“Something felt uneasy in Pheleo’s heart.

Because of Ermeldine’s sudden cold attitude, as if dealing with a stranger.

“What did I do wrong?”

Even to Pheleo’s question, who didn’t catch on, Ermeldine responded with a businesslike voice.

“Would there be such a thing? The documents of Gongja are always perfect.”

The tone was stiff, but the content was not, making it ambiguous to scrutinize the situation. After Ermeldine reviewed all the documents she had forcefully created and left for the prayer hall, Pheleo burst into laughter with a sense of emptiness.

“If I knew it would be like this, I shouldn’t have come.”

“Well, even if I persistently chase after you like a country, it must be tiring.”

But his footsteps didn’t retreat through the magic circle.

Leaving Ermeldine alone in a place where all the priests except the Chief Priest and Arbion looked at her as if they wanted to kill her was unsettling.

‘Even if I can’t use magic, I can’t avoid physical attacks. It might be dangerous in such a mountainous area without the priests treating even minor injuries. I should stay a few more days and observe the atmosphere.’

Two days later, Ermeldine, who was dozing off in the quiet prayer hall, opened her eyes at the sensation.

At first, she thought it was Arbion, who followed her around, urging her to tell stories of the unfamiliar world or watching over her, but when she came to her senses, she was alone in the prayer hall.

“What is this?”

In front of her was a small note.

Ermeldine thought that the contents wouldn’t be much and casually opened the note. However, the contents of the note were serious.

[The families of your maids, I have them. Of course, I know you won’t move so easily. You, with resistance to curses, can easily resist even poison, right? But others may not be the same. The priest who delivered this note has a very deadly poison. It’s a very precious poison brought from a foreign land. Moreover, it’s not a curse-made poison, so it’s not completely purified by divine power. You definitely need an antidote. You, with resistance, can endure until you get the antidote, but can your maids withstand this poison like you?]

The sender was not written, but Ermeldine instinctively realized that the one who sent this note was Ermont, who had targeted her at the Francois Castle.

Entangled with Ermont, who came to avoid the essence, it seemed that rest could not be obtained even here.

Ermeldine, who was momentarily confused, soon regained her composure.

‘Well, it’s better this way. He tried to kill me with his own hands someday, didn’t he?’

Even in the midst of excruciating pain, the image of Pheleo smiling at herself in horror came to mind, making it seem as if her intestines were still twisting.

Sometimes, when thinking about the soldiers who were dying due to her curse magic, she felt that she just wanted to die.

Biting her lower lip hard, Ermeldine clenched her fists.

Cursing four soldiers, she realized.

Her brother Ermont’s magic was powerful, but it wasn’t enough to defeat her. That was what cursing the soldiers taught her.

Now that the Duke of Francois was absent, there was no curse magic practitioner superior to her.

No matter how she built up her reputation with good deeds to avoid the pyre, if she couldn’t resolve the matter with Ermont, the future she desired would be out of reach.

And while she was doing so, the people around her would continue to be hurt.

The face of little Helen, who sat obediently with her freckles on her dry little face, came to mind.

It was too painful to think about, so she deliberately pushed the face to one side in her mind.

Even though it had only been a few weeks, the small kindness brought tears pouring down, and even the trembling voice confessing that she was a spy.

Moreover, the last paragraph of the letter.
“The maid from before failed to kill you even though her family was held hostage. It was because the curse’s completion, the essence, was insufficient. Of course, whether or not you care about the maids’ families, at least you should know that you are not having a good time here.”

Ermeldine thought that the reason she was able to repel the curse entirely was due to the magical power still remaining in her body. Upon careful consideration, she recalled how Louise and Pheleo, at that time, easily repelled such powerful magic, leaving her perplexed.

‘Insufficient essence….’

The blue eyes of Helen, which shone brilliantly until the end without losing their color, made Ermeldine curious about what she might have wanted to say.

‘Wanted to live? Wanted to see if I would live? But if I survive alone, what’s the cost? Helen dies, unrelated soldiers almost died, Pheleo almost died. If I live alone, is that all?’

Ermeldine’s mind, which had found a temporary place after meeting Arbion, began to twist again with a gruesome feeling. Faced with the fact that she had to endure this essence once again, the severe exhaustion as if running a long distance overwhelmed her, realizing that this essence could harm even the precious people around her.