Roxiana abruptly raised her upper body. Unlike someone who had been unconscious for a week, she looked at Floyd with lively eyes.

Floyd felt dizzy and unconsciously took a step back. He felt that if he stood still, he would be swept up by her.

“Even if I use my power excessively, if Your Highness shares your heat, I can survive without any problems. It felt like my soul was completely shattered, but now I’m really okay. I don’t know how it’s possible, but…”

Roxiana crawled on her knees to the edge of the bed and reached out towards Floyd. Her small hand touched Floyd’s chest. Floyd stared down at the hand touching his chest, frozen stiff.

“The existence inside here saves me. It holds my soul together.”

An ominous feeling crept in. Floyd wanted to run away from her who had become excessively cheerful.

“Now it’s okay no matter what I do. Your Highness will save me.”

Ah, I knew this would happen.

Floyd felt his head throbbing as he roughly grabbed her thin wrist that was still touching his chest.

“Stop talking nonsense! What’s wrong with your head? How can you say such things in this situation?”

He didn’t want to raise his voice at someone who had just woken up, but her reckless remarks made him angry. He was furious to the point of his head heating up because of her nonchalant attitude towards the fact that she had almost died.

However, Roxiana, disregarding his harsh words and actions, asked:

“Did the forest come back to life? Did I succeed?”

“Is that the problem right now?”

“It is a problem. Of course it’s a problem. I risked my life. So it’s a big problem for me. Your Highness, please tell me. Did the forest come back to life?”

Floyd let go of her wrist and roughly messed up his own hair. Gritting his teeth and barely swallowing the curses that were about to burst out, he slumped down in the chair.

“Yes, it came back to life. It came back magnificently, princess. More trees have grown than before, and grass has grown even on the paths where people used to walk, so they’re making new paths.”

Floyd stared at her still kneeling at the edge of the bed. Her cheeks were flushed with excitement at what she had accomplished.

Well, credit should be given where it’s due.

“You’ve done an amazing thing. I can’t believe it. That such a thing is really possible…”

“My power… My power was useful.”

“Princess, I never wanted you to be useful.”

“Your Highness can use me.”

She seemed to not be listening to Floyd at all.

“I may not be able to be a sword, a shield, or a sorceress, but I can purify lands contaminated by magic. And the areas I revive, Your Highness can have.”

“I don’t need lands that you’ve revived at the cost of your life! Do you think I lack land? I don’t want such things!”

Roxiana stared at Floyd as if in disbelief.

“Why are you being so stubborn, Your Highness? I just did what I could do. I’m just doing what’s possible. Why do you hate it so much when I do something?”

“Because you almost died!”

Seeing her innocent look as if she knew nothing, his voice rose again in anger. The image of her sprawled like a corpse in the forest was still vivid. The feeling when his heart dropped upon discovering her was still present.

Floyd was afraid that even now she might suddenly collapse and crumble. Having lived without fear of anything, he felt like he was going crazy with fear because of her behavior, like a moth rushing towards fire.

“Don’t you understand, Roxiana? You really almost died! At first, you weren’t even breathing. I really thought you were dead! Yes, this crazy existence saved you a few times. But who guarantees it will do so in the future? The moment this crazy existence falls silent like before, you’ll die!”

Roxiana’s eyes widened at the sight of Floyd shouting as if spitting blood. She stared blankly at his face, more angry than ever before, unable to find words to refute in her bewilderment.

Floyd tightly closed his eyes and suppressed the erupting irritation, anger, and anxiety. When he opened his eyes again, he asked in a lower voice than before:

“Or is this a new method of suicide?”

“Pardon?”

“I’m asking if you’re trying to die this way.”

Only then did Roxiana realize that he was misunderstanding something. Roxiana quickly shook her head.

“No, Your Highness. It’s not like that. I don’t want to die anymore. I won’t die.”

“Then why are you doing this? Why do you keep risking your life?”

“The knights and Your Highness always fight monsters prepared to die. Like sacrificing your lives on the battlefield, I’m just risking my life where I can use my abilities.”

“Princess, we don’t sacrifice our lives on the battlefield. We all go to war with the determination to survive. But you always prepare to die, don’t you?”

“…”

“There’s no need for a readiness to die in this Torkan. So don’t even dream of using that power from now on. From today, you’ll have a guard knight. A guard knight will be with you every moment you breathe. Bear with the inconvenience. It’s what you’ve brought upon yourself.”

As Floyd stood up abruptly, Roxiana hurriedly got off the bed. This conversation couldn’t end like this. This moment was the last chance given to Roxiana.

Her feet touched the floor, but strength didn’t return to her legs that hadn’t moved for a long time. Floyd quickly grabbed Roxiana’s arm to support her as she staggered, frowning.

“So weak, and yet…”

Ignoring his voice that flowed out as if in pain, Roxiana looked up at him desperately.

“Your Highness, this power is all I have. Please let me use this power.”

Floyd sighed at her unending plea.

“Princess. I will find a way to cleanly erase the slave’s mark. I’ll give you a proper status, and if you want, I’ll give you a fine mansion and employees. Of course, I’ll also assign a knight to protect you. I’ll make it possible for you to live just like you did in Kanta without using that power.”

Roxiana quickly shook her head.

“That’s not what I want, Your Highness.”

“Then what on earth do you want? What are you doing this for?”

He felt like he was going to burst with frustration at his attitude of trying to confine Roxiana without knowing anything. It was agonizing to be in this situation where she had power but no way to use it.

She had finally found something she could do. She thought she had made a small foothold to get her family back and to reach them.

But was that not the case? Couldn’t even this feat, accomplished at the risk of her life, break the shackles binding her ankles? Then was she really supposed to live just breathing, without regaining anything?

How would that be different from an undead? How would a life where she couldn’t do anything for her family who had been brutally murdered be any different from soulless corpses wandering around?

“…want to find…”

Roxiana mumbled, not even knowing what she was saying. Her voice was so small and faint that Floyd bent down to hear her words better.

“What did you say?”

“I want to find my family…”

Floyd swallowed a sigh. He pitied her for not being able to accept that her family was dead, but it was time for her to accept reality.

“Princess, I’m sorry to say this, but… your family is dead. Even if you use forbidden magic, too much time has passed to bring them back.”

“…in the well…”

“What did you say?”

She slowly raised her head and met Floyd’s eyes.

“They threw my family into the well.”

This time her voice was clearer than before, but Floyd couldn’t properly grasp the meaning of those words. Because it was such nonsense. So when he was about to ask her to repeat it.

“They killed my family! And threw them into the well! So they couldn’t even smell the scent of Adelia flowers! They threw them into the well and sealed it!”

Roxiana’s suppressed anger burst out.

Her anguished cry, which had never raised her voice in any situation, pierced Floyd’s ears. Floyd stared down at her, stiff.

‘What did I just hear?’

It seems I heard something unbelievable. It was such a shocking and cruel thing that I even forgot to breathe. Roxiana looked up at him like that and slowly recited the names of her family.

“Father, Mother, Ekion, Ian, Naufrid, Ranian, Idis, Elizabeth, Frisin, Winiel, Benji. My parents and siblings, their wives and young nephews too, Your Highness.”

Her voice echoed ominously.

“They’re all wandering in some well in Kanta, unable to return to God’s embrace. I don’t even know exactly where that well is. All I saw were my parents’ heads.”

“…”

“But how, Your Highness! How am I supposed to live? How can I live like a princess in this splendid palace as if nothing happened? Eating delicious food, wearing nice dresses, and attending parties, you say? How? How is that possible? Can I do that? I don’t know, Your Highness. I don’t know even if I think about it until my head explodes.”

Tears that had been welling up in Roxiana’s eyes flowed down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I can’t live like that.”