Lin, realizing that she could not stop the enraged Pryde, guided him to a room located in the center of the Holy Palace.

It was a room with a mysterious atmosphere, with foxglove decorations adorning various places, shimmering in the sunlight.

There, Delphine lay.

Surrounded by foxgloves emitting a faint light and strangely shaped treatment devices.

With a face as peaceful as if she were sleeping.

The moment he saw her, Pryde collapsed on the spot.

Unable to even approach her closely, Lin’s sorrowful voice descended upon the frozen Pryde.

“We don’t know the details of the situation either. When she teleported to where I was, she was already……”

The end of Lin’s voice trembled.

On that day when the Empire was completely conquered by the Holy Knights.

After catching the Emperor trying to flee and handing him over to the Commander-in-Chief, Lin returned to the Pryde estate with a joyful face.

Belly and Marian were also with him.

However, what he found was Delphine’s empty bed and her crying maids.

And shortly after, Delphine who appeared in a miserable state along with a white light……

“Delphine! No, damn it! You’ve lost too much blood!”

“You’re saying she released Aurum in this state? Priest! Hurry and use healing magic……”

“N-no healing magic can restore vitality……”

We don’t know the exact method, but it seems she removed the demon.

She had just given birth, and she consumed too much vitality by forcibly teleporting two people.

Lin, who was recalling the events of that day, continued his explanation with a pale face.

“The things connected around her are life support devices installed by the priests here.”

“Life…… support devices……?”

“They are things ordered by the Holy Emperor. She is currently having her life forcibly extended……”

Lin roughly swept his face with both hands.

Is this really the right thing to do?

The question that had been tormenting him for the past 21 days came back again.

Is this meaningless treatment, forcibly making her heart beat to maintain her life, really what Delphine wants?

Lying there like a corpse without even being able to open her eyes?

Just thinking about it made it difficult for him to sleep.

“I waited for you to wake up for now….. But I don’t know if this is right.”

Lin revealed his troubled thoughts.

After finding her dying and providing life-sustaining treatment, trivial feelings like jealousy towards his rival had long been burned away.

At this moment, he and Pryde were just two men who loved Delphine.

“I don’t know if Delphine would really want this, maybe……”

“No.”

At that moment, Pryde coldly interrupted Lin’s words.

“We’ll revive her.”

Pryde declared again with an attitude showing not a hint of hesitation, unlike Lin.

“Delphine must live again and return to me.”

She is a person more worthy of living and breathing than anyone else in this world.

The only human who must be so.

His eyes, which had been momentarily tinged with despair, were now once again burning fiercely with obsession and passion.

“That’s not something we can be so sure about……”

Lin newly realized the fact that Pryde was a man who had sold even his soul for her.

Even if he had changed a little under Delphine’s influence, there was still an obsessive side to his inner self that only looked at her.

“Of course I want to revive her too if there’s a way! Do you know how hard the Holy Emperor tried to save her?”

Lin shouted with a skeptical expression.

The news that the Holy Knights had recaptured the Demon Empire quickly spread throughout the continent.

And Holy Emperor Graniel I was not one to miss such a golden opportunity to expand his influence.

He began a massive propaganda campaign across the entire continent.

The Emperor and Veritas in the empire on that peninsula were the apostles of demons.

The Holy Knights who executed them and the Holy Emperor who recruited them were the messengers of God.

In the process, the most symbolic figure was Delphine, the descendant of the saint who had been held captive in the Demon Empire and escaped.

“The priests and healers of the Holy Kingdom…… no, the entire continent came, but they all gave up.”

“No.”

Pryde coldly spat out, paying no attention to Lin’s words at all.

“We can revive her.”

“No, this is not something you can insist on……”

“She also has a piece of my soul.”

“What?”

On that young night when the full moon rose, they shared water mixed with each other’s blood.

If the saint’s blood had the power to bind souls, then his soul would also be bound within her.

So there must be a piece of his soul inside her body as well.

“That…… No way. If that’s true……”

Lin’s expression changed immediately.

If there was even the slightest possibility, Lin also wanted to revive her more than anyone else.

Stammering at the sudden news, Lin quickly ran out.

“I’ll call the priest right now! Don’t do anything strange and stay there!”

The room became quiet.

Only the life support devices were making humming noises.

Pryde quietly approached her, taking one step at a time.

It felt like falling back into the dark hell he had barely escaped from.

He couldn’t believe that Delphine had ended up like this trying to save him, of all people.

‘To save someone like me, you, a saint……’

Pryde held her hand with a very cautious motion.

It was too cold. So cold that it was hard to believe it belonged to a living person.

At that chilling temperature, Pryde finally couldn’t hold back and broke down.

“You really……”

Was it because the demon had left his body?

Or was it because now his dirty and lowly soul was gone, and only a piece of her soul remained within him?

Hot tears that had not flowed despite any hardships and adversities flowed down his cheeks.

“I’ll come back to save you. If I’m the one who ruined your life, I’ll also be the one to save you.”

In the end, you managed to save me.

You even drove out the demon and saved my soul that was about to be thrown into hell with your will alone.

Not only that, you even gave a sinner who deserved to die a chance to live again with a piece of your soul.

“Ah, Delphine……”

How are you always in the middle of the light like that?

And so, you inevitably lead me, who has been in darkness since birth, to the bright, warm, and right place where you are.

He had struggled all his life to have her, and sometimes to protect her.

But Pryde finally realized.

It was actually his love for her that had kept him alive and protected him from death.

Lin returned to the room with a group of priests.

Next to them were Belly and Marian with stiff faces.

Marian was holding something wrapped in swaddling clothes in her arms.

However, Pryde did not even raise his head at the presence of people, holding Delphine’s hand.

Her hand was so cold that he had the illusion that if he carelessly let go of this hand, she might never come back.

“……There is a way to revive Delphine from that man?”

Belly asked Lin again with a skeptical face.

The priests who heard the whole story from Lin discussed this possibility among themselves for a long time, as if considering it.

Only then did Pryde raise his coldly hardened face.

The priests took the fact that there was a piece of soul within Delphine as hopeful.

However, they all shook their heads at Pryde’s impatient urging of when Delphine would be able to wake up.

“We must let the child of God wake up on her own.”

“This is not a simple coma. The saint is probably currently at the boundary between life and death.”

“Forcibly waking her up in that state is very dangerous as it may destabilize the union of soul and body.”

At the words of the priests who gave skeptical reactions in succession, Pryde’s face became vicious in an instant.

“Calm down.”

Lin, who noticed the change, quickly blocked him.

“It will definitely be okay. Didn’t you also come back from the boundary of life and death with a piece of soul like this?”

“But why is Delphine……”

“Unlike you who is ignorantly healthy, Delphine needs time to recover.”

“…….”

At those words, Pryde’s momentum subsided with a slightly calmer face.

He was someone who had never been sick despite growing up drinking sewage from District 3 since childhood.

Even before making a contract with the demon, he was famous for his inhuman strength.

Yes, unlike himself, it would just take Delphine a little more time to recover.

Thinking that she would soon open her eyes again and return to him, the reason that had been thrown into the abyss finally returned a little.

Seeing this, Lin let out a sigh of relief and stepped away from him.

At that moment, Belly, who had been silently watching this whole scene, suddenly spoke.

“Ioan Pryde. You are currently a suspect temporarily released from detention with special permission.”

“…….”

Pryde did not answer and turned his gaze back to Delphine.

As if offended by this, Belly spoke again in a more agitated tone.

“A trial will soon be held to punish those associated with demons, including the Emperor who was caught trying to flee.”