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“Be careful of an avalanche,” she’d warned him. He smiled at the memory of their strange conversation, and Idith turned around when he heard his laid-back laughter.

“Your Highness? Concentrate please,” Idith said.

Aden composed his expression and pressed a finger to his lips jokingly. While Idith wanted to say something, he stared ahead instead. His horse whinnied as if sensing his master’s emotions. The horse was different from those of the empire, as it had to run in the snow.

An avalanche. Biflten, being the wintry lands, had more than its fair share of avalanches. Winter monsters wouldn’t live in places where something like that would occur and they had been around long before humans arrived.

“We will be arriving soon.” Idith’s words were short, and the other knights followed them quietly. Aden looked around with his blue eyes. The low hills and the falling snow were what he’d seen every day in Biflten. Of course, except for the fact that the red mollies lived nearby.

Be careful of an avalanche? Aden smiled again as he remembered those words for the second time. While he saw Idith flinch, Aden continued to think of other things. He knew that he was too lax during this advance, but he couldn’t let go of that summer scent of hers and it constantly occupied his mind.

“All ready. We will charge soon.” Aden spoke quietly, and Idith conveyed his words. It took only seconds for his order to spread to all the knights and he didn’t need to shout to them to charge. They had been about to move when Aden heard a strange sound and it felt like something large was boiling and shaking beneath the ground.

“What is this sound?”

A knight looked around while Aden felt the earth shake under his feet. He raised a hand to stop the knights, and again, it took only seconds for Idith to convey his message. The horses born in Biflten were quite close to their masters. While most wouldn’t allow any other human to ride them, they followed sudden orders from their masters immediately; their lines did not break.

“What is this?”

Mollies had inhabited this place for centuries, and while avalanches were common during the January storms, this was not normal. Aden looked around in disbelief and saw a blue light spreading across the snow in the distance. It seemed to be coming from the cliff.

“Retreat,” Aden said frantically and Idith turned to face him.

“What?”

“Retreat to the castle!”

Idith asked again as he could not believe his orders, “Retreat?”

Aden motioned with his hand instead of answering, as they had to get away from here as fast as possible.

“Your Highness, we cannot attack here again if we retreat now.” While Idith knew that his master didn’t give meaningless orders, he had to ask again. There was no reason for them to have come all the way here if they retreated now. “If the mollies get back together in April…”

“All, retreat!” Aden had no time to explain and couldn’t explain anyway. He knew that these tremors may be caused by reasons Aden could not imagine, despite having lived his entire life here. However, Aden couldn’t ignore Ilyin’s words, if this was an avalanche, they had to move now; it was now or never!

He remembered his bride’s clear words yesterday. Her violet eyes were clear when up close. The knight’s horses all turned back.

“Retreat at full speed!” Idith’s shout rang through the air, and the tremors became loud enough for everyone to hear. The horses ran as the knights understood Aden’s intention. A heavy avalanche had started and they managed to escape it in the nick of time.

***

Aden had returned to the Biflten Estate that afternoon, and the servants all were at a loss for words because of his unexpected return. Only the Delrose maids had prepared clothes and a bath for him. They said their mistress had asked them to prepare this, saying that he may return earlier than expected.

Aden went up to the seventh floor with his head full of questions. All the Delrose knights were alive, and only the mollies had suffered in the snowstorm. He clearly remembered the blue light coming from the cliff and could only assume that the mollies had used magic, which was normal for them. The problem was, the mollies may have other monsters as allies since they had buried their habitat in snow intentionally. While this situation needed urgent discussion, he had somewhere to go first.