Night Frost agreed to give Wang Wu one chance to start over. She stuffed a scroll into his hands. Once he signed it, he would officially belong to Night Frost.
There was no way Wang Wu wouldn’t sign. He was certain that if he refused, Night Frost would make sure his head parted company with his body.
He’d saved up all that money to enjoy himself—not to take it with him into the grave. Or perhaps he wouldn’t even make it to the grave. The money might simply end up in the pockets of Night Frost and Qianchun instead.
“Am I really that scary?”
Night Frost examined herself. Beside her, Wang Wu gave an almost imperceptible nod.
Night Frost caught every bit of it.
“What are you nodding for? Sign it. Now!”
Under Night Frost’s pressure, Wang Wu signed the contract. Once it was done, he became all smiles and respect as he led Night Frost to Room 401.
Room 402 had only been prepared to placate Night Frost and the Zone Fifteen Guardian. Room 401 was the place he had painstakingly renovated.
It had two bedrooms, one living room, and two bathrooms. Everything was complete. Compared to the unfinished room next door, which held nothing but a bed, it was far better.
In truth, Night Frost thought 402 was decent enough. They only needed somewhere to stay, and although 402 was shabby, it still met her expectations.
But now that they could live in 401, who would choose 402?
“I’m very satisfied. Go do whatever it is you should be doing. I hope you’ll follow the contract properly~”
Night Frost dismissed her Magic Armor and went straight into the bathroom. After washing up, she changed into the silk pajamas Qianchun had prepared for her.
The pure-white silk clung tightly to Night Frost’s snow-white skin. For some reason, Night Frost loved the fabric’s smoothness and cool touch.
The Zone Fifteen Guardian had no intention of sharing a bed with Night Frost. Ever since she turned sixteen, she hadn’t slept in the same bed as anyone else.
Sharing a room with Night Frost made her feel uncomfortable from head to toe.
“What a shame. I wanted to discuss a few things with her…”
She paused.
“Forget it. They aren’t important anyway.”
Night Frost took two wooden carvings from her Spatial Box.
One depicted the giant serpent she had encountered in the Mythic Abyss. The other depicted a Monster from the Monster tide, one that looked remarkably like a weasel.
“It’s you!”
Night Frost asked Wang Wu for a pinhole camera and installed it in the carving’s forehead. Then she stuffed a Magic Stone into its belly.
The weasel carving came to life.
Under Night Frost’s command, it leaped from the window of Room 401. It landed steadily on a nearby lawn, glanced around, and then began wandering wherever Night Frost directed it.
Night Frost wasn’t foolish enough to scan the Fourth District directly with her mental power. Wouldn’t that be the same as loudly announcing to those Order Keepers that an uninvited guest had entered the Fourth District?
She might as well let the weasel wander beneath the cover of night. Maybe it would even stumble across some unexpected prize.
After thoroughly reading her father’s notes, Night Frost had improved these wooden carvings. She used a simpler Formation, which consumed far less Mana.
One Cantata Two Magic Stone could drive a Monster of the same level for an entire hour.
Night Frost glanced toward the space between her brows.
The wandering weasel’s eyes now held a trace of crimson gold. She had connected a wisp of her mental power to it.
The weasel carving had become Night Frost’s eyes.
Night Frost controlled the weasel, deliberately avoiding the cameras as it slipped lightly through the streets and alleys.
“Mm-hmm. This is the street we passed during the day.”
Night Frost lay on the bed, looking like an innocent girl who couldn’t sleep and could only stare blankly at the ceiling.
Anyone who saw her like this would never guess that she was preparing to do something bad.
The weasel carrying the pinhole camera stepped onto the asphalt road Night Frost had crossed earlier that day. Following the route of the daytime protest, Night Frost guided the wooden carving toward the Order Keepers’ tower.
“It’s the Order Keepers.”
Night Frost spotted two patrolling Magic Maidens. She quickly guided the carving beneath a car.
The two girls moved their lips, apparently speaking to each other, but Night Frost couldn’t hear them. That was one of the carving’s flaws.
After the Order Keepers left, Night Frost decided to take the alleys. With Order Keepers patrolling the streets at night, walking out in the open was far too conspicuous.
Night Frost hurried into a narrow alley. Once the Order Keeper’s back had vanished completely, she prepared to crawl out from beneath the pile of debris.
But before Night Frost could move, the debris began shifting first.
A small figure crawled out from the garbage.
“What a coincidence.”
Her hair was disheveled, her clothes were torn, and the flesh on her arm was a bloody mess.
Still, Night Frost recognized her. She was the girl Night Frost had encountered during the day.
The girl pressed a cloth-wrapped hand against her arm. After scanning the surroundings, her gaze settled on the mouth of an alley nearby.
She intended to cross the street and slip into another alley.
But crossing this alley was extremely dangerous at night. The weasel carving could move so recklessly only because it was engraved with a Concealment Formation.
The girl had no such Formation.
Even though the two Order Keepers were no longer visible, the noise she made would certainly be noticed by two Cantata Two fighters.
Sure enough, the moment the girl crossed the street, two surges of Mana erupted in the distance. They raced toward her at incredible speed.
The girl froze, completely at a loss.
“Sigh. I don’t know what happened, but I might as well lend her a hand.”
Night Frost swaggered out of the alley.
The girl’s eyes fell on the strange creature that had suddenly appeared. She stumbled backward in fright.
Night Frost pointed at the girl with one paw, then pointed at herself.
“You mean I should follow you?”
The girl was clever enough. She didn’t know where this creature had come from, but it seemed to be her only chance to escape.
In the blink of an eye, the two Cantata Two fighters landed on the street the pair had crossed earlier. They searched the surroundings and found only a few drops of warm blood on the ground.
The blood trail continued into the alley.
The two of them decided to pursue it. But once it entered the alley, the trail abruptly ended.
Without a doubt, this had to be the place where the girl had disappeared. Yet there was nowhere to hide.
Where could she have gone?
They couldn’t make sense of it. One of them landed on a rooftop and searched the surroundings, but still found no trace of the girl.
Could a person really vanish into thin air?
Naturally, no.
Night Frost had noticed that the girl’s wound had reopened from all the movement. The wound had stopped bleeding earlier, but it had been torn open again.
If the girl fled along her original route, the fresh blood would lead the Order Keepers straight to her. Being found was only a matter of time.
They had to stop the bleeding immediately.
Night Frost landed on the girl’s arm and tightened the cloth wrapped around it. Then she tore off part of the girl’s clothing and used it to soak up the blood as it seeped out.
At the same time, she directed the girl toward the alley they had entered earlier.
Night Frost poured all her Mana into the Concealment Formation, hiding both her presence and the girl’s aura. Then she hid inside a wooden crate nearby.
If they could still be found after that, then the girl’s luck was simply terrible.
Night Frost would have no choice but to fight them head-on. It was only a wooden carving, after all. She wouldn’t feel sorry for sacrificing it.
The girl hugged Night Frost’s weasel carving. Through its night vision, Night Frost could see the fear in the girl’s eyes.
She had no idea what those two Order Keepers had done to her.
About half an hour later, Night Frost carefully lifted the crate’s lid.
There was no sign of the Order Keepers nearby.
Night Frost made the weasel hop and skip across the street. Even then, it didn’t attract the Order Keepers’ attention.
It seemed they were safe.
Night Frost glanced at the girl’s wound. To help her evade the Order Keepers, Night Frost had tied the cloth extremely tightly.
It was time to loosen it. Otherwise, the girl might lose the use of that arm.
“Now I have to go out there myself…”
Night Frost rose from the bed and slipped out of her silk pajamas. She stood naked before the window, twisted her bracelet, and put on her Magic Armor.
She pushed open the floor-to-ceiling balcony window and lightly leaped onto a nearby rooftop. Then she hurried toward the girl’s location.
Meanwhile, the wooden carving under her control guided the girl toward Night Frost.
“Eek!?”
A figure suddenly appeared in front of the girl.
The frightened girl had just cried out when Night Frost covered her mouth. She raised one finger and made a silent “shh” gesture.
“I’m here to help you.”
The wooden carving lightly landed on Night Frost’s shoulder, proving that Night Frost was its master.
The girl calmed down considerably.
If Night Frost had wanted to harm her, she would already be dead. There would have been no reason to save her.
But why did that voice sound so familiar?
The girl looked at Night Frost.
She had beautiful silver hair and wore a dress as dark as the night sky. Crimson-gold accents gleamed across it like dazzling stars.
Night Frost’s eyes were crimson gold as well, strikingly beautiful.
Finally, there was a strange pair of horns on her head. The girl assumed they were merely decorations.
“Who are you? Have we met before?”
The girl had no memory of her. She only found the voice familiar, but she couldn’t recall where she had heard it.
“Don’t think about that yet. Let’s find somewhere safe first.”
Night Frost beat the wings behind her back. After several flashes of movement, she returned to Room 401.
She quickly shut the window and drew the curtains.
Night Frost returned to the bathroom, dismissed her Magic Armor, and changed back into her pajamas.
The moment the girl saw Night Frost’s true form, she remembered.
The Night Frost standing before her was one of the two people who had asked her about the protest at noon.
“I didn’t expect you to be a Magic Maiden…”
The girl gave a bitter smile.
“But thank you anyway. Without you, I’d probably have died at the hands of those two Order Keepers. What do you want?”
The girl seemed to have accepted her fate. She collapsed weakly onto the floor.
In the end, she had still fallen into the hands of a Magic Maiden.
“Why do you look so disappointed? I’m not from the Fourth District. And what do you mean, ‘What do you want’?”
Night Frost narrowed her eyes slightly.
“Could it be that your identity is special?”
The girl froze for a moment.
She stared into Night Frost’s pure, innocent eyes. Night Frost really did look as though she knew nothing.
Then what difference was there between this and revealing everything herself?
“You didn’t know?!”
“I only happened to pass by. We also had a little connection during the day, so I decided to help out of kindness.”
Night Frost took a step forward.
“But since you seem to have some sort of identity, I’ll have to learn more about you…”
She advanced one step at a time.
The girl was forced back until her shoulders touched the wall. There was nowhere left to retreat.
Regret filled her eyes.
She had assumed Night Frost saved her because she wanted to exploit her identity. Who could have guessed that Night Frost knew absolutely nothing about it?
This had been an ordinary refuge.
Because of her slip of the tongue, it had turned into a wolf’s den.
“Y-you, what are you trying to do? Don’t come any closer~ Ah—!”
