With Alex on his knees, the princess's guards were determined to kill him. Only by doing this could they even face the princess for the loss of her beloved Drake. Most likely, even this would not be enough. The garrison, however, wanted to capture him and interrogate him. Several of them were already rubbing their hands at the thought of delivering this information to their respective factions. They knew that if this human didn't belong to any group, everyone would try to recruit him.

Finally, the princess's guards asserted their authority and reluctantly made the garrison step back. But when they advanced to take the young human's life, an elf stepped in between them, the same elf who had saved the members of the princess's guard moments earlier.

"Torel, what does this mean? Why are you standing between Princess Ley's guard and the criminal who killed her Drake?" said the guard.

Torel looked at the still unconscious Drake and sighed.

"The boy did no wrong, he only tried to honestly help the Drake. All of you saw how the Drake agreed," Torel interceded.

"Do you think I give a damn about that? The princess will flay us alive when she finds out. Only by delivering his head can we redeem ourselves," the guard said, spitting at Torel's feet.

Although there was the option of delivering him alive, these guards would never do that. After all, the princess might find out about their negligence in allowing a stranger to approach her Drake and kill it freely.

"I won't allow such injustice," Torel declared finally.

He took a half step back and assumed a defensive stance with his hand on his sword, ready to draw it.

The guards hesitated about how to proceed. They never thought Torel would take the side of a human, and this had greatly complicated things. Torel was a top-tier warrior in the empire; not even the empress herself had dared to exile him, and she only made the proclamation after he had self-exiled. Although everyone believed he had been exiled, and it had something to do with his nickname "the oathbreaker."

"Torel, you may be a sacred warrior, but nothing allows you to interfere in the empire's affairs," said the guard, now less confident, and his voice faltered.

The garrison soldiers had temporarily withdrawn with the intent to see how events unfolded and had also started to expedite the arrival of reinforcements. Torel was a true legend, elite among the elite, and if they had to face him, they would suffer considerable losses. It would be easier to bring him down if they had the rest of their forces present.

However, before the situation could escalate further, the Drake finally belched and expelled a black liquid from its mouth. With some difficulty, it stood up, shook its body to get rid of the numbness it felt, and began to look around for its savior. It was greatly surprised to find him surrounded by imperial troops.

The Drake let out a roar and struck its tail powerfully against the ground to get the attention of all the people around, which was very effective. It then slowly walked in front of a stunned group of imperial guards and members of the garrison and positioned itself in front of the human.

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Amid murmurs, the garrison members debated whether it would swallow him in two or just one bite, as none of them had actually seen what happened and were called by an alert from the imperial guards.

Contrary to expectations, the Drake simply lowered its head, and even more surprisingly, the human petted it.

At this moment, an uncomfortable silence fell over the field. For the first time, the imperial guards realized that what the human had done might not be to harm the Drake but to help it. The hint of this was that the Drake had always emitted low growls that seemed to indicate pain, but now it seemed fine. Even though it might sound far-fetched, it could even be said that it appeared to be somewhat playful.

Finally, the Drake confronted the coalition of soldiers and made one menacing gesture that was enough to make them step back. Even when they were at a respectful distance, the Drake didn't relent in its attitude but instead took an offensive stance while shifting its gaze toward the mage.

The garrison quickly reacted by canceling the spell and retreating even further, leaving only the princess's guards to deal with their Drake. They released the gnolls on their way to rejoin the human.

With the situation under control, the Drake finally had time to look at the human more closely. It proceeded to sniff his body with its large nostrils and emitted some low growls.

"I'm not hurt, just a little tired," Alex replied, understanding its growls.

The Drake nodded and then made more threatening growls while looking alternately at the garrison and the princess's guards.

"I couldn't harm them, even if I wanted to. I'm not in a position to fight, let alone kill them," Alex said to the Drake, sitting down and removing his helmet with difficulty.

The Drake snorted and puffed out its chest with pride.

"Do you offer your help? I thought those were your caretakers," Alex responded.

The Drake thought for a few seconds and realized that acting impulsively could get its companion in trouble, so it lowered its head.

Alex stroked it and whispered, "Don't worry, everything is fine now. There's no need for you to get into trouble."

For the young human, it remained a mystery how close he had grown to the forest and its creatures in such a short time. Although he had had pets on Earth and had always been close to them, there was a big difference between that and patting the head of a Drake. Somehow, he felt that all these changes weren't just because of the tooth necklace.

Torel, who had been nearby and understood the human language, felt that it was finally time to introduce himself.

"Young human, my name is Torel. I believe we don't need to worry about anything else. After all, the recent fight was just a misunderstanding, and since no one has died, we can consider the matter closed," said the elf, ending with a chuckle.

As he spoke with Alex, he called representatives from the other factions and translated for them. It was easy to make the garrison members let go of the issue; a Drake's threat couldn't be taken lightly. The princess's guards, on the other hand, were more insistent in their demands, insisting that Alex accompany them as they needed to explain everything satisfactorily, or they would be in trouble. Besides, they were confident that, at worst, the Drake wouldn't kill them; the princess had forbidden it, which was why she always went out to mischief with others.

The conversation was a back-and-forth between both sides for a few moments until Alex grew tired of being diplomatic and simply handed over the information he knew about the accident. He gave them the needle wrapped in a handkerchief and began to walk back to the wagons with the help of the gnolls and Torel.

The guards knew they couldn't force Alex to accompany them; that's why they had been so insistent. However, they didn't take the current situation as a loss because they had more than enough information to report to the princess. They simply let the group go.

Once Alex was out of sight, the guards called the members of the garrison and agreed on the story they would tell the princess. They also thoroughly cleaned the battlefield. Although the possibility was small, they didn't want to risk the princess thinking that they had mistreated her Drake's benefactor.

Meanwhile, Alex urged the Fheres to speed up their return route because the forest was whispering about changes, and blood would soon be shed.