“Then, this time, those who oppose Crown Prince Nigel’s ascension to the throne, raise your hands.”

At Duke Tyrot’s next question, as if they had made a promise, the hands of all the nobles rose up.

The Commander of the Knights opened his mouth wide in disbelief at the sight he couldn’t accept, forgetting his dignity.

‘How on earth… How did everyone change their attitude overnight like this? How on earth?’

Duke Tyrot, as befitting the host of the banquet, quickly summarized the situation.

“Well. Then there will be no more justification to stop us. Now we need to enter the Crown Prince’s palace and find my grandson, so will you please step aside? What the hell is the Crown Prince trying to do with that innocent babe? What the hell has he been plotting all this time?!”

The Commander blankly replied to Duke Tyrot, who was pointing fingers at him with a badger-like face.

“That… I don’t really know well….”

He couldn’t continue his words. Because at that very moment, as if a dam had burst, all sorts of questions flooded his mind.

‘Come to think of it, what the hell is Crown Prince Nigel really up to?’

Recalling the various eccentricities of the Crown Prince that he couldn’t have been unaware of as the Commander of the Knights, they spread doubts in his mind like spores of poisonous mushrooms.

How much had he agonized over disposing of the corpses of women and servants who had died in the Crown Prince’s palace….

There were already several of his knights who had gone missing. Including the knights who had been conscripted for the monster expedition in Count Lyuschino’s territory some time ago….

At the same time, an utterly obvious yet absurdly unfamiliar question dominated his mind.

‘Why on earth… have I never thought all these things were strange until now?’

The questions didn’t end there. Why, of all times, at this very moment, did all of the Crown Prince’s actions that he had watched without any thought seem like creepy eccentricities?

And at that moment, it wasn’t just the Commander who was thinking that. Everyone gathered there—nobles and knights alike—was thinking the same thing.

Why does Crown Prince Nigel… suddenly seem like a madman?

And why on earth have I never had such doubts until now? Why, not even once?

It was as if the world had brightened before their eyes after taking off the tinted glasses they had been wearing for a long time. They were dizzy from the sudden grotesqueness of reality being highlighted before their eyes.

The all too clear truth that the Crown Prince was out of his mind was laid out before them. It was utterly unbelievable that they had never recognized it until now.

As if waking from a long sleep and facing their bare face in the mirror, everyone standing there avoided each other’s gazes with a bewildered expression.

Only one person, Leon, lifted his head with clear eyes.

On the second floor window he was looking at, a pale woman with distinct bright pink eyes was looking down at them.

‘You did it, Kasha.’

A smile bloomed on Leon’s haggard face. Kasha also responded to him with a smile.

‘Yes. We did it, together.’

Next to her, Nigel was still tied to a chair, unconscious, and at his feet lay a terribly crumpled box.

It had been broken while Kasha was struggling to extract the magic stone.

She quietly looked at the magic stone gripped in her hand. In the bright and transparent stone where the red energy had been completely erased, her bright pink eyes were reflected.

It was hard to take her eyes off that transparent light, which was hard to believe had been the driving force behind all those evil and terrible things.

Just before, while Leon and Anthony were fighting with all their might, Kasha had managed to detach the magic stone from the box after much effort. With it in her hand, she went in front of the unconscious Nigel and recited the magic words in the ancient language.

As soon as the magic words ended, the magic stone was dyed blood-red and heated up.

Even at a glance, ominous black haze rose up, and from within it, someone’s spine-chilling scream rose up and pierced Kasha’s eardrums.

It was like looking into a miniature hell.

However, despite the pain of her hand burning and the terrible noise that threatened to make her deaf, Kasha did not let go of the magic stone.

The terrible battle going on outside, and the man who was enduring it all without even screaming once in the midst of it….

Kasha was the only one who could end it all. So she had to make it happen. Even if it meant not just holding hell in her hand, but going directly into that pit of fire.

How many minutes had passed? The heat that had been heating up the magic stone, the blood-red color, the terrible noise, and the black haze all disappeared as if it had been a lie.

Kasha gripped the magic stone tightly in her pale hand. Her ears were still clogged and her hearing had not returned. She had suffered severe burns on her hand, causing terrible pain to rush in, but that much was nothing.

‘Is it over…?’

With an anxious face, she looked at the magic stone that was emitting a transparent and bright light as if it were a lie. Very slowly, the pain that had been boring into her ears subsided and the surrounding noise began to be heard.

Right at that moment, Nigel, who had been tied to the chair and lost consciousness, began to wake up.

He lifted his head with a groan like a drunken beast. Nigel’s blurry eyes, which met Kasha’s clear gaze, slowly regained focus.

It was then that Duke Tyrot’s voice was heard from outside.

“What the hell is the Crown Prince trying to do with that innocent babe? What the hell has he been plotting all this time?!”

Kasha jumped up and looked out the window. And then she was at a loss for words for a moment.

It wasn’t just Leon. Anthony, Daril, Count Lyuschino, Princess Melissa, Duke Tyrot, Odette…

Everyone who had at times been used by Nigel and became his puppets had gathered here.

There was a clear sense of victory on their faces, but at the same time, anger, disillusionment, questions and confusion were also evident. It was all too clear who that complex bundle of emotions was directed at.

‘Everyone has come to see Nigel for who he is. Everyone… has broken free. From the influence of the magic stone. I did it!’

Her heart swelled with pride, but at the same time, strength left her legs. Kasha almost staggered for a moment, but she tried hard to keep her body upright.

‘Leon.’

The man who was looking up at her as if he had survived a pit of war. Because he was looking at her with such desperate, worried eyes.

‘Don’t worry. I’m okay.’

It was when she smiled at him with that meaning and nodded her head.

Suddenly, Leon’s eyes widened as he looked at her. At the same time, a rough shout burst out.

“Kasha! Watch out!”

Kasha unconsciously took a step back and turned around without a moment to think.

Thud! Crunch!

The window sill where she had been standing was dented.

Rough, panting breaths. Sunken eyes that seemed to have aged 10 years all of a sudden, and intermittently trembling cheeks.

“You, you….”

Nigel, who had somehow untied himself and gotten up, had swung the chair he had been tied to at her.

“Watch out?”

He grinned strangely like a broken wooden doll and roughly swung the chair again.

Kasha barely dodged his attack, but she could tell from his clenched hand that he was downright possessed by evil.

He must have felt it the moment he opened his eyes. That the power of the magic stone had left him.

His gaze, having completely lost his usual arrogance and confidence, was no different from that of his elderly father whom he had killed with his own hands.

His body and soul had already been ruined by his long-term debauchery. It was only the inhuman charm created by the magic stone that covered and concealed it.

Nigel couldn’t bear to see his ugly self that had lost the compensating effect provided by the magic stone.

“No, no!!!”

And he knew all too well that Kasha was the one who had brought him down to such depths.

“D-die…!”

Nigel gathered all his anger and malice and swung the chair with all his might.

Whack!

“Aagh!”

This time she couldn’t dodge. Kasha, properly bludgeoned on the shoulder by the edge of the chair, screamed and rolled on the floor.

The urgent shouts of Leon and Count Lyuschino were heard through the window.

‘Everyone will be here soon. I just need to hold on until then…!’

Kasha gritted her teeth and rolled to the side.

Crack!

The chair slammed down right where she had been, and sharp fragments flew off.

A few fragments grazed her body as they passed by, creating deep wounds.

Kasha had no time to scream and kept rolling.

Bang! Crack! Crash!

Nigel swung the broken chair fiercely as if he was filled with only the thought of crushing Kasha.

Kasha gritted her teeth and kept rolling, but at some point she reached the corner of the room where she could no longer avoid him.

Nigel, with a strange smile, raised the tattered chair to head height.

“Die.”

It was when he said that and put strength into his hand.

Stab.

“Ugh…”

Dark red blood droplets fell on the carpet with a thud.

Kasha looked at the blood droplets with wide eyes. It wasn’t her blood.

It was the blood pouring from Nigel’s chest, his eyes rolled back.

“Kuh, kuh…”

Nigel collapsed to the side like a log, spitting out bloody foam. The whites of his overturned eyes quickly lost their vitality.

‘Is it Leon?’

But the man who pulled out a crescent-shaped sword while spitting on Nigel’s corpse was an unfamiliar face. The short-statured man with tanned skin glared at Kasha, muttering words that sounded like curses in a foreign language.

“My, sister, revenge.”

Kasha’s eyes widened as she understood the Imperial words the man had stammered out.