‘They’re holding my ankle quite magnificently.’

Roderick stood on Snowball and looked down at the mountain. He was on reconnaissance. Maintaining an altitude where enemies couldn’t hit Snowball or him even if they shot arrows or threw spears, finding ambushed enemies in mountains and valleys thick with trees was no easy task.

After circling around the clearing where the soldiers were resting to check, he confirmed there was no noticeable movement and turned his gaze to the distant place below the mountain.

In the middle of the capital surrounded by high and massive walls, the royal palace sat on a hill. Though it was so far as to be faint, it was within reach if he flew there on a wyvern. Every time he realized this fact, Roderick felt his blood drying up.

He wanted to fly there right now.

It had already been well over a month since Erica was kidnapped. Roderick was feeling despair no different from when he had wandered searching for Erica long ago, plus the frustration of knowing where she was now but being unable to go find her.

Roderick had also considered letting the army continue advancing while attacking and recapturing the royal palace first with seven wyverns and dozens of elf and Holy Knight Order troops. It was worth trying, but he couldn’t deny it was a gamble.

Without the army surrounding the capital and attacking to disperse their forces, seven wyverns and dozens of troops would have to face an army numbering in the thousands. To increase the operation’s chances of success, he had no choice but to wait for the army to safely descend the mountain, surround the capital, and breach the walls.

The unstable rear was also holding his ankle. The land of the elves had already fallen nearly half to dwarf armies swarming from all directions. Though the elf palace where the children were was still safe, if dwarf forces pushed in there too, Roderick would have to temporarily set aside the capital recapture operation and cross the mountain range again. At a time when every moment counted.

‘So I hope the elves can hold out just a little longer.’

However, God had never answered the prayers of this unbeliever. The day after he made a birthday wish, Erica was kidnapped, and now again, right after he prayed, something happened that went against his wishes.

“Sir Roderick!”

An elf spirit master who had been looking up at the sky from the ground called Roderick. When he brought down the wyvern, the elf hurried over urgently. From the way he was hurrying, unlike the usually calm elves, Roderick felt an ominous premonition. And soon the premonition became reality.

“The dwarves have pushed into the village where the palace is. Lady Iriel says she plans to remain in the palace and resist, but she’ll evacuate the children.”

The children might be in danger — no, they were in danger.

“Get on quickly!”

Roderick shouted, pointing to the back seat of the saddle. Soon the wyvern soared high into the sky. Once again turning his back on the royal palace where Erica was being held.

* * *

Angry shouts and the sounds of clashing weapons could be heard vividly even from the hill far from the elf palace. Magnus was on the hill watching the battle between elves and dwarves taking place in the village surrounding the palace. Spirit master Apeus, standing beside him, spoke in a voice that seemed stunned with surprise.

“I’m gradually starting to think that maid’s prophetic dreams might be real.”

Who would have believed a mere maid’s prophetic dreams? Except for Marquis Draven.

Actually, it wasn’t so much that the maid was untrustworthy as it was because of the marquis’s track record. The marquis had been deceived by fraudsters claiming to see the future more than once or twice.

However, just as the maid had dreamed, the dwarves were playing a decisive role in turning the tide of war. With them on the verge of taking the elf palace, people like Apeus were starting to believe in the maid’s prophetic abilities one by one.

“Whether the prophetic dreams are real remains to be seen.”

However, Magnus still didn’t withdraw his suspicion.

‘She could have craftily made up the story after hearing rumors that dwarves had already been mobilized.’

And since they already knew the dwarf forces were tremendous enough to reverse the war’s tide, they had been urging the marquis to hire dwarf mercenaries. So the fact that dwarves could play a decisive role in the war was something they, not that woman, had sufficiently anticipated.

Unlike elves who had no particular desire for reproduction, dwarves who were greedy for everything had large numbers. On top of that, with human mages and spirit masters attached, they had no choice but to show absolute superiority against the elves.

‘So this is something you’d know even without prophetic abilities.’

Magnus still thought that maid was a fraud, but on the other hand, he also thought she was a clever strategist.

‘Putting the princess on the throne……’

The strategy of preserving life and position by capturing the princess as a puppet was distasteful but quite a good idea.

“Grand Mage.”

Apeus, who had been watching the battlefield as if entranced, suddenly raised his head to the sky and called Magnus. It seemed one of the sylphs he had sent for reconnaissance had returned.

“They say they found her.”

It meant they had found the princess.

“Let’s go immediately.”

Though the palace was surrounded, the king of the elves hadn’t abandoned it. However, Magnus’s guess that he might evacuate the princess was correct. According to the sylph, several horses and one three-wheeled carriage had emerged from some cave in the mountain where the palace was located and were running away.

‘I figured there would be a secret exit in the palace.’

Magnus smiled triumphantly and led the army down the hill. After riding horses following Apeus for a short while, they discovered wheel tracks.

“This way.”

After that, they didn’t need the sylph’s help. They just had to follow the tracks left in the wet ground.

“There! Those are the ones!”

When the tail end of the fleeing procession came into view, Apeus shouted.

“Capture the princess alive!”

Magnus spurred his horse while giving another reminder to the army mixed with humans and dwarves. The elves, realizing they were being pursued, also began urging their horses.

“Spirits! Be careful!”

Apeus warned that the elves were sending spirits their way to cause trouble. Though they had spirit masters on their side too, there were limits to the number of spirits human spirit masters could use. They had no choice but to be pushed back in a fight against elves who had no such limits.

Knights who had nearly fallen from their horses after being briefly caught up with spirits that Apeus couldn’t stop in time regained their balance and rode on. However, soon the ground suddenly rose up before their eyes, blocking the path.

“Everyone, close your eyes!”

As soon as Magnus shouted, bang! An explosion shook the earth. No matter how much earth spirits changed the terrain, it was just child’s play before this Grand Mage. The barrier disappeared, and the knights rode their horses again.

Perhaps because they had a carriage, no matter how small and light, the other side couldn’t achieve the speed they expected. Thus Magnus’s group caught up with the elf group.

“Stop!”

“The princess must be in that carriage.”

Magnus asked, looking at the carriage surrounded by elves.

“If you hand over just the princess, we’ll let everyone go without touching a hair on your heads. We promise not to touch a hair on the princess either.”

Though Magnus promised the surrounded elf group, the elves only drew their swords and didn’t listen to his words.

“There’s no choice.”

Magnus nodded to the knight commander. The knights began charging toward the elves with long spears.

Whoosh!

“Ugh!”

Several knights fell from their horses after being hit by spirits the elves summoned. The same happened to several others that Apeus successfully defended against. It was because earth spirits had grabbed the ankles of the running horses.

“D*mn it!”

The knights who had crashed into the ground spat curses and jumped up, grabbing spears and swords. Those who were a bit late had already had their necks cut by elf swords.

“Paralyze!”

It was time for Magnus to help. The elf soldier bound by his paralysis magic met the same fate as his knight who had lost his life. Thus began a chaotic battle mixing spears, swords, spirits, and magic.

Whinny.

A horse standing in the middle of the elf group began pawing the ground in fear. The small carriage tied to the horse also swayed along, looking unstable……

Neigh!

The moment Magnus’s fireball grazed overhead, the startled horse reared greatly. The horse threw off the rider sitting on it and began racing toward the cliff ahead. As if desperate to escape from this place, it had gone blind.

“No!”

“No!”

The leader of the elf knights and Magnus simultaneously shouted and ran toward the carriage falling down the cliff.

However, Magnus was slightly faster. It was levitation magic, not spirits, that lifted the falling carriage into the air.

Eventually, the carriage fell into Magnus’s hands. The elves who had been fighting desperately to recapture the carriage fell one by one, overwhelmed by their opponents’ numbers. However, even after disposing of all the elves, the spirits remained to the end, tormenting them.

“There’s still one more spirit master left.”

Magnus smiled coldly while looking at the carriage.

“Prepare the item.”

When he instructed the knight commander, the man pulled out a long silver chain from his chest. It was a holy relic.

Holy relics possessed holy power in themselves, so even ordinary people could use them. To suppress those who used magic power, like mages or spirit masters.

When Magnus nodded, a young knight approached the carriage and flung open the door. Magnus, who had expected only one young girl, raised his eyebrows at the scene before his eyes.

“What are these things again?”

What the unfamiliar old man called ‘these things’ were clearly Eric and Endion. Elodie grabbed Eric’s wrist as he held her and the trembling Endion. Then she whispered so only Eric could hear.

“Don’t.”

Mom had prevented Eric from using his abilities until now, saying he was still young and dangerous. That he might accidentally freeze the wrong person to death. So when it was dangerous, Elodie summoned spirits, but now Elodie alone wasn’t enough, so he wanted to help too……

“Don’t use it.”

Elodie kept stopping him.

“Why?”

“Those people will kill you. They tried to kill Dad long ago too. Because he’s a Winterborn. If they find out you’re also a Winterborn, they’ll kill you.”

“But if I just stay still, you’ll die.”

“They didn’t kill me.”

“Huh?”

Even though they already had the chance to kill, those people hadn’t killed Elodie. If they had just let the carriage fall down the cliff, Elodie would have died helplessly. But that mage had saved Elodie.

‘Strange. Why did he save me?’

What were they trying to do? The old mage extended his hand toward Elodie, who was trembling with fear and confusion.

“Princess, we won’t harm you. We merely wish to escort you, so please come outside.”

When the children didn’t come out obediently, Magnus finally instructed the knights to drag the children out. The spirits caused some trouble in the middle, but as soon as they wrapped the sacred chain around the princess’s body, those annoying spirits fell right off.

“But why are there three children?”

Magnus looked over the other two children whose identities he couldn’t determine. Among the two, the boy who appeared to be about three or four years old had pointed ear tips, silver hair, and purple eyes.

“That one’s an elf child. Judging by how they evacuated him, he must be a prince? A very good hostage.”

“But if he’s an elf, that child can also summon spirits, can’t he?”

Apeus voiced his concern.

“Hmm, is there one more chain?”

When Magnus asked the knight commander, the commander pulled out one more chain from his chest.

“Yes, but this is the last one.”

“Tie him up.”

Endion also ended up bound in chains like Elodie.

“Then what about this one?”

Now Magnus’s gaze turned to the boy who appeared to be the princess’s age.