“Can you really return us to the previous world once you get your powers back?”
“I don’t know, but I will do my best. I’ll have to untie my shackles first and escape from this ice cage. It might be painful for you because I have to use your energy to do it.”
Isabella nodded without hesitation.
“It’s alright. I will endure the pain as much as I can.”
The worried faces of Duke Kyar and the rest crossed her mind.
It seemed that she grew quite attached to everyone without her knowing.
Isabella regretted the fact that
She couldn’t tell the Archduke how much she loved him in the past.
She will start to express her feelings honestly once she gets back to him, safe and sound.
At that moment, Isabella felt a tremendous pain in her shoulder and the shackles on Ifrit’s wrists and feet started melting.
“I’m sorry. It hurts, right?”
Isabella shook her head with clenched teeth.
“It’s all right, Ifrit. I can handle it.”
Fortunately, Ifrit had slowly regained most of her strength.
She had no idea why the Spirit of Fire could get her powers back only when Isabella was here, but it felt good to help her like this.
“My abilities had returned. Good job, Isabella.”
Ifrit sighed with relief as she watched the black shackles vanish.
However, she still had a lot of work to destroy the ice cage.
“Will you be okay?” Ifrit asked worriedly as she glanced at the ice cage’s door locks.
“I will be all right.”
They had to get out of here as soon as possible. All their plans will go down the drain once the devil arrives.
“If we get through the boundary, we can return to our world, right?”
She was still worried about escaping that madman, but she didn’t want to lose hope.
“Yes, but… No, I’ll have to explain later. First of all, help me get out of this ice cage.”
Nodding quickly, Isabella felt a great deal of pain in her shoulder again, but she could hold it out.
Ifrit’s fire energy slowly melted the ice lock, but it was too difficult. Descartes’ ice was too strong that it resisted Ifrit’s fire.
“It’s done!”
Ifrit changed strategy by focusing on the lock’s thin ring, and it didn’t take long for the ice lock to break.
Ifrit got out of the ice cage and grabbed Isabella’s hand immediately.
“We have to go towards the barrier once we leave the Demon Castle.”
Ifrit led Isabella to the window.
She was surprised to see black letters floating in the gray sky when she looked outside.
<Descartes, wait. Isabella will save you.>
<Silver-haired, blue-eyed fire spirit Isabella and black-haired, dark-eyed devil Descartes! I think you’ll look great together.>
<I can’t wait for Descartes to meet Isabella.>
<I feel sorry for Descartes. He lives alone with his magical beasts in an isolated city of the Demon Kingdom. May Isabella appear and be a ray of hope for the Demon King.>
<Descartes, cheer up. You have Isabella.>
Her message of support for Descartes, which she had written while reading the novel her friend had sent her, was displayed in the gray sky for all the world to see.
What interested her was that the world setting in “Ice Flower” and the language here was similar.
But why were these particular words written in the sky?
Isabella didn’t understand what this was all about.
So, did Descartes wait for Isabella patiently because he had read these messages?
The landscape outside made her laugh bitterly because nothing here seemed to exist except the Demon King.
Her thoughts got more complicated when she realized that her friend had written this novel long ago and just left Descartes behind like he was nothing.
Descartes’ twisted obsession made sense, but Isabella didn’t want to remain here for his sake.
The world setting in ‘Ice Flower’ was better than this because she hardly recognized that the world she lived in was in a novel.
It didn’t occur to her that she was living inside a novel, except for when she witnessed Duke Kyar’s superhuman abilities.
People in ‘Ice Flower’ had acted of their own will, and it was no different from the original world she came from.
However, this place, where the Demon King, Descartes, had lived, was very different from there.
Descartes must have felt trapped in this novel because he never tried to deviate from what the author had set him out to do.
