Ethan had simply gone out for his usual demonic beast subjugation, but was astounded by the vastly different state and number of the beasts compared to usual.
“Captain! They keep coming!”
It was no different from any other day until they had left the city and entered the Shebusalatus mountain range. But the moment they entered the range, the movements and numbers of the beasts changed drastically, swelling uncontrollably.
Despite fleeing with the injured members, the beasts, unlike usual, did not fall behind and followed relentlessly to the end. Had they not encountered the knight order of the current state en route, a major disaster might have occurred.
A shadow fell over Ethan, who was capturing beasts alone to protect his members. At the same time, an intense scent that could paralyze the nose swept over him.
The newly created vine cedar, combining ivy and silverbell, wrapped around Ethan, extracting him from the midst of the beasts.
Simultaneously, Felix sliced through the beasts with wind magic. The vine cedar Sylvia created encircled another group. The space enclosed by the round cage-like trees was so narrow that the beasts’ attacks couldn’t reach.
Ethan widened his eyes upon seeing Croban’s mercenary captain and Sylvia.
“Sylvia! Captain Croban!”
Behind the two, Hubert, Henry, and Denis joined forces and began dealing with the remaining beasts. Ethan let out a soft sigh of relief, seeing the Croban mercenaries skillfully and exquisitely capturing the beasts.
“Thank you very much.”
Ethan expressed his gratitude to Felix and Sylvia after quickly dealing with the beasts that had gathered around.
“Sylvia!”
Jeremy greeted her joyfully upon spotting her.
“Lady Sylvia! Are you alright?”
Seeing him bleeding from one arm, Sylvia floated up and descended from her horse. Jeremy widened his eyes for a moment, but didn’t realize it was wind magic.
“I’m not seriously injured. Don’t worry.”
Jeremy replied with an embarrassed smile to her concern. In reality, there were members who were more seriously injured than him. At that moment, the captain of the knight order of the Caudatisium state urgently addressed her.
“Are you perhaps Sylvia Arbor, the magician?”
Sylvia cocked her head upon seeing the knight captain in red armor. It had been a long time since she heard her full name.
“Yes, I am Sylvia Arbor, but… who are you?”
Captain Thibault of the Caudatisium state’s First Division knight order approached her with an expression of having finally found her. However, due to the protecting vine cedar, he had to greet her from a distance.
“I am Thibault Estri, captain of the First Division knight order of the Caudatisium state. We have been searching for you, Sylvia Arbor, the magician, our country’s benefactor.”
Thibault knelt on one knee, offering his respects to Sylvia with a slightly trembling voice filled with emotion.
“The guardian of Caudatisium, His Majesty and the Prince, earnestly wish to meet Magician Sylvia Arbor. We are the support troops dispatched to find you.”
Thibault, with green hair, noticed she had used wind magic to dismount. His heart raced. Seeing her use an element other than her own, he became convinced that the jewel magic that filled a corner of the wall was also her doing.
Sylvia, recalling what she had done in the state, was flustered. She hadn’t thought her actions would lead them to seek her out.
Besides that.
She wondered how they were so certain she had used jewel magic to come looking for her. Sylvia was too bewildered to respond, her mind only becoming more cluttered with thoughts of the Visconti family as well.
Not only Sylvia was surprised by Thibault’s statement. Jeremy, Hubert, Henry, Denis, and Ethan were all astonished. Only Felix watched Thibault closely with a sharp gaze.
“Uh…”
She wanted to lie that it wasn’t her doing, but seeing Thibault looking up at her with an overwhelmed expression, she couldn’t find the words. Nor could she admit it. Caught in this dilemma, Sylvia merely moved her lips silently.
“Siri.”
A voice filled with heavy displeasure cut through the atmosphere.
“Come here.”
With a single gesture from atop his horse, Felix brought Sylvia to him. The lightly floating Sylvia came obediently. Ethan’s eyes widened upon seeing Felix use wind magic. His already large red eyes seemed to tear apart.
Felix was famous among the mercenary captains not only for ranking high with a small team but also for his black hair and black eyes.
His unusual color for offensive magic elements piqued everyone’s curiosity, but no one dared to ask him about it. Of course, he wouldn’t voluntarily speak of it.
Seeing him openly use wind magic, there was a sense of emptiness or an overwhelming pressure that left them breathless. Thibault, looking at Sylvia floating towards him, was too stunned to speak.
Felix tenderly wrapped his hands around Sylvia as she arrived in front of him.
The unbearable irritation made his magical power flicker unstably. He had anticipated that something would happen because of Sylvia’s use of jewel magic that day, but he had never thought the knights of the state would come looking for her.
He felt as if too many flies were buzzing around someone precious to him, whom even his exclusive attention was insufficient.
He deliberately showed the use of another element’s magic to divert the curiosity clinging to her. However, his desire to bring Sylvia before him, in front of the knight captain of the state, was stronger.
Felix’s ears rang with the now familiar rough beating of his second heart.
“Feli?”
Feeling his unstable magical power, Sylvia called out to him with a concerned tone. Even that simple call quickly steadied Felix’s magic.
“Yes, Siri.”
Felix responded with a voice sweeter than the meringue cookies she made.
“Why are you like this? It’s not because of the beasts, is it?”
Sylvia, who had no idea that he was momentarily blinded by jealousy, casually mentioned the beasts. However, Felix, finding even such simple concern pleasant, played along adequately.
“It seems we need to move for a bit.”
“What should we do? We can’t just leave them behind.”
Not only the Nakri mercenaries, but the condition of the state’s knight order didn’t look good either.
Felix, wanting to leave them behind but also wanting to show his best side to Sylvia, paused for a moment before moving his magic instead of responding.
After lifting everyone on the ground with a vast amount of magic, Felix called Sylvia with a tender voice.
“Siri, can you grow the tree a bit?”
“Ah! Sure.”
Sylvia was pleased that he needed her. The fact that she could be of help to him alone made her smile.
She enlarged the tree nearby. The vine cedar climbed up the growing tree. Small scarlet buds blossomed in full bloom as they climbed.
Sylvia had experimented with various methods to discover the characteristics and weaknesses of the beasts while hunting them. For example, worm-shaped beasts were really weak against salt. They instinctively avoided places sprinkled with salt.
However, since salt was bad for plants, it couldn’t be recklessly used in the forest, so she tried sprinkling sugar and chili powder instead. Unfortunately, other seasonings didn’t show much effect. Therefore, Sylvia thought of a different approach altogether.
Since the beast had a very foul smell, she spilled failed fish sauce made from rockfish. Contrary to her expectation that they would dislike it like salt, the beasts devoured the sauce.
Shocked by their reaction, Sylvia impulsively threw flowers at them, exclaiming, “Don’t eat just anything!” as she threw bunches of flowers…
Just as the worm-shaped beasts avoided salt, the cockroach-shaped beasts retreated as soon as they smelled the flowers.
After accidentally discovering their aversion, Sylvia tried creating forsythia with the strongest and widest-spreading scent, and upon confirming its effectiveness, she began utilizing forsythia in various ways.
Sylvia created a large plank on top of the towering tree and covered it like a roof with ivy. In an instant, a temporary resting space was prepared. Ethan, momentarily stiffened by the unfamiliar sensation of floating, finally took a long breath after his feet touched the ground.
Thibault couldn’t utter a word at the overwhelming amount of Felix’s magic power. Not just him, everyone present must have thought the same. They had never heard of someone lifting over a hundred people at once with magic.
Sylvia looked down and used wind magic to herd the horses into one place. She made a fence with vine cedar and spread hay on the ground for the horses to eat.
After ensuring there was enough water and carrots, she raised her head, only to meet with astonished gazes. Ethan looked at her with a face full of curiosity.
“Uh… um…”
Sylvia, not knowing what to say, smiled awkwardly and spoke.
“Shall we eat something first?”
Everyone except the Croban mercenaries looked perplexed at her words.
Only Felix replied concisely.
“I want to eat watermelon.”