The Grand Duchess naturally brought up the story of Matian’s childhood.

A child who was called the reincarnation of a hero from the moment he was born. Unlike a child, he neither laughed nor cried well.

Seeing him grow up with the same appearance as the people in the portraits, the Grand Duchess was confused.

Could it be that the devil was born by borrowing her womb?

What if, as rumored, the soul of Wiegratz, cursed by the devil, had taken away her baby? With these thoughts, there were many days when she soaked her pillow with tears, the Grand Duchess confessed.

“Whenever anxious thoughts that a mother shouldn’t have came to mind, I forced Matian to laugh. Then the child, who had been staring into the air with worn-out eyes, would laugh… but I couldn’t feel any happiness from that expression at all.”

So the Grand Duchess taught various expressions. Thinking that if he knew unhappiness, he would know happiness. If he knew sadness, he would know joy.

“Matian hated it, but I sat the child in front of the mirror every day. I even hung mirrors wherever that child went, like this drawing room.”

The Grand Duchess fidgeted with the handle of the teacup and moved her lips. Then she carefully revealed her background.

“Actually, I come from a fallen family, Priest Rukna. I was no different from a commoner, but unfortunately Duncan fell in love with me.”

It was thanks to the emperor, who was keeping the Wiegratz family in check, that he was able to marry a commoner despite his high position as a grand duke.

“I wasn’t as educated as other young ladies. So I may have given young Matian a disciplining that only hurt him.”

The Grand Duchess stared at the garden with clouded eyes.

It seemed like tears would drop at any moment, but it seemed that all her tear glands had dried up long ago.

“I met your parents a very long time ago, Rukna.”

“…!”

“I had asked the Closets, descendants of the Saint, for purification to try to heal young Matian. I secretly hoped that the fragments of the devil would disappear as well.”

However, Kyle Closet, Rukna’s father, stared down at Matian and said that this child did not need purification in the first place.

He scolded her harshly, asking if she was treating a child born as a descendant of a hero and bearing a burden as a devil.

“Do you know what you, who were young at the time, said to Matian?”

Honest words spilled out of the mouth of a child not even eight years old. Matian’s reaction was even more pathetic.

And then he turned around, but Matian, who never smiled properly no matter how much he was taught, was smiling brightly.

He was secretly pleased with the reaction of the girl who firmly told him that he was not a devil.

That day, the Grand Duchess cried again, clutching her pillow. They were tears shed out of too much happiness.

So when she heard that the Closet family had died in a carriage accident, she said she was so sad.

“I’m so happy that you’re alive, Rukna, and by Matian’s side.”

“…”

“Thank you so much. I wanted to meet you to tell you this.”

The Grand Duchess held Rukna’s hand tightly.

“This time, our family will protect you.”

The hands that held Rukna’s, promising to protect her, fell to the floor covered in blood.

Around it, servants who had turned into zombies were biting the Grand Duchess’s body.

As if trying to keep her promise to protect, she had become bait so that Rukna would not be bitten.

It started with the imperial knights who came with an imperial edict.

Those in the annex suddenly showed abnormal symptoms and started attacking those around them, and the servants bitten by them one by one turned into zombies and bit anyone they saw.

A maid serving tea on the terrace during the tea time suddenly scratched her body wildly and exuded a dark energy.

There were bite marks on her forearm. Rukna immediately released holy power to purify the maid, and it seemed like the crisis was over.

When zombies rushed into the drawing room and pounced on Rukna, the Grand Duchess wrapped her entire body around Rukna.

“Wh-why am I doing this?”

The Grand Duchess, puzzled by her unintentional action, let out a bitter smile.

Ah, it’s because this woman is my son’s happiness. I wanted to protect my son’s happiness.

I, I really did love my son.

Even after giving birth to and raising Matian, she was always gripped by guilt.

She feared her son more than she loved him, and there were more days when she felt guilt than pride.

But facing death, everything became clear.

She was just a slightly clumsy mother, cherishing and loving Matian in her own way.

“Please take care of Matian, Rukna. Make that child smile.”

With those words, the Grand Duchess handed Rukna the ring she was wearing.

And then she pushed Rukna, whom she was holding, onto the terrace and locked the glass door.

“No, Your Highness!”

Over the image of the Grand Duchess, the mother and Teacher Gale who had tried to save her overlapped.

Why do people who try to save her always become unhappy?

“Please open this door!”

Rukna knocked on the door and released as much holy power as possible.

Thanks to the holy power spreading through the cracks of the glass door, the zombies lost strength and one by one returned to being corpses, but the Grand Duchess’s heart, bitten here and there, had already stopped.

The collapsed Grand Duchess did not move.

“Breathe, Your Highness. Please, breathe!”

Rukna smashed the glass window with her fist. Glass shards stuck into her fist, but she didn’t care.

She reached inside, unlocked the glass door, and then rushed inside.

She tried CPR while strongly compressing the Grand Duchess’s solar plexus.

Make your son smile in exchange for your life? How can I, who survived with your life as collateral, make your son smile?

But the black energy that escaped from the zombies did not scatter and gathered into one lump. It soon transformed into the form of Chad.

“Hello, Luca. Did you sleep well that day?”

Chad mentioned meeting Rukna at the imperial palace.

“Your condition is better than expected. Our Luca is quite sturdy too.”

“I will definitely kill you!”

Rukna shouted at Chad and did not stop CPR. Chad approached, looking at the action with curiosity.

“Hmm, what are you doing now? Will a stopped heart beat again if you press like that? Is it a secret method of the temple?”

CPR was something she learned as Kim Ha-young and was a treatment method that did not yet exist in this world.

Instead of answering, Rukna released holy power.

Whenever she did that, the pattern that amplified that power shone beautifully on her skin.

The doppelganger Chad had painstakingly created began to scatter like sand when touched by the holy power, but he stared blankly at the shining Rukna.

Look at that face stained with tears.

If she fell like this, she would become the Black Sage he had seen in his prophetic dreams.

“How can I give up on you when you’re so pretty?”

Even with that serpentine whisper, Rukna only cared about the Grand Duchess. Chad’s eyebrows twitched.

“Haha, you told me I was like the protagonist of this world, but you don’t look at me when you actually see me. I’m already becoming the master of the world.”

Chad tried to snap the Grand Duchess’s neck, but stopped. A slowly approaching despair is more delicious than a quickly approaching misfortune.

“I want you to be in pain, Luca. That way, that unlucky Matian will have a gap too.”

Rukna was the only weakness of the guy who had become arrogant after even taking the Holy Sword.

Her frustration would break Matian, and if he became a sacrifice for black magic in the process, it would be the best ending possible.

“If you want to beat Matian that much, fight fair and square. Don’t cowardly mess with those around him!”

“Then it’s no fun.”

Chad smiled brightly. Enduring the pain of his doppelganger disappearing, he reached out to her and brushed her hair.

As the long hair fell back, the hidden shoulders were revealed. On the white skin, the red bite marks left by Matian were visible.

“Did you have fun with Matian with the poison I gave you?”

Chad glared at the marks fiercely. He had expected it, but seeing it made his insides twist.

“Was it good? No, there’s no way a prude who has never even held a woman’s hand could have done well.”

“Shut up!”

“I even unleashed demons for you, what a pity. If things had gone according to my plan, you would have wished for my death for the rest of your life and only thought of me. I wanted only me to fill your heart and mind.”

“I said shut up, you son of a bitch!”

“Son of a bitch? Haha! Then I will gladly become one.”

Chad lowered his head and bit on top of Matian’s bite mark while barking.

As Rukna’s holy power increased explosively in anger, his doppelganger began to evaporate rapidly.

Chad’s doppelganger, eventually left with only a head, left a final message and completely disappeared.

“There are 3 months left until the world changes. Let’s meet again on that day, Luca.”

“Oh my god, High Priest!”

A bishop with red hair twisted up shook the collapsed Chad awake. Pure white holy power flickered around Chad’s body.

“Where did this thing stick on like a leech!”

Could it be the Cardinal? No, that human was only good at petty tricks and his holy power was not this pure.

‘It’s as if the descendant of the Saint is alive.’

The bishop clicked his tongue as he shook off the remaining holy power with dark magic.

He didn’t know what had happened, but the High Priest’s accumulated dark magic had been quite depleted.

Chad, who had barely regained consciousness, raised his head and spat out the blood pooled in his mouth. The bishop nagged at him.

“High Priest, the big event is just around the corner. You know you shouldn’t overdo it like this!”

“That damn Matian Wiegratz keeps touching my things, Bishop.”

Social position and honor, even the heart of a woman. That guy had taken everything he had coveted first.

“Our goal is to take out the Black Sage from the Devil’s Egg. That’s the priority!”

The Red Eagle had been holding its breath for 300 years for that day.

But the High Priest was so impatient that he had a hard time enduring less than a year.

“My top priority is for me to reach the pinnacle of the empire as soon as possible.”

This, this immature…! The bishop trembled and gestured to the followers who were guarding the side.

When all the followers turned their backs, the bishop slapped Chad’s cheek hard.

Slap! Chad’s head quickly turned to the side.

“Don’t throw a tantrum like a child, Cheyren Steward!”