My emperor, to whom I had devoted my entire heart in loyalty, was quite a merciful man.

The poisoned wine he so mercifully gave me to end my life had a deep flavor.

Thanks to that, I was able to enjoy the luxury of savoring its taste fully before dying.

However, at the same time, he was also an incredibly cruel man.

If he had been even a little less cruel, he would have poured enough poison into the wine to kill me instantly.

But because he didn’t, I was now gasping in agony for nearly 3 minutes as my esophagus burned away, unable to die quickly.

“Huff, huff…”

My emperor, Ernant, quietly looked down at me as I lay gasping on the banquet hall floor.

His golden hair, as bright as sunlight, and fresh green eyes flickered in my vision.

We observed each other for a while like that.

Then suddenly, as he watched me, he bent his knee beside me and met my eyes.

“I’m sorry. I originally intended to kill you painlessly. I really didn’t mean for you to suffer this long.”

I wanted to ask why he didn’t put more poison in then, but sadly my tongue was stiff and wouldn’t move.

This agonizing poison was slowly but surely killing my body.

For that reason, I couldn’t speak at length, and could only barely utter this one word.

“Why…”

Fortunately, the question I squeezed out with all my might seemed to reach Ernant’s ears.

He furrowed his brow slightly and opened his mouth.

“Why did I poison you, you mean?”

When I managed to nod, a faint smile flowed from Ernant’s lips.

“You’re quite dull, Yulia. I can’t believe you still haven’t guessed the reason.”

It was frustrating, but no matter how much I racked my brain, I couldn’t understand.

Why had my emperor poisoned me?

I had loyally served him my entire life as a knight, and my abilities weren’t bad.

I had only ever been helpful to him, never doing anything to deserve being poisoned.

So even as I was dying, I eagerly awaited his answer.

Fortunately, I was able to hear that answer a little later.

“A hero is no longer needed in an empire that has regained peace. One sun is enough for the empire.”

Ah, so that was it.

Now I could understand.

It seemed he had been bothered by my usefulness.

Awakened ones with powerful abilities called “innate powers”…

Among them, I belonged to the highest class of awakened ones and had been using my innate power to exterminate monsters in our Heldenberg Empire.

As a knight, I had accomplished great things by eliminating all the monsters within the empire.

For that reason, the people of the empire had hailed me and my superior Martin as heroes… and it seems Ernant found this unpleasant.

He must have been irritated that his brother Martin and I were more praised than himself, the emperor.

Yes, I could understand his feelings intellectually.

But one question suddenly arose.

Did he really need to wear such a joyful expression at this moment?

I didn’t like Ernant’s expression.

Because I had sworn loyalty to him with all my heart, I was prepared to throw away my life willingly if he ordered me to die.

What I wanted wasn’t much.

If he had just shown a slightly guilty expression before killing me, I wouldn’t have resented him.

But Ernant was smiling.

He was smiling even as a knight who had been loyal to him, and even loved him beyond loyalty, was dying.

So it wasn’t strange that I shed tears, crushed by misery.

“Are you crying? Is it that painful?”

Ernant asked in a voice as fresh as his smile.

I answered with my gasping breaths.

He nodded as if understanding, then called over a guard standing dumbly nearby.

“Lend me your sword.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The guard handed Ernant the sword.

Mercifully, he positioned it vertically over my chest, preparing to thrust.

Finally, this unbearable agony would end.

I wished he would kill me quickly, but my kind Emperor insisted on uttering more unnecessary words.

“Any last words?”

I considered begging him to kill me quickly, but gave up.

Rather, I wanted to convey even one more line of the resentment in my heart to him.

“If… there is a next life…”

Feeling my throat closing up, I barely managed to string together the last words.

“I will never… become your knight… again…”

Hearing my last words, Ernant suddenly burst into laughter.

Was my final message, squeezed out with all my might, just a joke to him?

He answered with laughter still in his voice.

“That’s fine. You don’t have to be my knight in the next life. Why don’t you be my wife instead? If you’re reborn as an incapable and stupid noblewoman who won’t be an eyesore, I’ll accept you then.”

The emotion I felt upon hearing those final words wasn’t anger.

I felt despair.

To think that the one I had served my entire life was this kind of person.

The bare face he showed after removing his mask of pretense just before killing me was incomparably ugly.

I felt no sense of honor, nothing.

All that had been lurking in his heart was childish jealousy.

“Now, I’ll really end it.”

I closed my eyes upon hearing those words from Ernant.

At last, I would be at peace.

It was the first time death had felt so welcome.

But despairingly, my life seemed tougher than I thought.

The sound of multiple footsteps could be heard from the hallway, then the doors to the banquet hall burst open.

“Yulia!”

The one who called my name so loudly was a tall man with black hair.

I knew him well.

The miracle born of the Heldenberg Empire, Martin von Habicht.

My superior, the captain of our knight order, and the one who became a hero along with me by subjugating monsters…

And as Ernant’s brother, the one who bore the brunt of his jealousy…

Seeing him, several thoughts came to mind at once.

Why had he come here?

Could he have obtained information somewhere that I would be poisoned?

Did he come to save me?

The thought that he might have come to rescue me briefly crossed my mind, but I quickly erased that hypothesis.

The captain, who was cold to the point of being frigid, would never burst into the imperial palace so suddenly just to save someone like me.

In any case, due to the captain’s sudden appearance, Ernant was unable to end my life.

“Why are you here…!! What did you do to the guards outside?!”

To Ernant, who shouted in a panicked voice, the captain simply tossed something.

It was the severed head of the guard captain.

It seemed the captain had killed the palace guards and entered here with our knight order members visible behind him.

Afterwards, the captain and the members quickly eliminated the guards inside the banquet hall as well.

Finally, Ernant, who had been captured and forced to his knees, shouted as if in desperation.

“Release me at once! I am the emperor of the empire! Do you think you’ll be safe after doing this?!”

Ignoring that pitiful cry, the captain approached me.

As I took in the sight of his handsome face for the last time before I died, he lowered himself by bending one knee.

Thanks to that, when our gazes drew a little closer, I grabbed his trouser leg and pleaded.

“Please… end this… now…”

I really wanted to die.

I had been suffering in agony for minutes, unable to die or live.

Fortunately, my superior was known as a cold-blooded man with ice flowing through his veins instead of blood, so he seemed capable of granting my wish.

I expected him to swing his sword and cut off my head in one stroke.

I believed that without a doubt.

However, incomprehensibly, what flowed from the lips of my superior with ice for blood were unexpectedly warm words of hope.

“You will not die today. My subordinates will soon bring the antidote.”

What on earth was he saying? I seriously wondered if my ears were malfunctioning.

Martin, my cold-hearted superior, was absolutely not the type of person to recite such vain hopes.

He was the kind of man who would unhesitatingly take the life of a favored subordinate if he judged there was no more hope, even if they were just injured.

Yet that same man was now continuing to say strange things about me, who already seemed beyond hope.

“Don’t give up, just hold on a little longer. I’ll stay by your side.”

He took my cold hand in his large one.

His handsome face, which I could barely see through blurred vision, was contorted with worry and sadness for me.

Even his golden eyes, which had always shown only a chilly aura, were warmed with tenderness in this moment.

Ah, so that’s how it was.

In that moment, I was able to realize the captain’s feelings, which I had never noticed until now.

Because he was a man who rarely expressed emotion, I hadn’t known, but it seemed he had cared for me deep down.

Even as I despaired at the fact that this pain wouldn’t end immediately, I felt relieved on the other hand.

While my death may have been mere entertainment for Ernant, it didn’t seem to be so for the captain.

It seemed he would miss me and grieve for me even after I died.

As I thought that far, suddenly one wish arose in my heart.

I want to live a little longer.

Learning that the captain cared for me gave me some will to live.

Even if it was just for 10 years… no, even 5 years would be fine, I wanted to live a little longer.

But fate can sometimes be terribly cruel.

My life force, which had been so stubbornly persistent when I wanted to die, now seemed about to snap at any moment just when I wanted to live.

“Hck, cough…!!”

“Yulia!!”

As blood suddenly gushed from my lips, the captain urgently called my name.