Delphine, who had been examining the object for a moment, soon murmured calmly.

“You don’t seem to be very interested in longevity.”

It meant that if you want to live long, you should be cautious.

Even for nobles, in a world where one could lose their head in an instant if they displeased the emperor’s eye.

At this point, as a commoner, he would have no right to complain even if he were to be summarily executed.

“Hehe. I think I’ve lived long enough at this point. Let’s see… Since you’re here, I’ll prescribe a sedative along with it. Please wait a moment.”

The old doctor disappeared behind the curtain into the dispensary.

Left alone, Delphine stared blankly at the oddly shaped object.

In fact, she had barely listened to most of what the old doctor had said about the Northern Continent.

What caught her attention was the talk about mental illness.

Trauma…

It was then that Delphine, lost in thought, absent-mindedly picked up the object in one hand.

Flash−.

For an instant, a white light shot out from the glass end of the telescope-like object.

What just happened?

Startled, Delphine quickly withdrew her hand and examined the object suspiciously.

Light had appeared without matches or fire.

As if by magic.

But magic had long been abandoned since the imperial witch hunts 300 years ago.

There were no people left who could use magic, and even if there were, it would be a capital offense if discovered.

Not just any execution, but burning at the stake, said to be the most painful.

They might even wish they had been hanged along with their father.

After hesitating for a moment, Delphine cautiously reached out towards the object.

The strange object remained quiet, unlike before.

‘Right. That’s not possible.’

Delphine, now relaxed, leaned back against the backrest with a thud.

Why did she keep seeing strange visions?

Was it really because of that trauma?

Delphine rubbed her complicated face with both hands.

Yes. Perhaps she wasn’t in her right mind now.

“It’s ready, madam. Gastritis medicine and sleeping pills, and additionally, a sedative…”

“You were right.”

“Pardon?”

Delphine calmly murmured to the doctor coming out of the dispensary.

“About the illness of the mind.”

But the old doctor looked at her with a pitying expression.

It was a gaze not of a noble or a customer, but of someone looking at a person young enough to be his granddaughter.

“As I said before, simply resting well and clearing your mind is the best thing to do.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“I’ve prescribed an additional sedative. It should help a little.”

Delphine nodded lightly, then stood up after receiving the medicine.

“Ah, and.”

Just before leaving the clinic, Delphine suddenly turned back and said.

“That strange object.”

“Yes?”

“You said you were curious about its use? …It seems to be for emitting light. Through the glass, in the forward direction.”

“Oh…”

Leaving the doctor who showed curiosity and admiration, Delphine slowly left the clinic.

Shake, shake.

The carriage started with a rattle.

“It’s a mental illness. Our brain creates illusions.”

Delphine sat leaning weakly against the carriage wall.

The swaying carriage was heading towards the mansion.

Towards the Pryde mansion, where her father had died before her eyes.

Her body leaning against the carriage kept swaying.

In the dark ceiling of the carriage she rode alone, a blood-stained chandelier kept swinging.

Swing, swing. Swing, swing.

It was then.

“Madam. Are you alright?”

Delphine suddenly came to her senses at the voice of the guard knight from beyond the partition.

…Come to think of it, the carriage was shaking excessively.

Delphine hurriedly opened the window she had lowered her feet on and looked outside.

The carriage was still passing through the 2nd district.

But on the streets where the sunset was beginning to fade, a group of people wearing black masks were causing havoc.

They were breaking shop windows and filling sacks with food, or filling cloth pouches with water from the square fountain.

No matter how clean that water is said to be, it surely isn’t as good as drinking water.

As the surprised Delphine watched, she could hear them shouting in indignation.

“Provide clean water to the 3rd district too!”

“Children who drank factory wastewater are dying! You pig-like noble bastards!”

“Open the barrier!”

Cheers calling for freedom and equality could be heard here and there.

“Madam. Please close the window.”

The two guard knights who had been following the carriage on horseback were now beside the carriage.

“What is going on?”

“It seems the lowborns from the 3rd district are causing a riot.”

The knight’s face remained expressionless despite the commotion.

“We’ll speed up to get out of this district. Please close the window.”

The carriage began to dash forward, shaking greatly.

Delphine sat with her back against the carriage wall, trying to calm her breathing.

Her startled heart was pounding.

She had heard that the public sentiment among the 3rd district commoners was unstable, but she didn’t know it was this bad.

‘Why are they doing this?’

Having lived in the 1st district all her life, she didn’t know much about the situation in the 3rd district.

No water to drink?

The capital of the Astrax Empire was called the city of water, overflowing with clean water, a beautiful place.

It was when Delphine was barely managing to keep her balance in the violently shaking carriage.

Suddenly, the fast-moving carriage jolted heavily, then collapsed to one side and came to a stop.

With that recoil, Delphine rolled forward and ended up hitting her elbow hard against the carriage wall.

“Hah…”

“Ah! These bastards dare! Do you know whose carriage this is!”

Before she could dwell on the pain, she heard the coachman shouting from outside.

Followed by the voices of highly excited men.

“We know! That imperial emblem on those knight bastards! The emperor’s dogs!”

The sharp metallic sound of swords clashing.

Someone’s scream.

And then…

“Search the corpses! There might be something useful!”

“Who’s inside? If knights were guarding it… Pull them out!”

Could it be that they were overcome even with two fully armed knights?

Delphine clutched her throbbing elbow, sinking into fear.

The numbers were overwhelmingly against them.

There seemed to be at least dozens of masked individuals.

The reason people fear imperial knights so much is not really because of their martial prowess, but because of the absolute power of the emperor backing them.

Then.

Bang!

A sharp-edged axe pierced through the carriage door.

Delphine pressed her back against the carriage wall in shock.

“Pull them out!”

“Tear off the door!”

The small doorknob holding the carriage door shook precariously.

One more strike of that axe would surely seal its fate.

‘There’s nowhere to escape in here anyway.’

In that moment, Delphine made a quick decision, removing the hook holding the carriage door and kicking the half-broken door hard with her foot.

“Hurry, open…”

Bang!

As the door unexpectedly opened first, one man holding an axe stepped back in surprise.

Delphine seized the opportunity to quickly survey her surroundings.

Masked figures had gathered around the carriage.

In the distance, she could see the guard knights lying on the ground, bleeding.

There wasn’t a soul to be seen anywhere else around.

The situation was not good. Extremely so.

“Hey, what are you doing? Why aren’t you dragging her out…”

Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed Delphine’s wrist and pulled her out of the carriage.

Before she could resist, Delphine stumbled and fell to the ground outside the carriage.

She quickly raised her head and glared at the man who had grabbed her wrist with fiercely shining eyes.

For a brief moment, silence fell among the masked figures as her face was revealed in the sunlight.

“Wow…”

Someone unconsciously let out a small exclamation.

But it was only for a moment.

“Wait. Red hair and green eyes on a beauty…”

“That woman, she’s the one who became Pryde’s wife!”

At that moment, Delphine’s breath caught in her throat at the outburst of intense emotions from the masked figures.

“Kill her now!”

“Pryde, that devil even God can’t save!”

“She’s the wife of that murderous bastard!”

Delphine’s body shook violently at the torrent of fierce condemnation and hatred.

What was happening?

“I’m going to…”

Someone who couldn’t control their emotions shouted roughly and reached out towards her.

It was then that a low, calm voice was heard.

“Wait.”

A tall man standing at the center of the masked figures raised his hand.

“It’s too valuable a card to just kill. We’ll take her to headquarters like this.”

Although it was difficult to distinguish them as everyone was wearing masks, it was immediately apparent that he was the leader of the group.

Immediately, protests erupted.

“What? This woman is that devil’s wife! A filthy noble! Kill her now! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

“No, that’s certainly true too. Even if it’s that man, if she’s his wife…”

“We don’t have time for this! We’ve robbed the stores, we need to escape quickly!”

As their opinions diverged, Delphine anxiously retreated, looking for a way to escape.

But the masked figures surrounded her in multiple layers, leaving no visible way out.

“Damn it! What are you all doing? That man’s hands killed my entire family!”

At that moment, someone cried out, full of resentment.

A man holding a dagger rushed towards Delphine before anyone could stop him.

“Everyone! That devil-like bastard…”

The scene of the blue dagger rushing towards her played out in slow motion.

She saw the tall man hastily reaching out his hand, but he was too far away.

Am I going to die?

Like this, so futilely?

Delphine instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.

Clang-!

It was then that she heard the chilling metallic sound brushing past her chest.

It was the sound of a knife clashing with a sword.

Delphine opened her eyes, her body still trembling.

What she faced was not a group of masked figures, but a back broad enough to block her entire view.

She also noticed the well-groomed dirty blonde hair on top of it.

That man.

It was Ioan Pryde.