I sincerely apologized to Elma, who seemed to be in pain as she sat down.

“I’m truly sorry. Really… But I must go. Martin, the captain, is my husband. I can’t leave him wandering alone in a place where anything could happen.”

Elma opened her lips as if to say something, but ultimately said nothing.

I passed by Elma and went out into the hallway of the lodging.

Other members standing guard there immediately blocked my way with tense faces.

Among them, Maxillian said,

“We received orders from the captain to stop you by any means necessary if you try to leave, Deputy Captain.”

I let out a deep sigh first.

Then I slowly drew the sword at my waist and gripped it in my hand.

A deep tension settled on the members’ faces.

Maintaining a sharply raised spirit, I warned them.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“…”

“You’re like family to me. But—”

Meeting the gazes fixed on me straight on, I declared finally,

“If you don’t move aside, I intend to take one arm from each of you. Even if you’re like family to me.”

When I warned them with an unavoidable tone like that, an even deeper tension rose on their faces than before.

In the chillingly subdued atmosphere, the sound of Maxillian’s sigh was heard.

“I knew you’d come out like this. Then we have no choice but to face you with our abilities. If we disobey the captain’s orders this time, we probably won’t even be able to collect our bones.”

“Oh, really? So it’s okay to disobey my orders? I’m offended. Seems I’ve been quite underestimated by you all?”

Saying that, I subtly moved my gaze to survey the surroundings.

Fortunately, there was an object quite suitable for throwing placed in the hallway where I was standing.

While keeping its position in sight, Maxillian responded to my words.

“You know we’re not doing this out of disrespect for you, Deputy Captain.”

“Then?”

“Since the captain’s will and the deputy captain’s will are in conflict, we have no choice but to prioritize the captain’s orders—”

While Maxillian’s words were continuing, I quickly reached out my hand. Towards the vase placed in the hallway.

Seeing my sudden movement, Maxillian and the others tried to draw up magical power to use their abilities, but their reaction was too late.

The vase I had picked up and thrown towards them was already flying quickly.

Thud—!

Maxillian raised his arm to block the vase flying towards them.

Immediately after, he prepared to use his ability again.

It was quite a quick reaction befitting a skilled knight.

But even so, it was impossible for them to react faster than me, who had already calculated this entire situation in my head before acting.

While the members were preparing to use their abilities, I had already thrown myself out the window behind me.

“Catch her!!”

Such a cry was heard from behind as I jumped out the window and landed on the ground.

I ran out quickly before they could follow.

Perhaps unable to bring themselves to harm me, no attacks came flying at the back of my head.

Instead, Maxillian’s desperate plea was heard.

“Deputy Captain! You can’t! If we just let you go, the captain will really kill us!”

Yes, Martin probably wouldn’t let it slide.

I felt a bit sorry for the members who would later be severely scolded by him, but I had no intention of stopping.

Leaving their cries behind, I ran towards where the sphere was.

To save my husband.

“Hah…”

A long sigh flowed from between Martin’s lips.

He rubbed his face, tinged with fatigue, once and muttered quietly.

“Damn it.”

It had been good up to boldly entering the black sphere.

It had also been good up to confirming there was an imperial palace inside and entering the palace interior.

He thought that now that he had safely entered, if he eliminated whatever monster or Awakened was here, the sphere would disappear and everything would return to normal.

It didn’t even take 30 minutes for his expectations to be shattered.

He entered the palace and kept walking down the corridor, but for some reason the corridor didn’t end.

By this point, stairs leading to the upper floor should have appeared, but no matter how much he walked, only the corridor continued on.

After walking that endlessly continuing corridor for 30 minutes, he finally realized.

That he was trapped in a maze created by illusion.

So it was a trap after all?

Muttering that inwardly, he looked around.

It looked like an ordinary corridor on the surface, but this must all be an illusion.

The moment he entered the palace, he must have been subjected to a mental attack from some being, resulting in being trapped in an illusion of an endless corridor.

In these situations, usually feeling a sharp pain in the body would bring one back to their senses, so he first tried making a wound on his palm with a dagger.

However, the illusion did not break, and he was still trapped in the eternal corridor.

From that, he could tell.

That a powerful illusory force that couldn’t be broken by simply feeling pain was acting on him.

Should I burn it all?

If he burned everything visible before his eyes with his flame ability, he might wake from the illusion.

It was when he was considering such a destructive method.

Cough, cough.

The sound of coughing came from somewhere.

He temporarily put his plan to burn everything on hold and looked around to find the source of the sound.

Cough! Cough!

The second cough that was heard was clearer.

Thanks to that, he was able to determine the direction and opened a door on the left side of the corridor, entering the room.

There, he finally found something welcome.

“A person…?”

In a corner of the dark room without even a lamp, someone was crouched down.

Martin immediately approached that unidentified being and examined their face.

It was a familiar face.

“Ernant’s aide…”

He had memorized the face of the fellow who was always stuck close to Ernant.

When Martin called out to him, the aide, Franz, also recognized him and called out.

“Duke Martin von Habicht, Your Grace…?”

“Seeing that you recognize me, it seems I’m right. You’re Ernant’s aide, aren’t you? I remember seeing you before.”

As soon as he confirmed his identity, Martin reached out and lifted Franz up by the collar.

“Where is Ernant now? What’s with this endlessly continuing corridor? And why are you here?”

Franz hesitated to answer the barrage of questions, but when Martin clenched his fist as if to hit him, he finally opened his mouth.

“His, His Majesty is currently in the First Audience Chamber.”

“So he was in the palace after all. Then this corridor must also be a trap set by him. Where did he find and recruit an Awakened with such powerful abilities?”

“No, that’s…”

Franz hesitated again, but this time too, he reluctantly revealed the truth.

“He didn’t recruit an Awakened. This illusion trapping us now… is being shown directly by His Majesty himself using his ability.”

“…What did you say?”

It was a story of Ernant, a non-Awakened, using the ability of illusion.

And a powerful illusion ability that even Martin himself couldn’t wake from.

Thinking he might be lying, Martin glared at Franz with killing intent, causing him to frantically plead.

“It’s not a lie! Truly, all of this is a phenomenon caused by His Majesty!”

“How could a non-Awakened do such a thing?”

“Transplant, he received a transplant!”

Before he could ask “Of what?”, Franz answered first.

“He received a Chimera transplant. His Majesty had been researching methods to awaken abilities through that for a long time.”

“…Tell me more details.”

“His Majesty’s research actually had some success. He succeeded in turning a few non-Awakened into Awakened by transplanting Chimeras into them.”

Franz’s words continued with a long sigh.

“But everything was unstable. Of the three who awakened abilities, one went insane, another couldn’t control their ability, and only the last one could properly use their ability without side effects. The success rate was about 33%.”

Martin, who had been listening, asked in an incredulous tone.

“Are you saying Ernant awakened an ability through that method? And then did all this?”

“That’s right. However, His Majesty didn’t fall within the 33% success rate. I just mentioned that one of the three who received Chimera transplants couldn’t control their ability, right?”

“…”

“His Majesty fell into that case.”

While Martin felt bewildered and couldn’t say anything in response, Franz continued speaking.

“At first we thought it was successful. But on the second day after receiving the transplant, he suddenly complained of chest pain, and gradually became unable to control his ability.”

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.