A resentful look appeared on Luphen's face as he glowered at Erwin and Larwood. Despite how slippery and cunning he was, he hadn't been able to outsmart these two young nobles at all.

In the end, Luphen handed over the promised 45,000 Loonies in an extremely reluctant manner, and all of his men were forced to leave their armor and weapons behind. After that, they scurried away toward the northeast in a sorry state, much to the amusement of everyone in the Four Winds mercenary legion.

"I'm afraid that's all we can do, Christine," Erwin sighed as he watched Luphen and his mercenaries depart into the distance. "I really want to kill these bandits from the Skycourt Kingdom as well, but in times of war, we have to think for the greater good of our troops, so I can't just act according to my own selfish desires."

"It's alright, Brother Erwin," Christine hurriedly consoled. "It's already enough for me to see those bandits be humiliated like this. You can keep all of the Loonies that we recovered from them."

Erwin wanted to accept the Loonies, but he was a little embarrassed. "We can't do that. That would be..."

"You saved me and my father, so you deserve this money as repayment," Christine cut him off with a shake of her head. "I'm very grateful for everything you've already done for us, but my father is still unconscious. Will you be able to save him, Brother Erwin?"

Only upon being reminded did Erwin recall the terrible condition that Christine's father was in. "Oh right, I almost forgot about your father. Go and land the airship while I get some magic potions."

...

During his battle against Talan, Erwin's body had been fueled by adrenaline, but now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he was beginning to feel the pain from all of the wounds he had sustained. Kaiba and Chase had already been carried away for treatment, while Larwood was still putting on a brave front and instructing the Four Winds mercenary legion to clean up the battlefield. Erwin knew that Larwood's injuries were even more severe than his own, yet he was still hard at work despite those injuries. It seemed that Chase had made a very good decision to assign him as the commander of the mercenary legion.

"Oh, you're still alive," Onean remarked as she cast an indifferent glance toward Erwin, who had just entered her carriage.

"Of course. I didn't even need to break a sweat to kill that bandit," Erwin replied.

"Is that so? It didn't look as easy as you make it sound," Onean said with a hint of mockery in her eyes.

"You're right. To tell you the truth, I was seriously scared for my own life," Erwin conceded as he sat down onto Onean's bed, then wound his arms around her and caught her in a tight embrace.

Onean's magic power was still restricted by the ropes binding her body, so she wasn't able to do anything to Erwin. No matter how feeble and tired Erwin was, he still had more strength left than Onean, particularly when she was tied up like this.

"You... Let me go!" Onean was initially caught off guard by this, but she quickly returned to her senses and opened her mouth to bite Erwin, but she couldn't bear to sink her teeth into his dirty and ragged suit of leather armor. She then noticed that Erwin's neck seemed to be relatively clean, and immediately bit down viciously onto the skin and flesh there.

Erwin couldn't help but wince and draw a sharp breath from the pain, but he refused to release Onean. His arms were still wound tightly around her waist, but his eyes were looking aimlessly forward with a completely hollow expression.

Onean could hear Erwin's heavy breathing ringing out beside her ears, but he wasn't saying anything, and she was beginning to grow a little concerned. She struggled up into a seated position in Erwin's arms, then turned to carefully inspect his physical condition.

"What's going on with you?" Onean asked with a concerned expression.

Erwin was snapped out of his train of thought by Onean's voice, and he replied, "Nothing. I was just suddenly a little afraid of myself just now. After killing Talan, I was overcome by this irrepressible urge to continue killing. If Larwood hadn't stepped in, I would've killed all of the remaining mercenaries from the Skycourt Kingdom as well."

"Speaking of that, I believe you owe me an explanation. Have you forgotten that I'm the princess of the Effer Kingdom? How dare you collude with the enemy right under my nose? Who do you think you are?" Onean accused in a cold voice as a stern look appeared on her face. Unfortunately, her attempt at interrogation fell flat on its face as she was still sitting on Erwin's lap.

Erwin heaved a faint sigh in response. "Your Highness, a mercenary legion is not the same as the regular army. We need to pay all of these mercenaries, and we don't have virtually unlimited funds like the kingdom does. We may only have around 500 people in the legion, but we go through a lot of Loonies every single month. If we don't plunder some money from the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries, we won't even make it to the front lines."

"That excuse isn't going to work! You could've just killed them after you took all their money, but you didn't do that, did you?"

"I was just telling you this," Erwin replied in a resigned voice. "I wanted to kill them all, but Larwood wouldn't let me."

"That Larwood is a lot more cunning than you are," Onean said with a displeased expression. "He doesn't want any harm to befall this mercenary legion of yours. He's an extremely shady and selfish character."

Onean was able to immediately glean Larwood's intentions.

"Why is it that both of you seem to dislike Larwood?" Erwin asked with an intrigued expression.

"Both of us? Are you saying that Miss Lana also shares the same opinion?" Onean asked with a smile.

"No, I didn't mention her at all," Erwin said as he averted his gaze with a slightly guilty expression.

"Then why aren't you looking at me?" Onean asked, reading Erwin like an open book once again.

"Let's not talk about this for now. I urgently need some magic potions for treating external injuries. I met a little girl on the airship, and her father isn't far away from death. I don't know if he can still be saved, but I promised her that I would try my best." Erwin gently laid Onean down onto the bed, then began to search through the box of magic potions.

"Is that little girl the owner of the airship?" Onean asked with a curious expression.

"She is. How did you know that?" Erwin was very surprised that Onean had arrived at this conclusion. "Those Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries took her airship and abducted her as well."

"You're not the type to do other people favors for no reward. You must've only agreed to save her father because she gave you the airship, right?" Onean analyzed with an amused expression. "Alternatively, could it be that she's quite the beauty and you've fallen for her?"

"I don't know what she looks like. When I saved her, her entire face was covered in blood, so I couldn't see anything." Erwin was examining the tags on the vials of magic potions and checking to see what their effects were by referencing the magic potions book. The process would be significantly sped up if Onean were in his place, but he didn't dare to trouble Onean. If he were to untie her, there was no way that he would be able to overpower her again.

"Are you suggesting that I'm only doing this to appease my own conscience?" Erwin asked with a smile. "Truth be told, I have no plans to take her airship. I'm only borrowing it from her for now, and I'll return it to her after the war."

"I can tell that the airship would've been quite expensive to build. I'm sure those Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries must've plundered a lot of valuable spoils from the little girl. Have all those spoils ended up in your pockets now?" Onean asked with a hint of ridicule in her eyes.

"It seems like it really is impossible to keep any secrets from you, Your Highness," Erwin sighed with a resigned smile.

A short while later, Erwin had found all of the magic potions that he needed, and he also brought with him a vial of newly brewed Falcon Beak Lizard potion, which he planned to use on Chase.

"Hey, when are you going to untie me? You're not planning to keep me tied up forever, are you?" Onean asked right as Erwin was about to depart from the carriage.

"Your Highness, with your magic power, there's no way that you could be trapped by something like that," Erwin said as he turned to look at her. "Once you're fully recovered from your injuries, you'll be able to easily snap the rope yourself, so you won't even need me to untie you."

Onean knew that he was right, so she averted her gaze with a displeased pout, refusing to look at him any longer.

"Try to avoid putting yourself in dangerous situations in the future," Onean said as she cast her gaze out the window. "I'm sure you've already noticed this yourself: whenever your life is at risk, you become extremely violent and ruthless. I already noticed that on the first day of the Pillow Sword Tournament. If the administrators hadn't stepped in, Shaun would already be dead by now."

Erwin paused in his footsteps momentarily upon hearing this, then gave an affirmative response before leaving the carriage.

Upon hearing what Onean had to say, Erwin's mind wandered back to his battle against Shaun. He then thought about the battle he had just endured against Talan, and he found that Onean was spot on with her assessment.

Christine was ecstatic to see Erwin arriving with an assortment of vials of magic potions.

Since Erwin last saw her, Christine had washed her own face, and she really was quite a beauty, but she was still too young for Erwin to be interested.

Thanks to Onean's collection of potions, Christine's father quickly entered a stable condition. Even though he still hadn't woken up, many of his infected wounds were already beginning to display signs of healing.

"I knew you'd be able to save my father, Brother Erwin!" Christine was so excited to see her own father being brought back from the brink of death that she dove headfirst into Erwin's arms before sobbing and laughing simultaneously into his chest.

Erwin was at a slight loss for what to do as he looked at the little girl in his arms. As aforementioned, she was still too young for him to develop an interest in her, so it was as if he suddenly had a little sister.

Thus, the battle outside Haggardy concluded in a resounding victory for the Four Winds mercenary legion.

Aside from the 500 suits of armor left behind by the remaining Heavenly Star mercenaries, several hundred more suits of armor were gathered from the battlefield, and all of a sudden, all of the mercenaries of the Four Winds mercenary legion found themselves spoiled for choice. Of course, many weapons had also been gathered, thereby allowing everyone to upgrade or replace their existing weapons. After everyone had selected what they wanted, the leftover equipment was packed away and stored in the airship.

After Erwin came into temporary possession of the airship, he immediately began making changes to it. The airship was split up into two levels, and the bottom level was entirely dedicated to the storage of resources, while the top level was converted into living quarters, and the divider between the two levels was also sealed by Erwin using magic.

The metal plates installed outside the captain's room were removed, thereby allowing sunlight to filter into the room again. All of the floorboards in the room were also removed, and the secret compartment was also opened up. As a result, the overall space in the room was significantly increased, and Erwin decided to renovate it into a duplex room.

The design of the room was very clever. It appeared to be two large compartments, one on the left and one on the right, separated by a walkway down the center, but the interior of the room actually consisted of two levels, one on top of the other.

Erwin naturally hadn't put in all of this effort for no reason. With this ingenious design, he would be able to sleep in the same room with Onean without any qualms. The upper level had better natural lighting, so that one was reserved for Onean, while the bottom level was reserved for himself.

Christine and her father lived across from this room. Christine was still the owner of this airship, so a room naturally had to be reserved for her.

As Erwin moved into the airship, he noticed Christine staring at Onean, who was still male as far as everyone else was concerned, and he was rather amused, wondering if Christine had fallen for Onean's "masculine" charm.

The Four Winds mercenary legion didn't linger very long at the severely ravaged city of Haggardy before marching toward the city of Xeto, which was several dozen kilometers away in the northeast.

As usual, Larwood led the way from the front, while Sherry and the rest of the martial artists followed along close behind him.

As for Erwin, he was standing in front of the railing on the airship, looking into the distance with a contemplative expression, allowing his own hair to be tussled by the cold sea breeze blowing in from the coastline.