One hour ago.

“I have business with Lord Lorel and am going down to the territory, so stay in the tent and wait.”

The Emperor said, handing Arabel a large box of chocolates.

The inside of the tent was more comfortable and cozy than her attic room.

As Arabel sat on a soft cushion and carefully peered into the chocolate box, the faint smell of burning wood seeped into the tent. When she poked her head out of the tent, she saw the opposite eastern sky being covered with dark red smoke.

“There’s a forest fire!”

When Arabel urgently told the soldiers standing guard in front, they gave an awkward smile as if they already knew.

“It, it seems so. The flames don’t seem to be coming this way, so you can rest assured. However, just in case, for your safety, please don’t leave the tent, young lady.”

“If we’re not careful, the animals in the mountains could be trapped and die. We need to go help them.”

“I’m sorry, but our duty is to keep you safe, young lady. The forest fire is spreading quite large, so you must stay here.”

“Please go back inside the tent. If not, it will be very troublesome for us.”

The soldiers answered with embarrassed expressions, avoiding Arabel’s gaze.

They had enough sense not to say that the current forest fire was by His Majesty the Emperor’s order. If the young lady were to learn the source of the fire… The soldiers shuddered at the image of His Majesty the Emperor’s face that came to mind.

Seeing the soldiers’ expressions that didn’t seem likely to be persuaded, Arabel seemed to give up and went back into the tent.

And soon, from behind the tent where the horses were resting, the sound of hooves was heard. The panicked sight of the rushing soldiers caught Arabel mounted on a horse.

Pulling on the horse’s reins, Arabel said,

“I’m sorry. I can’t just watch the wild animals fall into danger.”

Leaving those words behind, she galloped at full speed towards the eastern forest where the flames were spreading.

The soldiers chased after her, but Arabel had already disappeared into the opposite forest being consumed by flames.

While the soldiers, unfamiliar with the terrain of the mountain in the southern territory, were in confusion, the horse Arabel had ridden into the forest returned to them alone.

In front of the soldiers who had returned to the tent stood Sir Kyle, who had come with orders to escort the young lady to the lord’s castle.

“Let’s hang in there a little more. Once we pass this forest, we’ll reach the valley…”

Arabel encouraged the wild animals following her, deliberately making her increasingly hoarse voice sound cheerful.

With her arms full of a black bear cub, she forged through the hot mountain path. Behind her, dozens of large and small animals – injured mother bears, deer, antelopes, foxes, raccoons, wild boars, and more – were moving in a line.

When the animals were trapped by the flames, panicking due to the suddenly spreading forest fire… a girl with clear, large eyes appeared before them.

And the wild animals began to follow the small human girl out of the forest. As if understanding her words, they followed her like docile pets. It was an unbelievable sight.

The smoke choked her nose and throat, making it impossible to open her eyes properly. Numerous scratches appeared on her face and body as she fumbled along the path she could barely see.

It was a massive forest fire that had instantly turned the animals’ habitats to ashes. The raging flames, with red tongues lashing out from all directions, devoured everything around and closely pursued the procession of animals.

Crack! A large willow tree behind them burned and split in two as it fell, making the forest even more chaotic with the cries and commotion of animals and birds.

Arabel picked up a yellow kingfisher that had fallen from the fire-engulfed sky.

She put the kingfisher in her skirt pocket, and her hand skillfully lifted the bottom of the bear cub clinging to her neck and trembling. Arabel hurriedly led the wild animals following her out of the collapsing, burning forest.

“Cough, cough,”

It felt as if her lungs, not properly supplied with oxygen, were being wrung out. Arabel’s legs trembled with fear and pain as she was chased by flames that seemed like they could melt her skin.

‘When we reach the river valley, the animals will be safe. I have to stay conscious until then.’

Arabel thought as she forced a smile at the antelope that was coming alongside her, resting its tired head against her.

How far had they gone? Amidst the swirling flames assaulting her eardrums, the sound of water from the valley began to be heard. Her light brown eyes finally began to sparkle with hope.

“We’re really almost there now. Don’t be scared, don’t look back, just keep going forward, okay?”

As if speaking to herself, Arabel, her face blackened with ash, tightly hugged the trembling bear cub. She put strength into her two legs that kept getting tangled and stumbling.

It felt like if she showed weakness here, she would fall forward and never be able to get up again. The wild animals, as if they understood Arabel’s words, followed behind her more calmly than before.

As Arabel reached the edge of the forest, she pushed aside the densely hanging branches with a joyful face, but her eyes were soon consumed by despair.

The place they had arrived at was… right on top of a high cliff. The waters of the valley flowed far below the dizzying cliff. The only way to get down to the valley was to cross to the forest on the opposite side of the cliff.

Arabel’s large eyes took in a bridge made of tattered and worn ropes. The only passage connecting the cliff and the valley. Crackle, crackle, crash! The enormous flames were approaching at a terrifying speed, burning through the forest.

Arabel stood beside the bridge, determining the order for the animals to cross so that their weight would be evenly distributed to maintain balance as they crossed the river.

Watching over the frayed knots of the worn bridge tied to a large tree, lest they break, Arabel hurriedly looked for the mother bear.

At the end of the line of wild animals crossing the bridge one by one, Arabel placed the bear cub she had been holding onto the mother bear’s back, saying,

“From now on, you have to go with your mother.”

She spoke softly, steadying her trembling voice.

When she placed the kingfisher she had taken from her pocket onto her palms, the small bird, having finished its rest, flew up into the sky.

After confirming that the last remaining wild boar family had safely crossed the bridge and reached the opposite forest, a sigh of relief escaped Arabel’s lips.

Now it was Arabel’s turn. Beneath her small feet that carefully stepped forward one by one, she could feel the rope strings of the bridge beginning to snap.

Straining her eyes to avoid looking down,

“Just a little, just a little more…”

She prayed earnestly as she crossed, holding onto the bridge with her shaking hands. The forest in front of her drew closer and closer.

‘Just about five more steps and I’ll be there.’

As Arabel smiled towards the animals waiting for her…

Snap, snap snap.

The sound of knotted ropes breaking came from behind her in succession,

“Ahhh…!”

As the bridge broke, Arabel’s body fell towards the distant ground below.

As her body fell helplessly into the abyss…

Suddenly, it stopped in midair. A strong arm had snatched her slender waist, trapping her body in a broad embrace.

As her round eyes, which had been closed, traveled up the extended neck, they met with red eyes looking down at her.

The relief was momentary; her whole body trembled at the feeling of being swallowed whole into eyes that blazed hotter than the flames she had fled from. She wanted to avoid his gaze, but strangely, her eyes still held the Emperor.

The Emperor had sworn never to create a weakness in his life. The most fatal weakness for humans is the person they want to protect. Maxwell’s father’s weakness was his wife, Maxwell’s mother.

The truth about his father’s death that he accidentally heard. Unlike what people knew… it was said that the target of the demon black panther was not his father from the beginning.

The reason it had invaded the Crown Prince’s quarters in the imperial palace was because of his mother.

They say his father could have evacuated to a sufficiently safe place. However, to protect his wife, he rushed towards the black panther… The result was his corpse, damaged beyond recognition.

Crown Prince Luca, who was expected to be the next emperor to bring about the empire’s third period of prosperity, surpassing his father, Emperor Alexander.

He, who was excellent in character as well, was the rising sun and pride of all imperial citizens. However, his father met a miserable end because of his one weakness.

Without even getting to show his ambitions, the sun fell into darkness before it could even rise. Recalling his father’s futile death, Maxwell deeply engraved in his heart the determination not to create a weakness that would stake his life.

At the sight that came into view, the Emperor was both dumbfounded and enraged to the point of losing his reason. Because in his eyes, as he rode his horse at full speed through the flames, he saw Arabel evacuating the animals while guarding the rope bridge.

While he hesitated as his path was blocked by huge trees falling in all directions, fortunately, Arabel was crossing the bridge.

As he sighed in relief seeing Arabel almost reaching the opposite forest and pulled hard on his horse’s reins towards her…

Snap, snap snap.

In the blink of an eye, the knotted strings of the bridge began to break. The Emperor’s blood-stained hands gripping the reins turned white with the force.

No one can become a weakness in my life. I will not accept as my weakness a soft-hearted woman who sacrifices her life to save mere beasts.

At that moment, Arabel’s small body fell vertically.

Maxwell rode his white horse at full speed across the breaking bridge, leaped from the horse, and launched his body into the air.

The white horse that had jumped with him landed lightly in the opposite forest. The Emperor, falling towards the cliff bottom, reached out for the bridge rope hanging on a tree on the opposite side.

Hanging by one hand holding the rope, he stretched out his other hand and snatched Arabel’s waist. Only after holding her slender body in his arms did the thick vein throbbing on the Emperor’s neck finally calm down.

The Emperor clenched his teeth so hard they could break, unable to admit it.

He would not acknowledge the fact that to save this woman, all his cold reasoning had momentarily stopped and he had risked his life.

The moment the Emperor, carrying Arabel in one arm, climbed up the cliff using the rope and landed on flat ground, heavy rain began to pour from the sky.