“Don’t do that.”

Pryde pleaded to his god who was trying to disappear like that.

Just stay by my side.

If you can’t do that, I’d rather just die.

But at that moment when he was about to give up on life. She, the god of his world, commanded.

“Wait.”

When will you come?

“I will definitely find a way to save you.”

When? I told you I don’t need that.

I am so willing to become a demon for you.

Much better than my previous self who was worthless and had no ability to protect you.

You love me, and I love you.

We are trying so hard to give each other what we desperately need.

Why do we have to part?

The white light had already completely enveloped her.

“…!”

Pryde was greatly surprised and reached out to her in a hurry.

His saint was trying to leave him again.

“No…!”

He hastily clenched his fist, but all he grasped was empty air.

Pryde looked down at his empty hand in despair.

The god who made him live and breathe abandoned him and left.

In this hell, leaving only him behind.

Is this the price of turning away from god and selling his soul to the devil?

Has his hell already begun on this earth even before his body meets death?

His peaceful hell where he planted flowers for her.

Now his saint is gone, and he is left alone in the empty hell to receive eternal punishment.

#Chapter 9. From the New World

An old cabin sitting on a snowy field where snow is flying.

Through the opaque glass window, the warm yellow light of a bonfire was leaking out.

Trudge, trudge.

And on the white snowy field without a single human footprint.

A woman wrapped in white fox fur left long footprints as she headed towards the old cabin.

In one hand, she was dragging a large reindeer.

She flung the door open.

The old wooden door quickly closed due to the blizzard blowing into the cabin.

“I found a strange deer.”

Marian, who had just taken off her white fur, bragged with excitement.

“It had enormously large antlers! Isn’t that amazing?”

“I wonder if the animals in the northern continent look a bit different too.”

Then Belly, who was sitting in front of the bonfire, approached with interest.

“The plants were also a bit different from those in the Astrax Empire.”

“That’s right. The familiar ilang grass turned out to be toxic.”

Marian replied cheerfully with a giggle.

“I was already weakened due to internal injuries, so I really almost died back then!”

Delphine smiled awkwardly as she saw Marian, who had already fully recovered and was even joking.

Those words were not a joke, she really almost died.

That is, about two weeks ago.

When Delphine escaped from Ioan and teleported to the plain in front of the barrier.

At that time, not only Marian but also Belly and Lin were in a mess.

The day she confessed her love to Ioan and at the same time left him.

Delphine smiled bitterly as she recalled the memories of that day.

“Delphine…? Did you escape from that man?”

“Let’s go! Hurry!”

That day, what she cried out to Belly, who was the only one maintaining her senses, was not because she was afraid Ioan would chase after them.

She was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to overcome her surging emotions and go looking for him again.

The barrier was almost on the verge of being dismantled.

The moment they fed medicine to the unconscious Lin and Marian with Belly’s help, supported them, and crossed the barrier.

What unfolded before their eyes was, surprisingly, a snowy plain with a blizzard.

“How can this be…”

“We, we were just in the rainy summer of the empire a moment ago…?”

It was a great fortune that they soon found an old cabin to take shelter from the blizzard.

Otherwise, Marian, who had already lost a considerable amount of blood, and especially Lin, would have really almost died.

‘Lin’s wounds were really severe…’

Delphine glanced at Lin, who was sitting by the window looking at the blizzard.

Using magical medicine, his external wounds were now completely healed.

But his internal organs were almost all damaged, so he hadn’t fully recovered from his internal injuries yet.

“These antlers seem like they could be eaten if boiled well, don’t you think?”

“Who knows. You try eating it first.”

“Then let’s feed it to Lin instead of me. Ah, that won’t work.”

Marian threw a playful joke at Lin, who had been particularly quiet these days.

“You still haven’t recovered yet. You’re just so weak…”

Then Lin, who was by the window, retorted as if it was absurd.

“…My injuries were much more severe than yours, you know?”

“Still, you have to overcome it with mental strength. Just look at me.”

Seeing them exchanging rough jokes in succession, Delphine couldn’t hide her guilty expression.

It was because it was Ioan who had brought them to the brink of death.

“By the way, what are you looking at so intently? There’s nothing but white snow outside the window.”

When Marian, who had been bickering, asked, Lin made a rather serious expression again.

“Can’t you feel it? …Something, feels strange.”

At those words, Belly, who had been smiling brightly, immediately hardened his expression.

“Why? What is it? Could it be the imperial army…?”

“No, it’s not that.”

Lin furrowed his brows and examined beyond the opaque glass window.

“It seems the barrier was regenerated after we escaped. Otherwise, it couldn’t have suddenly disappeared like this.”

He was right.

When they had just broken through the barrier and escaped, they could clearly see the barrier towering high into the sky.

But even though the cabin wasn’t far from the barrier, the barrier was not visible now.

All that could be seen outside the window was an endless snowy field.

“That’s right. Actually, while hunting, I wandered around that area a bit, but forget about seeing the barrier, I couldn’t even get close to it.”

Marian replied seriously, wiping away her playfulness.

“Even when I tried to walk south, I found myself back near the cabin before I knew it.”

“A powerful confusion magic must be cast. Then what exactly is strange, Lin?”

At Belly’s question, Lin furrowed his brows again and muttered.

“It’s hard to explain in words. How should I put it…?”

After pondering his words for a moment, he finally added.

“It’s as if the air is full of aurum?”

“In the air?”

Belly mumbled as he stroked his chin, looking intrigued.

“Hmm… Could that be the reason why the ecology of flora and fauna has changed so much in just three hundred years?”

“But wasn’t aurum something that only the descendants of the saint could emit?”

Marian asked with a puzzled face.

“Like Delphine.”

“Well… We have no idea what kind of history has passed outside the barrier in the last three hundred years, so we don’t know.”

“True. …Then what should we do now?”

Everyone’s gaze turned to Belly at Marian’s question.

Belly answered calmly without any confusion.

“For now, let’s go to a place called ‘Seongguk’.”

In the underground prison of the palace, Viscount Purcell had said.

After the death of the saint, Seongguk was established to protect her descendants and their bloodline.

If we go there, we might be able to learn information about gods and demons, and even get help in saving the Astrax Empire.

“We have Delphine, a descendant of the saint, with us.”

At Belly’s words, Marian looked at her with a rare serious face and recited.

“That’s right. …You are truly no different from the goddess of fortune to us, Delphine.”

Delphine smiled awkwardly at her words.

“The problem is, we have no idea where Seongguk is located or what kind of place it is.”

Then Lin, who was by the window, calmly pointed out.

“You’re right, Lin. So let’s head up north for now.”

Belly said calmly.

“For now, let’s go north, to where people live.”

The Astrax Empire was located on a peninsula in the southern part of the continent.

And between the continent and the peninsula was the Antes Mountain Range.

The most rugged mountain range in the world, separating the northern continent and the peninsula.

The reason the Astrax Empire was able to hide its existence for such a long time was not only because of the barrier but also because of that mountain range.

Beyond it lies the northern continent.

The place they were educated to be inhabited by barbarians all their lives, but in fact, it wasn’t…

Delphine recalled the northern continent items she had seen in the empire.

Those sophisticated items and the books that contained knowledge forbidden in the empire.

The much more advanced medicine.

‘What kind of place is it?’

Delphine looked at the Antes Mountain Range covered in perpetual snow with anxious eyes.

For now, they had to cross that.

What kind of place the northern continent is, they would only find out after that.

“The altitude is high on the mountain, so it will be even more fiercely cold than here.”

“To cross such a ridiculously high mountain, we need to be cautious even if we can use magic.”

Belly said as he examined the Antes Mountain Range following her.

“We’ll wait until Lin’s body has fully recovered, and then we’ll depart.”

Delphine and Marian nodded simultaneously.

Lin, who seemed uncomfortable with the schedule being delayed because of him, also reluctantly agreed.

As soon as the meeting ended, Marian, who had returned to her playful expression, exclaimed cheerfully.

“Well then, shall we boil this antler? Let’s have Lin be the first taster!”

“…I told you I need to recover my body. Don’t you want to depart?”

“That’s why I’m feeding it to you! How do I know if this will be good for the body!”

Delphine chuckled as she watched them noisily chattering.

It had been two weeks since she left Ioan.

It was days she endured thanks to her companions and the child in her womb.

Delphine stroked her slightly more swollen belly as she watched her companions still arguing over the reindeer antlers.

‘You hang in there a little longer too, baby.’