"Ice Lance"

Dozens of crystal-clear ice lances rained down from the sky, impaling deep into the ground. But unfortunately, none hit their marks—and luckily, no one else got hit either.

—"Gaaah!"—

—"Gyaaah!"—

However, the sight of ice lances whizzing right in front of their faces drew panicked screams from everyone—both the cavalry soldiers and the adventurers fighting to protect the carriages and eliminate the flock of wyverns, numbering more than a dozen.

"What the heck is wrong with you?!"

"Are you trying to kill us?!"

The furious complaints first came from Kurea, who barely dodged an ice lance that nearly struck her head, followed by Liz, who raised her shield above her and Hannah to protect them.

"Tsk—!"

The irritated click of a tongue—partly from missing her targets and partly from everyone's angry remarks and glares—came from Lynn, who had cast the wide-range mystic spell while standing atop the driver's seat of her magnificent carriage.

"We'll deal with the wyverns, Lynn. Please focus on protecting our carriage with your Barrier," Arezu requested.

It wasn't just an attempt to stop Lynn from casting another massive area-of-effect magical attack; it was also the most logical course of action. After all, hitting airborne opponents was no easy feat—and, more importantly, he wanted to calm Lynn's still-soured mood.

Although Lynn had calmed down a bit from her unreasonable tantrum and emotional outbursts the previous night—after Arezu explained his involvement with the gold-rank adventurer party Aiden Alfa and the heroine Fafna—she hadn't fully returned to her usual cheerful, mischievous self and still occasionally lashed out at Arezu.

"Hmph!"—Just like right now, as she ignored him, looking away with a pout.

"If Ms. Sweet-Sylvie cast her Thunderstorm mystic spell, this fight would be over in a flash," Lynn added, making sure her voice was loud enough for both the group and the person she was implying to hear.

"That would be very dangerous for the caravan and everyone, Ms. Lynn," Sylvie replied, her tone calm and gentle despite Lynn's rudeness.

As Sylvie had said, the current situation didn't allow her to cast Thunderstorm safely.

The wyverns had attacked in the middle of the afternoon, flying at low altitudes just above the carriages.

If Sylvie cast Thunderstorm to intercept them, the wave of lightning strikes might hit the caravans—or anyone wearing metal armor or wielding metal weapons that could conduct electricity. Not to mention, the thunderclaps might terrify the horses and damage everyone's hearing.

"All they have to do is hold their horses and bear a little pain—"

"Please stop being unreasonable, Lynn," Arezu interrupted, trying to sound as laid-back and gentle as possible so as not to agitate her further. Unfortunately, Lynn immediately lashed out again.

"But she cast it back then inside the underground labyrinth!" Lynn protested, recalling how she and Arezu almost got fried by Sylvie's lightning inside the Crystal Mirror Dungeon.

"I'm really sorry about that..." Sylvie said, guilt filling her voice as she recalled how she had endangered Lynn and Arezu—who had followed them to save their group from their losing battle against the Dungeon Master.

"And we're grateful for that. Especially for saving and keeping me alive, Ms. Lynn," Ellric added to Sylvie's apology while standing beside her, guarding Sylvie as she cast a less-destructive Lightning mystic spell.

Seeing Ellric's group genuinely thankful—including Sylvie and Hannah, and except Liz (who was glaring daggers at her)—Lynn couldn't stay mad for long. Her expression softened as she looked away, cheeks faintly blushing from the awkward fluster of being appreciated.

"You'd better keep your promise then... All of you—especially you, Ms. GL."

"You f—t—!"

"Language, Liz!"

The promise Lynn mentioned held serious weight—far beyond their petty squabbles. It concerned two secrets Ellric's group had agreed to keep.

First: that the new Dungeon Master of the Crystal Mirror Dungeon—the undead Visage of the unknown girl who closely resembled Arezu—was actually the Visage of Arezu's Envy.

Second: that Arezu possessed a mysterious ability to absorb monster cores and mana to heal himself and sustain his body, instead of generating mana internally like all creations of the goddess Isleen. A fact that, by definition, could classify Arezu as a monster—and made him all the more suspicious in Liz's eyes.

Aside from Ellric's group, another person had seen Lynn snatch Sylvie's enchanted item and tear out its monster core to feed to Arezu: Brandon, commander of the cavalry and one of the few Heroes of the Eileen Kingdom. With his status as a Duke, bribing him into silence would've been as hard as silencing Liz, also a duke's daughter. Yet Lynn managed it effortlessly.

She had handled all the negotiations without Arezu's knowledge—and all for his sake—so she could keep him all to herself.

But despite everything she'd done—everything she sacrificed, as she saw it—Arezu still dared to hide what Lynn could only interpret as womanizing.

And watching him pay more attention to a wyvern than to her only reignited her irritation.

"Ice Lance—"

"And who exactly are you aiming at with that mystic spell?" Senna said, grabbing Lynn's right hand as she raised it—just in case those conjured ice blocks were aimed at Arezu.

"Didn't Mr. Arezu trust you to guard your magnificent carriage, knowing how great and capable you are, Ms. Lynn?" Casey added, carefully choosing her words to soothe and flatter Lynn while holding her left hand, which was now also pointed toward Arezu.

"Let go of me and let me hit that ungrateful brute on the head!" Lynn growled, struggling to break free from their grasp.

—"No!"—

"How dare you disobey me—your teacher!"

Meanwhile, Leo and Cliff pretended not to notice the squabble, wanting no part of it as they focused on holding Chevaline's and Ragwort's reins in case the two loyal steeds got startled by the sounds of battle.

Even Arezu, glancing over his shoulder, grew uneasy at the sight of multiple ice blocks hovering above Lynn—clearly aimed at him. Still, he trusted Senna and Casey to keep her in check, focusing instead on the wyvern diving toward him from mid-air.

He steadied himself, gripping his new halberd-axe—the one Beatrix had crafted for him before the Annual Caravan Quest began. Extending his mana into the weapon, he prepared to activate his combat skill Reinforce, strengthening the halberd-axe to absorb and disperse the impact as he planned to block the wyvern's dive and pin it to the ground.

But before he could activate his combat skill, Arezu hurriedly leapt to his left—dodging not only the wyvern's attack but also a round metal shield hurled with such force that it embedded itself in the ground where he had just stood.

Looking in the direction the shield had come from, Arezu found Beatrix glaring furiously at him.

"You bastard! Don't you dare misuse the weapon I made! If you're going to use a defensive combat skill, then use a freaking shield!"

"Please, not you as well, Beatrix..." Arezu sighed, growing more tired of dealing with Lynn's—and now Beatrix's—outbursts than with fighting the wyverns.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.