Chapter 143: A Small Surprise I

Chapter 143: Chapter 143: A Small Surprise I

Cornelius leaned back slowly.

It was almost as if Frostveil was returning to what it had been before the mutation.

His expression changed.

Could it really be?

Had they actually found something?

His eyes moved toward the reports from Caelia and Damon.

Nothing.

Still nothing.

Then a thought came to him.

"Don’t tell me..."

Cornelius stood up.

He had barely finished the thought when the doors opened.

A scout hurried inside.

The man’s breathing was slightly heavy, but there was a smile on his face.

"My lord."

Cornelius looked at him.

"What is it?"

"I have a report from Princess Caelia."

Cornelius immediately stepped forward.

The scout quickly handed over the letter.

Cornelius recognized the handwriting.

He opened it at once.

His eyes moved across the page.

Then stopped.

They had found the Zone Heart.

His grip tightened around the letter.

He continued reading.

Damon had discovered a way to stabilize the mutation.

It was risky.

Caelia had even tried to stop him from pushing himself too far.

But it was working.

The changes were already spreading through Frostveil.

They had made more progress in a few days than they had expected to make in years.

Cornelius read that part twice.

Then he finally lowered the letter.

For several seconds, he didn’t say anything.

The scout waited.

Then Cornelius laughed.

It wasn’t a quiet laugh.

The tension he had been carrying for days finally broke.

"They actually did it."

The scout smiled.

"Yes, my lord."

Cornelius shook his head.

He had expected the investigation to take months.

Perhaps years.

If they could even find the Zone Heart at all.

Yet Damon had somehow found it.

And now he had found a way to fight the mutation itself.

Cornelius looked down at the letter again.

"That boy..."

He couldn’t help smiling.

Even Caelia’s warning hadn’t stopped Damon.

Of course it hadn’t.

Cornelius already knew what kind of person Damon was.

If there was a difficult problem in front of him, Damon would probably stare at it until he found a way to make it useful.

Still, this was beyond what Cornelius had expected.

He looked toward the scout.

"How long?"

"Princess Caelia said stabilizing the zone completely could still take several more days. Perhaps longer."

Cornelius nodded.

"Then we give them the time they need."

His smile remained.

For the first time in days, Winterbourne had something worth celebrating.

They weren’t simply holding Frostveil back anymore.

They were pushing it toward recovery.

And the person responsible was the same young man who had arrived in Winterbourne not long ago.

Damon had once again done more than anyone expected.

Far away from Winterbourne, however, the same news was received very differently.

The room was dark.

Only a dim light illuminated the table in the center.

A man stood beside it as he listened to the report.

For a moment, he said nothing.

Then he clicked his tongue.

"Tch."

His fingers tapped against the table.

"Damon actually found the Zone Heart."

The change in Frostveil had already made the situation obvious.

The mutation was weakening.

Their plan was failing.

And it wasn’t supposed to happen this quickly.

"He stabilized it..."

The man shook his head.

They had expected Frostveil to remain unstable for much longer.

Long enough for the mutation to spread.

Long enough for the zone to become something far more difficult to control.

Instead, Damon had interfered.

Again.

The man looked toward the person standing across the room.

"Track down the location of the Zone Heart."

The other person hesitated.

"Should we send someone now?"

"Yes."

His expression hardened.

"And report our failure to the uppers."

There was a short silence.

Then he added,

"Tell them Frostveil is no longer developing the way we expected."

The room fell quiet again.

The man looked toward the map of Frostveil.

One small area had been marked.

Then another.

And another.

The changes were spreading.

He stared at them for a while.

"Damon..."

He muttered the name.

They had been working in the shadows for a long time.

They had planned carefully.

Yet somehow, this young man had stumbled into the middle of something they had spent years building.

And now he was slowly tearing it apart.

The man clenched his fist.

"This is becoming troublesome."

Outside the room, nobody knew what was happening.

Winterbourne was celebrating.

Frostveil was recovering.

And Damon was still underground, completely unaware that his experiment had already drawn the attention of people far deeper in the mystery than anyone around him realized.

The mood inside the underground cavern had changed completely.

It was no longer tense.

There was even a little joy in the air.

The Zone Heart was recovering, and the changes across Frostveil were becoming more obvious with every passing day.

But that wasn’t the only reason.

Snow had evolved again.

The rich Ice Elemental Aether in the cavern had given her the chance she needed, and she had managed to break through once more.

Caelia was overjoyed.

She had been worried about Snow for a long time.

There had been a point where she thought Snow might have reached the limit of her current potential.

Now, that worry was gone.

Snow had become stronger again.

And Caelia could feel the difference through their bond.

Her own strength had increased as well.

The feedback from Snow’s evolution had given her another boost.

Caelia looked at Damon with a bright smile.

"Thank you."

Damon smiled.

"You don’t have to keep thanking me."

"I know."

She stepped closer.

"But I still want to."

Before Damon could say anything, Caelia leaned forward and gave him a light peck on the cheek.

Damon froze.

For a moment, he genuinely forgot what he was supposed to say.

Caelia pulled back just as quickly.

Her face was completely red.

Damon’s face wasn’t much better.

The two of them simply stared at each other.

Neither spoke.

Damon’s heart was beating faster than it had any right to.

He had no experience with this kind of thing.

His previous life hadn’t exactly given him many opportunities.

This new life had already given him more experiences than he could have imagined, and somehow, this one had caught him completely off guard.