Crack―! Along with a chilling sound, an intense pain that could sear my brain white erupted in my shoulder.

The knight’s mace had cleanly struck my shoulder, shattering the bone.

Only then did Ernant belatedly fire the crossbow he had prepared, hitting the knight in the back of the head.

After directly dealing with the monster he had created, he immediately ran towards me.

“Yulia!”

Seeing him run over with a surprised face despite being the culprit behind this whole situation made me want to spit at him.

But having already been hit twice by the mace, that seemed difficult.

So I glared at him with a gaze as violent as a curse, but he paid no mind and approached to examine my condition.

“Damn it, Yulia! Are you alright?! Shit, I didn’t mean for it to go this far…”

Despite the severe pain as if my broken ribs were piercing my internal organs, I painfully opened my mouth.

And with all my strength, I mocked his words.

“You didn’t mean for this…? Then what exactly… were you thinking… when you did such a thing?”

Laughter burst out amidst the pain.

Bringing knights who had gone mad from monster implants, making them swing weapons around, and then claiming he didn’t expect this situation.

While spouting such nonsense, Ernant wore an uncharacteristically serious expression.

“I thought I’d show you my results and try to persuade you. I only meant to scare you a little…”

“…”

“I’m truly sorry. It seems they lost their sense of self as a side effect of the chimera implant and ignored my orders.”

I stared blankly at Ernant as he knelt on one knee to examine my condition while making such excuses.

An emotion of sadness had risen on his unnecessarily handsome face.

Sadness, really.

I laughed again, feeling foolish for interpreting his expression as ‘sadness’ for a moment.

There’s no way he would be sad seeing me nearly dead.

At most, he might be disappointed that he can no longer use my power.

Right, don’t be fooled.

Repeating that to myself, I spoke to him.

“Stop pretending to be sad… It’s disgusting…”

“Yulia…”

“You’re just disappointed… that you can’t use me anymore…”

He tried to say something, but I spoke first.

“When I die… you’ll be the type to laugh and chat… casually next to my corpse…”

I recalled Ernant’s face smiling as he fed me poison before my regression.

He may be pretending to be sad now as if to deceive me, but it must all be a lie.

Suddenly wanting to tear off that mask of pretense, I desperately spat out sharp words at him despite the pain.

“Disgusting… murderer…”

“Stop talking, your injuries are getting worse. Instead, we need to find a potion… Some of the fallen soldiers must have had potions. We need to find them and—”

“Stop this useless act… Pretending to regret now… When it’s all your fault anyway…”

Ernant’s movements suddenly stopped.

I’m not sure exactly what, but some part of my words seemed to have provoked his anger.

Inwardly rejoicing at the fact that I had irritated him even a little, I mustered all my strength.

“Remember this well… Right now, you… have killed even me, a knight who once loved you… with your own hands.”

“…”

“You might be loved by someone… but you yourself will never be able to love anyone… You’ll be a lonely person for life.”

My breathing became rapid due to the pain, but I managed to spit out the last words without pausing or stuttering.

It was my final struggle to leave even a small scratch on his heart.

Ernant’s eyes filled with some indescribable emotion as he looked at me.

Or perhaps they seemed completely empty, devoid of any emotion.

After looking at me with such inscrutable eyes, he carefully reached out his hand.

His cold fingertips finally touched my cheek.

Whether this too was part of his fake act, his hand was trembling slightly.

As if he had received some kind of shock.

While caressing my cheek with those trembling fingertips, he muttered.

“Don’t die.”

“…”

“Don’t die and come to your senses. It’s an order.”

“An order…?”

He nodded his head with a slightly pleased look at my barely managed question.

“Yes, an order. If you’re my knight, you should follow my orders. That’s how it should be, right?”

The moment I heard those words, joy and satisfaction filled my heart.

I was glad that I could disobey his orders until the very end.

“If you order me not to die… I’ll use all my strength… to die for you…”

Those were my final words.

I closed my eyes.

As my vision turned pitch black, I heard loud cries in my ears.

Ernant was calling out my name.

He was continuing his act of sadness even until the moment of my death.

But I had no interest in such cries.

There was something else that truly bothered me.

Thump. Thump.

My heart was beating violently.

It was a familiar phenomenon I had faced whenever I encountered moments of crisis.

Without ever figuring out what that violent beating meant, I closed my eyes.

“Yulia!”

Martin, who had been guided by Henrik, shouted as he entered the tavern.

Immediately, a strong scent of blood assaulted his nose.

As he surveyed the interior with narrowed eyes, the first things that came into view were, as expected, several corpses.

Fortunately, Yulia’s figure was not visible among those corpses.

Did she manage to escape safely?

As he was scanning the interior with such hopeful thoughts, suddenly a color that didn’t fit with the dark place caught his eye.

It was a bright golden color.

In a corner of that place, cluttered with broken furniture, corpses, and blood, a man with hair as radiant as the sun was sitting with his back turned, holding onto something.

Martin, who already knew from Henrik that the blonde man who had lured Yulia was Ernant, immediately gripped his halberd.

“Ernant.”

Calling his brother’s name, he pressed the sharp blade of the halberd against his neck.

There was no answer from Ernant.

He just sat in the corner holding onto something, as if he had lost his senses.

Gritting his teeth, Martin asked again.

“Where’s Yulia? Did she leave this place?”

“…”

“Answer me, you bastard!”

Martin violently shouted and brought his weapon even closer to Ernant’s nape.

Even as blood began to flow from his neck because of this, Ernant didn’t move.

Feeling something strange, Martin grabbed Ernant’s shoulder and roughly pulled him back.

At last, Martin could see what Ernant had been holding onto all this time.

“…Yulia.”

What Ernant had been embracing while sitting in the corner was Yulia.

Yulia, with her eyes closed as if peacefully asleep, was cradled in Ernant’s arms.

An ominous premonition pierced Martin’s heart like a sharp stake.

“Yuli, ah…”

After roughly pushing Ernant back, he quickly examined Yulia.

First, he checked for a pulse with his fingers.

Even after a long while, no pulse could be felt.

Then he placed his finger under her nose, but it was the same.

Not even a shallow breath could be felt.

If there was no pulse and no breath could be felt, there could only be one reason.

Before Martin could voice that ominous word.

“She’s dead.”

Before the word ‘death’ could leave Martin’s lips, Ernant spoke first.

Saying that Yulia had left them forever.

Hearing that briefly uttered sentence, Martin slowly stood up and stared at Ernant standing behind him.

“Did you kill her?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Martin was curious about the reason.

Why he had gone this far.

Why he had so persistently pursued Yulia, and so cruelly driven her to death.

She had once been a knight loyal to Ernant himself, couldn’t he have just wished her happiness?

Although he asked for the reason behind such an act, Ernant didn’t respond, and Martin gave up on getting an answer.

Whoosh― The halberd was swung in an instant, grazing Ernant’s neck.

Ernant’s head was severed at a speed so fast that he wouldn’t have had time to realize his own death.

Thud.

Passing by the Emperor’s severed head rolling on the floor, Martin walked towards Yulia’s body.

Then he embraced it and buried his face in her.

It was a desperate attempt to find signs of life, but of course, not a single spark of vitality could be felt from the already dead body.

A thick and heavy sense of despair filled his lungs.

He could barely even breathe properly.

And then, at that moment, the second miracle finally occurred.

The time of all things slowly began to rewind.

Back to the past before all events had occurred.