It’s been a long while since Servant left my side, like a lantern losing its shadow at dusk.

Not long ago I told him how to awaken Shattered Light, like striking flint to catch a hidden spark.

By rights, he should’ve returned with the Ice Dream Lotus, sure as snow follows cloud over a cold ridge.

With Shattered Light active, even if he didn’t win, he should’ve forced a draw, like two blades locking in frost.

FrostyLily Dream’s little pervert of a disciple is a Sword Wielder too, but overall on par with Servant, like matching ripples on a still pond.

Yet it’s already night, ink pooling across the eaves.

Servant still hasn’t come back, and annoyance pricks me like sleet on bare skin.

These days without his care, my life has sagged, like silk left out in rain.

“Um, Miss Xinuo, are you alright?” Yumigawa Senki asked, worry flickering like a paper lantern in wind.

“Since this afternoon, you’ve had that stormy look.”

Sigh. She’s Servant’s big sister, yet her housekeeping is a wreck, like a hut after a gale.

“Sis Xinuo, are you thinking about big brother again?”

The younger sister lifted her head, her eyes glossy as spring water in a stone basin.

“I miss him too.”

“Mm. Without Servant taking care of things, life feels dull, like a drained lake bed.”

I pinched the girl’s soft cheeks, marshmallow clouds in my fingers, and a sigh slipped out like mist.

I wanted to drag Servant back by the collar, like a kite on a short string.

But I was the one who sent him to temper himself, like steel in the quench.

“…Our big brother sure is popular,” Elyar murmured from the bed, her voice flat as a page, yet rippling like wind on a curtain.

“All the girls around him like him so much.”

“Yeah, I get why Yumigawa-kun’s popular,” Eastern Moon Aixue said, calm as moonlight on tiles.

“If you stay near him for a while, you can’t help but feel fondness, like tea steeping into warmth.”

“So that means you like Yumigawa-kun too?”

Faya, pouring tea, sounded startled, like a spoon tapping porcelain.

“If we’re calling it ‘like,’ then yeah, a fair bit,” Eastern Moon Aixue said, honest as clear water.

“No helping it. Yumigawa-kun’s too excellent, like a bright star in a winter sky.”

“I see… that’s nice,” Faya murmured, envy thin as frost on glass.

“Aixue can always be that straightforward.”

…

Why is it that seeing Servant so loved makes my chest sour, like bitter plum under the tongue?

Academy life is boring, a painted fan with no breeze, especially when I don’t need to study anything.

I’ve read nearly all the tomes in Egisia Academy, pages falling like autumn leaves.

I’ve got a rough grasp of what the Eastern Moon Continent did in the centuries I slept, its growth steady as bamboo after rain.

With Servant gone and the shelves emptied, I’m bored, like a koi circling a too-small pond.

Meanwhile, Yumigawa Senki and the younger sister are having a blast every day, laughter bright as wind chimes.

First time at an academy, and in a few days they’ve become the talk of Egisia Academy, like swallows drawing every gaze.

“Alright, I get the situation,” Yumigawa Senki said, her helpless smile thin as a crescent moon.

“Emperor’s really something, not coming back and making everyone worry, like clouds refusing to break.”

“When Servant returns, I’m going to teach him a lesson… Huh?”

A hateful sensation swept over me, cold as a shadow of ice sliding down the spine.

Then—

“Sis! I missed you sooo much!!!”

Ice exploded like a winter tide.

Frost filmed the room in a heartbeat, silvering wood and air alike.

A girl in an ice-blue oiran kimono materialized out of empty air, a snow lotus of a face and a predator’s smile.

She dove at me like a gull at a wave.

Of course. That disgusting feeling had a name.

I looked at the loli like one would a slug on white jade, then shaped a sword with a breath and lashed out with several arcs of Sword Aura, whoosh whoosh.

“Eek! Sis, you haven’t changed at all. Still so passionate!”

No surprise. My Sword Aura skittered off her defense like sleet off tempered glass.

If she could block that, her identity says itself, like a seal stamped in cinnabar.

“FrostyLily Dream, you damned pervert, why are you here?”

In this world, the number who can shrug off my casual Sword Aura can be counted on one hand, like stars seen through fog.

And she’s one of them, unfortunately, like a splinter you can’t tweeze out.

“Miss Xinuo/Sis’s Sword Aura got blocked?!”

Everyone in the room jolted back to themselves, shock flaring like a flock of sparrows, staring at the intruder.

“Aww, of course I came to visit my long-lost Sis, like plum blossoms seeking snow,” she cooed.

“Fine, fine, I’m actually the courier bringing a prize for that kid, Yumigawa Sumeragi.”

Sensing I was about to swing another Sword Aura, she hurried on, words tumbling like beads.

From her wide sleeve, she produced a snow lotus glowing ice-blue, soft as moonlight—an Ice Dream Lotus—and offered it to me.

“By the way, where’s that loli dragon named Hill?”

FrostyLily Dream peered around, eyes prowling like a cat in a storeroom.

“Sis, where did you stash her?”

“…Why are you, of all people, the one delivering this?”

I took the Ice Dream Lotus, but the irritation stayed, a burr under silk.

By all logic, Servant and his crew should’ve brought it back, like hunters returning with game.

“Ahahaha~ As for Yumigawa Sumeragi and his little sisters, I sent them with Lixue to tour the Northern Abyss Continent,” she said, as if playing elder, sleeves flowing like waves.

“Young folks should travel together and test the wind. We elders tailing along is no good, like moss on a blade.”

Her elder act rubbed me raw, like grit in the eye.

“So you’re saying I’m old?”

The sword in my hand, born of Sword Aura, gained weight and edge, solid as winter steel.

“No, no, no! How could Sis ever be old? Sis is forever beautiful, like dawn on snow!”

But the smile on her mouth was the same revolting bloom, a flower feeding on carrion.

“…I’ll deal with you in a minute.”

I let out a helpless breath, a fog of white, and released Hill from her slumber, like lifting a pearl from a shell.

I melted the Ice Dream Lotus into liquid, moonlight dissolving into water, and fed it to her.

A few seconds later, time blinking like a firefly.

“Mm~ Feels like I slept forever. My belly’s flat as a leaf,” Hill murmured, ruby eyes opening like garnets catching sun.

“Eh? Master, why are you holding me? And where’s Boss? I can’t feel Boss’s presence anywhere, like a campfire gone cold.”

“Yumigawa Senki,” I said, voice level as a drawn line.

“Miss Xinuo, what are your orders?”

FrostyLily Dream’s appearance had her tense, shoulders stiff as frozen reeds.

“Tell Hill the beginning, the middle, and the end, like tracing a river to its source and mouth.

Get her something to eat too, warm as fresh bread.

As for the rest—”

I set Hill in Yumigawa Senki’s arms, light as setting a bird on a branch.

Then I turned to FrostyLily Dream standing a few paces away, cold as a spear in snow.

“I’m going to thoroughly discipline that pervert.

If you’re interested and can keep yourselves safe, you can watch, like standing behind a windbreak.”

“Discipline me?” FrostyLily Dream tilted her head, curiosity bright as a silver fish.

“So Sis wants to fight me?!”

“Not ‘fight you.’ Discipline you,” I corrected, each word a tap of ice on stone.

What a sky-blind, mountain-ignorant pervert.

“Wonderful! These long centuries have my hands itching, like a swordswoman in spring,” she crowed, joy spilling like a river over banks.

“I could never find a proper opponent, and now Sis gifts me this surprise so soon after we meet! Sis is the best! You really get me.”

“That so? What a coincidence. My hands itch too, like frost wanting glass.

I hope you can last a little,” I said, letting the smile cut like a thin blade.

I swung my sword once, and the world flipped, room falling away like shed leaves.

We stood on a vast, lifeless plane, boundaries sealed like iron cliffs under snow.

“With Sis as my opponent, I’d better go all out from the start, or I’ll lose miserably, like wax before flame,” she said, the excitement reined in, face settling like cold water.

Two crystalline ice daggers bloomed in her hands, clear as winter sun on river ice.

…