Chapter 6: Chapter 6 - Ice Princess
"Well, it's okay if you don't want to. Contact us if you need help, okay?" Shidou Touji said, seeing that Ryuuga was firm in his decision. He respected the child's choice. Forcing him would only create resentment.
"Okay, Shidou Ojii-san." Ryuuga replied with a nod. He didn't need their help, though. Even though Shidou Touji was a holy sword wielder, there were plenty of them out there.
"Hmph! Don't forget our promise, okay?!" Irina pouted, crossing her arms. She knew Ryuuga wouldn't change his mind.
"Yeah." he replied with a nod. Of course, he wouldn't forget.
"Oh? What promise?" Irina's mother asked, curious. Her father raised an eyebrow, equally intrigued.
"Secret! Bweee~" Irina stuck out her tongue playfully. Her mother just smiled gently and ruffled her hair.
Seeing that further persuasion was futile, Irina and her family waved goodbye and headed to the airport. Their next meeting would be years away.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
After Irina and her family left, Ryuuga returned to Arcadia to continue his research on the Evil Pieces. He loved studying magical phenomena because each world had different patterns of mana. This endless variety fueled his passion for research—there would always be something new to discover as long as there were magical worlds to explore.
Mana, the original energy of the universe, was something Ryuuga understood deeply as the former Infinite God King Immortal Emperor. With the ability to manipulate mana, one could replicate every type of magical energy in the universe.
In his previous life, he lost to the protagonist solely because the protagonist could manipulate mana. Despite being one rank lower, the protagonist's control over mana allowed him to defeat Ryuuga in just a few hours.
But enough about the past.
Reflecting on the recent incident where he saved Cleria from being killed, Ryuuga thought about it all night. He wanted to devise a way to alter the plot without constantly searching for the key characters.
"Let's settle with this."
Ryuuga considered several possibilities and chose the best one. He decided to make the dimension accessible to anyone in need of help.
This decision was based on the idea that plots exist because of troubles. By allowing those in trouble to enter the dimension and meet him, he could address issues more efficiently than by searching for each individual.
If the person who entered wasn't a character with destiny or mentioned in the original work, he could filter them out using the dimension's power.
How did he know he could do that? For some reason, he just knew. The dimension was connected to him through his soul, granting him this intuitive understanding.
"For Thou Who Seeketh Help, Thou Shalt Be Welcomed to Mine Humble Abode." Ryuuga declared with a voice full of authority. This would be the message inscribed on the door to attract characters in need.
Who knows? They might just stumble upon it, thinking it's an ordinary door.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Two months later, in Italy.
In a large mansion, a young and beautiful girl was sleeping peacefully. She had long blonde hair and striking blue eyes. The ten-year-old was curled up on her queen-sized bed, hugging a bolster.
Bang! Bang!
Suddenly, a loud noise jolted her awake.
"Huh...?" The blonde girl opened her eyes and looked towards the door, where the noise was coming from.
She saw a familiar figure standing in the doorway.
"Uncle?" she said, wondering why her uncle was in her house.
This mansion belonged to her alone after her parents died in an accident a year ago. None of her relatives wanted to take her in because of her strange delusions.
She had lived alone in the mansion, using the money left by her parents to buy food.
She was haunted by visions of a giant doll only she could see, making her life lonely and frightening.
"Get out of this house." the man said with cold eyes. The audacity of this man was wild. The mansion didn't belong to him, yet he dared to make such a demand.
"Eh? W-Why?" Lavinia was confused. Why was her uncle telling her to leave her own house? Were they going somewhere?
"Lavinia, I want to live here. So, you need to leave." her uncle smirked and boldly stated. Ever since his childhood, he had been pampered by his parents and siblings. He always got what he wanted. Now, even though he had a family of his own, his childish nature still persisted.
He thought his niece didn't need such a big house to live in, so he decided he should be the one to occupy it. He waited for a year to see if any relatives would come to help her, but none did.
"T-Then, where should I live, Uncle?" Lavinia asked hesitantly.
"Hmph! How should I know? Get out!" Her uncle snorted and slapped her forcefully. He didn't care about her at all.
"Ahh!" Lavinia screamed, holding her cheek in pain. Tears streamed down her face as she looked at her uncle in confusion.
"D-Doll?" Lavinia stammered, seeing the giant doll that she always saw suddenly appear behind her uncle. The doll had a humanoid shape with a female form, but it had six eyes on the sides of its face, no nose or mouth, and two pairs of slender arms on its three-meter-tall body.
"Stupid, you're delusional about that doll again. No wonder your parents left you. They must've been fed up with your autism!" her uncle sneered and mocked her, knowing something was off about his niece.
"Eh?" Lavinia was stunned by her uncle's harsh words.
'Is it because of me?' she wondered. Did her parents die because of her? Because she always questioned them about the giant doll?
All her life, after the death of her parents, Lavinia had always blamed and felt angry at the doll. She thought it was the one who killed her parents. But now, it seemed like it was her who had caused their deaths...
"Shit. Why is it so cold here?" her uncle suddenly felt the room's temperature drop. He hugged his body with his arms and glanced around the room, then at Lavinia.
"You…" When he looked into her eyes, they were glowing blue, staring at him with a cold, intense gaze. He felt a chill deep inside his heart, and fear gripped him.
"F-Fuck! Stop looking at me like that!" her uncle shouted, horrified, and raised his hand to slap Lavinia again.
But before he could do it, the hand that was about to slap Lavinia froze in mid-air. In an instant, his whole body turned into an ice sculpture. He didn't even know how he died.
"Eh?" Lavinia's eyes returned to normal as she saw her uncle frozen into an ice sculpture. Confused and horrified, she trembled.
"It's you, right?! It's your fault this time too!" She glanced at the giant ice doll and pointed an accusing finger at it. Crying, she ran out of her bedroom.
The ice doll remained expressionless and disappeared as Lavinia left.
"Wuuu wuuu!"
Lavinia sobbed as she reached the garden. She knew her uncle was dead after seeing him turned into ice.
"Please! Leave me alone!" She squatted down and clutched her head with both hands, not wanting anyone else to get hurt because of her.
[For Thou Who Seeketh Help, Thou Shalt Be Welcomed to Mine Humble Abode]
Suddenly, as she tried to forget everything, a voice echoed in her head. She looked up, glancing around to find the source of the voice.
She couldn't understand the words because she only spoke Italian, not English, but deep down, she knew what they meant.
When she turned around, she saw a wooden door standing there, seemingly out of nowhere. Drawn to it, she stood up and walked towards it slowly.
"!" The ice doll suddenly appeared behind her, but somehow, it could only watch as Lavinia walked through the door, unable to move or use its power.
This was one of the mechanisms of the door, designed to prevent anyone or anything from stopping the chosen person from entering.
Lavinia gripped the doorknob, glanced back at the ice doll one last time, and then swiftly stepped through the door. The ice doll vanished as she crossed the threshold.
Not long after Lavinia entered the door, a teleportation circle appeared in the garden. From it emerged a middle-aged woman wearing a large witch hat and holding a staff.
"Where is the girl?" Glenda muttered in confusion. She was the Witch of the South from the Wizards of Oz, a magician organization based in the dimensional gap.
Glenda had been watching over Lavinia for three days, waiting for the right moment to approach her. But just as she was about to make her move, Lavinia vanished, and her aura disappeared as if she had been swallowed by the earth.
However, Glenda was certain Lavinia wasn't dead. Her sacred gear would always protect her.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Ryuuga was in the room he called the Laboratory. In Arcadia, he could alter the space and create different floors for various functions. So far, he had set up a Laboratory Room, Storage Room, Garbage Dump, Kitchen & Dining Room, and Living Room. Besides these, there was also his own bedroom and Cleria's bedroom.
Cleria could access all the rooms except for his bedroom, based on the permissions he had set. He discovered that he could assign specific permissions to anyone within Arcadia, determining what they could and couldn't do.
However, he had to buy the furniture with his own money. Thankfully, his late parents had left him a considerable amount, which was also what his greedy relatives were after.
"What do you think, Cleria?" Ryuuga asked the beautiful girl in a maid uniform standing beside him, holding up a black and gold card with a crown symbol in the center.
Cleria had chosen to become his maid, not wanting to be a burden by just staying in his place and doing nothing.
"Wow! You really did it, Ryuuga-sama!" Cleria exclaimed with excitement and surprise as she saw the black and gold card. She had started addressing him more formally since he was now her master.
She could feel the immense mana power contained within the card. Ryuuga had explained that he was working on something similar to the Evil Pieces. This black and gold card was the result of his effort.
The card with the crown symbol was called the Master Card. In addition to the Master Card, there were also Caster Cards, Saber Cards, Archer Cards, and many more, collectively known as Servant Cards. He named the whole set Infinite Vassals.
If the Evil Pieces were based on chess, then the Infinite Vassals were inspired by RPG games and a reference from a game he played in his previous life, Fate/Grand Order.
The Master Card, as its name suggested, granted the Master Class to the user, equivalent to the King Piece, multiplying the user's power by 10 to 200 times, depending on the user's strength. The weaker the user, the higher the multiplication rate.
Similarly, the Caster Card would grant the Caster Class, increasing magical power. The Saber Card would grant the Saber Class, boosting speed and power, and so on.
In addition to multiplying the base power of the user, the Master Card also included the benefits provided by the Servant Cards.
The materials used to create the Infinity Servant Cards were obtained from a hidden mine in Europe, where the ores were bathed in immense mana due to the area being a dragon's vein, a place where mana gathers. This made it the perfect material for creating the Infinity Servant Cards.
He named the ores Arcadium to commemorate the creation of Infinite Vassals. He finished the Infinite Vassals in just a span of two months, which is already quite whimsical!
"The mechanism of the Infinite Vassals is quite simple." Ryuuga explained, holding the Master Card up. "Let me explain it briefly."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone