If he saw the child, wouldn’t he be able to regain his attachment to life?

Delphine desperately appealed to Lin.

“Please stop Ioan.”

“……!”

As soon as Lin heard his name, her face hardened.

Delphine frantically spoke in succession.

“Let him come to me, so he can see the child’s face……”

Lin lowered her head to hide her shaken expression.

That enemy?

Are you telling me to bring him before you with my own hands?

The reason she hesitated to grant Delphine’s request was not only due to personal vengeance.

“The Holy Knights’ forces are overwhelming.”

Lin said with an uncertain expression, looking at Delphine’s bloodless pale face.

“Although they are making their last struggle, Duke Pryde will soon be defeated…… and sealed away by the Holy Knights along with the demon.”

As soon as Lin spoke those words, she regretted her actions.

Because Delphine’s face, which was already pale to the point of being precarious, turned even whiter.

‘What did I just say……’

Lin gritted her teeth.

The child was still tiny, but resembled Delphine a lot.

The confession he had once made to her was sincere without a single lie.

He could love anything that resembled her.

He could do anything for her.

Even if it meant bringing his lifelong enemy before the woman he loved.

“I understand.”

He finally nodded.

Even a demon like Duke Pryde should be allowed to see his child’s face.

And it should be fine to let him name the child.

“Don’t make that expression. I will definitely bring that man.”

Delphine smiled brightly with a pale face drenched in cold sweat.

Then she reached out her trembling hand towards the posum in his hand.

“Where are you going……!”

Lin exclaimed in shock and pulled his hand away.

Charging aurum consumed her life force.

Releasing aurum in this physical condition was no different from suicide.

“I still have enough left to teleport. I can go to Belly and get additional posum.”

Before leaving, Lin’s gaze fell on the child nestled in her arms.

The child who was sleeping peacefully. Who looked so much like her.

‘Have I already come to love this child so much.’

Lin laughed, finding himself both ridiculous and amazed.

“Then, I’ll be back.”

His figure disappeared from the Pryde mansion in a flash of white light.

The situation unfolded as Lin had expected.

The Imperial Army’s momentum with the black crystals was indeed tremendous, but the absolute difference in power was too great.

The Imperial Army was gradually being pushed back by the Holy Knights.

Screams and shouts erupted from the battlefield.

Using magic to move around, Lin was able to spot Duke Pryde.

He was commanding the Imperial Army from the rear.

Seeing the man who alone exuded a noble and ruthless aura even in the midst of this chaotic whirlwind of war, Lin clicked his tongue loudly.

‘What an unpleasant fellow.’

Lin approached him and spat out bluntly.

“So you were here.”

Then, a gaze that was completely different from when he looked at Delphine fell upon him.

“Did you come to kill me? Unfortunately, later……”

“No.”

Lin glared at him with an expression of utter loathing and declared.

“The child has been born.”

“……!”

Shock struck the face of the man who had been as cold as a glacier.

The Duke did not ask about the child at all.

“Delphine……!”

Despite feeling a twisting sensation in his stomach, Lin answered diligently.

“She’s fine. There was a doctor, and a recovery spell was cast. …… Of course, it will take time for her to recover naturally.”

Even so, the Duke’s expression did not show relief.

Seeing him worry only about Delphine until the end, Lin asked as if annoyed.

“Didn’t I say your child was born? Aren’t you going to ask about the child?”

At those words, Pryde seemed to finally recall the child and flinched slightly.

‘The child…… has been born……’

The life she had carried in her womb had come out into the world.

And it was created with my seed.

Pryde roughly ran his hand over his jaw, feeling an unfamiliar sensation for the first time in his life.

He had never experienced a normal family.

As a result, that unfamiliar word hardly felt real to him.

‘A child……’

Pryde cast his gaze, which had become distant, towards the battlefield.

Countless young lives perishing.

The boundary between life and death, hazy like fog.

But even if he wasn’t on the battlefield, his life had always looked like this.

In the red-light district of District 3 where he was born, countless lives were abandoned as soon as they were born.

Even the children who barely escaped death merely survived with their mothers’ indifference and the threat of crime.

So how could words like child or family exist in his mind?

In fact, the child was nothing more than a means to keep Delphine by his side.

After that purpose disappeared, it was the guilt of leaving a burden on her.

Would Delphine be happy giving birth to a child with me?

I heard that childbirth is very difficult, so I wonder if her body is okay.

That was all that mattered and concerned him.

At that moment, Lin, who had been observing his reaction with a disgusted face, couldn’t hold back and added.

“The child looks a lot like her.”

That remark was decisive.

Finally, Pryde’s expression greatly wavered.

“Resembles…… Delphine?”

Only then did some of his attention, which had been solely focused on Delphine, shift to the child he had never seen.

What would the child look like?

It must be a girl, but would she have the same eyes as Delphine?

Those bright emerald eyes that he had loved all his life.

Imagining a girl who greatly resembled her having those eyes, strangely, the area around his heart trembled.

Perhaps, it felt like he could love a being other than her.

…… But what was the point of newly feeling such emotions now?

“Why are you even telling me such things?”

Pryde roughly shouted, trying to shake off the unfamiliar feeling.

Lin replied bluntly.

“She wants you brought back safely.”

There was no subject, but the meaning of the sentence could be fully understood.

Pryde chuckled.

Surprised by that unexpected reaction, Lin looked at the Duke with astonishment.

It was the first time he had seen the man, who had been as cold as ice and as ruthless as a demon, smile like that.

“Just like her……”

There seemed to be a hint of affection in the low murmur.

Lin stared at Duke Pryde with shaken eyes.

A demon that even God couldn’t save.

A cruel murderer.

He had always been that kind of person, no, he had to be.

Such a human-like face, he never wanted to know about it……

“So, what are you thinking?”

Lin asked roughly, as if trying to shake off his thoughts.

“Bringing the entire Imperial Army with you. Now that death is approaching, have you developed a desire to live again?”

“I’ve never coveted life.”

The Duke, who had returned to an indifferent face, muttered softly.

“A life full of nothing but pain……”

Damn it.

Why is he suddenly making that face and saying those words?

Lin clenched his teeth, feeling like sympathy was trying to arise.

“Then what exactly is your scheme? I’ll tell you in advance, don’t even think about deceiving me.”

Lin remembered all the tragedies that man had caused before Delphine appeared.

The way that man had brutally trampled on him on that rainy day.

In all those moments, that man had always looked at humans as if they were insects on the ground.

“A bastard like you can never change! There’s no way you can suddenly have love for humanity!”

“You’re right.”

Pryde affirmed in an indifferent tone.

“Other humans still hold no value to me. I don’t care if they live or die.”

“Then why……”

“Delphine.”

His answer ended there.

Duke Pryde raised his hand.

At that moment, the sinister light that had been flickering in all the black crystals held by the Imperial Army, including Veritas, disappeared.

“Die……!”

Count Gruford, who belonged to the Veritas unit, shouted loudly and swung his hand towards the Holy Knights.

However, no black magic emanated from the black crystal in his hand.

Perplexed by the situation, he opened his hand to find that the dark energy that had filled the black crystal had vanished.

“What, what is this……! Aaargh!”

Before he could finish his words, the Holy Knight’s sword pierced his chest.

“The demon’s power has disappeared!”

“Aaargh!”

The power of the black crystals suddenly disappeared.

The Imperial Army, whose massive power supplied without a price had been cut off, was greatly bewildered.

And only then did they realize that they were completely surrounded by the Holy Knights.

“What, what happened……”

“Duke Pryde!”

“Where is the demon contractor?”

There was no way the Holy Knights wouldn’t notice that change.

The tides of the fierce battlefield had turned in an instant.

“The enemy has lost the power of the demon!”

“Indeed, God is with us!”

“Advance! Magic units, fall back and provide support!”

The time for judgment had come.

The Holy Knights’ swords and arrows began to pour down on the powerless Imperial Army.