The rain that came too early grew fiercer by the moment.

The plain near the northern defensive wall.

Lin, Marian, and Belly advanced relentlessly through the pouring rain.

“Lin! I’ll handle the knights! You focus on breaking down the defensive wall!”

Marian, at the forefront, shouted as she swung her sword widely.

Lin quietly closed her eyes after casting a protective spell around herself and her comrades.

The imperial soldiers stationed around the defensive wall rushed at them endlessly.

Amidst the sounds of swords clashing and rain falling, resounding through the plain.

The posums in Lin’s hands began to lose their light one by one.

At the same time, the intangible defensive barrier surrounding the huge wall vibrated greatly, reverberating through the air.

“…It’s done! It’s working!”

Belly, who was watching the situation unfold, shouted in a rare display of emotion, her voice filled with exhilaration.

The defensive wall was crumbling.

That iron fortress-like wall that had trapped the empire’s people in this demon’s grasp for the past three hundred years.

The posums they had stolen and charged from the human factory were almost depleted.

The defensive wall was now weakened to the point where even a slight impact could shatter it.

“Marian, Belly! Prepare to move closer to the wall!”

It was then, as Lin grasped the last large posum in her hand.

The knights charging at them suddenly parted to the sides.

“Wh-what? Have they lost their will to fight?”

The moment Marian shouted in bewilderment, a sword in one hand.

Quietly.

Very quietly.

A man appeared, piercing through the falling rain.

Marian and Belly, upon seeing him, gnashed their teeth and shouted simultaneously.

“Ioan, Pryde…!”

Belly shouted again, her face filled with a sense of defeat.

“Why? Did he leave Delphine behind? That man?”

The woman they had been chasing like madmen for a month was captured, yet he came to find them first.

He was a man with self-control and obsession truly beyond human standards.

“Lin…!”

Marian alone was not enough to stop the man.

Lin immediately stopped breaking the defensive wall and joined Marian.

Kwang!

As Pryde swung the sword in his hand with an indifferent expression, the magic protecting them shattered and collapsed in a single strike.

“Damn it! Damn it! You bastard…!”

Marian charged at him with her sword, but he lightly dodged her strike and struck her side with the hilt of his sword, not the blade.

“Ugh…!”

She collapsed on the rain-soaked ground and coughed up bright red blood.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Pryde drove his sword into her fallen leg.

“Aaargh!”

“Marian!”

As Lin and Belly rushed at him in anger, Pryde immediately pulled out his sword and swung it at them.

Hit directly in the stomach by the intangible shockwave from the sword, Lin and Belly collapsed to the ground, coughing up blood.

Pryde strode past Marian and Belly, as if unconcerned with the rest, and approached Lin.

“You bastard… Ugh!”

Then his sword grasped Lin’s dark hair and forcibly lifted his head.

Lin glared at Pryde with a murderous gaze, even as he coughed up red blood from internal injuries.

“…Interesting. That look in your eyes.”

Pryde stared at him with eyes devoid of a hint of laughter and recited.

“It’s too emotional to be a gaze at an enemy. …Ah, I see.”

He pressed down on the area around Lin’s eyes, as if wanting to do something to those dark eyes, and smirked.

“It’s as if you’re looking at a rival in love. Isn’t it?”

“As if.”

Lin then laughed with blood-stained lips and retorted.

“You can’t even be considered a rival anymore. She abandoned you. Isn’t that ri-”

Thud.

A merciless kick was delivered at him.

Pryde muttered in a cold tone, struggling to conceal his boiling anger.

“I guess you don’t value your life.”

“Cough… If I valued such a thing, I wouldn’t have started La Ruse in the first place.”

Even as he rolled on the ground, clutching his stomach in pain as if his insides were being torn apart, Lin continued to provoke him.

That bastard had no intention of sparing his life anyway.

If he were to die, he would never beg for his life from this man.

From this man who was once her husband, never…

“Of course, you would never understand such feelings.”

Even in this moment, Lin shouted again with eyes as sharp as ever, unbroken.

“You, who sold even your soul to escape your miserable fate, sacrificing others…!”

Another ruthless kick was delivered to his fallen stomach.

It was so strong that it felt as if several of his internal organs had ruptured.

This time, he almost died.

Pryde grabbed the hair of Lin, who was struggling to breathe properly, lifted his head, and spat through clenched teeth while staring directly into his eyes.

“If you don’t know anything, shut up.”

Lin tried his best not to close his flickering eyes and glared back at him.

His mind was growing hazy from the pain and excessive blood loss.

His blood, washed away by the pouring rain, had already formed a puddle.

“…Just kill me now. You demon.”

“If that’s your wish, I’ll gladly grant it.”

As if he had lost interest, Pryde indifferently muttered as he let go of Lin’s hair.

“If you have any prayers to offer to God, do so now.”

At the unexpected words, Lin lifted his head with a puzzled expression.

Seeing his reaction, Pryde twisted his lips into a cynical smile.

“…Of course, as long as I exist within this empire, your voice will never reach God.”

Inside this defensive wall was a demonic realm where even God couldn’t reach.

It was his realm.

What were these weak fools relying on for Delphine to try to escape to that harsh world out there?

Once again, he was certain that he, and only he, could protect her.

Pryde raised his sword-wielding hand high into the air.

Inside the posum storage room of the human factory.

“Why hasn’t the marquis come yet?”

“Hey, did you report it properly? Did you say that Pryde’s wife was captured?”

The knights began to whisper among themselves as Ioan’s arrival was delayed.

Delphine trembled with an ominous feeling.

‘This much isn’t enough to lure him.’

She was convinced that if he had sensed her crisis, he wouldn’t have left her like this.

‘Think. I have to think, Delphine Pembrook.’

Otherwise, her comrades would be in danger.

Delphine tried to recall one by one the moments when Ioan had appeared in her times of crisis.

That is, on the day of the rebellion in District 2, when a dagger flew at her.

When she was attacked by ruffians in an alley and fell, getting injured.

And when she was engulfed in flames.

Until now, she had faced several crises, but Ioan didn’t appear every single time.

He only appeared when…

‘There has to be a threat to my life.’

At the very least, there had to be a serious danger on par with that.

‘What should I do about this?’

Delphine bit her lower lip, trying to gather her thoughts.

Should she try to resist and escape?

No, it didn’t make sense to succeed in escaping while fending off those numerous knights.

Besides, even if she got caught while trying to escape, it didn’t seem like those knights would dare harm her.

After all, there was a bounty of thirty thousand gold on her head.

‘Then, there’s only one way left.’

There was no time.

If Ioan had directly gone to her comrades at the defensive wall, they were in danger.

She didn’t want to go this far.

‘Baby, I’m so sorry.’

But please understand that this, too, is for the sake of raising you properly.

Praying inwardly, Delphine furtively scanned the knight standing guard beside her.

“Surely the marquis wouldn’t skimp on the reward! Surely to all of us… Ah!”

The knight engaged in a heated discussion was startled.

Delphine, who had been sitting obediently as if giving up, suddenly lunged at him.

“This woman!”

As if thinking she would attack him, he hurriedly assumed a combat stance.

But it wasn’t the knight she was aiming for.

It was the sword he had at his waist.

Drawing the well-sharpened longsword, Delphine plunged it towards her own body.

No, she clearly intended to.

Clank.

Before her wrist was grabbed by a large hand that appeared from somewhere.

Delphine knew who the owner of that hand was without even lifting her head.

This warmth, so familiar that she could paint it even with her eyes closed.

The very hand that had held and caressed her all night long.

“…Ioan.”

My husband’s hand.

Delphine slowly raised her head.

The first thing that caught her eye was his auburn eyes, rarely displaying such strong emotions.

He had a face filled with shock and astonishment.

But there was no time to be happy about seeing that beautiful face after so long.

The next thing that entered her sight was his blood-soaked hand and the massive longsword.

‘With that sword, he must have…’

A sharp voice flew towards her, whose heart ached.

“Delphine. What were you trying to do just now…?”