The Ice's Yearning Prologue

The Ice Queen

A tall woman was walking through the deserted village where countless dead bodies were scattered around and the intense stench of the burnt corpses hung in the air, while looking down at the wretched sight illuminated by the flame without any expression.

It was a beautiful woman.
Pale skin as if made of ice, beautiful silver hair reaching till her waist, slim body, facial features so graceful that even the best sculptors would not be able to replicate them. Her expressionless face, coupled with her pale-colored eyes tinted with blue, was bringing out her inhuman ―― unrealistic beauty

Shrouded in falling snow, the village was filled by the putrid smell of death. What happened at this small rural village located in the northern continent was plundering and slaughter.

The woman, illuminated by the h.e.l.lfire enveloping the houses, suddenly stopped her steps. From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a movement.
From the private house that was freshly set ablaze, five shadows spilled out. Those armed with spears the same length as their height, were not humans.
Their robust bodies were covered in dark-colored fur from top to bottom. The two fangs protruding from the lower jaw of the head similar to a boar showed that all of them were males.
They were a sub-race called Orcs.

Their race was very fertile, sometimes even attacking human females and impregnating them.

What surprised the woman was that instead of running away, they had rushed towards her. Apparently the instinct most essential for living beings had dulled in them. The plunderers were drunk on blood following the slaughter and the brightly burning flames.
That's why the self-defence instinct so prominent in any living being did not work.

If it was a normal situation they would probably have understood at first sight. That the woman in front of them was overwhelmingly strong, reigning on top of the food chain.

An expression of admiration rose on the faces of the Orcs surrounding the woman. They were astonished by the woman's beauty that surpa.s.sed her race, making their eyes glitter with l.u.s.t.
Still, the woman's expression did not change. Her blue eyes, calm as if frozen, stared at the Orcs ―― as if looking at something utterly boring.
Perhaps because the woman's att.i.tude had rubbed him the wrong way, one the Orcs growled irritatedly. Raising his spear overhead, he struck with the haft. At that moment he must have thought that he would show this arrogant woman his dreadfulness.

However…

Bang, an oddly light sound of explosion resounded.

Before the hand with the spear was swung down, the Orc's head burst open while raising a red splash.
The brilliant coloring was added to the piled up snow.

The Orc, whose skull and its contents now speckled the surroundings, fell to his knees.

Confusion ran through the surroundings. The woman didn't make even a slight movement. Her arms leisurely resting at her sides didn't even twitch.

An icicle with the thickness of an arm pierced through the pitiful victim's head at a high speed. But there were none who were able to perceive it ―― though the fact that the woman did something was understandable even to the Orcs.

A voice rose from all around the village wrapped in flames. The Orcs who had heard the sounds of commotion were rushing over.
Apparently, there were still quite a few plunderers remaining.
The Orcs surrounding the woman were seething with anger and attacked the enemy of their allies. ―― Or rather, they tried to attack and noticed. That there were countless icicles swaying behind the woman's back and their sharp tips were all directed towards the boar-headed a.s.sailants.

The woman's expression did not change as dozens of icicles shot forth. The Orcs surrounded by the storm of death couldn't even take one step before turning into lumps of meat without even being allowed to raise screams of agony.

Those who directly saw that scene stopped on their feet with a start and after a second of hesitation turned their backs, fleeing from the scene while striving to be let ahead of the others.
It can be said that it was a wise decision.

The woman didn't have any intentions of following the Orcs if they ran away…initially.
―― But, they had already shown malicious intentions towards the woman. She had a filthy sight full of carnal desire directed at her.

The woman thought that it was an enough reason and already didn't intend to let them go back alive.
A dark and cold magical power leaked out from her body and tremendously cold air ran through the fleeing Orcs.. The sight was dyed white and the blizzards subsided in a moment.
All that was left behind was the group of ice statues standing stock still.
And that woman started to walk once again.

Snap a sound resounded and cracks ran through the ice statues. Without being able to endure the inflation of the frozen body fluids, the ice statues easily crumbled down.

The woman walked on, trampling the remains of what were the Orcs just an instant ago.

She heard a voice.
It might have been a sound. It might have been a sound of destiny that wanted to let others know that it indeed existed.

As if being invited, the woman continued advancing forward.

It was a young girl. Lying face down, half-buried she was in a collapsed house.
She didn't quite look like someone who would still be breathing, but as the woman got closer, along with the annoying sound of huffing, she also heard the girl muttering something.

Mother….

That's what she heard.
The woman looked down on the girl that was about to take her last breath anytime with the same expressionless face.
Perhaps noticing a presence, the girl's burnt hand weakly raised up and the hand covered in blood and soot grasped the hem of the dress.
Seeing that the girl dirtied her clothes with dark red, the woman slightly wrinkled her nose.

Pulling back her leg, the woman let the hem of her dress flutter. Carbonized, the girl's fingers easily crumbled down.

The girl, who was already unable to feel pain hazily lifted up her face from the snow.
She had already lost all her hair and in her face, that was burnt in a keloid shape, a white muddy right eye feebly moved.
Perhaps some vision was barely left in her other eye, as it focused on the woman's face.

“….G.o.d….ess…..?”

Fu….fufufu….

In a time that almost felt frozen, something resembling an expression floated up on the woman's face for the first time.

—
Notes:
lmao I misspelt the name on NU so it became ice's earning instead of the ice's yearning

this is the yuri I mentioned in the witch's new chapter btw
from the tags and the synopsis it looks pretty edgy and it's pretty long too so if I do go through with it we'll have a nice journey ahead
the next chapter is pretty long too

3rd POVs are hard af
hopefully me trying to maintain a minimal level of poeticness doesn't come off as super cringy

Tell me about any mistranslations, typos, weird grammar and I'll fix it right away.

Almost forgot to say, I suck at names so if you know a better way to translate 氷の滅慕 don't be shy to tell me or change the name on NU

My greatest thanks to Venalitor for giving me advice on how to change the sentences to make them flow much, much better.