- Frey Starlight's Pov -
watch my shadow closely...
The first name that came to mind when she said those words was Ghost.
Could it be… that I've become his target?
That doesn't make sense.
Something happened in the original story, but his target was supposed to be Snow Lionheart.
An assassin like Ghost—one born to kill—always identifies the most dangerous individual in his field and marks them as his Light.
If it's me… then somehow, in his eyes, I've become the most dangerous person around—even more than Snow Lionheart.
Was it because I revealed Balerion during my fight with Feyrith?
Just what do Ghost's eyes see?
Setting aside how much the story has deviated, Ghost's abilities were an absolute nightmare.
Like my Anti-Magic, or Snow's Hexa-Elemental Talent, Ghost possessed an ability that allowed him to completely erase his presence—as long as he remained absolutely motionless.
If he stayed still, and unless his target had a countermeasure, no one—no matter how skilled—would sense his existence.
That's what made him so terrifying—a nightmare even for demons in the future.
And now, on top of everything else I had to deal with, I had to handle him as well… and who knows how much information he had already gathered on me?
"This is a disaster."
I sighed in frustration.
I'll deal with him later.
Right now, I need to focus on what's in front of me.
The Library of Semiramis might hold the answers I'm looking for.
Nothing in this world is without flaws—if there's even the slightest loophole in the curse binding my heart, I'll find it.
And so, for the next several hours, I immersed myself in book after book.
I scoured everything I could find on curses.
But cases of surviving The Curse of the Frozen Heart were almost nonexistent.
There was a way to counter it, but the minimum requirement was to be stronger than the one who cast it.
Which… didn't apply to me.
After all, the one I suspected of casting the curse was light-years beyond me in strength.
That meant only one fate awaited me—a slow, inevitable death, as the relentless frost devoured my heart, turning me into an ice statue.
That was the exact description used in the books.
I couldn't break it through conventional means.
So, I pulled out my laptop, assessing my current capabilities.
Host Name: Frey Starlight (Dual Soul)
[Swordsmanship – Level 4] (Limit broken—user can now reach Level 7.)
Combat Style: Ten thousand steps of Shadow
Phantom Steps (A-Rank)
Shadow Adaptation 0/7
Current Achievement Points: 2,250
Thanks to completing the Train Mission and various side quests, I had 2,250 achievement points.
If I reached Rank C before the deadline, I'd earn an extra 1,000 points, pushing my total to 4,000 at best.
But to break the curse… I needed—
I slowly typed on the virtual keyboard.
"Remove The Curse of the Frozen Heart."
The system responded immediately.
"10,000 Achievement Points."
…That was impossible.
Achievement points had always been my biggest problem in this life.
This system assigned a specific point cost to anything I requested. Didn't that mean that, as long as I had enough points, I could do practically anything?
Lifting a curse… Killing a powerful enemy…
I paused, staring at the screen.
Returning to my world…
I let out a laugh at that last thought.
That was nothing more than a dream.
Back to the problem at hand…
I wouldn't be able to gather the required points in time, but maybe I could manipulate the system a little.
For instance, extending my deadline beyond a month…
Though that wouldn't help much. I highly doubted the one who cast the curse would simply wait for me to meet my deadline.
What about the other system functions?
Image from the future —useless in this situation. That left me with just one option: System Advice.
Random Advice: 250 Achievement Points
Direct Advice: 500 Achievement Points
I stared at both options for a moment.
Why had the cost of advice increased?
Frustrated, I was about to punch the laptop but stopped myself when I remembered that Blue was still beside me.
Sighing, I made my decision.
Direct Advice would give me a clear answer, but at a steep price—one more obstacle on top of the countless others already in my way.
Random Advice, on the other hand, would be cryptic and difficult to interpret, but it would still point me toward the best course of action.
Nothing ever came easy.
But this time, I decided to take the gamble.
250 Achievement Points vanished as the system generated my only possible path to breaking the curse.
The screen flashed brightly as words formed one by one.
"You're in quite the predicament this time. Is this truly the end? Will we witness the complete collapse of your dreams?"
"That would be unfortunate. So, try deciphering the riddle of this advice—you might just find your salvation."
"When the cold tightens around your heart, you'll find that estrogen levels are naturally high yet within normal limits in the human body. Red blood is the same, flowing through every vein. But allegiance… allegiance belongs to Tricell. Try your luck and ask the church to pray for your poor soul."
The Random Advice ended—along with the last shred of logic in my mind.
I only understood the first part. The rest? Complete nonsense.
This damned system never failed to make me feel like an idiot.
Regardless, I had no choice but to start deciphering the riddle piece by piece.
For now, I glanced at the books surrounding me.
What caught my interest was that they didn't just discuss The Curse of the Frozen Heart—they covered many other curses that piqued my curiosity.
Black Flame, the curse of the Sunlight Family, was said to slowly burn its victims from the inside. What intrigued me most was how it only affected internal organs while leaving the skin untouched.
That meant the victims remained perfectly intact on the outside… just empty shells within.
On the other hand, The Iliad Curse of the Starlight Family was considered the most powerful among all curses.
Unlike most, which could only target one person at a time, The Iliad Curse could affect multiple individuals simultaneously. However, it came at a heavy toll on the user's body.
In terms of sheer agony, no other curse came close. It forced the victim's blood to violently burst from their body, causing excruciating pain before death.
"I might find a use for this in the future…"
The potential applications of such a power intrigued me.
I made a mental note to look into acquiring one of these curses later.
Blue had fallen asleep, likely out of boredom. Meanwhile, I had finished reading most of the books on curses.
Yet, I had no intention of leaving just yet. This was a vast library, after all—it didn't contain information on curses alone.
I wandered around, picking up any book that caught my interest.