Chapter 56

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 56

Chapter Title: The Dead Forest and the Fairy Garden (13)

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The training grounds were filled with knights from the White Eagle Knight Order and the Red Spider Knight Order. Floyd stood on the platform alongside the captains of each order, selecting the knights who would join them for the magical beast subjugation.

Even though they were heading out to hunt magical beasts, there was no fear in the knights' eyes. Instead, they buzzed with anticipation at the chance to earn merits and excitement for the battles ahead.

"I want to go too..."

Kain muttered, having been left behind for this expedition. Adrian, captain of the Red Spider Knight Order, grinned widely.

"That's what you get for slacking on your training."

"You're the biggest slacker here."

"Yeah, true. And yet here I am, picked for the subjugation. Guess that settles who's stronger between you and me."

Adrian sang out his words, and Kain groaned in frustration. He'd never once won an argument against his twin brother, who had been born just a few minutes earlier.

Hexston laughed and slung an arm around Kain's shoulders.

"The liege trusts you and me to hold down the fort while he's away, right? That's a heavier responsibility than just trailing after him like a servant."

As Adrian wrinkled his nose to retort at Hexston's backup, a stir rippled through the knights.

"It's a puppy!"

"Where'd the puppy come from? Is it the captain's?"

"Nah, the captain's pup is bigger than that. That thing looks more like a wolf pup."

"Why's there a wolf here?"

The word "wolf" had several knights reaching for their swords. Arsen jumped to his feet and shouted,

"Hold!"

Arsen's eyes locked on the young wolf darting nimbly through the crowd of knights. The little wolf barreled straight toward the platform, weaving past the knights like a shot.

Arsen spread his arms wide, thinking it was charging at him. But the wolf stopped right in front of Floyd.

Before Floyd could even speak, the little wolf nipped at his ankle.

"You little—!"

Adrian moved to kick it away, but Arsen blocked him.

"What're you doing? It's biting the liege!"

"It's just a pup. It's playing around, clueless. You gonna kick it for that?"

"Playing? That looks like playing to you?"

"It is."

"Ha! Your endless compassion only works on beasts. Try calling it 'play' when the liege is dying from it."

Floyd, gazing down at the wolf gnawing on his ankle, spoke up.

"I'm not gonna die from a nip from a wolf pup. Besides, it's not biting me."

Looking closer, the wolf wasn't clamped on his ankle—it had Floyd's pant leg in its jaws. It tugged and released the hem, took a few steps forward, then turned back and tugged again.

Arsen, watching intently, said,

"It seems like it's telling you to follow."

As if it understood Arsen's words, the wolf let go of Floyd and trotted a few steps ahead. Floyd followed as if entranced, and the intrigued captains trailed after the wolf as well.

The knights started to follow too, but Arsen ordered them to stand by.

Something was off about that wolf.

'It really seemed to understand what I said.'

Dogs with strong bonds to their owners sometimes acted like they understood commands, but the wolf's reaction earlier felt different. There was no bond between Arsen and the pup at all—and he'd been speaking to Floyd, not the wolf.

Soon, the wolf led them to the stables.

Somehow knowing exactly which one, it went straight to Floyd's red warhorse. Floyd stared blankly at the wolf nodding toward the horse as if to say, Get on, then turned to the captains.

"Does anyone know where the princess is right now?"

The captains couldn't fathom why Floyd was asking about the princess in this bizarre situation where a wolf had come to fetch him and was urging him to mount up. They exchanged baffled glances until Floyd spotted the stablehand.

"Has the princess been here?"

The tense stablehand, glancing nervously, replied,

"She borrowed a horse not long ago and rode out."

"Did she say where?"

"I didn't ask. We're under orders to lend her a carriage or horse anytime she wants..."

Floyd looked down at the clever-looking little wolf. For a wolf that only let Roxiana near it to come fetch him, something must have happened to her.

"Damn it."

Floyd muttered a quiet curse, pulled out his warhorse, and mounted up. The wolf took off at a run once it saw him, and Floyd gave chase.

The captains, wide-eyed at the sight, rushed to their own horses without a word and followed.

The wolf was swift and precise, darting through crowded streets without bumping into a single person. But Floyd had to slow several times to avoid people, and each time, the wolf paused to wait before running on.

Even after leaving the gates and entering the quiet forest path, Floyd couldn't catch up. His red warhorse was far faster than most, yet he kept losing the strangely unhurried wolf.

The captains, lagging far behind, were completely lost, scrambling to pick up the trail of the wolf and Floyd.

'What the hell happened to the princess?'

A foreboding chill crept up from his ankle. Even as the mad presence within him flared in shared anxiety, his gut grew ice-cold.

In that moment of hesitation, the wolf pulled ahead again. Something's wrong, Floyd thought.

The wolf's legs weren't moving any faster than normal—so why couldn't he catch it? It was as if the earth itself were aiding its steps.

No way.

He shook off the sudden thought and spurred his horse onward.

The forest had suffered far more damage than Roxiana had imagined. Even the soil was charred pitch-black, with no trace left of where trees had once stood. Everything had long since crumbled to ash and scattered.

The flames inside the grand duke are incredible.

If Roxiana had unleashed such power, she would have collapsed on the spot. Yet Floyd had returned unscathed after slaying the beast, without a hint of fatigue.

If only I could do the same.

Roxiana extended both hands forward. Unlike Elledrun's garden, this place wasn't tainted by magi, so wind spirits lingered in the breeze.

The wind spirits, sylphs, whispered.

Roxiana breathed slowly, reaching out with her fingertips to touch the spirits. At the same time, she murmured the names of wind, water, and earth spirits powerful enough to revive this land.

"Undine. Mulden. Shuriel."

They didn't reply, but she sensed their presence nearby. Imagining herself opening her body to release her soul outward, Roxiana swung her arms.

Something latched on.

"I will! Help me!"

Just as she had with Undine before, Roxiana yanked the presence into her embrace. Then another, and another. She shoved each one that caught into her body.

The spirits filled her flesh, overwhelming Roxiana's soul until it crumbled, lost. She felt it clearly but didn't stop.

If she stopped here, she'd never try anything again. She'd live on, unable to reach them, unable to reclaim her family, breathing as a powerless nothing.

With family, kingdom, and status lost, this ability was all Roxiana had left. To reach those who had everything, she had to make it fully her own.

So death held no fear for Roxiana.

If she died failing even this, it would just mean her life amounted to that much.

A voice—Mulden's or Shuriel's, she couldn't tell—sighed in lament.

At that moment, the spirits, who had merely existed until now, were moved by Roxiana's soul and unleashed a vivid power upon the earth.

Life-infused winds whipped through, streams burst forth beneath the parched ground. The earth trembled, carving paths for the water, pushing deep-buried soil to the surface.

In the midst of this godlike force that any human would call divine power, Roxiana watched with wide eyes as the dead forest slowly came back to life.

The ash-covered land turned damp reddish-brown, the acrid smoke vanished from the air. Moisture seeped into the bone-dry atmosphere, and tiny sprouts pushed up from the barren soil.

Someone inside her pleaded, but Roxiana pressed on. Even as she felt her soul erode and her life force drain, she drew their power freely and unleashed it.

Her bones stiffened, her blood cooled. Cold blood froze her organs, wind pierced her marrow.

The changes inside her body began to show on the outside. Her skin paled, her lips turned from blue to ghostly white. Her fingertips shriveled, her legs weakened and trembled.

Only when blades of grass enveloped her did Roxiana release the beings she had trapped within. As if nothing had happened, the earth's tremors and winds ceased abruptly, silence descending.

Her now-empty body collapsed onto the verdant lawn.