As Princess Isabella's piercing gaze meets the mercenary's, a cold silence settles over the chamber. The air seems to crackle with tension, thick with unspoken words and bitter memories.

Finally, breaking the oppressive silence, Isabella greets him, her voice as cold as the winter winds howling outside the mercenary's residence.

"Welcome, mercenary," she says, each word dripping with disdain yet laced with a hint of defiance. "I trust your journey was as lucrative as it was destructive."