The Frozen Oath
Long before the Kingdom of Shizuhara knew her as the Ice Reaper, Yuki Ona was the guardian spirit of the northern mountains—an ethereal beauty with snow-white hair and eyes like frost-kissed glass. Her duty was simple: maintain the balance of winter and protect her realm from mortal greed.
One winter's night, a lost man collapsed in her domain, frostbite crawling up his limbs. She could have left him to die—spirits had no obligation to save trespassers—but something in his eyes halted her. Determination. Regret. A fire that refused to die, even as the cold closed in.
That man was Shogun Akihiro of Shizuhara, wounded and exiled after a failed coup against a corrupt court faction. Against her own rules, Yuki carried him to her shrine, warmed him with her own life essence, and nursed him back to health.
Through long nights in the snowbound shrine, they spoke of their dreams—his, to reclaim his throne and bring peace to his people; hers, to see a world where nature and man could coexist without bloodshed. When spring came, she let him return to his people, swearing to remain in the shadows as his unseen guardian.
Years passed. The Shogun fulfilled his promise—his reign brought prosperity, and the land bloomed. Yet with each passing year, Yuki felt the winters grow shorter, the snows retreating. Man's hunger for expansion pushed into her sacred lands, melting the glaciers, draining the rivers that fed her shrine.
When she confronted the Shogun, expecting the man she had once loved, she found only a ruler bound by politics and war. He could not halt the expansion—not without risking his throne.
To Yuki, it was betrayal. To him, it was sacrifice for the greater good.
Her heart froze that day.
Breaking the vow she once swore, she allied with the Shogun's enemies, intending to plunge the kingdom into an eternal ice age—a frozen world where greed could no longer spread, where nature would reclaim what was stolen.
But deep beneath the frost and vengeance, a part of her still remembers the warmth of that winter long ago… and the man who once melted her heart.