It would be strange if profanities didn’t come out.

It was even more so because it was useless to swallow my pride and even beg to somehow escape from that woman’s sphere of influence.

‘Those cruel ones actually restrained me and dragged me all the way here.’

I recalled the one-eyed man I had felt a little fondness for and the big red-haired man called the imperial grandson.

Also, the face of that cold blonde guy who was said to be that woman’s son came to mind.

Son…

‘Come to think of it, where might my lovely son be drinking his tears right now?’

At such a time of crisis, rescuing one’s mother is the true duty of a child.

The son I had given birth to so well by investing all my genes betrayed her and ran away.

It was just because I punished him a little for releasing that Landgritz girl.

But that much wasn’t such a big deal of punishment. Shouldn’t a child help their parents’ work, not hinder it?

“Hmm…?”

It was then that some sound reached her sensitive hearing.

‘Footsteps?’

It was a sound coming from very far away, but there was no way to be confused as it was such a quiet space.

Dorothea held her breath and listened more intently. Then the footsteps approaching this way were clear, tap-tap.

Moreover, when listened to carefully, it wasn’t just one person. At least two people…

‘Could it be that there are others trapped in here?’

If so, it was fortunate.

Whoever was trapped in here, Dorothea was confident she could subdue them, take what they had, and extract information.

It didn’t matter if there were two or three of them.

‘No. If there are two, I can kill one and extract information from the other.’

Dorothea, who had put on a cruel smile, gripped the curved sword she was holding.

She immediately extinguished the torch. Then she hid her body in a blind spot on the opposite side of where the footsteps were coming from.

She intended to attack while quietly holding her breath like this. If they changed direction, then she would follow.

Tap-tap. The footsteps kept getting closer.

For a moment, she felt uneasy. It was because they were coming straight to where she was hiding, without any sign of wandering around.

‘But aren’t there two people? Why aren’t they saying anything?’

The footsteps were too regular to attribute it to being tired.

Thinking like that, she even began to think that they might be looking for her.

‘No, that can’t be.’

It was too much of an exaggeration.

How could they know where she was and find her in this tomb of shadows?

It was then that the sound of heels approaching this way completely disappeared.

Had they just stopped walking for a moment? But even so, there was nowhere to go.

Unless it was a ghost moving, if it was a person, they would eventually have to take a step.

Quietly, just wait a little longer. Just a little more…

“…?”

At that moment.

The hair all over her body stood on end at once.

It was as if another layer of abyss-like darkness had fallen around her.

Or as if the cold breath of the dead was enveloping the surrounding air.

What is this? What on earth is this inexplicable uneasiness?

But there was no way to check the situation.

Because the thousand-year shadow completely blocked the view, nothing was visible.

Oh no! There was an uncomfortable fact that she only realized then.

The moment she eliminated the light source, they couldn’t see her from over there, but she also couldn’t see her opponent.

In other words, perhaps the strange sensation she was feeling now was because someone was around her.

The moment she realized that, Dorothea swung the curved sword she was holding widely.

However…

“…!”

Her body wouldn’t move as she wished. The hand holding the curved sword had frozen as if it had frozen in that short moment.

Far from swinging the sword, she couldn’t even move a finger. What on earth is going on?

“Wh-who are you!”

“I have restrained you.”

Finally, someone’s voice sank softly into the darkness.

The man’s low voice was so gentle that it didn’t suit this urgent situation.

“What, what have you done!”

“You’re noisy.”

“…!”

It was right after that her vocal cords became unable to make any sound.

No matter how hard she tried to make a sound, it was the same.

She couldn’t understand at all how this situation had come about. Maybe she had even gone deaf?

But the following situation was proving that it wasn’t even that.

The man’s beautiful voice was as clear as if it had been engraved on her eardrums.

“Now you can come this way, madam.”

And the clicking footsteps, and even the elegant woman’s voice making sentences with sophisticated pronunciation.

“If you’ve caught her, it’s too dark around here, could you please light up the surroundings, Lord Joseph?”

“Certainly.”

An unbelievable thing happened again. Light entered the surroundings that had seemed as if she was wearing a pitch-black blindfold.

“…!?”

Moreover, it wasn’t even flickering light like a torch or oil lamp.

The light source that floated in the air and gradually illuminated the surroundings… it might sound crazy, but it looked like light emitted by a soul. In other words, it was a phenomenon that couldn’t be explained by her common sense.

That wasn’t the only thing she had to doubt her eyes about.

It was the state of herself that she grasped as she became able to gauge her surroundings.

Since when had it been? She discovered transparent thread-like things wrapping around and fixing her body.

It was as if she had become a marionette. No, rather, the expression that she was hanging from a spider web might be more accurate?

Am I going crazy?

“Although we’re acquainted, I can’t say I’m glad to see you, Dorothea.”

Meanwhile, the neat sound of shoes stopped a few steps away from her.

Only then did Dorothea, coming to her senses, turn her gaze.

Then her eyes met with a woman who had elegantly twisted up her black hair with a purple tinge like the goddess of night.

At that moment, Dorothea forgot even to breathe from the shock striking her mind.

The appearance of her wearing a black dress like mourning clothes was beautiful enough to make bile and jealousy spring up.

The small and lovely girl from old memories, who stimulated a sinister desire to collect, came to mind.

The girl who had given her 20 years of nightmares.

“It’s the first time I’m introducing myself. I am Duchess Lieselotte Karin Daiern.”

The current appearance of such a girl was overwhelmingly beautiful enough to inspire awe.

Suddenly, a strand of playful hair swayed along her neck as she tilted her head slightly.

“It didn’t seem like you didn’t know how to speak?”

“Ah, excuse me. I shut her mouth until she calmed down because her ears hurt.”

As another voice cut in, her senses suddenly returned.

Ah, come to think of it, the one who had done this to her was a man with a beautiful voice.

What kind of guy had done such a monstrous thing? When she turned her head with such thoughts.

Dorothea’s pupils dilated to their limit this time.

The surreal silver hair and devilish red eyes…

Although it was different from what Dorothea remembered, there was no way she couldn’t recognize it.

Because those eyes, nose bridge, shape of lips and jawline were eerily similar to her own face that she had become familiar with seeing in the mirror every day.

“Son…?”

At last, her broken vocal cords produced a sound.

“Could it be, are you my son Joseph?”

It was a situation where one couldn’t help but be curious about what was going on.

I looked back and forth between Lord Joseph and Dorothea.

And soon I came to a chilling conclusion.

Without realizing it, my steps moved backwards.

To me, Dorothea was no different from an enemy.

She was a symbol of terror who had injected the terrible experiences of childhood, and now that I had overcome the fear, she was a criminal who had almost harmed my most precious children.

So when I faced her again, although I was surprised by her younger appearance than I had heard, I couldn’t think of anything other than hatred and contempt.

But the words she spat out right after seeing Lord Joseph were enough to shock me.

The two of them…

They looked so alike that it was impossible to doubt they were blood relatives.

Come to think of it, Lord Joseph’s hair and eye color weren’t natural, he said.

He said they had changed after inheriting Chronomancy.

“This is really troublesome.”

Meanwhile, only Lord Joseph’s voice remained calm.

As if he had known about this situation.

No, of course he must have known.

His complete memory would never let him forget his mother, Dorothea.