It was a hellish schedule.

The morning started with a tearful letter from Bernard that arrived from the Broen estate.

Beginning with “To Lady Jade,” the letter continued from complaints about leaving him in this wretched castle to numerous matters requiring her decision.

She couldn’t believe this was happening despite her best efforts to handle family affairs for a month and a half before leaving. Even though Felix Broen wasn’t making any noticeable moves!

Jade rubbed her sleepy eyes as she wrote her reply. One page, two pages, three pages, four pages.

The longer the content grew, the sleepier she became.

“What is… life…?”

Suddenly, only philosophical concerns came to mind. Is this really how I should be living?

Jade wanted to grab Felix and bring him here to see her lifestyle firsthand.

Unlike what he expected – spending money lavishly and hosting gambling parties in a townhouse – she was dragged into the subjugation squad, dancing with monsters while handling family affairs, and having meetings day and night with the squad members.

Do you really want this position?

If Mabel and Felix Broen hadn’t been so cruel during Jade’s childhood, if they hadn’t continued to insult her parents, she would have been sick of the family head position to the point of having no lingering attachment.

When she put down her pen and came out, the morning breeze was still chilly here. It was hard to believe that this was considered quite warm compared to winter.

The bleak weather persisted today, so Jade hurriedly put on her cloak and pulled the hood down tightly.

“Ugh, it’s cold….”

“Are you ready.”

The suddenly heard low voice was no longer surprising. He always appeared abruptly like that. As if he could easily find out where she was no matter where she went.

Jade replied in a sleepy voice.

“Within half an hour.”

“We’re going a bit farther today.”

Even with her halfhearted nod, Axel strode away.

Jade stared blankly at his retreating figure. It was neat without a single stray hair. When she touched the back of her own head, it was harder to find a calm spot.

“It’s because my hair has grown longer….”

Mumbling an excuse no one could hear, Jade quickly ran off to wash her face. She couldn’t look more tired than Axel, who never got proper sleep due to all kinds of reports and meetings every night.

The two people on horseback galloped quickly as if competing. Of course, she couldn’t win against a knight when it came to horses, but strangely, their speeds were almost the same.

A week had already passed since Jade and Axel formed a temporary pair and began combing through the area near the Rund estate.

Though it started off rocky, this temporary pairing was producing more results than they themselves had anticipated. And very quickly at that.

It wasn’t just because Jade and Axel possessed excellent skills.

The king of Jisen had abandoned even minimal defenses and safely fled after offering the soldiers gathered to block the way to civilian houses as prey. According to someone’s description, blood flowed like a river.

Thanks to that, or perhaps because of it, the monsters had plenty to eat and grew rapidly, settling down in this land.

There were even monsters who didn’t know how to hide because they had never experienced an army coming to capture them.

In any case, this temporary pair caught three more giant and unusual monsters and found two large monster habitats.

The discovered habitats were very large, and monsters were swarming inside them.

After several days of observation, it was clear the monsters were each playing their roles and filling their positions.

Some took on the role of hunting for prey, some guarded the habitat, and some focused solely on growing. The most powerful individuals acted fiercely to keep this system running.

As always, mages and knights frantically recorded these things. Rigel dissected corpses until his eyes turned red.

After the analysis was complete, subjugation proceeded.

Unlike the first sudden battle, it was different this time. Axel, having thoroughly checked every part of the habitat, moved the subjugation squad taking even wind direction into account, and gave detailed instructions on the positions and roles of knights and mages.

As a result, the monsters were caught off guard. Now everyone in the subjugation squad deeply trusted their commander-in-chief.

There were many such nights. Thanks to this, the area near the Rund estate began to become safer.

Now, even in the dead of night, no monsters were seen lurking near civilian houses in search of prey.

As the king of El Sion had wished, this news began to spread far and wide. People who had fled their hometowns to escape monsters heard the rumors and came to the Rund estate to seek refuge, gathering and whispering everywhere.

“To think they’re providing such help even though it’s a different country.”

“While our king abandoned us and ran away.”

“Well, weren’t we one country in the distant past?”

Someone shouted in frustration:

“Another country is working so zealously, but what is my country doing? My nephew was dragged off as a soldier, and I have no way of knowing if he’s alive or dead. Because our king abandoned the isolated army and fled! They say he’s eating well in a castle by the sea? Mountains of food are thrown away every day!”

Of course, there were those who raised doubts in such conversations.

“Why are they spending so much money to help another country? Isn’t that strange?”

“They say monsters are crossing the border too. That place protects its citizens well, so they must be concerned. If you’re going to spout such useless words, go carry those stones! We need to restore things quickly, don’t we?”

It ended with just a scolding, but.

The people of the Rund estate, who glimpsed hope with the help of the subjugation squad, gradually became proactive in all matters.

The roads that had been littered with broken stones were now neatly cleared, and the land that had been empty as if there was no point in cultivating it was now teeming with people leveling the soil.

Planting seeds meant planning for a future that would someday return, so they were essentially planting hope.

Despite it being a foreign country, as the faces of the estate residents brightened and children’s laughter rang out like bells in the once-quiet streets, the morale of the subjugation squad also rose.

Although there were lines drawn on the land, it must be because they were all human in the end.

By that point, the command of the subjugation squad agreed to utilize pairs other than Jade and Axel to search this area.

Eventually, the shabby map was divided by dense lines separating regions. Numerous pairs, including Jade and Axel, worked day and night.

Thanks to this, Jade, who initially intended to do the bare minimum of pair work unless Axel approached her first, completely forgot that thought.

Whether Axel was Leon or whatever, whether he pretended not to know in front of others or not, she was simply doing her best.

Today was no exception.

Coming out as soon as day broke and galloping for a long time, Jade suddenly spotted a large boulder near a half-collapsed civilian house. It was in a position with nothing to block the wind, but it wasn’t round and had clear angles.

Strange. No weathering at all.

As she pulled the reins to stop, Axel immediately slowed down as well. He quietly examined the rock and then leapt off his horse. Jade was about to get down politely using the stirrup, but Axel stopped her.

“Why?”

“Just a moment.”

Only after the strange boulder didn’t move even when he deliberately made footstep sounds did he withdraw his hand, allowing Jade to dismount.

Jade sincerely thought he was being excessive. Treating her like a fragile fifteen-year-old girl.

“Why don’t you hold my hand while I’m getting down? And arrange my dress hem too.”

“Want me to? There’s no dress, but I could do your trouser cuffs.”

“Are you crazy?”

“I was going to do it if you wanted, but that’s a shame.”

He chuckled and withdrew the large hand he had extended.

Standing on the ground, Jade tried to sense the existence of a ‘core’ as Rigel had requested, but it was difficult because traces of mana were finely scattered in nature as well.

A groan involuntarily escaped her.

“Damn, I can’t tell.”

“Has there ever been a mage who could detect the core of a living monster?”

“The research itself is too new…”

She glanced around, wondering if time was pressing, but Axel was calmly standing and waiting without any sign of urging.

Encouraged by that serenity, Jade flowed mana around a few more times. There was still no observable change in the boulder.

However, there was something that kept bothering her. Every time she focused without blinking, there was a feeling of some kind of sparkle popping on top of the boulder.

Now it was somewhere inside. But that was really such a subtle sensation that it was ambiguous to say with confidence.

“It’s not easy…. Anyway, this is strange, right? There’s too little sign of wind erosion.”

“Let’s mark it and come back at night.”

“Is it too much to tap it with fire now? If we’re lucky, we could end this easily. It’s not that big.”

The sunlight was strong, so it was time for the monsters to be at their weakest. Even if it were the middle of the night, his skills wouldn’t be lacking, let alone during the day.

She had trusted him in the forest, but now that they were outside, she was almost blindly believing in him. That white light that didn’t answer.

Axel rubbed his chin with his hand and then nodded slightly.

“Go ahead.”

Jade spread a huge fire over what looked like a massive stone. At first there was no movement, but as she continued to heat it, a very faint writhing became barely visible.

The moment he noticed that movement, Axel drew his sword and struck down. That series of actions was as natural as flowing water and formed a curve that even looked elegant at a glance, inwardly impressing Jade.

The blade cut through instead of bouncing off. The moment red eyes bulging with veins opened, unable to endure the pain, they were skewered by the magic-coated sword. The force that exploded from inside violently churned the interior.

Thud. The monster’s head, which had been faintly raised, finally lost strength and slumped to the ground.

Axel tilted his head as he retrieved his sword.

“This one isn’t particularly impressive. It won’t be necessary for research.”

“Still, let’s come back later and take the corpse.”

“Why go through the trouble?”

Jade shook her head as if to say don’t talk nonsense.

“Even if it doesn’t have any special abilities, it’s quite large. The people of Rund estate will like it. Then rumors will spread around, more people will gather, the popularity of the El Sion kingdom will rise further, and everyone will be in a good mood!”

Her voice gradually rose as she convinced herself with her own words, somehow resembling the sunlight in the Athanase Forest.

Falling sunlight, crisp soil, and two people standing on it. No one else around, just the two of them.

Amusingly familiar, she felt glad on her own.

“So that’s why we should take it….”

Just as she was starting to feel embarrassed for chattering too cheerfully, Jade witnessed the man’s very faintly curved lips. It felt as if someone was tickling her insides with a newly blooming leaf.

Does he know what his own lips look like?

A very, soft curve.