that had been bothering him since dawn hadn’t been resolved by daylight. Lydon crouched down beside Cadel and stared blankly up at the sky. The noon sun rose overhead. It hurt his eyes just to look at it, and its scorching rays couldn’t even melt his frozen fingertips.

“……Cadel.”

A hoarse voice called Cadel’s name. He hugged his legs and rubbed his cheek against the cold ice. But still no response. Beside him, Cadel was slowly dying.

Lydon had no choice; he didn’t want Cadel to die. He wanted a free and fun life, but in the end, it was all about Cadel. Without Cadel, no experience was free, and freedom was useless, so he had to leave.

His soft blond hair fluttered in the bitter wind. He rubbed the corners of his eyes and slowly looked around. His eyes scanned the frozen faces of his comrades as if imprinting them in his mind. His calloused hands clenched into tight fists. Finally, his eyes settled back on Cadel, and he spoke in a whisper.

“I’m leaving, Cadel. I’m going far away, and you’ll have to come get me when you wake up. ……Promise.”

He made a valiant effort, but his footing wasn’t quite right. Choosing to walk when flying would have been faster, Lydon looked back at the gate every three steps.

Outside the gate, nothing had changed. The Empire was still frozen, and so were the humans inside. Turning back to the front, Lydon pushed his way through the icebergs of demons and frozen monsters.

The air was cold. Cadel was sensitive to the cold. He must be freezing right now, and normally Lydon would have run to him and hugged him tightly, but Lydon couldn’t do that now. He knew he had to get out of here quickly so he could keep Cadel warm. Lydon’s pace barely picked up.

But even that didn’t last long.

“What if Cadel can’t find me?”

Because he was terrified. He knew Cadel wouldn’t abandon him. But Cadel wouldn’t be able to find him if he didn’t know where he was. Everywhere he went would be frozen, and no human would be able to deliver the news.

“What if he’s too busy?”

Cadel cared about the humans, and he couldn’t bear to see them hurt, so finding Lydon might take second place to protecting the Empire.

Lydon shook his head vigorously at the gloomy thought. That was fine. He was better than anyone at waiting. He could wait, even if it took years.

He told himself, but his heart told him otherwise.

“Still, can you come see me first……?”

The corners of his mouth twitched as he muttered a wet mumble. He wiped the tears from his eyes, but to no avail, they welled up again. Unable to go any further, he stopped in his tracks and dropped his head into his hands.

He didn’t want to cry, because it felt like an act of fear, like he didn’t trust Cadel, like he was afraid of being abandoned, but the tears kept coming. The tears flowed as fast as he could hold them back until he walked through the gate.

Cadel smiled and promised him that Cadel would be the first to find him, so he didn’t have to worry and play to his heart’s content. Cadel told him that they could go to the beach, and that Cadel would bring lots of his favorite candy when he came to visit. He wanted Cadel to say it sweetly, he wanted to hear Cadel’s voice.

“Lydon!”

Lydon’s shoulders shook as he sobbed pitifully. His head jerked up in surprise, he blew his red nose, and turned away cautiously.

“Lydon! Don’t go!”

Could it be that I am dreaming? Lydon blinked dazedly at the familiar figure running toward him from the distance. His cries and gasping breaths were too clear to be a dream.

“Cadel…….”

The more he realized that this was no dream, but reality, the narrower his vision became. Only one person was clear, a human running in a straight line toward him. The sound of his heart became deafeningly clear. Its frantic pounding echoed in his head. He breathed in deeply, the sensation almost dizzying, and heard another clear cry.

“Where are you going all by yourself?!”

It was Cadel. The real Cadel. He should still be frozen, but he was running toward him, and Lydon, realizing this, flew straight for him. His whole body slammed into Cadel’s, grabbing him by the shoulders. Cadel clung desperately to the small body pushed back by the recoil.

“Cadel, Cadel, Cadel…….”

Lydon called his name over and over again, his voice trembling. The warmth he felt was unreal. The breath tickling his ear was unbelievable. Lydon buried his nose in Cadel’s shoulder and breathed deeply of the familiar scent, focusing all his senses on Cadel, wondering if he would fade away like an illusion.

And Cadel, with all the strength he could muster, pulled Lydon into a hug. They pressed against each other, feeling each other’s pulse, sharing their warmth, confirming each other’s presence again and again.

“I’m sorry, that was scary, wasn’t it?”

“……Yes.”

“I’m sorry I’m late, I’m sorry I made you anxious. ……Lydon.”

Cadel gingerly pulled himself up and released Lydon, who clung to him tightly, wrapping his arms around Lydon’s sobbing face and locking eyes with him. His red eyes, pooling with clear tears, trembled nervously.

“I promise. No matter where you are, I’m coming to get you. And…….”

Cadel pulled his cheek, hot with tears, and kissed Lydon’s lower lip. The salty taste of tears tingled on the tip of his tongue, and as if to clean away all of his sorrow, Cadel licked his lips lovingly, sliding his tongue into the slightly parted crack. A shallow moan escaped him at the touch of the heated flesh. Soon, the arm that held Cadel’s shoulder slid down around his waist, and Lydon added weight to the grip.

He changed his demeanor, which had been dulled by his sorrow, as he held Cadel’s bent waist firmly. His tongue, so innocently rigid, darted out and swirled in Cadel’s mouth with a frenzy. The deep flesh filled his mouth tightly, brushing against his dry roof and irritating his delicate mucous membranes. Cadel and Lydon’s breathing became ragged as their tongues tangled in a frenzied dance, their cheeks cupped, their hair tangled, and their eyes locked intensely even as they lost themselves in this wild kiss.

Lydon was trying to carve Cadel’s presence into himself, and Cadel was trying to prove his promise to Lydon. When Cadel, out of breath, would turn his head slightly and part his lips, Lydon, impatient, would push his tongue in with Cadel’s inhale. Cadel continued to kiss Lydon, even as his breathing became labored. He didn’t mind the tightness in his chest from lack of breath.

He wanted to give Lydon as much as Lydon wanted to give him, to give him the boatload of love he so desperately wanted to receive, to give him without rest, if only to make Lydon forget the long, painful days he’d had to endure.

In a frozen world, only the two of them shared a living emotion. A fresh breath of lips, rarely falling, leaked into the increasingly bitter wind. The snowflakes that had fallen for a moment fluttered again, bringing a chill to their flesh despite their passionate touch.

Cadel gently brushed the corners of Lydon’s eyes, as if to soothe the man who would never end the kiss. His red tongue slipped out and he kissed every inch of Lydon’s face as he remembered.

The tip of his adorable nose, the corners of his eyes that had fallen down from crying so hard, his eyelids, his neatly shaped eyebrows, the cheeks that must have hurt so much, and the corner of his mouth that still tilted up at the corners in a moment of sadness. Finally, Cadel kissed his lips, panting with excitement, and met Lydon’s half-opened eyes and said.

“I like you. I love your destiny. I’ll be with you. I’ll be by your side, over and over again. I’ll tell you everything you don’t know, from top to bottom. …… Promise me that too.”

The confession Lydon made so long ago still sticks in the back of his mind. Cadel felt bad for not answering that until now.

“……I love you, Cadel.”

His fairy, who burst into tears once more, already seemed happy enough.

「Knight ‘Lydon’ ’s favorability has increased by 10.」

「Current favorability: 90/100」

Cadel smiled brightly, putting aside all his worries for a moment.

* * *

“Can’t I come with you?”

Lydon’s eyes narrowed pitifully as he tugged slightly at the hem of Cadel’s robe. The sobbing, pleading face was so adorable that it was tempting to leap to his side and demand to know what he was doing, but Cadel held back like a grown-up.

“It takes more mana to melt the ice when you’re around. I’m only going to melt down a few people, so you can focus on mana control here. Never do anything to hurt yourself.”

“But…….”

“Come here, Lydon.”

He pulled Lydon’s wrist, which was holding the hem of his clothes, and kissed him without hesitation. Even after the brief kiss, Lydon’s face was still sullen, and Cadel tickled Lydon’s lips so many times that he made a muffled sound. Only then did his eyes gently fold. Cadel ruffled Lydon’s hair as if he thought he was cute and let go of his wrist.

“You can wait, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. When I get back, let’s take care of that damn mana lump I fed you.”

“Come back soon, Cadel!”

That brief moment after the end of the past story, when he was about to enter recovery mode again. Cadel had recovered some of Kunra’s power, which he had used to defend the Empire people from Lydon’s magic. It was a gamble, capitalizing on the brief window of time before his body and soul were fully bound to the system.

Fortunately, the attempt succeeded, and the power of Kunra freed him from Lydon’s magic, and Cadel realized. The fairy he’d expected to be out there, running free, was holding back his mana, afraid of his own power.

He’d been abusing his body, barely escaping a rampage, to keep his mana locked up. As a result, the power of the [Frozen Core] had been maintained for an unnecessarily long time. In order to thaw this frozen world, he must use up all of the mana in the [Frozen Core].

But if they removed the spell now, the barrier against the enemy would crumble and the entire faction would collapse. With reinforcements still nowhere in sight, it would be impossible to defend the Empire with the forces left here.

‘And if Lydon’s right, it’s been four days already, so it doesn’t make sense that there’s still no reinforcements in sight.’

As far as Cadel could tell, Lydon’s magic froze humans, demons, and even the magic circle fragments of the Empire. Even with Kunra’s power, it was a difficult spell to defend against, and even if reinforcements had arrived, they wouldn’t have been able to get close. The Empire would not have wasted troops in such an unanswerable situation.

‘We need to bring back reinforcements and reduce the number of demons to as few as possible before we can melt the Empire. In the meantime, if we use up some of the power of the [Frozen Core], Lydon’s body will not suffer.’

It would be easier if he could use his magic to awaken the high-ranking knights first. And for all of this to work, he needed the Emperor to inform his allies of the current state of the Empire.

Cadel hurried to the castle, casting a traveling magic circle so that Lydon wouldn’t have to wait long.

This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶