Yes, what twists and bizarre turns had to occur for a former imperial duke, a blessed War God Knight, a Wolf General of extraordinary combat prowess, to ultimately become a "scholar" hopelessly obsessed with laboratory research? And this scholar could even prepare an entire day's worth of math papers for his daughter at a rate of thirty questions per hour—calling it "mental entertainment"...
Andesa suddenly felt a chill run through her. She shivered twice on instinct before beginning to consider how she could explain what had happened to her father to her grandfather as concisely as possible.
"This matter... should begin with the blizzard at Winterwolf Fortress in the year Father disappeared," the young Wolf General finally said, slowly breaking the silence. "That year, Father did not fall into an Ansu encirclement. He encountered followers of The End of All Things who were operating at the foot of the Dark Mountains..."
A warm wind blew in from the plains, stirring the lush flowerbeds and groves of Long Branch Manor. Rippling light shimmered across the pool before the main house, while blades of grass and petals blown in from somewhere unknown landed upon the water, spinning as they sent tiny rings spreading outward. A maid in the manor bent down and reached for a beautiful petal drifting near the pool's edge, but it suddenly trembled and curled, as though scorched by some invisible force. It shriveled into a ball and swiftly drifted in another direction.
The maid looked up in surprise and alarm, instinctively glancing toward the main house, but found nothing.
The sound of insects drifted through the open windows, and the oppressive heat of an early summer noon gradually seeped inside. Ferdinand drew back the power that had accidentally escaped him and silently listened to Andesa's account. His brow