Despite lacking the ability to see souls, Felio, confident that he wouldn’t misunderstand himself, laughed at Ermeldirin’s assurance.

“I see. Confucius knows me. That’s enough.”

Even in the midst of the impending death, he couldn’t understand why he felt so at ease.

“Hey, over there!”

At that moment, the girl who had escaped a while ago appeared with the priests running towards them.

The two lay there, smiling with tears streaming down, and the person caught between them had a chubby expression, looking like he was fed up with it all. Three people sprawled on the dark forest floor were discovered.

“Aaargh! Queen!”

When the girl saw Ermeldirin’s condition, she screamed in despair.

“What do I do… Uheheheheo… Don’t die… Uhuhuhuhu…”

Thanks to the tears and runny nose of Helen’s sister, Ermeldirin’s tears went right in.

‘I can’t die now. I don’t want to show them my dying moments.’

Ermeldirin wanted to wipe away the tears flowing down the girl’s quivering face, but she had no strength left to even raise her fingers.

At that moment, fortunately, the shape of Noktavius, who had turned into a puddle chasing the thin girl, began to appear.

‘I won’t die.’

Seeing the three people lying on the puddle of blood, Noktavius rushed over and immediately exerted divine power.

Indeed, a high priest. All three felt their bodies easing at once.

“You should rest for a few days.”

Noktavius, seeing this situation and just providing treatment without asking any questions, only helped Ermeldirin up with a gentle face.

Ermeldirin, who had just managed to breathe evenly, wanted to express her gratitude, but before she could say anything, Arvian, who had risen on his own, pointed at two people.

“You! You! Arrest them immediately!”

As the priests pointed out by Arvian attempted to escape, nearby priests seized them.

“These guys were spies. Ermont planted them as spies. That’s why it felt so fishy…”

The priests couldn’t understand the latter part of Arvian’s sentence, but the former part was enough to shock them.

“If it’s Ermont, then he’s a witch’s…”

As a priest, who was about to speak, looked at Ermeldirin with a sudden realization, Ermeldirin met his gaze.

“Yes. I’m the witch’s sister.”

“Really? Confucius knows me. That’s enough.”

‘Oh, he’s doing it again.’
Once again, when Ermeldirin felt it was too bothersome to explain the endless misunderstandings, Helen’s younger sister forcefully kicked the shin of the priest who spoke up.

“It’s not like that! She saved you! She… was stabbed by a sword trying to save you! Uhuhuhuhung.”

Whether it was the priest’s words that were sorrowful, the girl’s eyes, which had stopped shedding tears, burst into tears again.

“I’m sorry. I really thought my sister died because of the Queen… I’m really sorry. Uhuhuhuhoooong….”

Ermeldirin, whose body still lacked strength, forced herself to move and approached the girl.

“What about your mother? Helen mentioned your mother too. Could she still be captured?”

Hoping desperately that it wasn’t true, she asked with a desperate look, but the girl’s small head shook weakly.

“Darn!”

Ermeldirin, who had been making an effort to use refined words like a queen in front of people, couldn’t control her lips in the face of the desperate truth.

“I will definitely save your mother. I will definitely save her!”

“Yes, Queen. And really… I’m really sorry….”

The tear-covered gaze of the girl turned towards the ground.

Seeing that, Ermeldirin wiped the tears from the girl’s face with her hands.

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m sorry that I couldn’t save you earlier.”

Upon closer inspection, even though she didn’t directly kill her, Helen’s death was her fault.

If Helen had really feared and resented her, the curse wouldn’t have bounced off so easily. How did the timid and weak-hearted Helen approach her?

Moreover, her crazy brother still had Helen’s mother captive.

Ermeldirin felt a sensation as if her blood vessels were bursting with boiling anger.

At that moment, Arvian witnessed it.

The white soul of Ermeldirin that had been witnessed was turning red at this moment.

But the color wasn’t the murky and disgusting blood-red he had seen so many times before.

Instead, it was a sacred crimson light, similar to the holy light representing the grace of the gods, burning at the top of the temple.

On the afternoon when Ermeldirin was barely recovering from her injuries.

Leopold hosted an elegant ball at his mansion.

Although smaller in scale than the ball held in the royal palace garden, his ballroom, adorned with all kinds of rare trees and animals, was dazzling enough to turn heads.

In one corner of the ballroom, acrobats in exotic costumes were performing breathtaking feats.

Although Henri’s presence could be felt, the nobles who didn’t want to miss this precious sight attended his ball.

Just at the right time when all the influential families of the empire gathered for a social season.

At some point, the music stopped, and Leopold descended the stairs with a slow and leisurely movement.

Beside him, a large leopard with golden eyes similar to his was guarding him.

Nobles, while feeling intimidated by the leopard that seemed to have become a guard at his side, also felt awe.

In the Valius Empire, it was a long tradition to keep leopards as royal pets to show off their wealth and power.

While anyone could raise other beasts as long as they had money, leopards symbolizing the royal family could only be raised by a member of the royal family.

Leopold was reluctant to bring his longtime friend to such a dangerous place, but because Rangeng insisted that it was for his safety, he reluctantly brought the leopard he had brought to the capital a while ago for protection.

But this place was like the heart of the enemy territory, and Leopold, who had no intention of using his longtime companion as a bodyguard, felt quite uncomfortable at this moment. Nevertheless, Rangeng, Leo’s leopard, confidently descended the stairs with a dignified gait next to his owner.

Sizzle, simmer.
As people’s attention focused, Rio, feeling good, rubbed his cheek against Leopold’s leg like a cat.

Observing this spectacle, the nobles were busy sharing their individual impressions.

“To tame such a wild beast so gently, he’s definitely not an ordinary person.”

“Naturally born nobility is indeed different. Look at his relaxed attitude with a wild beast by his side.”

Of course, there were also unspoken sentiments that couldn’t be expressed openly.

‘That’s the privilege of the nobility. Judging solely by bloodline, he does seem more fitting as an emperor.’

‘If Leopold becomes the emperor, formal exchanges between the Valius Empire and us will truly begin, and the value of the harbor within our territories will rise even more.’

‘If the heir of the Valius Empire becomes the emperor, perhaps the tiresome border disputes will calm down a bit? Who would dare to challenge that powerful nation?’

At this moment, in the eyes of the nobles, Leopold began to appear as a more suitable emperor than Henri.