How much time had passed? Noticing that Kasha’s breath was becoming rapid, Leon reluctantly pulled away from her.

Leon supported Kasha’s back as she slumped, panting heavily. Kasha lowered her eyes, docilely nestled in his arms as if exhausted.

Her eyes were moist and her lips swollen and red, seemingly from the exertion. Her delicate collarbone dipped deeply with each labored breath, visible through her disheveled collar.

Looking at these, fierce blood flow began again in Leon’s veins.

Flustered, Leon let her lean against the wall, then stepped slightly away from her. Like someone afraid of breaking something fragile and precious.

Fortunately, Kasha didn’t notice anything as she caught her breath leaning against the wall. Leon stared blankly at her, when suddenly he realized something had changed dramatically.

His mind was clear.

A perfect sense of liberation, unfelt for nearly a year, was washing over his entire body.

‘How can this be.’

The dark, heavy lust that had always coiled in his gut was gone. And in its place, only the burning sensation left by the passionate kiss with Kasha remained, pooling hotly.

The sensation of complete freedom gradually rose from his toes to the top of his head.

Noticing his unusual expression, Kasha tilted her head and looked up at him while leaning against the wall. It was that rabbit-like expression that made Leon pause every time he saw it.

Taking that in fully with his eyes, Leon spoke as if in disbelief.

“You, it seems you’ve really done it.”

Hearing those words, Kasha’s eyes brightened instantly.

“Really…?”

“Yes. Probably.”

Saying that, Leon summoned holy power to his hand. In an instant, a dazzlingly brilliant golden sphere formed above his hand.

He slowly brought it to Kasha’s forehead.

As the pure and sacred healing power flowed into her body, Kasha shuddered slightly.

Her body, always tired from frequent all-nighters, recovered instantly.

Her breath, rapid from the long kiss, stabilized in no time.

“Thank you.”

“No, thank you.”

Leon seemed even more moved after confirming his own stable condition even after using holy power.

“You really… kept your promise.”

At Leon’s words in a low voice, Kasha smiled unconsciously.

“Yes. I kept my promise. Finally. The promise I made to you.”

His voice sounded so overwhelmed that Leon felt puzzled.

Kasha’s eyes even glistened with a few tears.

‘I really kept my promise, Leon.’

‘I’ll save you.’

‘Really. I, I know how. I can… pull you out of this curse.’

The holy knight who had been dying lonely, having given up on life. The man who had met a catastrophic end due to her ignorance and mistakes. She was indescribably happy to have kept the promise she made to him before the regression.

However, noticing Leon’s puzzled expression, she soon composed her emotions and asked calmly.

“Has your condition really improved?”

“Yes. Definitely.”

He answered while floating holy power above his palm.

Reflecting his mood, holy power brighter than usual seeped beautifully into the air.

Leon asked Kasha.

“So is the curse now completely lifted from me?”

“For now, I think so. But since the magic stone was exposed to power when trying to reverse the curse, there might be some aftereffects.”

“Aftereffects?”

“Like just now, seizures might occur again. Once or twice? Until you’re completely free from the magic stone’s influence.”

Leon nodded slowly.

“That much. If I’m really freed from this curse, I can easily endure it.”

That was sincere.

For him, who had been prepared to slowly go mad trapped in this lust’s shackles for life, this moment felt like a miracle.

Leon began to fully open his holy power for the first time in a long while, examining if there were any blockages in its flow. While quietly looking around the room so as not to disturb him, Kasha’s gaze suddenly stopped on a religious painting hanging on the wall.

A painting depicting a saint approaching the sick, wearing shoes made of thorns and walking on a stone path arranged by God. The image of the saint, certainly beautiful but somehow giving a desperate feeling, somehow resembled the atmosphere Leon possessed.

“That’s Saint Antevain. My mother’s favorite saint.”

Leon’s voice, who had approached without her noticing. Kasha turned to him and asked.

“Why… did she like this saint?”

“Well. Because he was a saint with outstanding holy power who saved countless people. Mother wanted to be like him, and to some extent, she actually lived such a life.”

It was the first time Leon had spoken so long about his mother.

“She must have been, an admirable person.”

“Yes. At least outwardly.”

Leon’s response sounded bitter and self-deprecating, but also very matter-of-fact.

Perhaps because he had just shed the shackles of the curse that had been like punishment, he looked more refreshed and free than ever. Kasha voiced a question that suddenly occurred to her.

“What kind of mother was she, to you?”

“Well. She was someone who didn’t live many moments as a mother.”

As Kasha tilted her head, Leon continued speaking softly.

“I have no memory of being held by my mother. From childhood, I was raised by a wet nurse, and it was difficult to even see my mother’s face. The only time I had anything resembling a conversation with her was for about a year before she passed away. Even then, the conversations were full of resentment and complaints about my father, but I was happy even with that at the time. Of course, even that happiness faded in the end.”

“…Was this after giving birth to Eve, when she was ill?”

As if tracing his mother’s faded face in his memory, Leon’s platinum eyebrows furrowed.

“Yes. As you heard earlier, Father had an affair while Mother was sick. The other woman was quite a famous opera singer in the capital. Mother found it hard to bear that such a woman was her rival. Her weakened body caused her mind to deteriorate even faster. From a few months before her death, she cursed Father every day in a fit of rage. A saint cursing her husband, what a story gossips would love to hear. Don’t you think?”

Leon remembered his mother’s deathbed. A face as gaunt as a skull and lifeless eyes. Her beautiful silver hair had turned into dull white hair, and her body, which had lost its function, emitted a rotten smell.

‘Leon. I don’t want to die. Pour more holy power into me. Hurry, hurry!’

Saint Larisa, gripped by fear, clung to her son Leon and begged.

He was already exhausted from pouring holy power by her side for days. The healer attending to Larisa intervened in horror.

‘You can’t! At this rate, the young master will collapse too! I’ll pour the holy power, so please rest, young master…’

‘Get out of here! Your pathetic holy power can’t heal me.’

Glaring at the healer, Larisa grabbed Leon’s sleeve and pleaded.

‘Leon, your holy power is inherited from me anyway. You’re just returning it to me. Right? You’re not reluctant to give holy power to your mother, are you? Right, son?’

Leon had to force himself not to turn away from the smell coming from her. The seventeen-year-old boy, already overworked to the limit, was in a state of extreme emaciation.

The healer tried to intervene further but was driven out by Larisa’s insistence. The Grand Duke, the only person who could stop Larisa, had long since disappeared, afraid of the curses she was spewing.

So, it was only Leon. The only one to stand by Larisa’s last moments. The one to bear her vicious words.

‘Leon. I don’t want to die. I absolutely can’t die like this. I hate it…’

Leon placed his hand on her forehead, which was emitting a rotten smell, and began to pour holy power again. As his extremely fatigued body trembled, Anthony, who had come to see his mother, tried to stop him.

‘Stop it, brother… You’ll die too at this rate!’

‘Get out of my room right now! You useless thing without a single grain of holy power…!’

‘Mother… please don’t… speak to Anthony… like that.’

Leon gritted his teeth due to his wavering vision and removed his hand from Larisa, standing in front of Anthony.

‘No! Don’t take your hand off me, Leon. Don’t abandon me, son.’

‘Brother, please stop. If you die too at this rate…’

Anthony, who was trying to stop Leon, ended up getting scratched by Larisa’s flailing nails. Even three-year-old Eve, seeing this, cried bitterly.

‘Anthony. Take Eve and leave.’

Leon finally remained alone by Larisa’s side. And he poured out even the last grain of holy power to his mother, wringing out even his own life.

And finally, when his holy power was exhausted and he fainted, Larisa also breathed her last.

He failed to be present at his mother’s final moment. He only woke up a month later, having overworked his body to the point of life-threatening danger.

When he finally opened his eyes again and heard the news of his mother’s death, the emotion he felt was not sadness or a sense of loss.

Relief that he would never have to smell that terrible odor again. That was all.

“This is the true story of the mother and son, the saint and holy knight, so praised by the world.”

Leon concluded the story like that. By now, they had left the religious painting and were sitting side by side on a long chair in front of the window.

His eyes were calm and serene. Those eyes, devoid of any regret or longing, seemed terribly sad instead.

And Kasha perfectly understood his sadness. For she too had experienced being thoroughly denied and used, slowly losing all hope in her previous life.

She also knew well that consolation was useless on such topics.

Kasha looked up at him intently for a while, then suddenly changed the subject.

“That spot next to the fireplace, it looks like… something big used to be there.”

Leon gave a bitter smile as he looked at the spot she was pointing to.

“I played the piano for a long time. After I properly manifested holy power, Mother said I shouldn’t use my hands carelessly and had it removed.”

Kasha looked at Leon’s large hands, full of calluses and scars. Had his hands forgotten how to play the piano forever? Just as he firmly believed he would never be happy.

Kasha unconsciously reached out and held his hand. When he looked down at her with surprised eyes, she raised the corners of her mouth in a slight smile.

“Now, we can hold hands like this.”

Looking at Kasha’s smiling face, Leon frowned as if dazzled.

“Indeed.”

Leon seemed to be thinking about something for a moment, but he didn’t let go of her hand. They stayed like that, holding hands and gazing out the window where bright sunlight was shining through.

It was a moment of rest they were having after a very long time. Especially for Kasha, who had lived a longer life and regressed.

Holding Leon’s hand with normal body temperature instead of a severed arm, hope of ‘maybe’ raised its head in Kasha’s heart.

A perfect new life after taking revenge on the unknown mastermind and Simon. Could such a thing really be possible?

A future where Leon, Daril, Margaret, and Eve all live together smiling.

However, Kasha’s expression suddenly darkened as she thought of Eve.

Her hand slowly shrank back and slipped out of Leon’s hand.