Same time. Estate of Count Korad.

“Father!”

Count Korad looked over his monocle at his son, who came running into the study, flinging open the door without knocking.

Timothy, who had run up the three flights of stairs in one breath to stand before his father, spoke while catching his breath. His flushed cheeks revealed how excited he was at that moment.

“I finally found her. I met her today!”

His honest green eyes, unable to hide his joy, sparkled like jewels in the lamplight.

“Who did you find?”

Count Korad, who had been comparing the ancient words from the notebook found in the cave last time with the oldest language book in the empire, asked as he stood up from his desk.

“I went to the square today… and met Lady Arabel!”

At Timothy’s answer, Count Korad’s expression also brightened with unexpected good news.

It was two years ago, when they were chasing a horned beast that had crossed the boundary of the Ether River into the human world from the Hampurt Mountains in the southern region.

In the empire where ancient god worship had disappeared, mythical creatures were no longer found. However, occasionally lower-level magical beasts and creatures would break through the barrier and cause disturbances in the human world.

Count Korad was not only the empire’s but the continent’s best magical beast exterminator, and his only son Timothy was training as his successor and helping him.

Timothy, who had been a model student since childhood, had mastered all methods of magical beast extermination by intensively studying books and materials, but the actual practice of risking one’s life to exterminate magical beasts was very different.

Count Korad, who had to raise his infant son alone after losing his wife, sometimes secretly blamed himself for raising his son like an orchid in a greenhouse.

However, when he saw his pure and upright son, unlike other boys his age, a contented smile naturally formed on his face.

When Timothy was separated from the count deep in the mountains, he accidentally became infected with scorpion mushroom poison, and by the time the count found Timothy, the poison had already spread to more than two-thirds of his body.

The scorpion mushroom had twenty times the lethal dose of poison compared to ordinary mountain mushrooms, paralyzing the limbs even if just inhaled through the nose.

The count moved Timothy to the castle of Baron Kander, which was closest to the Hampurt Mountains, but that night he sensed that his son would leave his side.

There was no proper doctor in the neglected territory, and a man who introduced himself as a healer, greedily eyeing Count Korad’s valuable family emerald ring, tried to cure Timothy with nonsensical dialects and gestures along with his two daughters, but to no avail.

As Count Korad held his dying son’s hand, trembling in despair, a girl rushed into their bedroom.

She had an apron full of red, rough roots. She was the small-framed girl he had glimpsed when entering Baron Kander’s castle.

Thinking she was a maid, the healer’s daughter had gone to the mountain while her father and other sisters were trying to treat Timothy by lighting candles and sprinkling oil.

‘What do you know!’

‘How dare you bring such unreliable herbs to Count Korad’s son?’

As her family members glared and blocked Arabel’s way, Count Korad waved them away.

The biggest reason was that he wanted to grasp even a rotten rope for his dying son, but he also wanted to trust those large, honest eyes for some reason.

“It’s, it’s the roots of wild kiwi vine and Berchemia berchemiaefolia. My mother once… saved a wild boar that was dying from eating scorpion mushrooms when she went to the mountains before.”

As Arabel explained stammering, her family members berated her, saying ‘How dare you treat Lord Timothy like a wild boar,’ while watching the count’s reaction and throwing fits.

They were certain that the count’s young son would die anyway, and that the wealthy man would give them some compensation for their efforts.

Ignoring them, Count Korad nodded and asked, and Arabel hurriedly ground the herb roots in a mortar and carefully fed them into Timothy’s mouth. Thus, the small and thin savior saved Count Korad’s son that night.

Arabel stayed by Timothy’s side with Count Korad all night, helping to nurse him, and by dawn Timothy was able to open his eyes. The first person to enter his revived green eyes was Arabel.

Count Korad and Timothy could immediately tell that she was too good for the people of this house.

Especially Count Korad wanted to take Arabel, who was rich in knowledge and wisdom about the wild, to the capital with them to educate her, but Arabel was not yet of age.

Three days later, when Count Korad and his son were leaving Kander’s territory. Even when he gave her the address of the count’s mansion in the capital and told her to visit anytime, she just smiled faintly.

If Arabel had pleaded to go with them, they might have taken her, but she didn’t seem to think about the reward for saving the life of the heir to a prominent count’s family.

Unlike Arabel, her family members’ eyes flashed like hungry hyenas when they saw the box of gold bars that the count had brought from his safe.

He handed over the box of gold bars, saying he wanted to sponsor Arabel’s education and living expenses, but Count Korad sensed that they would not spend a single penny on Arabel.

As they said goodbye, Timothy secretly placed his family ring in Arabel’s hand and said,

“If you want to return it, you must come to the capital when you come of age and give it back in person.”

As soon as he returned to the capital, Timothy left for study abroad in the Senper Kingdom, and during that time he sent dozens of letters to Arabel but never received a reply. Only envelopes of letters written by her sisters and cousins piled up.

When Timothy finished his studies and visited Kander’s territory with Count Korad,

‘The lord’s family disappeared in the middle of the night as if fleeing. We have some hope now that a new lord chosen by His Majesty himself is coming.’

The few remaining villagers told them.

Since then, Count Korad and Timothy have made efforts to find Arabel’s whereabouts, but to no avail.

“Even though we failed to find the Baron Kander’s family despite mobilizing all our connections, you met the lady in the middle of the square. And next to the Emperor, no less. Ha, ha.”

Count Korad burst into laughter, as if finding it amusing.

The count vaguely guessed that his son, who had no interest in romance at all, had feelings for Arabel. He was worried because he knew his son was suffering because of Arabel’s sudden disappearance, so it was welcome news.

“I don’t know the reason, but I’ll go to the imperial palace tomorrow and ask His Majesty the Emperor. To allow you to meet Lady Arabel. You’ve waited this long, surely you can wait one more night?”

Timothy’s face burned even hotter at Count Korad’s playful words.

The count and his son, far removed from imperial politics, laughed together, unable to even imagine that the eleventh candidate brought by the emperor himself was Arabel.

Flower shop cafe in the capital square.

It was just four sentences.

‘Don’t come any closer!’

‘If you come any closer, we’ll take them out one by one!’

‘If you don’t let us go, not even a mouse will survive!’

‘Alright, I’ll show you another example!’

The harsh cries of the traffickers piercing through the sounds of breaking pots and ceramics and terrified sobs from inside the flower shop.

And then came silence.

As if there really wasn’t even a mouse alive there as the traffickers had threatened, only a heavy stillness flowed. Those who had collapsed on the floor, their tongues paralyzed by fear and shock, could only move their mouths without making a sound.

Drops of dark red blood could be seen on the faces and clothes of the six or seven young men and women held hostage, but none of them were injured.

The same dark red liquid that began to soak the shop floor came from the dozen or so motionless bodies sprawled on the floor.

What was pressing down on the bodies of the living, the not living, and those in between, making it impossible to even breathe… was killing intent.

A killing intent of a different dimension from that of the traffickers cornered and wielding deadly weapons, one that engulfed everything into darkness.

The unharmed hostages knew they should be grateful to their savior standing before them, but they couldn’t even make proper eye contact due to the blood-colored fear he gave off.

The handsome man who had just shown a heart-fluttering and romantic scene was now making their hearts pound for a different reason.

With the tip of his longsword lowered to the floor, the man holding the small lady in his arms like a princess looked more like a god of hell risen from the underworld than a savior descended from heaven.

When the traffickers, chased by soldiers, suddenly burst into the shop and took people hostage, despite their threats, the soldiers in the front row took one step closer.

‘Ugh.’

A short groan barely escaped the lips of the woman held by the trafficker, and her body fell to the floor.

Brandishing his weapon, he raved.

‘If you don’t let us go, not even a mouse will survive!’

If they were caught here, it was over. The punishments carried out in the empire were longer and harsher than those of any kingdom. It was famous for maintaining such a strict system that it was impossible to bribe executioners or prison guards, no matter how much money one had.

They said it was all because of that damn emperor. If they could escape with the hostages to the river, there was a chance to survive. Because the others were waiting with a boat at the river. Then they could dispose of the hostages or take them to sell.

The leader of the traffickers looked down at the small, thin girl in his hand with a sinister gaze as he thought.

As the soldiers showed no sign of retreating and continued to face off, the trafficker leader, pressed for time, brought the blade of the sword he was holding to Arabel’s neck.

‘Alright, I’ll show you another example!’

As the sharp blade approached before her eyes, Arabel squeezed her eyes shut…

Thud.

With a dull sound, the brute force of the hand gripping her shoulder loosened, and Arabel’s body was freed.

Whoosh, as the sound of a sharp blade was heard, the dark hands reaching out from both sides were withdrawn.

Swish, swish, slash, thud. Swish. The chilling wind created by the sword passed over Arabel’s face as she stood with trembling legs, eyes closed.

In an instant, her feet left the ground, and a firm, long arm brought Arabel into his embrace. She could tell without opening her eyes. Who was holding and protecting her.

Just the sound of his beating heart was reassuring enough to make her cry. Arabel buried her head in his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him with all her might.

“Your Majesty!”

Commander Jacob rushed into the shop and knelt before the emperor. The eyes of the trembling people widened as they all looked at the blood-eyed savior.

As the imperial guards who followed in saluted with courtesy, the others also seemed to come to their senses and began to bow one by one.

The imperial guards watched silently as the emperor, unable to wipe his blood-stained blade while holding Arabel, handed his sword to a soldier.

Especially the young soldiers who had not been with him on the battlefield looked at him with awe-filled eyes, having witnessed the emperor’s swordsmanship up close.

“Return to the imperial palace when the cleanup is finished.”

At the emperor’s command, Sir Jacob bowed his head and asked quietly.

“Will you be returning with us?”

The emperor’s crimson eyes looked down at the round crown of the head in his arms and answered shortly in a low voice.

“I will go to the villa in the capital. No one is to follow.”