The Queen is basically a program running according to its settings.
Her highest purpose is to maintain and strengthen this country, and that’s the premise above all else.
At the same time, past Queens set rules.
She understood what it would look like if all the adults in the country turned into cold machines, so she left behind the rule that this magic couldn’t be used on the citizens.
But when a program runs for too long, all sorts of bugs start to appear, and now the citizens’ tolerance is about to explode.
Under the Queen’s icy rule, the country runs at peak efficiency, but it’s all built on the oppression of the people.
They’re not cold machines; they can’t carry out every order the Queen gives.
Over time, the citizens’ dark emotions have gotten worse and worse, and the Queen realized this would be a weakness the witches could exploit in the coming war.
She can’t allow the country to be defeated by the witches, can’t let it be swallowed by darkness—that’s her entire reason for existing.
If she follows the highest directive, then the rules left by the previous King don’t need to be obeyed anymore.
The Frozen Nation Plan began, and the Queen started researching how to use Ice Heart Magic on the commoners.
The Queen’s Ice Heart Magic works perfectly on the Princess, since they’re identical twins with the same appearance and the same magic circuits.
But for some reason, the Queen wasn’t in a hurry to use it on the Princess.
Because the Princess is like a national idol—her sweet smile and gentle voice are the last line of defense against the people’s darkness.
Many people only hold back for her sake.
So the Queen never touched the Princess.
She needed her to distract people and soothe their emotions.
Then the Princess messed up.
Normally, the Queen shouldn’t have killed her, because that would make the people’s emotions spiral out of control, but in the end, the Queen still followed the rules.
Of course, another reason is that the Queen doesn’t need the Princess to stabilize the people’s hearts anymore.
Her magic research is done, and the army stripped of emotion and branded with absolute loyalty is now completely loyal to the Queen.
They’re already freezing the country.
Even when facing their own families, these order-executing machines will freeze their hearts.
According to the Princess’s memories, Chen Xing thought only the Queen’s personal guard had been frozen, but she underestimated the efficiency of an army with frozen emotions.
Machines are always more efficient than people.
“Master, can you not stare with your eyes so wide?”
“Why not?” Chen Xing blinked her beautiful big eyes, looking confused.
“It feels so sunny, so blinding.”
When Chen Xing was a witch, she liked to squint.
Now that she’s showing her good side, she naturally wants to be different from her usual self, so she opens her eyes wide to give off a sunnier vibe.
But Little Dragon Girl doesn’t like it.
“Go die~” Chen Xing grinned and knocked Little Dragon Girl on the head.
“Master, did all the horses run away? How are we supposed to travel now?”
“Sigh… those guys are just too hot-tempered, always fighting for no reason.
If I catch them, I’ll—cough, cough.
Lidiqi, how far are we from the capital?”
“Mm, a little over two hundred li.”
With a magic beast carriage, that distance would take about a day and a night.
If Chen Xing used teleportation, it’d be done in minutes.
But the problem is, the capital of the Ice Empire is extremely sensitive to dark magic.
If Chen Xing uses it and gets discovered, that’d be a pain.
“No choice, we’ll have to fly.”
Flight magic is common, but flying by yourself is kind of low-class in this world.
People with status all use mounts.
Little Dragon Girl can’t show her true form here, so flying herself is the only option.
“No way, Freya.
There’s a no-fly zone two hundred li around the palace.
If you fly, you’ll get shot down.
The cannons won’t really hurt you, but they’re super annoying.”
“Uh, then why were those people just now…”
“They’re the royal guard, of course they have flight permits.”
“…Fine, guess we’ll have to walk.
Ugh, so annoying! I’m the great destroyer of worlds, and I have to walk to get there? How humiliating!” Chen Xing impatiently scratched her long hair, then stomped out of the carriage in a huff.
Just then, something occurred to her, and she smacked her forehead like she’d just realized something.
“Right, how could I forget about this?”
She pulled up the Princess’s memories in her mind, remembered the ice magic, and decided to use snow magic to move forward.
These low-level spells don’t require Chen Xing to use any dark power.
Thinking of this, Chen Xing turned and went back into the carriage, then used the magic from the Princess’s memories to control the snow under the carriage and drag it forward.
The speed wasn’t much slower than a magic beast-drawn carriage, and it was a lot smoother.
“Ah~ I’m such a genius.”
Chen Xing lay on the bed with her legs crossed, while Little Dragon Girl tried to climb up too, but Chen Xing kicked her off.
“Ugh, why is Master still so cold to me?” Little Dragon Girl flopped on the floor like a deflated balloon, her wish to snuggle with her master clearly not coming true.
The carriage sped along, and Chen Xing lay on the bed with her eyes closed, resting.
The magic eye hidden between her breasts under her clothes opened, looking through the carriage to see the road ahead.
She could see more than ten kilometers ahead at once.
If there was an obstacle, she just had to steer a little, so there was no need to worry about crashing.
“It’s really convenient…” The world’s most powerful spying skill was being used for something like this—it really felt like overkill.
But who could stop her? After more than two hours of traveling through the snow, the carriage finally reached the outer walls of the kingdom’s capital.
The walls here were built entirely out of ice.
With an endless supply of solid ice, the walls were incredibly tall—way higher than anything you’d see in a movie.
It felt like the kind of wall you’d see in Attack on Titan.
And not just tall—the walls stretched so wide you couldn’t see the end.
If someone tried to attack the city, facing walls like this would be utterly hopeless.
“Lidiqi, this is just the outer wall.
Once we’re inside, there’s still a long way to go before we reach the inner city—the real capital of the Ice Empire.”
Since ice magic is common here, using magic to drive a carriage didn’t cause any commotion.
They entered the city and went through a simple inspection.
The main thing was to check for traces of dark magic, to see if you were part of a cult.
According to the Princess’s memories, the inspection was pretty accurate—if you had any trace of dark matter on you, they’d notice.
