CHAPTER 10
“Grrrr….”
Around this time of year, the yeti should have been hibernating—but for some reason, it let out a furious roar with a wrathful face.
“Protect His Highness!”
As the yeti revealed its aggression, a man who appeared to be the commander shouted and gestured urgently.
At that moment, a subordinate knight pointed at the ground and yelled.
“D-Deputy Commander! Look at the ground!”
The terrain had already frozen solid with ice.
The yeti had the ability to magically freeze the ground within a 5-kilometer radius.
The knights, who had just arrived from a warmer region, obviously weren’t wearing crampons or anything suited for icy terrain.
“W-What do we do…”
Dietrich, his face pale, stared at the yeti.
He trembled, not even realizing that the ice on the ground was slowly encasing his feet.
Watching him, Irene approached and held out her hand.
“Give me your sword.”
“…W-What are you talking about?”
“You know better than anyone that I can’t fight that thing with my own sword.”
Irene tossed the sword in her hand to the ground—and it shattered instantly.
Dietrich looked at her, a bit shaken.
“Y-You’re thinking about sparring at a time like this—?”
“I’m not fighting you.”
“Then who—no way!”
Dietrich’s jaw dropped. His wide blue eyes filled with shock as they fixed on her.
“Are you insane?! You’re going to fight the yeti?!”
“Yeah.”
At that moment—
“Grrrr….”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The yeti bared its sharp fangs and charged at the knights.
“Damn it!”
Even their real swords were no match for the thick hide of the yeti.
The man who seemed to be the deputy commander stayed close to Reinhardt, unable to fully focus on the battle.
“Get behind that tree.”
Irene, having taken the sword from Dietrich, pointed to a large tree.
“Y-You want me to hide like a coward?”
“Wasn’t it cowardly to tamper with the wooden sword?”
“…You knew?”
Irene didn’t respond and instead hid her presence, slowly approaching the yeti.
Dietrich silently screamed as he watched her draw closer to the beast.
‘She’s crazy!’
Was she really that desperate to die?
He wanted to stop her—but he couldn’t. Honestly, he was terrified of that enormous, ferocious creature.
Several knights were already lying on the ground unconscious.
‘There’s only one chance.’
Irene tried to regain her composure.
The yeti was capable of instantly assessing its opponent’s strength and adjusting its aggression accordingly.
That’s why it charged first at the knights emitting strong auras.
If they had understood the yeti’s nature, they would’ve realized how much of a tactical blunder it was to crowd so many strong knights around Reinhardt.
‘I need to strike when it has no interest in me.’
She had to knock it out in one blow while it underestimated her.
Through the remaining few knights, her eyes met Reinhardt’s, who looked visibly tense.
He furrowed his brows as he stared at her.
‘She’s really coming this way? Is she insane?’
Irene easily read the meaning in his gaze.
‘I’m not insane. I’m more rational than ever.’
Meeting his eyes, she tried to communicate that message with a glance.
Still looking at her like she was out of her mind—
Whoosh!
She leapt.
Landing directly on the yeti’s shoulder, she struggled to maintain balance on its swaying body.
‘If I fall from here, I’ll die.’
She glanced at the frozen ground below. The yeti, agitated by the sudden intrusion, thrashed around violently.
Then, she gripped her wooden sword tightly.
Thwack!!!
“Grrk!”
She struck a vital point with perfect accuracy—and the yeti slowly began to collapse.
Boom!
Its massive body hit the ground, shaking it like an earthquake.
The unconscious yeti lay with its tongue hanging out, its limbs twitching.
“Phew…”
Success.
Irene wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.
The wooden sword in her hand was now broken in two.
‘That should be enough to prove my skill as a knight.’
She looked toward Reinhardt. His face was obscured by the bodies of the other knights.
Her goal was to join the Imperial Knights.
And to do that sooner than through formal procedures, she needed a recommendation from royalty.
If she could join early, she could monitor Kim Taeheon closely and protect the Lykaon family from a distance.
Thinking of those who had died saving her…
This was the least she could do to repay them.
She began walking slowly.
“Let’s go.”
She reached her hand out to Dietrich, who was hiding behind the tree.
Instead of taking it, he stared at her.
“You… what are you?”
In his suspicious, shining blue eyes, she was reflected clearly.
“Are you really… Irene Lykaon?”
“Remember when I washed the sheets you peed on?”
“H-Hey! Keep it down! I told you, I spilled water!”
His pale face turned bright red in an instant.
But from Irene’s experience washing those sheets herself, there was no doubt he had been lying.
“Sure.”
She nodded nonchalantly.
“If you’re going back alone, I’ll head off first.”
As she turned away, someone grabbed her sleeve.
“H-Hey… wait. Let’s go together.”
Dietrich’s anxious gaze lingered on the unconscious yeti.
Though not a monster, the yeti was the guardian spirit of Lupus Forest—killing it was taboo.
Not that any sane person would dare fight such a beast.
‘Well, here she is.’
While everyone else stared at Irene in awe, she was lost in another thought.
‘Who disturbed the hibernating guardian spirit?’
It had seemed like a minor event in her previous life, but thinking back now, something felt off.
***
The knights, having quickly left Lupus Forest, chattered endlessly about what had just happened.
“What in the world did I just witness?”
“She moved so fluidly, even on that ice—must be in the Lykaon blood.”
“Her combat strength speaks for itself. If the bloodline is that strong, I can’t even imagine the current head of the house.”
“What do you think, Your Highness?”
But no response came from Reinhardt.
He kept replaying the moment she charged the monster—thirty times her size.
Back then, he’d thought he had to save her.
But before he could act, she knocked the yeti out cold with a wooden sword.
‘…She’s actually insane.’
To defeat a monster like that with no protective gear and shabby clothes…
Even as he told himself she was reckless, his heart began to race.
Without even realizing it.
***
That evening.
The incident in Lupus Hill was quickly reported to the Duke of Lykaon.
The Duke’s gaze was sharper than ever.
“Report everything that happened there, without leaving out a single detail.”
With the knight commander absent, Deputy Commander Noel gave the report.
“There’s one unusual point—at dawn the day before, a servant saw another servant entering Lupus Forest.”
“A servant?”
Soon, a brown-haired servant was dragged into the office.
His pale face was drenched in sweat, and he fell to his knees in a panic.
The Duke stared at the kneeling servant silently, as if daring him to plead his case.
The servant stammered as he began to speak.
“I-I just… I went into the forest to pick mushrooms…”
No one believed that excuse—who forages mushrooms in the forest before sunrise?
At the Duke’s signal, Noel sighed and gestured to the knights.
They stepped in to drag the servant away.
“You learned nothing from the last example,” Noel muttered, referring to Chiron’s punishment.
The servant, panicked, blurted out.
“I-I was only following the young master’s orders!!”
The knights froze.
“There are things you say—and things you don’t,” Noel warned coldly.
But the servant wouldn’t stop. Better to speak than die.
“T-The reason I went there was—”
He babbled out an explanation and then lowered his face to the floor.
“I’m so, so sorry!”
He confessed that he had been ordered to set traps in the forest to ensure Irene would lose in battle.
“I committed a grave sin… please spare my life…!”
As the Duke stared at him icily, he gave a quiet command.
“Bring me Dietrich.”
