Not long after, Netepel Runtalis reached the end of the Saha River leading his army.

He demanded surrender, asking for the royal castle as proof. Then he said if there was any intention to negotiate, the royal family should come out directly.

However, what Netepel truly desires is not Sigrasal Castle, but the well that belongs to it.

Knowing this fact, Ophelia prepared to face him. She emptied the castle so that no one would wander around, and had the dry grass in the garden well-soaked with oil.

Finally, when all preparations were complete, Ophelia went to meet her insufferable childhood friend.

In this life, she intended to surely cut off his breath.

[This is the timeline separator]

The Grand Prince seems to have gone mad.

The more time Talia spent in the same space with him, the more she thought so. That man was clearly insane.

Or was going insane.

Until a few weeks ago, when she was thrown into the carriage where he was, Talia thought he was sane. It’s true that he looked like a corpse for a moment, but the man soon regained his senses.

Even though they weren’t close usually, seeing someone after a long time was pleasant in itself. So Talia spoke to him first.

“How did you end up here?”

But the man stared at her for a moment with his bright yellow eyes and then turned his head away.

“Can’t you hear me?”

Wondering if perhaps he had injured part of his head, she asked, and a prim reply came back.

“I can hear very well, so don’t talk to me.”

Although she knew he wasn’t gentle by nature, she didn’t expect him to be so prickly from the start, so Talia was quite offended.

But being in the same space for a long time inevitably softened one’s mood. After all, the Grand Prince of Aglante wasn’t such a stupid man, so it seemed that if they put their heads together, they might come up with a way to overcome the situation.

However, the Grand Prince acted as sensitively as a seventeen-year-old boy.

“Let’s not get too friendly with each other. We’re not that kind of relationship.”

“Do I look like I’m trying to get friendly now?”

Incredulous at his statement treating her like some flirtatious pervert, she said that, and the man gave a haughty reply.

“Originally, exchanging one or two words soon leads to three or four words.”

“I wouldn’t take someone like you even if given for free!”

“Were you looking at me that way? Well, since you were young, if a man just looks a bit handsome…”

After saying something incomprehensible, the Grand Prince looked her up and down as if disgusted. The man even pressed himself tightly into the corner as if he could escape far in the narrow carriage.

“I’m married, so don’t come any closer. If you’re thinking of the child from back then who couldn’t refuse, you’re mistaken. There’s only my wife in my life.”

“Do you think I don’t know that? And I got married even before you did!”

“What does that matter? Maintain an appropriate distance. My wife is very intelligent and scary.”

After saying something that strangely sounded like bragging, the man turned his head away. Talia gave up on having a productive conversation with him. Sticking to the corner opposite from him, she grumbled.

“…What’s so scary about the Reden princess.”

His ears were so sharp that the Grand Prince turned to her and asked sharply.

“What do you know about Ophelia?”

Sometimes some husbands mistakenly think they know their spouse well. Talia snorted.

“Have you forgotten? She and I used to meet every year at the conference.”

“…But Ophelia didn’t seem close to you?”

“We’re not close.”

As if losing interest in those words, when the Grand Prince was about to turn his head again, Talia said.

“However, I do know a few things about her childhood.”

The man who looked like he would fret over every single word of his wife immediately reacted to that.

Afterwards, Talia had several conversations with the Grand Prince using the childhood of the woman who was now the Queen of Aglante and formerly the Princess of Reden as bait. Thanks to that, she came to know the outside situation to some extent.

Egelbahmot had completely fallen into the hands of Netepel Runtalis, and they were now traveling up along the Saha River.

“I don’t know anything beyond that.”

So Talia asked the man once again how he ended up being captured, but the Grand Prince didn’t answer.

Then, a few days ago, the man started banging his head against the wall.

It wasn’t so intense as to make a loud noise. But they were in a confined space with nothing else to distract their nerves. To top it off, it was so dark all around that they could barely see what was right in front of them.

In such an environment, she tried to stop him at first, not wanting to hear the creepy noise, but just as she was about to say something, the Grand Prince muttered nonsense while staring into space.

“…Shut up.”

Hearing the man’s voice, quite cracked from the rough journey, sent chills down her spine. It was even more terrifying knowing that he wasn’t saying it to her.

From then on, Talia treated the Grand Prince as if he didn’t exist, no matter what he did. Fortunately, the man showed no interest in her direction.

Ah, he’s at it again. As the man started hitting his head against the bars again, Talia pressed herself a little closer to the corner.

That’s enough, at this rate she felt like she might go mad too.

[This is the timeline separator] [Idren Sigrasal.]

It’s starting again.

Idren hit his head against the bars to make the voice in his head disappear. It hurt, but it was better than going mad.

The voice, neither thin nor thick, was exasperated by his behavior.

[Do you think I’ll disappear just because you do that?]

Idren didn’t answer that. Whether it disappeared or not wasn’t important. What mattered was not falling for its temptation.

[Stop that and offer your body. You have no chance of getting out of here alive anyway.]

No. He had escaped from worse situations than this before. Idren tried not to listen to the ominous words. He had survived for a week in the winter mountains eating only melted snow, and had almost lost a couple of fingers when taken hostage by the enemy.

He had survived being tied up in an underground prison and whipped, and even further back in his childhood, on a snowy day in front of the castle gate…

It was then that the voice in his head clicked its tongue.

[Your life may have been miserable, but humans cannot defeat gods. If that’s the case, shouldn’t you at least save your wife? Do you really intend to let the bloodline of Mevasa fall into the hands of Runtalis?]

That can’t be. Ophelia is…

[That girl is human. A fragile human.]

Damn it. Useless thoughts are coming. Idren bit his lip and banged his head against the bars again. This was all just his delusion.

No, it would be better if it were a delusion. Then no matter how shaken he was, the madness of handing over his body to some unknown entity wouldn’t become reality.

But unfortunately, the voice he heard in his head was real.

With his head leaning against the bars, Idren recalled when this voice started to be heard.

The voice began to be heard a few days ago, when the carriage stopped.

At first, it was a strange sentence, either a prayer or a verse, that he couldn’t understand.

[I am the force that makes people live. Making them run to the edge of the cliff with joy, turning unattainable illusions into sweet dreams…]

He didn’t remember it well. Having received his education late, Idren was better at memorizing numbers than such abstract sentences.

Still, he remembered the last sentence.

[…I am the yellow thing, hope.]

It wasn’t exactly a believable statement, but there was some consistency to the voice’s claim.

First, it mentioned things that only he and Ophelia knew.

[You have already made an offering to me. Didn’t you throw yourself into the well?]

…It interpreted that incident in its own favorable way.

Apparently, the concept of being drunk didn’t exist for gods.

Anyway, Idren tried to ignore those words. It was natural. What the so-called god of Sigrasal wanted was none other than his body.

[Patience has failed. That girl no longer endures. You should have pushed her moderately. Desire has deceived its believer and gradually devoured the body. But I will neither lie nor impose trials you cannot bear.]

And whatever it was, god or not, made an absurd request.

[Give me your body. Then I will confront desire in your stead.]

He didn’t understand exactly what it meant, but one thing was certain.

If he agreed to that, he would never see Ophelia again.

That couldn’t happen. What did I endure those insufferable moments for? Idren intended to return to his wife by any means necessary.

[You fool.]

The thing calling itself the god of Sigrasal mocked him, but it was no less foolish.

How persistently it clung to something that would never happen.

As the god spoke to him day and night without cease, Idren momentarily forgot he wasn’t alone in the space and ended up telling it to shut up. Fortunately, Talia Runtalis must have been asleep, as she didn’t ask if he had gone mad.

While briefly reminiscing about the past, the god shouted in his head again.

[If you keep dawdling like that, you’ll miss your chance. Do you think I can reach you forever? The very fact that I can appear means you’re desperate!]

It’s not the first time in life I’ve been desperate. I wish the voice would stop reaching me. To shake off the opponent that simply wouldn’t close its mouth, Idren banged his head again and sighed.

It was then that the cloth covering the carriage was lifted.

Bright moonlight poured in. Idren frowned at the sudden light. Someone was standing outside the carriage, but his vision hadn’t fully adjusted so he couldn’t see clearly.

But he didn’t need to guess for long.

Netepel Runtalis, standing in front of him, greeted.

“Long time no see.”

[This is the timeline separator]

It hadn’t been that long since they had seen each other just two days ago.

Idren didn’t respond to the man who, whenever he had the chance, would tie him up and persistently ask what kind of deal he had made with a god. He had mocked him enough the day before yesterday and had nothing more to say.

Enough already, he just wanted to see Ophelia.

Idren closed his eyes and inwardly pictured the face he hadn’t seen for over a month, though he had only heard about her here and there.

Round eyes with gently sloping ends. Lips that were pretty even when straight, but when curved could melt a person completely. White and soft feet and smooth-skinned calves. A slender body that would sometimes snuggle up pretending not to know when he hugged her while sleeping.

If he had known it would be like this, he should have thoroughly enjoyed the honeymoon. Why did he have to call her to the villa that night and make her go through such an ordeal?

Self-reproach that had been buried for a while, busy dealing with rapidly changing situations, rose up. Having no reason to reject it anymore while imprisoned, Idren ruminated on it.

As if reading his mind, the Second Prince uttered the longed-for name.

“I saw Ophelia today.”

He saw Ophelia?

Surprised, Idren opened his closed eyes.

Two days ago, Netepel Runtalis had said that Ophelia was resisting in Reden. Though Idren thought she had no particular reason to do so, unable to know the outside situation, he half-believed those words.

“You’re surprised. I was surprised too.”

And the man raised an eyebrow with the half of his face not covered by a mask.

“She was in Edegrun. How adorable.”

They had agreed to talk in detail three days later and parted after just seeing each other’s faces, but Ophelia, who had looked straight at him from across the river, gave a truly different impression. Especially the white horse she was riding was enough to surprise him.

Netepel asked the man who had turned back with an indifferent expression.

“Did you teach her horseback riding?”

Horseback riding? Idren furrowed his brow.

As far as he knew, Ophelia didn’t know how to ride a horse. She didn’t particularly like moving around. In the past, when she was depressed, she rarely went outside, and he had to coax and persuade her to go for walks.

“Well, it seems you didn’t know Ophelia could ride a horse either.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Netepel sat on the edge of the carriage. Bright moonlight illuminated them. Netepel examined the face of the man who, though roughened by the harsh journey, still maintained an above-average appearance.

If he could have his way, he wanted to tear off about half of that face. Seeing that he had such an intact appearance after leaving his own face in this state made him feel twisted inside.

He’s a man who will die soon anyway. Netepel tried not to think too deeply. Soon, Sigrasal Castle would be his, and then it would be over for the Grand Prince.

He said,

“I’m going to kill you in front of Ophelia soon.”

“…”

“I wonder if she’ll cry then?”

If so, it would feel quite ambiguous. Netepel asked the man who would soon become Ophelia’s ex-husband.

“Have you ever seen Ophelia cry? When she was young, Ophelia used to cry a lot, but I don’t know if she’s still like that now that she’s grown up.”

The Grand Prince still didn’t answer. Netepel found that irritating. When the man was silent like this, Netepel felt as if he was mocking him, implying that he knew more about Ophelia.

He continued speaking to scratch at the other’s insides.

“Ophelia is really cute when she cries. I don’t know how many times you’ve seen it. You’ve been married for a few months, right?”

Ah, maybe he couldn’t see because the lights were off?

No sooner had he said those words than the man reached through the bars and grabbed him by the collar. Netepel hastily retreated before he could throw a punch at his face. Smoothing out his crumpled clothes, he said to his glaring opponent:

“Don’t be like that. What if I end up being rough with Ophelia because you’ve put me in a bad mood?”

The Grand Prince glared at him with eyes that wanted to kill him. Only then did Netepel feel the thrill rising up his spine. Yes, this was right.

This dynamic where that man would get angry at his every word, and he would look down on him.

Until then, it was a satisfaction he could feel because he didn’t know the prisoner would escape that night.