“So, you need the help of the divine dragon?”

“What?”

“Otherwise, there’s no reason for you to be looking for me so eagerly.”

When Litania first saw the report handed over by the head servant, she was quite surprised.

She thought the cancellation of her engagement to Orbis was simply due to the Emperor’s foul temper.

But upon learning the inside story, it seems the reason wasn’t so personal.

“I know that after Orbis brought me into the dragon castle and started inspecting the outside, conflicts with other countries arose, and I was almost kidnapped and killed because of that.”

“That’s…”

“After I divorced Orbis, other countries are eyeing this place thinking the empire has lost the divine dragon’s protection, so you were looking for me to resolve this, weren’t you?”

Ferus felt a complicated emotion that he couldn’t put into words.

That wasn’t the reason he had been looking for Litania. He was simply worried that she might still be in Orbis’s hands.

However, he couldn’t tell the truth either.

Even his younger brother Vapor had said several times that he couldn’t understand why Ferus was looking for Litania so desperately.

In fact, even he himself didn’t understand.

‘Why did I look for that person?’

Just as the burning heat seemed to subside a little, his heart strangely stirred again. Ferus clenched his fist while averting his gaze.

“…Yes. The reason you mentioned is correct.”

It was more realistic and reasonable to give the reason Litania had stated.

Sometimes, justification and rationality were more important than the truth. Ferus chose the latter.

“Then I…”

“That doesn’t mean I intend to send you to that monster. My opinion is that we shouldn’t rely on the divine dragon anymore.”

“A war might break out.”

“It’s a problem we would have had to face sooner or later.”

Litania frowned. In the past before the regression, the first to lose his life in the war against the demons was her brother Vapor.

“You mean people will die.”

“Nothing can be gained without sacrifice.”

Although there’s not much interaction now, Vapor resembled Litania the most in appearance. He was also gentle and rather timid in nature.

Even if it wasn’t a war with demons but with humans, it was difficult to expect Vapor to survive safely on the battlefield.

Even if that wasn’t the case, Litania hated the idea of war breaking out.

Even if it was a war in a distant country unrelated to her, the thought of people fighting and killing each other was horrifying.

If that war were to happen in her own country, thinking about her blood relatives dying made her shudder.

“There are ways to prevent it, aren’t there? If we can prevent it, we should.”

“You intend to go back to him?”

Ferus asked sharply. He reacted more sensitively to the idea of returning to the divine dragon than to an unqualified fake princess giving opinions on internal affairs.

“I know Your Majesty dislikes me. But isn’t this the time to prioritize national interest over personal feelings? The lives of countless people…”

“I don’t dislike you.”

Looking up at the unexpected answer, Ferus turned his head and crumpled the documents.

He cleared his throat, then turned his gaze back to face Litania.

A somewhat strange tension settled on the frowning face he had always thought was dirty.

“You just… irritated me.”

“…”

Isn’t that the same as disliking?

Litania tilted her head.

Ferus’s expression became strange. He covered his mouth like someone who had made a slip of the tongue, then sighed and rubbed his eyes, then put down the crumpled documents on the table and folded his arms.

“When you’re with him, everyone becomes unhappy.”

“Everyone?”

“I heard from Herna. They say you’re also aware of the ‘vanished future’.”

“…!”

The vanished future.

As Orbis turned back time and overwrote a new time, all the unfortunate futures became nonexistent.

He said that when he goes back to the past, people lose their previous memories, but Herna said that due to repeating it too many times, the ‘memory cleaning’ didn’t work properly.

Perhaps it wasn’t just Herna whose ‘memory cleaning’ didn’t work…

“Do you remember?”

“There are too many contradicting memories to distinguish which one is real.”

Perhaps they’re all real.

They met differently each time, and became unhappy differently. Only the ending was the same.

“I can’t allow you to remarry him. I’ll resolve this issue, so you don’t need to worry about it. Live quietly as you have been.”

“I can’t do that.”

“What?”

Ferus grabbed Litania’s shoulders.

“After all that, do you still have lingering feelings for him?”

“It’s not like that. I don’t want to be with Orbis as a couple anymore either.”

“Then why!”

“The late Emperor said that the imperial descendants have a duty to help resolve the nation’s affairs, big and small.”

She was called to meetings to solve droughts, and represented in prayers at rain rituals.

Litania participated even knowing she wouldn’t be of help. Because she was the princess.

Because she had to do what she could to prevent people’s misfortunes.

“The other countries’ complaints, and the current disrespect towards the empire, it’s all because of what Orbis did, isn’t it? He should be held responsible.”

“Responsible…?”

“I’ll go meet Orbis and talk to him.”

Litania wanted to meet Orbis again.

Of course, this doesn’t mean she has forgiven him.

Their love was too short, and the separation was sudden. That’s how their unprepared relationship was undone.

At the time, Litania was also too shocked to make rational judgments. She left for the modern world leaving only a message asking Orbis to safely return the knights stationed at the dragon castle and the servants sent from the imperial family.

But that shouldn’t have been the case.

They shouldn’t have ended their story like that.

“When Your Majesty divorced me from Orbis, you cited the reason that ‘the Emperor has full authority over the marriage of imperial descendants’, right?”

Although he said he doesn’t acknowledge her as a sister, officially she was still the princess.

So.

“I’d like you to appoint me as the person responsible for resolving this matter.”

“…Litania.”

“I am an imperial descendant, and this is my country where I must put down roots and live from now on. Please let me fulfill my responsibility.”

When she believed she wasn’t from this place, she didn’t pay much attention to the empire’s affairs.

Because she would leave anyway, because it wasn’t her body.

She only worried about her own survival.

But now it’s different. She is ‘Litania’, and Beriberbium is the country where she was born, and where she must live from now on.

So she can no longer turn a blind eye to the problems here.

“I beg you. Elder brother.”

“Bain!”

“My lady… no, Princess Litania.”

Bain, who seemed to have become quite gaunt perhaps due to being confined, bowed his head towards her.

“I’m sorry. I was late in coming to find you, wasn’t I?”

“How are you here? Surely…”

“Because this is where I should be.”

Litania apologized to the knights who were confined together, and ordered the servants to provide them with sufficient meals and rest.

“I didn’t know His Majesty would imprison you. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have left so easily.”

“Princess…”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you properly when you followed me.”

Ferus didn’t believe the knights’ stories. He thought they had all gone mad collectively and kept them confined. If Litania hadn’t come angrily looking for them, they would have remained in that state.

“I’ll make sure this never happens again. Can you follow me once more?”

Bain looked at the knights under his command. They all nodded in unison.

“We will renew our oath of loyalty.”

“No, that’s not necessary. We’re in a hurry now.”

Litania handed Bain a map.

A map with the location of the dragon castle marked. However, unlike before, it was surrounded by high rocks, making it impossible to enter through normal means.

“I’m going to meet Orbis. I need manpower to escort me there.”

“Princess, you can’t!”

“I have to do this.”

“But the cliffs are too high. Carriages or wagons can’t enter, and climbing the cliff on horseback is extremely difficult even for trained knights. And such high cliffs…”

“I have a way to climb the cliffs.”

“…Pardon?”

Litania smiled brightly and grasped Bain’s hand with both of hers.

“You haven’t had the chance to earn any significant merits while stationed as knights. I’ll give everyone a chance to achieve merit.”

On the day the released knights recovered and departed for the dragon castle, Princess Litania appeared riding a beautiful white horse never seen before.

“This one is called Lapis. Well, maybe not ‘one’.”

Sonipes, Bain’s beloved horse, is also white, but it looked different at a glance. Under the light-looking saddle, there were what looked like decorative white feathers attached.

“Princess, it takes a full two days to reach the dragon castle. It would be better to take a carriage…”

“It’s fine. And Lapis will fly away soon if I’m not riding.”

The white horse carrying the princess stayed docile, but when someone approached her, it bared its teeth with a hissing sound.

It didn’t seem like an ordinary horse, looking gentle but having a surprisingly nasty temper.

“I understand. Then…”

“Let’s depart.”

At Litania’s instruction, Bain signaled and the horses started off, stomping their feet vigorously. Sheltering from the wind behind the large Bain, Litania looked up at the heavily clouded gray sky.

It had been 3 months since she left the dragon castle.

Winter was approaching.