He climbed onto the upstairs room to find Onean looking out the window with a thoughtful expression, clearly completely disinterested in the argument taking place on the deck.

She turned to look at Erwin, upon which she immediately burst into laughter at the sight of his appearance. "Haha, your eyes are as swollen as a pair of blisters!"

Erwin ignored her as he massaged his own face with his fingers, and several balls of water began to roam over his face, cleansing it through the use of magic. He then took a glance at a piece of leftover bread on the table, then picked it up before putting it into his own mouth.

"Do you always go around eating leftovers like that?" Onean asked as she turned to him with a surprised expression.

"Not everyone can live like you, Your Highness. We can't all afford to be carrying fruit jam from Denly's everywhere we go," Erwin jibed with the piece of bread in his mouth, then put on a coat before making his way outside. 

Denly's was a very renowned bakery in Sarus. Whenever its freshly baked bread was pulled out of the oven, there would already be a long queue lined up outside the bakery. At times, the line was so long that it extended all the way to two streets away. Of course, the bakery was also quite famous for its fruit jams of different varieties. What came as a slight surprise to Erwin was that Onean was also a fan of the bakery.

As he made his way onto the airship's deck, he saw Christine and her father surrounded by the mercenaries of the Four Winds mercenary legion. Christine was a very clever and adorable little girl, so she had become a very welcome figure among the Four Winds mercenary legion during the past few days. All of the mercenaries were quite fond of her, and they had all become very friendly with her. As a result, that made this confrontation even more awkward.

"If you want to talk, then calm down and talk. Why are you yelling all of a sudden? Wasn't it agreed upon that we'll only be borrowing this airship until the end of the war?" Larwood said as he looked at Christine's father. "If it wasn't for us, you and your daughter would still be confined in that secret room by the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries."

Following the departure of Luphen and the Heavenly Star mercenary legion, Erwin had given Larwood a recount of how he had saved Christine and her father on the airship. Larwood had also agreed to return the airship to Christine and her father at the conclusion of the war. After all, Erwin and his friends were rather greedy and shameless, but they wouldn't stoop as low as actual bandits and thugs.

Given the current situation, it wouldn't be inappropriate for Larwood to make some threats to Christine and her father. However, Erwin had promised to keep Christine and her father safe, so if Larwood were to threaten them, he would be directly rebuking Erwin. Thus, he chose to be more civil and diplomatic with his approach.

After hearing what Larwood had to say, Christine's father turned to her with an inquisitive glance, in response to which Christine gave a reluctant nod to confirm that Larwood was telling the truth.

Her father's anger immediately died down a little upon seeing this, but he was still not satisfied. "Even so, we can't go to the front lines with you. This is a war between two kingdoms! We'll be nothing more than cannon fodder!"

"Alright, then we'll leave you two at Xeto, then come back and return the airship to you after the war. Is that alright?" Larwood negotiated.

"Of course not! Who knows if you're going to come back after you leave? What if you don't ever return? Are we just supposed to accept that our airship has been taken then?" Christine's father countered in an unyielding voice.

A cold look appeared on Larwood's face upon hearing this. "Alright, then what do you want?"

The mercenaries of the Four Winds mercenary legion were also not very pleased to hear this, and Christine's father was rather intimidated at the sight of the hostile looks that had appeared on their faces.

Before Christine's father had a chance to reply, Erwin made his way through the crowd and arrived directly before him. "I also want to hear what your intentions are. Go on then."

Looking at Erwin's swollen and bloodshot eyes, it was clear that he hadn't slept well the night before. In fact, there was a chance that he had been woken up prematurely due to the commotion that Christine's father was causing, and with that in mind, Christine was feeling rather guilty. She hurriedly tried to explain, "Brother Erwin, my father..."

"Christine, you told me that you and your father were traveling merchants. When it comes to business, integrity is everything. Back when I saved you, we had an agreement that you would lend this airship to me for the duration of the war. Are you going to revoke that agreement now?" Erwin asked as he looked at Christine.

Christine wanted to reply, but her father stopped her, then turned to Erwin with a hostile expression as he rebuked, "She's just a little girl, she doesn't know what it's like to deal with people like you. If you want to take the airship, then just state your intentions! Why are you going around deceiving children?"

"Father..." Christine turned to her father with a displeased pout, yet before she had a chance to say anything else, she was given a massive fright by what happened next.

Erwin lunged forward and grabbed Christine's father by the throat, then slammed him into the mainmast of the ship. The top-quality rosewood of the mainmast had been dented appreciably from the impact, and the back of Christine's father had completely sunken into the indentation. Erwin was still very frustrated from the night before, and his foul mood was further exacerbated by his sleep deprivation. As such, Christine's father had chosen the worst time to bother him, and he was paying the price for it.

"I don't have time to be bickering with you here. I'm giving you two options: either you wait in Xeto until we return from the front lines, or we throw you overboard right now. It's your choice," Erwin said as he glowered at Christine's father.

Christine's father was still yet to recover from his injuries, and upon receiving such a heavy blow, he immediately threw up a mouthful of blood as he stared at Erwin with an alarmed and fearful expression.

Erwin was completely unmoved as he continued to glower at Christine's father with a cold expression. "If I had known that you'd cause so much trouble, I wouldn't have wasted all those magic potions to save you."

Christine was so horrified that she was on the verge of tears, and she grabbed tightly onto Erwin's arm as she implored, "Please don't hurt my father, Brother Erwin. He was only causing a fuss for my sake. I'm begging you, please let him go. You can have the airship if you want! You can even keep it after the war..."

Having been rescued by Erwin, she had arrived at the false impression that he was a kind and amicable gentleman. Never did she think that he would be so cold and unforgiving.

Erwin took a glance at the teary-eyed Christine, and he finally loosened his grip a little so that Christine's father was able to catch his breath.

Christine's father was feeling quite sorry for her, but at the same time, he was glaring at Erwin with a resentful expression.

"You didn't seem to understand the position that you're in, so I gave you a little reminder," Erwin said with a disdainful look on his face. "We had no intention of taking your airship. Like we said, our intention was only ever to borrow it until the end of the war. If you're convinced that we're a bunch of bandits, then there's nothing I can do."

Christine's father was turning purple from asphyxiation, and Erwin finally released him upon seeing this. Christine hurriedly rushed forward to support her father, who was gasping for air as he stared intently at Erwin, but he didn't dare to say anything further, seemingly having been intimidated by Erwin's display of hostility.

Christine turned to Erwin with tears in her eyes, and she was also at a loss for what to say. Thus, she could only support her father and help him back to their room. As they were departing, Christine's father turned back to Erwin before giving him one final resentful glare.

The early morning fiasco certainly wasn't helping Erwin's already foul mood, and even though the weather was extremely picturesque with not a single cloud in sight in any direction, he was still not feeling any better for it.

...

Meanwhile, on the provincial road 50 kilometers to the northeast of Newen, Duke Nandoon and Duke Shreesan were marching with their 10,000 troops, and they were planning to go around Newen, then continue directly southward to reach their destination, which was Xeto.

"There's no need to go any further southwestward of here, right, Brother Nandoon?" Duke Shreesan asked as he took a glance at their surroundings.

"Yes, there's no need to make a detour to Newen. We can exit the provincial road from here, then go directly southward along the mountain. After that, we go onto the provincial road between Newen and Xeto, and that'll get us to our destination a lot faster," Duke Nandoon replied with a nod as he also inspected his surroundings, then took a glance at the map that he was holding.

"How about we stop and take a rest here? We've already been traveling for a day and a night," Shreesan suggested as he cast his gaze toward Nandoon.

"Are you already too tired to go on?" Nandoon jibed. "Surely not. If I recall correctly, you're a little younger than I am. Surely this amount of travel isn't already too much for you."

"Of course I can still go on. I can travel for another day and a night without any issues. I'm just worried that your body won't be able to last, Brother Nandoon," Shreesan chuckled.

"Haha, I may be a little old, but I'm not as frail as you think," Nandoon replied with an amused smile. "Let's keep going."

Thus, the army continued onward without pause, exiting the provincial road before continuing southward.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the provincial road, a horse-drawn carriage was in the process of traveling toward Illingburn Fort in the northeast, accompanied by two rows of Prince Lazaar's most trusted subordinates. The craftsmanship of the cedar wood carriage was exceptional, but its decor was quite plain with an archaic style, as opposed to going the lavish and extravagant route.

"Are those royal soldiers on their way to reinforcing Xeto?" A red-haired woman in the carriage lifted the curtain before taking a glance outside.

There was an older woman seated in the carriage beside the red-haired woman, and a derisive look appeared on her face as she said, "Looks like those royals and nobles from Sarus aren't idiots. Some of them have already found a way to avoid having to stay on the front lines. Alternatively, perhaps Prince Lazaar was the one who arranged for them to leave."

The red-haired woman was staring at the barren branches of the daynight pear trees on either side of the provincial path with an absentminded expression. The snow in Burmen had already begun to melt, so the accumulated snow on these trees was already nowhere to be seen. Once these daynight pear blossoms began to bloom, they would present a beautiful sight in the night, lighting up the darkness with pristine white radiance to illuminate the entire provincial road.

"Lana, I'm speaking to you." The older woman in the carriage raised her voice by a few octaves as she spoke. This woman was none other than the vastly renowned Mistress Faye.

"Ah, sorry, I spaced out a little," Lana said as she returned to her senses, then stuck out her tongue with a cheeky smile as she sidled up against Mistress Faye like a pet trying to appease its owner. "What were you saying just now, Teacher?"