“No, listen. My servant has been killed; why is Lakrahan not being held responsible? Shouldn’t he be arrested or confined?”

“This is the North, Your Majesty.”

Leone emerged from a dim corner where no one had thought anyone was present.

The woman who usually clicked her heels while approaching now moved silently to Gerard’s side.

“Even if this is the North, shouldn’t my word as the Emperor come first?”

“Yes, of course, you’re right. However, the law of the North takes precedence over words. Your Majesty, wherever you go, the law of the land is what comes first. After that, you’re free to do as you please. So, among humans, you, our Emperor, are the first.”

Listening to Leone’s extended speech, Gerard mulled over her words before stretching his lips into a smile.

Lots of words, but in the end, I am the first.

“Well, then handle it yourself.”

Gerard walked out as if his work here was done.

Bercheria and Dikper were sitting in a corner of Muhah’s nest.

Although branches were set up to block the wind, the sound of it was piercing enough to make their ears ache.

The cliff’s edge was a completely different dimension of cold compared to the ground.

Bercheria, who had come out in just a dress after waking up, felt too thinly dressed, and Dikper was shivering because his shirt was sleeveless.

“I usually handle the cold well, but ugh. This is really no joke… Ahchoo!”

Bercheria also couldn’t beat the cold and huddled up.

Dikper was making a fuss about how cold the weather was, but in Bercheria’s eyes, the tower wasn’t much different.

Just a sensation she had forgotten for a while that now felt strange.

At least here, air entered between the branches, making it feel a bit warmer.

It was a completely different dimension compared to the cold stone floors of the tower.

“Aren’t you cold, Bercheria?”

“I am.”

Bercheria’s voice was calm, unlike Dikper’s trembling one.

He shook his head profusely.

Then, as if suddenly remembering, he clapped.

“What if we change the weather?”

“…”

As Bercheria stared at him, Dikper rubbed the goosebumps on his arms.

“I just thought we should try something. Maybe if it snows, the wind would be less intense.”

She detached her gaze from Dikper and spoke in a deliberately more gruff tone.

“The wind is from the sea; I can’t stop it.”

“I see.”

It would be inconvenient if she were too kind and ended up being asked to use her abilities for various things.

Being unkind wasn’t an issue, but it would not be good if people found out her power had disappeared.

‘I want to get down there soon.’

But once she did, where would she go was the concern.

Emperor Gerard would still be at Lakrahan’s castle, and going back there would defeat the purpose of running away.

So, she couldn’t go.

Bercheria put her chin on her knees and thought back on Lakrahan’s words.

He had said he liked her.

Unless she initiated a breakup, he wouldn’t be the one to end things.

He would do everything he could for her.

No one had ever said such things for her, so it felt unreal.

She had never seen it in the Awakened’s memories or in reality, so she dismissed it as a fantasy that would never happen.

So she had believed that such an event could never happen to her.

It was absurd.

She now felt that the situation in which she had spilled everything to Lakrahan from the start was even stranger.

Meeting other people made her realize how guarded she was.

‘Was I weakened because I lost my power?’

Bercheria questioned her own feelings as she reflected on her circumstances.
She tried to gather energy into her open palm.

But once again, she felt nothing, as if air was simply circulating in an empty space.

‘But if that’s the case, shouldn’t I be even less guarded right now?’

If Princess Kelita hadn’t brought cookies through Tatiana, Bercheria wouldn’t have opened her mouth.

For the same reason, she had also abstained from drinking the tea poured during teatime.

It wasn’t just that Kelita’s actions were unusually strange; Bercheria was also cautious.

She glanced slightly at Dikper, who was trembling.

For some reason, she felt that this man was also untrustworthy.

Rather, the crafty Loren seemed more reliable.

Bercheria walked toward the beach, leaving Dikper, who was uncomfortably cold.

“Where are you going? It’s cold.”

“I’m going to see if Muha is coming. Don’t mind me and stay there.”

Given Muha’s tendency to build houses in various places, the scattered trees Muha had entwined were easy to trip over.

It was a situation where one could easily get hurt from an unfortunate step.

‘I can’t let others find out that my wounds don’t heal.’

While she was looking to see if there was any other way to escape,

“Bercheria.”

With a rustling sound, a lizard of strange shape was looking at her.

“Aah!”

Bercheria’s face turned pale at the sight of the terrifying combination of a human man’s head and a lizard’s body.

“Wait a minute. What did you just say?”

“That Muha’s nest is there! Bercheria is there!”

Lakrahan looked skeptical at Loren’s abruptly spat-out words.