At that moment when he believed there was no way to break through the crowd, Walter spoke in a low voice.

“Step aside.”

With just two words uttered, an intimidating aura emanated from him, something ordinary people couldn’t hope to replicate. Others felt it too, and gradually made way.

In the short time they had spent with him, the members of the mercenary unit couldn’t believe their eyes.
“Guided by Walter? Who is that?”

“Is she a servant? Or…”

Curious glances followed the woman who, despite her rough and fierce demeanor, was being led away by the guy, who even offered his hand and covered her face with a cloak. However, soon after, they had to avert their gaze due to Walter’s menacing stare, as if he might take offense at anyone showing interest in her.
Edith extended one hand to Walter and followed him.

Alone, it would have been impossible to navigate through the crowd, but with Walter by her side, they made their way through the throng almost effortlessly.

Once they emerged from the building, Walter led Edith through a sparsely populated path to the wall at the edge of the mansion.
“Walter. Let’s both make sure to get out of here. I’ll do my best to ensure you can leave too.”

As they walked along this wall together, the memory of them smiling and leaving together came back as vivid as yesterday.

“Since I didn’t use the curse-breaking incantation, Walter shouldn’t have been able to cross the barrier as he normally would.”
However, as if it were a lie, he crossed the barrier and arrived at the secret passage where he had been hiding.

When she looked at him, as if asking for a reason, Walter went to a place out of people’s sight and raised magic in his palm. When she saw it flickering in the form of flames, Edith couldn’t continue speaking.

“Magic? How…”
Come to think of it, she felt a similar fervor when Walter struck Geoffrey back when she had been kidnapped before.

Edith didn’t know much about magic, but his magical power didn’t seem meager by any means, even to the untrained eye.

“If you want to leave the mansion, don’t get in my way.”
Walter gently caressed her cheek with his hand, where magic flickered, and he brushed her hair. Originally, just a few seconds of contact with his magic should have allowed them to cross the barrier and leave the mansion, but seeing Edith with no sign of joy, he had completely lost his intention to let her go quietly.
He gathered the rippling magic in his hand and then clasped Edith’s face. Edith couldn’t tell in that instant whether the heat rising on her face was because of his magic or his touch.

Before she could even open her mouth properly, he devoured her lips. There was no time for gentle savors; his breath mingled roughly as if to convey that he wouldn’t grant any leisure for savoring body heat.

“Walter, just a moment—.”
He didn’t stop even at her insistence and kissed her even more deeply. Edith could barely catch her breath. Her entire body tingled with heat, and strength left her legs.
At that moment, just when she was about to collapse, something hard touched her back. Edith looked around in surprise. What was supporting her back was a tree that had always been beyond the barrier.

“She crossed the barrier…”
The fact that she had come outside the mansion without the curse-breaking spell and without an expensive mage she had hired was unbelievable. At the same time, she realized what a foolish thing she had said.

“Walter, don’t say reckless things, please… You can’t save me.”
Walter was gazing up at the blue moonlight pouring down onto him. Meeting his intense, obsession-filled eyes, she could tell that he, too, was recalling the same moment.

“It seems like saying I can’t help you is incorrect. But was it also a lie that there was someone else who could help you?”

“…”

“It looks like that guy wasn’t much help in this regard, Edith.”
Licking his lips slowly, Walter thought. Seeing her eyes glaze over with a single kiss, he wondered if Edith had missed him in this way.

“What on earth is going on here,” Izajel, who was moving gracefully around the room amid the commotion, said to his maid.
Like her, the pallid maid with lowered head replied in a subservient tone.

“Madam, it seems that the border guards are attempting to occupy Fortrian Manor.”

“Sigh…”

“In fact, you could say the occupation is already over. Those people from the volunteer corps have taken over the center of the mansion for quite some time now.”
Isajel slumped into the chair. He realized his situation had become quite difficult, and at the same time, he empathized with the feelings of the border guards.

“With embezzlement and adultery scandals, and no budget for repairing the embankment, even someone like me might have taken action.”

It felt like the unexpected had come to pass.
“Father always said that negotiating for the benefit of all is what makes a great merchant, especially in times like these,” he recalled.

“‘Edith’s persuasion played a part too,'” he thought to himself.
Ijazel gathered his courage.

“The commander of the mercenary corps mentioned earlier, he’s in the central corridor, right?”

“Yes. If you want to escape, it seems you should go through the balcony to the side of the mansion.”

“But I’m the Duke’s wife. Running away in a situation like this would be shirking my duty.”

“Madam Ijazel…”
The maid was emotionally shaken in many ways. She couldn’t help but think about how Sophia, who claimed to be of noble birth and often made a fuss, had already abandoned her duties as the Duke’s wife, while the youngest Duke’s wife, who came from a commoner background and was just over twenty years old, was taking care of everything.

Ijazel lightly patted the trembling maid’s shoulder in reassurance before stepping forward and leaving the room.

To her surprise, she heard an unexpected voice.
“How can we still not find Edith? She’s under arrest by a restraining spell!”

There was no doubt that it was Elizabeth’s voice.