“Ah… What should I do!”

Latifa could only stomp her feet as she watched the chaotic audience chamber and the rampaging Hades while being held by Ruhan.

“Prince Ruhan! H-Hades the Grand General! This could really turn into a disaster if it continues! What should we do?!”

“Lati, calm down! I’ll go out there, so stay behind the guards and don’t come out!”

“I-Is this all happening because of me? Because… because a trial was held because of me.”

Feeling as if this whole chaotic situation was entirely her fault, Latifa covered her mouth.

She couldn’t continue speaking, overwhelmed by the feeling of a hot lump of lead stuck in her chest.

‘It’s because I let Caesar go. Because I acted recklessly, wanting to become a goddess… It must be my fault. And just now, I brought up the water bag unnecessarily, causing all this…’

With misplaced stubbornness and competitiveness, she had let Caesar out at the Frau appointment ceremony, resulting in Tarek getting hurt.

She had told Hades about the desert fox’s words, which could have been ignored due to lack of evidence, as if she were truly a goddess, and angered him.

Thinking that she was the cause of everything, she now felt that all her actions until now might have been presumptuous.

‘I thought I was doing well… But I guess not. As expected, I…’

Watching the raging Hades, she felt too heavy and afraid to say anything, as if shackles were binding her.

“Iota! Come out right now! Before I kill you! No, go ahead and try to run away! I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth and kill you!”

“Kyaaak!”

It was truly a scene of utter chaos.

Iota and her maids were running around the audience chamber in disarray, their skirts fluttering, while Hades continued to chase after the fleeing Iota, and the guards clung to him, being dragged along.

And people were running here and there to avoid them, while the Sultan, surrounded by his guard soldiers, was frowning and holding his forehead as if he had a headache.

Ruhan noticed the tears welling up in Latifa’s blue eyes first and comforted her.

“Ah, Lati! This is absolutely not your fault. This is just Hades’s whim, so please don’t torment your innocent conscience.”

“Prince Ruhan. We must stop the Grand General somehow. It’s no longer just about the crime of attempting to assassinate royalty!”

Although Latifa didn’t know the laws of the Grand Bazaar, she could tell from common sense that causing such a commotion in the presence of a country’s king was unacceptable.

“You’re right. If this continues, Hades could be imprisoned for blasphemy.”

“Imprisoned?!”

“Lati, this is Irgos. Stay behind this person. Irgos, I’ll try to persuade Hades, so please take care of her.”

Ruhan entrusted Latifa to Irgos, who was behind him, and then rushed towards Hades.

“How can he be stopped when he’s rampaging like that?!”

As Latifa whimpered, Irgos sighed heavily and pulled her to a safer place.

“It’s alright. Prince Ruhan is the only one who can rein in Hades.”

“Why did the Grand General suddenly become so agitated?!”

“Grand General Hades cares deeply for Prince Ruhan. Especially, he extremely dislikes the pure bloodline being tainted, so he sometimes overreacts like this. It’s not the first time.”

“Even so, so suddenly!”

“It’s not the first or second time we’ve seen Hades’s madness, but today it seems a bit worse. Could it be related to your matter?”

Irgos muttered worriedly, looking at Ruhan who was going to stop Hades.

“It’s fox hunting! Let’s start a fox hunt!”

Hades was walking slowly, slowly in the direction Iota had run, with two or three guards on his back trying to restrain him.

“Hades! Stop it!”

Ruhan shouted at Hades.

“Oh, Your Highness! I shall offer you a dish of fox liver for Prince Ruhan! Since the smelly, painted old fox’s fur won’t be worth much anyway, wouldn’t a large, swollen liver dish be the best?!”

“I don’t need such a liver dish, Hades. This is in front of the Sultan. Mind your manners.”

“That vicious woman being in front of the Sultan itself doesn’t make sense!”

Hades’s black eyes were gleaming with madness more than ever as he shouted, and there seemed to be a murderous glint in them.

If there was any consolation, it was that he was still responding to Ruhan’s words.

Even that wasn’t a normal conversation, though.

Latifa had seen such madness-filled eyes before.

‘When I almost died from the lion, he was raging and shouting like that.’

But at that time, there was no Sultan or Iota, and it wasn’t in the palace.

‘How did I calm him down then?’

Latifa took a deep breath and tried to recall what happened that day, but in the chaotic situation, her mind went blank and she couldn’t think of anything.

“Kyaak! Open the door! Hurry and open the door!”

Iota, who had been running away continuously, was now frantically running barefoot, trying to escape outside the audience chamber.

Hades was staggering at a distance, blocked by a wall of soldiers, catching his rough breath, and Ruhan was barely holding onto his shoulder.

Seeing this, Irgos sighed in relief and said to Latifa.

“It seems the prince has managed to stop him somehow. It’s fortunate, but there’s still a mountain of things to clean up. Ugh. No early leave today either. At times like this, I really envy Manut!”

At his words, Latifa looked at Hades.

But contrary to Irgos’s words of relief, Hades’s black eyes still held an enormous killing intent.

“Is it really over?”

“What?”

Suddenly, Latifa saw a faint silver spirit flickering around Hades.

And that spirit was speaking in a very vicious voice.

“K-Kill, he says?”

“What are you talking about? Kill who?”

Irgos asked back, wondering what nonsense she was speaking.

Hades continued to glare at Iota with eyes overflowing with madness.

Those black flame eyes that seemed about to burn everything without leaving even a handful of ashes suddenly changed direction.

His eyes were now focused on the floor covered with a geometrically patterned carpet, elaborately and elegantly embroidered in indigo and gold.

No, more precisely, they were focused on a guard’s polearm that had fallen on that carpet.

Hearing the ominous voice again, Latifa quickly looked at Iota on the opposite side.

She was barely holding onto the large oak door of the audience chamber, her legs having given out, her face smeared with smudged makeup.

‘Oh no! It’s a completely straight line!’

Seeing Hades quickly bend down, Latifa reflexively moved her body.

“Well! Whose polearm is this?! If I pierce that fox with this, I’ll greatly reward the owner of this polearm!”

-Whoosh!

“No! Grand General Hades!”

It felt like if he killed Iota, something truly irreversible would happen.

With his shout, the large polearm made a swooshing sound as it cut through the air, and Latifa ran towards Iota, waving her arms.

At that moment, everything around Latifa seemed to move slowly.

People were slowly fleeing, and the Sultan, too shocked, was rising from his seat.

Iota was about to collapse with foam in her mouth.

And beyond the sharp polearm flying through the air, Hades’s black eyes were visible.

His pupils were trembling uncontrollably as he looked at her, who had suddenly blocked Iota.

-Thwack!

“Aghuk!”

“Latifa?!”

“Lati!”

An tremendous pain pierced her shoulder, and Latifa let out a shrill scream as she collapsed to the floor.

“Huu-uk, haa… Haa.”

It hurt so much that she couldn’t even make a loud sound.

“Lati, Lati! Are you alright?!”

“Oh my, desert guardian spirits! Protect her!”

“Hades’s Grand General’s Frau threw herself to save Iota!”

Smelling the pungent scent of blood in her nose, Latifa tremblingly turned her head towards her shoulder.

“H-Hiiik!”

The large polearm was firmly embedded in her left shoulder, and her deep turquoise clothes were turning black.

Even the ends of her bright silver hair were turning red.

‘Mom, it hurts so much. Now I’m really… really going to die.’

“Blood. Blood! It hurts… Ugh. It hurts! The blood keeps… Ah, what should I do?”

Latifa could only whimper in the Imperial language, unable to even ask for help.

It was as if all thought in her head had stopped, and she couldn’t figure out what to do.

Along with the terrible pain, a strange feeling washed over her like a wave.

As if slicing open a bag full of something with a knife, spilling all its contents.

It felt like all the burdens she had piled up in her heart until now were pouring out through the wound.

She had a feeling that everything in this life was coming to an end.

“Aah…”

Ruhan and the Sultan ran up to Latifa, shouting something and giving orders to people, but she couldn’t understand any of it.

“—–!”

The extreme pain made it impossible to even properly hear the desert language.

“—–!”

People were running around busily and shouting, but her head was so numb that she couldn’t understand anything, nor did she want to understand.

Suddenly, being here felt so distant, and she wanted to let go of everything.

‘I want to rest.’

The memories of civil war breaking out in the Empire, war happening, and struggling to survive while fleeing as refugees felt too distant and futile.

I guess this is the end.

At that moment, Ruhan held Latifa in his arms, frantically examining the polearm embedded in her shoulder.

Ruhan’s antique gold and cream-colored clothes were being stained with red blood, and his face looked like he might burst into tears at any moment.

‘What about Grand General Hades?’

What kind of expression would he be making?

Amidst the tremendous pain tearing through Latifa and everything around her becoming blurry, she strangely wondered about such things.

Would he be angry, saying that a stupid woman from a ruined country had meddled unnecessarily?

Or had he gone to catch Iota again?

Ah, he told me not to die before him.

He said I was his happiness.

That if I die, his happiness would disappear too.

Soon her head was ringing as if it was about to split, and even thoughts of Hades were fading away.

Latifa barely managed to take rough breaths as she slightly turned her head in Ruhan’s arms.

At the end of that gaze, coincidentally, was Hades.

Surprisingly, he was standing there quietly.

He was just standing there.

While everyone was running around busily and murmuring, he remained frozen in the same posture as when he had thrown the polearm, just staring at her.

He looked a little, no, very surprised.

It was the face of someone who couldn’t believe what he had just done.

His hands might have been trembling a little.

Was he regretting what he had done?

Hurting her? Or causing a commotion in the Sultan’s audience chamber? Which of these was he regretting?

‘Well. What’s the use of all that now.’

I’m so tired.

With the feeling of her head splitting, Latifa leaned her head against Ruhan’s soft embrace.

A faint scent of peppermint, different from Hades’s jasmine scent, brushed her nose.

A gentle touch, somewhat different from Hades’s firm hands, tenderly stroked her head.

A heartbeat, much different from Hades’s strong voice, light and fast, echoed in her ears.