After changing clothes at the Duke of Gloucester’s residence, Lorencia joined the meeting room to hear about the current situation in the capital of Polroid.

She was informed that monsters had erupted from the ground and approached the main gate of the castle, but magicians and knights were doing their best to defend it.

“Have the monsters not approached the east, west, and back gates?”

“That’s right. For some reason, they’ve only swarmed to the main gate.”

To the east was the magic tower where magicians gathered to conduct research, and to the west was where knights gathered to train.

“They must have judged that a frontal assault on the main gate would be better than coming from the east or west.”

“It’s strange. If they were summoning monsters, they could have invaded more quickly by summoning them at both the front and back gates to attack, so why are they insisting on the main gate?”

“We can’t know what they’re thinking, but it’s clear the situation is not good.”

Welson spoke, and Teishar replied.

After the brief meeting ended and all preparations were made, Lorencia headed towards the back gate of the Polroid Empire’s capital along with Teishar.

Lorencia felt tense. She thought that if she did her best to prevent the present from becoming the future she had seen, it would be fine, but she was still worried.

“Are you worried?”

“It would be a lie to say I’m not.”

“Roa.”

“Yes.”

Teishar placed his hand on his left chest.

“Do you know what I thought when Roa was bitten by the white snake and I couldn’t think of anything?”

Lorencia wanted to answer, but she couldn’t fathom what he had imagined, so she made a puzzled expression. If she had been in Teishar’s position? It was an awfully unpleasant feeling.

“It wasn’t enough to say I wouldn’t mind giving up my life. So I said that if only Roa could be saved, I would accept it even if my heart remained in unrequited love forever. I said I would accept it even if it could never be fulfilled.”

Teishar felt again the feelings he had experienced then.

He vowed that even if he would be sad and suffer for life in a love that could not be fulfilled with Lorencia, if he could cherish just that one feeling of loving Lorencia until he died, he would accept even a painful unrequited love.

Just recalling a love carried out alone leaves a clear wound in the heart. It’s a wound he could prepare for, even if it were eternal, if it meant saving Lorencia.

“And I thought. Ah, I love her more than life itself, but on the other hand, while I fear losing this love the most, I want to save Roa even if it means giving up this love.”

Teishar suddenly realized. What was more important to him than a love worth risking his life for? Wasn’t it obviously his feelings for Lorencia?

So he prayed earnestly, even knowing it was a prayer no one would hear.

He prayed that if only she could be saved, he would give up what was most precious to him, even though it was a love he could die for.

“The most precious thing to me, even more than my life, turned out to be my feelings for Roa.”

The word ‘desperate’ wasn’t enough. It was also the moment he realized what was more precious than life.

“If the black snake had answered my prayer and saved Roa, I would have had to live the rest of my life giving up my feelings, but fortunately, the black snake didn’t answer my prayer.”

“But Ter, if the black snake had answered your prayer, wouldn’t you have regretted it?”

“To be honest, even if the black snake had granted my prayer, I don’t think I would ever regret it.”

“You wouldn’t regret it?”

Teishar nodded with a deep smile and gently stroked Lorencia’s cheek. He kissed her cheek with a soft ‘chu’.

“If I hadn’t prayed like that, I might have regretted it even more.”

Teishar brushed aside Lorencia’s red hair and lightly kissed her forehead.

“That’s what my love is like. Even if Roa feels my heart is heavy, I have no intention of ever making my feelings light.”

At his words, Teishar recalled the black snake’s last words.

After receiving the black scales, the black snake told him.

The black snake kept its promise. What did the black snake find beautiful when it looked through the red eyes of the Spencer family? At least, it wouldn’t have been something like scenery.

“I just thought of something too.”

Teishar tilted his head, looking lovingly at the smiling Lorencia.

“I think the black snake saw Teishar’s resolve as beautiful through the red eyes of the Spencer family.”

“Well, I’m not sure what the black snake found beautiful, but…”

In her beautiful purple eyes that spoke so confidently, only Teishar himself was reflected clearly.

“To my eyes, Roa is the most beautiful.”

Teishar embraced Lorencia’s delicate body. Their gazes met and their breaths trembled, close enough to feel each other. His large hand burrowed through her long hair. Their lips touched and parted.

The brief kiss left them wanting more. Lorencia looked at Teishar with surprised eyes and blushed.

“After we defeat the white snake, it won’t end with just a kiss.”

At his low whisper, Lorencia’s face turned even redder.

Teishar held out his hand to Lorencia. As she took his hand, the wind brushed past between them.

They decided to enter the capital through the back gate of the Polroid Empire.

At first, there were opinions that they should escape to the outskirts of the forest to stop the monsters erupting from the ground, but since there were people who hadn’t managed to evacuate in the capital, they decided to enter through the back gate, evacuate people while pushing back the monsters coming from inside to the outside.

Since Lorencia still didn’t know how to ride a horse, Teishar held her in his arms as they rode his black horse.

As they approached the back gate, Lorencia looked around as fairies calling her name appeared one by one.

‘If the fairies have appeared, it means the white snake isn’t here.’

Even if they caught the monsters attacking the Polroid Empire and Daniel, if the white snake wasn’t there, the war wouldn’t end.

“What’s wrong, Roa?”

“The fairies have appeared.”

“If the fairies have appeared, that means the white snake…”

Teishar looked disappointed as the fairies, who wouldn’t appear if the white snake was present, showed up.

“Yes. It seems the white snake hasn’t appeared in the Polroid Empire.”

Lorencia was shocked by the fairies’ words. She couldn’t help but be surprised. Fairies fear the white snake’s poison. So Titania had said that when the white snake appears, the fairies run away.

“If you’ve appeared to tell me this despite the white snake being here, I’m fine. Everyone, please run away quickly.”

“I appreciate your feelings. But the white snake is dangerous.”

“Please explain what you mean. I really can’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Became one?”

Lorencia blinked her eyes and listened carefully to what the fairies were saying. She felt like her mind was going blank.

One thing that could be certain was that the future had changed. And in a very good direction at that.

“Ter was right.”

“About what?”

“It seems the future is changing for the better.”

When the black snake first opened its eyes upon being born, there was a small flower bud in front of it. It thought the flower blooming beautifully in the bright light was incredibly beautiful. It stuck out its tongue while looking at the prettily blooming flower. When its forked red tongue touched the newly bloomed flower, it turned pitch black and disappeared.

Why did it disappear?

“Black snake. You have poison, so don’t touch the trees and flowers carelessly.”

The caretaker of the god’s garden said. So it asked.

“Why shouldn’t I touch them?”

“Because they die.”

When it closed its eyes and opened them again, it hoped there would be a flower bud, but there was no flower. It realized that, as the caretaker said, it had died.

Its younger sister Saraph asked. Unlike itself, she was pure white. The only similarities were their red eyes and bright red tongues.

“What are you always waiting for with your face in that direction?”

“A flower bud.”

“If it’s a flower bud, go to Sister Ella. She knows the future, so she’ll know where flower buds bloom.”

Ella.

Unlike itself and Saraph, she was a goddess in human form, not snake form. She was said to be so powerful that she would become the caretaker of the god’s garden in the future.

“I get annoyed just looking at Sister Ella.”

Saraph always badmouthed Ella, but it went in one ear and out the other. As long as it could see a flower bud again.

Ella was kind and told it in advance where beautiful flowers and trees would bloom. The waiting time was also very pleasant.

But it wanted to feel the shocking feeling it had when it first saw a flower bud again, yet no matter how many flower buds it saw, it couldn’t feel that initial feeling again.