“What’s going on? Did Satesha City start an ice sculpture festival overnight?”

“No, no! Look at their kit, those frost-bitten mannequins dress like us—mercs and adventurers!”

“You mean those two sisters froze thousands into statues? That’s savage!”

“They treat lives like snow under a boot—cold-blooded!”

“Keep your guard up, or we’ll end up as winter décor too…”

People kept trickling in like a slow tide, then stalled at the shoreline. They saw thousands of ice figures and fear spread like rime on glass. They dared not step close, so they ringed us from afar like wary wolves.

Time flowed like sand, and the crowd swelled like storm clouds. Judging by this, the wanted posters for Lingxiao and Lingsaki must’ve blown across every corner of the Basiloth Empire. In other words, the entire empire had its eyes on my little sisters.

Common rabble didn’t count, but mercs and adventurers alone could number in the hundreds of thousands. The Basiloth Empire is vast, its people as many as stars. That wasn’t counting the big magic-and-martial academies, or the hidden powerhouses sleeping like old tigers in the hills.

Wait. I spotted helmets and standard-issue steel within the crowd. Even the empire’s army had joined this circus.

So anyone in Basiloth with a shred of strength planned to make trouble. That was the message, loud as a temple bell.

We weren’t afraid, but it was a headache the size of a mountain. We couldn’t very well slaughter our way across a nation. We weren’t into that kind of sick pastime, and we wouldn’t waste our journey on pointless butchery.

“Lanxia, open up your Dragon Aura and knock them out. This is getting noisy.”

I skimmed the field with my Sword Intent like a hawk riding wind. Plenty of bodies, but the strongest were half-step divine or divine at best. Too weak to bother. Better to let Lanxia clear the board.

“Finally! This dragon’s had it with these ants. Ants who dare disturb Mizumi’s trip should remember how death is written!”

With a sharp cry that sliced the air, Lanxia shed her human skin like a flame shedding smoke. She surged skyward as a colossal dragon. From her vast body, Dragon Aura rolled out in waves, a pressure like a falling sky. Clouds tore apart like silk. People dropped like wheat under a scythe.

The ring around us folded in sheets, a field of bodies cut down by invisible wind. Dragon Aura worked like a hammer on wet clay—clean and brutal.

Minutes later, only a few god-tier braced themselves like stubborn reefs in a storm. The rest lay strewn as if war had just trampled the land. If there’d been blood, it would’ve looked like a battlefield river—grim thought, darkly funny.

“Has the Basiloth Emperor gone mad? He dared post bounties on Lingxiao and Lingsaki.” Lixue sheathed Ice Illusion Moon with a snow-cool sigh.

“No. He probably doesn’t know who they are.”

Nalu flipped the parchment over and over like a dealer weighing a bad hand. “It never states their identities. Most of them must be here for the coin.”

“Hmph. Whatever the reason, being put on a wanted list feels filthy. We’ll pay this so-called Basiloth Emperor a visit and ask why.”

“Seconded. Being wanted leaves a bitter taste.”

I could see the anger banking in my sisters’ chests like a furnace. Anyone would choke on it. Even I felt heat rise; they were my sisters, precious as spring in a long winter.

Lanxia’s Dragon Aura had felled tens of thousands, yet more feet drummed in from other cities like a stampede on the horizon.

“You lowly ants! You dare trouble Mizumi’s sisters? Forgot how to spell death?”

Lanxia’s voice rolled over them from on high, a queen’s sneer cut from thunder. She looked almost giddy, as if staring down a sea of tens of thousands fed her joy like wine.

Lanxia always looked down on humans, tossing out “ants” as casually as sparks. She made exceptions only for us—more precisely, for the Mizumi Clan and those tied to us, like Lixue and Nalu.

Her words were a boulder hurled into a still sea. Waves exploded.

“What? The sisters on the bounty are from the Mizumi Clan? Damn it—Basiloth royals set us up!”

“Right! If someone must die, let it be them. Why shove us into the furnace? So what if they’re royal or noble?”

“If we offend the Mizumi Clan, there’ll be no place for us under any sky. Run, before they mark our faces!”

“Exactly. Thank the stars we weren’t early like those popsicles and the ones knocked cold by Dragon Aura.”

“Less talk, more running!”

Those still approaching froze mid-step like hares sighting a hawk. Panic rushed their faces like wind through wheat. Then they spun as one and bolted, legs pumping like they ran from night itself.

Silence fell, clean as fresh snow. As they fled, they would spread our name like wildfire, warning the rest to turn back. A mountain-sized hassle, solved by Lanxia’s taunt. Sharp, simple, effective.

“Run for your lives, ants. Don’t let this dragon see you again. Or else… heh-heh.”

After a final lofty warning, Lanxia descended in a slow, royal spiral. She folded into human form and looked up at me like a cat who’d dropped a mouse at my feet. “This dragon has completed Mizumi’s order!”

“Mm. Nicely done.”

I stroked the head she offered like patting warm velvet. Then I turned to Nalu. “After that mess, I’ve no mood to stroll Satesha City. Where next? Somewhere that lets the heart unclench.”

“Some place to unwind…”

Nalu opened the Basiloth Empire atlas like a sail to wind. “How about the East Coast? It’s the empire’s biggest port city. An unbroken sea view can wash the dust from your chest. It’s a bit far. Satesha is in the west.”

“The sea, huh? We rarely visit the coast. Let’s go East Coast.”

“True, we’ve hardly seen the ocean. I’m a little excited.”

“They say sunsets over the sea are breathtaking. It’s afternoon now. We might make it by dusk, right, Lanxia?”

“If we miss the sunset, it loses its soul.”

“Don’t worry. This dragon will carry you to the East Coast at top speed.”

Everyone agreed, so we wasted no more daylight. Lanxia unfurled into a dragon again, scales like moving moonlight. Once we settled on her back, she spread wings like mountains breaking cloud. One powerful beat, and we tore east like an arrow loosed at the horizon.

…

The Basiloth royal bounty targets turned out to be from the Mizumi Clan. That news shook the land harder than Prince Diak’s death.

Most people said Diak had it coming. His lust was a torch held to powder, and he dared aim it at the Mizumi sisters. Some even admitted a grudging awe at his suicidal nerve.

Humans love to spread what shocks them. Naturally, the runners scattered from Satesha shouted the truth as they fled, passing it to mercs and adventurers marching in from other cities.

At first, some doubted. Then they remembered: no one in this world would dare fake the Mizumi name. When they saw streams of people fleeing back from Satesha like fish reversing a river, doubt died.

The rumor swelled, one becomes ten, ten becomes a hundred, and it raced across the Basiloth Empire like fire through dry grass. The reaction was violent as summer thunder.

Talk shifted from the bounties to the Mizumi Clan in a single breath.

“I wondered who erased Prince Diak for a botched pick-up line. Turns out it was Mizumi people. You almost have to respect that lecher—he even reached for the Mizumi sisters.”

“Folks fleeing Satesha say the sisters are even more stunning than on the posters. Beauty like that’s rare as phoenix feathers. As men, we kind of get it.”

“You still have to know your weight on the scale.”

“True. The Basiloth royals are in deep trouble. Posting bounties on the Mizumi? That’s courting death with both hands.”

“Right. If the Mizumi truly get angry, the Basiloth Empire could vanish in a blink.”

“Could be. I’m not dying as the royals’ grave goods. I’m leaving Basiloth.”

“I’ll go with you. This empire’s got no future now.”

“Pack fast.”

…

A small commoner town.

“Ah-haha! Heaven’s finally opened its eyes. That rogue Prince Diak met his retribution at last. My poor daughter, my poor granddaughter…”

“Don’t drown in grief, old Ike. What’s done is smoke. Diak paid his price. And now the Basiloth royals have provoked the Mizumi Clan. Hmph. Those villains’ good days are numbered.”

In every nation, the bottom rung hates royals and nobles like weeds hate drought. They’ve swallowed too much exploitation and spit too many teeth.

…

“Doesn’t the Mizumi Clan usually stay on the Central Continent, living easy and ignoring the world? Why show up in the Basiloth Empire?”

“Who knows. Maybe they had business, or maybe they got bored on the Central Continent and went traveling.”

“Probably travel. The rumor mill says they were playing around the Ice Rock Empire not long ago.”

“Whatever. That’s a sky far above us. I need another part-time job today. My house is too poor to feed my wife and kids.”

“Yeah.” A long sigh like wind through an empty field.

…

Some gloated, sure the Basiloth royals would finally fall. Others shrugged, bent back to their small lives like grass after rain.