Lord Summoner's Freedom Philosophy: Grimoire of Love

At the empty land filled with snow covering the whole land, a tall and a small figure is riding a wagon at a snail-like pace. The reason is obvious, it's because the aggressive black horse is incapable of walking quickly on top of snow-filled land.

"This is going to be a tough journey, huh... Luckily we've store enough food to last for more than a week inside the Grimoire's space. If not for the gluttons inside the space, those rations should be enough for us to survive for a month, though..." Lyan uttered his words purposefully audibly to make sure that the 'glutton' inside the grimoire's space that he mentioned could receive his sarcasm.

(Hey! That's my card! you're cheating!) (Griselda)

The culprit shouted her complaint as she was too immersed in the game of cards she was playing with the other high spirits.

(She's not even listening, huh...) (Lyan)

As Lyan let out a sigh, a small trembling figure sneaks inside his cloak and clings to his waist.

(And there is this girl as well...)(Lyan)

Lyan squinted at the person clinging to him.

"I-i-it's too cold, master... I'm dying... I don`t think I could make it..." (Tesha)

Even though she showed a great amount of resilience back then before he brought her, she started to become like this when they first entered the northern border of the Astellia Kingdom.

Of course, as it's already cold enough at the capital city of Astellia, it's absolutely colder here where they are closer to the far north which is Lyan's goal for his first journey.

According to his original new agreement with the high spirits, there should be at least one of them that would get summoned and accompany him for the day according to their summoning duration. But because of the cold, none of them wanted to face the coldness of the north so Lyan ended up only together with Tesha alone.

(Eira could stand the cold, but it might be dangerous if the place became even colder because of her presence and her powerful mana phenomenon interference, so she's forbidden from getting summoned here) (Lyan)

"But sure..." Lyan uttered as he take a look at the scene unfolded before him.

It's a very vast land with nothing but snow piled up above them. No single blade of grass, and not even trees, could be seen.

"Yet there are these monsters," Lyan shifted his gaze, and there are a pack of white wolves rushing towards them with considerable speed.

But even so, Lyan didn't make a move.

*Whoosh!*

The ice golem, the rock golem, and two shadow hobgoblins led by Hobu appeared before him, hiding the sight of the wagon from the line of sight of the wolves.

*Growl!*

The one that seems to be the leader of the pack let out a threatening growl. It seems to be simply a warning growl to force them to move from his pack's way, but actually, it's his orders towards his pack.

The pack that is consisted of roughly 30 Winter wolves with sizes as tall as an average man suddenly splits into three different groups.

"Whoa..." Lyan uttered in admiration of the sight before him.

Normal intellectual beasts usually make a pincer whenever they split their attacks. It will be either an attack that came from both sides or an attack of waves in order to exhaust the opponent, but what unfolded before Lyan is different.

From the three groups, the group of wolves that is in the middle suddenly stopped and howls.

*OWOOOOOO!!!*

On Lyan's original world, the earth. There are people that read too much fiction that hold a misconception of wolves howling as a behavior directed at the moon's presence. But the truth is, it's used as a social rally call, a hail to hunt, a warning for intruders, or as a territorial expression.

It was said that another wolf could hear the howl of another wolf from 6-7 miles away. That is why wolves could even find their way home after hearing the howl from their brethren.

But in this fantasy world where the world and the atmosphere are filled with mana, the wolf's howl is not just a mere warning or territorial expression.

It could also be a call to summon the mana around them.

And to summon their natural magic.

"W-Whoa!" Tesha uttered astoundedly as she saw the rare scene unfold before her.

After the group of wolves in the middle howled, dozens of icicles appeared before them, floating as if gravity glitched and forgot their rule just in the space before that group of wolves.

With a single gesture with their heads, the floating icicles rushed towards Lyan and his summoned creatures with a clear intention of killing. But of course, even though the winter wolves are magic beasts that are not to be underestimated, so does Lyan's summoned creatures.

The ice golem's brilliant blue light eyes shone as he draw his hand towards the upcoming icicles. At that moment, as if reacting to the ice golem's movement, the icicle's speed accelerates even faster and pierced the ice golems all over its body.

It looks as if the ice golem has just killed himself, or sacrificed himself to take all the magic icicles summoned by the winter wolves to protect his master and his allies.

Looking at how their attack seems to be working, the winter wolves once again howl. But this time, the whole three groups howled and summoned different sizes of icicles aiming at Lyan's summoned creatures.

"How terrifying," Lyan uttered. But Tesha that is right beside him could see that despite of his words, there is only confidence and no fear could be seen within his eyes.

As the winter wolf pack's leader saw Lyan's smile, as if it gets provoked, it let out a growl, and all of the icicles rushed towards Lyan's wagon and the summoned creatures before him with even faster acceleration than before.

But.

Even though the winter wolves have a very high intelligence, they do not have the same mind as a human. They don't have enough observational skills and scheming skills to see what was actually happening.

The accelerated icicles happened not because of their concentrated attack together, but it's because the ice golem once again attracted the icicles to his body again.

Sounds of sharp ice piercing hard ice resounded all over again, leaving the ice golem in a terrible condition.

The leader of the winter wolf pack then let out a growl. The reason for the split immediately became obvious as two groups are circling them to the right and the left, while the remaining group once again let out a hole.

But they do not realize that the brilliant blue light on the ice golem's eyes is shining more than ever after getting pierced by the countless icicles given by the winter wolves.

A mischievous grin formed on Lyan's face as he saw the oblivious wolves charging toward them from two different sides, while casting magic from the front.

The earth golem and 1 shadow hobgoblin went to the left side of the wagon, while Hobu and 1 shadow hobgoblin went to defend the other side of the wagon.

The leader of the winter wolf that they are a powerful opponent, but he seems to be confident in the strength of their magic. So when the unexpected twist happened-

*Poof!*

The icicles formed before the winter wolf group at the front suddenly turned into the water as if it got crushed carefully and evenly, making the melting point of the tiny ices gets low enough for it to melt instantly.

The winter wolf group tasked with the duty to cast magic stands still because of the mysterious thing that happened before them. The leader of the pack that saw the scene while he was charging toward the enemy ranks is also surprised, but when he saw the ice golem's other hand that is rising. Shivers runs all over his body as he saw the ominous blue light shining on its eyes.

*OWOOOOOO!!!*

A desperate howl to warn his brethren about the potential danger, but it's already too late.

*Whoosh!!!!!*

icicles, bigger and faster than the icicles that the pack of winter wolves cast together rushed towards the winter wolves that are about to cast another round of magic.

"Game over, puppies," (Lyan)

___________________________________________________________________________

Name: Lyan Arkanium Evocatore

Occupation: Mythril-ranked Mercenary

Money: 3,797,710,950 Elnes / 3797 gold 71 big silver 9 big coppers 5 coppers

Weapon: Magic Glaive, 1 (Decent) One-handed Sword, 2 (Good-Quality) One-handed swords, 1 (Decent) bow

Equipment: Black leather cloak, Leather Armor, Breastplate, 2 Health Potions, 2 Poison Vials

Grimoire's Companions: 8 High Spirits, 3 Valkyrie, Shadow Goblin Lord (Lv. 5), Papilio Slime (Lv. 45), Galewing Butterfly (Lv. 45), Rock Golem (Lv. 50), Deadlight (Lv. 63), Moonlight Butterfly (Lv. 45), Ice Golem (Lv. 50), Acid Ant Queen (Lv. 9), Magma Bear (Lv. 1), Fey Mammoth (Lv. 1), Arcane Retriever (Lv. 1)

Grimoire's Army: 6 Shadow Servants, 800 Skeleton Army