"Looks like you're pretty popular," Lana said as she looked at all of the jealous women around her with a faint smile.

Aike was just about to respond in a smug manner, but he immediately caught himself. He had already made this mistake once, and he wasn't about to make it again.

However, Lana had a good idea of what was going on in his mind.

Even though he was doing his best to maintain a neutral facade, she knew that he was most likely feeling extremely smug on the inside.

"Take a look at them. It looks like they want to burn me to death with their eyes!" Lana chuckled as she turned to Aike.

Lana wasn't the type of person who was afraid of coming under hostile scrutiny. In fact, the more she was surrounded by hostility, the more she wanted to provoke those who were hostile toward her.

Thus, she was intentionally putting on a flirty demeanor as she spoke to Aike.

This came as quite a surprise to Aike, and he was caught completely off guard as he stared blankly at Lana, once again unable to keep up with her mood swings.

However, Lana wasn't frustrated by his slow reactions. At this point, she was already accustomed to how slow Aike was. It was a little dumb, but it was also rather amusing. She certainly hadn't taken a liking to him, but at the very least, she wasn't so averse to him anymore.

...

Under the scrutiny of the crowd of jealous noblewomen, Lana enjoyed a relaxed tour of the city of Intelar. In reality, this ancient city wasn't a very large one. Even though it had stood for centuries, it had always maintained its status as a medium-sized city.

The only renowned landmarks here were the Ardwin Library, the Deventer Cathedral, and the Boland Monastery.

While visiting the Deventer Cathedral, Lana took the opportunity to ask Aike about the religions of the north, and as a result, she learned about the mainstream trio of churches in the form of the Holy World Church, the Universal Church, and the New Light Church.

The Deventer Cathedral belonged to the Holy World Church, and the Dario Family was also a follower of the Holy World Church.

As for Aike himself, he was leaning slightly toward the New Light Church. After all, as a young noble, he was often coming into contact with things related to the arts.

For some reason, during Aike's introduction of the religions, Lana would involuntarily furrow her brows whenever she heard the term "church". There seemed to be something that was screaming out at her from the void left in the wake of her stolen memories, but no she was unable to grasp what it was, despite thinking so vigorously that she was developing a headache.

With that in mind, she turned around to face the burly skeleton with a resentful expression, but the burly skeleton merely looked back at her with an innocent look on its face.

"Why do I feel so much resentment toward these churches?" Lana asked as she glowered at the burly skeleton.

"How would I know?" The burly skeleton raised its head to appreciate the artwork on the ceiling of the cathedral. If it had any eyes, it would've rolled them at Lana in exasperation.

"Do you really not know?" Lana asked as her eyes narrowed slightly.

The burly skeleton continued to look up at the ceiling, not even bothering to answer this time.

After a short while, it looked down at her with a serious expression before asking, "Aren't you going to search for Erwin? Why are you asking about these trivial matters?"

Lana wanted to raise her voice in protest, but decided against it in the end. "Forget it. I can't be bothered to bicker with you right now."

...

That night, at the Dario Family's manor.

Aike was sitting in front of a stack of envelopes on his table with an absentminded look on his face. The envelopes had been sprayed with all types of perfumes, and they were all containing love letters from young noblewomen, but he was unable to work up any interest in opening them at the moment.

Right at this moment, Quinton opened the door before making his way into the room.

"You wanted to see me?"

Aike nodded in response in silence.

Quinton lowered his head, and he already knew what Aike was going to ask him.

"Our meeting was arranged in advance, right?" Aike asked as he turned to Quinton.

Quinton nodded in response without making any attempt to deny it.

"Who sent you to me?" Judging from the tone of Aike's voice, he seemed to be more jaded and resigned than angry at Quinton.

Before Quinton had a chance to reply, Aike asked, "Was it my father?"

Quinton paused momentarily before nodding in response once again.

"Ha! I knew it was him!" Aike said with a furious expression.

Quinton gulped nervously, and after taking a careful look at Aike, he said, "Duke Dario is only concerned for your safety."

"Don't try to justify his actions!" Aike roared.

Quinton immediately fell silent.

Aike was feeling rather guilty upon seeing Quinton lower his head in silence, and he was wondering if he was being too hard on Quinton.

Thus, the two of them were both silent for a while.

In the end, it was Aike who broke the silence.

"If he wanted to plant a guard by my side, then why didn't he just do it? Why did he have to make you pose as a traveling poet?" Aike was still clearly quite displeased, but his demeanor had softened significantly.

Quinton could see that Aike's temper had died down a little, and he immediately put on a fawning smile as he said, "Duke Dario knows that you're into the arts, so he wanted me to be able to better relate to you."

Aike didn't discuss this subject any further. Instead, he asked, "What do you think of Ms. Lana?"

"She's a difficult target."

Aike almost choked on his tea upon hearing this.

Quinton hurriedly rushed over to pat him on the back, but in reality, he was chuckling in silence.

"That's not what I was asking," Aike snapped with an amused smile.

After a moment of contemplation, Quinton said, "Judging from her powers, she's definitely no ordinary woman."

"How do you match up against her?" Aike asked as he cast his gaze toward Quinton.

A sheepish look immediately appeared on Quinton's face as he replied, "I'm definitely no match for her. Let me put it this way: even three of me may not be able to land a single scratch on her."

"So she's that powerful..." Aike mused to himself, and he thought back to the scenes that had unfolded in the Whistling Wind Pub once again. The powers that Lana had displayed had been truly astounding, but perhaps even that was only just the tip of the iceberg.

"Hence, I'd advise you go give up on her," Quinton said as he cast a careful gaze toward Aike.

"Why? Do you think I'm not worthy of her?" Aike asked as he looked back at Quinton.

"Of course not!" Quinton hurriedly denied with a fawning smile. "You are the only heir of the Dario Family, everyone knows that the entire Fano Dukedom will be yours someday. How could there possibly be any woman that you're not worthy of?"

"Don't try to placate me, I know what you were trying to say," Aike harrumphed in a cold voice, following which a dejected look appeared on his face. "To be honest, I know that Ms. Lana is far out of my league. This is the first time I've felt so inferior in the face of a woman."

He's completely head over heels for her! Aike sighed internally with a sympathetic expression.

"Then are we still going to help her find her husband?" On the surface, it appeared that Quinton was giving Aike an idea, but in reality, he was reminding Aike that Lana already had a husband, which was even more reason to give up on her.

Aike immediately raised his head to glare at Quinton upon hearing this. "Of course we're going to help her find her husband! I made a promise to Ms. Lana, and I'm certainly not going to revoke on it! Do you think I stoop to those unscrupulous tricks in order to take her for myself? Perhaps someone else would do that in my shoes, but I refuse to even entertain the idea!"

A look of approval and admiration appeared on Quinton's face upon hearing this.

This was why he was willing to serve the Dario Family. All of the memories of the Dario Family were extremely just and righteous figures, including Duke Dario and Aike.

"Alright, then I'll go pass on your orders to conduct an exhaustive search for that Erwin fellow," Quinton said with a smile. "Also, there's something else I've been meaning to tell you. Be careful of those two servants accompanying Ms. Lana."

"Oh? Why is that necessary?"

"Those two people are different from Ms. Lana," Quinton explained. "They're constantly giving off a cold and dark aura. Haven't you been able to sense it?"

"The only thing I've noticed about those two is that they're dressed very strangely, and they seem to always have those masks and hoods on."

It was clear that Aike was weak a martial artist to detect what Quinton had sensed, which was that those two were giving off an aura that was not much different from that of a dead person.

However, Quinton didn't tell Aike that for fear of scaring him.

"In any case, if you're not accompanied by any guards, I suggest you visit Ms. Lana as little as possible," Quinton said in a concerned voice.

Aike wanted to brush off Quinton's concerns, but after seeing Quinton's serious expression, he ultimately nodded in agreement.

...

Meanwhile, Lana and her group had already smoothly settled into the city of Intelar.

As the leader of the group, Lanan was putting her magnanimity on full display by renting out an entire high-end hotel by the name of "Blessed". Her group filled up almost all of the rooms in the hotel anyway, so it didn't matter that there were one or two rooms left over.

Lana knew that Yuran and the others couldn't afford the rental fees for their rooms, so she naturally paid for them. They were technically her followers, so she had a responsibility to look after them.

Aike was unable to invite Lana to stay at his luxurious manor, but he still followed through on his promise to help her track down Erwin.

However, there was no Erwin Friar to be found in the entirety of the Fano Dukedom.

Given the fact that even the Dario Family was unable to track him down, it was clear that he had never come to the Fano Dukedom before, and that was very disheartening news for Lana.

Thus, she had been constantly pestering the burly skeleton during the past couple of days.

"Did he mention where he was going in the north before he left? Are you sure he didn't mention anything?"

"How could he have possibly not mentioned anything?"

"Think harder!"

"Are you placating me?"

Strings of interrogation similar to this had taken place many times over the course of the past few days.

In the beginning, the burly skeleton always responded stoically and was even a little annoyed, and he used the bone claw necklace to retaliate on several occasions. However, after a while, it began to derive amusement from Lana's flustered display, and the more frustrated Lana became, the more amused it felt.

However, in the face of Lana's relentless line of questioning, it still decided to drop her a hint: "He mentioned that he was coming to the north to find his mother."

This was the only lead that it had.

Such was the ironic nature of life. Lana absolutely refused to go and search for the ice dragon with the burly skeleton, but the mystery surrounding Erwin's whereabouts was linked to none other than that ice dragon.