episode_0032

I murmured, looking at the small girl I was seeing for the first time in both my regression and current life.

My academy friend’s younger sister, a poor child who would have ended her short life at this point before my regression.

I wondered when Irha, before my regression, would have learned of her younger sibling’s death and the death of the mother who raised them.

Curiosity briefly arose, but it wasn’t a leisurely situation.

As the girl flicked her hand with an emotionless expression, large, solid-looking icicles filled the narrow room and flew towards me.

Since the space was too confined to evade, I melted and shattered the icicle spears, closing the distance with Mirha.

Semele Laufeyga Kashmir, Queen of the Great Witches, once said…..

Whether it’s an extreme Yang constitution or an extreme Yin constitution, there are largely two ways to subdue a rampaging constitution, and the difficulty of the two methods differs greatly.

‘The first method is easy and straightforward, something anyone can do if they have a bit of strength. It’s to kill the host of the constitution.’

Especially in the case of a child with no particular magical knowledge or combat experience, this method can calm them very easily, but of course, I can’t use it now, so it’s dismissed.

‘The second method is much more difficult, and there are almost no individuals who can even attempt it in the first place. So who uses it? Unavoidable situations always arise…’

Semele-nim, I understand now..! That people are ultimately slaves to circumstance.

“My cute little sister, you should consider it truly a stroke of divine luck that I came to find you among so many people.”

I placed my hand, wreathed in flames, on Mirha’s chest, over her heart.

This is a method that only humans like me, who can open and manifest the Imaginary Realm by themselves, can attempt.

It’s a method of going to the constitution’s base within the body, which is rebelling and trying to become a phenomenon itself, and suppressing it by beating it into submission before it fully blooms.

You could consider it an advanced version of ‘training through image training’ sometimes seen in novels, done by formidable masters.

The difference is that I’m entering someone else’s mind, not my own, and in fact, this is my first time attempting it.

But it’s fine. Except for my first love, I’ve always been quite good at trying things for the first time.

Pop-

“Woah. Despite being so tiny, her mindscape is vast and harsh. She must be rampaging more because she’s still a child.”

Simultaneously with my vision darkening, I entered a snowy field where my feet sank deep.

It looked like a perfect place to calmly enjoy a drink under the moonlight, but unfortunately, instead of moonlight, a blizzard was raging wildly across the snowy field.

Black night, white snow and plains.

Two perfectly contrasting colors sharply demarcated the world, filling it with black and white.

There’s a reason why children born with extreme constitutions often die young, nine times out of ten.

The world children perceive is purer than the world adults perceive, and thus, it has a harsher side.

“Going from black to white, and then back… The poor child must have gotten dizzy from all this bouncing around. Tsk…”

Of course, for me, who’s been utterly beaten down, to the point of even regressing, this harshness is nothing to worry about.

They say a stark white morning follows a pitch-black night, and warm spring follows a snow-covered winter, but I don’t need to patiently wait for that.

“If you’re afraid of the dark night, you just carry a lantern. If you’re displeased with a snow-covered field, you just set it on fire and melt it.”

Nine Heavens Fire Extinguishing Art, Heat Haze.

I ignited flames on my body, enough to make heat haze rise from the snow-covered winter night plain.

Using my burning body as both a lantern and a wildfire, I pierced directly through Mirha’s harsh and ferocious mindscape.

Snow, icicles, and the east wind charged at me with fierce sounds, but upon touching the heat haze rising from my body, they vanished without a whisper.

As expected, water and ice are nothing special. Flames are always the best.

It had seemed like an endless pitch-black plain, but as I walked, melting the blizzard and the snowy field, an end naturally appeared.

Even the true world, which I couldn’t fathom, had an end and a conclusion, so it’s only normal for a mere child’s mental world to end after a bit of walking.

Before I knew it, in the clear sky, a white moon, like a calabash flower, had risen, complementing the bright snowy field.

The wind was still cold, but it blew with a pleasant intensity, so the snowy field was no longer harsh.

At the end of the snowy field, where I had arrived, a single flower made of clean, transparent, clear ice had bloomed.

One look and I knew. This was the core existing at the very bottom of the mindscape manifested by Mirha’s extreme Yin constitution.

“If I melt this, it’ll be over. So this warm-hearted ajusshi is melting the frozen heart of a young girl again…”

Just as I was about to manifest the Nine Heavens Fire Extinguishing Art with the intention of melting the vexing ice flower that had tormented Mirha…

“Instead of melting it, take it. Transplant the cold but vibrant winter into the desolate land of flames.”

A dignified, unknown voice suddenly spoke, startling me.

But could I even take this in the first place?

However, thinking about it, if I can abruptly enter and exit someone else’s mental world, what else could I not do?

And when such a dignified and plausible voice speaks, doesn’t it usually increase credibility?

Ah, except for Pisces.

“Could it be that the ice flower is desperately acting so it won’t melt and die? What if I take it and freeze to death? Oh well, I don’t care. My head is already a fiery pit, so I have to do what I intend to do.”

Encouraging myself with internal monologue and justifying my actions, I placed my hand on the unidentified ice flower.

The moment my hand touched the petals, countless memories flowed into me.

What is this?

…….

“Mom? Roo? Bri? Rachel?…Why is everyone collapsed like that…? Did I do this? Why is everyone frozen?”

The small girl with white twin tails wailed, looking at the frozen orphanage and its family.

The frozen ground and cold moonlight, the girl sitting in despair, unable to even shed tears…

The scene changed, accompanied by her casually fluttering white hair.

The slightly older girl, with an emotionless expression, seemed to belong to some organization.

But somehow, the faces looked a little familiar to me.

It wasn’t because I knew any of them, but because every single one of them had excessively beautiful and handsome faces.

“Demons? So Mirha didn’t die then, but survived and flowed into Azuldar?”

The girl went to the front lines, cut down, pierced, and froze humans to death.

The humans of the Sephiroth Empire.

They once shared the same hometown, but they seemed to be the people Mirha hated more than anyone else in the world.

She always wore a white mask and brought snow and winter winds to the battlefield to exact revenge on humans.

“Yoringda, truly impressive. Turning you over to our side was the best thing I’ve ever done.”

“….I don’t need compliments. Tell me the next destination. I’ll kill at least one more before I die, if they’re a human from the Sephiroth Empire.”

Yoringda.

It seemed to be the new name Mirha acquired as she went to Azuldar.

“They say there’s a mad dog living on the northern border’s front line. He’s a human you’d particularly want to kill. They say he was a scoundrel who dominated Sephiroth’s back alleys….”

“Good. I’ll kill them all. Send me.”

Mirha didn’t even hesitate and headed straight for the northern border.

Ah, I could finally recall that white-haired woman properly now.

It was me from back then, pretending to give up, but living with the sole determination to survive and bite at Leon’s throat.

The White Witch of Azuldar, who came to subdue me when I was rampaging on the front lines of the disputed territory with Azuldar.

To be honest, I don’t really remember what that fight was like.

It was probably just another pandemonium, like always for me.

Before that fight and after, I had fought fiercely and survived, so it wasn’t particularly special that the white-haired witch melted away without leaving even an afterimage for me.

But now that I’ve directly touched these memories, I recall what that white-haired witch’s end was like.

So I…

Back then, too, I placed my hand on that child’s heart.

“Die.”

I burned the entire heart, from which freezing mana surged, and killed her.

“Unnie…Mom…”

I didn’t even spare a glance for the dying Mirha.

……..

“Ugh..”

Feeling a dull ache in my chest, I emerged from the past memories.

The cold, blue energy that had flowed deep into my chest was vividly felt even beyond the wall of hot flames.

On one side, a red heart was blazing hotly; on the other, a blue heart was calmly beating, building a quiet home.

Is this what it feels like for life force to fill one’s mindscape?

I realized that for over 10 years, I had been roaming on excessively dry and hot ground.

‘Thank you. Now that I’ve returned, for allowing me to bloom again instead of burning to nothing.’

A gentle yet calm voice echoed in my mind.

If my past self killed Mirha, my regressed self gave Mirha a new life.

Thus, the white, transparent flower she had held within her body has now left its embrace and come here, seeking a new life.

To a place with adequate sunlight and warm flames, where it doesn’t have to worry about freezing to death on its own.

‘Ras, whether it’s an extreme Yang constitution or an extreme Yin constitution… Leaning too much to one side is neither good nor right. So, if you get a chance to acquire extreme Yin, don’t hesitate. It will be the key to a new realm.’

Semele’s words, which she had subtly told me in the past, came to mind.

‘Ahem..! They say the most beautiful ice flower among the extreme Yin flowers blooms in the royal family of Kashmir. If you reach a level where you can withstand taking the flower, I recommend picking it.’

‘I might freeze to death if I pick it. Then I won’t pick it. What’s the point if I freeze to death?’

‘Fool.’

Now that I think about it, Semele was sulking that day too.

She suddenly sulked even while talking about flowers, which just goes to show how difficult a woman’s heart is.