"But why would they do that? They had been so calm until now," Ryan wondered aloud. He clearly remembered that the large beasts hadn't caused any trouble or tried to escape since they took full control of the area several days ago.

Lise took a step closer to Ryan. The dragon analyzed the strange situation from the instinctive perspective of a wild monster and reached a very logical conclusion for herself.

"Young master, I believe it is because you were not in the castle."

Alicia twitched her animal ears forward upon hearing the dragon's theory. The beastwoman tilted her head slightly, trying to make sense of the dragon's statement.

"What do you mean by that, Lady Lise?" Alicia asked, looking somewhat confused by the dragon's sudden idea.

Irina also approached the small group. The elven princess looked at Lise with the same evident doubt that Alicia reflected on her own face.

"Why would it matter that Ryan wasn't here?" Irina asked, trying to understand Lise's reasoning.

Lise then walked a few more steps through the snow and stood right in front of the three of them. She raised a hand to explain her point of view with total clarity to the two women.

"That's exactly what I mean. Those giant wolves were the demon king Rigal's pets and only obeyed him. They were trained that way. The fact that they didn't do absolutely anything until now and remained so calm was simply because they could feel your enormous power, young master."

Lise finished her explanation while looking directly at Ryan, with great devotion and respect shining in her bicolored eyes.

"I see. And because we left the continent, they acted that way when they stopped feeling my presence. I think I got too overconfident about this situation. I thought the wolves had already gotten used to Chloe's presence, but in reality, they were just waiting for the perfect opportunity to escape."

Ryan finished his analysis and fixed his gaze on the girls, who were attentively waiting for his next orders.

"What are we going to do now to fix this?" Irina asked with deep concern in her voice, knowing that those wolves were very dangerous to be roaming loose on the snowy mountain without any control.

Lise immediately smiled and bared her sharp fangs a bit. The dragon was more than willing to solve the problem by using a lot of violence against the beasts.

"Do you want me to track them down and kill them right now, young master?" Lise asked with utter enthusiasm, hoping to receive Ryan's explicit permission to start hunting the fugitives.

Ryan immediately shook his head and looked at the dragon woman with great seriousness on his face.

"No, I still want them alive," Ryan answered very directly and sharply, making it clear that he didn't want any more unnecessary bloodshed.

"It will be enough to force them to acknowledge their new owner's rules."

Ryan turned his head and stared at Alicia, then shifted his gaze to Irina. He evaluated both women's physical capabilities and skills for a brief moment.

'Alicia said Helen and the others are already looking for them. But I'd like to see them all work as a good team to see how they resolve this problem,' Ryan thought to himself while carefully observing the two girls standing before him.

'Now that I think about it, Irina being an elf and Alicia being a beastwoman, they should be exceptionally good at tracking prey in the wild.'

Ryan finished formulating his plan of action and quickly decided how to handle the emergency in the snowy territory.

Alicia noticed Ryan's fixed, analytical gaze on her. The beastwoman felt a bit nervous under his intense attention in the middle of the cold.

"What is it, Your Majesty?" Alicia asked, somewhat confused by her leader's long, heavy silence.

Ryan took a step toward them and pointed down the long snowy path that descended the mountain.

"I want you two to join the search immediately," Ryan ordered with a firm and very clear voice.

"Catch the giant wolves and do not kill them under any circumstances. Above all, report this directly to Helen as soon as you see her."

Ryan paused briefly to add much more weight to his next warning regarding the human swordsman's impulsive attitude.

"Tell Helen that I will punish her severely if she kills any of them by accident or by failing to control her strength. I will take care of healing Chloe's wounds myself."

Alicia and Irina nodded at the same time, understanding the great urgency of the new mission.

"Yes, Your Majesty," they both said in unison with deep respect. They turned around and quickly ran off through the deep snow to begin tracking the wolves.

Ryan watched them walk away for a few seconds before turning toward the grand main entrance. He began walking decisively toward the castle's heavy wooden doors.

"Alright, now let's see how the holy knight is doing," Ryan said, taking long, quick strides to enter the large stone building.

The dragon walked right behind him, keeping her eyes fixed on her master's broad back.

Upon entering the castle, the cold, noisy atmosphere outside changed immediately. On the first floor, right in the center of the great main hall, the scene was quite tragic to behold.

Chloe's body was lying on the stone floor. The young holy knight's clothes were completely torn by the wolves' large, sharp claws. She was covered in fresh blood that was beginning to stain the gray floor around her body.

Lise looked at the unpleasant scene before them without showing any emotion of empathy on her face. The dragon stopped next to Ryan with a very relaxed posture.

"I think she's already dead, young master," Lise said with complete indifference in her tone, as if the human's life held no importance to her.

Ryan frowned upon hearing his new companion's cold and indifferent comment. He immediately sharpened his senses to check the wounded woman's true vital state.

"Of course not," Ryan replied sharply, noticing the faint, weak movement in the bloodied girl's chest.

"She's just unconscious, or at least it seems that way from here."

Ryan took quick steps across the hall until he was right next to the injured body. He stopped beside Chloe and extended his right hand toward her motionless body.

Lise observed the movement of Ryan's arm with utmost attention. The dragon wrapped her arms around herself, shuddering with pure desire.

"How enviable," Lise said in a low voice, looking at her leader's outstretched hand over the wounded human.

"The young master is going to use his immense magical power on that fragile human. I also want to feel much more of my master's energy flowing through my body," Lise commented, not missing a single detail of what Ryan was about to do to heal her. She expected to see a simple magical glow covering the woman's body.

Ryan concentrated his energy in the palm of his right hand. He naturally focused his mind on the basic healing spell he always used to treat mortal wounds.

"Recove—"

Ryan didn't finish uttering the short phrase completely. He stopped abruptly when the flow of his own magical mana felt entirely different from usual.

The castle's entire main hall suddenly lit up with the immense power he had unleashed. A blinding glow filled the room in a tiny fraction of a second.

The characteristic bright green effect of his healing skill did not remain confined to Chloe's body. The immense healing energy exploded forcefully outward in all directions.

The light bypassed the thick stone structures, walls, and pillars of the great hall. The massive flash expanded and completely enveloped the entire castle, as if it were a massive area-of-effect healing spell unleashed at maximum power.

Lise widened her eyes as she found herself completely engulfed in the intense green light. The dragon let out a long, heavy sigh and lowered her arms to her sides.

"Ah... this is thrilling," Lise said while her own physical body glowed intensely with the same green healing magic.

"The young master's immense magic is reaching me too," Lise commented with a smile, feeling the immense power attempting to heal her cells, despite having absolutely no physical damage to heal at that moment.

Ryan quickly withdrew his right hand and instinctively took a step back. He looked at his own gloved fingers and then observed the immense green light still faintly pulsing across the castle ceiling.

'What the hell just happened here?' Ryan questioned himself, feeling a sudden, deep confusion in his mind. He was trying to comprehend the absurdly vast range of his basic healing spell.

'I only intended to use the recovery skill directly on Chloe's body. So why did all this happen?'

Ryan quickly went over his stats and known skills in his mind.

'I know perfectly well that I don't have area healing skills to cover an entire castle.'

And right at the instant of formulating that great doubt in his confused mind, a bright translucent information window appeared floating out of nowhere right before his eyes.

[Automatic debt collection initiated]

The window updated once again.

[Automatic debt collection initiated]

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