Leon nodded silently.

“I will pray. Kasha, then.”

Kasha’s eyes met Leon’s. She could see how tense he was, with dark circles under his eyes.

Kasha didn’t delay any longer and knelt right where the princess had been sitting earlier.

Leon also knelt beside her and began praying in a low voice. Kasha murmured inwardly,

‘I will pray for your soul, Your Majesty the Empress.’

Sincerely, may you now go to a good place.

Ah, but before that. Please watch over us and see how we end this story that you started.

“Ooo oo ooo…”

Soon, ancient magic words began flowing from Kasha’s mouth.

Then, the magic stone placed at the Empress’s bedside began to burn, emitting a bright red light. The light and heat that seemed to be boiling slowly faded away.

And as soon as the magic stone regained its original transparent light, the faint breathing coming from the Empress’s mouth ceased.

It was strange. It seemed as if peace had settled on the Empress’s face at that very moment.

Listening to Leon’s prayer, which was becoming lower with a more merciful light, a strange relief came to everyone’s hearts that everything had finally been done in the natural order.

Kasha turned back and nodded to Melissa. She heard Melissa, who nodded back with a haggard face, summoning the servants to instruct them to prepare for the funeral.

However, Kasha had one last thing to do.

Kasha placed the remaining two magic stones next to the now completely transparent one, drew a summoning circle around them, closed her eyes, and called out the god’s name.

“Gillot.”

And at the very next moment, Kasha, who opened her eyes wide, realized that the surroundings had turned into pitch-black darkness.

It felt as if someone was tugging at the hem of Kasha’s clothes, but her body was stiff and unresponsive.

Flash.

In the middle of the pitch-black void, the god Gillot’s cold, shining blue eyes appeared.

Gillot’s thoughts flowed into Kasha’s mind like lightning.

Understanding it, her eyes widened in surprise for a moment.

“What?”

One month later.

The imperial palace had been bustling for days in preparation for the Emperor’s coronation ceremony.

After the successive deaths of the Emperor and the Crown Prince were announced, the atmosphere in the capital was on thin ice for a while.

Fortunately, however, that atmosphere did not last long.

This was because it was revealed that the culprit behind the Emperor’s assassination and the kidnapping and murder of a young child, which had shaken the entire empire, was none other than Crown Prince Nigel.

When it became known that the Crown Prince was also the main culprit behind the monster incident that had turned the North into a wasteland, all the blame and curses were now directed at the deceased Nigel.

Melissa had Nigel’s severed head hung on the palace walls for the crows to peck out his eyes. At the same time, she hunted down and severely punished the nobles and servants who had acted as Nigel’s henchmen.

She also held a memorial service for those who had been sacrificed by Nigel, attended it in person to pray for their souls, and at the same time offered appropriate compensation and condolences to the bereaved families.

The bold and decisive actions of the princess, who was thought to be a greenhouse flower, made everyone admire her.

The fact that great nobles such as Grand Duke Osilote, Duke Tyrot, and Count Lyuschino lent their strength to her also contributed to stabilizing the situation.

In addition, there was unexpected help.

‘You’re leaving?’

About a week after Nigel’s death, seeing an unexpected guest bowing before her, Princess Melissa looked troubled.

‘Yes. I, I want to go back. To, to my own home.’

Stammering speech, anxious fingers clenching the black dress hem.

None of it was like her.

‘Jasmine.’

‘I’m no longer… the Crown Princess anyway, and I have no reason to be here. Are you going to… k-kill me?’

Anxiety flashed in Jasmine’s gray eyes. Her eyelids and cheeks were sunken, but she looked a little better than when Nigel was alive.

Recalling that she had heard Jasmine had been suffering from insomnia since Nigel’s bizarre behavior had reached its peak, Melissa shook her head.

‘I would never do that. I know you’re a victim too.’

‘Th-thank you…’

Seeing Jasmine’s eyes as she said that, Melissa realized that she was grateful not simply because Melissa wasn’t blaming her.

She thought Melissa had killed her husband for her and was thankful for that fact.

‘I can’t explain everything… so I have no choice but to take the blame for killing my own kin.’

When Melissa inwardly sighed, Jasmine hastily added,

‘If, if you just let me go back to Kazim… I, I’ll ask my father to express active support for your succession to the throne.’

‘…Really?’

‘Yes! Pl-please just let me go back to Kazim. If, if I still lie in the bedroom, I, I feel like that human Nigel will come back to life… and glare at me with those terrible eyes.’

Jasmine said that and breathed anxiously. Melissa got up from her seat and silently patted that thin back.

She fully understood Jasmine’s fear. She herself would sometimes wake up from sleep, drenched in cold sweat and gripped by a formless fear.

Jasmine, who returned to her homeland in this way, kept her promise. The Kingdom of Kazim sent an official letter congratulating Melissa’s accession to the throne and expressing their intention to maintain a friendly relationship between the two countries.

The evaluation of Melissa, who had gained the cooperation of a powerful country like Kazim during such a complicated period, was bound to rise further.

And finally, this day dawned.

“Your Majesty! The preparations for the coronation ceremony are complete.”

Seeing Margaret entering the room and reporting, Melissa calmly nodded and rose from her seat.

As she walked toward the door, trailing her long white robe embroidered with gold thread and golden robe, she suddenly turned to look at Margaret.

“They… haven’t arrived yet?”

Margaret, who immediately understood who she was referring to, nodded her head with an apologetic expression.

“Yes. It’s a long way after all. But they sent a congratulatory letter in advance, so don’t feel too disappointed, Your Majesty.”

Melissa nodded and passed through the door opened by the attendant.

As she advanced through the faces of the palace servants lined up on either side, filled with joy, her mind was full of her last conversation with Kasha Lyuschino and Leon Aranias.

‘It’s unthinkable for me, who bears responsibility for all those tragedies, to dare ascend to the throne. As you know, Sir Leon, you too have sufficient qualifications to succeed to the throne as a member of the imperial bloodline.’

But Leon shook his head firmly.

‘Becoming the emperor would make me too busy. The time I could spend by this person’s side would diminish as well.’

Kasha Lyuschino, who was listening to Leon’s unhesitating words of refusal, also smiled brightly. It was a clear and bright face, with no remaining desires or regrets.

‘In this life, I have vowed to have only the things I truly want, Your Highness. And I have already achieved them all with my own strength.’

As she said that, she turned to look at Leon, and they smiled brightly at each other.

After that, the two of them immediately left for the North, where Count Lyuschino’s territory was located. They said there was something they had to do to wrap everything up.

‘Be a good ruler, Your Highness.’

Kasha Lyuschino said as she bid farewell.

‘So that the sacrifices of all those innocent lives lost will not be in vain.’

She, who would soon become Melissa I, really intended to do just that.

With a calm but firm determination on her neat face, she set foot in the huge hall of the palace.

At the same time, in a small village inn in the desert region bordering the northern part of the continent.

The figure huddled on the bed until the sun rose high in the sky stirred. Bright pink eyes flashed open on the small face that had been snoring softly.

“Wait. What time is it now…?”

Yawning, Kasha’s gaze turned to the open window.

The sky outside the window, through which the dry desert air was rushing in, was embarrassingly clear and serene.

‘Is it already noon? I should get up…’

She blinked, contemplating for a moment whether to get out of the blanket or not.

The air was quite chilly as winter had already set in. It took quite a bit of courage to put her feet out of the blanket.

Moreover, right now… she was not wearing a single thread under the blanket.

Then someone’s large hand abruptly held out a steaming teacup in front of her.

“What does it matter what time it is.”

Smelling the fragrance of black tea and the sweet and nutty scent of milk, Kasha’s hand quickly reached out for the teacup.

“When did you wake up?”

“Not long ago. Just a little while ago.”

Covering her upper body with the blanket and gulping down the milk tea, Kasha stealthily took in Leon’s kind smile with her eyes.

Contrary to his words that he had woken up a little while ago, he had a clean appearance that exuded the scent of soap, the complete opposite of Kasha’s disheveled appearance.

His slightly damp hair naturally fell over his forehead, and there was no trace of sleep in the corners of his smiling mouth or eyes. He had changed into a loose shirt at some point, which was also new.

Seeing him looking so neat, as if he were a different person from the man who had passionately pounced on her last night, made her feel a little petty.

“You said we’d wake up together and watch the sunrise.”

Hearing her sulky voice, he climbed onto the bed, wrapped his arms around her body, and kissed the top of her head.

“I tried to wake you up several times, but you wouldn’t get up.”

She felt heat rising to the corners of her eyes for no reason at the warmth of his body enveloping her whole being.

It was because the memory of the previous night came to mind. His heat that seemed to push into her endlessly. His contorted eyes looking down at her and letting out low groans.

In the midst of it all, the hot kisses that persistently spread all over her body. The memory of the long night that seemed to stretch on forever was engraved in every corner of her body.

Well, it wasn’t just last night.