Extra's Path: The Eternal Frost Monarch

How many years had it been since she had last seen another human?

Sixty long years had passed since she had been brought to this mysterious land for reasons she still didn’t understand.

Or perhaps ’taken’ would have been a more accurate word.

She had never come here willingly. She had been trapped. For sixty years. At first, she refused to accept her fate. There had to be another way out. There simply had to be.

So she searched. Alone in the vast wilderness, she wandered through forests, crossed rivers, climbed mountains, and explored every corner of this strange land.

She investigated every suspicious cave. Every broken ruin. Anything that looked remotely connected to the outside world.

But she found nothing. The monsters roaming this land were dangerous, but they posed little threat to her. Even back then, she had been powerful enough to defeat them.

So she continued searching. She never gave up. Days became weeks. Weeks became months. Months slowly turned into years.

Eventually reality crushed the last of her hope. There was no hidden exit. No forgotten portal. No secret path leading home. The only way she could see was the one the mysterious dragon had spoken of.

To awaken her dragon bloodline completely, to become a real dragon. Only then would she be allowed to leave.

So she devoted herself to training. When she had first arrived, she had already been an Aeternum Core Mid level.

During the first two years, while exploring this vast world and constantly battling monsters, she managed to break through into the Astral Core Low realm.

After reaching that level progress became painfully slow. Every breakthrough demanded years of effort.

So she meditated. Day after day. Year after year.

Fortunately this mysterious world possessed one incredible advantage. The density of mana here was nearly twice that of the outside world. It was an ideal environment for cultivation.

And so her new life began. A life defined by nothing but training. As the years passed, she eventually realized she couldn’t continue sleeping beneath trees or inside caves forever.

So she gathered timber. Cut countless trees. Collected stone and other materials. Little by little she built herself a home. She couldn’t help smiling whenever she remembered those early days.

She had known nothing about carpentry. Yet after decades of trial and error. She had unknowingly become quite skilled at it.

Every piece of furniture. She had built with her own hands. Time continued flowing.

Every single day. She missed her daughter. The little girl who had only been seven years old when they were separated.

Fortunately she still possessed a few photographs inside her storage ring. Whenever the loneliness became unbearable.

She would quietly take them out. Sit beside the lake. And look at Ophelia’s smiling face for hours. Those photographs became her greatest treasure.

Loneliness was far crueler than any monster she had ever fought.

To distract herself she trained. When she grew tired of training. She learned new skills.

She tried to cook something from unknown fruits or veggies. Woodworking and gardening. Anything that could occupy her mind.

Even so nothing could fill the emptiness inside her heart. There were nights when the silence became almost unbearable.

No voices, laughter, conversations and only herself. Slowly she began talking to the animals living nearby.

She protected them from monsters. Fed injured creatures. Created a safe haven around her home where they could live peacefully.

The deer grew accustomed to her. The rabbits no longer fled. Even birds would occasionally perch upon her shoulder.

Yet no matter how many animals surrounded her. They could never replace another human being.

Years passed. Then decades.

Eventually she grew accustomed to solitude. Living alone no longer felt painful. The days seemed shorter. The silence became familiar.

It had become her normal. After living the same lonely life for sixty years. She believed nothing would ever change. Then everything changed.

"...Uhm..."

A young man’s awkward voice echoed through her home.

She slowly turned. Standing at one of the room of her house was a young man with fair skin and snow-white hair. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly before giving her a polite smile.

"...Hello?"

Akari froze. Her mind completely stopped working.

’...What...?’

She simply stood there motionless like a statue. Was she hallucinating? No, even during the darkest nights, when she had cried alone until exhaustion, she had never imagined something this vividly.

She blinked multiple times. The figure remained.

"...Hello, ma’am?"

The young man spoke again. His voice finally pulled her back to reality. The moment she truly heard him. Her blue eyes widened.

"...A..."

Her lips parted.

"...Human?"

The word escaped almost as a whisper. Her voice carried unmistakable disbelief.

The young man blinked in confusion. "Well..."

He smiled awkwardly. "I am human."

The instant those words reached her ears. Every ounce of composure she had maintained for sixty years shattered.

’He’s really here...? A human...? Standing... in front of me...? No... I have to make sure...’

Before he could say another word she disappeared. Not by teleportation. Simply by moving faster than his eyes could follow.

She reappeared directly before him. Both of her hands gently cupped his cheeks.

It felt warm, so unbelievably warm.

For sixty years these hands had touched nothing but trees, animals and monsters she had slain.

Tools she had crafted. Now they were touching another human being. His skin was soft. His warmth spread into her palms. It felt so real. Almost too real.

Still she had to be certain. She gently tilted his face upward. Then downward. Then to the left. Then to the right.

Examining him from every possible angle. As though verifying the existence of the greatest miracle she had ever witnessed.

’He’s real...He’s really here!’

Her heart trembled. She wanted to cry. She wanted to hug him tightly. She wanted to ask countless questions. She wanted to hear another person’s voice for hours without stopping.

Yet sixty years of isolation had changed her. Her emotions no longer surfaced naturally. It felt as though they had been buried beneath decades of silence. Or suppressed by herself.

She struggled to express what she truly felt. Only a tiny fraction escaped.

"...A human..."

Her voice quivered.

"...A real human."

There was joy, disbelief, excitement in her voice. Every emotion she had suppressed for sixty years mixed together in that single sentence.

And that was how Akari Narukami met Noah Eldritch.

The first human she had seen in sixty long years.

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