"Should we give chase, Young Master Aiden?" At this point, Sirius had already arrived on the battlefield with the unit of 5,000 men.

"Didn't you see how Lana didn't say anything to me before she set off? If I go after them, she's not going to be happy," Aiden replied with an amused smile. "It looks like she's determined to protect that time and space magician. By the way, I've been meaning to ask this: what is that young man's background?"

"That's Count Friar's son, Erwin Friar," Sirius replied.

"I see," Aiden replied with a nod. "If he hears about how I killed his father by stabbing him through the chest with my halberd, wouldn't he come after me for revenge?"

"I don't think that's a cause for concern, particularly when that last attack of yours looks to have crippled one of his hands," Sirius chuckled with an amused expression.

"A crippled hand isn't much of a handicap for a magician like him," Aiden said.

"Prior to setting off, Prince Lazaar stipulated that if we're unable to capture the princess, we must travel to Sarus right away to stabilize the situation in the royal court," Sirius said as he turned his gaze toward Aiden.

"That does seem like the correct course of action. Let's continue on toward Windmetal Fort," Aiden said. "I'm thinking Lana only wants to protect Erwin. I'm sure she wouldn't care if the princess lives or dies."

Sirius nodded in response.

Aiden cast his gaze toward the fallen mercenaries up ahead, and he discovered that the leaders of the mercenary legion had already fled into the distance. Truth be told, he never intended to kill Sherry, Lanyon, and the others. Perhaps he was surprised by just how loyal they were to Erwin, or perhaps he was impressed by the way they had arranged the dozens of remaining mercenaries they had left. In any case, he had quite a positive impression of them, and he decided to let them go.

"Can you tell what material this is?" Aiden pulled off a green scale from the suit of armor being worn by one of the Four Winds mercenaries. This mercenary had been knocked unconscious by Lana's whip of light, but in Aiden's eyes, he should've been sliced cleanly in half, so he was quite surprised that this mercenary had survived.

Sirius made his way over to Aiden to inspect the scale that he was holding. He was unable to tell what it was from visual inspection alone, so he took the scale from Aiden before giving it a closer look. "I think these are scales from a certain type of magic beast from the mountain ranges. Judging from the shape and color, I feel like it should be from some type of lizard."

"Oh? I'm impressed that they had the courage to venture into the mountain ranges to hunt for magic beasts," Aiden praised, then cast his gaze toward the south with a faint smile. "In particular, that Erwin has given me quite a few surprises. It's no wonder that Lana is so heavily invested in him."

Sirius also cast his gaze toward the south through narrowed eyes, and he pursed his lips slightly as he thought of Erwin.

...

Riding along on horseback, Onean could feel Erwin's body heat behind her. The rain dripping down from his chin flowed down the back of her neck, causing her to shudder slightly from the cold sensation. Listening to his heavy breathing behind her, she felt a sense of security, even though they were fleeing for their lives in a place that was anything but safe and secure.

For some reason, she was suddenly overcome by a sense of exhaustion. Not just physical exhaustion, but also severe mental fatigue and a sense of helplessness whenever she thought about the road that laid ahead. The horrific scenes from the battle on the Marrod Plain invaded her mind once again, and she had never felt so tired, so much so that she didn't even have the energy to resent or think about vengeance anymore. In this moment, all she wanted was to lie back against Erwin's chest and take a nap. She was even struck by a very negative and self-abandoning thought, the thought that she wouldn't mind dying here in this moment with Erwin by her side.

"If we had known this would happen, we should've gone the long way and traveled to Windmetal Fort through the Feony Mountains," Erwin complained in a trembling voice.

"Are you an idiot? Why are you always jumping in front of me?" Onean said in a gentle voice. In her current vulnerable state, she was unable to maintain her cold and aloof facade any longer.

She picked up Erwin's injured right hand, then cast a layer of ice crystals onto it. She knew that a spell like this could only alleviate his pain for a short time. If she wanted to heal his injury, then she would have to gather some ingredients to brew some magic potions for him.

Looking at her gentle and vulnerable display, Erwin was suddenly reminded of the care she had given him during the Pillow Sword Tournament. Even though the battle had concluded in less than half a day, it had put her through an eternity of torment, to the point that even her personality had been significantly altered.

"You were looking really angry back there. Were you going to fight them to the death?" Erwin asked with an amused smile. Now that his hand wasn't hurting as much, he was in the mood to make jokes again.

"There you go again! Can't you be a bit more serious? I honestly don't understand what's going on in that head of yours. Can't you see that we're being chased by enemies right as we speak? Do you think you have more lives than other people or something?" Onean grumbled with a displeased expression.

"Well, what else can I do? I can't even muster up a single ounce of magic power right now, and you look like you're in the same boat as well. If we're going to die anyway, why not go down while making jokes instead of moping to the end?" Erwin replied in a resigned voice.

"Why do I get the feeling that the witch chasing us isn't going to be able to work up the resolve to kill you?" Onean sneered.

"Didn't you see her when she used that Arcane Inferno Black Dragon spell? She wasn't holding back at all," Erwin countered in an indifferent voice.

"Could it be that she was jealous from seeing you protect me?" Onean speculated as she turned to look at Erwin with an amused expression.

"Who knows?" Erwin didn't dare to answer such a dangerous question, so he averted her gaze and focused on steering the horse.

Onean knew that he was intentionally playing dumb, and all of a sudden, a hint of anger welled up in her heart as she said in a cold voice, "There's something I've been meaning to ask you, and I think it's time. You can't have everything in life. You can only choose one between me and her. Which one are you going to choose?"

Erwin immediately groaned internally upon hearing this. She was so gentle and delicate just a moment ago, why has her mood suddenly taken such a huge swing? The heart of a woman really is as unpredictable as the weather.

"Do we have to discuss this question right now? You do know we're being chased by people who want to kill us, right?" Erwin asked as he put on a serious expression. However, his diversion tactic completely failed to work on Onean. Instead, it only made her even more displeased.

"If you want to choose her, then get off this horse and leave me alone. You won't have to suffer with me any longer, and you won't have to pretend to shield me from attacks anymore," Onean said in a cold voice as she grabbed the reins out of Erwin's hands.

"I want to hear your answer as well. Who's it going to be, little rascal?" At this point, another horse had already pulled up beside Erwin and Onean's steed, and it was clear that Lana had also heard the question that Onean had just raised.

"It looks like this silver-haired vixen isn't grateful at all for everything you've done for her, so why not just abandon her?" Lana said as she turned to Erwin with a derisive sneer.

"So what if I'm ungrateful to him? Are you saying that he should be grateful to you?" Onean picked up Erwin's injured hand before showing the gruesome wound on his palm to Lana. "Do I need to remind you that you are one of the people responsible for killing Erwin's father? What do you have to say to that?"

Lana's face immediately fell upon hearing this. Indeed, she had personally witnessed Erwin's father being struck down from his horse by Aiden's halberd.

Erwin caught a glimpse of Lana's expression out of the corner of his eye, and even though he already knew that his father had to be dead, receiving confirmation of the tragic news once again stirred up the emotions that he had desperately been trying to suppress.

As a result, he was momentarily dazed and unable to say anything.

One of the biggest misfortunes in life was to waste one's youth through an obsession with revenge and resentment.

However, looking at Lana right now, he simply couldn't bring himself to resent her. Of course, there was obviously no way that he could treat her as if nothing had ever happened, either.

Right as Erwin was absorbed in his own thoughts, tensions between Onean and Lana finally boiled over.

With a wave of Onean's staff, bolts of lightning began to fall from the dark clouds up above.

Lana was completely unfazed as she looked on with a cold expression while conjuring up a layer of scorching flames around her.

The bolts of lightning struck the fierce flames, but were unable to pierce through them at all.

Erwin looked on at the clash between lightning and fire, and he knew that it was already too late to stop this battle. With that in mind, he was feeling very powerless and at a complete loss for what to do.

Under normal circumstances, he would've been eagerly watching with glee, making sure that he didn't miss even the slightest detail. After all, watching a pair of beauties fighting in the rain was a splendid spectacle. Their wet, flowing locks of luscious hair, the clothes that were clinging to their bodies from the rain, and the occasional glimpses of cleavage were sights to die for, but at this moment, he really wasn't in the mood for this. 

A derisive sneer appeared on Lana's face as she looked at the bolts of lightning being kept out by the flames around her, and a fiery dragon suddenly erupted out of the flames.

The lightning was completely powerless to stop the oncoming fiery dragon, and Onean immediately raised her staff upon seeing this, conjuring up a glowing circular wall around herself.

The fiery dragon crashed headfirst into the circular wall without any hesitation, and in the blink of an eye, the white light radiating from the ring-shaped wall faded, following which the dragon burst through the wall, rushing directly toward Onean.

"You're trying to use that trick again?" Lana scoffed with derision. She could tell that Onean's magic power reserves were severely depleted, and that the circular wall of light that she had conjured up was nothing more than a bluff. She knew that the wall of light wouldn't be able to absorb much magic energy, so she injected a great deal of magic power into the fiery dragon with the aim of striking down Onean with a single blow, not giving her any chances to retaliate.

The fiery dragon struck Onean squarely on the chest, but it didn't inflict any harm upon her. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that the fiery dragon had struck nothing more than a projection of Onean.

Immediately thereafter, a dull thump rang out, and a beautiful necklace Duskshadow Gem exploded in mid-air.

Right before the fiery dragon reached Onean, Erwin hurled the necklaces that he had received from Professor Hawk toward her. The Duskshadow Gem absorbed Onean's magic power, thereby triggering the runes of the mirage spell. As a result, the fiery dragon had struck the mirage instead of Onean. However, due to the immense magic energy imbued within Lana's spell, the Duskshadow Gem on the necklace was completely pulverized.

Erwin looked on with a slightly slack-jawed expression as the necklace that Professor Hawk had given him shattered into countless pieces, and he thought to himself, If Professor Hawk could see that the necklace he gave me just saved Her Highness, I'm sure he'd be very glad.

As the shattered remnants of the Duskshadow Gem fell onto the ground, Erwin recalled something that Professor Hawk had once said to him: "In a battle of life and death, you want all the help that you can get."

Looks like his teachings were correct, after all. I wish I could tell him that in person, Erwin lamented internally.

Lana took a cold glance at the shattered bracelet that had fallen onto the ground, then turned toward Onean with a mocking gleam in her eyes. "What's going on, Your Highness? Can't you do anything without Erwin?" 

"What's the problem? Isn't he allowed to save me? Oh, I get it now. You must be jealous because you've never been saved by him," Onean countered with a faint smile. Even though she had just brushed shoulders with death, she was completely unfazed, and she certainly wasn't conceding any advantage in this war of words. In fact, she didn't appear to be concerned about her own severe magic power disadvantage at all.

All of a sudden, the battle of magic had turned into a clash of insults.

Right at this moment, Sherry and Lanyon finally arrived.

Erwin peered into the rain and mist to find that there were only around a dozen members left of the Four Winds mercenary legion. Even under the gloomy sky, Georgina's unicorn was still giving off a bright gleam, and it was certainly living up to its reputation as an exceptional steed.

However, bad news wasn't far behind. On the provincial road to the south, there was a large number of troops approaching.

Thus, Erwin and his group were being intercepted from the front, while more enemy soldiers were pursuing them from behind.