Leon’s eyes also darkened in an instant as he faced Kasha. He realized that Kasha had predicted his father’s death with memories from before her return.

‘Let’s depart for now. If it’s Prince Arthur’s tomb, I will lead the way.’

As he said that, his expression showed no wavering as he helped her mount the horse. It was as if a mask was layered over his face.

Kasha knew that expression of Leon’s well.

When she first faced him at the Tyrot ducal family’s ball after her return, he had that same face.

A perfect mask of a holy knight layered over his face, suppressing all his emotions.

At that time, he was suffering from the curse of lust without knowing the reason.

Yet, with such a pure and flawless face, he had extended a hand of salvation to her, who had become Odette’s prey. It was an action impossible for someone not perfectly accustomed to suppressing themselves.

He was already too used to the disappointment felt from countless people, the inexplicable pain, and the sense of responsibility weighing on his shoulders. He must have always hidden those painful emotions by wearing a perfect mask.

Even in this moment, Leon’s faint hopes for his father were being trampled cruelly.

Moreover, in an instant, the lives of his younger siblings were hanging on his shoulders as well. Even though one of them had become a mine threatening his own life.

His expression now was vastly different from earlier, when he had kissed her in the beech forest with desire-filled eyes and a smile. Kasha found it sad and heartbreaking.

She sighed deeply as she calmly mounted the horse, watching his back as he strongly urged the horse forward. Her chest tightened with rising anger.

‘I’m angry. At all those humans who make you this way.’

In this moment, she even thought it would be good if she were truly a villainess. Then she could eliminate all those humans tormenting him.

‘Wait. But I actually do have the power to do that, don’t I?’

As she mounted the horse, Kasha paused at the sudden thought.

Among the magic tools she had already developed, there were some that had not yet been unveiled to the world. If she put her mind to it, she could really blow them away in one go.

‘But then… I would become a villainess again, chased by people. You would be saddened again.’

Kasha shook her head seriously, then her eyes shone.

‘Don’t worry, Leon. I will definitely stop these calamities.’

Because she had the responsibility to do so, and also the power.

And afterwards, she would make sure those evil ones received their due punishment.

To do that, she had to stop what Grand Duke Osilote was about to do right now. She quickly followed behind Leon on horseback, recalling what Leon had said before her return and the flow of events she remembered.

‘Not long after the Grand Duke’s death, the mine Wolfbane, stained with madness, began indiscriminately massacring people.’

Leon had mentioned the Grand Duke’s death like this:

‘…Even for my sinful father, it was an extremely shameful and bizarre end. To be digging up the prince’s tomb to perform a resurrection ritual, only to be devoured by a monster.’

The Grand Duke’s corpse was found in a state too gruesome to look at. Even then, it was only discovered by chance by the grave keeper after decomposition had begun, as he had been missing.

‘Nigel must have set a trap.’

The moment Anthony failed to eliminate Leon, Nigel must have already begun planning to discard Anthony.

He must have pondered how to remove the Grand Duke, Empress Anne’s nemesis, in the most dishonorable way possible, while simultaneously making the curse turn back on Anthony.

Lure the crazed Grand Duke with the bait of a resurrection ritual, draw him to Prince Arthur’s rarely visited tomb, and dispose of him using monsters.

Then the curse of madness directed at the Grand Duke would naturally turn towards Anthony.

He must have thought he found the best means to eliminate Anthony while earning the justification to become a hero himself.

‘…But not everything went according to your plan, Nigel.’

Urging the galloping horse with skill, Kasha thought:

‘Because that bait you handed the Grand Duke was far more dangerous than you thought.’

According to what Leon remembered before the return, there were more than a few suspicious aspects to the Grand Duke’s death.

The surroundings of Prince Arthur’s tomb were said to be a mess, as if an entire division had waged war there. The tombstones of nearby graves had all melted away due to an unknown heat.

Most strange of all was that the monster presumed to have killed the Grand Duke was found dead right next to his corpse in a horrific state.

It was virtually impossible for the middle-aged Grand Duke, already in a crazed state, to have exerted the strength to tear apart a monster. Then who had killed the Grand Duke and the monster?

‘A demon.’

Just thinking of that word sent chills down her spine.

‘They were victims of a demon. That resurrection ritual Nigel handed to the Grand Duke was real, Nigel. It was a real method to summon a demon!’

Kasha bit the inside of her cheek and anxiously watched Leon’s nimble back as he raced ahead.

The sheet describing the demon summoning ritual Nigel sent to the Grand Duke. It must have been torn from . It was likely mixed in with the documents swept away by Emperor Ramon when he occupied Gillistin Castle.

Nigel must have thought the contents of that sheet were absurd and tossed it to the Grand Duke with the purpose of luring him out.

‘But that ritual succeeded. Probably in an incomplete form.’

Kasha had read from beginning to end.

Perhaps she was the only one in this generation who had read that book and remembered its contents. And in there… were things no one could easily imagine.

‘We have to arrive in time.’

She called out loudly to Leon, who was racing ahead.

“Faster! We must hurry!”

Leon only glanced back at her once and increased his speed without a word. Easily catching up to him, Kasha thought:

‘Because I’m the only one. The only one who can stop that demon.’

The dampest and most secluded place even within the vast underground cemetery of the Aranias Imperial Family.

This place, where the emperor’s concubines or scoundrels who besmirched the imperial family’s name usually took their place, rarely saw mourners.

Forget mourners, even the grave keepers only peeked in once or twice a month. Yet today, this place was bustling with strange noises.

Creeeeak. Thud.

What fell to the ground with a heavy sound was the weighty stone lid that had been placed on top of a small sarcophagus.

Grand Duke Osilote, who had succeeded in pushing off the lid after wrestling with it for over an hour, gleefully peered inside the sarcophagus.

“Oh, it’s here, it’s here!”

A child-sized skeleton, wrapped in rotted burial clothes, lay neatly inside the stone coffin.

The corpse, which had been incomplete due to being mauled by beasts at the time of death, no longer looked unsightly now that it had become a skeleton.

“Prince Arthur, I have come. Your uncle Philip has come! How lonely and resentful you must have been all this time….”

The Grand Duke sniffled. He wiped his face without hesitation using his sleeve, filthy with sweat, blood, dust, and grime.

Although his face was cut by the jeweled rings still filling his fingers, he couldn’t even feel the pain due to his overly excited state.

He giggled and continued talking, though no one was listening.

“Now I will reclaim your position for you, Prince! Hehehe… Now, you and I will join hands, overthrow the emperor and Nigel, and create a new world, yes!”

Clatter clatter.

As the Grand Duke grabbed the skeleton’s shoulders and shook, the boy’s neatly arranged bones scattered wildly. But he paid no mind and pointed with his jeweled ring-adorned hand to the bottom of the stone coffin.

There, a magic circle drawn with blood the Grand Duke had squeezed from cuts on his own palm was present.

And in the center of the magic circle was a clump of his three children’s hair, which he had just stormed into the residence to collect, all mixed together.

“Look at that. With just that, the prince will now be resurrected. Do you understand?”

His face flushed red like a turkey as he ranted loudly.

“Since you’re being revived thanks to me, you have to do as I say from now on. You have to follow my orders! Because this Philip Morris Aranias will become the master of this empire now! Kyahahahaha.”

He laughed loudly without any concern that someone might come.

Every time the light of the sole lamp placed on the floor flickered, the red magic circle drawn on the underground cemetery floor shimmered eerily.

“Now, I even pulled out my children’s hair as an offering, so come out now, demon! Uh… I mean, I have to say the name, right? What was it? Gil… Gilette?”

The Grand Duke scratched his greasy hair roughly with his filthy hands. What was that name again? He had to remember it….

“Ah, that was it! Giloth!”

Suddenly, the light of the mana stone lamp flickered as if it would go out, then blazed brilliantly again.

“Giloth or whatever, demon, you! Come out right now and revive Prince Arthur! And make me the emperor immediately. Huh?”

When nothing appeared no matter how much he shouted, the Grand Duke seemed to get angry and jumped up and down, then plopped down on the floor again with a yawn.

“When are you giving me food, you bastards! Do you know who I am… Tsk.”

Grrrrr.

At that moment, two red eyes glinted in the cool darkness of the underground tomb.

Grrrrrrrr.

A monster with a slender predator’s body, raising the spines covering its back, approached the Grand Duke with a leisurely gait, drooling all the while.

However, the Grand Duke was now preoccupied with picking up and eating the dirt that had fallen on the tomb floor, not even noticing the monster’s presence.

“It’s delicious, my favorite Kazim Kingdom-style roast duck! Now bring the wine! Larisa, will you join me for a glass of wine?”

The monster had now approached right behind him as he stupidly babbled while looking at Prince Arthur’s sarcophagus.

Grrrrr.

Just as the monster finally flashed its merciless red eyes and opened its mouth wide…

− In this world, it has been truly long since I last heard my name.

A strange voice that seemed to shake not just the ears, but the entire body, resounded in the cemetery’s stone chamber.