“My lady.”

Lina’s voice was heard along with a knock. Blair closed the book she was reading.

“Come in.”

As soon as Blair’s permission was given, Lina entered the study. Approaching with a solemn expression as if carrying a heavy duty, Lina handed Blair a letter.

“It’s a letter from the guild.”

It was the news she had been waiting for.

Blair put down the book she was holding and unfolded the letter.

The letter was written briefly with only the content to be delivered, omitting information about the sender and recipient in case someone else might see it along the way.

Blair’s eyes began to tremble aimlessly as she read through the letter.

* * *

“It’s coming!”

The knight’s voice echoed through the quiet winter forest. At the same time, something approached from afar, cracking the ground.

There was something huge underground.

Herdin stood in front of the path where it was charging.

Herdin watched it coldly as it approached, then thrust the sword he was holding into the ground.

A blue magic circle spread out from the sword. He had changed the direction of the freezing magic spell from above ground to underground.

Below the magic circle, sharp ice that had burrowed into the ground pierced the thing hiding under the surface. Then, a giant worm-shaped monster burst out onto the ground.

“Now!”

The knights who were waiting in hiding in the forest shot their crossbows all at once upon hearing the captain’s order.

Dozens of crossbow arrows with thin, strong wire attached pierced the monster’s body.

The monster twisted its huge body to shake them off and threw off a few knights in an attempt to hide underground, but it was impossible to shake off all several dozen men.

The knights gritted their teeth to withstand the monster’s strength.

“Argh!”

One of them was thrown off, unable to withstand the monster’s power. The monster’s mouth opened wide to swallow that knight.

In the moment the knight was terrified.

Herdin, who approached in the blink of an eye, grabbed the knight first and threw him towards the forest.

Then he quickly created the next magic circle and moved on it. In an instant, he approached the monster’s head and swiftly cut it off. There was no waste in that movement.

The bisected monster began to writhe, with the head regenerating the body and the body regenerating the head.

At that moment, the shape of a sword made of light appeared in the air. The sword of light stabbed into the monster’s body like heavy rain.

The knights watched in admiration at his fighting form, which they had already seen countless times.

Magic requires a high degree of concentration, making it difficult to use while moving. For the same reason, it’s also impossible to use more than one magic at a time.

However, Herdin not only used magic without interruption in his movements, but even used it consecutively.

Seeing this, anyone would have to admit. That he truly possessed power surpassing humans.

Herdin, who landed lightly, thrust his sword into the monster’s head that had fallen to the ground. When the monster’s heart that was lodged in the center shattered, both the body and head stopped moving.

Seeing this, the knights exhaled in relief. It was the end of the battle.

Herdin sheathed his sword and looked down at his palm. He could feel the mana moving inside his body.

‘There’s been no particular abnormality since the New Year’s festival.’

After experiencing problems with mana manipulation during the New Year’s festival, he had been checking his condition periodically, but there had been no noticeable issues.

Even after searching through magic books, he couldn’t find any cases of mana temporarily evaporating and then returning.

He couldn’t disclose his unstable condition to others. Since his weakness would soon become Delmark’s weakness, he had no choice but to observe and assess his condition on his own as much as possible.

‘There have been many disturbing things lately.’

The abnormal state of mana, and the visions seen with open eyes.

“Your Excellency.”

A servant approached Herdin, who was lost in thought, and handed him a towel.

Herdin wiped off the monster’s fluid that had splattered on his body.

Meanwhile, the servants began to clean up the monster’s carcass.

Hunting monsters comes with enormous risks, but because the carcasses are worth money, reckless monster hunters often entered their territory for profit.

And occasionally, like today, they would end up luring monsters into villages.

“That monster, we had actually almost caught it ourselves. It ended this quickly because we had already dealt damage to it.”

Herdin looked with contemptuous eyes at these culprits of the incident who, after begging for their lives just moments ago, were now stepping forward to claim their share once the monster had been dealt with.

‘You should have just become the monster’s prey and taken responsibility.’

But there was no need for him to step in personally. The knight captain, who was already accustomed to the northern monster hunters, would take care of it.

Herdin returned the towel to the servant and gazed blankly at the monster’s carcass that the servants were cleaning up.

Taking a life always leaves a dirty feeling. Whether it’s an enemy or a monster.

He thought he had gotten used to it after taking countless lives over more than a decade. Why did he suddenly feel uneasy again?

As Herdin pondered the reason, he suddenly thought of Blair.

The woman in his arms was warm. Her skin that touched his was soft, and her heart below her chest, like its owner, beat small but strong.

Being alive was that wondrous.

That fact, which he had known all along, suddenly struck him anew. Perhaps that’s why the death by his own hands felt newly unsettling.

He wanted to return quickly. To the mansion where that woman with her wondrous life was waiting.

As Herdin turned towards the horses he had tied up, he saw Luth approaching. And behind him, some not-so-welcome faces.

It was the Imperial Knights.

At the center was the Vice Captain who had led the Imperial Knights here.

“Oh my, while we went to the temple to bring the priest… You’ve already dealt with that big one? As expected of the Delmark Knights, the natural enemy of monsters!”

He put on an exaggeratedly surprised expression and praised the Delmark Knights. Or at least, that’s how it seemed at first glance.

Herdin looked at him with indifferent eyes. He knew the Imperial Knights had deliberately arrived late at the scene. It was always like this.

If only civilian lives hadn’t been at stake, he would have ignored whatever happened to the Imperial Knights.

“Indeed, if we had dealt with it any later, it could have been disastrous. We might have seen the imperial crest you’re wearing come out of that worm’s behind.”

At Herdin’s clearly sarcastic words, the atmosphere became suddenly tense.

The Vice Captain, whose expression had momentarily hardened, quickly composed himself and refuted with a hearty laugh.

“Haha, our knights aren’t that incompetent. We are the Imperial Knights after all.”

“Ah, I’m well aware of your competence. Don’t you always bring the priests at such impeccable timing?”

“…”

“You should hurry and transport the injured to the village. Isn’t that what you’re good at?”

It was a remark treating the Imperial Knights as servants cleaning up after others.

The Vice Captain could no longer hide his sour expression as he turned away from Herdin and gave orders to the Imperial Knights.

Luth, standing beside Herdin, clicked his tongue as he watched the retreating Imperial Knights.

“As always, such a waste of tax money.”

Herdin held out his hand to Luth while watching the Delmark knights receiving treatment.

“Our casualties?”

Luth, immediately understanding the meaning of the gesture, cut a cigar and placed it in Herdin’s hand. As he lit it, he answered.

“A total of five, but the injuries are minor, nothing to worry about.”

“What’s the schedule for today?”

“There’s no particular schedule, but remember Earl Caligo and his party were supposed to arrive around today?”

Caligo was one of the knights who had fought alongside Herdin on the battlefield, a skilled and loyal subordinate.

He had originally been stationed at Delmark’s main castle on Herdin’s orders, but was currently coming down to the islands.

“I know.”

In fact, he had just learned about it, but there was no need to mention that.

As Herdin nodded perfunctorily and took a drag on his cigar, he sensed someone’s presence behind him.

“Umm…”

Herdin and Luth turned around simultaneously.

“Ah, it is indeed Your Excellency! I saw you at the temple before, do you perhaps remember?”

The silver-haired woman brightened up as she faced Herdin.

As Herdin exhaled smoke and looked at the woman with an indifferent expression, Blair’s voice he had heard sometime before came to mind.

‘That priestess from earlier, she’s the woman you’ll fall in love with.’

Her voice had been calm, as if talking about someone else, and so had her eyes.

Recalling that memory, Herdin’s gaze sank coldly.

Though he didn’t know her name, he remembered that face. It was a face he couldn’t forget, regardless of whether he wanted to remember it or not.

“I remember. Priestess.”

Even if he hadn’t remembered, he could have guessed she was a priestess just from her attire.

But Miela seemed delighted just by the fact that he had said so, smiling brightly. She was a woman whose emotions were clearly visible on her face.

“I’m somehow glad to see you again like this. Are you injured anywhere?”

“No.”

At his brief answer, Miela became embarrassed but tried hard to find something to say.

“How is the area you received treatment for last time? May I ask about its condition?”

“It’s fine. Your healing magic was flawless.”

Unlike the compliment, Herdin’s eyes were full of boredom as he smoked his cigar. It meant there was no problem so she could go on her way, but Miela seemed not to have grasped that meaning and blushed.

“I’m glad. Since it was an internal injury, and I was very nervous at the time, I was worried that it might not have been properly treated…”

“…”

“Ah. How is the Duchess? She seemed quite shocked at that time too.”

When the familiar title came from Miela’s mouth, his expression, which had been bored all along, changed.