Inside lay a skeleton, preserved by magic and kept clean.

The ribs near the heart were shattered.

“…I see. So you’ve seen it all.”

The old emperor, leaning against the basement wall, muttered.

“It’s a fact unknown to anyone, but the first emperor tried to seal a demon in his body right before his death.”

“And just before that, he was murdered by someone.”

Pryde, examining the wounds left on the skeleton, recited in a low voice.

“…Who could it be?”

“The first emperor, who had the most powerful strength and authority. Who else could it be?”

The old emperor burst into laughter, giggling.

“The emperor’s son.”

“…”

“If the demon disappears, this empire will collapse too. The son, fearing the loss of wealth and power, directly stabbed his father’s heart.”

It was a tragedy brought about by human greed, a terrible story.

Pryde clenched his fists tightly, looking down at the shabby tomb.

All this happened because of the demon who came down to earth to play tricks.

Using human desperation to eventually lead them to despair.

So this history of tragedy that has continued for three hundred years must now be cut off.

By his own hands.

Pryde raised his head and surveyed the humble underground tomb with a dry gaze.

It’s a good place to seal the demon in this corrupt body.

There will be no worry of someone rashly coming in and breaking the seal.

That’s how he decided on his place of death.

All that was needed was the blood of the saint….

It was at that moment when he was planning his own death.

The possum embedded in the walkie-talkie next to the tomb suddenly glowed with a strange light.

‘…What is it?’

It’s a possum that has been asleep for three hundred years.

The walkie-talkie had a preservation spell on it, but the aurum charged in the possum must have already expired, right?

Then.

Chijijijik-.

As a complete light enveloped the possum, someone’s startled voice was heard.

[“…What is this?”]

Pryde picked up the sound-producing object in disbelief and gasped for breath.

“Delphine…?”

[This is the timeline separator]

The crackling sound only lasted for a moment.

[“Delphine…?”]

Immediately following the familiar voice from the walkie-talkie, Delphine jumped up from her spot.

Delphine opened her lips with an unbelievable expression and a trembling voice.

“…Ioan?”

There was a brief silence over the walkie-talkie.

As she waited for an answer with a pounding heart, a low voice soon flowed out from the walkie-talkie.

[“Have you arrived at a safe place, Del?”]

He calls me Del again.

Not Delphine, not Delphine Pembrook, but Del.

His voice coming through the walkie-talkie was surprisingly calm and quiet.

His way of speaking also returned to the usual honorifics.

The last time she saw him, he was crying out in the pouring rain.

“I, I am in the Holy Kingdom of the Northern Continent now, Ioan.”

Delphine stammered like a fool and barely answered.

She couldn’t believe she could talk to him like this.

At this moment, it didn’t matter how this became possible.

[“Is your body alright? …The child too?”]

Kind.

Hearing his voice without any anger or resentment, her whole body felt relieved as if melting.

Delphine sat down on the spot, clutching the walkie-talkie, and barely answered.

“It’s okay…. Everything, is okay….”

[“That’s a relief.”]

On the other side of the walkie-talkie, he let out a small sigh of relief.

Delphine blinked, startled by his change, as if he had become a completely different person in just two months.

He was the man who cried out that if she was going to leave, she should just kill him and go.

He was the husband who tried to never let her go with endless obsession.

Delphine, who had been hesitating for a while, opened her lips with difficulty.

“Ioan. Do you no longer…resent me?”

For leaving you alone in that empire and departing?

But before she could even finish her question.

A calm voice was heard over the walkie-talkie.

[“I love you.”]

He added lightly, answering as refreshingly as a spring breeze.

[“I didn’t get to answer properly back then.”]

Back then, when she confessed her love before leaving the empire?

It was unbelievable, but also something she desperately wanted to believe.

Delphine burst into tears at the belated answer to her confession.

“Why, why only now….”

If only you had realized a little earlier. Before I ran away carrying your child, at that time….

As if sensing her tearful voice, he recited kindly as if comforting her.

[“Don’t cry. Choosing to leave me was the right decision. As you have always chosen the right path.”]

That I have always chosen the right path?

No, there were many times when I couldn’t.

Delphine, who came to her senses at those words, cried out urgently.

“There will be a war, Ioan!”

People from all over the continent will head to the peninsula to kill you.

To bring down the demonic empire built on earth.

But he on the other side of the walkie-talkie showed no sign of surprise at all.

[“A war…. A saint will also be dispatched. Maybe it’s for the best.”]

“What do you mean…!”

Delphine shouted, dumbfounded.

Is it because she can’t see his face?

She was more anxious because she couldn’t tell what he was thinking right now.

Ioan. Why are you speaking in a voice that seems to have cleanly shed all lingering attachments?

[“Delphine. You said you would find a way to save me.”]

Then, in a transparent voice that seemed to have no obsession left, Ioan said.

[“You have already saved me. …By saying that you love a lowly sinner like me.”]

“Ioan….”

Delphine, who had been sobbing, froze at the words that followed.

[“So, please forget about me.”]

Suddenly, her heart sank.

“What do you mean by that?”

[“The Holy Kingdom, you’ve gone to your distant hometown. Please forget about me and be at peace there.”]

Ioan’s words sounded like a farewell, preparing for a long separation.

The one they couldn’t have when she left the empire, with emotions too heightened.

“What do you mean by that! Why all of a sudden….”

As Delphine clutched the walkie-talkie and shouted.

The old walkie-talkie, unable to withstand the weight of time, broke apart.

She tried to shout something more while holding the broken pieces, but of course it was of no use.

There was no sound of his voice.

Delphine muttered blankly with a sharp sense of intuition rushing in.

“No….”

Me leaving you, it wasn’t to make you give up like that.

“No…. That’s not what I wanted, Ioan….”

Saying I would save you, that’s not what I meant.

But there was no way left to reach the man already far beyond the barrier.

Delphine collapsed on the spot, clutching the broken walkie-talkie.

#Chapter 10. The Direction the Heart Points

War clouds thickened across the entire continent.

It began with the declaration of Holy Emperor Gradaniel I.

At the council where he summoned the feudal lords of each continent, he announced the existence of the demonic empire that had been hiding in the peninsula beyond the Antes Mountains for the past three hundred years.

“We must fight against that demon who blasphemes the names of the gods!”

The reaction of the people in the Daario cultural sphere was immediate.

They were shocked and outraged to learn that demons still remained on this earth and that the demon had been continuously exploiting the people within the barrier.

The kings and feudal lords of each country on the continent, divided by power struggles, briefly stopped their conflicts and united under religion.

Knights and mages dispatched from each country began to gather in the Holy Kingdom.

The people of the continent called those gathered for the holy war to kill the demon and reclaim the forgotten peninsula the Holy Demon Army.

The prelude to war had already risen.

All that remained was the advance into the peninsula.

All of this happened within just three months of Delphine’s arrival in the Holy Kingdom.

[This is the timeline separator]

Delphine quietly turned the pages of the book while crunching on a well-baked ginger cookie.

Her belly, now in the seventh month of pregnancy, had swelled to the point where it was visible even from the outside.

Delphine, who had been concentrating on the book, fumbled with the empty plate with her hand and muttered regretfully.

“It’s all gone already….”

These days, she had a crazy craving for a particular food. Recently, it was ginger cookies.

“There’s still some things left to read….”

The old book she was reading was by no means appropriate for a heavily pregnant woman.

Cruel pictures were drawn in the middle of the book, with “Demonology Illustrations” written on the leather cover.

But after reading so many books like this over the past three months, Delphine was now unfazed by this level of illustration.

To the point where she could read while munching on ginger cookies.

But the focus on the book only lasted for a while.

Delphine soon sighed and closed the thick book.

“It’s no use. This book is also only about black magic….”

The library of this central temple where she was sitting was equipped with a vast amount of books.

Especially when it came to theology and demonology, it was said that nowhere else had as abundant materials as this place.

Here, Delphine had been conducting research on demons for three months without getting tired.

According to what she had found out so far, the common point of all demons that tempt humans was a contract.