"You're way more amazing than I am, Brother Erwin. I can't even imagine being powerful enough to kill that giant ice dragon," Christine said with more than a hint of admiration on her face.

Erwin was reluctant to take credit for the giant ice dragon's death. After all, he had no idea how the creature had met its demise.

However, telling that to Christine would require him to explain the complex intricacies of time and space magic, so he decided against it for now.

"Have you always traveled back and forth across the Terarody Mountain Ranges under such dangerous circumstances?" Erwin asked as a concerned look appeared on his face.

"I know what you want to say, Brother Erwin," Christine said as she lowered her head to avoid Erwin's concerned gaze.

Looking at Christine's reaction to the subject, Erwin decided to refrain from saying what he was about to say. He heaved a faint sigh as he said, "I was trying to look out for your best interests, but it seems like I'm only placing an additional burden onto you. I'm just a bystander without any knowledge of your circumstances, so I'm really in no place to tell you how to live your life."

Christine shook her head with a smile as she said, "It's alright, I know you're just looking out for me, Brother Erwin."

There was a hint of bitterness in her smile, like the yellow edges that appeared on previously vibrant and green leaves on the cusp of autumn. One could ignore its existence, but it told an underlying story of sorrow.

"I've been thinking about this, and I feel like the main problem is that the airship is too heavy. If you can make it lighter, I'm sure it'll be far more maneuverable, and you'll also be able to fly at higher altitudes. That way, you'll be a lot safer." Erwin knew that there was no way for him to convince Christine to give up her business. Having known Christine for some time already, he had a decent grasp of her personality. Thus, he could only think of alternative ways to make her trips safer.

"What really got in our way last time was all that armor plating from those Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries. If we hadn't been carrying that stuff onboard, perhaps we would've been able to avoid the last ordeal altogether. I feel like there's no way that giant ice dragon would've been able to notice us if we had been at a slightly higher altitude."

Erwin was rattling off a list of suggestions non-stop, not even pausing to see whether Christine was taking his advice into account.

Looking at the rambling man seated before her, tears began to well up in Christine's eyes again, and she couldn't recall the last time someone had been this concerned for her.

Having made so many trips back and forth across the Terarody Mountain Ranges, of course Christine was aware of the load capacity of her airship. She had only decided to keep that batch of armor plating as Erwin had told her to. Under normal circumstances, she would've dumped the armor plating for sure. Furthermore, the past few trips had been quite safe, so she was lulled into a false sense of security, thinking that the extra load wouldn't have been a problem. As it turned out, that had not been the right gamble to make.

It would be far too selfish of me to expect her to abandon her current lifestyle just because of my personal concerns, Erwin thought to herself. In the end, all he could offer to Christine was a warm hug.

Looking at the concerned expression on Erwin's face, Christine couldn't help but burst into laughter, and it was like a rainbow emerging through the dark clouds after a heavy storm. "Don't worry about me, Brother Erwin. I'm not going to die before I finish what I set out to do,"

"What do you need to do?" Erwin asked.

Christine shook her head and offered no response.

Judging from Christine's secretive expression, he presumed that this was most likely a private matter for her. Seeing as she didn't want to discuss the subject, it would naturally be unbecoming of him to pry into these matters.

"By the way, where are Sherry and the others right now?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Oh, I was so busy talking to you that I forgot about them," Christine said as she stuck out her tongue in a sheepish manner. "Brother Lanyon and Brother Sherry are in the town of Lomu south of Zans. My airship is parked there as well."

"Oh, that's not very far away at all." On the way here from Belama, Erwin recalled that they had passed through the town of Lomu, which was quite a lively and bustling town.

"Why didn't you get them to come with you? I can't believe they let you come here on your own like this," Erwin said.

"They're completely unfamiliar with this place, so I was worried that if I took them with me and we got split up somehow, I'd have to go looking for them as well. Hence, I volunteered to come and search for you on my own," Christine explained. In reality, she wanted to find Erwin on her own, which was why she had told Sherry and the others not to come with her. If they were to find Erwin first, then she would lose the opportunity to speak to him on a one-on-one basis. Given that Erwin already had Onean by her side, there were very few chances for her to speak to Erwin to begin with. If Sherry and the others were to have an emotional reunion with Erwin, she could say goodbye to her chances of speaking with Erwin on an intimate basis.

Erwin nodded in response, clearly convinced by Christine's excuse.

"It sounds like you know quite a bit about the Boll Dukedom. You must know about Duke Eru, Count Onen, the Tellier Wine Trade Guild, and the Farody Family, right? Can you tell me what you think of these factions?" Erwin knew that Christine had a very sharp eye and intuition, so he wanted to ask her opinion on these major powers of the Boll Dukedom.

"Very impressive, Brother Erwin! You've only been here for a few days, yet you already know all of the significant factions of the Boll Dukedom!"

"It's all common knowledge around these parts anyway."

After taking a moment to collect her thoughts, Christine said, "To be honest, when it comes to these nobles, I haven't had much interaction with them. On the surface, it looks like Duke Eru is someone without any ambition, nor the sufficient ability and assertiveness to command absolute obedience from those below him. As a result, a power struggle between Count Onen and the Farody Family has arisen."

"What's it like beneath the surface?"

"In reality, Duke Eru really is a very incompetent leader," Christine said with a smile, but her expression then changed ever so slightly. "However, he has a very intelligent and clever daughter."

There was a peculiar look in Christine's eyes as she uttered the words "intelligent and clever", clearly indicating that there was more to the story.

"Oh, right, I've seen her before. Her name is... Theresa, right?" Erwin asked. "She does have some tricks up her sleeve."

"You've met her before?" Christine asked with a surprised expression.

"Not only have I met her, I even had a fight with her guard," Erwin said as he pursed his lips, then gave Christine a recount of everything that took place during the tea party.

"In that case, you have to look out for her, Brother Erwin. She's not the type of person who would give up so easily," Christine said with a cautious expression.

"It sounds like you know her."

"I don't."

Erwin nodded in response. "Don't worry, I'm not the type of idiot who would drop my guard around her just because she has some good looks. Besides, even if we're talking looks here, she doesn't have what it takes to catch my eye."

"Of course. With Sister Onean by your side, how can you possibly have eyes for anyone else?" Christine said as a displeased look appeared on her face.

"You can't only mention Onean. There's also a red-haired big sister that I have to introduce you to in the future. I'm telling you, she doesn't lose at all to Onean in the looks department," Erwin said with a smug expression, following which he heaved a forlorn sigh. "Now that I think about it, she's also a princess."

Erwin was naturally aware of Christine's feelings toward her, and he didn't want to reject her outright, so he was trying to make himself appear as promiscuous and scummy as possible to encourage Christine to give up on him.

Christine gave a cold harrumph as she glared at Erwin with a displeased pout. She knew that Erwin was intentionally saying this to spite her. Regarding the red-haired woman that Erwin was talking about, Christine had actually already caught a glimpse of her on that night when they were escaping from Sarus.

She had been on the airship and only saw Lana from afar, but even so, she was still able to immediately tell that Lana was incredibly beautiful. However, she was already accustomed to this. After all, she already had a love rival in the form of Onean, so she didn't really care if she had another one.

However, Christine wasn't going to give up. She had a very stubborn and confident personality, and it didn't matter to her what type of competition she was up against.

With that in mind, a smile suddenly appeared on Christine's face as she said, "Brother Erwin, even if you have thousands of women as beautiful as Sister Onean by your side, I wouldn't care in the slightest."

Erwin couldn't help but shudder at the thought of being surrounded by thousands of Oneans. Just a single one was already more than enough for him to handle.

"They've all shared different spectacular experiences with you, but our story is no less riveting than theirs, so why should I care about them?" Christine looked straight into Erwin's eyes with a genuine and determined expression as she continued, "In the story of my life, meeting you is by far the best chapter."

Erwin couldn't help but look away from Christine's intense expression. Never did he think that he would be forced to avert his gaze by a little girl like her.

"What's the point in replicating all those stories, where people refrain from telling each other their feelings and take those feelings to the grave, or only shed tears for one another after one is already dead? It does make for a beautiful story sometimes, but in real life, wouldn't that be a very foolish way to live?" It had to be said that even though she was still very young, Christine had already developed deep insights into life befitting someone far older than her. 

"Hundreds of years can pass by in the blink of an eye. If you don't make the most of every moment, it's a wasted life."

In response to Christine's sentiment, Erwin couldn't help but lower his head in silence, feeling rather ashamed in the face of such a pure and raw outpouring of emotion from Christine. He thought of the magic potion vial from Lana and the pendant that had once carried the Springlay Fox bone marrow potion, both of which he was still carrying with him at all times. They were both extremely precious items to him, yet they were constantly fighting with one another. However, no matter how vicious their fights became, he couldn't bring himself to abandon either one of them.

Erwin was too embarrassed to continue this conversation, so he could only change the subject. "So what you're saying is that the person I have to be most wary of in the Boll Dukedom is Theresa? She's the most dangerous person in this dukedom?"

"That's not the case," Christine replied with a shake of her head.

"Then who is it?" Erwin asked.

"If you want to establish yourself here, then there's only one person you need to be careful of," Christine said as she looked at Erwin with a solemn expression. "And that's Duke Eru's cousin, the widow of Duke Silon."

"Her? You mean the woman who's renowned for her promiscuity and debauchery?" Erwin asked with a surprised expression.

"Don't be fooled by these superficial things, Brother Erwin, that woman is extremely dangerous," Christine warned with a serious expression.

Erwin nodded in response with a thoughtful expression. "Now that you mention it, even during Count Onen's tea party, there was a spy of hers present. She's definitely up to something. She's already the ruler of the Delair Dukedom, do you think she's also coming after the Boll Dukedom?"

"I don't know about that," Christine replied, then raised an eyebrow as she asked, "Why are you asking so much about all these people, Brother Erwin? What are you up to?"

Erwin was quite amused to hear this. "I wasn't up to anything before this because I was too busy trying to ensure I have food in my belly and a roof over my head, but now that you've come here with such a massive gift of Loonies for me, it's time for me to do something. As the saying goes, when a man has an empty stomach, they only have one problem, but when they have a full stomach, they have countless problems."