“Yes. Yes, Your Majesty.”

Though endless tears flowed from her pierced heart, drenching her haggard face, Karina answered with a sweet smile.

“Anything as you wish, Your Majesty. I am your servant.”

Karina gazed at Justin’s hand tightly grasping her own.

How can I make this hand mine? How can I make this man mine forever?

A sharp sneer arose on Karina’s pale lips.

“By the way, Your Majesty. Have you heard the news? A whirlwind blew across the Smeralda Plains again. The same wind that appeared 8 years ago.”

Justin furrowed his brows and answered indifferently.

“They’re up to mischief again behind my back.”

“Apparently the one swept away by the wind was a knight named Nikon Nivera. Do you remember? The wheat-colored haired aide who always followed Commander Solas around.”

On the day the Duke’s mansion was attacked by undead mercenaries, Karina used the chaotic moment to send a dust-sized insect flying into the ear of a young maid.

The news this insect told her, which even the Duke and Duchess and the spirits didn’t notice, was quite interesting.

“How unfortunate.”

Karina feigned a sorrowful expression at the Emperor’s indifferent reply.

“I’m worried. What if there’s no one left to wield that sword after we finally restored Plama to its original state?”

“What do you mean?”

“The goddess has gifted me the ability to see many things others cannot. Thanks to that, I was able to find out. That His Highness is actually Sir Solas.”

“What are you getting at?”

Karina inwardly laughed coldly at the Emperor, who was watching her warily with sharp eyes.

You’re guarding him jealously like a mother hen protecting her chicks, so I can’t help but say wicked things, Your Majesty.

“Sir Solas is not one to leave his subordinate in danger. Would a mere whirlwind scare him? I’m worried that slender neck might snap while braving a wind that can break bones even in his previous form.”

Justin sprang up from his seat.

“You wait in the palace. Dario will prepare anything you need. Make sure to lift the black magic curse on Plama. You’re the only one I trust.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Karina gracefully bowed to the Emperor hurriedly taking his leave.

‘Yes. Go and see for yourself. Experience firsthand what it’s like to have your heart shattered.’

Karina kept from the Emperor the astonishing news received from the temple in the east.

That a priest overseeing a wedding ceremony was swept away by the wind and fell from the sky some time later, and that her agents had extracted a confession from him that the Duchess was pregnant.

Your Majesty has a particular weakness for Solas, so you may forgive her on the way to her.

I absolutely hate to see you desperately trying to understand and embrace that woman.

‘If it’s a heart I cannot have, I’d rather it be shattered to pieces.’

*

Yuriella opened her eyes amidst the whirlwind.

How much time had passed?

The sphere of wind Aeri created was absorbed and disappeared as soon as it touched the whirlwind. The fierce gale scattered the party in all directions.

“Duke! Frost!”

It was a rough wind in which she couldn’t even move a finger.

“Aeri! Nikon!”

Yuriella tried her best not to lose consciousness as her body was helplessly tossed about in the pitch-black whirlwind that blocked out even the light.

– Commander? Is that you, Commander?

Nikon’s shouts pierced through the wind.

“Nikon! Where are you?”

– I’m here! I’m right here, Commander!

Nikon’s cries sounded faint, whether due to ringing ears or the roaring wind, making it impossible to gauge the distance.

– Neigh. Neeigh.

Blanca’s whinnies sounded even more distant, as if in a dream.

She didn’t expect Aeri’s wind sphere to shatter and disperse so easily.

She had hoped it would at least buy them enough time to reach the ‘yellow stone’ arranged by the goddess.

Though her body spun rapidly in the wind, making her nauseated to the point her eyeballs felt seasick, one thing was certain.

That she was now somewhere in the middle of this massive whirlwind.

Still, the ground was a dizzying distance below.

This colossal wind was quite bizarre. Multiple vortices spun separately, then merged and split into even more vortices, rapidly growing in size.

His Grace said this whirlwind doesn’t seem to be a natural wind.

But is something like this really possible with human power?

Being swept up in this immense gale in which she could barely move a finger was chilling.

“Duke! Duke!”

Is he far away? The Duke isn’t answering.

“Aeri! Where are you, Aeri?”

Aeri isn’t responding either.

Where in the world is that yellow stone, the seed of the wind?

The glinting yellow stone His Grace saw was nowhere in sight from her position.

– Commander! Commander!

Huh? Nikon’s voice sounds closer than before. Is he nearby?

“Nikon! Nikon!”

“Commander!”

Nikon could be seen rising up from below, as if pushed by the swirling winds.

Yuriella mustered her strength to send aura flowing in Nikon’s direction.

Like dye seeping into a thin thread, a streak of wind gradually stained green like a line.

“Ugh.”

Just from a single gust, her energy was rapidly depleted.

It felt like someone had shoved their hand into her stomach and flipped it inside out. The taste of blood filled her mouth.

“Nikon! What are you just staring at? Grab it, you fool!”

“I can’t move my hands.”

Nikon made a pained face as he trembled, trying to move his arms.

Yuriella scraped together every last bit of energy to send aura towards Nikon, who had drifted even further in that short time.

“I caught it! I caught it, Commander!”

Nikon grabbed the wind that had turned green and moved his hands that could now budge a little.

Not missing that moment, Yuriella flowed along the green line connecting the two of them and tightly grasped the front of Nikon’s collar.

“Thank goodness.”

Yuriella coughed up blood as she sighed in relief.

Cough. Cough.

“Commander!”

Yuriella’s body went limp and her eyes closed on their own. The world went dark.

‘Duke. You’re alright, aren’t you?’

.

.

.

Frost tried his best to release the tension in his body, recalling the whirlwind he was swept up in 8 years ago.

Though his nerves and muscles involuntarily stiffened from the fierce winds, slowly relaxing his mind allowed his body to gradually unwind.

He was worried Yuriella might get injured by debris or branches tossed about by the wind.

But if he couldn’t stop this gale, it would only prolong his wife’s suffering.

Frost completely surrendered himself to the flow of the wind and closed his eyes.

He focused on the sensation of each and every strand of wind swirling around him.

Before long, frost formed on Frost’s fingertips like a layer of ice.

The moment a tendril of wind brushed his fingertips, he snatched it up like lightning.

‘Got it!’

A faint smile played on Frost’s lips.

Nothing in nature exists alone. The same goes for wind.

What Frost targeted were the water particles permeating the wind.

As he intended, Ielheim aura spread to the water particles in the wind, and icy energy jumped and attached to the wind like sparks.

Though there was some repulsion due to the differing attributes of ice and wind, Frost skillfully brought the thin wind under his control with icy energy, then wrapped it around his wrist and twisted his body.

His form, previously only able to be tossed about while trapped in the whirlwind, was finally freed.

‘Yuriella. Just hold on a little longer.’

Suppressing his urge to rush, Frost changed directions like an agile predator, heading towards the upper layers of the vortex while gently waving his arm wrapped in strands of wind.

As the shimmering silver wind strands coiled from his wrist to the end of his arm, Frost’s body ascended higher and higher.

Frost’s eyes widened upon nearly reaching the apex of the vortex.

Even in winds so fierce it was difficult to discern one’s surroundings, the yellow mass pulsated with a mysterious light, just like 8 years ago.

Frost picked up even more speed.

The static-like light crackling and spreading as he grazed close to the yellow mass was clearly visible.

And Aeri came into view, struggling with all her might to enter the yellow mass.

“Aeri!”

[Duke! You’re hurt!]

Aeri blanched upon seeing the blood flowing down Frost’s forearm and thigh.

“You’re the one in terrible shape.”

Aeri’s lower left wing and upper right wing were crumpled and torn in several places.

[I’ll try to grab the seed−. Ugh!]

Aeri was sent tumbling after being struck by the fierce winds.

Frost unfurled the wind strands coiled around his arm and hurled them with all his strength towards Aeri.

[Ahhh.]

The thin silver wind wrapped around the waist of Aeri, who was screaming as she flew away, and brought her back to Frost.

[Thanks. But I could’ve made it back on my own.]

Aeri’s cheeks flushed red as she furrowed her brows with a mortified expression, unable to bear showing Frost such a sorry sight when even the Lord of Ice could handle the wind while she, the Wind Spirit, was floundering helplessly.

“Haven’t you learned to express gratitude at your age?”

[Instead of being petty, stop this wind like you did 8 years ago.]

“The one who needs to stop the wind isn’t me, but you, Aeri.”

[Me?]

“Yes. I need to get to Yuriella.”

[But… You saw it too… The wind won’t listen to me.]

Aeri’s voice grew small.

“So what? You’re going to let Yuriella drift in the wind for days like I did? Let her crash to the ground unconscious and covered in wounds?”

Aeri turned ghastly pale as if even imagining it was terrible.

[No. Absolutely not!]

“Then the Wind Spirit will take charge of the seed of wind. I will take charge of my wife. That’s how we’ll all safely escape this whirlwind. Understood?”

[But…]

Tsk! The sound of Frost clicking his tongue in disgust, as if she was pathetic, painfully struck Aeri’s heart.

“Get it together, Aeri! You are the great Wind Spirit. All the winds in the world are yours. Is there any wind you can’t handle?”

Aeri’s teary beady eyes narrowed.

[You always scorned me as a paltry fragment of wind.]

“Does me calling you insignificant make you so? If I insist the sun is the moon, does the moon become so?”

Aeri blinked and stared at Frost, feeling an inexplicable warmth in his stern, chiding voice.

“Do you truly think you have nothing to control that wind with? How pathetic, I don’t even feel like cursing you out.”

Frost pointed with his finger to something behind Aeri’s back.

“What do you carry that around for?”

Aeri turned her head with a blank expression to look at what Frost was pointing at.

[This…?]

“Yes. That.”

With a gloomy face, Aeri brought forward the thumbnail-sized holy sword frame dangling from her back.

“Try making it bigger.”

As Aeri touched the harp-shaped holy sword with all ninety-nine wind strings gone, it thrummed and expanded to the size of the spirit’s torso.

The holy sword frame, once disparaged as a ‘mere hilt’, emitted a brilliant light.

Frost reached out to snag a few more wind tendrils, spread icy aura, and firmly tied that wind around Aeri’s waist and holy sword.

“Believe in yourself, Aeri. You’re the only one who can do this.”

[Duke…]

Frost raised an eyebrow askew.

“If you’re not even capable of protecting the master you made a contract with after 500 years, then go crawl back into the aurora and sleep for another 500 years.”

He still has that annoying arrogant look and says even more irritating things.

Aeri felt a surge of emotion as she nodded, then closed her eyes to focus.

Soon, a glimmering green aura poured out from Aeri’s small body and gently enveloped the silver wind. And then.

Pop-!

With an explosive burst of green light, Aeri’s wings, torn and crumpled by the whirlwind, rapidly healed.

Aeri flapped her wings and let out a soft “wow” in amazement.

[Look, Duke. It worked! I did it!]

“Of course. Now go catch the seed of wind.”

[Okay! See you later!]

Aeri shouted to Frost, who was already a good distance away.

[Duke! I think you’ll make a great father. From today, I’ll be rooting for you too. Don’t ever let go of Yuriella.]

“Huh? Oh. Yeah. Thanks.”

Frost paused for a moment at the abrupt remark before throwing himself into the center of the fierce gale to reach his wife.

[Phew.]

Aeri took a deep breath and hugged the harp tightly with not a single string.

Spreading her two pairs of wings with all her might, Aeri flew towards the pulsing yellow seed of wind.

Though the fierce winds battered her wings, making them ache as if they would snap at any moment, Aeri didn’t stop flapping, biting her lip until it bled.