113: Cold Wind Family

After arranging the refining of the magic potions, Renn busied himself with the construction of his territory.

He couldn't help with the potion-making itself, so he left it directly to Kapdo and Cecilia; there was no need for Renn to do anything else.

After Renn left, Cecilia's mood improved significantly as she watched Kapdo recover his health.

"Grandpa, are we really going to settle down in the Red River Territory from now on?"

"Yes, I'll spend my retirement here. But you're fine; when you grow up, you can leave whenever you want. I promised Renn I would stay, but I never said you had to."

"I never expected that after searching for a way to break the curse for so many years, I would finally find it here."

"A Spirit of Nature... a mythical creature. According to records, the last time one appeared was thousands of years ago during the Tamriel Empire era."

"With a Spirit of Nature stepping in to purify it, the power of the curse will no longer be an issue."

Cecilia hugged Kapdo tightly.

"Wherever Grandpa is, Cecilia will be too. I actually like it here; living here is quite nice, and Big Brother Renn is a very good person."

"Renn is indeed decent. To be chosen by a Spirit of Nature, gain the recognition of the will of nature, and sign a contract with a Spirit of Nature—such a person naturally won't have any problems."

"He is a unique individual; he will surely achieve great things in the future."

"Alright, I'm going to refine the potions now. You should review your spells properly."

Kapdo gathered the stone flower fruits and stone flower juice and returned to the workshop to begin compounding the magic potions.

Renn, meanwhile, returned to Red River Fortress, preparing to reinforce and renovate the deep-water well inside the castle.

The water supply for the interior of Red River Fortress was drawn entirely from this deep well in front of him. However, Renn felt the well was a bit old; the water it brought up contained too much silt and sand, and it needed to be renovated and upgraded.

Now that Renn had advanced to a Silver Rank Mage, his mastery of the Mud to Stone spell was consummate; reinforcing and renovating a well was a simple task.

In addition to the deep-water well, Renn also planned to further upgrade and renovate some facilities within Red River Fortress and Red River Town.

After his strength increased, his mana had grown more than tenfold, and his control over spells had also improved significantly; the spell effects were much stronger than before.

Now that Renn's strength had temporarily reached a bottleneck, he didn't need to spend all his time in secluded cultivation. It was the perfect time to focus on developing the territory and upgrading some of its buildings.

Besides territory construction, he also found time to personally visit the school, teaching the children and maintaining a presence among them.

No matter how much the teachers lectured, it wasn't as effective as a personal visit from Renn. Furthermore, Renn's knowledge was far superior to that of the current teachers at Red River Academy; teaching these students was more than easy for him.

As the days passed, Renn was incredibly busy, as was everyone else in the Red River Territory. The entire territory was a hive of activity.

Thousands of miles away, a piercing cold wind ravaged the land, and overwhelming snow occupied the entire sky.

The world was a vast expanse of white, save for an ice-blue spire standing tall between heaven and earth, with endless wind and snow howling around it.

Beneath the spire lay a massive city, the hub of the Cold Wind Territory: Cold Wind City.

And this ice-blue spire was the Cold Wind Spire, famous throughout the entire Kingdom of Asriel.

The reflection of the ice-blue spire was mirrored in Matthew's cold eyes.

Even after looking at it for decades, every time Matthew saw the Cold Wind Spire, he couldn't help but marvel at the power of its ancient builders.

Anyone who came to Cold Wind City and saw the Cold Wind Spire with their own eyes would be shocked by the greatness of this ancient ruin.

Violent cold winds tightly surrounded the hundreds-of-meters-tall Cold Wind Spire, yet Cold Wind City at its feet was calm and free of snow. Aside from the colder temperature, Cold Wind City was not much different from other cities in the kingdom.

"Commander, the Frost Guards are back!"

A subordinate interrupted Matthew's thoughts.

"Understood. Just let them in according to the standard procedure."

"Yes, Commander!"

Matthew was the Commander of the Cold Wind City Guard, responsible for the city's defense. He had a Guard Army of three thousand men under him, and he himself was a Silver Peak Knight.

Under Matthew's orders, the Guard Army followed the procedure, quickly opening the gates to welcome the Frost Guards.

Standing on the city wall, Matthew watched expressionlessly as over a hundred Frost Guards in ice-blue armor entered the city. These Frost Guards were heading straight for Frost Heart Castle.

At the end of the road, in the central district of Cold Wind City, a towering ice peak stood prominently.

Atop the ice peak was Frost Heart Castle, where the Cold Wind Family resided. The entire castle had merged into one with the ice peak.

Frost Heart Castle and the Cold Wind Spire were the two most conspicuous structures in Cold Wind City.

"Commander, it looks like quite a few 'blue-skins' have come from the north this time. They actually dispatched so many Frost Guards."

"Mm."

"Keep up the patrols. Other matters are not our concern!"

Matthew didn't care at all about what his deputy said; those things had nothing to do with him.

"Yes, Commander!"

Feeling a bit awkward, the deputy gave a sheepish smile and left.

Under Matthew's gaze, the Frost Guards didn't stop for a moment after entering the city, heading straight for Frost Heart Castle. Upon arrival, they reported the first-hand intelligence they had gathered.

At this moment, inside the Frostchill Hall of Frost Heart Castle, the high-ranking members of the Cold Wind Family were holding a collective meeting.

"Why are these Frost Giants running south like they've gone mad this year? Has some natural disaster occurred on the ice plains?"

"Regardless of the reason, we must not let them reach Cold Wind City. We must annihilate them all in the Frostchill Corridor."

"It seems these giants have forgotten the power of the Cold Wind. We must let them know that the Cold Wind Family is not to be trifled with."

"Exactly. This time we must strike enough fear into them that they stop their endless harassment of the Frostchill Corridor."

"What news is there from the Frostchill Fortress? Have the scouting Frost Guards not returned yet?"

The elders of the Cold Wind Family were discussing amongst themselves, while the Grand Duke of Cold Wind, seated high upon the Frost Throne, remained silent, quietly watching the elders below.

The internal power structure of the thousand-year-old Cold Wind Family differed from that of other ducal families. As the patriarch, the Grand Duke of Cold Wind did not hold absolute power.

The Council of Elders held half the family's power; the entire Cold Wind Family was governed through a co-rule between the Grand Duke of Cold Wind and the Council of Elders.

The Council of Elders consisted of Ice Mages from the Cold Wind Family who had reached the Gold Rank.

Ice Mages were the most vital component of the Cold Wind Family.

Because of the Cold Wind Spire, the number of high-level Spellcasters in the Cold Wind Family exceeded that of high-level warriors, an extremely rare phenomenon.

Normally, the number of warriors far exceeds that of Spellcasters, and high-level warriors are much more numerous than high-level Spellcasters. It was only here in the Cold Wind Family that the opposite was true.

The current Grand Duke of Cold Wind, Marshall Cold Wind, was not an Ice Mage but a Frost Knight.

Monarch and council, knight and mage—this peculiar combination gave every meeting in the Frostchill Hall a somewhat discordant atmosphere.

At that moment, a Frostchill Guard approached Marshall and whispered a few reports.

The elders below, who had just been debating, stopped their discussion upon seeing this and looked toward Grand Duke Marshall.