I said.

“The red caterpillar is the disciple of the black bug who killed your father. I too was an assassin who learned how to kill people from him.”

At that moment, Julia Nugent looked at me. With a surprised face.

Then she showed a sardonic smile.

“As expected. Are you finally confessing now? Why? Are you going to kill me now?”

“You only hear what you want to hear, and see only what you want to see.”

I blurted out without realizing.

“What?”

She flashed her eyes and raised her hand. That hand flew towards my cheek.

I grabbed her wrist.

“What? You won’t let go?!”

“I’ll let go.”

When I released her hand, she raised her hand again. I slapped her cheek.

Slapped, she stared at me with dazed eyes.

“You… You, did you just hit me?”

“Have you ever been hit by anyone in your life?”

“Do you think I’m a lowly woman like you?!”

The young lady raged.

I grabbed both her hands.

“I have been hit so many times, cut by swords, deceived and used while living.”

“!”

“And I have committed many sins. But… I know that I committed those sins. So to try to live again, I chose His Highness the Grand Duke of Belfast. Because he was at least right.”

“Right? What’s right!”

“Not just believing what you want to believe, and seeing only what you want to see! But constantly agonizing over what to believe and what to see!”

“!”

“You constantly ask yourself. Am I right? Do I have the qualifications? Who gave me those qualifications? Have I lived a life worthy of that!”

“……”

“Just now, I saw your elder brother collapse and wail. You! You have left indelible scars on so many who love you. Don’t you realize? You stupid woman who can’t even distinguish whether you’re wielding a sword or a flower, trapped only in the past……”

“!”

“I came to give you a chance. Even someone who has sinned like me is struggling to live again… But you… you don’t even realize that you’ve committed sins yet.”

The young lady stared at me with a dazed face. Then she opened her mouth.

“What sins have I committed? I was also victimized by that bastard. I said I was victimized! Head maid!”

“What was the expression of the head maid who said those words?”

“……What?”

She was at a loss for words.

“Wasn’t it a face that was hurting on your behalf, when you should have been the one hurting?”

The young lady’s voice trembled.

“You…… What do you know.”

“I don’t know, because I’m not you. I can’t possibly know all of your pain. If I said I did, that would be a lie. I won’t even try to guess, because that would be arrogant. But at least! You should know.”

I felt sorry for her.

I took out the video stone from my bosom.

“This video stone contains everything you’ve done.”

“!”

“I’ll show you.”

“Wh… What?”

“Your appearance.”

“!”

“Do you remember after being hypnotized?”

“You’re a fool. How can I remember if I was hypnotized?”

She’s being spiteful until the end.

“Then watch.”

I ordered the video stone to project her image onto the prison wall.

The video started from the scene of her being brainwashed by the caterpillar.

It must be her first time seeing herself from another’s perspective.

As her own image appeared before her eyes, she seemed surprised and stepped back hesitantly.

– Julia Nugent, who am I?

– My friend.

– Yes, you stupid girl.

The sight of the caterpillar insulting her after taking away her face. She opened her mouth, seemingly surprised at the sight of the bug she was seeing for the first time in her right mind.

– I’m a stupid girl.

– Yes. Let’s go find my transmission stone right now after getting rid of that face.

Her blunted fingers began to tremble.

In the video, she was spraying sleeping gas on the knights.

And there was herself, spraying sleeping gas on the young knight guarding her room.

Even as the caterpillar killed that knight, there was herself just blankly watching.

“The dead apprentice knight, no, that boy admired the Nugent family that has served the Grand Duke for generations and dreamed of becoming a knight. He was a war orphan. Julia, that boy must have believed in you.”

“……”

“I heard you sprayed sleeping gas on Count Nugent too. Arcadia, your younger brother, found his unconscious brother.”

“……”

“The red caterpillar was caught and the monster attack began, and the 4th Division Commander lost one arm. His Highness the Grand Duke was on the brink of death after being attacked by monsters, and Bran Ophilit also nearly died.”

“!”

After showing everything, I turned off the video silently.

Julia Nugent didn’t say anything, didn’t make any movement. She just blankly stared into the darkness from within the darkness.

I locked the barred door of her cell and came out of the prison. But on the stairs near the ground, the Grand Duke was standing.

“Your Highness!”

The Grand Duke silently looked at me.

Why is the Grand Duke here now?

Ah, is that so.

Julia Nugent was the Grand Duke’s fiancée in her previous life.

Yes. There must be a history between these two people that I don’t know about.

‘It would be better to pretend not to know.’

I bowed my head lightly and tried to pass by the Grand Duke. But he called me.

“Esther.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Did you carry out my order well?”

“!”

You must have heard from the knights guarding the prison.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I used Your Highness’s name.”

“It’s alright.”

The Grand Duke was silent for a while. I waited for his silence to end. He opened his mouth.

“Did you show her? The atrocities of that day.”

“……Did you hear?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry for not asking for permission. Your Highness.”

“You did well.”

“Pardon?”

“Do you want to give her a chance, Julia Nugent?”

His tone was dry when saying her name.

“Yes. The Vice Commander…… kept coming to my mind.”

“I see.”

The words for Arcadia’s sake are true. But those words were also a lie.

Perhaps it might be for ‘my’ sake.

Julia, who was once again trapped in darkness in her restarted life.

I pity her, feel sorry for her.

I looked at the Grand Duke. He also looked straight at me. Dark blue eyes in the settling darkness gaze at me.

“Esther, what is the right decision?”

“?”

“I’m asking for your advice, I am.”

He showed a faint smile.

I don’t know what to answer.

He said.

“I asked you for the answer I should find myself.”

He turns around.

“Your Highness.”

He turned back.

“Whatever decision you make, I am on your side. Please use the fact that the continent’s first Sword Master is loyal to Your Highness, if you need it.”

I don’t know what my being a Sword Master has to do with this matter. But I blurted this out instinctively.

Power helps you get what you want. Whatever that may be.

How to use it is up to the Grand Duke. I am ready to be used whenever you need me.

“That’s too generous an answer.”

He smiled calmly.

Why does my heart ache at that smile?

“I will make the right decision for myself, Esther.”

“Yes.”

The right decision for you.

“Tomorrow, the great assembly of the North will be held. You come too.”

“I will follow your order.”

I bowed my head.

“Sleep well.”

He left, like the wind.

I silently stared at the place where he had been.

[This is the timeline separator]

Representatives of the thirteen vassal families of the North began to gather in the underground great assembly hall of the Grand Duchy.

Everyone was holding the telegrams that had been delivered in advance through messengers. Telegrams detailing Julia Nugent’s crimes.

Until the Grand Duke regained consciousness, her crimes were kept secret.

Because of that, most of the knights who participated in the battle against the monsters learned this fact belatedly.

“How could the young lady do such a thing!”

“Unforgivable!”

Whispering voices can be heard from all over the castle.

Just before the start of the assembly, Bran, who had just learned that it was her who helped the red caterpillar escape, grabbed me with a pale face.

He too was holding one of the telegrams sent to the vassals.

‘He must have already read it.’

“Did the young lady really do that?”

“Yes. The head maid witnessed it and there’s video evidence too.”

“What will… happen to the young lady?”

His voice trembled.

I couldn’t bear to look at him directly.

“You know too.”

At my words, Bran’s face contorted.

“I know! But… but.”

He couldn’t continue speaking. His arm that was holding onto me as if clinging trembled violently. Like a tree about to fall.

[I’ve liked her… for a long time.]

I remember what Bran said in the cave.

It pained my heart that I couldn’t offer any consolation at the moment.

[This is the timeline separator]

The heads of the northern families, and the heirs and other nobles they brought with them. Over a hundred people filled the assembly hall.

Everyone was talking about what happened on the island, and the bloody battle against monsters on the northwestern battlefield.

The main topics were the Grand Duke returning Queen Antoinette to the imperial family, the appearance of a Sword Master, and the Grand Duke annihilating the monsters together with that Sword Master.

Occasionally, stories about the First Vassal’s daughter who helped the southern spy escape could be heard.

But her story was off the center of attention.

“From what I’ve heard, she can’t avoid the crime of treason.”

“Then will it be execution? The late Acting Grand Duke of the North must be weeping in his grave.”

The old vassals muttered sadly. If the late Acting Grand Duke Hern Nugent were alive, he would be of similar age to them.

Their murmuring stopped with the appearance of the Grand Duke.

The Grand Duke appeared wearing a cloak, revealing the wound on his shoulder from being poisoned.

Until he stood on the highest platform in the hall, everyone knelt on one knee on the marble floor and bowed their heads.

The Grand Duke sat on the black chair carved with Belfast’s holy sword Lapis.

Everyone shouted in unison.

“We greet His Highness the Grand Duke of Belfast, Shield of the Empire!”

The wide hall resounds.

‘This is the North.’

From vassals who look over 90 years old to young heirs, all were knights who had wielded swords and are knights.

A place where people have fought all their lives against enormous monsters that people in the central and southern regions might never have seen, and numerous enemies of the Empire.

These people are an army that has protected the Empire.

I felt that fact anew now.

A place where there are those who give orders and those who carry them out, those who tell others to risk their lives and those who risk their lives.

What sustains such a place is strict discipline.

A harsh place that can’t be maintained without discipline.

I keenly felt that there was no way for Julia to save her life.

In her previous life, what was the Grand Duke’s position like at this time?

I traced those memories that seem like yesterday.

The Grand Duke, who returned alone to the North after sending Arcadia away from the Southern Grand Duchy, must have been tormented by guilt for not being able to protect his friend.

And a few years later, the Grand Duke became engaged to Julia Nugent, his friend’s younger sister.

Was it because of responsibility?

Or was there a little love too?

My head becomes dizzy.

It was then.

As the Grand Duke raised his right hand, everyone stood up from the floor.

And.

The Chief Administrative Officer, Infidel Nugent, who looked not just haggard but aged years in just a few days, appeared below the platform.

He knelt before the Grand Duke and then unfolded the paper he was holding and began to recite his younger sister’s crimes.

Her crimes began with the secret meetings she had with the red caterpillar.

“……hereafter…… by communicating with the southern spy, she disrupted discipline and insulted the North, and by helping the spy escape, caused the death of Knight Hans Edel. This is deemed punishable as the crime of treason.”

The voice that had been reading stiffly on purpose trembled sadly at the part about the crime of treason.

I closed my eyes.

Shortly after.

Julia Nugent, bound by knights, was dragged into the assembly hall.

Behind the knights stood Arcadia Nugent, dressed in full uniform.

His face was as pale as white snow.

‘Arcadia……’

The knights forced Julia to kneel on the floor. Beyond her, I could see Bran who looked like he might burst into tears at any moment.

Julia looked up at the Grand Duke, trembling with fear. She opened her mouth.

“Please… please spare me, Your Highness.”