“Stop talking nonsense and follow me. We’re close to the border.”

Lesith said without looking back. Rahelika did not agree with his words that seemed to treat her contemptuously.

Still standing in place, she called out to the man walking ahead.

“Don’t you know why I married you to Talia?”

Unable to tolerate the direct attack on his pride, Lesith finally stopped. When the man turned back to glare at her, Rahelika flinched slightly but did not back down.

She wasn’t wrong. Originally, Lesith, who was the second prince of a poor country, wouldn’t have even been able to look up to Talia.

Knowing this fact himself, he couldn’t even propose, so didn’t she help him by using unconventional methods?

And there was only one reason why Rahelika did such a thing. Only for Talia’s sake. Because she didn’t want to see that child marry a man inferior to herself and be held back.

But Lesith betrayed her at the most crucial moment. It was something he couldn’t have done without forgetting the one and only reason he could become Talia’s husband.

“Do you think I don’t know that?”

Lesith, his face distorted, approached her.

“Do you think I don’t know that you matched me with her because I had nothing and knew nothing, so you thought I would be obedient!”

The man saying those words was clearly furious to anyone looking. But Rahelika couldn’t understand why he was angry. What had he done right?

Frowning back at him, Rahelika took a step forward.

“Knowing all that, how could you…!”

“Because I know!”

Lesith shouted angrily.

“Because I know that, I brought you here!”

Rahelika flinched at the sudden change in the man who was usually not kind but polite.

Lesith, who had been glaring at her, took a deep breath as if to suppress his emotions and said,

“Since our marriage, I have been an obedient husband all along.”

“But you were satisfied with…”

“That’s right. Even if I wasn’t loved, I was grateful just to have a place by her side.”

Rahelika read self-mockery in the man’s tone.

It was incomprehensible. What reason did he have to be pessimistic about his own situation? Rahelika thought there were many other men who would endure that much to marry Talia. Although the future was uncertain now, at that time, the position of the husband of the empire’s second princess was worth that much.

She had chosen Lesith because he seemed the most suitable among them, but there were plenty of men who could replace him.

But strangely, at that moment, Rahelika was at a loss for words. It was true that he was being ungrateful, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

Lesith smiled bitterly as if he knew she would be silent. Rahelika blankly looked up at the man’s lips twisting as if he were crying.

Lesith spoke again.

“But even if I obey for a lifetime, what use is it if I don’t listen at the important moment?”

Just then, someone came rushing from ahead. Squinting her eyes, Rahelika recognized who they were. They were soldiers wearing Tesendot uniforms.

“Who goes there!”

Lesith, who had been looking at her for a moment, turned around again. The man’s back was as broad and firm as it had always been, but at that moment, Rahelika read wretchedness in it.

Before she could properly think about that inexplicable emotion, Lesith spoke to the soldiers of his homeland who had come running.

“The second prince of the country. Lesith Tesen.”

“I need to go to Leden.”

After finishing the interrogation of the servant and leaving only Hazel in the room, Ophelia informed the knight.

Netepel was indeed alive. Idren’s disappearance was also related to him.

The testimony of the servant, who acted as if he had lost two fingers even though not a drop of blood was shed, supported this fact.

“The second prince threatened the prince! He said he had poisoned the tea the prince was drinking, and told him to obey if he didn’t want to die!”

“How can I believe that?”

“Letters! There’s an inn where they exchanged letters!”

As he said, when the knight was sent to the inn, he came back with a small envelope. It was an envelope with the second prince’s official seal on it.

Opening it, Ophelia faced a familiar handwriting.

−I missed you, Ophelia.

Below the short note written in Netepel’s handwriting was a postscript longer than the main content.

−The seat next to you must be empty, hope we can meet again soon.

The words explicitly mentioning Idren’s absence were as good as a confession that he was the culprit who had laid hands on him.

“If the second prince has reached out, I’ll deploy knights for a search.”

Although Hazel said this after learning the truth, Ophelia couldn’t be at ease with just that.

Netepel hated Idren. Ophelia remembered the man who disparaged her husband while making the absurd excuse that it was because he loved her.

She couldn’t understand that ideology. But it was certain that someone who spoke harshly wouldn’t act gently.

Ophelia felt her chest tighten at the mere thought of Idren getting hurt. Even seeing him sick for a day was so pitiful, if he were to bleed… She didn’t even want to imagine it.

She wanted to find Netepel right away and kill him for sure, but in a situation where even her own body was a mess, she couldn’t act rashly.

Therefore, Ophelia pressed the servant further to find out more information. The interrogation became rougher than before. It was a natural course of action, given that in cooperation with Mahanas, he had ultimately put Idren in danger.

“I don’t know anything…! Really, I don’t know anything!”

The servant begged, shedding tears. Ophelia ordered two more of the man’s fingers to be cut off, as he was acting annoyingly, not knowing who really wanted to cry. She couldn’t care about how she looked in the knight’s eyes when Idren was in danger.

Shouldn’t being a good wife come before being a kind princess?

Before the knife moved to the right hand, the servant remembered one more small clue.

“He, he seemed to want the sa, sacred object…”

“What do you mean?”

“The, the prince said he needed the sacred object…. Hic, I, I really don’t know anything…!”

Although there were more sobbing sounds than actual information, one thing became clear.

Netepel wants the sacred object of the Leden royal family.

If it wasn’t Netepel’s instigation, Mahanas wouldn’t have mentioned the sacred object. Not because he wasn’t greedy, but because there was no reason for him to do so.

Mahanas had been treated as the heir to inherit the throne since birth. At least in Leden, everything went according to his will. Even Dares, the only one above Mahanas, didn’t particularly stop whatever mischief his son was up to.

Of course, he had recently taken away Mahanas’s private property and given it to her… but that wouldn’t be enough for Mahanas to rebel. Not out of respect for his father’s will, but because he lacked the ability to carry it out.

It was unknown why Netepel wanted the sacred object. Even when Idren talked about wishes or whatever, Ophelia didn’t understand half of what he was saying. She wasn’t the type to believe in gods in the first place.

But regardless of her disbelief, Idren and she had returned to the past, and Netepel, whom they had killed, was alive again.

It was certain that there was something in the world that could overturn the rules she had previously known. And the tears of Mevasa must be related to it.

She had said she needed to go to Leden to get it before Netepel, but Hazel didn’t agree.

“You need to go to Edegrun and recover your health.”

“No, I need to go to Leden before that.”

What use is health if Idren is gone?

“It’s not like I’m terminally ill.”

“We still don’t know what kind of poison the Leden prince used.”

“But it’s certain that it’s not a deadly poison.”

If Netepel had wanted her dead, he would have acted long ago.

Of course, she wouldn’t have let someone who had smashed her head live, but the men around her seemed to have quite an arrogant side. Ophelia recalled Mahanas, who tried to sell her off nicely even after being hit on the head with a vase. He ended up dying from a similar incident.

Netepel was someone she had already killed once… but that doesn’t mean she can’t kill him twice.

Ophelia said to the knight who was looking at her with a troubled expression.

“I’m not going recklessly. Didn’t you say this is the south? Then the Rohos territory should be nearby, I’ll get soldiers from there and go.”

“Even so, I cannot agree. If the king were here, he would certainly oppose it.”

No, Idren would have taken her with him.

Given his personality, he wouldn’t have stopped what she wanted to do, so he certainly would have, but Ophelia didn’t refute the knight. Instead, she asked back.

“What if something happens to the king while we’re hesitating here?”

“That’s not something you need to take responsibility for, Your Highness.”

“I’m not doing this out of guilt.”

It was true that she felt sorry because if it weren’t for her, Idren wouldn’t have come to the south and encountered Netepel.

But the reason she was hurrying to Leden was because she was worried about the man she loved, not because she felt burdened by someone who was in trouble because of her. If it wasn’t Idren who was in danger, she would have observed the situation a bit more before moving.

However, there was no need to explain this to Hazel. After all, other words weren’t necessary to move the knight.

Ophelia knew what to use to move a knight loyal to his king.

“To be honest, if I’m gone, the king can just remarry and that’s it, but it’s different if he disappears, isn’t it?”

Currently, Idren was the only blood relative of the Sigrasal royal family.

Ophelia drove the point home to the knight who must have lent a hand when he purged his relatives.

“You’re a knight of Aglante, so I believe you’ll make the right choice.”

Idren opened his eyes in a dark room.

His limbs wouldn’t move freely. Frowning at the somewhat familiar sensation, he realized he was tied to a chair.

He frowned at something he had experienced quite often when young, but not since he had grown up. A chair, of all things.

Am I a prisoner?

Even when he was staying in the mountains, this had only happened once, except for that time. Idren chuckled as he realized he had made a stupid mistake. He couldn’t help but laugh at how absurd it was.

Wondering how this had happened, he tried to retrace his memories, but nothing came to mind. He clearly remembered subduing all the knights in the alley and facing the second prince of Runtalis, but after that, his head was foggy as if black paint had been poured over it.

But one thing was certain. That he had done something stupid.

He didn’t know where this was, but he couldn’t just wait quietly to be rescued. He moved his bound body roughly. After moving a few times, he managed to free one leg, but the bindings on his hands were quite sturdy and didn’t seem like they could be loosened by any ordinary method.

As he was considering whether to break a finger or not, he heard the sound of a door opening.

“Grand King.”

“…Netepel Runtalis.”

“My, how long has it been since I ascended to the throne, yet you still address me by name, how rude.”

And the man placed the lamp he had brought on the table. The small light illuminated the room limitedly.

Using even that light to survey his surroundings, Idren realized the floor was shaking. At first, he thought he was feeling nauseous, but it seemed that wasn’t all.

Are we on a ship?

Come to think of it, the last place he had been was near the river connecting to Egelbaum. There was one long vertical river between Aglante and Egelbaum. It was also connected to the Leden Canal.

If it really was a ship, it would be quite difficult to escape.

As he was quietly contemplating his next move, Netepel grabbed his face.

As soon as the man’s hand touched him, a strange sensation rose from the point of contact.

Idren frowned at the unpleasant feeling he had experienced before. It felt like maggots crawling on his skin. Rather than a sensation arising because he regarded the other party as maggots, it really felt like something was there.

Looking down at him, Netepel raised the corners of his mouth.

“My guess was right. You’ve also made a deal with a god.”

He asked.

“What did you offer as a sacrifice?”

Instead of answering that question, Idren put strength into the leg he had freed earlier and kicked the man’s stomach.

While the man was staggering, Idren smashed his body against the wall, breaking the chair, and rotated his aching shoulder. It would probably be bruised, no doubt.

He didn’t often use such crude methods. Such thoughts naturally came to him as he felt the considerable impact throughout his body, but the situation was awkward and he had no choice. Idren picked up a chair leg that had fallen to the floor.

“The rude one is you. Laying hands on a woman’s husband because you can’t be loved by the woman you want.”

Netepel Runtalis got up from the floor, staggering. He asked in a voice filled with venom.

“What about you, are you loved?”

Idren narrowed his brows at the sight of the man immediately getting up despite being kicked with his full weight.

The second prince had a typical nobleman’s body. He had kicked someone twice his size with similar force before, but even then, they didn’t get up that quickly.

Have I grown old? Such a thought suddenly occurred to me, but while my mind might have aged a few more years, my body was in its twenties. It wasn’t an age for physical abilities to decline.

Whatever the case, I’d know if I hit him more. Having reached this conclusion, Idren mocked the man glaring at him in the darkness.

“Much more than you could ever compare to.”

As if those words were some kind of signal, Netepel Runtalis, his face distorted, lunged at him.