At the edge of White Tree City, the once-dense houses had been replaced by ice pillars dozens of meters high. In an alley several hundred meters away, a man in a gray cloak gazed appreciatively at the Black-Scaled Horse above the ice pillar.
"A High-level Magic Beast? That's truly rare. If Polukaloz were to eat it..."
As the man grew increasingly excited, dozens of tendrils seemed to writhe beneath his cloak.
"Cousin Ochimaru, what a surprise to find you here!"
The man turned around and saw Gleia, who was slightly shorter than him.
"I heard that years ago, you were executed by the Empire and the Kingdom over some legal trouble. I never expected we would run into each other today." Gleia's face showed neither sorrow nor joy, and her steps were steady. Facing the infamous Ochimaru, she showed not the slightest fear.
"Ah~ Look who's here—my dear little cousin Gleia!" Ochimaru Wyvern's face lit up with the delight of a hunter spotting prey. "You're not trailing behind your two brothers for once."
"They're both busy. They heard that someone in White Tree City was colluding with wanted criminals and couldn't come in person, so they sent me to take a look. I never imagined I'd run into you. You were once classmates with them, yet you left without so much as a goodbye. They were heartbroken for a long time!"
Ochimaru Wyvern had once been a gifted student of Wyvern Nest and one of the younger generation in whom the Wyvern Family had placed great hopes. Since childhood, he had been obsessed with vine-type Magic Plants. In the years before he was wanted, he had studied Magic Plants under Revendia alongside Gutov and Guchilaf.
"When I left back then, I was terribly saddened too. Luckily, I ran into you