Mark of the Multiversal Pretender

[Posting earlier than usual, as an apology for being unable to publish a chapter yesterday.]

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*Slash!* x4

"God dammit." Using a long blade that he got from a random Gacha draw, Leo kept slicing the long plants and leaves that are in his way.

Currently, he was constantly using his life sensor skill to find Anna and Iduna. Although he knows where they are going as he watched the first part of the movie, however the unfortunate thing is, he doesn't know the exact location of the trolls.

He just knows that they live in a rocky terrain, probably near an inactive volcano or something considering the holes producing steams that were shown in the first film.

"Where the fuck even am I?" Leo cursed under his breath when his senses suddenly picked up a group of life forces situated in a single place.

Quickly, ignoring the branches and plants, Leo's figure blurred as he disappeared in his place.

***

"Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna? This sounds familiar." Muttering the name of the wooden structure in front of him, Leo quickly peeked through the open glass of the door and saw a familiar big man standing behind a counter.

Upon seeing each other, the big guy's eyes widened in surprise before speaking.

"Yoo-hoo~. Big Summer Blow Out?" The big guy, despite his large size waved his fingers at him as his slightly high pitch voice resonated on the wooden building.

"Hello there?" Leo raised his eyebrows and greeted back.

"You can call me Oaken, since that's my name. Is there anything you want? I have everything in this store. Including a big sauna, by the way, my family is also there. Say hi, Yoo-Hoo~." The big guy, now known as Oaken, introduced himself along with his family who are currently in the sauna that Oaken just presented.

"....That's nice. I was just wondering if you notice two women riding a horse somewhere around here?" At the same time, Leo placed a few gold coins on the table.

"First of all, I don't need money just to give information. Second, information is free! And lastly, my answer to your question is no, I haven't seen any ladies on a horse. I'm all alone here with my family." Oaken's face turned slightly serious as he answered Leo.

"I see. As an apology for my behavior just now, please allow me to buy a pair of gloves and two carrots." Pushing the three gold coins forward, Leo pointed at the pair of brown cotton gloves sitting on the left side of the counter and the barrel full of carrots and other vegetables.

Although it wasn't snowing like in the first film thanks to Elsa's fine control over her powers to not accidentally cause an eternal winter, Leo still bought the gloves just to express his apology towards Oaken, a kind and big nice guy.

"The gloves along with two carrots just cost a silver coin." Oaken pointed out.

"Well, keep the change then." Leo replied and smiled as he leaned forward and reached for the pair of gloves before leaving the wooden house, of course without forgetting to grab two carrots on his way out.

"Wait!" Oaken called out loud however it was already too late as Leo was already gone.

"What am I gonna do with 3 gold coins? A single gold coin is enough for me to buy myself a building to build myself a store in Arendelle..." Oaken muttered to himself as he stared at the three gold coins shining on the counter, before eventually deciding to donate the two gold coins to an orphanage, after all, he himself grew up in an orphanage, hence the reason why he has such a big family.

***

"Well that didn't help." Leo muttered to himself as he chewed on the carrot he bought.

"I didn't know carrots tasted this good, no wonder Kristoff and Sven liked carrots very much. Maybe carrots only taste this good in the world?" Muttering under his breath while chewing, Leo continued.

"Speaking of the two of them, now that the entire event of the first film was thrown out of the window, I wonder how those two are doing now." Muttering to himself, Leo's senses finally picked up three familiar life forces, 1 kilometer away in front of him.

"Two of them are Anna and Iduna. The last one is probably their horse." Sighing in relief, Leo quickly rushed forward in full speed, intending to meet them head on.

***

"Mom? Is that you? Where are we?"

Hearing this question, Iduna sniffed and quickly jumped forward to hug her ailing daughter.

"W-what's going on? Not that I can refuse a hug but I'm confused." Anna stuttered, stunned by the sudden events.

All she could remember is seeing her sister, accidentally kill their father, Leo arriving in the nick of time to feed something to her father that seemed to have healed him before passing out after being assaulted by pain, especially in her head.

"I'll explain on the way, Anna. We need to go back now." Iduna helped the confused Anna stand up before shifting her gaze to Grand Pabbie.

"Grand Pabbie, thank you for everything. I know what to do now." Bowing her head, Iduna was about to return to the horse saddle when Grand Pabbie interrupted her.

"Iduna. I know what you are going to do but I must remind you that it mustn't be forced or else it won't be 'True' just leave it to destiny and let nature take its natural course." Hearing the wise words coming out of Grand Pabbie's mouth, Iduna stopped in her tracks.

As a matter of fact, she was already thinking of forcing Leo to kiss Anna just to cure her but Grand Pabbie's words snapped her back to reality..

'Grand Pabbie's right, I shouldn't force it but how? I'm not sure if Leo shares the same feeling to Anna, what I'm sure is that he has feelings for Elsa instead, with Elsa being on the same ground. As a mother, I know her the best, but Anna...' 

"Okay. Okay. This is confusing me. Mom, where are we and what are these rocks? They look so cute though, I'm not gonna lie." Not knowing her dire situation yet, Anna can still find the energy to joke around.

"I'll explain on the way. Thank you Grand Pabbie." Iduna repeated the same words as before, then thanked Pabbie as she assisted Anna up to the saddle of the horse before getting on herself.

"Hah!"

"Mom, why are we here? How's dad? Is he fine?" Upon reaching a considerable distance away from the trolls, Anna finally barraged her mother with questions.

"It's a long story, Anna but you are cursed by your sister's ice magic years ago, in order to stop the curse from fully killing you, we had Grand Pabbie, the old troll earlier to remove your memories of Elsa's ice magic. Now, you have been exposed to her ice power again, so the curse is back." Under a single breath, Iduna converted the long story into a short one.

"....That's.....a lot to take in." Anna blinked her eyes several times, the cloud of confusion in her eyes is slowly dispersing.

"I know, Anna. I know."

"So...this Grand Pabbie, did he remove my memories again? Because if so, I don't think he succeeded as my memories of the happenings before are still vivid in my mind."

"Unfortunately not, Anna. The memory removal was just a one time thing." Iduna shook her head and replied.

".....I'm....dying then?" Anna choked slightly, her voice turning hoarse at the thought of death.

"No. Not yet. Grand Pabbie proposed a solution."

"Really?! Thank that old troll! So what is it? Even if the solution is not eating chocolate any more for my entire life, I'll gladly do it!" Anna's face beamed up in excitement, even preparing to risk not eating her most favourite snack in the world.

"....You need to kiss your true love. A True Love's Kiss." Ignoring Anna's childish remarks, Iduna revealed, which suddenly made Anna who was cheerful go silent.

"And how am I supposed to find my true love?" Anna replied, though her eyes were saying the opposite thing as she was looking anywhere but Iduna.

"Anna. I know about your feelings for Leo."

"W-w-what?! What are you saying, mom?! What do you mean feelings for Leo?" The moment Iduna's words reached Anna's ears, the princess quickly became a blushing mess as she stutters while trying to deny her mother's 'accusation'.

"Anna. I am your mother, did you really think you could hide it from me?" Iduna monotonously stared at Anna, though she was actually lying as she wouldn't have known of this if it wasn't for Grand Pabbie bringing her to Anna's dream.

"....So what if I have feelings for him? It's not like I have a chance. He never once looked at me like he looked at Elsa. And besides, I don't want Elsa to get mad for stealing his man." Now that the cat is out of the bag, there's no point in hiding it anymore.

Anna looked down as she clutched her skirt. Trying her best to stop her tears from threatening to fall.

"Anna....I'm not telling you to steal Leo from Elsa. You do know about our history, right?" Iduna held Anna's hand.

"History? I....kind of slept during history lessons." Anna muttered in a low voice, to the point that the volume seems to have turned into a low squeak.

"....As I was about to say, I'm not telling you to steal Leo from Elsa. What I'm trying to tell you is to share him with Elsa. Like how Kings are supposed to do."

"....I'm sorry what?"

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[Next Chapter: Ch. 89 - Sharing is Caring!]