“Huff, huff…”

I collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.

I had tried my best not to inhale the mushroom’s poison, but despite my efforts, the symptoms of poisoning appeared quickly.

I succeeded in freezing all the nearby mushrooms, so now I just needed to get out.

But my body wouldn’t listen.

“…”

Suddenly, I was reminded of when I drank the poisoned wine given by Ernant and died.

The situation was similar in that I was poisoned, so I naturally started having these thoughts.

I had resolved never to be poisoned again, but am I going to die from poison once more?

Is fate truly inescapable after all?

If it was going to end up like this anyway, what was the point of coming back to life and fighting so hard all this time?

Thinking that far, I shook my head.

No. My new life was not in vain.

Although I’m about to die again, didn’t quite a few people survive thanks to me?

Didn’t Johannes, Adelheid, and Elma all gain better futures?

So it wasn’t meaningless.

As I was thinking this, strength drained from my entire body, and I collapsed to the floor.

Sensing the end approaching, I closed my eyes.

No, I tried to close them.

Whoosh—

A pitch-black, hot flame suddenly bloomed before my eyes.

I stared at that flame with my eyes wide open, having failed to close them.

A flame as black as if dyed with ink.

I knew this flame well.

Before I could call out to the flame’s owner, his voice penetrated my ears.

“Why…”

After asking that question in such a low voice, he finally reached out and lifted me up in his arms.

Only then could I finally see the face of the commander, the one I had been waiting for so long.

With an expression that looked like he might break, just as he had in the past, he asked me again.

“Why are you here, why in this state? You wrote in your letter not to worry…”

Unable to speak easily, I moved my lips several times before finally managing to answer his question.

“…I’m sorry.”

“…”

“I’m sorry.”

I wanted to show a better side of myself since we were meeting after so long.

I was just sorry that I couldn’t do that.

“…”

After silently looking at me, he finally replied.

“You can rest easy now.”

Hearing those words, the guilt and tension weighing on me melted away like magic.

Thinking it was a strange thing, I slowly closed my eyes.

The heat of the flames surrounding us and the strange cries of the monsters felt distant, as if in a dream.

Freed, who had been pulled out of the rift almost forcibly, called out the name he had been desperately shouting again.

“Yulia!!”

Even though he called so desperately, the knight carrying him on his back did not let Freed go.

Frustrated, Freed pounded on the knight’s back and protested.

“Let go! Yulia is still inside the rift!!”

“I can’t, Your Holiness. I also feel sorry about Lady Schneetern’s situation, but if you go in now, you’ll be in danger too.”

“But if we don’t save her now—”

“Rather, why don’t you use your ability to create an escape route for Lady Schneetern?”

Hearing the holy knight’s suggestion, Freed stopped struggling.

In his rush to immediately go save Yulia, he hadn’t thought to use his ability.

Like when he saved Yulia trapped in the rift before, using his ability to create a passage would make it easier for Yulia to escape this time too.

Freed immediately got down and summoned his power.

He was about to create an escape route for Yulia to get out, but ultimately, it turned out to be unnecessary.

“Your Holiness! Someone is coming out of the rift!”

Hearing the holy knight’s words, Freed immediately looked towards the rift.

As the knight said, two people were emerging from the rift.

A tall man with black hair, and a woman unconscious in his arms.

Is that man Duke Habicht? When did he enter the rift? I don’t think I saw him…

There was no time to wonder about that.

As soon as he confirmed the woman’s face, Freed ran towards them.

“Yulia!”

Just as he was about to reach out to Yulia—

“Don’t touch her.”

Freed stopped abruptly upon hearing Martin’s cold warning, and only then did he examine Martin.

Martin was also glaring at Freed with a gaze as sharp as a blade.

“Don’t touch her and get lost.”

A holy knight who had been watching the situation came over immediately and protested to Martin.

“How dare you! Have you forgotten who this person is? This is the Po—”

“The Pope. Freed von Emersheide… I know who he is too. Did you think I’d forget a face I see every year?”

After countering the holy knight’s protest like that, Martin continued.

“Pope. Why didn’t you immediately inform me that Yulia was in the Grand Temple?”

“There were circumstances that—”

“What circumstances could possibly justify hiding my subordinate from me?”

After saying that, Martin showed a sneer filled with contempt.

“There were no such circumstances. You simply wanted to monopolize Yulia for your own filthy desires.”

Even the holy knight couldn’t protest this time at the words that went beyond mere rudeness.

He just stood there blankly, as if doubting his own ears.

Despite uttering such harsh words, Martin did not regret it.

He had wanted to say this ever since Freed suddenly stopped the parade on National Foundation Day and approached Yulia.

Don’t look at Yulia with those eyes full of gloomy intentions.

He now spat out without hesitation the words he hadn’t been able to say back then.

“Don’t approach us ever again. You don’t have the shamelessness to approach again after failing to properly protect her and letting her end up like this, do you?”

Freed couldn’t say anything in response.

It was because he couldn’t find any incorrect part in Martin’s words.

He had failed to protect Yulia.

Despite being together, he had no choice but to helplessly leave Yulia inside the rift.

“…”

While Freed stood frozen, weighed down by self-reproach, Martin quietly walked past him.

Meanwhile, the Silver Knights who had chased after Martin gathered there one by one.

They had run together with Martin but fallen behind unable to keep up with his speed, and now they finally caught their breath as Martin briefly announced:

“I’ve retrieved her. Let’s go back now.”

After that, all of the Silver Knights, including Martin, left the place.

Freed didn’t move until they had all disappeared.

Weighed down by regret and despair, he remained frozen there for a long time.

Late at night.

In the reception room of the Kerrenburk baronial residence.

Ernant, who had been sitting there quietly waiting, suddenly muttered.

“They’re late.”

According to his expectations, Yulia should have long since closed the rift with the Pope and returned to the baronial residence.

However, for some reason, even though the sky had turned dark, Yulia still hadn’t returned.

An ominous conjecture flashed through his mind.

Did she get hurt inside the rift?

Yulia was strong enough on her own, and with the Pope accompanying her, it didn’t seem likely they would have been overcome by monsters, but still, with this much delay, worry welled up.

At that moment, another ominous conjecture suddenly occurred to him.

Could it be that the Pope…?

The Pope was known to be so ascetic that rumors circulated that he had no sexual desire at all.

So even when Ernant obtained information that Yulia was at the Grand Temple, he hadn’t worried much.

He thought that the Pope, who seemed incapable of acting like a man, surely wouldn’t lay hands on Yulia.

But now, Yulia hadn’t returned after entering the rift with that Pope.

Perhaps he had laid his filthy hands on Yulia inside the rift.

Just as Ernant stood up abruptly with that thought—

“Your Majesty! I have urgent news to report!”

An imperial soldier burst into the reception room, shouting those words.

It was the one Ernant had sent to monitor near the rift.

The report he delivered, pale-faced, was enough to provoke Ernant’s anger.

“Duke Habicht came to the rift! He took Lady Schneetern out of the rift and disappeared to the west!”

Martin had come.

And left.

Snatching away Yulia, whom Ernant had been waiting for so eagerly.

Ernant mulled over what he had just heard and slowly asked again.

“What… did you just say?”

“Th-the Duke took Yulia von Schneetern and left for the west. I’m sorry I couldn’t stop them. With the entire Silver Knights there, I couldn’t—”

“Enough.”

Cutting off the lengthening report there, Ernant ordered his aide.

“We’re heading west. We’re going after Martin.”

“But Your Majesty—”

“Shut up.”

Before the aide could dissuade him, Ernant said in a voice full of rage, as if grinding his teeth.

“Just how long are you telling me to sit back and watch? Unable to reclaim even one thing that slipped from my grasp, just how long are you telling me to wait?”

“…”

“This time, I’ll go retrieve her myself.”

The aide could no longer stop him, and Ernant immediately left the baronial residence, leading his soldiers.

It was late at night.