“Roa. I will lift you up.”

Teishar’s hands gently wrapped around Lorencia’s waist and back, slipping his arm under her knees to lift her up without slipping.

“I’m fine.”

“You may feel dizzy because you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

Lorencia nodded at his words.

It was then that Teishar looked down lovingly at Lorencia in his arms and smiled deeply.

“Viscount Teishar. There’s a messenger pigeon coming out over there.”

“A messenger pigeon?”

The pigeon slowly descended from the air onto Meten’s hand. A red paper was tied to the leg of the pigeon with white, soft feathers.

“It’s a red letter.”

Teishar had an ominous feeling.

The Spencer family’s red letter is an important letter sent only in very dangerous situations or urgent matters.

Meten untied the paper from the pigeon’s leg and handed it to Teishar. After briefly setting Lorencia down on the ground, Teishar unfolded the letter Meten handed him and read it.

After reading the red letter, Teishar crumpled it and shouted to the knights.

“Everyone quickly finish preparations and return.”

His urgent voice worried Lorencia.

“Ter, what’s happened?”

“Yes.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a letter saying war may break out.”

“War?”

As Teishar nodded, Lorencia immediately summoned her amethyst orb. She closed her eyes and checked the future of the capital of the Poloyd Empire.

Seeing the terrible sight of flames engulfing everything and people dying, Lorencia was so startled she dropped the summoned amethyst orb to the floor.

The fallen orb disappeared with a flash of light as the summoning was canceled.

“What’s wrong? Roa.”

Teishar’s heart sank as he saw Lorencia’s purple eyes trembling and shaking with anxiety.

“The future…”

The future that had changed with effort was gone. Had everything she had done until now been in vain? Lorencia’s fingertips trembled.

“What should we do?”

Teishar embraced the anxious Lorencia. It seems the future he had tried to protect had changed.

“The future can change.”

He whispered softly into Lorencia’s ear, who looked distressed.

“Roa. Even if we learn of the future, when that future actually approaches, it has changed in our favor. So even if you saw the worst possible future just now, that future will no longer come to pass.”

The anxiously trembling purple eyes gradually calmed down. Come to think of it, even when she had seen the future recently, things didn’t happen exactly as foreseen.

She had wondered why, but couldn’t come up with a definitive answer. And when the future she had seen actually approached reality, it kept changing for the better, so she gained hope that a bad future could be changed.

“Roa. You don’t need to try to see the future anymore.”

Teishar continued speaking, intending to resolve what Lorencia was worrying about.

“Whatever future comes, we just need to take responsibility. Even if that future is the worst possible scenario, people must take responsibility.”

“How is that responsibility held?”

Lorencia knows that he doesn’t like the power she possesses. But she has been overusing and blindly trusting that power to protect the future she desires. What would need to be sacrificed to take responsibility for the worst future?

“It’s the responsibility of leaving the present as is while knowing what future will come. We knew war would break out. We’ve been preparing for it. But if we had known that future and not prepared, it wouldn’t have been just the worst war, but total annihilation.”

Teishar gently stroked Lorencia’s head.

“We will fight and win a war to avoid annihilation. We’ve been preparing for that. And now that we have the power received from the black snake, we won’t be defeated so easily. Roa.”

“You’re right, Ter. Now the predetermined future will not come to this world.”

The present that she had continuously twisted kept changing the future.

To somehow change the predetermined worst future, she checked hundreds of possible paths that could occur in the future. And she chose good futures and acted accordingly. Was this a side effect of that?

But why was the future predetermined in the first place? It was a question she had long held, but now she could no longer question it. Because now, no matter what future she saw, the future kept changing.

So she was anxious, but she became reassured by the future that kept changing for the better the more she worked on the present.

“The future can be changed as much as we want.”

Was it because Teishar had helped shoulder the problem and anxiety she was holding? Lorencia felt her heart lighten at his words.

“That’s right. Roa. So let’s go change that future.”

Teishar took Lorencia’s hand and led her to his black horse.

The black horse ran like the wind, tirelessly carrying Lorencia and Teishar.

They arrived at the Duke of Di Glosden’s mansion. Blondie burst into tears upon seeing Lorencia safely rescued.

“Viscount Teishar. Thank you so much.”

It was the same for the other family members. After a brief joyful reunion, Lorencia changed into clothes that were easier to move in.

“Lorencia. Are you really going to go?”

Baello asked worriedly.

“Yes. I have to go to change the future.”

Seeing Lorencia speak with a bright expression, Baello raised the corners of his mouth.

“Alright. I won’t stop you. Since you’ve risked your life, we all intend to participate in the battle risking our lives. Don’t try to stop us.”

“Yes, Father. Like true members of the Di Glosden family, we will repay vengeance 28-fold.”

Mark confirmed the monsters endlessly emerging from the ground, the holy knights of the Ella Goddess Temple in armor controlling those monsters, and Daniel.

“It seems the white snake ordered Daniel to advance on the Poloyd Empire.”

“I think so too. It seems they planned to quickly conquer the Poloyd Empire using monsters after capturing Teishar and me.”

“To think that Pelena, Emperor Adolf’s concubine, was the white snake…”

“Her appearance of not aging even after 10 years did seem a bit strange. I thought she just took good care of herself since she didn’t seem to age at all each time I saw her, but it turns out she wasn’t human.”

Mary said. Though not often, whenever she went to the Isuter Empire, she had seen Pelena’s beauty maintained over 20 years since becoming a concubine from when she was Duchess. She had thought her ability to maintain her beauty was both eerie and enviable.

“Pelena plans to occupy the Poloyd Empire first, then the Isuter Empire, and then go on to conquer other empires one by one. The white snake’s goal is clear. It intends to kill all living people through this war.”

There was nowhere left to retreat.

For both the white snake and herself.

The main gate guarding the capital and imperial palace of the Poloyd Empire gradually cracked under the monsters’ attacks, and finally collapsed. As the gate crumbled, Daniel took the lead among the monsters.

“Today we erase the Poloyd Empire from the map.”

As Daniel’s shout ended, hundreds of large and small monsters leaped through the broken gate, drooling and howling madly.

The knights and soldiers were frightened by the dangerous monsters rushing from the front.

Mark led the mages to cast defensive magic at the entrance again.

“I guess we need to kill the mages first.”

Daniel gripped his sword and jumped in, instructing the monsters to ‘attack the mages.’

The monsters rushed at the mages emitting a terrible stench, but could not advance due to the defensive magic.

While the mages were dealing with the monsters, Daniel and his knights, along with the holy knights wearing Ella Goddess Temple armor, took down the knights and soldiers casting defensive magic one by one.

Beads of sweat formed on Mark’s forehead. He was now doing his best to cast defensive magic. If the monsters pushed in any further, it would only be a matter of time before the capital and imperial palace of the Poloyd Empire fell.

At least until Teishar arrived

At least until support came from elsewhere, they had to hold out somehow.

They fought and held out for a long time, slaying the incoming monsters while casting defensive magic.

The mages casting defensive magic eventually fell one by one after enduring.

Mark too ran out of mana. Seeing the approaching monster, he sensed his own death. If he had known this would happen, he regretted ‘I should have at least confessed to Annabel,’ whom he had a secret crush on.

−Kuek

“But dying so easily wouldn’t be befitting of a Di Glosden.”

He felt he could only close his eyes if he died like a proper member of the Di Glosden family.

He bit his lower lip hard, intending to squeeze out the last remaining strength to at least throw a fireball at the approaching monsters before dying. As he was scraping the bottom of his mana storage core for the depleted mana one last time

He felt light behind his back.

It was a warm and cozy energy. Like sunshine.

Mark wasn’t the only one who felt the bright light starting to shine strongly. Everyone there strongly felt that a bright purple light was filling the surroundings.

The mages and knights looked at the large pillar of light spreading behind their backs.

−Kraak

The approaching monsters howled at the sight of that light.

“The monsters are in agony.”

As the light touched them, they staggered helplessly, their faces and bodies disintegrating like ashes burned in fire, scattering with the wind.

All those monsters disappeared one by one. Along with the light.

People watched in a daze as the powerful light pushed back the darkness. People had seen this light before.

“This is…”

Mark’s eyes widened as he saw the pillar of light. It’s the pillar of light that appeared when Lorencia came to the Poloyd Empire.

People watched as the strong pillar of light spread out. It was a pillar of light they had seen not too long ago.

“It’s the pillar of light of Goddess Ella.”

People clasped their hands together as they saw the monsters disappearing as the pillar of light spread. They couldn’t help but be grateful at the sight of the pillar of light that appears when the power of Goddess Ella manifests on earth.

And as the pillar of light gradually subsided, someone walked out from between it.

“The war isn’t over yet. Please keep your swords ready and don’t let your guard down.”

“This voice…”

Mark’s lips spread into a wide smile as he confirmed the face of the person who walked out.

“Elder Sister Lorencia.”

Teishar and Lorencia walked out from between the diminishing pillar of light. In Lorencia’s hand, an amethyst orb was pouring beautiful light onto the ground. It was like a waterfall of diamonds reflecting sunlight.

As Lorencia raised the amethyst orb high, the remaining remnants of the monsters completely disintegrated.

The knights and mages cheered at the sight.

As the monsters completely disappeared, the holy knights of the Ella Goddess Temple and Daniel’s army who had been attacking from behind the monsters came into view.