The flowers in the field scattered into the air.

Shells flew in, shaking the earth, and the shouts and screams of soldiers were heard.

We ran through a tunnel of fire, passing by flower petals floating in the air. It seemed like it would burn everything, but inside it wasn’t hot.

“Stop Wilboyer! Don’t let him cross the border!”

“Rescue the princess!”

The shouts of Duke Haiman and Duke Bersi were heard as attacks to remove the fire tunnel began.

Water overcomes fire.

Water carried by the wind demolished part of the fire tunnel. It was quickly restored by Liam’s ability, but the two dukes who had long worked together knew the trick.

Though the fire tunnel was solid, swords and spears flew through small gaps. Liam’s sword blocked them, and the following knights deflected them.

There’s also a way to extinguish fire with wind, but Duke Haiman can’t use it now.

The forbidden method used when founding Glishia.

If you make an entire space disappear into a vacuum, all life within dies and fire is extinguished.

But to use that level of ability, a royal had to be nearby. It required enormous power that would risk two lives.

Now Liam had me.

They say water overcomes fire, but powerful fire can even blow away water.

I held the stirrup and pressed Liam’s thigh with my other hand. I had never used it like this before, but I was certain it would work.

“Liam, I’ll help.”

My flowers began to flutter inside the fire tunnel.

My flowers are a blessing.

As the floating flower petals touched the tunnel, the fire grew stronger. The blackened holes from external attacks were filled, and gaps disappeared.

It made the fire ability burn more fiercely and solidly.

“Huh, fire? Ble, blessing?”

Hall’s surprised voice was heard.

Liam must have adjusted his ability, as the Glishian soldiers following the tunnel screamed and fled outside, unable to withstand the heat.

Liam’s arm holding the reins tensed.

“We leave behind anyone who falls behind!”

“After clearing the way like this, you deserve to die if you fall behind!”

“The last one buys beer tonight!”

The knights burst into laughter as they followed Liam.

It was an urgent situation, yet they laughed. Everything was strange.

I run through the fire tunnel with Liam. His hot chest touched my back, and I heard his pounding heartbeat.

Rough breathing, the heat of the fire, my fluttering flower petals.

Everything in Glishia disappears without touching me.

Nothing can catch me.

Bang! A shell exploded behind us.

The tunnel that seemed endless came to an end.

Flags with black lizards fluttered in view, and imperial soldiers were waiting for us.

“Waaah!”

The fire tunnel had vanished. Glishian soldiers couldn’t cross the border stakes against the empire’s massive military power.

Duke Haiman and Duke Bersi on horseback glared at us from beyond the stakes.

Liam slowly raised his sword towards them.

“The empire doesn’t shy away when challenged to a fight!”

Woo, the imperial soldiers jeered at Glishia.

The dukes’ expressions hardened. Their horses stamped and fussed, but they didn’t cross the border.

“Wilboyer! We will formally protest this to the empire!”

“I’ve brought Princess Ormia with the Glishian king’s decree!”

Liam shouted back at Duke Haiman’s yell.

“Can you explain how two dukes arbitrarily disobeyed the king’s order, kidnapped the princess, and followed to the border to threaten! If so, protest!”

“Don’t be arrogant, Wilboyer!”

“Princess, you will regret this.”

Liam answered Duke Bersi’s calm warning as well.

“You’ll be the ones to regret it.”

Liam’s eyes briefly scanned me. He was asking if I had anything to say to them.

I have nothing to say to people who have never listened to me.

When I shook my head, Liam turned his horse.

“Let’s go back!”

“Yes!”

We departed, and the imperial soldiers held their position, keeping the Glishian soldiers in check.

Imperial territory.

I finally left Glishia.

* * *

A carriage was waiting on the road where the ravine began. Liam helped me down in front of it.

“Let’s go comfortably by carriage to the grand duchy. It won’t take long.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“A little further from here is an open field. We’ll stop there briefly for treatment before departing.”

His eyes grazed over the bandage wrapped around my chest. Faint bloodstains had seeped through.

Glishia’s army was still visible. It’s too early to indulge in the sentiment of leaving Glishia.

I walked on shaky legs with Liam’s support.

Once I get in the carriage, go to the grand duchy and treat Liam’s brother, my task will be over.

I’ll finally be able to repay my debt to Liam.

“You’ve been through a lot.”

Liam opened the carriage door for me.

If anything, Liam and his knights had been through more.

Even for someone as robust as him, fatigue showed on his face. Our eyes met briefly. Though it was a short moment, many emotions passed between us.

When I first planned this, I wasn’t sure if I could really leave Glishia. I believed in Liam.

That with Liam, if I was with Liam, it would be possible.

My hand gripping the carriage handle trembled, so I tightened my grip.

“You’ve been through a lot too, Liam.”

As I looked up at Liam’s smiling face, his figure suddenly moved away.

Liam’s distancing figure appeared slowly, like a series of still images.

His surprised face contorted.

Wind constricting my body threw me into the air.

“Ormia!”

“Duke Haiman!”

I heard Liam and Duke Bersi’s cries.

My vision was filled entirely with blue sky.

I let my guard down.

I had forgotten what kind of person Duke Haiman was. One who destroys what he can’t have so others can’t have it either.

With a bang, Liam appeared before my eyes.

“Hold on tight.”

His hands embraced me. He cradled my head and wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me into his chest.

“Damn it.”

We fell rapidly.

Thump, I heard Liam’s heartbeat as we hit the water. An impact that shook my entire body, even my soul, engulfed us.

* * *

In my third life, confined in the tower, I lost all motivation.

There was a maid who cared for me, but she only brought meals and left, leaving me alone most of the time.

I spent much time reviewing my first life, second life, and the third life up to that point.

What I should have done, what choices I should have made.

And why this happened to me.

I endlessly asked questions without answers while reminiscing.

To not break down.

Because I felt I couldn’t endure if I stopped thinking.

My weakened body gnawed at my mind, and I felt a part of me crumbling like a dead tree slowly weathering away.

I mumbled because I wanted to live.

No, thinking about it, rather than wanting to live, it was simply because I was bored.

If I blinked, the daytime sky turned to night, and when I closed and opened my eyes again, time disappeared and the empty dishes were filled with cold food.

I just mumbled.

Duke Bersi, who visited secretly at night, glared when I opened my mouth, so I only mumbled during the day. And there was someone who listened to those words.

A maid slightly older than me, but younger if calculated by the time I’ve lived.

“You call someone a benefactor just because they were with you when you died?”

The grumpy maid considered my mumblings to be made-up stories.

Sometimes we had something like proper conversations, and sometimes there were only the maid’s one-sided verbal abuse. At times, I clung to her wanting to hear her voice.

“He’s not even saving or rescuing the princess. They say he’ll invade this country and kill even Your Highnesses, how can he be a benefactor? It’s nonsense.”

It was before Liam’s invasion.

Nevertheless, I recalled Liam as the person I was most grateful to in all my lives.

“Because he was by my side.”

“Just for that? He should rescue the princess instead. He didn’t shower you with money to make things luxurious, feed you delicacies every meal, or dress you in the most beautiful things. How does just being beside you change anything?”

“He saved me. He took revenge for me.”

“Such imagination doesn’t help the princess. You’re living so comfortably. Some of us are abandoned even by our sisters and struggle to make a living.”

The maid who worried about how to survive next month disliked having to prepare meals for me every day.

She was very envious of me lying comfortably in bed without working.

She said she’d like to live this confined life instead.

That day, the maid was in quite a good mood.

In the end, she died by Liam’s sword while abusing and losing her temper with me.

I used the word revenge to make the maid understand, but that wasn’t all. Many things overlapped and accumulated, but the biggest reason I was grateful to Liam was because he stayed by my side.

How joyful I was to see him when he invaded Glishia and came to the tower.

I welcomed him with tears, but to Liam it must have been the ravings of a dying patient. Still, he often came to gaze at me silently.

I was a confined body with no one to meet. Perhaps that’s why he would mutter to himself, blame me, curse the Beltoas, and leave.

In my third life, there was no way to help him.

My body was already like a rotting dead tree. Liam, knowing my blessing had poisoned Duke Bersi, did not receive it.

He endured the pain like an ascetic priest.

He too was slowly rotting somewhere.

Though I spent a short time with Liam in my third life, if I add my first life, he was the person who stayed by my side the longest.

“If there is a next life…”

I felt my body dying.

I quietly prayed to God.

If there is a next life, if I meet this person again, please let me be able to help.

I would die, but I wanted to be of help to at least this person.

I wanted to save only Liam Wilboyer.

“No, there isn’t.”

As if hearing my mumbling, Liam answered in a dry voice.

“There is no next life.”

‘I don’t want to live such a life again.’

Though he didn’t say it, his feelings were conveyed.

Liam Wilboyer did not possess the word hope. He had no motivation, no meaning in life.

Unlike me who clung to and coveted things around me, he let go of everything.

A person so dry he seemed he would crumble at the slightest touch.

If there is a next life, I hope only this person becomes happy.

I hoped he would have what I couldn’t have, feel much of what I couldn’t feel.

My life wouldn’t continue, but instead of me.

* * *

Feeling hot tears flow along the corners of my eyes, I opened them.

Liam Wilboyer was looking down at me.

It was dark around, so only Liam was visible. He was wet and looked tired, but his eyes were full of heat.

He declared in a firm, low voice.

“There is no next life.”

Is this the fifth life? Or is it a dream in the third life?

I ended up crying at his words.

“I won’t let the princess die.”