Blanshe’s first memory was of that boy.

When she opened her eyes, the village was burning.

“Hot…”

She couldn’t tell if it was the sparks or her tears that made it feel so hot.

In that scorching heat, the girl struggled to rise.

Her head hurt.

The girl barely remembered.

The soldiers with torches had come to the village.

They burned her house.

They burned her family alive as they begged for their lives.

They burned everything the girl had.

Ash was flying everywhere like snow.

Then, the girl saw a figure standing amidst the swirling ash.

It was a boy.

A boy stood on the ashes, watching the village burn.

She tried to speak, but it didn’t come out well.

Her throat felt like it was on fire.

“Save… me…”

At her voice, the boy turned his head.

He was a boy with neatly tied long hair.

His features were sharp, yet strangely tired.

He slowly approached her.

“…A survivor.”

The boy looked at the girl.

“It must be painful.”

His gaze held no sympathy.

“And it must be tormenting.”

Nor did it hold any pity.

“Perhaps it would be better to die.”

His empty, glass-like eyes stared at her.

“Yet… do you still want to live?”

The girl nodded, squeezing out the last of her strength.

On the ashes, the girl wished for life.

“What is your name?”

Name?

The girl tried to think.

But she couldn’t remember.

As if it had burned away with her village.

In the end, she could only shake her head.

Then the boy reached out his hand to her.

“Follow me.”

In her faded memory, the boy’s voice was clear.

“I am Tristan. The eldest son of the Ruelberta Family.”

The young girl took Tristan’s hand.

It was cold.

She felt the flames that had consumed her die down just a little.

*

The bitter cold struck.

I quickly leaped away.

The ground where I had just stood froze over.

Blanshe shouted in anger.

“Don’t dodge!”

As if I’d just stand there and take it.

I quickly aimed my revolver.

But it wasn’t easy to target.

Blanshe’s speed was already beyond what the eye could follow.

‘Damn it…’

[You are ‘angry’!]

My heart burned hot.

A feeling of being scorched from within surged.

Hot anger clashed with bitter hatred.

“Huh?!”

Blanshe’s movements slowed.

There was no time to aim.

In that brief moment, I quickly pulled the trigger.

Bang!

“Ugh!?”

A bullet pierced Blanshe’s leg.

Her expression showed more confusion than pain.

She didn’t even need to use her superhuman reflexes.

The bullet’s trajectory wasn’t even aimed at her to begin with.

I pulled the trigger again.

Still without aiming.

Dry gunshots rang out one after another.

“Guh!?”

Blood splattered from her body as she was hit.

“Cheap tricks…!”

It was enough to see with the naked eye.

To hit the target with this gun.

I gathered magic power from around me and channeled it into the bullets.

The magic power that coursed through my body carried a clear intent.

The bullets changed their trajectory toward her according to my intent.

Thanks to that, I was able to land a solid hit.

But it wasn’t fatal.

“Do you think I’ll just keep taking this!?”

The wounded Blanshe roared.

In response to her emotions, icy fangs came at me.

I didn’t bother dodging.

[You are ‘angry’!]

“……!”

My repeated ‘anger.’

My ‘patience’ was in danger.

My heart raced as if I had stepped on the accelerator.

If I suddenly hit the brakes now, my heart would burst.

It was that dangerous.

But there was no other way.

I took my foot off the brake.

Only then could I overwhelm Blanshe.

“…Come at me.”

“Tristaaaaan!”

The anger that burned everything clashed with the hatred that froze everything.

The air exploded in an instant.

With a sound like fireworks, a blast of wind erupted.

Blanshe and I were thrown back by the impact.

“…!”

Before I even hit the ground, Blanshe was closing the distance.

She kicked off the air and changed direction.

What kind of movement was that?

It was mind-blowing.

Her appearance was that of the world’s greatest assassin.

[You are ‘proud’!]

Blanshe growled.

“In this situation… are you laughing?”

Huh?

I must have been laughing without realizing it.

Probably the effect of ‘pride.’

‘Pride’ was turning even the threat of death into a kind of pleasure.

Like a drug.

“This will be the last time you laugh…!”

The icy tiger roared.

The air around us froze.

The moment my feet touched the ground, I twisted my body quickly.

Screech!!

A terrifying friction sound, and the ground was cut.

“……!”

I couldn’t avoid her claws, and pain shot through my right arm.

No blood came out.

Because the wound froze the moment it was made.

“So this is why she’s called the ‘Frost Beast.'”

Blanshe, the icy blue tiger, exhaled cold air.

One of the secret experiments conducted by the Ruelberta Family.

It was an attempt to implant the magic power of a beast into a human body.

Blanshe was the only survivor and success of that experiment.

Her body flowed with the magic power of the Frost Spirit Beast.

An ordinary person would have frozen to death from the spirit’s magic power.

But Blanshe endured the magic power that froze everything.

+

Character Profile.

Name: Blanshe.

Age: 20.

Occupation: Bodyguard of the Izakhel Family.

Personality: Diligent, Loyal, Hateful.

+

She was also a named character.

“…You are worthy of killing me.”

“Are you still bluffing in this situation?”

Actually, it was a bluff.

My back was already soaked in cold sweat.

The wounds hurt.

It was by no means easy to dodge her attacks in this body.

“I didn’t expect you to hold out this long without even using magic.”

Blanshe wiped the blood from where she had been shot earlier.

The wound had already healed.

“But this is as far as it goes. You know that, don’t you, Count?”

Winter began to rage behind her.

“There has never been a target I couldn’t kill.”

*

Blanshe remembers that day.

“From now on, you are ‘Blanshe.'”

The day she became a servant of the Ruelberta Family, Tristan said that.

The girl knew that her life as Blanshe had begun.

Blanshe did not live as an ordinary servant.

She was raised there as an assassin.

Every day, harsh training continued.

For young Blanshe, it was unbearable training.

She wanted to live.

As she had said when she first met Tristan.

Because she wanted to live, she endured all the training.

She gradually learned how to kill humans.

She learned how to use various poisons and hidden weapons.

Fortunately, she had talent.

And she was diligent.

So she grew faster than the other assassins.

Blanshe killed her first person when she was 8 years old.

Her first mission was to assassinate a journalist who had slandered the Ruelberta Family.

She stabbed him from behind as he was returning home.

Hit in a vital spot, he died on the spot.

It was a ridiculously simple task.

But at that moment, she felt alive.

It wasn’t the thrill of killing someone.

It was the joy of completing a mission.

Blanshe found her reason for living there.

“Kill.”

Blanshe faithfully followed orders.

“Kill…”

She succeeded in her mission.

“Kill again.”

Her blade was stained with blood.

Her presence became even more pronounced.

Blanshe remembers that day.

The day Count William, the head of the family, gathered the assassins.

He said this:

“I will make you stronger.”

Blanshe was laid on the operating table without knowing why.

The operating room was filled with scrolls inscribed with numerous magic formulas and magical tools.

She was scared.

But she tried not to be scared.

Because it was an order.

She felt something burrowing into her body.

It was cold.

Like Tristan’s hand that day.

When Blanshe opened her eyes again, she felt a cool energy flowing through her body.

And only later did she learn that she was the only assassin who had survived.

Blanshe remembers that day.

Not long after William died, the day Tristan called her to a secluded cliff within the territory.

The revolver aimed at her.

And Tristan’s last words.

“You don’t have to forgive me, Blanshe.”

A dry gunshot.

She felt pain in her shoulder and her vision flipped.

By the time she realized, Blanshe was already falling into the sea.

Splash!

A spray of water erupted.

Her memories sank into her chest along with the spray.