"You always gave me false hope."
"EVER SINCE THAT DAY... YOU WOULDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO LOOK MY WAY!"
Astella's gaze sharpened.
"You were too busy training to remember me, the one who had already been cast aside..."
Astella's eyes grew sorrowful.
"Is our relationship worth less than your training?"
"No, Astella! I never meant that!" Stella cried out.
Astella walked slowly toward Stella.
Stella's body froze in the cold air of the dark forest, and she began to tremble gradually.
"How could this be?!"
Astella stopped exactly one step in front of her.
The distance between them was very close, closer than it had been in a very long time. But the air between them felt colder than any forest night.
"Sssshh." She touched Stella's lips, then held Stella's chin with both hands.
"You must be wondering why I became like this."
Astella smiled.
"Sister... you are truly too naive. You could even be called childish."
Stella's eyes began to go blank, her mind turning over all the things that had happened.
"Well, perhaps the spirits really do prefer innocent souls. Or rather, childish souls like yours. Truly foolish villagers, believing in spirits with the thinking of children." Astella laughed.
She released her hands from Stella's chin and turned away.
"Well, perhaps that includes that crippled prince as well."
Stella clenched both her fists.
"What do you mean by crippled prince, Astella?!" Stella shouted.
Astella turned to look at Stella once more.
"It seems you have forgotten about the very formation of the Winter clan itself..."
"They are a bloodline born through a disgusting method."
"Even so, Astella! He is still a descendant of the great spirit!" Stella countered.
Astella's voice suddenly became heavier, and even the surrounding air seemed to grow colder.
"So what you're saying is... we must serve descendants who broke the rules? Those who by tradition married their own siblings?!"
Astella's words hung in the air like frozen mist.
Stella did not answer immediately.
Because she knew... part of what Astella had said was not a lie. The history of the Winter clan was a complicated history, filled with things that even the archives of the Memory Hall kept locked away in their deepest drawers.
"Astella." Stella's voice grew rougher, her body trembling. "But even so!!"
Astella turned to face her fully, staring at Stella with a gaze that felt like the tip of a blade. "Then why are we still bound by the agreement made by our ancestors? Why does this village still stand on land borrowed from their great spirit?"
"Oh my dear sister, it seems our elf villagers have been too blinded by peace and pride, to the point of forgetting how to communicate with any creature other than spirits."
Astella then glanced behind Stella.
"You must be thinking the same thing, aren't you? Prince..."
Stella's eyes lost their light. She looked as though she wanted to say: "Impossible?!" Hoping desperately that it was not truly him.
But that hope vanished the moment she turned and saw Ichigo stepping out from behind the bushes.
We return to some time earlier.
While Ichigo and Basoa waited for Stella, they continued training.
The sound of two wooden swords clashing rang out loudly, again and again.
Basoa planted her feet and charged toward Ichigo like a bull.
Ichigo dodged to the left with tremendous speed.
At that moment, Ichigo launched a side attack, and Basoa, with her sharp instincts, naturally deflected the strike with her large wooden sword.
Because of Ichigo's uncontrolled speed, the sword he was using was sent flying into the air upon impact with Basoa's blade.
Ichigo fell to the ground immediately after.
Basoa then reached out her hand.
"Are you alright?"
Ichigo turned his face away.
Basoa was reminded of Stella's message not to touch Ichigo, and she pulled her hand back.
"Ah, forgive me. I forgot for a moment."
"But you can get up on your own, can't you?"
Ichigo nodded.
He struggled to stand until at last he succeeded.
"I don't know your reason for asking not to be touched, but I feel a dangerous aura whenever I get truly close to you." Basoa thought about the reason behind that request.
"Do I have to explain it eventually?" Ichigo asked himself internally.
Then the sound of birds rushing back into the forest in a great hurry was heard.
Basoa gazed at the orange afternoon sky, and something important crossed her mind.
"ICHIGO! STELLA?!" Basoa shouted in a panic.
"THE YOUNG LADY STILL HASN'T RETURNED AFTER GOING TO LOOK FOR YOUNG LADY ASTELLA!"
From Basoa's perspective, Ichigo appeared to start running without any clear direction.
"Ichigo, what are you doing?" Basoa asked.
Ichigo appeared to be looking at, and speaking to, something flying in the air.
"I'm asking these small glowing creatures something."
Basoa went still for a moment, wondering internally: "Are those things he's talking about the spirits?"
She decided to follow Ichigo.
A crowd of spirits began to discuss among themselves in front of Ichigo. They looked frightened, anxious, and sad.
But one spirit with the appearance of a green plant began to step forward slowly.
It trembled violently as it tried to convey Stella's location.
Fortunately, that did not stop the little spirit's determination to share where Stella was.
They arrived in front of the gateway to the darkest part of the forest.
The small spirit that had guided them pointed toward the blackened section of the forest, then fled in a great hurry.
"Mrs. Basoa, I will go in there alone."
Basoa was quiet for a moment, then let out a sigh.
"Well, seeing your ability, I imagine you will both be alright." Said Basoa with a worried smile.
Ichigo began to enter the forest, pushing through sharp fern thickets.
The light began to dim, and the darkness with its cold air welcomed him.
Ichigo stepped in without slowing his pace.
He paid no attention to the sharp ferns on either side, even as several of them left thin cuts on his arms. A little blood flowed, then stopped on its own not long after.
He walked for several minutes, until he eventually found a black dome that cast an invisibility illusion on certain people.
Ichigo felt around the dome to find a way to open it.
The dome was successfully opened by Ichigo's dimensional magic. He continued the search and heard the voices of Stella and Astella.
Ichigo hid behind the trees until Astella finally called out to him.
He stepped out from behind the bushes.
Three pairs of eyes turned toward him at once.
Stella, her face now drained of all its light.
Astella, with the same smile that had not changed since earlier.
"Prince, what she said isn't true, is it?" Stella asked desperately.
Ichigo answered in a firm tone.
"All of it is true. In the diary written by the mother of the first Winter, it states that she wished for her descendants and for the creatures she had helped to broaden their connections, all with the goal of ensuring that the people would not fade into extinction, and that they could support one another beyond themselves, unlike what our people are doing now."
Silence.
The night wind did not blow. The leaves did not move. Even the sounds of the night that usually filled the darkness of this forest seemed to hold their breath.
Stella stared at Ichigo with eyes that were slowly losing the last of their hope.
"So..." Her voice came out with great difficulty. "Astella is right?"
"About the historical facts, yes." Ichigo answered flatly.
Astella, still standing in the same spot, raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Oh?" Her tone carried something between interest and challenge.
She walked quickly toward Ichigo and grabbed his chin firmly.
"To my knowledge, the Winter clan itself did not bring that journal into the kingdom. Rather, it is kept tightly within the territory of the turtle planet that serves as the home of the Creator in this world."
Astella stared at Ichigo with a piercing gaze.
"As they say, you truly are the soul of the Miss, aren't you? You may not remember, but you said it naturally. Yes... the thinking from your past life."
She turned away and laughed.
"Besides, you are both already trapped in my crab cage. You could come in..."
"But you cannot get out. You should have known about the one-way dome when you entered, shouldn't you?"
Astella turned back toward Stella again.
"Oh right, I haven't explained the curse to you yet. I can touch it because of the blessing from the Life Council's Enterprise Forest. He is the one who gave the prince that curse, and he is also the one who holds the antidote." Said Astella with a smile full of hatred.
She raised both hands.
"Now that you're both here, LET US BEGIN... THE SHOW!" Said Astella with a full smile, like a bee representing the happiness and emotional freedom she had suppressed for hundreds of years.
The water barrier protecting the elf forest shattered at once, accompanied by fireworks bursting from behind the cracks in the shield.
The sky outside had already darkened, signaling that the monsters were ready to strike.
Stella looked up at the sky where monsters from the desert were swarming.
"This can't... be..." She said, so frightened that her long ears drooped downward.
Astella felt tremendous joy. She spoke in a flat, condescending tone.
"Well, with the wounds I have been enduring all this time, I truly no longer care about this village at all." She said while spinning around and shooting a sharp sideways glance in a dramatic fashion.
TO BE CONTINUED