The aim was not to liberate Berta Shan, but to verify the life or death of Duke Artina.

The royal knights dispatched will never forget the moment they first met Hugo and Elysia.

Above the sea of desperate blood.

Their lonely eyes were not obscured even though they were covered with blood.

The boy who was holding in one hand the head of a demon lord of Berta Shan, one of the 72 devils, and the girl who was looking at the corpse with a faint smile.

Despite the corpses of demons forming a mountain around them, the boy and girl were not swayed.

They felt deep fear and reverence for the young duke and the young girl who were not even twenty years old. So much so that it gave them goosebumps and made their throats dry to the point that nobody dared to open their mouths.

“Hmm I’m back, finally. Even though there’s no home left.”

Nobody could guess how much the little girl, who forced herself to speak in a bright voice, had swallowed her tears alone, inwardly.

The castle where the Berta Shan family used to live was now a ruin and only the remains of the castle were left.

Scribbles that the very young Elysia had left were still visible on the scattered stones on the ground.

‘It must be the stones that formed my room.’

Elysia mumbled under her breath.

The traces of her childhood had all disappeared due to cruel trampling, but the memories were still there.

Although she could no longer feel the warmth of her family, their memories remained.

A stone burned by the fire entered Elysia’s view.

Her parents, who were shouting and wielding their swords in the raging flames to protect their subjects, came to her mind.

Next to that sturdy figure was the couple of the previous duke who stood together with them, even though it was not their own territory.

Elysia just stared at the sky. She missed those serene days when she seemed to be caught, but in the end, she did not cry.

“But what will happen to this territory then?”

One of the dispatched knights quietly asked another knight standing next to him.

If a family line ends, the territory is normally returned to the national treasury, but this case was ambiguous.

Everyone thought they had all died, but since Elysia was still alive, the owner of the territory would change depending on whether Elysia would succeed as the next head of Berta Shan.

Sitting on a broken stone and looking at the castle ruins, Elysia was lost in thought.

‘If I take over as the head, I won’t be able to escape the shadow of Berta Shan.’

She would have to live her life bearing the resentment of her parents, brother, subjects, who died unfairly.

‘But if I don’t take over, someone I don’t even know will take over this land.’

She didn’t like that. This was the only place left with traces of her family.

The stone with the scribbles and the stone burnt by the fire. Elysia slowly stroked both.

I had a hard time for a long time.

I’ve lived for revenge so far.

Can’t I take it easy for a bit now.

‘I don’t really want to take over as the head. I want to rest.’

Will my father in heaven be displeased with that? Will my mother be angry?

No, she won’t be. My father always used to say as if it was a habit. Walk the path you want to. I’m behind you, no matter which path you choose.

‘What should I do? What to do.’

She had a lot of worries, but the decision had to be made right away.

The royal family would not leave the land without a lord untouched.

Whether she would take over as the head and inherit this territory, or give up being the head and leave this territory.

An irreversible choice. Standing at the crossroads of two completely opposite paths, Elysia couldn’t make a decision easily.

Hugo, who was silently watching all this, stuck his sword into the ruins of the castle.

“Hey.”

“……?”

“Whatever choice you make, Berta Shan is yours.”

“What.”

“Even if you don’t take up the role of a noble, it’s the same. I’ll make it so.”

“……”

“Walk the path you desire. Until that day, this land is under the care of Artina.”

Hugo’s proclamation showed Elysia a third way.

Hugo’s consideration was ‘time.’

He stopped Bertashen from being immediately reverted to the national treasury and gave Elysia the leisure to slowly think about it.

Hugo knew it well. The weight that was difficult to shoulder easily. He knew it painfully more than anyone else, as a person who had walked that path himself.

So, he decided.

Even if Elysia gave up the noble role, he would accept her as a deity of Artina and hand over the land rights.

If it were a noble family, giving one or two territories to an excellent deity wasn’t a big deal.

Then, Elysia would be able to manage the territory as a deity of Artina, putting aside the burden of reviving the extinct Bertashen.

The responsibility would be taken off, and her wishes would come true.

Under the wings of Artina. Carrying the protection of Artina on her back.

On the way back to the capital, Elysia asked.

“Even for a noble family, absorbing and managing an empty territory involves a difficult deal with His Majesty the Emperor. Why would you do such a troublesome thing for me?”

Hugo’s answer was concise.

“Didn’t we walk the same path? You and I.”

“……”

Elysia thought for a moment. After ‘that day’, the smell of blood that always lingered in her nose had lightened.

Was it because Bertashen had faded away? Because she had taken her revenge?

Or was it because of the horse’s head running beside her?

“Still, it was a burden I had to bear.”

She didn’t want to refuse. She didn’t even want to uphold her petty pride. It had been hard, and now she wanted to lean on him for a while.

So she intentionally let it slip away in the wind.

Hugo, with his excellent hearing, caught it, laughed, and said. After seven years.

“Sometimes sharing with someone isn’t so bad.”

In my bloody past, my present, right there.

Just as I did when you appeared.

Evelia, who quietly listened to the story that started from the question ‘why don’t I have a grandfather?’, came down from Elysia’s knee and went up to her room alone.

“Hooaang hiccup uaaang.”

Closing the door and flopping onto the bed, Evelia rolled up in the quilt and burst into tears.

It was scary just thinking about mom and dad being gone.

I’ve never lived such a desperate life.

‘Artina, Artina. I didn’t even understand half of the weight.’

This fence wasn’t something that could be easily spoken of, or easily built.

The grandparents I was looking for all died without retreating.

The Count and Countess Bertashen closed their eyes in order to protect the people of their territory. The Duke and Duchess of Artina, to protect the people of the Empire as the highest nobles.

My parents, who lost their family in an instant, also fought against the world, shedding blood and flesh.

And they generously sprinkled the flowers bloomed from that struggle under the feet of the three siblings.

“Uaaang.”

The path I didn’t know, that harsh path, sometimes they wanted to put everything down and rest.

The child who got a glimpse of the desperate side of her parents, who were like supermen, cried for a long time, wanting to embrace their childhood when they fought with all their might and got wounded.