In the half-collapsed eastern palace, Litania was hiding under the protection of the knights.

The castle no longer seemed in danger of collapsing further, but the transformed dragon castle was unbearably hot and cold.

Flames raged in front while blizzards whirled behind. If this absurd weather continued, surely everyone would die before long.

“What should we do? How can we get out in this situation?”

Bain calmly answered Litania’s question.

“There’s nothing we can do now. Rather than leaving, we must first worry about immediate survival.”

Immediate survival.

Yes. With the bridge collapsed, it would be difficult to find a way across that sea of lava.

But there was a limit to enduring this heat and cold by bringing all the carpets and tapestries from the reception room, rolling them up, and sharing body heat.

And critically.

“Is there any food left?”

Bain’s expression darkened.

Forget food, there wasn’t even water. At this rate, there would be deaths within two days.

‘Should I try to make it to the kitchen? But I might have an accident on the way.’

Starve to death, burn to death, or freeze to death.

Either way was horrific. Litania huddled, blowing on her numb fingertips.

“My lady, moisture will make your hands freeze more. For now, keep them inside your sleeves.”

“I’m sorry, Bain.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. More importantly, with you in this state, why hasn’t the divine dragon yet…”

“Stop talking about Orbis.”

Litania cut off Bain’s words and looked away. He seemed a bit taken aback by her sharp reaction.

At first when she had turned pale and said she didn’t know, he thought something bad must have happened to the divine dragon for the dragon castle to be in such danger.

But from her reaction now, it didn’t seem to be due to some unavoidable accident.

She appeared extremely angry at the divine dragon.

Not a soft emotion like lovers’ quarrel, but rather… a very heavy anger, as if at betrayal.

“Then may I ask one thing? Has our mission changed?”

“Rather than changed, I’d say it’s been suspended.”

A cold voice came from above.

“Eek!”

Litania didn’t even look up, hiding under the blanket. Bain looked up in her place.

At the end of a thin railing that was barely hanging on after everything had collapsed, a dragon with beautiful golden hair stood.

“Divine Dragon Orbis.”

“You’ve become quite skilled at surviving. I suppose the training was worthwhile in some way.”

Though the dragon castle was in such ruins, the dragon seemed completely unaffected.

Even as the castle crumbled, servants turned into monsters, and fire and ice rained down.

The dragon still appeared beautiful and noble.

…Terrifyingly so.

“Litania. Come here.”

“No, I won’t… I won’t go.”

“Why so stubborn?”

“No. No!”

Litania trembled, curled up under the blanket. She was leaning towards Bain.

That alone made it clear. That the divine dragon had done something terrible, unforgivable to her.

“Persistently clinging to a woman who refuses also goes against chivalry.”

Bain stood up and drew the sword at his waist. The cold sound of metal scraping made Litania curl up even more.

Orbis, at whom the blade was pointed, showed no caution or anger. Just an emotionless expression, as if looking down at a line of crawling ants.

“Is pointing a sword at your master part of this chivalry you speak of?”

“Carrying out our lord’s will to the end is chivalry.”

“Our lord’s will?”

“You told us to protect the lady. You trained us for that purpose.”

The divine dragon was a being that even millions of armies couldn’t kill, so knights to protect him were unnecessary.

Therefore, the one these castle knights had to protect was not the divine dragon, but the dragon’s bride.

The dragon had personally taught them for this day. Pushing them to the brink of death, even using his divine power to heal those on the verge of death one by one.

“We are simply risking our lives to protect the lady, as we were trained to do.”

“Ah, no!”

Litania, who had been curled up until then, suddenly stood up and grabbed Bain’s arm.

“Are you crazy? There’s no way you can win against Orbis!”

“A knight does not always fight to win.”

Fighting to protect. Fighting for honor. A fight that must not be avoided even knowing defeat is certain.

Only humans can rush into certain death knowing they will die. Bain considered this the pride of a knight.

“It wouldn’t take even a second to rip out the heart of an annoying obstacle.”

“That’s correct. But if my heart is ripped out, an even bigger obstacle will form between the divine dragon and the lady.”

“…”

Orbis’s eyes wavered slightly. His gaze was directed at Litania.

“Orbis, don’t kill Bain. You mustn’t kill him.”

“…”

“No matter how strong you are, you have no right to do as you please with lives.”

“…Indeed, you were afraid of corpses.”

Orbis shrugged and jumped down from the railing. It seemed like it wouldn’t be able to support the weight of a man burlier than Bain, but Orbis landed as lightly as a feather on the broken tiles.

“Then do you intend to let them slowly boil in the heat and freeze to death in the cold?”

“O-Orbis…”

“Hmm. Or perhaps starvation? That would be interesting, as I’ve never seen it firsthand.”

“Orbis!”

When Litania shouted, Orbis made a sulky expression like a child being scolded.

“You’ve never made such a desperate face for me.”

“…”

“I’m not sure which of us is truly being too cruel.”

Orbis furrowed his brow. Were the dragon’s claws about to fly? Bain gripped his sword hilt tightly.

But the claws did not come.

Surprisingly, the dragon turned away and walked off as if uninterested.

“You asked for time alone.”

He spoke as if muttering to himself rather than addressing Litania.

“I need time to think alone as well.”

With those words, Orbis disappeared.

“…”

The divine dragon was gone. Bain, who had just faced the imminent danger of having his heart ripped out, felt cold sweat running down his back.

“He has withdrawn.”

“Yes… I don’t think he’ll come back for a while.”

They had preserved their lives for now.

But could that really be called preserving their lives?

Even with Orbis gone, the scorching heat and freezing cold of the dragon castle remained. No matter how harsh the training the knights had endured, they were still human. They could not withstand disasters beyond human limits.

“…We have no food.”

To conserve energy as much as possible, they had left only one person on watch while the rest slept lightly, but increasingly they were waking up without being roused.

Litania, who was much weaker than the knights, was holding up surprisingly well.

But how long could she last? Bain wasn’t confident.

Without food and water, they wouldn’t make it through the night.

“Bain, I’m sorry.”

“My lady.”

“Everyone got involved because of me… I should have thought about the people I’m responsible for.”

“Please don’t say such things. Forcing actions on someone without their consent is a crime in any case.”

“But innocent people got caught up in this.”

“We must not sacrifice ourselves out of guilt. Not even one person.”

He replied firmly.

“Don’t you resent me? I dragged you into this when you were innocent…”

“You said kindness should be repaid with kindness.”

Bain recalled words Litania had once recited with an innocent face.

“I am simply repaying your kindness.”

“…I never showed such great kindness.”

“The magnitude doesn’t matter.”

That’s right. Big or small was trivial. No matter how small the kindness, she had shown it to him unconditionally and naturally. That fact was what mattered.

“I’m just… sorry I won’t be able to help you until the end.”

His vision blurred from fatigue and hunger. Bain knelt on one knee before Litania.

It was then.

“Danger! A beast is coming this way!”

The knight on watch duty shouted. Bain’s eyes snapped open as he stood, drawing the sword at his waist.

Boom. Thud. A black bear was walking through the blizzard.

“Eek…!”

The bear walking on two legs looked even larger than its normal size.

Bears are not only strong, but also incredibly fast.

Even for trained knights, victory against a bear cannot be guaranteed. Especially not here, in their weakened state from fatigue and hunger.

“W-What should we do? Run away…?”

“Miller. Take the lady and slowly retreat. The rest of us will hunt the bear.”

Bain gripped his weapon tightly and sent Litania to the back, on guard. One knight’s hand carefully guided her, as if protecting her.

“Captain, should we attack first?”

“No, if we charge in the first person will certainly die. Wait until the bear takes a stance.”

Thud. Thud. Thud. Heartbeats scattered chaotically.

It seemed the huge bear would roar and charge at them at any moment.

However, strangely, the bear no longer approached and instead repeated odd behaviors like crawling on all fours then standing on two legs.

“What’s it doing?”

“…Exercising?”

The bear, which had been raising and lowering its arms as if bowing, dragged something on the ground and slowly pushed it towards them.

“A sack…?”

After pushing the sack towards the knights, the bear turned its back and began walking away with heavy steps. Though bears are said to be agile, it didn’t seem to move very quickly, yet soon disappeared from view.

“Captain, should I go get it?”

“I’ll go.”

Thinking the sack the bear had dragged over might be a missing comrade, Bain flipped his cloak over his head and quickly ran out. When he checked the sack, he looked surprised.

Is it really a corpse?

The knights’ faces turned pale.

Bain lifted the sack onto his shoulder and sprinted back.

“Captain! Whose body…”

“It’s food.”

“What?”

As Bain untied the sack and set it on the ground, large round objects rolled out.