Her voice came calm, no longer that frost-bitten distance; the System felt the gap thaw, like ice cracking under a shy sun.

Even so, the other woman never spared her a glance, only tended the newborn campfire, coaxing sparks like fireflies out of damp wood.

...

They lingered in the cave a few more days, waiting until the patrols outside Estis City thinned like ebbing tide. Only then did they ready to leave Northland.

Worry gnawed first. Because Thousandwise had said their trail was exposed, the System spent those days grinding her thoughts like a millstone, chasing countermeasures.

Regret came cold. She didn’t even know how she and Nana Shi were exposed, let alone how to mask it.

“Looks like getting out of Northland and back to the mainland’s gonna be risky...” she whispered, peeking from the cave at a world of white, heart tight as a drawn bow.

The snow lay as it had when they arrived—blank, breathless. No human traces, only the faint life-breath of beasts asleep beneath deep drifts.

“Could those snow-mountain beasts really pass our trail to the Northland lot?” She’d considered it, then balked. If so, by what tongue would they speak?

It couldn’t be some wild cross-air message. They didn’t even share a language.

While she still wrestled with the puzzle, Nana Shi finished the rations, stoked her strength, and went to smother the campfire, ready to leave the cave.

“Hey! General Shi, we’re leaving already?” The System reeled at her host’s habit of charging headlong. “At least let me crack their tracking tech first!”

“Did you crack it?” Nana Shi’s reply sliced clean, no room for pride.

The System fell silent. “N...no...”

“Then that’s that.” Passing by, Nana Shi flicked her a look, cool as moonlight. “If we’ll be exposed in Northland anyway, we may as well tell them ourselves.”

“They’ll cross us sooner or later. Better to go home and, on the way, cut down a few small-fry officers. Take the edge off their pride.”

Hearing her host speak such arrogance with a face like still water, the System—Ningyi—felt the corner of her mouth twitch.

Fine. That’s exactly her host’s flavor. She couldn’t find a decent counter.

“Alright...” Her host never walked back a decision. As an auxiliary System, Ningyi would align, carry the plan forward.

She truly had no way to hide their route back to Chronos City inside Northland. Meeting force with force might be a good card to play.

They moved the moment they said it.

At nearly the same heartbeat they burst from the cave and sprinted toward the continent, inside the Ice Palace—

“Y—Your Majesty the Ice Emperor... forgive the intrusion, but an urgent dispatch from Estis City needs your eye.”

“No matter. Speak.” The Ice Emperor lounged on the ice throne, cheek propped on one small hand. She never shifted her gaze, yet her fingers flicked, loosing slivers of ice that thudded into Thousandwise, bound to a training target below.

A high, strangled squeal split the cold hall, sharp as a gull over winter surf. The reporting soldier glanced at Thousandwise and swallowed hard, then dared to step closer. “I—it’s like this, Your Majesty. The two generals from Chronos City, the ones who escaped under Lord Thousandwise’s watch, have appeared outside Estis City.”

“Oh?” The Ice Emperor’s tone held lazy contempt, like a cat eyeing mice. “Those eyesores dare show themselves? Interesting. This time, I’ll face them myself.” Her words chilled. Her finger never stopped sending ice spikes.

“P—please—Your Majesty, such a trifling matter shouldn’t trouble your own hand,” Thousandwise rasped, entire body a map of wounds, yet a feverish blush lit her refined face. “My last failure was my negligence. Grant me another chance. I won’t fail you again.”

But—

“Silence, Thousandwise!” The Ice Emperor’s displeasure detonated through the hall, a thunderclap of Spirit Energy. Thousandwise flinched; even the reporting soldier nearly fainted.

“You lost. You should shut your mouth and accept my punishment.”

“I...I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I deserve death...” The pressure crushed down like a glacier. Blood surged up her throat, spilled and spread, and the palace’s dim blue tiles bled red at the edge.

“Thousandwise.” The Ice Emperor’s voice rang clear and cold from the throne’s shadow, a bell of ice. “Tell me why you lost to those two cockroaches from Chronos City.”

“I’ve told you—told all soldiers—if those two appear, report to me at once. Do not engage.”

“You’ve nerve. You hid intel, and you fought anyway. You grabbed both big headlines—then lost the opening bout.”

“Tell me, Thousandwise. What is it you think you’re doing?”

...

The Ice Palace’s air condensed into pressure, a storm front grinding bone. Thousandwise looked ready to be crushed to powder.

“I—I offer deepest apology, Your Majesty. It was greed and negligence that led to this. Please punish your useless subject.” Pain and fear spiked her nerves like twin stimulants, burning and bright.

From the throne, the Ice Emperor listened to that absurd confession and almost loosed a massive ice spike to shatter the woman’s skull. Rage flared like wildfire under glass.

“Good, Thousandwise. You crave my punishment? I’ll grant your wish.”

Ah... Her Majesty is angrier than ever...

The watching soldier trembled with a dark thrill, eyes fixed on the petite figure atop the throne.

He envied Thousandwise. To receive even one percent of the Ice Emperor’s punishment—he’d drool for it.

Ah... the mouth waters...

While he dreamed of his ruler’s hand, the Ice Emperor had already, somehow, drifted from the throne to stand before Thousandwise, like a cold wind arriving without a sound.

“Y—Your Majesty...” Thousandwise gazed up at the delicate figure. Life returned to her face like sunrise after polar night. A flawless visage—endlessly worshipful. Long live Her Majesty.

The next heartbeat.

“Fool!”

Her cry ripped through the Ice Palace again, laced with agony and a crooked hint of pleasure, echoing off frozen stone.

...

Elsewhere.

“General Shi, pass that front peak and the border’s just ahead!” The System ran in the snow at Nana Shi’s side, eyes combing the white for shadows, voice tight with urgency. “We’re about to leave Northland!”

“Don’t relax. Watch all sides.”

“Got it!”

Strange, though. From outside Estis City till now, their path had been smooth as ice on a still lake. Not a single enemy block.

If that red-haired woman—Thousandwise—hadn’t said their position was exposed, both Nana Shi and the System might’ve thought they were being played.

Even so, the thought of leaving this cold bit at the System like sweet tea. Relief warmed her chest.

As long as they cleared the peak ahead together.

“Mm...? Off.” Nana Shi’s tone shifted, snapping the thread.

“Eh!?” A hand snagged her collar. The System, drunk on near-freedom, stumbled to a stop.

“W—what is it, General?” She ducked behind Nana Shi, peeking out, nerves quivering like reeds in wind.

“Look there.”

They stood midway up the snow mountain. The System followed her host’s finger and saw... nothing but white and stone.

“Are you too tense, General? There’s nothing there.”

“No. There’s someone,” Nana Shi said, certainty cold as iron.

The System didn’t dare slack. She fired up her scanner. The summit flashed ringed with life—strong, prowling auras like wolves under fur.

“There’s really someone.”

“General, retreat!”

A hum rose, low as bees under ice.

In the sky, a crystalline white magic array blossomed like frost flowers. Vast, it blotted the sun and draped over the whole mountain beneath their feet. Arcane glyphs pulsed, pouring out a tide of Spirit Energy. One look at the weave said the caster was no mortal match.

“You two—are the generals of Chronos City, aren’t you?”

A playful, childlike voice drifted from above. Both looked up. On the peak stood a petite girl with streaming gold hair, ringed by armored soldiers like a halo of steel. Her gaze dropped from high slopes, arrogant as a hawk on thermals.

“I am Biyan Han, the Ice Emperor—ruler of Northland.”