“Natasha, have you grown up? You look like an adult now.”

An awkward silence followed Aurora’s words. However, Natasha had an indifferent expression on her face.

It was easier to tell that this was Natasha Aurora and Rita had come to befriend. This was the younger one with her cold and indifferent attitude.

“I am merely occupying a new body since my old one gave up. The ‘me’ in this body gave up so the abyss thrust my soul in here.”

Aurora found her ears hard to believe. But it was not impossible to believe for her.

After all, Aurora had already witnessed the abyss mess around with time and other things. What was its interference in one small soul’s whereabouts?

“So you somehow ended up in your older body after you died? But how did it even happen? And how did we get out of the abyss?”

Aurora more or less understood what Natasha was hinting at. The recent personality of Natasha had merged with her past one to create a single existence.

“I guess I will tell you since you are so curious to know. It all started when Alexander ran away with me..”

===========================

Natasha felt the cold of the palace seeping into her heart. There was a yearning in the ice surrounding her, telling her not to leave.

This deep into the underground, Natasha could not help but want to follow the call of this familiar magic.

It was only Alexander’s hold on her and her body’s incapability to keep on holding that made Natasha unable to fulfill her purpose.

“Princess, are you alright? Your body feels a little colder than it is supposed to.”

Alexander’s voice was a far-away notion inside Natasha’s mind. Even the words were covered by a thin mist inside Natasha’s ears.

“Let me go.”

Natasha’s sudden words and struggle startled Alexander for him to loosen his hold. Natasha took this chance to run away.

Alexander wanted to chase after her but he lost his chance once he slipped on the icy surface. And before Natasha knew it, she was out in the hallway.

The castle was burning around her. Natasha could feel the magic crying out in pain as it disappeared around her.

It was asking her to interfere and save it. But Natasha was more interested in the voice calling out to her.

She walked toward the voice, unaware of where she was heading to. She just knew she had to be careful and look for that voice.

“This is..”

The room she arrived at looked vaguely familiar and yet Natasha could tell that she had never been there.

Her feet rested on a lake made up of ice. The room was frozen and had nothing inside it except ice.

Even the roof was made up of ice and it was melting away at a fast pace.

But all that did not concern Natasha. It did not even attract her attention in any real way. The only thing that attracted was the ache in her heart at seeing the icy pillar in the middle of the room.

The closer Natasha got to the pillar, the more her heart hurt. She got a feeling that she should not be here. Her senses were telling her that this was a forbidden area.

But Natahsa continued to move ahead nonetheless.

And what she saw in the icy pillar surprised her.

“That’s me? But how?”

Most people would have called seeing their own face trapped in ice a fraud. They might have called it a trick and dismissed this whole thing.

But Natahsa could not ignore the existence of this new body. And it was all because of the familiar magic she felt oozing from the body.

She could not deny that the femaliarity she felt being near the frozen body as well as the magic were her own.

This body, it was related to her in an intimate sense.

“I want to take a closer look. Should I touch the ice?”

Natasha’s mouth moved as her body decided to take action. She placed her hand on the ice gently just as the roof exploded and fire broke out everywhere.

It startled Natasha enough to make her let go of the icy pillar and loose her concentration.

“I should get out of here or I’ll burn to death.”

Natasha was concerned about the frozen body but her own life was more important than a dead person. As such, she decided to flee to the safety.

Or that was the plan before she was pushed into the pillar.

Natasha tried to hold on to the pillar to support her weight but instead of making any impact, she began sinking into the ice.

“Hope you have a better life this time.”

Before she was completely gone, Natasha saw a vision of green along with yellow eyes looking back at her.

Even they gave off a sense of familiarity but Natasha was sure she had never seen them before.

===========================

“When I woke up, the ice of the pillar had shattered and I was in this body.”

Natasha finished her story quickly. Aurora could tell that she had really shortened the story and only retained the important parts.

“I see. It is something we’ll look more into. I guess the Republicans helped us get out of the Northern Republic?”

“Of course. Things became a mess once Alexander handed over the research facility to the republicans. The noble houses were in an uproar but they could do nothing when the princess was in full support of us.”historical

Oh! That was indeed good news.

“Then what about the princess? Weren’t the people surprised to see her all grown up instead of being a young girl? She also doesn’t meet the academy age requirement any longer.”

Out of one problem and straight into another one. Aurora could not even fault her luck this time.

“The people did not make much of a fuss since the ice cracked in front of a lot of people. The citizens are taking my sudden circumstances as a divine intervention so we need not worry.”

“As for the academy, it will be impossible for me to attend now. I need to head the royal house of Northern Continent and show my support to the people.”

Aurora sighed when she heard the news. A lot of things had happened in a short amount of time so it could not be helped.

“I see. We should count ourselves as lucky that things did not get too harsh.”

“Indeed. And because of your great contribution toward us, I would formally like to extend our thanks and an agreement to help you out whenever it is needed.”