[Nikon? Is that you, Nikon?]

In response to Airy’s cry, a huge whirlwind vibrated with a deep humming sound, expanding in size.

“Lady Airy? Lady Airy!”

Nikon’s voice could be heard from within the violently swirling whirlwind.

“Nikon!”

Yuriella tried to run towards the whirlwind, but the fierce winds made her body sway and lift off the ground.

“Yuriella!”

Frost wrapped his arm around Yuriella’s waist, pulling her close to him. The strong winds made even Frost, who was holding Yuriella, rock unsteadily and float up.

Blanka and Mars whinnied loudly as their bodies were lifted into the air.

[Yuriella!]

Airy hurriedly summoned a sphere of wind.

At Airy’s gesture, the sphere of wind, which had greatly expanded in volume, enveloped Frost and Yuriella who were about to be swept away by the whirlwind.

The horses that had already been sucked far away by the wind were also safely brought into the sphere.

“What would you have done if you had rushed in like that?”

Frost spoke in a fierce tone. But his touch as he checked her for injuries was nothing but gentle.

[You almost gave me a heart attack! Are you okay? Are you alright?]

Airy scolded sharply as she clung tightly to Yuriella’s belly, blowing healing energy into her. The small body pressed against her trembled.

Yuriella’s face reddened as she gently pried Airy off her belly and glared at her.

‘Don’t make it so obvious. What if we get found out?’

Airy stuck out her tiny lips and pouted at the whirlwind.

It had been the perfect opportunity to tell the duke that Yuriella was carrying a beautiful child, using her vow to the goddess as an excuse.

The whirlwind had ruined it all.

Since it wasn’t by her own will, Yuriella couldn’t say she wanted to break the contract with the sacred sword either.

If the duke found out, wouldn’t he protect Yuriella even more zealously and tightly bind her so she couldn’t engage in anything dangerous?

Then the chances of becoming the godmother and godfather to a baby resembling Yuriella, a baby resembling the duke, a baby with features mixed from both of them, would have risen dramatically.

Stupid Nikon. Nowhere to be found when searched for diligently. But shows up at an important moment like this.

As Airy muttered to herself, the whirlwind suddenly drew closer and the sphere of wind shook violently.

Frost, startled, tightly enclosed Yuriella in his embrace. Airy quickly moved the sphere back, securing a safe distance from the whirlwind.

“Nikon is in there! Airy, quickly stop that whirlwind and save Nikon.”

[Okay. Got it.]

Airy immediately stretched out both arms towards the whirlwind.

Frost and Yuriella waited with tense expressions for the whirlwind to stop.

“……”

However, the whirlwind seemed to be getting bigger and bigger.

Yuriella looked at Airy with a puzzled expression.

[Just wait. It’ll stop soon.]

Hnng. Hnng. Airy’s arms trembled and her face turned red like a well-ripened apple as she strained.

But the huge whirlwind was greedily swallowing the surrounding rocks and sucking in even large trees, roots and all.

[It’s strange. That wind isn’t listening to me at all! Such a bad wind! I’ve never seen a wind that doesn’t obey me.]

Airy’s voice quivered, her pride greatly wounded.

“Really? Then let’s just go in.”

Frost shook his head at Yuriella’s words.

“You can’t.”

“Why?”

“That whirlwind. It’s exactly the same as the one I got caught in when I ran away from home. Back then too, it was calm with just a gentle breeze around it, but it alone raged like that.”

[Ran away? Even you did something human-like at times, Duke?]

Airy glanced at the duke with an expression that said she was hearing all sorts of strange things.

[Why did you run away?]

“Just because.”

[Just because?]

“Yes. Just because.”

It wasn’t a planned runaway.

Unlike other teens going through their rebellious phase, the sixteen-year-old Duke was a born ruler who quietly dominated his surroundings like an icy sea without a single ripple.

Frost left the ducal castle to patrol the territory as he did every other day, but impulsively urged his horse off the familiar path. It was just a fleeting impulse.

But by the time he came to his senses, he had already crossed the northern border. Even as his mind told him to turn back, his hands were turning the reins in the opposite direction.

Maybe he had wanted to escape.

The sense of responsibility that had heavily weighed on his shoulders since inheriting the position of Duke.

The royal family’s constant vigilance, tirelessly sending assassins. The countless battlefields he would have to face as lord of the north and the weight of the blood of the northerners he would have to drive to those battlefields.

He realized the further he got from the north how suffocating those things made him.

He didn’t want to go back.

He rode his horse on a whim, alternating between inns and sleeping outdoors, going wherever his feet took him.

For the first time in his life, he felt free. He thought he just wanted to live like this.

The glory placed on his head and the responsibility placed on his shoulders from birth, unrelated to his will. He wanted to forget it all.

But when he faced the spectacular sight of endless waves of purple lavender in the east, he suddenly longed for the humble field of edelweiss blooming in his homeland.

Looking at the golden wheat fields in anticipation of a bountiful harvest, the sight of the calloused, rough hands of poor farmers tilling the red earth of the barren north brought tears to his eyes.

And he realized. He had never left his land or his people for a single moment.

He turned his horse’s head and rode north for some time.

Suddenly, a huge whirlwind struck the plains where only a gentle breeze had been blowing. Before he could avoid it, Frost and his horse were swallowed by the whirlwind.

If he had not been the wielder of the sacred sword Iello, the north would have lost its lord that day.

Although he had dealt with it calmly, it took him three days to escape the whirlwind.

He was battered and torn here and there by the tree trunks and farm tools sucked into the rough vortex, but he returned to the north safely anyway.

Recalling that time, Frost lightly furrowed his brow.

“I told you, didn’t I? The whirlwind I got caught in back then didn’t seem to have formed naturally at all. There must have been some artificial element involved. It was a very strange wind.”

Upon his return, Frost immediately summoned the north’s mages and priests for consultation, but no one could provide a clear answer.

He heard that no one had seen such a wind since then either.

“Airy’s orders don’t work on that wind. If we rush in recklessly, we may not be able to save Nikon and just get swept up and fail together.”

Yuriella narrowed her eyes, as if gauging where Nikon might be in that whirlwind.

“That yellow stone you mentioned. Can Nikon handle it too? I told him about it a long time ago. That you were able to escape the whirlwind thanks to that yellow stone, Duke.”

“A long time ago? I only told you about it recently?”

Yuriella’s cheeks flushed red.

When she was Solas, she tried not to get too close to Frost, thinking he was wary of her, but there had been quite a few times when she unwittingly stopped at the sound coming from his tent.

“…That was a lie. Actually, I eavesdropped. I was curious. About what kind of person you were, Duke. How you lived, what you thought. I wanted to know, so without realizing it…”

Seeing Yuriella’s ears turn red as well, Frost smiled slightly.

“You should have just asked me directly. I thought you were avoiding me, not knowing, and couldn’t approach you.”

Frost tucked the strands of hair that had fallen over Yuriella’s cheek behind her ear and rested his head on her shoulder.

“Nikon probably can’t handle that yellow stone. I wouldn’t have been able to either if I hadn’t had the sacred sword.”

Suddenly Airy clapped her hands loudly as if she had remembered something.

[That’s right, the yellow stone! The shiny yellow stone!]

“Airy, do you know something about the yellow stone?”

Yuriella pushed Frost’s head away and asked Airy.

[Yes! I just remembered! Duke, are you sure what you saw was a yellow stone? A sparkling, shiny yellow stone?]

Frost nodded, furrowing his brows regretfully.

“Yes. It was a translucent yellow rock about the size of my fist, and it emitted light as if a heart was beating.”

For some reason, he had thought that following that light would allow him to live.

“What did you do with that yellow stone? How did you stop the whirlwind and get out? We can use that method to rescue Nikon.”

Seeing the expectant sparkle in his wife’s eyes, Frost awkwardly scratched his cheek with his finger.

“I’m not sure. I tried to use my energy and struggled to go towards that light. I did finally get close to it. But I lost consciousness. The last thing I remember is that my sacred sword reacted to that yellow stone.”

The wind had been so fierce that summoning the sacred sword Iello, let alone moving a finger, had been difficult. But when he approached the yellow stone as if to touch it, Iello’s energy had spread out intensely.

[That yellow stone is probably the ‘seed’ of the wind.]

“The seed of the wind?”

[Yes! What’s in the wind is the seed of the wind. What’s arranged in the earth is the seed of the earth.]

Airy said that the seed was a benevolent arrangement placed by the goddess to protect the world from darkness.

[Yuriella, remember I told you before that dark mages tried to place the powers of nature beneath their feet to summon darkness?]

“Yes. You said they messed with the earth the most out of the wind, fire, earth, and ice. And that Popo defeated them only with the goddess’s help.”

[They even dared to steal the sacred swords while opposing the goddess.]

This was a story Airy hadn’t told before.

“They touched the sacred swords too?”

The goddess, greatly angered by this, sealed the darkness they had summoned and destroyed the dark mages. And she made a special arrangement in the nature she had created.

In case they tried to abuse the power of nature using dark magic, the ‘seeds’ she had planted in the wind, fire, earth, and ice would activate and make them refuse the control of the wicked.

And only the pure energy of an undefiled sacred sword could control the seeds.

“Then is that whirlwind not listening to you, Airy, because you lost your main body? Because you lack power?”

At Frost’s words, Airy’s lips protruded in a pout.

[The duke is mean! Always poking where it hurts!]

“That’s your problem, not mine. I only stated facts.”

[That’s a bad personality!]

“I may have a bad personality, but I’m competent. Unlike a certain someone. I’m not stupid enough not to know who that ‘certain someone’ is here.”

[Hmph! Don’t you know that ‘certain someone’ is the most necessary and precious being to Yuriella? Right. You wouldn’t know. Because you’re not her real husband. If you’re not a real husband, you can’t be a real father either, can you?]

“Airy, stop it.”

Yuriella fiercely motioned with her eyes at Airy. If you keep overflowing, you’ll get in trouble?

“With this, it’s clear who is the more necessary and precious being to my wife. You lost, so admit it, Airy.”

[No! I won’t.]

“The truth doesn’t change just because you don’t like it.”

[Airy is always number one to Yuriella! Airy is the best!]

Yuriella sighed deeply, watching Airy and the duke noisily arguing.

She could guess why the two of them were continuing this childish quarrel in this urgent situation.

They were worried that she might be in danger if they tried to save Nikon, so they were stalling for time.

They were reluctant to take her along when they weren’t confident that the sword of ice, not the sword of wind, could control that raging wind.

But they were also worried that leaving her alone might mean other dangers were lurking nearby.

They were hesitating because they were worried either way.

Yuriella’s gaze turned to the fiercely swirling wind.

Ancient dark magic. Darkness. Dark mages who tried to lay hands on the sacred swords.

Even though it was a story from the time when the goddess resided, the words didn’t feel unfamiliar.

The beautiful face of the emperor naturally came to mind.

Had he been plotting sinister schemes in secret while speaking of abdication in front?

He was sufficiently the type to do so, but for some reason, it didn’t seem like something he had done.

If it wasn’t his doing, then who had caused that wind to blow?

Yuriella vigorously shook her head to clear her tangled thoughts.

Pondering things that couldn’t be known even with more consideration was a waste of time. Let’s just start by doing what could be done here and now.

Yuriella bit her lip and stared at the whirlwind. Save Nikon and find out the identity of that wind. Let’s start with that for now.

“Airy, take us into that wind.”

[I don’t know what danger may befall us inside since that wind doesn’t listen to me.]

“Airy is right. First, let’s send you to a safe place, and then Airy and I will-”

“I didn’t stand by your side to hold you back and be a burden, Duke. Let me do my part.”

Frost let out a long sigh at the determination in the upright, red eyes gazing at him.

How can I win against this woman?

Frost tightly embraced the warrior whose appearance had merely changed but who was still as self-sacrificing as ever.

“Airy, do as your master says.”

[Okay.]

Airy took a deep breath. Then she raised both hands and thickly layered the sphere of wind above with a jelly-like, malleable and thick wind, coating it firmly layer by layer.

[Duke, hold Yuriella tight. We’ll fly straight into the center of the wind.]

The transparent sphere of wind began to rapidly fly towards the huge pillar of wind that was fiercely swirling.

Boom!

With a strong impact, the sphere of wind was swallowed by the swirling vortex.