Ice cold

The next morning, a shocking piece of news spread all over the world.

Alexander Winston, the S Ranker of the royal family had announced that he was leaving the royal family and would be focusing on developing his guild.

He stated that from henceforth, he would no longer be a member of the royal family and would be a normal citizen of the United Kingdom.

In the world before the dungeon breaks, there had been cases like this where nobles would leave the royal family to start new lives without the support of the royal family. Even in the world after the dungeon breaks, there were royals that had left the royal family to start businesses.

But there had never been a case as extreme as this.

After all, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that Alexander Winston as a S Ranker was the face of the royal family. He was what gave the royal family their status and without him, the royal family's prestige would certainly fall.

The parliament had been called the next day to decide how to deal with the royal family from now on.

But before anyone could make any big moves, the royal family made a large announcement that made everyone reconsider.

Out of nowhere, there were 10 more A Rankers that suddenly appeared affiliated to the royal family.

These were A Rankers that no one had ever heard of before, but in front of everyone, they announced that they were affiliated with the royal family. Not only that, they also stated that their fate was connected to the royal family and they would die with them.

Perhaps one A Ranker wouldn't be as highly regarded, but 10 different A Rankers was something that everyone had to be wary of.

After all, with 10 A Rankers, one would have a chance to restrain a S Ranker. It would be impossible to defeat a S Ranker with just 10 A Rankers, let alone kill one, it was still enough to stall a S Ranker.

The most important thing was that Alexander Winston still confirmed that he was from the royal family.

While he was no longer affiliated with the royal family, the fact that he said that he was still from the royal family meant that if the royal family was ever in danger, he would still rush to save them.

With the 10 A Rankers introduced, they would definitely be able to stall long enough for Alexander Winston to arrive.

So those that had bad intentions towards the royal family still had to consider whether they would do anything.

In the end, none of them chose to do anything and chose to watch the situation develop instead.

So the world continued on as normal without anything changing.

Well, to name one thing that changed…

"Maria, will you marry me?"

This was the first thing that Alexander said the moment that he came in.

Maria shook her head and gave a sigh as usual, but when she looked up at him, she was surprised by what she saw.

Instead of his normal casual clothes, he was fully dressed up in a suit and had his hair styled like it had never been before. His hair had been casually swept back before, giving him a lazy look, but now it was specially gelled in place and styled, giving him a gentleman's look.

In his hands were a bouquet of roses that he was holding out towards Maria.

It was completely different from the casual way that he had asked her before, it was almost as if he was seriously proposing to her.

Maria just stood there in a daze looking at Alexander for a bit before asking, "Are you playing a joke on me?"

Alexander revealed a trace of bitterness in his smile, but he quickly recovered and said with a serious look, "No, I'm very serious right now."

Maria didn't know how to respond since this was something that never happened to her before.

She had to admit that Alexander was handsome like this, but to talk about romantic feelings…She had always regarded him as a friend and now that he was coming on this strong, it really made things awkward for her.

But luckily, she didn't have to do anything.

There was a chill that came over Alexander before the roses in his hands were suddenly encased in a layer of ice and were completely frozen over. They had turned from living roses into ice roses in a single second.

While Alexander was still shocked, he suddenly heard a voice coming from behind him that said, "Please move out of the way."

Alexander was surprised to hear this, but turning around, he saw that it was Alexei who was standing behind him.

He narrowed his eyes to look at him, but he still moved out of the way for him in the end. After all, he was in Maria's store right now and he had to follow the rules that were set by the other S Rankers.

That meant that he shouldn't start a fight and shouldn't cause trouble for the other customers.

He was currently blocking the door where he was standing, so he had no choice but to move out of the way.

Still, he said with a snort under his breath, "This block of ice, you think I don't know what you're doing?"

Alexei ignored him even though he had caught this with his sharp hearing. In fact, Alexander had said it just loud enough so that he was sure that Alexei could hear him.

After ignoring him, Alexei went to his regular table and sat down alone.

When Maria came over to take his order, he said, "The usual soup."

Maria gave a nod and didn't even ask what soup that was. That was because every day that Alexei came here, he would always order the soup of the day and nothing else.

It didn't take long before Maria came back with a bowl of soup and some bread for him.

Alexei thanked her before turning his attention to the soup.

The soup of the day today was borscht, something that he was very familiar with since it was something that his mother used to make him.

As he looked at his soup, his eyes couldn't help being filled with memories. However, he quickly shook those memories away and buried himself in the soup.

When the soup entered his belly, he could feel the warmth that came from it and revealed a ghost of a smile.

As for why he was so attached to the soup of the day, that was a story from a long time ago.

…

When he was born, there was a roaring blizzard going on outside.

This blizzard hadn't been going on for a long time, it had only started when the mother had gone into labour and lasted long after the baby was born. Only when the baby had gone to sleep did the blizzard finally stop.

But when the baby woke up again, the snow started falling again, except that it was weaker.

Everyone at the hospital was very confused about this since the forecast had said that there would be sunny skies all week.

Not a single person was able to connect this snow with the blue haired baby that had just been born.

The snow always seemed to follow this boy with the blue hair. It was as if wherever he went, snow would always follow him.

However, the degree of snow would always depend on his mood.

He was an unusually calm child that didn't express his feelings, so normally there would only be a light dusting that followed him. However, when he lost control of his emotions and expressed them, the snow would seemingly respond to this.

One time when he had lost his anger at another child in kindergarten who had broken his toy.

Once he lost himself to his anger, the snow outside exploded and the windows immediately shattered. It was almost as if the snow itself was responding to his rage.

It was hard for people to not understand that the snow outside was related to him and from that day forth, that little boy with the blue hair was known as a demon child.

From that day forth, the only one that still loved him was his mother.

His father couldn't take the burden that came with his special powers and ran out on him and his mother, leaving them to fend for themselves.

His mother worked day and night just to take care of them, but she never forgot to give him her love still. She always made sure to cook for him every night when he came home from school and always tucked him in before heading off to work.

The little boy just lost himself in his mother's love, not knowing what she sacrificed for him until she suddenly collapsed one day. He realized all that she had done for him and he was filled with guilt, but she still gave him a warm hug when he came to see her in the hospital.

From that day forth, he made up his mind to become stronger and protect his mother.

But it wasn't meant to be.

Everything changed the day the portals suddenly opened.

The blue haired boy and his mother had been out shopping when the portals suddenly opened.

For once it was a sunny day since the little boy was having a fun day shopping with his mother, so the snow had finally stopped.

But while they were shopping, the portals suddenly opened and the monsters poured out.

The moment that the monsters poured out, they started attacking everything indiscriminately, including the boy and his mother.

There were two goblins that came out of the portal and headed in their direction.

With the mother's love for the boy, she threw herself in the path of the goblin's sword, taking the slash that was meant for the boy. The sword cut deep into her body, splashing her blood onto the boy's face.

Even when she was dying, she still reached out her hand to tell him, "Don't be afraid, mommy is here. I'll take care of everything."

But those were her last words before she collapsed into the boy's arms, drawing her last breath.

As the boy's trembling eyes watched his mother take her last breath, the air around him suddenly turned colder and colder until ice crystals formed around him. The goblins that had been preparing to attack him suddenly stopped before a layer of frost appeared around them.

In less than a few seconds, they were covered in a layer of ice and frozen there.

On that day, that blue haired boy had awakened his S Rank Ice Powers.