‘That’s correct…!’

Hope filled the black magician’s face.

“Where is it?”

The female knight’s green eyes, which had been indifferent, flickered coldly. Even that was a big change.

Cassandra thought she had gained the upper hand.

“Answer.”

“You’re in quite a hurry. First, if you let me out of here-. Gack!”

In an instant, a squealing sound like that of a pig came from the black magician’s throat.

Solas’s soul, which had approached unnoticed, pushed Cassandra against the wall and roughly choked her neck.

“There are two types of people I hate. One is those who stab others in the back. The other is those who try to deceive to their face. You’re the latter. I kill both.”

“Fl, fl, fla… Fla, ma…!”

Cassandra squeezed out the magic spell ‘Flama’ that had worked earlier.

As expected.

With a tsk sound, the grip choking her neck loosened.

Cassandra, her face wet with tears and snot, sprawled on the dirt floor and looked around the wretched cave. A place with only darkness, without a single ray of light.

Friends were only rats and insects. Food was only rats and insects.

“Where is Flama?”

Cassandra glanced at the red-haired knight with voluminous hair who was looking down at her imposingly with arms crossed, and frantically began to rack her brain again.

“Ah. It’s better not to think too hard. Whatever your answer, I have no intention of letting you out of here.”

“…You’ll never know where Flama is?”

“Hmm. So that’s your talent? Digging into people’s weakest hearts.”

The female knight nodded as if understanding, then knelt down on one knee to meet Cassandra’s eye level.

“But you’ve misjudged, black magician. My weakest heart is not what I’ve already lost. It’s what I must protect now. And you,”

A pale finger stretched out and slightly lifted Cassandra’s chin. The hand that had long held a sword was rough and firm.

“You dared to disturb the heart of the one I must protect with your cunning tongue. You also defiled the noble one’s house with your wicked black magic.”

Green eyes colder than ice gazed chillingly at Cassandra.

Only then did the black magician understand why she had been brought back here.

That flame knight has no intention of leaving even a speck of blemish on Grand Duke Frost Ielheim.

Cassandra Cabesa must be here. As if the Grand Duke had never taken her out of the cave.

It would be better if she were a corpse. So that the black magician’s loose lips couldn’t whisper the Grand Duke’s name.

Solas Moretti had brought Cassandra Cabesa to her grave.

“Are you… going to kill me?”

“Yes. I have no intention of letting anyone who harms His Grace the Grand Duke live.”

‘Ah, no…! Say something, Cassandra Cabesa!’

Cold sweat soaked the black magician’s back.

There was no time left to think.

Words began to spill from the black magician’s mouth without passing through her thoughts.

“Ka, Ka, Karina did it…! That woman, the saint candidate, turned Flama into a demon sword…”

“Karina Pioni, Aaron Pioni’s sister?”

Cassandra nodded frantically.

Ah…! Could this be it? Would this information be enough to let her live?

“That’s right! It was a plot by Karina and the Empress Dowager!”

“The Empress Dowager? Not the Emperor?”

“Yes! It was something the Empress Dowager ordered Karina to do!”

Solas’s brow furrowed deeply, as if these were unexpected names.

“So, you’re saying that no less than the Imperial Empress Dowager and a saint candidate dirtied their hands with black magic to turn a holy sword into a demon sword?”

“Yes! That’s what I’m saying!”

Cassandra quickly answered and then held her breath, anxiously watching Solas’s reaction.

Solas chewed her lip, deep in thought.

‘She seems to have taken the bait, at least.’

Raising one eyebrow, Solas tilted her head slightly.

“I suspected it was your doing, since Flama became a demon sword here in the North, and you’re the Empire’s top black magician.”

“I’ve been trapped in this cave for 6 years without being able to move an inch! For 6 whole years, I’ve had magical restraints put on my entire body by Frost Ielheim! Forget casting black magic, even catching rats and insects to eat was such an ordeal! Believe me. It wasn’t me!”

Solas, who had been glaring at the black magician choking up in protest, nodded slightly.

“Even if I can’t believe you, I believe in His Grace. He’s not the type to let you escape this place and allow you to turn Flama into a demon sword.”

A slight curve appeared on Solas’s red lips as she mentioned the Grand Duke, but it quickly returned to an expressionless face as if it had never happened.

“You said the Empress Dowager ordered Karina to do it? Then what about the Emperor? Wasn’t the Emperor the final decision maker?”

“I don’t know about that. What I know for certain is that the Empress Dowager and the saint candidate were accomplices.”

“How did you find out? You said you were trapped here unable to move for 6 years.”

“My hands and feet were bound, but there were little ones who became my ears and eyes and told me.”

Cassandra looked at the rats and insects scurrying across the dirt floor and walls.

Solas frowned slightly and continued with the next question.

“I can understand the Empress Dowager wanting to kill His Grace, but why did Karina Pioni get involved in black magic?”

Karina Pioni, born with unprecedented holy power, was the Grand Temple’s treasure. What could she possibly lack?

“Because she loves the Emperor. The Empress Dowager promised her the position by the Emperor’s side.”

“Crazy.”

“Isn’t one supposed to be crazy to fall in love? When you fall in love, you become even crazier.”

“Originally crazy people do crazy things. They just sprinkle a lot of sugar called love on top to make it look plausible. Black magician, at your age, you’re still saying such things?”

“Can the knight who speaks so informally to me actually see my age? My youngest son is 24 years old!”

Cassandra snapped back irritably but then quickly shrank back.

Ah… This isn’t right. I should be begging profusely. Is she angry? Why isn’t she saying anything? What is she thinking so deeply about?

“Ah…!”

With a low exclamation, Solas’s lips parted, and Cassandra flinched, curling her body smaller.

“Cassandra Cabesa. If I were you, I wouldn’t have just turned my husband into a pig.”

“What?”

Cassandra’s eyes widened at the unexpected words.

“The price for your children’s stolen lives couldn’t have been just one pig. The weight of your tears wouldn’t have been added to that either.”

“…!”

Deep sympathy flashed through the green eyes that resembled summer tree leaves.

“Hmm. I heard from the old Imperial Chief Investigator. Your husband abused you, causing all three of your unborn children to… go to heaven without seeing the light of the world…”

Cassandra stared blankly at Solas.

And nodded inwardly. Right. Solas was the Emperor’s closest confidant, so she might know.

Even if she was the Empress Dowager’s stepsister sold to the North, she was still an imperial relative, so she would have been on the list of people to keep track of.

The news that Count Cabesa had died pathetically by slipping on ice and cracking his skull while she was trapped in the cave, and how she had wailed for days and nights, frustrated that she couldn’t kill him with her own hands.

“I… I…”

Tears began to well up in Cassandra’s eyes.

When it came to the thought of her children, which still pierced her heart, no words could come out properly. What words could a mother who lost all her babies without even holding one in her arms say?

“Back then. I thought about it. What if I were you? It didn’t seem like I would simply slit his throat. That’s too easy. Since the crime was so grave, I even pondered what kind of punishment would suit that bastard.”

“So? What kind of punishment do you think would be good?”

“First. Since you’re said to be number one in black magic, summon your dead ex-husband and turn him into a leftover ghost.”

“…A leftover ghost?”

“No. Leftover! A ghost that eats leftover food. There’s something like that in Eastern Continent religions. They say in a place called hell, there’s a pool as big as a lake filled with the food people left uneaten in their past lives. Leftover ghosts eat that themselves and feed it to others too. Isn’t that horrible?”

The knight from her past life, who valued eating very much, frowned and shuddered as if it was the most terrible punishment she had ever heard of.

“Uh… yeah…”

“Send the count, turned into a leftover ghost, to the Eastern Continent’s hell.”

Cassandra nodded, but she didn’t understand. Neither the sudden method of revenge nor that serious attitude that was almost ridiculous.

“The Eastern Continent’s hell or the demon realm you black magicians are crazy about, there must be something that connects bad guys, right? Once they accept him there, your ex-husband would have to experience the terror of living in an eternal hell, submerged in leftovers worse than garbage. What do you think of my idea?”

What an imagination, connecting the demon realm and the Eastern Continent’s hell.

Those two worlds are absolutely separate and do not connect, Cassandra was about to explain, but she ended up bursting into laughter.

“Sir Solas, you are quite an interesting person.”

Cassandra’s voice, blurred with tears, had changed to formal speech without her realizing it.

The flame knight frowned.

“Why are you laughing and using formal speech? Is it an insult?”

“It’s not an insult. I just think Sir Solas seems to be a very good person.”

“Hmm. But I’m going to keep speaking informally to you. Whether you’re fifty or five hundred years old. I can’t use honorifics for someone His Grace has declared a criminal. If you want to hear me speak formally to you, go get pardoned by His Grace first.”

Cassandra burst into laughter again. How could someone with such a pretty face be so rigid?

If properly cultivated, it was a beauty that could have dominated the social circles of the capital.

The pale skin, perhaps from not receiving sunlight, would emit a mesmerizing light with just light makeup. The pure flame-like spirit was something that inspired admiration rarely found in other ladies.

“Black magician. It’s no use looking at me so tenderly. You have to die today. I’ve decided that.”

Even hearing that she would be killed, she wasn’t scared anymore.

“Hey. Don’t laugh. Your face looks scary when you laugh.”

Why did she keep laughing? She thought she had forgotten how to laugh.

“It’s no use keeping laughing. I’m going to kill you.”

With a grateful smile on her face for the first time since she grew up, the black magician thought.

How about showing kindness just once in life without any calculation, without thinking of any reward in return?

Remembering the three children who only existed in her heart.

At some unknown time, she had even pondered strange methods to punish her cruel ex-husband.

The black magician began to willingly unravel the biggest bundle she thought she would never release, even if she died.

“Sir Solas. Flama has not been destroyed.”

“What?”

“Flama is alive.”

“…!”

“Even though the holy sword was tainted black with demonic energy, the soul of the holy sword remains unchanged, sealed within.”

“…Is that… really true?”

“Yes. I heard it with my own ears. I saw it with my own eyes.”

Solas was silent for a while, then tightly grasped Cassandra’s hands.

“What state is Flama in now? Is it… healthy? Is it in pain…?”

Cassandra’s heart ached at the desperate look in her eyes.

“The last time I checked was a month ago… I’ll check again.”

Cassandra drew a magic circle on the cave floor and stepped onto it. As she began to chant, black energy rippled and began to seep into every crevice of the cave.

As if answering the call, rats and insects began to crawl out of numerous cracks.

[Separate immediately, you two!]

A sudden gust of wind swept through, and Cassandra could no longer continue her spell.

Airy was plummeting vertically towards the clasped hands of Solas and Cassandra, her cabbage-like hair puffed up.

“Airy!”

[I said separate immediately, you two!]

Ugh. Airy, who had been flying fiercely, stopped abruptly above her master’s hand, looking surprised.

[Master, your hand…!]

Seeing her master’s even more translucent hand, Airy was at a loss for words. The wind also deflated.

“Airy?”

[Let’s go quickly! The Archmage is waiting for you at the Grand Duke’s residence!]

“The Grand Duke’s residence?”

[Yes! But he’s fighting with the Grand Duke!]

“What? Why?”

[Is that important? You’re about to disappear at this rate! Let’s go quickly!]

Airy called a small seed of wind. Soon, a gust that had grown in size swept fiercely through the cave as if about to engulf it.

And. In the empty and quiet cave, only the rats and insects that had been knocked over by the wind were struggling.

*

“It’s been a while, Your Grace.”

Archmage Ricarion Greco glanced at the cold ice sword at his neck and smiled slightly.

“It hasn’t been that long. You attended my wedding as the coachman Leon.”

Frost blocked Ricarion, who was trying to approach the bed where Yuriella was lying, with a cold smile.

“I also saw you give my wife a trivial birthday gift. Hmm?”

Frost’s eyebrow twitched.

The earth sword Gaius had suddenly appeared beneath Frost’s angular jaw.

“It was an inadequate gift. I intend to do better next year.”

A blue aura began to ripple on the transparent blade of Ielro.

“You don’t seem to know. I’m narrow-minded. I have a weak stomach. And I don’t have the generosity to tolerate flies hovering around my wife.”

A deep brown aura resembling the earth rose from the staff-shaped holy sword Gaius.

“Your Grace seems to be unaware. Without me, Yuriella cannot wake up.”

The eyes of the two holy sword owners fiercely clashed in midair.