The magic was just light, but it was strangely oppressive.

Boom!

As if that feeling was true, the light magic exploded with a loud noise as soon as it touched the mountain.

Awoo, roar!

The werewolves that had almost occupied a mountain were all thrown into the air. They appeared helpless, unlike their appearance fighting with the knights a while ago.

“Dad!”

The one who cast that great magic was none other than the Emperor. As he floated alone in the air using magic, the knights were seen flocking behind him.

“His Majesty has arrived!”

The knights, who had been worried, cheered.

Among the cheers, someone was heard panting heavily from behind.

“Your- Your Highness.”

“Tanka?”

Siervian’s eyes widened in surprise at seeing an unexpected person.

With a pale face, he climbed the mountain and sat down next to the princess, ignoring the etiquette.

“Oh, why did you come to such a dangerous place?”

Then, he waved his hand very insincerely.

As the mountain collapsed, a group of werewolves that were running around fell down easily.

“….You’re a good mage as rumored.”

“Oh my. It’s been a long time since I’ve used magic, so it’s so hard….”

He groaned constantly, but he sat next to Siervian and cast magic recklessly.

Thanks to his sudden appearance, the werewolves near Siervian began to be killed.

“Haha. You’re all here.”

As the werewolves dispersed, the Tower Lord joined Karmen and the group at the top of the mountain as originally planned.

The emperor was still using large-scale magic that reached from the sky to the mountain.

The knights looked in awe at his power, which came from the sky and half-destroyed the mountain.

“His Majesty has given us the perfect timing. Hehe. Now I don’t have to save my mana.”

The Tower Lord had been saving his mana just in case. Because if things went wrong, he planned to rescue Siervian with teleportation magic.

His eyes went to the large reinforcements that the emperor had brought.

“Your Majesty. This old man will go, too.”

He soared into the sky like the emperor. The magic he was about to cast required him to look far away.

“Earth, bless me.”

Looking toward the distant capital city, the Tower Lord moved his hand slowly as if drawing gold on the ground.

Then, surprisingly, a line of light began to show on the ground rushing toward the capital city.

Thud!

The werewolves that had been running away without knowing it broke their necks when they hit the barrier in the sky.

Now running heedlessly, the werewolves were the knights’ prey. The last howls of the beasts were heard loudly from all sides.

Startled by the sudden situation, Siervian looked again at her father.

The emperor launched another attack spell at the mountain with the most werewolves and turned his attention downward.

“Siervy.”

“Oh!”

Suddenly, Siervian’s body floated up and approached her father.

“Dad.”

“Hmm.”

The emperor brought Siervian flying into his arms and hugged her while looking over her carefully.

[Alderuan Erveldotte]
Mood: Relief
Thought: Really, I almost made a big mess.

After confirming that she was not hurt, he hugged Siervian tightly.

Strangely, her father’s arms seemed to be very strong.

“Dad, the werewolf king is there, we have to catch it. They were about to run to the city.”

Siervian regained her senses in a hurry and explained everything. She said that she could tell the difference between the werewolf king and other werewolves, so she had to find it.

The emperor looked at his daughter in surprise at the unexpected fact.

“Is that true, Siervy?”

“Yes! We have to find him quickly. Otherwise, the city will be in danger!”

Despite her urgent cry, her father only raised his eyebrows slightly.

“Hmm. You don’t have to worry about that. Look down.”

“Down?”

Siervian poked her head out from her father’s arms and looked down.

Oddly, the werewolves looked completely different from before.

The sight of them moving in unison like an army was nowhere to be seen, and they all moved in great confusion, scurrying about in disarray.

“It seems that the werewolves aren’t following the Werewolf King’s command when they see us.”

“Ah…”

Some werewolves were still ferociously attacking the knights. However, most of them were just running away panicked in random directions.

And most of them were headed toward the familiar snowy mountains.

“You said there were two werewolf Kings?”

“Yes!”

Siervian had been keeping her eyes down, looking down from above in case there were more.

Fortunately, there were no more werewolves with status windows popping up.

However, Siervian frowned with worry, wondering if she had done something unnecessary to provoke them.

[Alderuan Elverdotte]
Thought: If there had been two werewolf Kings… it would have been dangerous. If Siervy and the others hadn’t stalled for time, the monsters would have surely swarmed toward the city.

‘We did it…!’

Her grim worries quickly subsided when she saw her father’s thoughts.

“You’ve worked hard.”

Siervian smiled brightly. It was worth the time and effort they had spent to stall the horde. Looking at her father’s complicated thoughts made it even clearer.

A pack with more than one Werewolf King is naturally enormous in size.

Apparently, it was something that had happened often, with such a large pack attacking cities.

‘Oh, maybe that’s why the remaining Werewolf King was hiding so far away?’

As she thought about it, she even began to think that they might have been preparing to go to the city.

“Hehe.”

The Emperor had been looking at Siervian with a stiff expression as she smiled shyly and now sighed.

His lovely daughter, covered in dirt and mud, looked at him innocently as if asking why he was acting that way.

“Siervy. It seems you have no idea what worries your father.”

“That’s…!”

Her father didn’t ask her how she was able to find the Werewolf King.

‘Even my visit here must have seemed unnatural.’

Perhaps he was willing to turn a blind eye this time because Siervian had promised to tell him everything someday.

“You said your secret wasn’t dangerous.”

However, it seemed he couldn’t just let the safety issue slide, so he asked her sternly.

Siervian apologized honestly for her mistake. She thought she had rushed in without thinking because she was so caught up in the idea of changing the future.

“…I was wrong. I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“Hmm.”

“But this time, I was able to avoid danger because of that secret.”

If she hadn’t seen the Werewolf King’s status window, the situation would have been much worse.

Slowly but surely, the werewolf pack would have closed in on them, forcing them to face them in the tunnel or only realizing what was happening after the monsters had crossed over to the city.

[Alderuan Elverdotte]
Thought: It seems Siervy’s secret isn’t an information network or something like that. It’s more like… some kind of ability.

Through this Werewolf King incident, her father seemed to have gotten a rough idea of her secret.

“I’ll wait a little longer. Promise me you won’t do anything this dangerous again.”

“Yes!”

While they were talking, Siervian realized that she had landed on the ground.

The knights were organizing the monster corpses in one place, as the situation seemed to have been somewhat resolved.

Karmen and Sir Roid were restoring the tunnel entrance that they had blocked off.

“Ouch.”

And Tanka was lying on one side, groaning in pain.

“Tanka! Are you okay?”

Could he have gotten hurt fighting the werewolves?

Siervian slid from her father’s arms and hurriedly ran toward Tanka. Fortunately, Sir Roid, who knew her, came to talk to her as he was protecting Tanka.

“Tanka’s… hurt?! Should I heal him with magic?!”

“It’s just a muscle ache.”

“Huh?”

“Ouch, ouch.”

Sir Roid patted Tanka’s back with an indifferent expression.

Tanka groaned even louder.

“He doesn’t exercise much, so he got a muscle ache from suddenly moving around too much. Don’t worry about it, Your Highness.”

“Ugh…”

Siervian’s face, which had been blurred due to his legs shaking from muscle exhaustion, came into focus.

Then, she put her hands on her waist and began to scold. “Tanka, I told you to exercise more! You can’t just lie down all day!”

“B-But, Your Highness. I caught a lot of monsters today…”

“You almost got hurt because of that, so I’m saying this! Am I wrong?”

Tanka’s throat tightened. He had visited the palace after a long time and had rushed over in shock after hearing that the princess was in danger, yet now he was getting nagged!

[Tanka Mallo]
Thoughts: Of course, I know she’s saying this because she’s worried about me, but… Ugh, she has to understand. I’ll be a little resentful about it, but she has to understand!

‘He’s really resentful.’

Siervian watched him quietly and said one last thing.

“Thank you for coming all the way here. Tanka, you’re a truly great mage, just as I thought.”

Tanka’s slightly sulking heart instantly lightened. She hadn’t spoken specifically to appease Tanka’s resentment. She had simply and honestly said that she was grateful.

‘I’m just glad everyone’s safe.’

Just then, the tunnel opened, and the Guild Master of Delphi rushed out and approached Siervian.

“Your Highness! O-oh, I greet the sun of the empire.”

Noticing the questioning look on her father’s face, Siervian quickly approached him.

“Delphi! What’s wrong? Don’t tell me, are the guild members sick again?”

She couldn’t help but worry. However, Delphi shook his head and informed her of the changes that had taken place inside.

“The mage who was unconscious has awakened.”

—