The Frost Flower Knight

Chapter 10

A man was lying sprawled on the bed. As Yulia stepped closer, she could smell the alcohol coming from him.

“Unbelievable.”

Yulia kicked the bed hard.

“Get up, now!”

As the bed quaked, Chris opened his eyes, scrunching up his face, and yelled, “Who the hell is it?!”

“Well, hello to you too,” Yulia said in a low voice.

Chris’ eyes widened. “Y-you’re…”

“Seems like you’ve already forgotten who I am. Or have you still yet to accept me?”

He was left speechless. Suddenly, Yulia yanked him up by his collar. It was incredible how much strength came from such skinny hands.

“Our soldiers are training hard. And you, the vice-captain, decided to go out, get drunk, and sleep in? Have you no shame as a knight? Are you that upset about losing to me? Then, instead of drinking, you should train as hard as possible to get stronger. Do you really want to show the world what a whiny little wimp you are in such a pathetic manner?” Yulia ranted relentlessly.

Her eyes were so cold that they gave Chris goosebumps. She was young, but she was a swordmaster, and he was completely overwhelmed by her energy.

Yulia let go of him aggressively and added, “I’ll give you ten minutes. I expect you at the training hall. If I do not see you after that, I will assume you no longer want to be the vice-captain, and I will make sure to let His Majesty know and relieve you of your duties.”

She was not kidding. She had no interest in leading a group of knights with disinterested, uncommitted soldiers. Had Chris been a Rosenthal knight, he would have been kicked out immediately without mercy.

After a moment, he answered through gritted teeth, “I understand.”

Yulia gave him a cold stare and slammed the door shut on her way out of the lounge. She immediately returned to the training hall, grabbed a wooden sword, and called for everyone’s attention.

“Everyone, listen up!”

Yulia’s gentle, fragile voice bellowed across the hall. All the knights stopped what they were doing and turned to look at her.

“Stop your solo training. We are going to start one-on-one sparring.”

Then she pointed her wooden sword at Chris, who had just come out of the lounge.

“Vice Captain Chris, you will face off against me.”

Chris scowled. He felt that she was doing this to him on purpose.

“Everyone else, form pairs and begin. The use of magic is forbidden.”

She flicked her sword at Chris and said, “What are you doing? Come over here.”

Chris picked up a wooden sword nearby and stepped onto the platform. As soon as he got on it, Yulia came swinging. Startled by the abruptness of her attack, Chris staggered and tried to dodge to no avail. He was struck hard on his waist.

Thwack!

Clutching the point of impact in searing pain, he focused his eyes. Yulia’s sword was swinging again without stopping.

“Your life is on the line. You have no time to waste!”

She kept aiming for vital spots.

Clack! Clack! Clack!

He barely managed to block her strikes but was still pushed back by her physical strength. Chris was flabbergasted. His opponent, a slender young woman, was pushing back a well-built, trained man with only her brute strength. She was impossibly strong for a woman. He wondered if becoming a swordmaster granted superhuman strength, regardless of gender.

It was actually because she was a female warrior of House Rosenthal. Historically, female warriors of House Rosenthal had always been strong and brave, and Yulia happened to be the greatest one in their history. He probably would have been able to accept her incredible power if she had still looked muscular like before, but she was a frail-looking woman right now. No one in their right mind could have imagined such a display of power from a body like hers.

“Too much wasted motion.”

She attacked relentlessly while picking out points to criticize. Thanks to that, Chris sobered up quickly. Every time he was hit with the wooden sword, the pain was bone-crushing. The other knights watched with pity, thinking how lucky they were that they didn’t have to face their new captain.

Noticing that their eyes were on her and Chris, Yulia snapped at them.

“What do you think you’re doing? Will you let yourselves be distracted in the middle of a battle like this?”

“No, ma’am!” the knights shouted collectively and went back to sparring with one another.

Wanting to show her they were invested in this training session, they went at each other with everything they had. At the end of the session, every single one of them had big blue bruises all over.

The training session only concluded in the evening. It was such a relief for everyone to hear the word “dismissed” at the end of it. Having witnessed her true strength, none of them could complain about her anymore. It was mainly because they saw up close their vice-captain fighting against her and realized that if they expressed their dissatisfaction with her captaincy, they could become her next target.

Although she was barely an adult, her extraordinary abilities were indisputable. Chris eyed her, absolutely sickened. She hadn’t even broken a sweat during their fight. She was a monster disguised as an angel.

Unlike the other members, Chris was stuck with her for longer, only let go when it was late at night. He collapsed immediately once he returned to the lounge. The knights all looked at him sympathetically.

“Are you all right, Vice Captain?”

“Be quiet and bring me some water…”

One of them passed him a jug of water, and he gulped it down like a whale. He was soaked with sweat. His body was covered with bruises.

“Damn it. Is that woman out to get me?”

On her first day as the captain, her new subordinates challenged her. This was the result—a hellish sparring session the day after. He had lost outright.

“Train to get stronger?”

You think I don’t want to?

He desired greater power more than anyone. But what could he do? He lacked the talent. The only reason he had made it to vice-captaincy was due to his unrelenting effort. But at a certain point in time, he came to realize that hard work could never actually help him catch up to actual prodigies. When he put in the work and managed to catch up to a certain point, the ones gifted with talent had already ascended to much greater heights with less effort.

Does she even know? The humiliation that comes with such powerlessness?

Once the thought struck him deep down, he began to slack off, knowing full well that no matter how hard he tried, he could never be on the same level as the real geniuses.

“Goddamn it!”

All he could do was curse at the heavens.

***

After dismissing everyone, Yulia didn’t leave the training hall. It was time to wrap up for the day, but she stayed behind.

“I must get stronger.”

Her goal was to become the most powerful knight in the empire. It was her greatest wish to become the ultimate sword of the empire to protect all those within instead of pledging loyalty to a single person. To be able to do that, she needed more power. She wasn’t satisfied with becoming a swordmaster.

With that in mind, she tossed the wooden sword aside and drew Yverre. The blue blade shone under the moonlight. Taking several deep breaths, Yulia took the stance of Frozen and performed the moves very slowly. The Frozen technique was fluid and smooth, fitting for a woman. Utilizing mana could enable the user to use extreme chill.

Without mana, Yulia practiced purely the physical aspects of the technique. Swinging Yverre extremely slowly as if time had slowed down required great physical stamina. She was now sweating, even though she hadn’t sweated a single drop during the sparring session. Her body flowed gracefully, but it took great effort to control the movements, using every fiber of her muscles, from the wrist controlling the sword to the legs maintaining balance. Soon, she was soaked in her own sweat. With beads of sweat crowding her forehead, she put all of her focus into every movement.

Being a swordmaster was not the be-all and end-all. There was no limit to how strong one could get. Although her body was once again seventeen years old, she had not lost the wisdom and experience she’d gained in her past life, which proved invaluable in her ascent to break through to become a swordmaster.

Suddenly, Yulia felt formidable energy coming from somewhere nearby. She stopped moving. She sheathed her sword, hopped off the platform, and ran toward the energy. It felt like her feet were moving of their own volition, like she was being drawn there.

She arrived at an empty lot in the middle of the forest behind the building for the knights. The intensity of the energy had gotten stronger as she approached. Even from a distance, the killing intent was intense.

A man was swinging his sword all by himself. His jet-black hair fluttered with each swing. His silver eyes glowed like ice. Fully focused on his sword, his technique was elegant. It was the captain of the Black Lion Guard, Kyrant.

He’s strong. She felt her palms getting sweaty. The force that emanated from him grazed past her spine just from watching him. In her past life, he had been stronger than her, so it was one of her goals to surpass him this time. He’s already so powerful. It means he’s only going to get stronger from this point on.

She bit down on her lips. He was already more powerful than her. She shuddered to think what a monster he would become in the near future. Even now, she couldn’t gauge his strength. His pool of energy was like a deep sea whose depth could not be fathomed.

His sword suddenly stopped halfway through a swing. Kyrant turned in Yulia’s direction. Snapping out of it, she flinched. She had unintentionally interrupted his training.

“Who’s there?” he shouted warily.

“My apologies,” Yulia said.

He sheathed his sword and crossed his arms.

“Peeping at another person’s training, how rude.”

“You are also at fault for training at a place like this,” Yulia countered without hesitation.

Taken aback by her bold attitude, he stared at her blankly.

Yulia continued, “It’s not like you pay rent for this vacant space. It’s entirely possible for someone passing by to see you. Either way, I am sorry for intruding.”

He carefully observed her. With long, silver hair and striking violet eyes, she was a tremendous beauty. She left a strong impression, all drenched with sweat. Noticing the sword on her waist, he realized who it was.

“I’ve heard that a new captain was appointed for the Winter Guard. So it was you.”

Yulia introduced herself, saying, “That’s right, I am the new captain of the Winter Guard. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sir Captain of the Black Lion Guard.”

“Hmm, I don’t think there’s anything pleasing about meeting each other,” Kyrant responded indifferently.

“Oh, really? Well, I’m pleased,” Yulia said with a shrug before seeing the water jug sitting next to him. “Is there any water left?”

“Water?”

“I’m asking if there’s any water in that jug over there,” she said, pointing at it.

“There is.”

“Do you mind sharing?”

Watching this young lady make such a demand with no reservation, Kyrant swallowed a scoff and tossed the jug at her. She opened the lid, took several gulps of water, and just poured the water onto her face. The water trickled down her face and neck and traveled farther down to soak her shirt, which was already wet with sweat.

“Aah… That’s better.”

Then, she threw the jug back at him. Kyrant caught the jug and absently stared at this young lady standing under the moonlight.

“Thank you for that. I’ll leave you to your training. Again, my apologies.”

With that, she left the area. Kyrant looked up at the sky and released a deep sigh. He felt like he should call it a day.

***

After returning to the Rosenthal mansion, Yulia took a bath with Judy’s assistance. Dipping her body in warm water after a full day of strenuous training was heaven. As Judy washed her master’s body, she couldn’t keep herself from being amazed over and over.

“My lady, your skin is really like fine silk.”

“Well, it sure has improved from before,” Yulia replied, pouring water over her shoulders.

Before the transformation, her skin was a far cry from the snowy white, silky smooth surface that it had become. It used to look like it had been charred by overexposure to the sun, with a very rough texture.