Startled, I turned my head and saw imperial soldiers swarming in through the door they had broken and invaded.

Among them were those holding black crystals in their hands.

“There they are! The wanted criminals!”

“The woman! Catch the woman first!”

“Lin, hurry and teleport!”

At Belly’s cry, a white light began to frost around Lin.

He shouted urgently, reaching out his hand towards Delphine.

“Delphine. Quickly, take my hand!”

Just as Delphine was about to rush towards him, who was starting to emit a white light.

Suddenly, someone roughly grasped her slender wrist with a rough motion.

“Let go!”

“Oh no, Del…!”

Lin’s cry ultimately failed to finish and disappeared along with the white light.

Leaving behind only Delphine, who failed to grab his hand in time.

Everyone had teleported away.

“No…!”

As Delphine cried out in feigned despair, the knight who had grabbed her raised his hand with a face full of rapture.

“Caught her! I caught her! I caught the woman worth thirty thousand gold!”

The knights filling the room also had expressions full of joy.

“…”

Delphine lowered her head as if in resignation, secretly smiling slightly.

‘…Roughly, it seems I succeeded in deceiving them.’

The comrades who had acted together with her would have instantly teleported near the castle walls.

While Lin broke through the defensive walls there, she intended to be captured here.

…In order to lure Ioan here.

She glanced at her left arm, which still seemed to throb.

Originally, it was an arm that had been purely white without a single scar, having grown up as a noble since childhood.

But now, beneath the long sleeve, a complexly shaped black magic circle was engraved.

It was something Lin had personally engraved with his own hand over the course of three hours.

‘Even as he reluctantly followed my plan, he was heartbroken the whole time…’

Delphine recalled the moment she first told her comrades about her strategy.

“I have an idea. There are two things needed to operate magic. A magic circle and aurum, right?”

Between the two, aurum overflowed within her.

She could emit aurum even without going through a vessel called a Possum.

So what was lacking was…

“So Lin. Engrave a teleportation magic circle on my body.”

“Delphine…! Have you gone crazy?”

That day, the plan she proposed was as follows.

What Ioan was ultimately pursuing was her.

Also, it would take time for Lin to break through the defensive walls there.

Therefore, Delphine thought.

Then, while Lin breaks through the defensive walls, couldn’t she hold Ioan back?

If he succeeds in breaking through the defensive walls, then she would use the teleportation magic circle to move to Lin.

Together, they would escape beyond those castle walls.

To a place where the power of Ioan and the demon he contracted with could not reach.

It seemed like a perfect plan.

Except for the fact that she had to tattoo a large magic circle on her body because she didn’t know how to use magic.

“That’s… certainly fine.”

“Ooh…”

“No, have you all gone crazy? You think that man will easily let go of her once he catches her!”

Unlike Belly and Marian who showed positive reactions, Lin opposed to the end, raging.

Of course, Delphine was also most worried about escaping from Ioan’s grasp.

He would surely use every means to never let go of her once he caught her…

But rather, that’s why she might be able to let his guard down.

Ioan wouldn’t expect that she not only got caught by him on purpose, but even engraved a magic circle on her body.

Besides, there was no other way in the current situation anyway.

It took three days to persuade Lin, who was so vehemently opposed.

And it seemed to take about three hours to engrave a palm-sized magic circle on her arm with a needle sterilized with fire.

Lin had procured an illegal anesthetic from somewhere, but Delphine firmly refused.

She thought it might have some effect on the child in her womb.

Fortunately, he had also brought along an anesthetic cream, making the pain bearable.

Although Lin, who was tattooing the magic circle on her flawless white skin, seemed to be even more heartbroken than her.

“Report to the Marquis! Quickly!”

At a knight’s shout, Delphine snapped out of her reminiscence.

Ioan would soon hear the news that I was caught.

Her heart pounded loudly.

It had been nearly a month since she last faced him.

Of course, she faced him every night in nightmares.

Ioan, who always reached out to her while carrying a huge burden…

Perhaps because she had been tormented every day for a month, even though it was a dream.

Her heart ached as if she had actually faced his crying face.

Most of all, what made her heart ache was the fact that she would betray and run away from him once again.

Ioan. Please forgive me for having no choice but to do this.

No, don’t forgive me.

Rather than being so broken while desiring and longing for me, just hate me instead…

‘Then forget me.’

“Wait. Then who gets the thirty thousand gold?”

“Is that important right now?!”

However, it was strange.

Delphine, who had been listening to the knights’ conversation, soon felt an eerie and ominous premonition.

No matter how long she waited, he did not appear.

If he had heard the news that she was caught, there would have been more than enough time for Ioan to teleport here immediately.

“I was the one who grabbed her wrist. Let’s make that clear.”

“Who gave you that opportunity?”

“Don’t take credit for something anyone could have done if they were there.”

Did they not report because they were arguing over the bounty?

“Stop it! Disgracefully… Let’s ask the Marquis to judge when he comes.”

No.

They had definitely reported.

Considering the notorious reputation of the cruel and ruthless Marquis Pryde, there was no possibility that they dared to delay reporting.

Then why?

‘Where have you gone now, Ioan…?’

Delphine clenched her trembling fist tightly with a chilling and ominous premonition.

A temporary barracks near the northern castle walls.

Pryde stood in front of the barracks for a while even after hearing reports that Delphine had appeared in various parts of the empire.

Gazing at the drizzle wetting the entire plain.

“…”

How long had he been standing like that?

Walter ran out of the strategy headquarters barracks and shouted frantically.

“My lord! They say it was a success!”

He shouted in a joyful tone as if he had achieved something he had wished for.

“It’s the factory! Although the rest escaped, the knight there succeeded in capturing your wife!”

Walter, who had been happily reporting for a while, suddenly startled and asked in a puzzled tone.

“…My lord?”

For some reason, Pryde wasn’t making a happy face at all.

Fixing his gaze on the falling rain, he coldly asked back.

“The rest escaped?”

“Huh? Yes, yes. That’s right. That’s a bit of a disappointing news, but didn’t you wish the most to capture your wife…?”

They, those righteous rats, left her behind and ran away.

He twisted his lips into a smile.

“They’re playing an interesting move.”

Delphine.

He was the one who had only looked at and watched over her all his life.

Since the time he was a lowly commoner, always from afar…

But do you think I, who have done that, wouldn’t know you?

That mysterious woman always had a way of enchanting those around her.

Was it the power possessed by the bloodline of God’s child?

When with her, everyone naturally loved and followed her.

Sometimes they even devoted their lives in loyalty to her.

She was truly a master from the moment she was born.

Unlike himself, who had been a slave and a fallen one from the moment he was born.

“Uh… Aren’t you going to see your wife right away?”

To Walter’s carefully asked question, Pryde replied without changing his expression.

“No, I’m going to the castle walls.”

“What? Not the factory?”

“The rest of the rats who escaped from there must have headed for the castle walls.”

Pryde drew a huge sword from his waist and thundered with a ruthless face.

“I’ll deal with those bastards first.”

Especially that witch’s child with the black hair.

He was the root cause that made things go so wrong from the beginning.

If there had been no such thing as magic in the first place, Delphine wouldn’t have even thought of running away from him.

As he ruminated like that, the scene he had seen near the castle walls a month ago automatically replayed in his mind.

Delphine’s face turning pale white at the sight of him and her running into the arms of that damn kid.

This is just to completely cut off the possibility of her running away again.

He dismissed the decision caused by his boiling jealousy as a rational judgment.

Anyway, once caught by the knights, the chances of Delphine escaping the factory alone were slim.

Maybe that man would look for an opportunity to try to take her away again.

“There’s no need to stop Delphine either. If I just kill that bastard, everything will be resolved.”

His lowly muttering figure disappeared in an instant.

Only the rain pouring down from the dark clouds remained where he had been standing.