Belated birthday

Huh...

Now that Kai thought about it, it had been over a year since this whole mess began. So long had passed, but it didn't really feel like that long, it was strange.

This was also the first birthday in which Kai had missed. Even though he had technically missed his seventeenth birthday party because of the Flashing, he had still gotten his birthday wishes.

And here he was now. He had spent his eighteenth birthday under a mind hex created by some deranged Queen and he was about to have a mini party inside a cell of ice created billions of years ago, eating a cupcake brought to him by the Third Queen of an entire Dimension.

How times change.

Smiling, Kai took the cupcake and gazed at the candle.

The flame on top of it was so much weaker than any Kai could produce, and it kind of made him feel proud. At least he had become more powerful than the average match or lighter.

"Thank you, Cecilia."

Cecilia's eyes beamed at the praise, but she managed to compose herself and only have a faint blush on her face when she responded.

"You do not need to thank me, Sir. I merely wish to keep you happy while you are in this cell. Although I should apologise that I was only able to get you a single cupcake, while I am able to make you as much stir-fry as you could possibly want, the chefs keep a very tight grip on their sugar supply."

Kai laughed softly before looking back down at the cupcake. It had a little bit of white icing on top, making it just look like the average cupcake, but he was still grateful for it.

"A cupcake is fine, who needs extravegancies when you can have a little cake in a prison cell?"

The candle in the cupcake flickered, that being the only source of light now that Kai had let his own flames die out. It was a nice little flame, even though it wasn't as strong or as potent as Soul Flame, it somehow felt more comforting.

"Well." Cecilia said as she looked at Kai, the reflection of the candle dancing in her pupils. "Are you going to make a wish?"

Kai snickered to himself, wasn't he a little old to be making wishes?

Ah, who was he kidding, he would only get older from here on out so there was no harm in staying young for a little while. Plus, what was wrong with a little wish? It's wishes that gave people hope, and Kai wouldn't mind a little bit of that right now.

Repeating his wish in his head, Kai blew out the flame on the candle before plucking it out of the cupcake. He was just about to bite into it before he stopped and pulled off a sizeable chunk of it, handing it back to Cecilia.

"Yeah, I made my wish."

Cecilia's eyes widened slightly, as if she hadn't even expecting to be offered any of the cupcake. Kai didn't see any reason not to offer a bit though, it was her that made it after all, she should get to taste the fruits of her own labour.

Both of them ate in silence, both slowly nibbling on the cupcake.

It was nice, really nice, both the atmosphere and the cupcake. Even though it pained Kai to admit, Cecilia was a much better chef, cook and baker than he would ever be.

Once both of them had finished their half of the cupcake, Cecilia wiped her hands clean and looked back at Kai. She had a look of curiosity in her eyes, but she was hesitating. It was only after Kai opened his mouth did she speak.

"What... did you wish for?"

Kai raised an eyebrow. Normally, one wasn't meant to reveal what they wished for, it would just nullify the wish.

But since nearly everything was getting nullified by the collar around his neck anyway, what was the harm.

"To get out of here in one piece."

Cecilia remained silent before slowly nodding her head, her gaze dropping down to the icy floor.

"I would like that as well."

Taking a second to reignite the candle using Soul Flame, Kai intensified the heat a little and handed it to Cecilia to keep her warm, he then grabbed the stir-fry and began to eat.

"Say, would you mind telling me a story?" Kai asked after he swallowed a mouthfull of noodles. "Just anything, something cool that happened in the past."

Cecilia's eyes widened slightly at the question, the gears in her mind starting to turn in her head. What sort of story would he like to hear...?

"Okay, I've got one." Cecilia nodded, taking a moment to decide on how to tell it before she finally began speaking.

"It is recorded that roughly eighty billion years ago, oh, wait, have you seen the Royal Peak? The mountain far away from the city? This is just for reference."

Kai thought for a moment before remembering the extremely tall and extremely steep mountain that he had spotted on the day the blizzard was weak. The peak of that mountain looked like it could have been used as a weapon, so it wasn't really a surprise that it was called royal.

"Yeah, I saw it once."

Cecilia nodded before continuing.

"Roughly eighty billion years ago, there was a supernatural event that took place over the peak of that mountain."

Kai frowned slightly to himself. Over that already incredibly tall peak? What the hell had happened?

"As you might know, the blizzard outside has not stopped in roughly the last ninety billion years. Only one time, there was a situation where it very nearly came close to.

No one knows how it happened, but a ginormous fireball appeared above the mountain, it acting like a second sun even though the clouds of the blizzard had already long hidden the actual sun.

The blizzard was weak this day, so many people saw the event. The bottom half of the fireball stuck out from beneath the clouds, its heat felt even from the city even though it was so far away.

It started evaporating every bit of snow. For the first time in billions of years, the Royal Peak did not have a single bit of snow on it.

But then, the fireball started expanding, its body growing bigger as it started to get hotter.

It was like it was about to explode, the fireball was going to completetly destroy the Royal Peak and even the city.

But then, the blizzard reacted, like it was alive. All the falling snow raced towards the fireball, encasing it.

Soon, the fireball was completetly covered by snow, its heat being completetly blocked out.

Then, it exploded.

Every bit of snow that was encasing it was sent back out, the rate at if was falling was much heavier.

The explosion devastated half of the Royal Peak, the front half that we can see, that is why the mountain is so steep.

After that event, the snow did not calm a single time for close to a billion years. That was a hard time for any who were alive, but they managed to survive.

No one knows why or how it even happened, all they know is that it did. They also learned that the blizzard had some sort of sentience, how else would it have been able to encase a fireball? It seems obvious that the fire would have melted the snow, only it hadn't. Somehow, the snow managed to counter the fireball.

That is also why the peak of the mountain is so sharp, it was refined by the heat that had been in such close proximity of it."

Cecilia fell silent, waiting for Kai to respond and see if he even cared about the story that she had told.

Meanwhile, Kai just sat there, confused.

None of that made any sense.

A gigantic fireball billions of years ago? A sentient blizzard? A peak of a mountain that had been refined by the flames of a world ending threat?

He had thought that the blizzard was bad already, but turns out it was only the tip of the iceberg.

Kai sighed. Why did everything always have to be so confusing.

"Well, that was a good story."

After that, the two of them continued to talk about little things that they enjoyed. Cecilia was a fan of knitting, which Kai had always thought was a cute hobby.

They somehow ended up on the topic of other people, and that made Kai think of the one other person in this Subdimension that he still wasn't sure if he could trust or not.

"I wonder how Yelena is doing."

Cecilia tilted her head curiously?

"Who is Yelena?"

Kai looked at her, realising that it made sense that she probably didn't know every maid in the castle.

"Oh, she's a maid here. Green hair, has glasses, sort of a motherly vibe to her."

Cecilia frowned, making Kai feel as if something was off.

"Sir, there is no green haired maid in this castle."

Now it was Kai's turn to frown.

"Yeah there is, I've spoken to her multiple times, it was her that took me to the city the first time."

Cecilia's frown deepened.

"In these last six months, I carefully watched every servant, every maid, everyone, in order to make sure all went to plan, and I can assure you that there is no green haired maid here."

Kai fell slack. Yeah there was, he had spoken to her multiple times? Even Ezekial had seen Yelena-

Now that Kai thought about it, Yelena had disappeared that time when he met Ezekial in the hall, so what was up with that?

Kai noticed Cecilia bite her lip, seemingly stressing. It was almost as if she knew something but was hesitating on saying it.

Then, Kai couldn't help but silently curse when she opened her mouth.

"But while there may not be any green haired maid here...

The appearance of the woman you described perfectly matches the Second Queen."