A Bit Not

Listening to the other party's introduction, Tales secretly clenched his fist.

Kloma.

Of course.

Tales silently mused: He knew that name.

Seven hundred years ago, during the Ending War, Prince Tomund—who had yet to become King of Revival—had been ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Cold Wind, trapped in a tight encirclement.

Even the Messenger Crows sent out for help had been hunted down one by one in the sky by the enemy's falcons, cutting off all hope.

At the darkest moment, a messenger responsible for raising Messenger Crows discovered an injured, exhausted crow on the battlefield.

The messenger was lowborn, yet young and fearless. Under the desperate gazes of everyone around him, he cradled that last wounded crow and risked death to sneak into the encirclement. Breaking through the falcons, bows, and crossbows, he released it at the edge of the battlefield just before he was captured.

A miracle occurred.

That wounded crow, which could not even fly at high altitude, eventually brought back the Northlander reinforcements, turned the tide, and saved the prince, creating the legendary Battle of Reversing Cold Wind.

Several years later, Tomund became king. On the day the Star Kingdom was founded, the lucky messenger who had survived was ennobled and promoted to count, joining the kingdom's Thirteen Noble Families. His surname became one of the three most illustrious families in the Western Wasteland.

The legendary story was eventually shortened to a single phrase and became the Kloma Family's motto:

Save a wing, save a king.

And that legendary Messenger Crow, which had fought alongside the messenger and been left with only one wing, was painted in albums, embroidered on banners, and printed on robes. It became the reason Wing Castle was named, and, more importantly, the Kloma Family's crest for the past seven