After the short and aggressive meeting with their former deserter of a lord, the day went by swiftly in Winterseed, and evening quickly arrived. The evening wasn''t anything like the usual quiet and peaceful ones they experienced with Rowan around; their mood had been shattered and broken beyond words. Women, children, and men all walked around the vige with frowns on their faces.


    Hateful discussions about Dragun spread through the vige like an airborne disease, and even the little children couldn''t help but hate Dragun after seeing how their parents reacted to his return.


    Brandon strolled around the vige with a few soldiers as they made their way from the southern border to the northern border. He couldn''t help but notice the expressions on their faces.


    ''Only Lord Rowan can bring back the smiles and happiness in these people,'' Brandon thought to himself as he continued toward the northern border.


    After the earlier meeting, Brandon had joined the soldiers who guarded the southern border. He stayed and discussed with them all day to relieve the anger boiling up inside him.


    Now it was time for the evening switch, and he joined the same group heading for the northern border.


    After a few minutes of walking, they reached the northern border and quickly stationed themselves as usual.


    Brandon found a nice spot to sit and observed the bushes ahead under thest dull glow of the evening as night quickly approached. As soon as he sat, his mind wandered, pondering the situation of the vige, especially Dragun''s return—how would Rowan react? Would Dragun try to reim his position? What would be the new trajectory of the vige?


    Brandon sank deep into his thoughts as evening was engulfed by the darkness of night.


    "So many footsteps! Can you all hear that?"


    His wandering thoughts snapped back as one of the soldiers suddenly alerted his colleagues with a shaky voice.


    At that moment, the sound of heavy, human-like footsteps arrived and spread across the area—the sound was akin to a powerful army marching towards them, causing the soldiers to brace themselves.


    "This is not a simple footstep, arge number of soldiers are definitely marching towards us!" Brandon eximed as he stood up, staring ahead with worry evident on his face.


    "Could it be Lord Rowan?" one of the soldiers asked.


    "It could be, but the intensity of the footsteps doesn''t sound like something three hundred soldiers can make! It should be more than one thousand!" Brandon said worriedly.


    The soldiers gulped upon hearing his words and immediately took positions.


    ---


    While the soldiers at the border tensed up against an imaginary army of a thousand soldiers, Rowan and his men made their way down to Winterseed.


    Rowan could be seen riding in front, his eyes shining brightly as he observed his surroundings with a smile on his face. Liara joined him, currently sitting behind with her hands wrapped around his waist for support—her face brimming with smiles as she got ready emotionally to reunite with the people she knew and grew up with.


    The soldiers marched beside them with calm expressions on their faces. They moved tirelessly thanks to the food supply Rowan distributed among them a few hours ago.


    "Winterseed is not far anymore! I will get to see the faces of my people after a long time and farm a lot of evolution points from them, haha!" Rowanughed inwardly.


    It had been almost twenty-four hours since he set out with the soldiers for Winterseed. Due to therge number of people with him, the journey became way longer than expected.


    But now they were only a few minutes away from the vige, Rowan couldn''t help but be merry inwardly.


    He pulled the reins and rode his horse faster as he emerged from the forest into the small bushy area. At this moment, he could see the border of his territory closely and the soldiers stationed there.


    "Finally," he muttered and rode forward.


    The soldiers behind him marched faster as well, especially the Winterseed soldiers who couldn''t wait to reunite with their families.


    Rowan could see the soldiers guarding the border breathing heavily with battle-ready expressions on their faces, and only then did he realize it was nighttime and others couldn''t see as clearly as he could.


    "It is me, Lord Rowan Winterseed!" he yelled in a clear voice to ease the tension among his soldiers.


    "LORD ROWAN IS BACK!!" the soldiers yelled with great joy as they tossed their weapons on the ground and began jumping around happily.


    Brandon observed the joyous moment, and a smile quickly appeared on his face. "He did it, he really came back victorious as expected!" he muttered to himself with pride and joy.


    At that moment, he felt so much joy that tears began dripping from his eyes.


    "You three, go inform the others to gather at the vige square to wee Lord Rowan!" he turned to the happily dancing soldiers andmanded.


    The soldiers left immediately withoutint; in fact, they were happy the others would hear the good news from them.


    The other soldiers kept jumping around merrily while Brandon watched the arrival of Rowan with so much pent-up emotion.


    Rowan was the first to arrive at the border; he leapt down from his horse quickly and helped Liara down. He then turned to look at the approaching figures of Brandon and the other soldiers.


    "Rowan!!" Brandon cried out in a loud, emotional voice as he hugged him.


    "You''ve done it finally; you have taken away the sorrows of the people and brought back our long-lost cherished freedom!" he said amidst the hug.


    His voice was filled with emotion, like a father congratting his son after a great achievement.


    Rowan epted the hug with a smile while gazing at the happily approaching soldiers.


    "Wee back, Lord Rowan!"


    "Lord Rowan, you are the real savior of Winterseed!" they said one after the other as they approached.


    The soldiers also went to greet the captains and congratte them on a sessful battle.


    As they weed the captains, the soldiers couldn''t help but notice the new faces among therge number of soldiers approaching the border. Surprise quickly etched on their faces as they inquired from the captains, who exined the situations briefly.


    While the soldiers reunited with Rowan and the captains, they didn''t fail to notice the presence of Liara and immediately went to greet her. Liara was all smiles as she reunited with them.


    "Liara, where are ra and the others?"


    "Did anything happen to them?"


    They began asking while weing her. Thankfully, Liara had already heard from Rowan that no one in the vige was currently aware of the presence of ra and the others, so she picked her answers wisely and told them they were okay.


    At that moment, more soldiers began to gather at the border, and soon it was crowded with arge number of them. However, despite therge crowd, not all the soldiers had arrived yet, as many could still be seen standing in the distance.


    The atmosphere at the border was exciting but nothingpared to the vige''s.


    Three soldiers ran through the vige while screaming at the top of their lungs about the arrival of Rowan.


    Their voices spread across the vige like wildfire; doors flung open instantly as vigers ran out of their houses and began dancing for joy, celebrating their new freedom.


    Inside one of the huts, rissa, Rnd''s wife, was feeding her baby when the voices of the soldiers reached her. Her eyes widened; she wrapped her baby in soft clothes and rushed out of the hut. She was instantly greeted with streets now filled with vigers celebrating—some danced, some knelt and thanked their ancestors, while others celebrated with loud voices; the mood was electric.


    "Gather at the vige square to wee Lord Rowan!" the voices followed immediately.


    Nevertheless, even without this, the people had already begun their sprints towards the vige square.


    Ri was up, working on some torn clothes when she heard the voice. Her heart skipped a beat, and she made her way to the vige square.


    Meanwhile, in Rowan''s ce, Dragun sat on the bed staring at the glowing opaque liquid in the small bottle with a serious expression as his mind recalled numerous dark events.


    But then, the voices of the soldiers sted from outside, and he realized his son had returned. He didn''t get up from the bed and only smiled wryly and muttered in a proud voice "He really did it, that''s my son."