Chapter 26: A Formidable Strike

"Why is the atmosphere so heavy?"

Everyone on the deck stared at Yug in silence. He suddenly found the grilled fish on his plate unappetizing, though this time, no one spoke up to contradict him.

"It’s just a war," he said, trying to comfort them. "Why so tense?"

"I never imagined you had a side like this, Young Master."

The captain regained his composure and was the first to smooth things over. That outburst didn't sound like the Young Master they knew. Even though his predictions sounded wildly imaginative, as they followed his train of thought, they found themselves unable to come up with a rebuttal.

However...

The captain glanced at Lily. She was bowing her head, hugging her shoulders, her body trembling slightly.

Clearly, those words had stirred up her past memories.

Lily was an Imperial citizen, and she held complex feelings toward the status of "Saints." When the Young Master "picked her up" during their first voyage, she was wearing rags full of holes, covered in dirt, and her skin was a map of scars. A group of human traffickers had caught her and were planning to sell her as cargo.

Many others were already in that position.

The captain felt that perhaps no one understood the meaning of those words better than Lily; she had crawled out of the abyss herself.

"Lily" was the nickname Young Master Yug had given her. During those early days on the ship, she never spoke to anyone, and almost everyone assumed she was mute.

Since then, she had remained by the Young Master's side as his maid.

Although Lily disliked speaking of her past, the crew knew she had once had a happy family with loving parents, until a battle between Saints ravaged her hometown. When she crawled out from the rubble, the entire town had been reduced to ruins.

Corpses were strewn everywhere, and mangled limbs were visible at every turn.

In those first days on the ship, Lily would wake up screaming from nightmares almost every night, while the Saint who had destroyed her home remained a figure revered by countless people.

—"Necessary sacrifice."

—"Paying noble tribute to the martyrs."

These were the most common tropes of the Empire. As long as someone stood in the plaza and shouted them out, people would quickly forget those who had died in the war.

The captain coughed lightly, pulling the conversation back. "I admit you’ve grown a lot, Young Master, but you were definitely swindled on those 20 Frostbolt scrolls! You can argue until the sky falls, but you were swindled!"

The crew immediately chimed in, "Absolutely swindled!"

"Thirty Gold Lions for 20 Frostbolt scrolls."

"We should write this in the ship’s log!"

Yug wasn't angry; instead, a smile appeared on his face. "Since you’re all so certain, let’s make a bet. I bet Heisenberg didn't cheat me."

Heisenberg had mentioned that because the triple-combined Frostbolt scroll was too powerful, he advised against using it within towns. He had also said that if there was a water source nearby, the power of the Frostbolt would be enhanced to a certain degree. Their ship had already left Imperial waters, and as far as the eye could see, there was only the vast blue.

There was no better place to test the triple-combined Frostbolt scroll.

A stout crewman was the first to commit. "Alright, what are we betting? I can put up 20 Silver Antelopes; any more and my wife will give me hell."

"30 Silver Antelopes!"

"I’m in for 50!"

"Hold on, hold on!"

Yug waved his hands. "This bet isn't about money. After all, Lily is the one who brought this up, so if you lose, she has to pay the price."

"What price?"

The black-haired maid frowned slightly. Yug was smiling like a child making a bet, full of provocation, making her want to pinch his cheeks like she did when he was little.

Young Master Yug’s cheeks were surprisingly pleasant to pinch.

With Yug and the captain acting like this, the gloom in her heart dissipated significantly.

"If I win, you tell me 10 jokes until you make me laugh; if I lose, I’ll tell you 10 jokes."

What a... fool!

Yug’s intentions were far too obvious. However, there was probably only one such foolish young master in this world who would care about a servant's mood and find ways to make her happy.

Lily said, "You’re going to lose. Don't go crying when you do."

"You’re the one who’s going to lose. Don't underestimate the bond between me and old Sen! You can start preparing your jokes now."

Yug issued his declaration of victory. He was determined to win this.

Of course, it wouldn't matter if he lost.

The *Selected Imperial Jokes* he had bought on his first day browsing the bookstore would come in handy.

The group marched toward the bow of the ship. The captain and the crew exchanged knowing glances; a fix was already in motion.

Their goal was to cheer up the head maid, so even if the scrolls really could be combined, they would act as if they hadn't seen anything.

Young Master Yug was destined to lose this bet.

After all, something like a Frostbolt, even if three scrolls were used together, would at most be larger in scale and have a bit more penetration than a regular one. But they were at sea without a specific target—wouldn't the power just be whatever they claimed it was?

"Accept your fate, Young Master!"

The crew watched as Yug took out all three scrolls at once. Since the outcome was decided before the bet even began, they were ready for their most anticipated part: the heckling and mockery.

The three scrolls emitted a faint blue glow. The stout crewman had already prepared his taunt: "Look, Young Master Yug’s Frostbolt is as small as a chi—"

A blast of cold air hit him, causing his words to stick in his throat. He felt as if his teeth were about to freeze over.

The stout crewman saw the captain’s expression.

The captain had been ready to laugh out loud and liven up the dull atmosphere, but now he just stood there with his mouth agape, unable to utter a single sound.

This made the stout crewman realize that what he was seeing was no hallucination.

The ship stopped moving.

Because a jagged glacier was blocking their path. This suddenly appeared iceberg had split the sea in two, dividing the ocean. The continuous line of ice spikes stretched forward, and they could not see the end of the glacier.

Before long, they caught the scent of blood.

It drifted into their noses on the sea breeze.

The remains of marine life, pierced and sliced by the ice spikes, gradually floated to the surface. Many dangerous magical beasts were among them. Some ice spikes were stained with blood, or simply skewered the corpses of monsters; the blood had dyed the ice red, only to be frozen solid before it could even drip down.

It was as if time itself had frozen here.

"Gosh—"

It was unknown how much time had passed before the frozen time resumed its flow. The stout crewman’s trailing exclamation pulled everyone back to reality. He exhaled a cloud of hot air, and everyone instinctively did the same thing: hugged their shoulders and curled into a ball.

So cold!

The temperature had dropped by at least 30 degrees!

Even Yug stood frozen at the bow.

"This..."

The captain voiced everyone’s inner thoughts. "What the hell is that!?"

He didn't understand.

Could these three scrolls even be remotely related to a Frostbolt?

Whose Frostbolt looked like this?

Yug gazed into the distance for a long time. At this moment, he finally understood why Heisenberg had warned him not to use it in town.

His mind was now flooded with the other party’s safety guidelines and all the other instructions regarding the Frostbolt.

Yug turned his head stiffly and answered the captain’s question, "A hell of an attack."

It took him a few minutes to straighten his tongue. He ordered the captain, "Turn back! Turn back immediately! As soon as we return, invite the consortium’s magician over. Have him set up a teleportation spell at my mansion; I need to head to Hearth Bay!"

He had long since forgotten about the ten jokes Lily owed him, pacing back and forth on the deck in a flurry of anxiety.

For the first time in his life, Yug felt dissatisfied with steam power and barged into the control room himself. They were racing against time.

Although Heisenberg had said he would stay in Hearth Bay, what if someone else discovered the power of the triple-combined Frostbolt and hired him away with a long-term contract?

Thinking of this, he lost his usual composure and shouted, "Is this actually steam-powered? Why is it as slow as a snail?"