“Hmm……”

His appearance was that of an ordinary human, and no magic power could be felt from him.

“Why is a human here…… Wait.”

Only then did Magnus notice the boy’s black hair and blue eyes and realize something.

“Doesn’t this child resemble that Winterborn fellow?”

“Now that you mention it, he does seem to resemble him.”

Magnus asked the boy who was glaring at him angrily.

“Is your father’s name Roderick Winterborn?”

“……”

“That’s right.”

This silence was clearly an affirmation to anyone.

“But where is your mother?”

“Mom didn’t come home.”

The child gritted his teeth but eventually couldn’t hold back his tears and answered while sniffling.

“Tsk tsk……”

Magnus clicked his tongue.

“Did she abandon her husband and even her own child and run away when war broke out? Women are truly a disloyal bunch.”

Don’t. Don’t react. Elodie grabbed Eric’s small fist that was trembling. Magnus, who had been watching the two with meaningful eyes, asked.

“Are you also a Winterborn?”

Eric shook his head as promised with Elodie.

“Well, I don’t feel any magic power, but……”

It was fortunate that he had learned how to conceal magic power from Dad.

“Hiding abilities isn’t such a difficult thing.”

The mage saw through even that and pulled the chain wrapped around Endion to press it against Eric’s fist.

“How is it? Doesn’t it sting?”

Though it stung as if his skin had been bitten by an insect, Eric shook his head, pretending it didn’t.

“Lying isn’t such a difficult thing either.”

“Just in case, it wouldn’t hurt to tie up this child too, but unfortunately we only prepared two chains……”

The knight commander expressed difficulty. What to do. Magnus pondered while watching the three children and got a good idea.

“Little one.”

He asked the elf child who was still too young to understand.

“Are you close with this big brother?”

He nodded without hesitation. As expected, this one was utterly naive.

“Then has big brother ever frozen water or anything?”

This time the elf child shook his head.

“Well, Winterborn abilities aren’t passed down that easily. If they were, would they have met extinction so easily at my hands? Haha!”

When the deceived mage turned his head, Elodie and Eric began breathing again. It was fortunate that they had never used their abilities in front of Endion since it was dangerous in front of the baby.

“Sir Magnus, will you take these ones by teleport?”

Apeus asked Magnus.

“I was thinking of doing so, but I’ve used too much magic power.”

Magnus spoke sarcastically as if it was his fault for not blocking the spirits well. How could a human spirit master with limits on the number of spirits he could control face more than ten elves? Though it was unfair, under the sharp glare, Apeus quietly closed his mouth and pulled out the magic stone from his bag to offer it.

“Recover with this.”

“Is this all?”

Magnus readily took the magic stone and absorbed mana while being displeased.

“Hmm…… There isn’t enough magic power to take all three at once. Should I take just the princess first?”

The mage who had been staring at the three extended his hand toward Elodie.

‘He’s going to take Elodie?’

“The marquis will try to kill Elodie somehow. Because he needs to maintain the fake throne.”

“He might capture her first and then execute her publicly for all to see.”

That absolutely couldn’t happen. As soon as his heart sank, Eric reached out toward Magnus without thinking deeply.

“Not Elodie!”

‘Winterborn?’

The smile disappeared from Magnus’s face in an instant. A blue light had burst from the palm of the child he thought was an ordinary human.

“D*mn!”

The moment cold air shot toward him, Magnus cleverly pulled Apeus, who was standing beside him, forward.

“Gasp!”

Apeus, who took the cold air directly, died without even knowing he was dying.

‘D*mn……’

In his panic, he had used the precious spirit master as a shield. Magnus realized his mistake but instead of feeling sorry or regretful, he immediately blamed the dead man.

‘If you can’t serve well as a spirit master shield, you should at least fulfill your role with that body.’

Just as he thought, Magnus didn’t let go of the frozen spirit master and used him as a shield while shouting to the knights.

“Catch that brat right now!”

However, no matter how elite the army was, ordinary humans were no match for a Winterborn child. Seeing cold air shooting wildly from the child’s two hands and hitting two knights at once, Magnus gritted his teeth.

‘These cunning things……’

To think they were hiding that their contract with the Rakiel royal family had already ended.

‘I need to at least capture the princess and get out of here quickly.’

He didn’t care what happened to the others. Magnus’s only goal was to bring the princess to the palace.

However, the boy stuck close to the princess and wouldn’t separate, so there was hardly any chance to snatch the princess. He wanted to use magic to separate that brat, but he was too close to the princess and worried that the princess might get caught up and die.

‘Then I’d die at the marquis’s hands.’

Besides, he needed to conserve strength to teleport with the princess.

“You idiots! At least try to distract that brat!”

While dozens of knights were in chaos, the boy eventually even freed the chain binding the princess. The moment the chain fell to the floor with a thud, the princess shouted a word in spirit language.

Splash!

At the same time, a curtain of water appeared from the sky, blocking between the three children and the knights. The princess had summoned a water spirit.

“Freeze the water!”

The moment the princess shouted, the water current swirling around the three children swelled and then froze solid with a sharp crack. The knights who had been caught up in the swelling water current were frozen too.

“Teleport!”

Magnus was also caught up in the water current, but at the same time the princess shouted, he cleverly chanted a spell and disappeared like a coward. Only ice remained where he had been standing.

The soldiers abandoned by their commander struggled desperately to rescue their frozen comrades and subdue the enemy, but the more they tried, the more they suffered instead.

“D*mn!”

“Argh!”

“Run away!”

A soldier trying to break the ice froze solid. The boy even shot cold air through the ice. Eventually, the knights couldn’t defeat one Winterborn boy and fled with their tails between their legs. Only after all the enemies had disappeared did Eric withdraw the cold air he had been pouring into the ice barrier.

“Phew……”

Hungry. Sleepy. He only now realized that using a lot of power made him hungry and sleepy.

“But now we……”

Eric asked while rubbing his eyes.

“Where should we go?”

They couldn’t go back to the palace, and home would already be a battlefield too. The adults had known where to flee.

“Ah!”

While he was pondering, something suddenly pounced on Eric from behind.

“Hehe……”

It was Elodie. Elodie hugged Eric and pressed their cheeks together.

“Eric is cool. Elodie likes Eric so so much.”

“Me?”

Eric didn’t understand what was cool about it.

“We did this together, didn’t we?”

Eric blinked blankly while looking at the ice barrier before his eyes.

“We’ll work well together like Mom and Dad. So when we grow up, we’ll get married like Mom and Dad, right?”

“Mm, but I’m not a prince.”

“A princess doesn’t need a prince. A princess needs Eric.”

Unlike her firm words, the cheek pressed against his and rubbing was soft.

“You know, right? When we grow up, we’re getting married?”

“Yeah, but first……”

“You promised?”

“Mm-hmm, but……”

I’m so sleepy, Elodie.

Now sleepiness came over him to the point where he couldn’t even say he was sleepy. Unable to endure it, he was about to close his eyes and sit down when—

Whoosh!