Everyone had at least one secret. It could be an unspeakable past or an embarrassing mistake. Whatever it was, disclosing a secret was no easy task. And it was even more troublesome if someone's secret was possessing a ridiculous power such as the ability to stop time.
Lloyd, however, mustered courage by pretending as though the thought suddenly popped into his head in the middle of breakfast. He stared intensely at Javier while slurping down his soup. Javier felt the gaze, letting go of his spoon.
"Do you have something to say?" asked Javier as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.
"I do," replied Lloyd.
"Do you want me to pass you the black pepper?"
"No, nothing like that." Lloyd shook his head.
"Or the salt?"
"I don't need salt. Actually..." Lloyd sighed. His voice sounded heavy. "I can stop time."
Instead of giving any response, Javier decided to say nothing.
"I'm serious," Lloyd insisted.
Javier studied Lloyd's face first. "Hmm... You are perfectly awake."
"I'm telling you!" Lloyd was persistent.
"You are not sleep-talking."
"This isn't a joke."
"The soup is not poisoned either." Javier looked at his soup.
"I mean it."
"Your eyes are normal."
"Hey..."
"All right."
"What?" Lloyd stopped.
The corners of Javier's lips rose upward. "I said, all right. I understand that you can stop time."
"All right with what?"
"What you told me," Javier explained in a casual voice, "Stopping time."
"So you believe me?"
"Yes, Young Master."
Javier's nonchalant, carefree attitude flustered Lloyd. "H-how? I-I can stop time. Is that easily believable to you?"
"I have no choice but to believe you."
"Why?"
"There is no other way." Javier's gaze fixed on Lloyd. It was serious and grave. "Do you remember, Young Master? The first time you told me you would construct an ondol."
Lloyd nodded.
"That was when I first started to think you'd lost your mind."
"Hmm..." Lloyd choked and coughed.
"But strangely," Javier articulated, "Your actions and plans that I regarded as deranged in the past turned out to benefit the family when they were put into action." Javier knitted his brows as if he were recollecting an event. "It was the case for the ondol, the waterway, and the mine. Well, there is no need for me to list them all. Everything you have done so far has led to the same result."
Lloyd squinted his eyes at Javier. "Tsk. And each time, you thought I had gone mad?"
"Yes." Javier's response came right away.
"And the more deranged you thought I was, the more right I was about everything?" asked Lloyd, slightly in disbelief.
"Yes."
"So you still think I am a madman."
"Yes, Young Master."
"But thanks to that, you can trust me now?"
"Yes."
"My, I can't be more thankful." Lloyd exhaled, slightly dumbstruck by this revelation.
"You are welcome," replied Javier with an elegant smile on his face. "You were exactly like this a while ago. With your disheveled morning hair, which looks like a bird's nest, by the way, you looked straight into my eyes and told me that you could stop time."
"And I looked like a man who had lost his mind." Lloyd folded his arms.
"You still do, in fact," Javier confessed, "It is subtle, but you still do."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yes, Young Master. I suppose you got the power after absorbing the Heart of Winter?"
"Uh-huh." This conversation relieved Lloyd. It looked like Javier was really buying his words. To put an end to the matter, Lloyd quickly added, "How should I say this? I just had a feeling about it ever since I absorbed the Heart of Winter."
"You mean the ability to stop time?"
"Yeah," confirmed Lloyd. "All thanks to the Heart of Winter."
"Have you tried it yet?"
"No." Lloyd shook his head. "Technically speaking, I can designate a certain area where time will continue flowing."
"I see." Javier understood what Lloyd's plan was. "And you plan on using that power for this construction, is that right?"
"Yes, yes. That's exactly my point." Lloyd felt a rush of relief once again. He was scared that Javier might think of him weirdly.
Well, this is a relief. Surely, our trip to Hell really made us closer.
Come to think of it, Lloyd and Javier had been through all kinds of hardships together across the entire world, whether that was in the mountains, up in the sky, under the water, or down in Hell.
Our time together must have made him trust me more than before.
A sense of satisfaction rushed through Lloyd. Their days together and the hardships they had overcome must have contributed to Javier's trust in him. Despite how Javier grumbled and called Lloyd a madman without hesitation, the knight was the only confidante he could rely on.
Obviously! There's so much I invested in him! I helped him master the Asrahan Core Technique much earlier than in the original storyline. I've taught him how to use the mana blast, helped him sleep, clothed him, and kept him fed! And by helping him sleep, I mean I sang him lullabies to lovingly put him to bed.
Thanks to all his efforts, Javier was now a grandmaster. The difference in his skill level between the original storyline and the current one was as vast as the distance between the sky and land.
And all the credit belongs to me.
Lloyd blew through his nose as he nodded and wondered if this was what a parent felt like watching their child pass the college entrance exam after diligently taking care of them while they studied. Anyway, now that Lloyd had earned Javier's trust, he cranked into action to freeze time.
To avoid creating panicked commotion among the centaurs, Lloyd first visited Cherokan and explained that he would freeze time before kickstarting the construction.
But his confident explanation was met with a subtle gaze that said, "Are you unwell?"
Lloyd simply smiled at the chief. Chief Cherokan clicked his tongue and explained everything to the centaurs without giving him much of a reply.
Two days later, Lloyd stood at the center of the plain with hundreds of centaurs watching him. Then he opened the optional skill window for his manaheart.
Ding dong.
[Skill Option ⑤: Time Freeze - You can freeze time of this world by borrowing the power of the Heart of Winter in your manaheart.]
[Required RP to use the skill: 3,000]
[Current RP: 4,655]
[Would you like to use the Skill Option ⑤: Time Freeze?]
[YES / NO]
Of course, it's a YES.
Lloyd nodded, and there was an immediate reaction.
[Skill Option ⑤: Time Freeze has been activated.]
[You have spent 3,000 RP.]
[Current RP: 1,655]
[From now on, with the power of the Heart of Winter, you can freeze one year's worth of time in this world. In addition, you can designate a no-freeze zone where time continues to flow as normal.]
[The range of the no-freeze zone is determined by the total amount of mana you possess.]
[Current Range: 250km²]
[Please assign the range of the no-freeze zone.]
Lloyd was relieved that the range was wide enough. He provided the response he had already prepared in advance before activating the skill.
The largest range possible! Ack!!!
Crackle...! Abruptly, a large volume of mana started to slip out from his manaheart. It was as if Lloyd digested seven servings of grilled pork in ten seconds, emptying his stomach in the process. Soon, the mana turned into frigid air and jetted from him toward the sky in a straight line, which spread across the sky until it formed a dome shape. It looked like an umbrella, a giant bubble, or an upside-down bowl of rice. It covered the designated area of land by Lloyd and froze it at a quick speed. Eventually, a wall was created.
Ding dong.
[Time has been frozen.]
[The no-freeze zone cannot be altered until the optional skill is canceled.]
[The option will be deactivated in the event the user steps out of the no-freeze zone.]
[Any being within the range of the no-freeze zone will not age for a year.]
The message pleasantly filled Lloyd's vision. He let out the breath he'd been holding.
Whoa. It worked.
A pang of dizziness crept on him, along with a sensation of coldness. Lloyd grabbed his knees, and his arms and legs began to tremble. It felt like all his strength was leaving his body from head to toe. However, he was filled with a sense of overwhelming satisfaction at the same time.
It worked properly. The whole world has frozen except for this area.
Lloyd could feel that it worked because the Heart of Winter was in his heart. The Time Freeze was a success. Even so, Lloyd didn't sit back and solely rely on his senses.
I should confirm with my own eyes.
Lloyd tensed his trembling legs. He walked forward with a brave face to check if his optional skill was working properly.
Of course. Even if I feel confident about something, it's better to confirm whatever it is with my own eyes. This principle applies the same to construction sites. If a supervisor haphazardly performs a site inspection because everything looks fine on paper, their actions are destined to cause a disaster.
Lloyd had witnessed such incidents quite a few times back in South Korea. The high-ups rarely appeared at construction sites, and on the days they did, they merely gave a perfunctory glance at the site as they were accompanied by a large group of followers. Lloyd rarely saw them learn how the construction was done, keenly examine the work that was done, or get their hands dirty to give a thorough inspection.
It's the same right now. The skill option? Good. Message? It's convenient. But if I half-ass the inspection by relying on them, I'll run into a serious problem that I'll regret causing in the future.
The longer he inspected and examined the site, the better it was. As such, Lloyd was expected to do more than read over a report or message. He would need to use his eyes, ears, and all of his other senses to double or triple-check that everything was in place. With that thought in his head, Lloyd walked several miles and stood in front of the ice barrier created by the Heart of Winter.
Ha... This looks exactly like an upside-down rice bowl made of ice. And it seems I'm trapped inside of it...
The dome-shaped wall of ice was thin, barely half an inch thick, and allowed for a moderate amount of sunlight to come in from the outside. Lloyd took a good look at the scenery beyond the wall. Everything was frozen in place. An eagle hung in the air with its wings spread wide open, and a rabbit was frozen on the ground in a leaping position, trying to escape the eagle. The clump of grass that was flying in the air from her kick was also at a standstill. Everything in his vision had stopped moving.
The sun and clouds weren't an exception. It was as if someone had pressed the pause button on this world. Could it be because of such outrageous scenery in front of them? The centaurs who followed Lloyd murmured to themselves in dismay, chattering that the human's bravado turned out to be justified. The entire world froze aside from them. They nervously tapped their hooves against the ground as they wondered what would happen to them. This made Lloyd smile bitterly.
Tsk. It's too early for them to get nervous.
Lloyd had merely used his Time Freeze skill. There were more shocking events that would happen from then on.
That's obvious. I need big and strong laborers to start the construction off strong.
Therefore, Lloyd summoned the largest laborer he had put on stand-by the other day. Since the two were connected by soul, all Lloyd had to do was tell them inwardly to come over. With that, the laborer would soon arrive. A little later, the centaurs were shocked once again. This time, their surprise came along with the marvelous sound of clacking bones from somewhere in the distance. Clack! Crack! Clack! Crack!
The ground shook, and a thick cloud of dust was produced as a giant bone, Yong Yong, came galloping. Yong Yong had received the order to put on a friendly appearance for the centaurs before time had frozen. As such, it had plucked its wings, twisted its spine and pelvis, and separated its legs and arms to reassemble itself into a centaur skeleton. However, despite its efforts to appear friendly to the centaurs, everyone shrunk in fright when they saw Yong Yong charging toward them.
"Ack...! It's a monster!"
"We're being attacked!"
The panic-stricken shrieks of the Stone and Wind tribe centaurs, who were set to receive the most benefit from the coliseum, rang aloud across the plain on the first day of the construction.
♣
Meanwhile, in the far south of the plain belonging to the Stone and Wind tribe, that is, the most southern part of the planet, there was an ice cave in the Antarctic region. It was inhabited by a creature who had been put into a state of astonishment.
"What is this? Why is time not moving?"
Ice Dragon Tyrannus. The very one who gifted the Heart of Winter to the founding king of Magentano in the distant past leaped to his feet when he realized that time had stopped.
