'First step done!' Max celebrated inwardly.
Until now, he didn't have to do anything special to make a girl fall for him, so he didn't know how to actually do it.
For a moment, he even thought of releasing the restriction on his charm, but he wasn't sure if it would work on a king ranked mage. Furthermore, she might get suspicious if she suddenly found him charming.
So, he decided to use what little knowledge he had gained from surfing the internet to get close to his then crush, Alison.
According to this knowledge, the first step was to get a girl interested in you. Fortunately, the system had made things easy by providing the thing to get her interest: The information about her physique.
Max put on a complication expression and said,
"When I first saw you, I felt there was something wrong, then the feeling intensified when you attacked me with your aura. It was too chilling even by the standards of the Ice Sovereign Mountain because the white-haired woman who took Lilly away didn't have this much bone chilling coldness in her aura."
"Then I heard what you said. At first I thought you must be saying it because of the war that's going to start in a few days, but when I looked at you more… deeply. I found…"
Saying this, his complicated expression in her eyes intensified, and he even seemed pained as he took a step toward her, raised his hand to touch her face gently.
Garima frowned and wanted to swat his hand away because this was the first time a man — who wasn't her family — had touched her. But she didn't because of her curiosity.
Max inwardly rejoiced when he touched her ice-cold skin of her cheeks and said,
"…I found that you have a special physique, one that gives you unnatural coldness. You skin that should have been as tender and as attractive as my sister or Lilly, is so rigid and freezing."
He then shifted his gaze to her lips and wanted to graze them but decided against it as that would be too much given they were just strangers, and continued,
"You lips seem frozen as if they are blocks of ice. And your hair, which I believe should have been black from birth, has turned gray and is slowly turning silver because this physique is affecting you negatively."
Garima's expression slowly turned wistful as he recounted the changes in her appearance because before her physique which she thought was boon started acting up, she was indeed a young, gorgeous beauty who people said she would akin to a fairy when she grew up and the one managed to capture her heart would be the most lucky and blissful man in the world.
But as her body started to change and her beauty waned, the same people started to look at her differently. She was no longer desirable or the center of their affection.
"…You are right. I have a special physique. Now let's go." She said in a low voice, wanting to end the conversation. However, what she heard next made her eyes widen and her heart to beat faster.
"Based on these things, after thinking for a while, I recalled that your special physique is called Ice Yin body. If it's cultivated with a suitable technique, can be a boon but if not, it would be a curse. For you, it's the latter."
She looked at him with a disbelieving look. "Y-You… know my what my physique called? You…? How…?"
When she was suffering, she had met her master, the white-haired woman, by chance who told her she had a special Ice body and she should go with her, train and learn to control it.
After she joined the Ice Sovereign Mountain, and learned their famed Ice technique, [Ice god technique], she had suppressed her physique's side effects.
That had made her jubilant because she could be a normal person again and her cultivation had increased a lot, reaching the five-star realm from the two-star in less than a year.
Unfortunately…
Her happiness was short-lived because as soon as she broke through to the five-star realm, her physique's side effects resurfaced. It was then she found out that her physique wasn't some normal Ice body but something more peculiar that even the [Ice God technique] couldn't control.
After that, she and her master went through all the Sovereign Mountain's records on Ice physiques, but couldn't identify hers. Since they couldn't identify it, there was naturally no solution.
She then brought her to her faction's monarchs, hoping that they might have some clues, only to be disappointed.
Feeling defeated, her master had given a sad look and told her, 'Your master is useless, Garima. Please forgive me. But don't lose hope. There must be a solution. We just need to find the person who can tell what your physique really is. I'm sure he will know how to cure you.'
So, she was shocked beyond limits when she heard Max her call her physique [Ice Yin Body].
Whoosh!
She grabbed him by his shoulders and hurriedly questioned in an agitated, almost begging voice,
"Y-You… how do you know my physique is called this? Where he did you hear it? Someone must have told you, right? C-Can you please take me to him?"
"Ah? No. I didn't hear it from someone." Max answered, feeling sad for her. Just from her reaction, anyone could tell how desperate she was. How could she not when life was about to end?
Dying suddenly wouldn't be as bad or horrifying as knowing the date of your death ahead of time. The fear, dread, sadness and helplessness you would feel would be too much to endure.
Sure, you could be positive about it and try to live your life to the fullest, but the void that had already appeared in your heart and soul would be impossible to fill.
Garima's face drooped when she heard this. She removed her trembling hands from his shoulders and asked, "Then… how do you know this?"
Max glanced at Anna, and others who were looking at them with their mouth hung open because they had never expected that a king ranked mage would act in such a way with a three-star mage, and said,
"We'll talk about it after we are finished here."
"Hm?" Garima regained her senses when she heard this and then turned to Jack's parents and coldly barked,
"Get lost. You can't kill him."
Jack's parents' expressions turned ugly when they heard this, and anger arose in their hearts.
But… what could they do apart from obediently obeying her? Fight her? They would certainly end up dead if they dared.
But what about their revenge? Well, if they lived, they could always take it when he didn't have a king ranked mage's protection.
"Alright. We will l—" Just as they nodded and prepared to leave,
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Many figures rushed out of the academy and surrounded Max's group.
Garima and Max frowned when they saw this. Max could recognize a few of them, as they were the elders of the academy he had seen here and there, and then there was the headmaster, who was leading them all.
