Yuriella had disappeared!

Literally vanished without a trace.

In the reception room next to the study where the Grand Duke had ordered her to wait until he called, only the 3-tier cake tray Yuriella had neatly emptied and some muffin crumbs remained.

If she ate all that, she must have been quite full. She managed to escape well with such a heavy body. Frost clicked his tongue inwardly.

“You’re saying the lady never once came out the door?”

Frost slowly glanced at the knight who had been standing guard, frowning. His blue eyes, reminiscent of deep lake water, were sharp enough to cut.

Instead of the pale knight whose throat seemed frozen, the head maid Rosalinne stepped forward.

“There was no movement other than calling to ask if there were any more macarons after eating all that.”

“Macarons?”

She ate all that and still ordered additional snacks?

“She said sweet things are the best for recovering from fatigue… She also told the chef to add plenty of sugar maple syrup from now on.”

“Oh. Sugar maple syrup is to her taste?”

How thoughtful, for someone who’s running away.

“Yes… Since the Grand Duke detests sweets, she said to neutralize it with sour lemons. She mentioned that while most people mistakenly think saltiness counters sweetness, it’s actually sourness that neutralizes it…”

Rosalinne’s tongue got more and more tied as she continued speaking. It seemed too strange to be words from the mouth of a lady who had been dragged to the underground prison last night and escaped without anyone knowing.

But how did she know that our Grand Duke terribly dislikes sweets?

“How did she know I dislike sweets?”

Frost seemed to have the same question, his slightly raised eyebrow lifting a bit more.

Shavell gently linked arms with Frost and lightly rested her head on his shoulder.

“You are the lord of the North, Your Highness. It wouldn’t be strange if your every move reached even wandering medicine peddlers.”

Then, fluttering her golden eyelashes softly, she turned her gaze to the tightly closed window, tilting her head slightly.

“The really ‘strange’ thing is that there’s no sign of that tightly closed window having been opened.”

The window of the reception room facing the garden had a lock on it. Leo had put it there after instructing Yuriella to wait here.

At that time, Frost was still asleep, and Leo wasn’t sure if the suspicious lady was an assassin from the emperor or the only person who could treat his lord.

“A locked room escape…”

Frost lightly stroked Shavell’s abundant blonde hair resting on his shoulder as he cocked his head to the side.

Is that even possible?

The Grand Duke’s residence was an iron fortress where even the skilled assassins the emperor sent as gifts when he was bored couldn’t escape alive once they entered.

So how could a mere lady? A slender woman who looked like she’d break if touched.

Frost closed his eyes and fell silent.

Leo the captain took a small step back. His heart pounded more when his lord closed his eyes and became quiet than when facing those piercing blue eyes that looked like they could cut.

Though he had served him for over twenty years as the closest friend starting as a playmate and then as a lord to whom he devoted his life, at times like this, running away was the right answer.

Look at that. His mood is already twisted, emanating a chilling coldness from his whole body.

“I-I’ll immediately send out the knights to find the lady-”

“Never mind. I’ll go myself.”

“What? Yourself? But it’s only been a few hours since you woke up.”

Shavell also protested with a grimace.

“No, Your Highness. You might collapse again from the demon poison at any moment.”

“Yes! Your Highness should rest. I will find the lady right away-”

Before Leo could finish his sentence, the ice sword Ielro appeared from Frost’s fingertips, emitting a brilliant blue aura as it revealed its transparent blade.

Eek! Leo bit down hard on his molars and was terrified by the approaching coldness.

At least give some warning before summoning the sword, always like this. Do you have to make our knees weak in front of the men?

The Angelus knights who had rushed to the reception room at the murmuring sounds turned pale as they looked back and forth between Frost and Captain Leo. More precisely, at the blue divine sword that had come dangerously close to the captain’s precious area!

“Is there anywhere you can guess she might have escaped to?”

Frost pulled the sword back, twirling it around before plunging it into the sofa where Yuriella had been sitting.

“I think I might know.”

The blue gem decoration on the pommel Frost was holding started to vibrate with a hum.

“She’s not an opponent you can find.”

The vibration that started from the pommel spread through the grip to the transparent blade, and a dazzling blue-gold light began to emanate from Ielro.

“The strange lady who knows peculiar treatment methods didn’t just leave behind bread crumbs.”

The light emitted from the divine sword Ielro spread out like concentric circles, filling the entire reception room.

“It’s the divine sword’s energy.”

When Ielro’s aura shone, emerald-green circular trajectories that were invisible to the naked eye clearly appeared around the sofa and 3-tier cake tray.

The traces of green light remained clearly visible, drawing large and small circles on the table, on the back of the sofa, and even in the air above.

“Probably the divine sword Aerie.”

Frost pulled Ielro out of the sofa and tapped the green light dust floating in the air along with dust with the transparent sword tip.

“Surprising. The Wind Sword has been missing for five hundred years.”

The divine sword Aerie can freely manipulate wind. Would hiding and smuggling out one person be a big deal for the holy wind that is said to be able to revive even the dead?

“Is Yuriella Grande the owner of Aerie? No. That can’t be. If that woman had made a contract with the Wind Sword as its owner, I, the owner of Ielro, couldn’t have failed to read that energy.”

Frost pondered, asking and answering himself.

Now there was one more reason why he had to catch Yuriella Grande.

“I’ll be back before sunset.”

Frost called for the butler to hurry with preparations for going out.

Only a divine sword can track the energy of another divine sword.

Frost leapt onto the back of the giant black horse Mars, who was whinnying in welcome to his master. Frowning his straight nose bridge at the bright sunlight rarely seen in the North, Frost stroked Mars’ glossy neck.

“A good day for hunting.”

A strange gleam flickered in Frost’s piercingly blue eyes as he thought of the prey.

The clear and transparent red eyes resembling purely burning flames were vivid in his mind.

A nostalgic color that reminded him of someone…

It was because of those eyes that he had uncharacteristically engaged in mischievous behavior instead of immediately chasing away the sly woman who had sneaked into his bedroom in the middle of the night. Because they so closely resembled a color that had now vanished from the world forever… even though they couldn’t possibly be alike.

Entranced by that gaze, he had unconsciously even spoken Solas’ name.

[Solas.] […What about… Solas…?]

Why? He had almost said it to those clear eyes. That it couldn’t have been Solas’ doing. That it wasn’t her fault that the divine sword Flama had become a demon sword, or that he was on the brink of death. He had almost defended her.

Frost’s blue eyes sank deeply as he clenched his teeth.

‘Think later. First, the hunt.’

“Hiya!”

Frost leaned his large body forward and spurred on Mars, who was running like the wind in excitement.

Watching his lord ride away, Captain Leo felt a little, no, very sorry for the suspicious lady he had been grinding his teeth to behead just hours ago.

Shavell took out a handkerchief embroidered with roses from her dress pocket and repeatedly dabbed at the tears that were suddenly falling, tapping the landing with the toe of her shoe.

“Your Highness is so mean! Not even saying goodbye to Shavell before leaving. Don’t tell me! Are you already enchanted by Grande’s illegitimate child and going to abandon Shavell? Yuriella, you lead-eating wench! Just you wait till I get my hands on you! I won’t forgive you!”

Leo looked sourly at Shavell, who was engrossed in her act of a jealous mistress, then felt embarrassed himself and quietly slipped away.

*

“Send me back, Aerie. Take me back to the Grand Duke’s place!”

I stretched my arms high, jumping up and down trying to grab Aerie as it buzzed around above my head.

[If you go back? Do you really intend to marry the Grand Duke?]

“…”

[Even you think it doesn’t make sense, right? Who do you think is responsible for the Grand Duke’s condition! What did you do to his people!]

“…That’s none of your business. Just hurry up and take me back to the Grand Duke’s place.”

[Just leave, Solas. Leave this place with Yuriella’s new father.]

Aerie fluttered its two pairs of transparent emerald wings and dodged my fingertips.

Behind Aerie, I could see the inn where the wandering medicine peddlers were staying.

“How stupid. Without me, where would Frost start searching?”

[Ah…!]

Suddenly, a blinding green light burst forth, and the surroundings changed.

The top of Mount Zenis, where ice doesn’t melt even in midsummer. We were on a snow field with nothing but ice and snow.

The sudden cold made my whole body shiver. The lacy chiffon dress that revealed all my skin didn’t block even a handful of the icy mountain’s chill.

[Wow! It’s so cool and nice here. Right…?]

As if this wasn’t the original destination, Aerie looked at me nervously and rolled its tiny eyeballs.

“Are you really Aerie?”

When I looked at it suspiciously, Aerie bristled, puffing out its chest and lifting its pointed chin high.

[Yes! You should feel honored!]

Aerie, with a face like a small doll that girls play with, perched on my shoulder and folded its transparent wings.

[For the past five hundred years, no one has seen the noble form of me, Aerie. I’ve granted a contract to a lowly human, and one whose soul and body are separate at that.]

“You look too small and insignificant to be a divine sword spirit. Flama was very big and very impressive.”

[How dare you compare me to Flama all the time?]

Aerie kicked off my shoulder and flew up, circling around above my head and shouting loud enough to hurt my ears.

[This form is just a small fragment. My true form is really cool! You’d be surprised if you saw it! I’m this much bigger and stronger than Flama! I’m the best among the divine swords!]

Aerie burst with indignation in its small body, saying it could show its original form that would surprise the world if only it could find its hidden main body again.

“Where did you hide the main body?”

[…]

“Why can’t you answer? Don’t tell me you forgot where you hid it?”

Aerie’s circling speed in the air noticeably slowed.

[…]

Oh dear. It really seems to have forgotten.

“You’re stupid.”

[If… if I’m stupid! Then you who made a contract with me are stupid too!]

“I told you I won’t make a contract with you.”

[You…! You healed patients with the healing power I gave you! You even saved Frost who was dying!]

“You put it in my body even though I said I didn’t want it. And for Frost, I only kept him alive, the demon poison remaining in his body is still there.”

[But…]

“Why should I trust you and make a contract? You don’t even know where your main body is. You’re not even in your original spirit form. What use would you be to me, just a small fragment?”

[Yuriella is ungrateful. You don’t even appreciate when someone helps you!]

“Ah. I could use you as a fan. But right now I’m very cold, you know? If you’re not going to take me back to the Grand Duke’s place, could you stay far away?”

[I hate Yuriella!]

Aerie heaved its chest and panted, then flew away in a huff. Still, as if worried about leaving my side completely, it settled on the farthest ice rock within eyesight and sat with its back turned.

It’s not that I really don’t believe this noisy spirit is the Wind Sword Aerie.

Could an ordinary spirit give me healing abilities and bring me here hidden in the wind, without its main body and not in its original spirit form?

But this is as far as it goes.

I could feel that Aerie had used up all its power to the point where it couldn’t take me down the mountain, let alone back to the Grand Duke’s place.

Half of that indignant panting is clearly due to the excessive use of power.

Its pride is so strong that it would never admit to being tired.

Our Flama also had tremendous pride.

‘Flama…’

The beautiful crimson firebird that would appear suddenly and offer silent comfort whenever I wandered alone on battlefields reeking of blood, collecting the gruesome remains of subordinates I had laughed and shared drinks with just the night before…

My only friend…

‘What on earth did the emperor do to you…?’

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.