How to survive in the Romance Fantasy Game - Chapter 698: Frozen Trials 9.5
Chapter 698: Frozen Trials 9.5
This place is larger than I thought…
Riley had already known the Ice Castle was massive from the outside.
Towering spires, walls carved from ancient frost, gates that looked like they could hold back an army.
But the inside?
It was something else entirely.
The corridors stretched far longer than they logically should.
Staircases spiraled upward for what felt like entire city blocks.
Halls branched into wings that shouldn’t fit within the structure he saw from outside.
He paused for a moment and closed his eyes, sensing the space around him.
Bounded fields.
Layer upon layer of them.
The castle wasn’t just built—it was folded inward.
Space expanded through celestial enchantments, overlapping dimensions carefully woven into each other.
The kind of large-scale spatial manipulation that would drain entire nations dry if attempted recklessly.
Casting this many stable layers…
That alone was a feat only a handful of beings in the world could accomplish.
Then again, Rose or Lavine could probably pull something like this off without breaking a sweat.
The thought almost made him smile.
As he continued walking through the halls, frost crunching lightly beneath his boots, he noticed something else.
Monsters.
They roamed the castle freely.
Frost-born races of all kinds—tall crystalline humanoids, pale-skinned beings with faint blue veins glowing beneath their skin, even smaller creatures with horns and elegant cloaks.
The variety was wide.
But what surprised him wasn’t their appearance.
It was their behavior.
They weren’t hostile.
No one growled. No one lunged. No one glared at him with bloodthirsty eyes.
If anything… they were composed.
Some carried books.
Others conversed quietly in corners.
A few even wore extravagant suits and flowing dresses as if attending some eternal banquet.
One passed him with a polite nod.
Riley slowed slightly.
Monsters had never really crossed his mind as logical creatures.
In his experience, they were driven by instinct. Aggression. Hunger.
Yet here—
They felt almost… refined.
More civil than most humans he’d dealt with.
It was surreal.
And oddly amusing.
The Frost Queen’s influence clearly went beyond raw power or authority.
This wasn’t just fear-based rule.
This was structure.
Culture.
Order.
Although she was treated as a monster—and at her core, she was one—
She had once been human.
Riley knew that much.
So eventually, Riley stopped paying attention to the strangeness of it all.
The first few halls had felt wrong—monsters walking politely, conversations echoing through frozen corridors like this was some noble estate instead of a fortress in the north.
But after a while, the oddness faded.
He simply accepted it.
He was the only human in the castle.
That much was obvious.
Even without sensing their gazes, he could feel it—the brief looks, the subtle pauses when he passed by.
He stood out like a stain of warmth in a place built entirely from cold.
Yet none of them confronted him.
No hostility.
No mockery.
Just a glance.
Then they returned to whatever they were doing.
It was almost… respectful.
For context, the reason he was even wandering the castle in the first place was because of the Frost Queen herself.
After confirming that Snow had entered the third trial, the Frost Queen had casually mentioned that this one would take longer than the previous ones.
“Unlike the others,” she had said.
And since there was nothing Riley could do to interfere anyway, she suggested he explore the castle freely.
Any hall.
Any chamber.
As long as he remained within the walls.
An open invitation.
Which was strange.
Because she still hadn’t told him why she had invited him here so openly in the first place.
That ambiguity hadn’t escaped him.
But since he had time—and since there was no immediate threat—he decided not to waste the opportunity.
He learned more about the Frost Queen in these few hours than he had ever expected to.
And it was… different.
Very different from the Frost Queen he remembered from the game.
Back then, she was a distant existence.
Cold.
Detached. Almost mechanical in her cruelty.
A final obstacle.
A boss.
A being whose motives were vague at best.
But the one here?
She was calm, yes.
Cold, definitely.
But not mindless.
Even the way she spoke about Snow—there was evaluation in her tone, not disdain.
She hadn’t revealed much about herself directly.
But…
That was enough.
It gave him something to measure her by at the very least.
As Riley continued through the winding corridors of frost-carved stone, his footsteps eventually slowed.
Then stopped.
Because ahead of him—beyond the archway of sculpted ice pillars—he saw something he genuinely hadn’t expected to find inside this castle.
Green.
Not the pale, dying green of moss clinging desperately to frozen walls.
Not some enchanted illusion.
But living, breathing green.
Fresh grass stretched gently across a patch of dark, rich soil.
Vines curled naturally along low crystal fences.
Small flowers bloomed in quiet defiance of the surrounding cold—white lilies, faint blue blossoms, even streaks of soft violet.
Their colors were vivid against the endless whites and blues of the Frost Queen’s domain.
It was warm here.
Not by much—but enough.
A faint, controlled climate. Subtle magic humming beneath the soil.
“A garden… huh,” Riley murmured under his breath.
For a castle carved from eternal frost, this place felt almost… human.
He stepped closer, boots pressing lightly into grass that had no right to exist in such a place.
The air smelled faintly sweet—earthy, alive.
“I guess she isn’t as cold as she intends herself to be…”
A fragment of something she refused to completely erase.
A memory, perhaps.
Or regret.
Or longing.
Riley could guess at the reasons—but he wasn’t particularly curious enough to dig deeper.
If she wanted to keep this hidden, then he would pretend he hadn’t noticed its meaning.
Standing there, surrounded by quiet life, his thoughts drifted naturally to Snow.
The third trial.
Even back when he had played the game, that part had been troublesome.
He had needed multiple retries just to achieve the outcome he wanted.
Unlike combat-based challenges, this one wasn’t about strength.
It was about decisions.
Perspective.
Conviction.
The trial forced Snow to confront what it meant to become the Absolute Essence of Frost.
Every answer shaped her mindset. Every choice tilted her heart.
And once completed, it would determine what kind of Queen she would eventually become.
Cold tyrant?
Detached guardian?
Merciless sovereign?
Or something else entirely?
As the trial revolved around embodying frost itself—purity, stillness, inevitability—there was no doubt that parts of Snow’s personality would be influenced.
And finishing the third trial wouldn’t even be the true end.
After that awaited the Frost Staff.
The final acknowledgement.
The real danger.
That trial was not merely psychological.
It was lethal.
Riley placed a hand on his chin, eyes narrowing slightly in thought.
So far, everything had proceeded smoothly.
The Frost Queen had accepted Snow’s right as her heir.
She had shown no hostility. No resistance. No desperation.
Almost as if she had already made peace with her fate.
But that didn’t mean everyone else had.
He doubted her subordinates—the generals, the ancient frost beasts, the nobles of this frozen kingdom—would simply kneel once Snow completed her trial.
Power shifts always caused ripples.
And ripples in a place like this turned into blizzards.
Should he preemptively eliminate potential threats?
The thought crossed his mind naturally.
He could do it quietly.
Remove the instability before it even had a chance to form.
But…
Riley exhaled slowly.
If he acted now, the Frost Queen would undoubtedly intervene.
And that would cause unnecessary trouble.
Riley stood there for a moment longer, fingers still resting against his chin as his thoughts ran in quiet circles.
Preemptive action?
Or patience?
He weighed the options carefully.
Then, with a faint sigh, he lowered his hand and turned his gaze slightly to the side—toward one of the massive frost pillars lining the garden’s edge.
“Anica… isn’t it about time you finally explained why you keep following me?”
There was a brief silence.
Then—
A small flinch.
From behind the pillar, a familiar silver-haired figure slowly stepped out, brushing imaginary dust from her sleeve as if she had simply happened to be there the entire time.
“Gugh… you noticed?”
Her golden eyes darted around nervously.
“You weren’t exactly hiding your intention,” Riley replied flatly.
Anica puffed her cheeks in protest. “But I’m pretty sure I used the highest level of stealth—”
She paused mid-sentence, clicking her tongue softly.
“Tsk. You know what, never mind. If the great being is interested in you, I guess something like this is only natural…”
Riley’s brows twitched slightly.
’Great being…? Is she talking about the Frost Queen?’
He didn’t voice the thought aloud.
Anica shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other.
For a frost dragon—one of the highest-ranking beings in this castle—her current demeanor was… surprisingly timid.
She avoided his gaze at first.
Then forced herself to look directly at him.
“Uhm… Lord Riley…”
“Lord?”
She straightened immediately, nearly bowing. “Please don’t mind my address toward you! I-it’s only proper—!”
“Huh…”
He wasn’t sure when this hierarchy had been established.
Anica swallowed, gathering her composure with visible effort.
“Uhm… anyway, my lord… this unworthy dragon has a favor to ask.”
Now that caught his interest.
He studied her carefully.
Earlier, she had acted sharp-tongued. Proud. Confident in her strength. But now? There was hesitation in her voice.
“A favor?”
“Yes.” She nodded quickly. “Could you please ignore me watching you?”
“…”
“…”
“…What?”
“I-I’ll make sure not to bother you!”
she hurriedly added.
“I won’t interfere. I won’t speak unless spoken to. I won’t even let my presence be known if possible! So please—just do your own thing and ignore me from now on!”
Riley blinked.
“…Huh?”
