‘This is definitely revenge.’

Rukna Golden gripped the reins tightly. She was quite uncomfortable with Matian Wiegratz sticking close to her back right now.

He kept rubbing his face against her shoulder like a cat and kissing her neck. Finally, an annoyed Rukna stopped the horse.

“How long do you plan on riding my horse with me?”

Even at Rukna’s question, Matian stayed focused on what he was doing.

Ah, seriously! As Rukna shrugged her shoulders, Matian, who had been nibbling on her round earlobe, reluctantly pulled his head back.

“I’m still not fully recovered, so it’s hard for me to ride a horse alone, Lady Rukna.”

“So who told you to…do that all night?”

“Hmm, you seem to have quite a lewd mind, Lady Rukna.”

“Wh-what?”

“Haven’t you been repeating the same thing, as if you keep thinking about how we spent the night together?”

Matian added an explanation with a troubled smile.

If she says her waist is sore, it’s because of last night. Not being able to ride a horse alone is also because of last night. Even if she says to rest for a bit, it’s because of last night.

“You seem to regret not getting enough last night. If you hadn’t fallen asleep in the middle, I could have satisfied you more.”

“That’s not it! You’re misunderstanding!”

Rukna raised her voice while forcefully kicking the horse’s side.

The stopped horse let out a neigh and suddenly ran forward, but Matian didn’t lose balance at all and stayed tightly pressed against Rukna without the slightest shake.

“How long are you going to stick to me like this?”

“Until you move your body.”

“What?”

“Why do you think we’re traveling slowly right now?”

At Matian’s question, Rukna closed her mouth.

Right now, whenever she saw people harmed by magical beasts or black magicians, she was helping each and every one of them.

She silently purified the contaminated land and healed the people.

It wasn’t an act of kindness without reason. It was a kind of atonement.

What if she had given the sacred sword to Matian a little earlier?

What if she hadn’t turned a blind eye to Chad’s problem and quickly put an end to it? Wouldn’t the world have met a slightly better ending?

It felt like the current situation had come about because of her wrong choices. She was alleviating the guilt that had built up in this way.

“I don’t like that Lady Rukna only focuses on work. Are you going to take responsibility for all the people in the world?”

Matian openly expressed his disappointment, saying she takes care of strangers more than the man she should be responsible for.

“Then did you fight like that because you have two lives to spare, Lord Wiegratz?”

Rukna also recalled the house-sized scorpion magical beast that had appeared in a small village.

Without showing any fear, Matian grabbed a long spear and threw it, stabbing it right into the beast’s eye.

While the beast writhed, Matian cut its neck with the sacred sword.

It took time to pierce through the hard shell, insert the sacred sword, and cut off its neck.

He took a risky move to resolve the situation even though his limbs could have been torn apart by the poisonous thorns if he made the slightest mistake.

“I had no choice then. I didn’t have any troops to assist me, Lady Rukna.”

“But I was there.”

“……”

“Aren’t I quite useful too? Don’t ignore my abilities.”

“I know. That you’re strong enough too. But Rukna.”

Matian held Rukna’s waist that he was embracing even tighter.

“I don’t want to see the woman I love fall into danger.”

His firm arms didn’t let go of her body as if they had caught their prey.

He restrained her more strongly as if she would disappear somewhere.

“Now I understand. The reason the sacred sword chose you, not me.”

The man who had been desperate to claim the sacred sword until a few years ago spoke calmly.

“I don’t care if the world is destroyed or not, I just want you to be safe, but every time, you throw your life on the line trying to protect those around you.”

Matian released Rukna, whom he had been holding, and grasped the reins instead of her.

“That’s not true. My life is so precious.”

“Do you really think so?”

Rukna only moved her lips at the returned question.

It was a precious life she had survived by sacrificing her family, so of course it was valuable. She had to live a long life, as much as they had given her.

But she couldn’t bring herself to answer.

Seeing the silent Rukna, Matian let out a sigh.

“I don’t know what’s in your heart, Rukna, but from what I’ve seen… You think lowly of yourself.”

“……”

“Sometimes you make an expression like you’re sick of this world and want to leave quickly.”

The man, who used to carry a mirror around saying he was bad at expressing emotions, pointed out Rukna’s thoughts with surprising accuracy.

There was no room for excuses.

Because she had thought about just dying when being left alone felt lonely, and had tried hard to return to the world she originally lived in.

Rukna turned her gaze to the void.

Matian looked down at the small head that gave no answer.

‘How nice would it be if I could look inside there?’

When her expression became hazy like the morning fog, he couldn’t read her inner thoughts. What could she be thinking about now?

While wishing she valued herself the most, he paradoxically hoped that he would occupy the biggest part inside her.

Matian covered Rukna’s eyes with one hand. And with that, he applied force to make her lean against his chest.

“Matian?”

“Sleep for a bit. You’ve been overexerting yourself.”

“…You’re the one who made me overexert myself.”

“If you plan on staying awake, try to hold on a bit more.”

As soon as he said that, Rukna relaxed her body and pretended to sleep. A crooked laughter was heard above her head.

“Rukna, don’t treat yourself so carelessly, even for my sake.”

Matian recited those words while gazing into the distance.

If she tries to protect the world, he will also protect his world, Rukna.

Wishing for her to stay whole until the end, he rode the horse, traversing the forest that was peaceful to the point of being unsettling.

Rukna opened her eyes. She was lying in a fluffy sleeping bag.

The spot thickly covered with fallen leaves was cozy, but that comfort was shattered when Matian crawled into the sleeping bag.

‘What if I end up pregnant like this?’

Despite such worries, Rukna didn’t reject Matian.

Being with him made her feel like the worries and anxieties that had filled her were flying away.

There was no need to tremble in fear of encountering magical beasts or bandits even though their party only consisted of the two of them.

Rukna and Matian went around small villages, solving their little problems.

The closer they got to the capital, the frequency of magical beast appearances noticeably decreased.

Thanks to that, there were no major casualties, but incidents of children and women going missing sometimes caught their eye.

“Please find our child, Lady Rukna! This is definitely the work of the Red Eagle. There was a strange magic circle where our child disappeared.”

“I hope our daughter is dead rather than this. I heard that if you’re caught by a black magician, you become a human sacrifice and suffer without being able to die.”

These disappearance cases were soon buried under the surface as the country was in turmoil inside and out due to the war with the black magicians.

It wasn’t something Rukna could solve right away either.

She had to leave after receiving the flyers with rough portraits they distributed and leaving the customary words that she would try to find them in the capital.

And she saw the walls of the capital in the distance.

The heads of black magicians were cut off and skewered on long skewers, hanging there side by side.

People predicted victory upon seeing just a few corpses, and the atmosphere in the capital was relaxed as if the war had ended.

‘I’m worried.’

Rukna looked down at the stack of flyers in her hand.

The people in the portraits, from young children to soft-faced girls, were all smiling happily.

‘I hope they’re all safe.’

“Rukna!”

Then she heard Giselle’s voice. As soon as she heard the news of Rukna’s return, she had come out to the capital’s gate to greet her.

Giselle slightly lifted her dress like a princess and ran diligently.

When Rukna opened her arms, she hugged that embrace without hesitation.

“Have you been well, Giselle?”

“No. It was lonely without you, Rukna.”

Sob. Giselle made a crying sound and fumbled over the back of Rukna, whom she was hugging.

“Your breasts seem to have grown a bit, but your waist has slimmed down by 1 inch. Your weight has also decreased by about 4 pounds.”

As Giselle muttered the exact numbers, Rukna’s eyes widened.

Matian was watching the whole scene with a gentle smile. But his unsmiling eyes fully revealed his displeasure.

“Lady Golden, there’s a bug on your shoulder.”

He pointed his chin at Giselle’s shoulder. His voice was kind, but he had no intention of directly brushing it off for her.

“A bug? Eek!”

Giselle, whose complexion instantly turned pale, fidgeted her feet and finally let go of Rukna.

A small flame flared up above her shoulder. She had used magic to burn the bug. However, not even ashes flew, let alone the bug’s corpse.

“Was there really a bug, Lord Matian?”

Giselle asked while brushing off her shoulder where there was nothing.

“Oh my, I must have seen it wrong. I’m tired, you see.”

“You really…!”

Flames blazed in Giselle’s two eyes.

She thought he was a man with a twisted personality the more she saw him, just like when Rukna had disappeared.

“If my small mistake has greatly inconvenienced you, I apologize.”

Even in this situation, just look at him being sarcastic. Giselle glared at him, wary of the man of the same kind.

Even so, she habitually put on a ladylike smile. The lipstick she had applied thickly for the reunion with Rukna emphasized those lips.

“Are you feeling unwell somewhere, Giselle? Your expression right now is a bit…”

Rukna couldn’t bring herself to say that she looked like a possessed doll.

“Of course I’m unwell. I’m just happy to see you, Rukna. But is this a bug bite, Rukna?”

Giselle tilted her head and stared at Rukna’s red and blotchy neck.

Were the marks still there? Rukna blushed and quickly covered her neck with her hand.

She couldn’t hide it properly because it was a spot that was hard to see even with a mirror.

“Th-that? I don’t really remember…”

“It must have been a very venomous bug. It mercilessly bit our Rukna. I need to burn all the bugs bothering you.”

Giselle’s smoldering gaze turned to Matian. Her expression was somewhat ominous.

“Why do you keep trying to burn things, haha.”

The flustered Rukna couldn’t take her hand off the neck Matian had sucked and bit, and hesitated.

Unlike her, Matian was calmly countering Giselle’s aggressive gaze with a smiling face.

Then a villager ran to Giselle, calling her “Great Magician!”

“It’s a big problem. The orphans being protected at the monastery have disappeared again this time!”