Chapter 26: The Guilt-Ridden Ice Saint Miss

“Ga…”

Tina silently chanted Gabriella’s name in her heart, her body suddenly stiffening, the sword in her hand nearly slipping from her grasp.

Gabriella… it’s Lady Gabriella?!

Tina looked over the eyepatch-wearing girl once more. 

Her beautiful silver hair was like satin woven from the Milky Way, her skin as fair and delicate as condensed cream, easily bruised by a breath, three parts petite and seven parts lively, voluptuous yet never losing elegance, her movements crisp and clean, her swordsmanship at the absolute pinnacle.

But before she could say anything, several knights behind her drew their swords and charged forward.

“Who the hell cares what you are!”

At that moment, two knights launched a surprise attack from Gabriella’s left and right, drawing their blades and slashing toward her neck.

Gabriella merely sidestepped gracefully, seized their wrists, and with a light fling sent both flying, the two knights crashing into each other and collapsing to the ground.

“Still pretty strong, huh…” 

Gabriella muttered to herself.

In this original game world, if one ignored numerical levels, strength was generally divided into five tiers.

Soldier, Marquis, King, Saint, Emperor.

Normally, reaching the Marquis tier would earn land granted by the Holy King; they represented the rank of generals commanding legions or military organizations.

The King tier often signified the pinnacle of a nation’s combat power, such as knight captains, legion commanders, or certain battle-loving monarchs.

The Saint tier represented the world’s absolute peak combat strength. 

Most historically renowned heroes belonged to this tier, and they were bestowed the title of one of the 【Four Saints】 by the Holy King.

Those who reached Saint tier usually did not die naturally and retained eternal youth.

Elsa was one such existence.

Gabriella was actually quite surprised.

In this knight order of over ten thousand, the ones charging at the very front were all Marquis-tier knights.

There might even be several King-tier knight captains among them.

However.

None of them were worth anything in front of Gabriella.

BOOM——!

The tremor that came from the earth was not a tectonic shift. 

A silver flash streaked before Gabriella, like a gigantic wave separating her from the knight order! 

When the light faded, a bottomless fissure had suddenly appeared in the ground between them!

It looked like a collapsing canyon; the black stone and red sandy soil could not bear the weight and sank downward. 

All of this had happened simply because Gabriella had used a fraction of her power.

“Anyone who steps across this mark dies.”

At that moment, every knight who had been about to charge halted in their tracks, looking at her with eyes full of awe.

The pressure radiating from Gabriella made it hard for them to breathe, and that silver-white radiance terrified many of them. 

They knew they could not possibly oppose the being before them, yet at the same time they felt a trace of familiarity.

Gabriella gave a small, satisfied nod.

Pretty good effect~

And just a moment earlier, the girl with cyan-blue long hair had turned back to the knights and declared:

“Everyone, listen to her. No one is to advance!”

Her voice was cold enough that it was hard to detect emotion, yet one could already sense she was consciously trying to express her feelings.

When she looked at Gabriella, the frost on her face seemed to melt a little, and the corners of her mouth actually curved into a smile.

“I am Tina, the 【Ice Saint】. Silver… Miss Gabriella, may I ask… why is this happening?”

She stood at the edge of the fissure, only five meters away from Gabriella.

Gabriella felt this girl looked somewhat familiar.

Tina?

Still, if she was the 【Ice Saint】, that meant she was a Saint-tier powerhouse.

“Please lead the knight order and leave. This is not a place you should have come to.”

“And why should we listen to you?” 

A tall, dark-skinned knight captain stepped forward from behind, still muttering under his breath.

But before Gabriella could answer, Tina instantly cut him off!

“Seventh Knight Captain, please do not interrupt when Miss Gabriella is speaking.”

“……” 

The man addressed as the Seventh Knight Captain instantly lost face and turned away.

Gabriella was also a little puzzled.

Tina…

This girl is actually speaking up for me?

Where exactly have I met her before?

The title of Silver-White Sword Empress should have vanished eight years ago, and the number of people who knew the real name behind the Silver-White Sword Empress was “Gabriella” could be counted on one hand. 

Gabriella was certain her name had long been erased from the annals of history.

What happened next completely exceeded her expectations.

“Lady Gabriella, I will obey your orders, but… may I come to your side?”

At that moment, the knights were stunned to see the famously proud and untamed Ice Saint actually submit to another young woman. 

In everyone’s eyes, Ice Saint Tina was cold on the outside yet extremely radical on the inside. 

Let alone submission, most thought she would immediately clash with Gabriella if obstructed!

Yet at this moment, Tina had already received permission and walked up to Gabriella, dropping to one knee once more. 

She even let out trembling sobs, tears streaming down her face like rain on pear blossoms.

“It really is you… Lady Gabriella, the Silver-White Sword Empress…”

“……” 

Gabriella didn’t know what sound to make.

“I am Tina, Tina Nochi, your disciple.”

“Huh?”

Only when the word “disciple” was mentioned did Gabriella finally remember.

Tina Nochi.

The daughter of Duke Nochi.

Back then, this Ice Saint’s father, Duke Nochi, had treated the war against the demons, the Church, and the entire conflict as commodities and a way to make money. 

When the war reached its climax, he stirred up trouble, spread rumors to confuse the public, and using his control over the merchant association withdrew all military supplies, forcing the knight order into constant retreat. 

In the end, it left the game’s protagonist—herself—all alone in peril, facing the Demon King single-handedly… In short, a very clichéd villain role.

Tina Nochi was that villain’s daughter.

She had possessed remarkable swordsmanship talent and had once studied swordsmanship directly under Gabriella’s personal guidance, eventually becoming a somewhat famous genius girl.

Back then, she hadn’t been this gallant or cold.

Who would have thought that in just eight years she would grow into a Saint-tier powerhouse.

“I’m sorry, Lady Gabriella… If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have been… by the Demon King… by her…”

She spoke in a voice only Gabriella could hear, even choking with sobs.

She was taking all the blame for her father’s crimes upon herself.

Gabriella let out a long sigh.

She had originally planned to teach the humans a lesson, to crush their will to resist the demons while it was still in the cradle, to make them fear the demons.

The knight order might have challenged her regardless of the cost, and she would not have let these overconfident humans who dared interfere with her plan to keep the Demon King in name only off the hook.

She had considered many scenarios, but she had never expected Tina to appear.

The knight order that had lost Elsa seemed to have become rather strange?

Then again, remembering that her little sister was also an idiot who had fallen into a trap, she let it go.

“Alright, alright, look, I’m perfectly fine, aren’t I?” 

She gently patted Tina’s head and spoke softly.

Since “Plan A” had failed… she would just have to activate the slightly troublesome “Plan B”~