Count Bronthe stopped in the mansion.

“Madam, the lord has arrived!”

The wife, who had been dozing off with the door open, met his gaze.

At the end of his gaze stood a woman with flowing white hair.

The woman’s ankles looked fragile enough to break at any moment, and her lips were chapped.

Long white hair cascaded down, and the pale skin accentuated the frailty of the woman.

“Lady, please control your energy…”

The woman stiffly waved her hand.

“Madam, the lord has arrived. It’s been more than ten years since the wedding. Madam, do you recall now?”

“W-was I your wife in the wedding?”

Count Bronthe tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword.

“Why is she like this?”

“Madam cannot remember.”

The countess lost her memory. Her health was never good, and perhaps the shock of entering the coffin after death erased her memories.

“Are you okay?”

Count Bronthe touched his wife’s cheek.

“I-I was scared. Everything felt unfamiliar, and I coughed, coughed. My body feels dizzy and strange. Did I forget something?”

“It’s okay. Just woke up; you won’t have your bearings yet.”

The woman’s complexion paled, and blue veins appeared on her bloodless white skin.

“It’s so white.”

The wife had been dressed in white clothes that one puts on a corpse. The countess lightly scratched the wife’s nail.

“Were you looking at the cherry blossom tree?”

“Yes. The branches seem withered and pitiful.”

“It’s too early for the petals to fall; the weather is still cold.”

The wife had answered that it was regrettable not to see the cherry blossom tree before dying, due to the news that she would not survive this winter.

“Stop the funeral proceedings.”

The wife looked exactly the same as when she was alive. Her long white hair was thin and pure, and her bloodless complexion made it impossible to distinguish her sideburns on her cheek.

Dirt, dew, the scent of grass; she knew such trivial things. Seeing her wife turning dry soil, he averted his gaze.

“Ugh!”

The wife cowered in fear.

“You, the energy of wandering the subjugation front seems fierce. I apologize. I’m unfamiliar too. Are you okay now?”

He often left for the subjugation front. It is true that he could not protect his wife even after her death.

“Don’t be scared.”

“I couldn’t ask you anything because you were so scared. You only mentioned that you couldn’t remember past memories and that you were afraid of memories trapped in the darkness.”

The housekeeper explained with embarrassment.

The wife closed her eyes. She reached out her tender arms and embraced him. The trembling gradually subsided.

“The personal physician…”

“Locked up in prison.”

“Did you interrogate him?”

“Her pulse is weak, and her body, which was not well-detected even before, is not in good condition. Then, covering the body of a person who lived throughout the funeral procedure and even closing the coffin…! Due to such a mistake, dare to burn the lady…! She asked to be cremated.”

Count Bronthe tightened his grip on the sheath of his sword.

“Submit a request for an audience with the royal court.”

⭐⭐⭐
“You two vacated the palace, making it incredibly quiet. Now that I see the master stepping on the ground, it’s truly overwhelming…”

The courtier extended the private discussion for a long time. The emperor, who had been vacating the palace, returned and something was different. The empress, covered in a shawl, was in his arms.

“Why are you like this?”

“Oh, no.”

Benjamin wrapped his arm around Shal’s neck and gently pressed it. The courtier suddenly lowered his head.

“Leave us alone quietly.”

The courtier left the side. The corridor had become empty without notice.

Roscullam stood by.

“Your Majesty.”

Benjamin stroked her neck, covered with a shawl.

“Let her rest.”

“Yes. I will wait.”

Roscullam, who had been guarding the emperor’s back, looked at the empress and asked.

“Has your energy weakened?”

“So they say.”

Shallop seemed to fill the drained energy with a sense of exhaustion. Originally, her body wasn’t in good shape, whether it was stamina or anything else.

“Is it urgent?”

“It’s something I instructed in the past.”

He put her to rest in the imperial bedroom. Later, when the emperor walked through the empty corridors, Roscullam followed along.

“Lupercus disease was not directly related to black magic.”

“Is that so?”

“Because many ancient documents on black magic have been lost, it took time for me to investigate alone.”

Benjamin reassured her with a wave of his hand.

“Black magic practitioners deal with death, and that requires dark magic.”

“…Tell me.”

“People on the boundary between life and death draw dark magic from there. That’s the beginning of ancient black magic.”

“The origin, you mean?”

“Since black magic invades the human domain, to accumulate dark magic, practitioners chose bodies that fell into a state of emptiness to prevent divine intervention in the early stages of gathering dark magic.”

Although Roscullam spoke at length, the main point was one.

“The body on the boundary between life and death.”