He had always wondered how perverts in anime were able to barge inside any room and have incidents. Why did they not lock the door beforehand? Was this the same situation? Or something similar to that?
He sighed internally. He had to do something about this problem in the future.
However, now that he was seen by Bella, he did not feel flustered as he had expected to initially. On the contrary, his heart remained calm.
'Is this related to the Eternal Winter Physique?' he thought about how the new physique would affect his body and mind from now on.
He gazed at Bella, who was looking at his face in surprise before her eyes wandered to the room covered in ice and frost.
"T-This…?" she mumbled, her tone carrying a hint of astonishment.
"What happened to this room?"
Finally, she could no longer help but question the guy at the center of it all.
"Before that, Bella… why did you enter my room?"
Oliver replied to her with a question rather than an answer. It was an age-old mind tactic where to divert someone's attention from a particular topic, the party would answer with a question rather than a reply.
And it was effective as Bella flinched when she remembered this discourtesy of hers.
"I-" she spoke, "I am sorry, I saw that you were not there and your sister was about to awaken her element for the first time. I did not want you to miss such a precious moment, and you were not coming back, so I was worried if you were in some situation."
She paused as she met his eyes with a hint of seriousness. It was true when she said that she came here because of this.
But when she did not receive any response, she could not control her curiosity to see what he was doing to miss such a moment and entered his room like that.
She was aware of how disrespectful this action was, for her to barge into someone else's room.
But she really could not control her curiosity and wanted to know what he was up to.
Oliver looked at her determined eyes and was speechless. Any onlooker would think that he had done something wrong if they did not know the situation beforehand.
He forced himself not to facepalm. So much for being a sophisticated heir of major clans.
"Fine, leave now. I will come later."
He shook his head and asked her to leave. He had to remove the icy layer.
"But-" she stopped. She wanted to say something but in the end did not speak, "—well… come quickly. Nadia is stabilizing the element, so it should not be too late."
Saying so, she silently closed the door and left. She knew that she should not pry too much into his matters. She could already feel that Oliver did look disappointed.
The scene of the room flashed through her mind. When she opened the door, she clearly felt the chilly temperature in the room. It was very cold, and she could feel it on her skin.
It was as if the room was experiencing a different season—a cold winter.
She wanted to know what that was. Even his skin had frost coverings on it as if someone had frozen him, but she did not ask him.
Everyone had their own secrets, and it was probably his secret. If he did not feel comfortable sharing it, then she should not interfere.
'Haah… what is happening? Where is the composure that I had been maintaining so far? I have been losing control of myself more often nowadays.'
In the end, she returned downstairs.
__________
Oliver looked at the ice coatings and stretched out his hand. With just his will alone, the ice and frost in the room started to quiver before cracking and popping sounds started to echo in the room.
Crunch!
Like glass shattering, all the icy layers broke into thin and small pieces.
His finger moved and made an upward motion as a strong current of espera released from the tip of his finger.
The countless shattered small ice pieces started to float above the ground, as they suddenly started to gather at a single point.
Crackle! Crackle!
More and more ice pieces followed and started to merge together before a small ice sphere started to take shape.
It was a small transparent crystalline ice ball.
Oliver beckoned the ice ball toward himself. The floating crystal sphere levitated towards him before landing in his hand.
He felt the freezing temperature on his skin as he held the ice ball.
Tap Tap Tap
He moved towards the only window in the room and opened the sash using the handles.
He held out the crystal ice ball. In the very next instant, the ball of ice started to churn and deform before turning into cold water and flowing down his palm.
He already had some mastery over the water element, which was his first awakened element, so it was not a big deal that he was able to convert ice back to water.
After making sure that everything was normal, he went downstairs as well, where he saw Nadia almost finished doing everything.
He reached just in time. She opened her eyes and looked around. Their eyes met as Oliver gave her a thumbs up.
She stood up and looked at Alison.
"So which is it?" she questioned in interest.
"Ice element."
"That's a great one—a hybrid element is often more powerful in both offense and defense compared to basic elements." Her eyes lit up when she said this. She looked around. "It is no secret, and you all don't need to make such faces. Accept the She said as she side-glanced at Alphonso and Amber, who were making difficult faces. She smiled as she further added,
"However, it all comes down to the person themselves. With enough mastery, even the least offensive element could turn into a deadly weapon if sharpened enough. Be hardworking and don't be disappointed."
Hearing this, their expressions eased up slightly, albeit slightly stiff nonetheless.
"Now that you all have managed to awaken your elements, it is time to start for real."