While the two women were bickering with one another, Ewen released the arrow between his teeth.

The arrow flew up into the sky and reached Theresa in the blink of an eye.

She stared at the oncoming arrow with an ashen complexion, and she could feel all of the elemental matter in her body being sucked toward it.

Is this the end for me? she thought to herself.

The entire world seemed to have fallen still, and she could no longer hear anything. In this moment, all she wanted was to take one final look at Erwin, and her eyes were filled with sorrow, as well as passion and attachment.

No one had anticipated that the arrow fired by Ewen would be able to absorb energy from its surroundings during its flight, thereby making it faster and more powerful as it flew through the air.

Ewen was unable to aim before firing the arrow, so the accuracy was rather lackluster, but the arrow's ability to absorb matter energy was the most damning thing for Theresa.

Aglea's brows furrowed slightly as she looked up at the sky, and she could sense that Theresa's life was in imminent danger.

Right as the arrow was about to devour the body of matter energy that was Theresa, it was kept out by a light shield.

Erwin looked down at Theresa as she laid in his arms to find that she was barely breathing and her face was completely devoid of color.

She leaned into Erwin's chest as she slowly caught her breath, and she panted as she said in a feeble voice, "I thought... I was... going to die..."

"Nonsense!" Erwin scolded with a pained expression.

A faint smile appeared on Theresa's face as she said, "I'm really happy to see that you care so much about me..."

Tears began to flow down her face as she spoke.

Of course, seeing as Erwin had stepped in, this battle and the match, by extension, was a loss for the Boll Dukedom.

However, Aglea argued that Ewen had aimed to kill Theresa when the rules of the tournament prohibited such actions, so she forfeited the battle in his stead.

The emperor discussed this briefly with Gower before agreeing with Aglea's statement and handing the victory to the Boll Dukedom.

As such, the prize of the tournament naturally belonged to Erwin as well.

Even though Erwin was still holding Theresa in his arms, he couldn't help but take a glance at Lana, only to receive a displeased glare in return.

Erwin knew that Aglea was doing this to make things easier for him. After all, if he wanted Lana to go to the City of Freedom with him, he had to have a just excuse, and the best possible excuse would be winning the Trapped Phoenix Tournament.

Erwin was planning to have to persuade Aglea to come with him, but it seemed that his concerns had been unnecessary. Unbeknownst to him, there was no way that Aglea would let him off the hook for no reason other than the sigh that had come out of the chaotic time and space.

Even though the final battle was far less of a spectacle than the previous two battles, thereby giving the Trapped Phoenix Tournament a rather anticlimactic conclusion, all of the spectators were still thoroughly satisfied with what they had seen.

At the same time, all of the dukedom rulers who had come to attend the imperial conference made sure to commit the name "Erwin Friar" to memory. After all, he had put on far too stunning a display for them to ignore.

Following the conclusion of the Trapped Phoenix Tournament, the emperor asked Erwin to stay behind, Erwin thought that the emperor had something to discuss with him, but to his surprise, the emperor merely cautioned him to be careful on the battlefield and look out for his own safety.

The young emperor looked on through narrowed eyes as Erwin faded into the distance, and he murmured to himself, "If you can stabilize the western part of the empire, the state of the entire imperial court will undergo a massive change."

...

With everything taken care of in Finklan, it was time for Erwin to return to the City of Freedom. War with the Delair Dukedom was imminent, so he couldn't afford to delay his return.

Thus, everyone returned to the hotel to discuss how they were going to return to the City of Freedom. Everything was very simple for Erwin, but the problem was Lana, who had close to 10,000 freemen with her.

The issue was that these freemen couldn't pass through the ruler's territory from the east to the west directly to the City of Freedom.

There was a law in the Fulway Empire that stated that leading an army through the ruler's territory without the emperor's permission was the equivalent of committing treason.

With that in mind, Erwin took a subtle glance at Aglea.

Aglea knew what Erwin was hinting at, and she shook her head with a resigned expression. "Allowing troops to march through the ruler's territory like this would set far too dangerous a precedent, so there's no way His Majesty would dare to grant you permission. Even if I go and ask him in person, he wouldn't agree."

A war against the Delair Dukedom was imminent, and Erwin was in desperate need of more troops, so he was naturally unwilling to leave the freemen behind.

Right at this moment, Ewen, who was situated in a corner of the room, suddenly said, "I may have a solution."

Everyone immediately turned their attention toward him, and there was no lack of hostile eyes directed at him, one pair of which belonged to Erwin. Ever since the near-death experience suffered by Theresa during the Trapped Phoenix Tournament, he had always wanted to teach Ewen a lesson.

Ewen was a little intimidated by all of the attention that was suddenly focused on him, and he couldn't help but gulp nervously.

"To the south of the Fano Dukedom and westward of Fort Roten is a precarious mountain path within the Warandele Canyon. Horses can travel over this mountain path through the entire canyon from the east to the west, and upon emerging, we'll reach the eastern side of Belama," Ewen said.

"Oh, you must be very familiar with that mountain path," Lana said with a faint smile. The heavendew in Ewen's body could only be found in the Warandele Canyon, so he had to have roamed the canyon quite extensively during his search for the heavendew.

"I've only ever entered the canyon on my own, so I'm not sure if it's going to be a good idea to lead so many men into the area," Ewen said as his brows furrowed slightly. "The mountain path is very precarious and difficult to navigate, so if something happens, we'll be placed in a very vulnerable position."

"I don't care if it's safe or not, you have to lead your men through that canyon," Erwin said in a cold voice.

Ewen knew that Erwin harbored a great deal of resentment toward him, so he could only give a resigned shake of his head before turning to Lana. After all, he only followed Lana's orders.

Lana smiled as she said, "I support whatever he wants."

Ewen could only look to the ceiling in exasperation upon hearing this.

Yuran was also standing in the same corner, and he put on a supportive smile as he patted Ewen on the shoulder. "I'll be by your side every step of the way."

Ewen took a disdainful glance at him, then shook his hand off his shoulder, leaving Yuran to stand on the spot with an awkward expression.

Seeing as Ewen was the one who had made this proposal, the mission of leading the freemen from the east to the west naturally also fell on his shoulders.

Erwin was rather perplexed about why Lana seemed so comfortable having someone as dangerous as Ewen around. His concern was that Ewen wouldn't follow the plan after returning to the Fano Dukedom and would choose to establish his own army instead.

Lana could see what Erwin was concerned about, and she gave him a reassuring smile, indicating to him that there was nothing for him to worry about. She still hadn't had a chance to tell Erwin about how she was keeping Ewen on a leash through the use of sunsteel amaranth, and there were too many people around at the moment, so she naturally wasn't going to mention it here.

Erwin could see that Lana was very confident, so he didn't ask any questions.

Before Ewen and Yuran set off for the Fano Dukedom with the rest of the freemen, Lana instructed them to wait for a moment.

Lana was fairly confident that Duke Soleil wouldn't pose any obstacle for the freemen. After all, being able to send this group of renegades out of their dukedom without a fight was exactly what they wanted.

However, she still decided to write a letter that she instructed Yuran to pass on to Duke Soleil.

After all, a large amount of dry rations had to be prepared in order to support them during their long trek through the Warandele Canyon, and the duty of procuring those rations would have to fall upon Duke Soleil.

Aglea took a quick glance at the letter that Lana was writing, upon which an amused smile appeared on her face. "You really don't pass up any opportunity to squeeze benefits out of others, do you?"

"What do you know?" Lana rolled her eyes at Aglea, then passed the letter to Ewen.

"We're doing him a favor, so he should do us a favor as well. That is how a relationship is formed and maintained," Lana said with a smile.

"I think Aike really wants to form a relationship with you. Why don't we go back to Intelar with them?" Aglea suggested. "In fact, if you ask me, we should just permanently settle in the Fano Dukedom. What's so good about the City of Freedom anyway?"

This was naturally not something that Erwin wanted to hear, and he hurriedly yelled, "Hurry up! We have to set off for Newfando right away. Once we get back, I'm going to lock all of my women up in Fort Breeze so no one else gets to see them!"

Everyone immediately burst into laughter upon hearing this, and even the severely injured Yuho was chortling with mirth.

This appeared to be a joke from Erwin, but it also reflected what he was actually thinking. Ever since the incident that had taken place during the rendezvous, he had realized that he had been far too lax and careless. In addition to that, Lana had almost been killed by Onean during their battle earlier in the day, and Theresa had also almost lost her life to Ewen. All of these incidents taking place in quick succession was making Erwin feel very tense and uneasy. Thankfully, this stressful trip to Finklan was finally coming to an end, and he vowed to never let these women stray far away from him ever again.

After that, everyone split up into two groups, with Erwin and all of the women traveling toward the west, while Ewen, Yuran, and the others made their way toward the east.

...

Meanwhile, at Prime Minister Henry's manor, Emma's horse-drawn carriage was also ready to go.

Emma had a rather strange rule that she enforced, which was that no one in the manor was permitted to touch any of her things. Of course, Prime Minister Henry also approved of this rule.

Hence, she was the one who had packed up all of her luggage and loaded them onto the carriage instead of having the servants complete those tasks in her stead.

Her luggage resembled a small mountain as they were piled onto the carriage, and she looked upon the pile of luggage with a pleased smile.

The butler of the manor wanted to help Emma with her packing, but he was also afraid of breaking the rule that Emma had implemented, so he had constantly been in a rather conflicted state of mind. Now that the luggage had all been loaded, he mustered his courage to approach Emma and asked her if she needed a coach driver from the manor.

After all, it was clear from all of the luggage that she was bringing that she was going on a long trip, so she naturally couldn't be expected to drive the carriage herself.

"There's no need for that, I've already found a driver," Emma said with a smile, turning down the butler's offer. She then clapped her hands together twice, and a figure immediately emerged from the shadows.

The figure had appeared in a wraith-like manner, and the butler was so frightened by their sudden emergence that his soul had almost left his body. In particular, the figure had greenish-gray skin that was extremely harrowing to behold, looking as if he were an undead corpse that had just clawed its way out of a tomb.

If it weren't for the fact that the figure was blinking and clearly breathing, the butler would've already fled for his life. Even so, the butler still hurriedly took a few steps to the side upon sensing the cold and sinister aura emanating from the figure's body.

"Alright, Lucidy, go and drive the carriage," Emma instructed as she turned to the corpse-like man.

The young man accepted the instruction in an expressionless manner, then got into the driver's seat of the carriage.