Leon felt as if countless emotions were echoing within that voice.

Neigh. Thud.

Malik Lyuschino dismounted from his horse.

He remained silent until his fluttering red cloak gradually settled, but his gaze was fixed on Kasha the entire time. It was a tired and gloomy gaze, like that of an aged beast that had wandered the wastelands for many years.

Kasha’s eyes, which had been trembling for a moment, finally regained their composure. She slowly released Leon’s hand and took a step closer to Malik. Malik silently watched as she held and then let go of Leon’s hand.

“Count, Your Excellency.”

Kasha bent one knee and curtsied gracefully. It was an extremely formal greeting for a father she was meeting for the first time in nearly a year.

Malik, who had been motionless until she curtsied and raised her head, finally opened his mouth.

“You’re safe. Kasha.”

“Yes. Thanks to your concern.”

“Your body.”

“I’m fine.”

“Your clothes are a mess.”

“They just got dirty from wandering around.”

The conversation between father and daughter was endlessly polite and dry.

No matter how one looked at it, it did not seem like a conversation between a daughter who had been missing for two days and a father who had scoured the entire mountain looking for that daughter.

“…I see. That’s a relief. Let’s hear the details once we return to the castle.”

“Yes. Your Excellency.”

Upon hearing Kasha’s polite form of address, ‘Your Excellency’, the Count glanced at her with his usual gloomy eyes and turned his gaze toward Leon. Leon somehow felt that his gaze was quite cold.

“Sir Leon Aranias. I have heard much about your reputation.”

“It is nothing compared to Count Lyuschino’s reputation. It is an honor to meet you like this.”

Leon greeted him politely with a knight’s salute. In fact, based solely on their noble ranks, he, as a Grand Duke’s son, should have treated him, a Count, as a subordinate.

However, as soon as Malik Lyuschino saw Leon, instead of calling him ‘Grand Duke’s son’, he thoroughly treated him only as a knight by using the title ‘Sir’. And Leon also found this more comfortable.

Isn’t Malik Kasha’s father? Although they don’t seem to have a very close relationship, Leon still wanted to make the best impression on him out of anyone in the entire empire.

But Malik’s response was quite chilly.

“You are being overly humble. Humility alone is not necessarily a virtue for a knight.”

The Count, who added the second sentence in a barely audible undertone as if talking to himself, turned around swiftly, as if a cold wind was blowing, and mounted his horse.

“Then let us depart. The expedition force you brought is also waiting at the castle. It would be best not to delay as the mountain path is dangerous when it gets dark. Hey. Bring horses for the two of them.”

Leon was a bit taken aback by the Count’s attitude, but he calmly helped Kasha mount her horse without showing it.

However, the Count, who had been watching, abruptly asked,

“Kasha. Will you be alright riding a horse alone? The road is long and very rough.”

Kasha replied calmly, avoiding the Count’s gaze.

“Yes. I’ve been riding a horse alone all the way from the capital anyway.”

But upon hearing those words, the Count’s voice suddenly rose.

“What? All the way from the capital? Why on earth would a child who has hardly ridden a horse do such a reckless thing? Sir Leon, are you saying you just watched this child overexert herself?”

“……”

Upon hearing the Count’s furious voice, Kasha’s expression grew even colder. At a glance, she appeared indifferent, but Leon, who knew her well, realized that she was angry.

After glancing at the two for a moment, Leon spoke up. Despite being scolded for staying silent, his voice was as plain as if nothing had happened.

“Lady Kasha’s horsemanship is excellent. You need not worry about such things.”

Describing it as excellent may have been a slight exaggeration, but it was true that her riding skills had stabilized remarkably after riding a horse nonstop for about half a month.

However, the Count seemed even angrier upon hearing praise for his daughter.

“I was under the impression that the Holy Knights were an honorable group that prioritized the protection of the weak, but it seems that is not quite the case.”

Leon, understanding it as a rebuke for allowing Kasha to ride a horse overexerting herself all the way from the capital, met the Count’s gaze head-on.

Quite a stubborn pair of green eyes. The eyes of a man who has lived his entire life on the battlefield. A lonely soul who knows no compromise or acceptance, but simply walks the path he has chosen without a word.

‘…This makes me miss the Viscount.’

He even thinks that compared to the Count, Daril was like a gentle baby bear.

Leon anticipated that the road ahead would be quite rough.

“Lady Kasha is not weak, Count Lyuschino, Your Excellency.”

“That’s not what I meant. A knight should duly protect a lady…!”

However, his reprimand was soon cut off by Kasha’s cold voice.

“I did not accompany the expedition as a lady, Count.”

“Kasha.”

At Kasha’s abrupt interjection, Malik turned to look at her with a frightening expression.

Seeing that, Leon realized that the awkward relationship between this father and daughter was a deep-rooted chronic illness.

“I came this far… as an Artifact Maker, to be of practical help to the expedition force. So please, don’t speak to the commander like that.”

“Kasha, I. That’s not what I meant.”

Malik stuttered as if at a loss for words, looking furious yet at a loss for what to do.

Come to think of it, this is the first time Malik is facing Kasha after the regression. Kasha’s current attitude of clearly refuting him like this must be unfamiliar and startling.

‘But you have to adapt quickly. Because we no longer have time, Count.’

Kasha said that inwardly and met the Count’s gaze head-on without avoiding it. The Count seemed slightly surprised by her unwavering gaze that was not cowed by his presence. But he did not look displeased at all.

Kasha took the opportunity to ask what she had been curious about.

“By the way, what happened to the children who were said to be trapped in this village’s warehouse?”

“……”

As Malik silently stared at her, pondering something, Hansen, a knight who had been watching nearby, stepped forward in his stead.

“The Holy Knights rescued them and took them to the castle together. According to the children, the magical beasts disappeared as soon as the village elders fled the village. None of the children were particularly injured, and apart from being frightened, they showed no other abnormalities.”

“…That’s a relief.”

In a way, it had been a wasted effort, but the fact that no one had died brought a sense of relief first. Kasha let out a sigh.

These magical beasts were also born from the fragments of the Mana Stone that Kasha had unsealed, so if children had been sacrificed by the beasts, it would have weighed on her mind for a long time.

Kasha grasped the reins with a much lighter expression.

“Then let’s go quickly. The Holy Knights must be worried sick, and it’s getting dark.”

Having said that, she immediately spurred her horse and descended the mountain path without waiting for an answer.

Leon leisurely followed behind her, and Malik, along with the knights and soldiers, soon hastily followed suit.

A few hours later, when the round moon had risen high in the sky, the group finally reached Gillistin Castle.

The castle was much larger and more elegant than expected. A sturdy castle wall built on a low rocky mountain, surrounded by a moat that shimmered like a mirror in the moonlight. It exuded a lonely yet majestic atmosphere.

Of course, in terms of scale alone, the Imperial Palace was incomparably larger and more splendid. However, this beautiful castle, built with the straightforward architectural style unique to the North, had an ancient charm.

The southern castle walls, which were particularly white and smooth, stood out, perhaps due to recent renovation work.

Kasha couldn’t take her eyes off the castle the entire time she crossed the drawbridge. From the moment she first saw the castle, she felt a nostalgic feeling rising up to her throat for some reason.

And Malik, who silently observed her excited expression, somehow looked even more bitter.

“Lady Kasha!”

As soon as they passed through the castle gates, a group of dark-skinned men rushed over from somewhere. It was the knights of the Holy Knights, including Karim.

“Are you alright? We were really worried! We also searched for you two all day until noon, and had just come down for maintenance in the evening. If we had known you would appear like this, we would have searched a little longer…”

“We’re fine. Sorry for worrying you.”

“Please don’t apologize. Seeing you in good health is truly reassuring.”

The knights all nodded in unison, following Karim’s lead, sighing with relief.

There was one knight who was sobbing. Upon closer inspection, it was the very knight who had almost stepped on a ward stone while trying to infiltrate the village as an advance party yesterday. When Kasha pushed him away and disappeared in his stead, he must have been beside himself with worry.

It was Leon who broke the touching atmosphere, as if it were a family reunion.

“That’s enough, now disperse. Karim, report on the situation so far.”

“Ah, Commander, you’re back too!”

“……”

Despite returning alongside Kasha, Commander Leon, who was treated like an invisible person, sighed without a word. But he wasn’t offended at all.

For now, it seemed the Holy Knights had been safe without incident over the past day. Moreover, the fact that they cherished and worried about Kasha was rather welcome news to him.

Of course, that didn’t mean Leon had any intention of letting those dark-skinned fellows bother Kasha indefinitely.

“Everyone, withdraw! I’ll be conducting a surprise inspection of combat readiness early tomorrow morning, so keep that in mind.”

“Ah…”

The knights, who understood the hint that a tough training awaited them, dispersed while grumbling but in good spirits.

Seeing that everyone was healthy and robust, it seemed Count Lyuschino had taken quite good care of the expedition force.

Gillistin Castle was one of the many castles owned by Count Lyuschino in the North, and he rarely stayed here, so it remained empty for most of the year.

It must have been burdensome in many ways for a large number of expedition forces to suddenly barge in, so this level of consideration was very much appreciated. Kasha exchanged smiles with Leon as she watched the knights’ robust retreating figures.

According to what she had heard from Malik on the way, the magical beasts had also been quiet in recent days. It may just be a temporary lull, but considering what had happened, even a day of rest was precious.

It was then. Someone spoke to her politely from behind in a trembling voice.

“Young lady. May I show you to your room?”

A very formal, elegant Northern accent.

When Kasha turned around, an elderly lady dressed in a Northern-style black dress with buttons up to her neck was bowing deeply to her.

Her whitish-flaxen hair was perfectly coiffed without a single strand out of place. Startled by the excessive bow that almost touched her nose to the ground, Kasha stopped her.

“Oh, you don’t have to go this far…?”

But when the elderly lady raised her head upon hearing Kasha’s words, weren’t her eyes glistening with tears?