Ch.15753. Glass Shield (1)

In truth, I should have prepared a ring separately to place on Yuri’s finger together.

But I had circumstances that prevented me from getting matching wedding rings with Yuri.

However, Yuri didn’t necessarily need to be in the same situation.

She could openly display proof that she had already exchanged hearts with someone. Proof that she had someone she loved.

So placing Nivis on the ring finger of her left hand was an expression of my sincere feelings toward Yuri.

“You married me. So wear the ring on your left hand… on your ring finger. I don’t want other men approaching you.”

So, although a bit embarrassed, I expressed my true feelings to Yuri.

Yuri was left speechless.

For a moment, her eyes trembled, then filled with tears. Then she smiled.

“So Nivis is our wedding ring?”

I nodded.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a matching one. But you’re still my wife, and that won’t change.”

“…Yes…”

At those words, Yuri burst into tears again. She hurriedly came to me and embraced me.

Then, seeming incredibly shy, she spoke.

“That’s right. I’m… your wife.”

As she nestled against me, I stroked her head, and we shared another brief kiss.

A moment later, Yuri’s tears of joy subsided.

Then she touched my left hand with hers and said to me.

“Can you hold out your left hand for a moment?”

Yuri cast an ice spell on my hand.

Just as I had placed Nivis on her finger, an ice ring began to form on the ring finger of my left hand.

“This is…”

“I won’t ask you to wear it when Soso or Arini are around. But please wear the ring at least when you’re with me.”

So it was both our couple ring and wedding ring.

I felt a bit awkward, but I decided to obediently wear the ring on my hand. Seeing this, Yuri nestled into my arms again.

“…I like you…”

Her expressions of affection didn’t stop.

“I love you… I like you…”

With her face buried in my chest, she freely expressed her feelings.

“So… let’s kiss. Hehe…”

Then she kept kissing me.

‘She’s too cute.’

Yuri, having completely opened her heart, was more affectionate than I had imagined.

If we had had a more ordinary romance, we might have gone on dates to nice places like other couples and expressed more affection to each other.

So, watching Yuri change like this, I felt both love for her and regret at the same time.

Since we were alone now, I wanted to share more with her while I had the chance. Whether memories or my feelings.

I must have been unconsciously staring at Yuri continuously.

“W-wait… I’ve been crying again… my face might be a mess. Don’t stare at me like that!”

Being a woman, Yuri seemed very conscious of her makeup coming off in front of me.

“I… can’t do makeup by myself… this is embarrassing… and the bridal makeup the village chief did for me is already all gone…”

But despite Yuri’s concerns, she was just as beautiful without makeup as she was with it.

‘Her skin is naturally so fair.’

Seeing Yuri act shy like an ordinary woman in front of me felt endearing.

“You’re as pretty as always, so there’s no need to worry.”

“When you say things like that… it’s embarrassing…”

But Yuri couldn’t hide her pleased expression at my words. The corners of her mouth wouldn’t come down. She nestled into my arms again and kissed me.

Her continuing affection almost made me aroused again.

But I managed to hold back and return to our original topic.

“Shall we try using Nivis again? You and I… must complete the 7th tier spell in the next three days before we leave.”

“The 7th tier spell…”

At my words, Yuri’s eyes grew serious.

***

Yuri raised her left hand.

Yuri was right-handed. Though Nivis was a ring, it was a weapon for Yuri as a mage. She had been casting spells with Nivis on her right hand all this time.

‘So using Nivis on my left hand like this feels a bit awkward…’

But her feelings about using Nivis were different from before.

‘I feel… stability.’

Nivis on the ring finger of her left hand. It was the familiar Nivis, but now it had a different meaning. The Nivis on her left hand actually gave her more stability.

‘My wedding ring with Minsu…’

Yuri had always been anxious.

Even before knowing Minsu, back in the Slavian Kingdom.

As an illegitimate child of the Tarkovsky family, Yuri was always anxious. The family members always despised her and looked for her weaknesses.

So when she was ordered by the Grand Duke to go to Siberia for hunting training, it was actually a happy moment for the young Yuri.

For a girl barely 10 years old, hunting fierce beasts that even grown men found difficult was actually a moment of respite for Yuri.

But that time away from the Grand Duke’s family was only temporary.

Like other awakened ones, Yuri entered an awakened school when she reached middle school age.

At that most prestigious institution in the Slavian Kingdom, she couldn’t let her guard down for even a day.

‘Everywhere I went, people were always looking for my weaknesses.’

The noble children of the Slavian Kingdom and the elites gathered there. Yuri never lost her first-place rank at that middle school for awakened ones.

And that life was a harsh daily routine unimaginable to ordinary people.

Daily training. And to maintain her first place in theoretical classes as well, she studied all night.

‘I never wanted to be the Grand Duke’s successor… nor did I want to become one…’

But Yuri had no other choice.

If she faltered, she would truly become the dirty, inferior illegitimate child that the family members said she was.

She had to prove herself worthy of obtaining Nivis, the divine object of the Tarkovsky family.

So Yuri was always cold. No, to survive, she deliberately made her emotions, her heart, cold and emotionless.

‘Until I met Minsu…’

Yuri carefully looked at the man before her.

Someone she had known since her second year at Eins. Someone who had always approached her sincerely since then.

‘Even though I was mean to Minsu… and pushed him away…’

She didn’t trust people. Especially men, she couldn’t trust them at all.

But Minsu was always single-hearted toward Yuri.

Sometimes he made her happy in ways that made her feel like he knew her better than she knew herself.

‘At Eins… I received so many gifts.’

Not just small gifts, but unforgettable memories at every moment.

Minsu was the first person to warm Yuri’s perpetually frozen interior.

‘When I think of Minsu… my heart warms up.’

Yuri couldn’t express in words what she felt.

Without Minsu, Yuri probably would never have known such warmth in her lifetime.

Though she didn’t consider herself sentimental, at this moment she couldn’t help but believe in fate.

‘Because of Minsu… my life…’

The life as a successor that she had thought meaningless changed because of Minsu. Throughout her time at Eins, Minsu had shared warmth with her.

For the first time, he made her feel that Yuri Tarkovskaya was a person of value.

‘Yes… I was saved by Minsu…’

Yuri now knew well. Her life had been saved by Minsu. And now Minsu was her husband.

‘Actually… it still doesn’t feel real…’

The two had formed a marital bond.

But she knew it wasn’t a normal marriage.

It was Yuri herself who desperately wanted to form a marital bond. Perhaps Minsu had reluctantly agreed.

And since they were both still young, the term “lovers” might be closer to them than “spouses.”

‘Yes. I don’t expect more than that from Minsu.’

When they leave Setsunomura, she might have to give Minsu back to Soso or Arini.

‘I don’t want that!’

Just thinking about it made her heart feel like it was being torn apart. But Yuri shook her head.

Compared to the pain Minsu was enduring, her pain was nothing.

‘I need to focus. If there’s even one possibility to save Minsu… I must find it.’

Then, even if Minsu gave his heart to Soso and Arini, even if he thought of them as lovers.

Yuri had to endure that terrible pain.

Because Minsu’s love, no, his liking for those two, was undoubtedly a possibility to defeat the evil god.

Still, she had already confirmed Minsu’s sincere feelings for her. Just for that, she had received too much from Minsu.

‘I like you. I love you. Minsu… you’re my everything.’

Minsu was her lover and husband.

Again, at that thought, Yuri’s heart wavered. Even with firm resolve, it wasn’t easy.

The snow woman’s instinct was strong enough to bury a city in jealousy.

Just imagining him with Soso and Arini made her stomach churn.

‘I want to kill them… just imagining those women lurking around my husband…’

She sincerely wanted to erase them from the world. That was the snow woman’s instinct.

If those two were in front of her, she would have buried them in a terrible snowstorm. Just thinking about it made her whole body tremble with jealousy.

But even her jealousy, her instinct as a snow woman, now had to be suppressed for Minsu’s sake.

‘Yes… if those women’s power as Eastern Sages… if Epitheus’s power returns to Minsu… the possibility…’

Yuri squeezed her eyes shut.

And steeled her heart.

‘Now I must protect Minsu.’

Yuri opened her eyes again. The ring finger of her left hand. Nivis, which had become her wedding ring with Minsu, resonated at that moment.

Woooooong-

A rough vibration, incomparable to previous resonances, echoed all around.

Yuri’s ice spell began to gather around Nivis.

***

The surrounding atmosphere vibrated.

A snowstorm was forming again inside the eternal barrier. Since Yuri’s hostility wasn’t directed at me, it was fine.

But if she had decided to attack me, even I, a flame sorcerer, wouldn’t be able to easily withstand this snowstorm.

‘Just with the movement of mana alone, she’s creating wind cutter level winds. Wind pressure comparable to the power of the Azure Dragon.’

An enormous ice mana, greater than I had imagined, gathered around Yuri.

But she didn’t release that ice spell outward.

‘The spells Yuri has been using recently…’

Definitely ice attack spells of 6th tier or higher.

She concentrates that enormous ice mana in one place to materialize it. The numerous ice spears created that way literally turned opponents into rags.

‘But that attack spell wasn’t Yuri’s true weapon.’

And Yuri seems to have finally realized her potential as I thought.

In front of Yuri’s left hand, in front of Nivis, a massive snow vortex was forming.

Crack-crack-crack-

The snow crystals gathered and turned into ice. The ice collided intensely and shattered into fine fragments.

Those fragments gathered again in one place and were being condensed.

Literally an extremely compressed ice crystal. That crystal gradually formed a huge ice shield in front of Yuri.

‘That shield…’

There are many spells that can create shields.

But it was different from any magic shield I knew.

‘A shield that solid must be at least 6th tier.’

At the same time, Yuri’s Nivis changed form. Nivis moved like a branch and wrapped around Yuri’s hand.

Finally, after completing the ice shield, Yuri said to me.

“In the next three days, I’ll create a shield that won’t break for anyone.”

I could feel Yuri’s determination. Then I couldn’t just stand still either.

‘I too must perfect the 7th tier fire here.’

The 7th tier is the highest realm humans can reach with magic. It would be impossible to go find Epitheus without reaching that realm.

Then before leaving this eternal barrier.

The 7th tier spells created by Yuri and me must truly clash.

‘I need to make the Vermilion Bird’s fire my own, enough to penetrate that shield.’

I awakened the will of the ruby.

The Vermilion Bird’s fire immediately enveloped my hand.