Even after the king thanked Erend openly the tension across the battlements did not disappear. The knights, archers, and mages around them still kept staring at him with complicated expressions that mixed gratitude, confusion, and lingering apprehension together. Some lowered their weapons slightly while others still held them firmly without realizing it.
After all, everything about Erend felt strange to them.
He had appeared from the sky exactly when Leonora stood on the verge of being overwhelmed. He had known where to come and somehow understood the nature of the disaster faster than any of them.
He had spoken and acted with the calm certainty of someone who understood far more than everyone else on the battlefield combined. And above all that, his power was overwhelming beyond anything they had ever witnessed before.
To them, he felt less like an ordinary warrior and more like some unknown force that had suddenly stepped into their world.
Naturally, that made people uneasy.
