Conquering His Cold Heart

When Dark described the world of Nova as being \'big\' he was being modest. The realm which Frost, and his siblings now inhabited was truly vast, covering billions perhaps even trillions of square kilometres. And the nations, tribes, enclaves and mighty empires that spanned its lands and oceans were truly endless.

From his interactions with travellers, chats with Maya and Daki and even his \'dates\' with Ladius Frost managed to get some semblance of an idea of his surroundings.

Covering nearly 60% of the northern territories before the Glacial mountains was the powerful Northrend empire, a nation that had existed for centuries, its hegemony never shaken. The empire even extended its reach far into the mountains, establishing an invincible fortress that was guarded year round by their fiercest and most powerful army the War Ursa Battalion.

However though they covered a vast area they weren\'t the only nation that bordered the edges of the Glacial mountains.

To the west were two kingdoms who\'s territory covered more elongated borders in comparison to the their circular neighbour. Other than the fact that the kingdoms shared a less prominent access point to the Glacial mountains there was nothing unique about them.

Whereas to the east was the Khaganate of Lucresia, a land that was even colder than Northrend and home to swaths of wild barbaric looking citizens who lived alongside the environment rather than changing it to suit their needs.

The Khaganate of Lucresia was actually one of the stronger nations dwelling in the north of the Yangmir continent, a surprising fact given its proximity to Northrend. It was well known that two tigers could not dwell upon the same mountain.

Centuries ago these two nations were embroiled in brutal wars in order to decide the true hegemon of the north and in the end Northrend was victorious but instead of vanquishing their foe they allowed them to live under certain caveats. Since then the Khaganate has never once attacked Northrend despite its powerful armies.

Further south dozens of smaller countries could be found all the way to the central regions where another powerful empire dwelled, but Frost knew very little about them only that they had existed for almost as long as Northrend and that they were not to be underestimated.

Keen to expand his knowledge especially in regards to the nations on the eastern and western ends of the continent Frost looked forward to an enlightening discussion with the Amazonian Beauties.

His attention grabbing cough and loud words drew Maressa out of her stupor.

"Ahh yes of course sorry." She quickly apologised feeling slightly embarrassed but despite that her gaze continued to drift over Khuno finding him more and more pleasing the longer she ogled.

Very few men ever caught her eyes but Khuno with his muscular form that was even bulkier than hers, his beautiful blue fur and his brave perhaps even regal tigerlike face hit all her strike zones but the final nail in the coffin was the sight of him vanquishing Kalia with but a single swing of his halberd, effectively saving her like white knight.

Chana, Myrina and Freya couldn\'t help but giggle amongst themselves, it\'d been a long time since their sister had set her sights on someone and in their opinion far too long.

Maressa had been getting a little stir crazy lately, she needed to get laid, bad.

The three of them discreetly eyed Khuno before nodding their heads, finding him acceptable.

"What did you want to discuss Lord Frost my sisters and I are open books." As oblivious to her sisters\' attitudes Maressa did her best to act official.

"A few things actually, first I\'d like to know why you\'re here in my camp, is it a coincidence that you\'re here or have you been tracking that Kalia?" Though he already knew this wasn\'t the case, from their point of view he shouldn\'t.

"A complete coincidence I can assure you Lord Frost. I just happened to catch sight of the criminal and acted in leu of her Majesty\'s command.

If Kalia never appeared my sisters and I would have carried on as per normal, delving into the Dungeon a few more times before leaving for the inner regions of the Glacial mountains." Maressa quickly denied any hidden motives knowing that to feign ignorance or outright lie would only anger Frost.

"….I believe you; you don\'t have the bearing of someone with malicious motives." Though Frost released a little of his aura to pressure Maressa he bore no real threat.

"Can I ask what you intend to do in the Glacial mountains or is that too personal." Asking adventurers this question was considered bad form but given his position as Lord of the territory and their involvement in the attempted assassination he\'d be remised if he didn\'t ask.

"This…" As expected Maressa struggled to answer, her eyes trembling as though she was weighing up her options, she even turned to her sisters who were in the same boat. Though it wasn\'t some well-guarded secret and that revealing their intentions to Lord Frost wouldn\'t negatively affect them in any way they still felt uncomfortable telling him.

Noticing their reluctance Frost didn\'t pressure them. "If you don\'t want to say that\'s fine, I\'m an adventurer too so I understand having to keep certain secrets, forget that I asked." Though he was disappointed Frost didn\'t push. His original intentions in asking this question was too learn what his Dungeon lacked when compared to the Glacial mountains.

What did Maressa seek that couldn\'t be found within the confines of his own Dungeon.

"Thank you Lord Frost." Maressa truly felt pressured by his question and was immensely grateful that he didn\'t push the issue.

"For my second question are you willing to tell me more about the Queendom of Ranullia you hail from as well as the crimes committed by this Kalia that caused you to almost recklessly throw away your lives?"

"…This question we are more than happy to answer." Maressa and her sisters thus regaled all they knew and could tell to Frost about their homeland. Where it was, how it matched up to the neighbouring kingdoms, life there and even what it was famous for and though they didn\'t reveal the exact details of Kalia\'s crimes they revealed enough for Frost to get a good sense.

"No wonder you hate her so but for your Queen to give such an order to all her citizens….I have to say she sounds like quite the character." Frost found the impression he had of Ranullia\'s Queen growing more and more to his liking. She sounded fierce, loyal and brave, a great person to be friends with.

"Un we won\'t deny that, but it\'s also what makes us love her so. Each and everyone of Ranullia\'s citizens would follow her lead across fire and swords if that was her will." Freya spoke with such pure devotion that Frost couldn\'t help but tremble.

\'To inspire such loyalty from those in the adventurer profession, truly a woman I\'d like to know.\' Frost\'s interactions with royalty so far had been less than ideal so it was a change of pace to hear about someone like Ranullia\'s Queen. Explore more adventures at m,v l\'e-NovelBin.net

One of the most interesting things about the Queendom that he learned however was how they viewed intelligent monster species such orcs and beastkin like Daki and Khuno. Within the borders of Ranullia there was very little prejudice between sapients and monsters, the two worked side by side to protect their lands.

With the Queen ruling over large cities and towns monster tribes dwelled in great numbers across the plains and swamps making for a strong partnership.

Maressa and her siblings even grew up alongside monster children, calling a large number of them friends and even the occasional one lover. Frost now understood the lack of fear and unease the women showed while dealing with his ronso guards hell Chana even made some clear advances while Maressa seemed to be soon following in her wake.

With the Amazonian Beauties praising their Queen to the heavens and promising that she\'d surely wish to reward Frost and his subordinates for their efforts in taking down Kalia, Frost formulated a plan.

\'Perhaps welcoming some of these Ranullians into the territory as permanent resident would solve some the many administration issues.\' Frost struggled to trust the sapients that came from Northrend no matter how well he got to know them there were many levels of secrets and barriers he kept in place.

Even Borris who Daki worked closely with and who he interacted with nearly every other day wasn\'t privy to the vast majority of going Ons in the territory let alone the Dungeon itself. But given the nature of Maressa and her sisters and how they described Ranullia he thought it\'d be good to try and strike up some form of alliance.

Though the Camp of Niflheim was allied with Kranor the small enclave was limited in what it could do same with the viscounty of Furano but if he was on good terms with a large nation one that was not linked with Northrend then the possible developments for his territory would skyrocket.

Frost had long ago started to think about the future and how his territory would eventually be shaped.