In the training ground, the White Eagle Knights and the Red Spider Knights were gathered. The leaders of each knightly order and Floyd stood on the platform, selecting the knights to take on this monster subjugation.

Even though they were going to subjugate monsters, there was no fear in the knights’ eyes. Rather, they were excited with anticipation that they might achieve merit and thrilled at the prospect of battling monsters.

“I want to go too……”

Cain, who couldn’t join this expedition, muttered. Adrian, the leader of the Red Spider Knights, grinned.

“That’s why you shouldn’t have been lazy with your training.”

“It seems like you’re the laziest person here.”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m that lazy, yet I’m going on this subjugation. That clearly shows which of us is stronger, you or me.”

As Adrian spoke in a sing-song voice, Cain let out a groan. Cain had never won an argument against his twin brother who was born a few minutes earlier.

Hexten laughed and put his arm around Cain’s shoulder.

“Our lord trusts you and me, so he’s having us guard Torkan while he’s away, isn’t he? Our responsibility is greater than those fellows who just follow the lord around and serve him.”

As Hexten provided supporting fire, Adrian wrinkled his nose bridge to refute, but suddenly the knights began to stir.

“A puppy!”

“What puppy? Is it the captain’s dog?”

“No, the captain’s dog is bigger than that. That’s not a puppy, it looks like a wolf.”

“Why is there a wolf here?”

At the mention of a wolf, several knights reached for their swords. Arsen jumped up and shouted.

“Stop!”

Arsen’s eyes fixed on the young wolf skillfully running between the knights. The small wolf rushed through the knights, darting towards the platform.

Arsen thought the wolf was running towards him and spread his arms. But where the wolf stopped was in front of Floyd.

Before Floyd could say anything, the small wolf bit his ankle.

“This thing!”

As Adrian tried to kick the wolf, Arsen stopped him.

“Why are you doing this? That thing is biting our lord.”

“It’s still young. How can you try to kick it when it’s just playing around, not knowing any better?”

“Playing? Does that look like playing to you?”

“It is playing.”

“Ha! Your kind consideration only works for beasts. Try saying it’s playing when our lord is dying.”

Floyd, looking down at the wolf biting his ankle, said.

“I won’t die from being bitten a little by a wolf pup. Besides, this one isn’t even biting me.”

Looking closely, the wolf was not biting Floyd’s ankle but his trouser hem. The wolf tugged on the end of Floyd’s pants, then let go, took a few steps forward, came back and pulled on the pants again.

Watching this intently, Arsen said,

“It seems to be asking you to follow.”

As if understanding Arsen’s words, the wolf let go of Floyd and walked a few steps ahead. Floyd followed the wolf as if entranced, and the interested knightly order leaders followed the wolf as well.

As the knights also tried to follow, Arsen ordered them to stand by.

Something is strange about that wolf.

‘It really seemed to understand what I said just now.’

There are times when dogs with a good bond with their owners act as if they understand their owners’ words, but the wolf’s reaction earlier was a bit different from that. There was not even a speck of bond between Arsen and the young wolf, and Arsen had only spoken to Floyd, not the wolf.

Eventually, where the wolf arrived was the stable.

The wolf somehow accurately found Floyd’s red horse. Floyd stared blankly at the wolf nodding its head as if telling him to ride, then asked the knightly order leaders.

“Does anyone know where the princess is right now?”

The knightly order leaders couldn’t understand why Floyd was looking for the princess in this amazing situation where the wolf not only came to call Floyd but was also urging him to ride. As they exchanged bewildered glances, Floyd found the stable keeper.

“Has the princess been here?”

The stable keeper, looking nervous, said,

“She borrowed a horse and left a little while ago.”

“Did she say where she was going?”

“I didn’t ask that far. Since I’ve been instructed that the princess can borrow a carriage or horse anytime……”

Floyd looked down at the small wolf that seemed intelligent. The fact that the wolf that only stayed close to Roxiana came to call him surely meant something had happened to her.

“Damn it!”

Floyd muttered a small curse as he pulled out his red horse and mounted it. Seeing this, the wolf started running quickly, and Floyd followed behind the wolf.

The knightly order leaders who had been watching this scene with wide eyes pulled out their own horses without anyone needing to say anything and followed the two.

The wolf was fast and accurate. Even while running through crowded streets, it never once collided with people. But Floyd had to slow down several times to avoid people. Each time, the wolf would stop briefly to wait for Floyd and then run again.

Even after leaving the city gates and reaching the sparsely populated forest path, Floyd couldn’t catch up to the wolf. Even though Floyd’s red horse was much faster than other horses, it oddly lost sight of the slow wolf several times.

The knightly order leaders were wandering in a place where they couldn’t even be seen. Greatly delayed, they scrambled to find the trail where the wolf and Floyd had run.

‘What on earth has happened to the princess?’

An ominous feeling crept up his ankles. Even as the mad being that resonated with the anxiety spewed flames, he felt his insides growing chillingly cold.

While he hesitated momentarily, swayed by anxiety, the wolf was once again far ahead. This is strange, Floyd thought.

It’s not like that wolf’s legs are moving particularly fast, so why can’t he catch up to it? As if this land is helping that wolf’s steps.

‘That can’t be.’

Shaking off the sudden thought, Floyd spurred on his horse.

+++

The forest had suffered damage over a much wider area than Roxiana had imagined. In the forest where even the soil had been burned black, not even traces of where trees had once been could be found. Everything had long since turned to ash and scattered.

‘The flame inside the grand duke is amazing.’

If Roxiana had exerted such power, she would have collapsed on the spot. But Floyd, who had returned after killing the monster, looked fine. He didn’t even look tired.

‘I wish I could do that too.’

Roxiana stretched both hands forward. Unlike Eledrun’s garden, this place was not contaminated by magic, so there were spirits dwelling in the wind.

The wind spirits, sylphs, whispered.

−Don’t do this, Roxy.

−Just wait a few years. It’s not contaminated, so if you just wait a few years, the gnomes will return and the sleeping life will awaken.

Roxiana breathed very slowly, trying to touch the spirits with her fingertips. Meanwhile, she uttered the names of wind, water, and earth spirits powerful enough to revive this area.

“Undine. Mulder. Suriel.”

They did not answer, but she could feel that they were nearby. Roxiana waved her arms, imagining the feeling of opening her body and revealing the soul inside to the outside.

There was something to grab.

−Don’t do it!

“I will! Help me!”

Roxiana firmly grasped that being and pulled it into her embrace, just as she had done with Undine before. And another one, and another. She shoved everything that got caught into her body.

The spirits filled her body, causing Roxiana’s soul to lose its way and crumble. Roxiana could feel it clearly, but she didn’t stop.

If she stopped here, it felt like she would never be able to try anything again. It felt like she would live on just breathing, unable to do anything, without reaching them, without regaining her family.

This ability was all that remained for Roxiana, who had lost her family, country, and status. For Roxiana, who had nothing, to reach them who had everything, she had to make at least this ability entirely her own.

So Roxiana was not afraid of death.

If she couldn’t even accomplish this and died, it would just be that kind of life.

−How can this be…

A voice, whether Mulder or Suriel, lamented.

At the same time, the spirits that merely existed were inspired by Roxiana’s soul and drove a clear power into the earth.

Life-bearing wind whirled, and streams of water formed beneath the parched earth. The ground vibrated, creating paths for water to flow and pushing up living soil from deep below to the surface.

In the midst of this mighty power that humans would call ‘divine power’, Roxiana kept her eyes open and clearly took in the sight of the dead forest gradually coming back to life.

The ground covered in thick ash changed to a damp reddish-brown, and the smell of burning in the air disappeared. Moisture settled in the air that had been dry enough to crackle, and small sprouts emerged from the barren ground.

−Stop. Please.

Someone inside her body pleaded, but Roxiana did not stop. Even as she felt her soul being scraped away and her life force disappearing, she drew upon their power to the fullest and poured it out.

Her bones stiffened and her blood cooled. The cold blood froze her internal organs and wind passed through her bones.

What was happening inside her body began to show on the outside. Her skin turned pale and her lips turned not just blue but white. Her fingertips curled and her legs trembled, losing strength.

Only when grass leaves densely surrounded her did Roxiana release the beings she had held inside her body. As if it had never happened, the ground’s vibration and wind suddenly stopped, and silence descended.

Her now empty body collapsed onto the green grass.