Lord Summoner's Freedom Philosophy: Grimoire of Love

The wagon trudged through the snowy land, its wheels sinking into the soft white powder with each step. The wagon seemed to have no difficulty navigating the slippery terrain even though horses usually have great difficulties in traveling on top of snowy paths. The driver of the wagon, Lyan, bundled up in a thick coat and scarf, looked out at the snowy landscape with a big smile on his face. Despite the cold and the challenges of the weather, he's still determined to reach his destination, no matter what obstacles lay in their path. As the wagon made its way across the snowy land, it left behind a trail of footprints, marking its progress through the wintry wilderness.

The reason for Lyan's big smile is because of the speed of their travel right now is not different from his usual traveling speed on horse. It's all because of Alpha and the four winter wolves taking the black aggressive's horse's place and pulling the wagon. With their feet that are accustomed to traveling on top of the snow, even if they are pulling the weight of the wagon, they have no difficulties on it and they seem to be rather enjoying it as if they are having great exercise.

As the wagon walks, Lyan watched how the aggressive black horse ran in a full-speed sprint ahead of them and then returned with the same speed. He's enjoying his free time as he usually always has the job of either pulling the wagon or getting mounted by Lyan. Unlike the winter wolves, his hooves are not accustomed to walking on top of the snow, so having more weight to pull made his hooves sink into the snow and made it harder for him to run which lead to his bad mood since the snow made him can't travel faster.

Without having to pull the wagon, the black aggressive horse is making himself accustomed to running on top of the snow efficiently at first, but ended up getting too excited about running in the cold region instead. It's funny to see how he's running back and forth like an overexcited dog.

"That guy... I thought that he would get offended at first since his position got suddenly stolen by the newcomer. It looks like he's enjoying it instead," Lyan uttered with a helpless smile.

At the time the black horse and Alpha confront each other for the first time, the black horse launched a quick and powerful headbutt enough to make the strong and resilient winter wolf alpha lose his consciousness for tens of minutes.

The perverted black horse even attempted to seduce the female winter wolves when Alpha was knocked out by him. But after getting rejection by the four of them, the black horse lost his interest after snorting and went for a solo exercise instead.

"Seriously, that guy. Does he even fine with other races other than horses? He's that perverted...?" Lyan stared at the black horse that is running back in his direction with his brows furrowed.

"Y-You're right... I-It's the first time I ever saw such a horse..." Tesha uttered staggeringly. The reason of why she's trembling is not due to her surprise at the black aggressive horse. She has already long believed that she will continue to see surprising things if she follows Lyan as her master. The reason why she's trembling is because of the biting coldness of the temperature.

Even though she's already bundled in thicker furs that Lyan bought for her in the village they passed before the northern borders, she's still trembling because of the cold. It's not because she's weak, but they are currently in a region that seems to be filled with a dense ice mana in the atmosphere.

The dense amount of ice mana creates some magical phenomenon, and gives lingering cold effects to those who do not have immunities in both coldness and magic.

"I've told you that you should just wait inside the wagon. It will be not funny if you die because of the cold here, you know that?" (Lyan)

"Ugh... I also want to see the scenery... Fine..." Tesha uttered in resignation. The reason why she's sitting beside Lyan in the coachman's seat is not because of her sense of duty to accompany her master, but because the scenery around them is not something that people could see every day.

The sight of the beautiful snowy mountains around them and some beautiful light phenomenon that occasionally appeared because of the dense amount of mana in the nature are something that she could die for.

But after hearing Lyan's sound argument, thinking that it would be indeed funny if she died in such a joking way, Tesha went inside the wagon and pile up the remaining furs Lyan had also bought before on top of her and went to sleep.

"I guess it's good that she's showing such a childish side of her to me, huh?" Lyan uttered under his breath as a small smile formed on his face.

As the wagon creaked and jostled along the way, the sight of three winter wolves pulling the wagon and the two others guarding the both sides of the wagon entered Lyan's vision. As he thought, they were the perfect companions for his travels through the frozen wilderness, and he was grateful to have them by his side and for his knowledge about the Siberian Huskies in the former world.

The travel through the northern borders of the Astellia Kingdom with wagons and carriages usually takes two weeks in other seasons, but it could take about 1 month or more in such winters. In extreme cases where heavy snowstorm does not cease, it could take 2 months or even more to reach the first town in the north.

Because of that reason, there are some winter cabins made by the locals to ensure the travelers could survive. It usually takes a week to meet one, but because of the winter wolves pulling the wagon, it took only about three days for Lyan to reach the first big winter cabin.

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Inside the royal capital of the Astellia Kingdom, beautiful lights and music are all over the place, and it could be seen that servants and maids are hurrying over all the place, seeming to be busy because of work.

Tonight is the annual ball hosted by the royal family to invite the nobles all over the country to make and tend their connections with each other in order to strengthen the bonds inside the country and to make a form of prayer for the upcoming winter and the upcoming new year.

The crown prince sent the invitation with a message aimed at the feudal lords that he was open for discussions in case of any of them were in need of his advice since it's not unusual for feudal and territorial problems to rise in winter that is prone to natural disasters and magical phenomenon.

Because of his invitation, other than for political reasons, the feudal lords from all over the place heeds his call and went to the capital in order to meet the crown prince and discuss with him about the winter.

"Yes, there seems to be a plague spreading on my territory as there are lots of people having fevers and colds all over the place. Do you think that the food might be the problem, your highness?"

"The winter might make my territory go into a food shortage, do you have any solutions to help me, your highness?"

All types of questions regarding the winter problems went to the crown prince, but with a charismatic smile and a gentle tone, he always answered them with the utmost patience. But of course, he remains to hold the reins of the conversation, making sure that none of the nobles would dare to underestimate him.

He already realized since long that some of the nobles that are bombarding him with questions are the duke's men that are trying to make him lose his face by asking difficult questions, but he took the opportunity to show his competence and intellect by giving great answers to all of those questions.

"Hmph! He's as cunning as ever. He kept on repelling all of my attacks and attempted to confine me inside this capital to limit my options. But don't think that this is the end. My big plan is still yet to come,"

With a glass full of wine inside his hand, Duke Ravindor stared at the full moon with his sharp eyes, seeming to be staring at the bloody future that seem to unfold soon.

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Name: Lyan Arkanium Evocatore

Occupation: Mythril-ranked Mercenary

Money: 3,797,710,950 Elnes / 3797 gold 71 big silver 9 big coppers 5 coppers

Weapon: Magic Glaive, 1 (Decent) One-handed Sword, 2 (Good-Quality) One-handed swords, 1 (Decent) bow

Equipment: Black leather cloak, Leather Armor, Breastplate, 2 Health Potions, 2 Poison Vials

Grimoire's Companions: 8 High Spirits, 3 Valkyrie, Shadow Goblin Lord (Lv. 5), Papilio Slime (Lv. 45), Galewing Butterfly (Lv. 45), Rock Golem (Lv. 50), Deadlight (Lv. 63), Moonlight Butterfly (Lv. 45), Ice Golem (Lv. 50), Acid Ant Queen (Lv. 9), Magma Bear (Lv. 1), Fey Mammoth (Lv. 1), Arcane Retriever (Lv. 1), Winter Wolf Alpha (Lv. 12)

Grimoire's Army: 6 Shadow Servants, 800 Skeleton Army