Loyalty. That was what mattered the most in the Crossford family. Blood, coin, status, nothing else could possibly compare to what every servant in that household had, that being loyalty beyond human understanding. If they were ordered to die for their masters, they would do so without a second thought.

Bravery, conviction, courage and relentless support, those were the core values of the Crossford family, ever since the great war, they always abided to help those in need, bring justice to those who deserved it and bestow peace to a war torn kingdom.

Their efforts to rebuild a kingdom paved by peace was a hard-fought one. Instead of shunning the former enemy, they gave them a place to call it home and a chance to begin anew. Slowly, little by little, they started to earn the trust of the demons living in Arcadia, bringing together what was the former Crossford household, a place where demons could hopefully live in harmony with humans without the worry of having a sword to the back.

However, all of that was taken away that one night. After all that time running away she finally understood what war meant. It wasn’t history from books anymore, it was her reality. If she was to survive and bring back peace, her hands would eventually be stained crimson red, be it from a beast, demon or another fellow human.

After feeling what it meant to fight for tomorrow’s hope, she decided to abandon the mantle of Princess, this time, she would fight with her own two hands.

“Let’s go Phoebe.”

A chill went down the high elf’s spine, it was as if she was talking to someone else entirely, the kind princess she knew was no longer there. Nevertheless she followed her suit, helping the young lady to bring Krieg over inside the snow sledge.

“Can you drive this?”

Leona asked as she folded up her torn sleeves out of the way, from her fingers down towards both forearms were burned to the flesh, however even with the stinging pain, she decided to travel through the snow forest as fast as she could in order to find a better place to rest. After all, those explosions from before had easily given away their position to any would-be pursuers or predators.

Phoebe saw the burns as she turned to answer and promptly rushed to her side in order to heal the wounds.

“Princess, we need to treat these before we go. We can’t risk you getting an infection from this.”

The high elf gently held her right forearm before chanting the healing spell, letting out a faint green glow that slowly dried out the surface flesh, but since they were burns from very powerful spells there was only so much she could do with the knowledge she possessed.

Most wounds are normally easily healed with just a small amount of mana, but fire spells were especially hard to treat even with healing magics as the seared tissue has its natural regeneration halted due to the burns.

After spending about ten minutes healing the exposed wounds on both arms, Phoebe sat down on the driver’s seat as Leona finished strapping the knight with his own tattered uniform in order to not leave him exposed to the weather. She sat down in front of the mana engine and took a deep breath before turning her head slightly to tell the high elf.

“All ready here.”

“Right, I’m all set too.”

She put on the protective goggles and grabbed the handlebar with both hands.

“I’m firing the engine in three, two, one-”

A compact azure fire sphere the size of a golf ball was created by weaving together mana while feeding it plenty of air; she released the spell inside the engine chamber. In no time they were already traveling through the snow forest, occasionally Leona would supply the engine with more fire spells in order to keep the high speed. At one point it became natural for her to fling small sparks of blue flames inside the engine to keep it working.

Thinking back on everything the god had said to her, it was plainly clear that she needed to become stronger, but even so, how could she improve without guidance? Her swordsmanship lacked, her magic which at first seemed to be above the rest was now just an elaborate excuse to fight, the only redeeming feature she could think of was her ability to strategize, but even so what would that help if she had to fight alone?

Questions plagued her mind, the more she tried to come up with a simple answer, more questions raised only to thwart her plans. In the back of her mind there was an answer, training.

‘But do I have enough time?’

She thought.

‘Not only the blade but also magic and tactics, can I become the ruler I aspire to be?’

She clicked her tongue and closed both hands into tight fists.

‘No, it’s not a matter if I can or can’t. I must become the ruler I aspire to be. For my family, for the ones I care about and for the kingdom. I must become stronger.’

That said, it seemed harder to put it in practice, how did one become stronger? Everything she read about magic was either about shortening chantings or increasing a spell’s potency by fueling it with more mana. She opened her right hand, all fingers were tingling from the burns, but there were a few parts of the skin that seemed intact from the top of her hand, which prompted her to remember something the wizard Laslow had said to her.

‘...its destructive power depends on the user’s mana, but what determines the intensity of the flame is still a mystery to me.’

Her mother used to teach her a lot about magic even before she started attending the Grand Academy. If she could achieve results that not even scholars of the prestigious academy could, that meant something about her way of teaching magic was different.

She tried to remember the first time she was able to cast a spell. It was a faint memory of her mother placing an object over a wooden fence.

“Now, darling, try to focus on the glass of water, imagine the liquid inside slowly becoming solid until it becomes ice.”

“Mmm! I’ll try!”

Once it became clearer, she noticed it was the yard behind the mansion, near the patch of sunflowers, her mother was instructing her how to cast an ice spell. It was usually the first spell to be learned since it was one of the easiest elements to grasp the concept of.

Upon closing her eyes and extending both hands towards the half-filled glass cup, she took a deep breath and concentrated on the image of stillness, much like the thin surface of a calm lake, she imagined the water stop moving and become stable. Once she opened her eyes again, two very thin strings of mana grew outwards from the palm of her hands and circled around the glass as the surface of the water slowly started to freeze.

“Ah! Mom! I did it!”

“Yes you did it! Congratulations!”

“Yay!”

She was only tall enough to hug around her mother’s legs but it was clear how happy she was to accomplish such a feat. Her mother put her hair behind the left ear as she patted Leona’s head.

“You are my most precious thing in the world, Leona.”

A small tear came to her eyes, but it quickly dried away from the cold wind brushing against the back of her head. Leona finally had a clue on how to become stronger.

‘So the trick is to train the basics in order to cast spells without chanting as well as mix in elements that are compatible for more destructive power.’

She thought while extending both hands outwards the snow sledge, she visualized a thin enough blade of water shooting out of both of her palms and the moment, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

‘Focus Leona. You can do it.’

Upon exhaling and opening her eyes, she shot out blades of water through the palm of her hands by condensating the air with mana and right after it, before the water eventually plunged towards the ground, she weaved mana in a vortex motion in order to generate a powerful short burst of wind that upon contacting the water mid air created enough propulsion to send her body slightly backwards.

The snow sledge shook a bit, which made Phoebe worry about its durability as she leaned left and right in order to inspect both sides of the vehicle. Seeing how there was nothing apparent wrong with it, she decided to keep going even though she almost couldn’t feel the tip of her fingers from the temperature steadily dropping the further away they got from the dwarven citadel.

The high elf began to slow her breathing in order to try and keep her body warm as the enchantments of her clothing wasn’t going to be enough in that cold environment. A small quantity of ice started to form around the ends of the black hair sticking out of the cloth.

‘I thought the enchantments were strong enough but apparently my father was right. Even in the borders of the kingdom is enough to freeze an unprepared adventurer.’

Formerly, a tightly packed forest gave space to a vast plain of white, between the far darkened storm clouds it was possible to see the peak of the Londrian castle. The spire broke out from the flat incline of snow as their ride started to ascend the slight slope of snow.

“Here we are, Princess! The frozen kingdom of Londria!”

Phoebe shouted towards the back of the sledge which prompted Leona to turn her upper body around whilst partially covering her eyes from the wind rushing by her face. Thankfully the night sky was clear enough for her to appreciate the starry sky accompanied by the cold breeze that carried snowflakes that seemed to scintillate with the dim light of the moon.

“...”

It seemed impressive, but for some reason Leona couldn’t find joy in that moment. Surely, it was a very different sight from what she was used to, but at the same time it felt melancholic. Her chest tightened at a feeling of anger, but she wasn’t exactly sure why she felt such hatred. Upon reaching with her closed hand to her breast she quietly muttered with determination.

“This time for sure… I won’t let anyone die.”