Her gray hair fell to the floor.

Kallion, who was watching Letia even in the intense situation, unconsciously raised his voice at the sight.

“What are you doing now!”

“It’s my hair. I hid magic circles in my hair. So if I cut it off, they won’t appear anymore!”

As soon as her words ended, the shadows stopped forming.

“Thank goodness. I’m so glad my thinking was correct…”

She let out a big sigh of relief.

“This time I wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t useless…”

But as she looked too withdrawn, Kallion’s long eyebrows raised and just as he was about to open his mouth.

Something flashed on Letia’s nape, and a shadow that instantly appeared behind her back tried to stab her, when Kallion instinctively hugged her and blocked it with his body.

Thud-!

An eerie sound split the air, and Letia, unable to grasp the situation, raised her head with trembling eyes.

Kallion hugged her tighter and threw his body to the side.

Letia then realized that blood was pouring from his back.

“Y-You’re stabbed? Now, blood. Blood…”

“It’s alright.”

But Letia couldn’t hear Kallion’s voice.

“Why…? I clearly cut my hair. Did I do something wrong again?”

“Child, there’s only one reason you’re driven out of the imperial palace. It’s simply because your existence is wrong. That’s why you’ve been repenting in the Winter Spire every time. Everything was all your fault.”

Suddenly, an elegant voice without highs or lows instantly engulfed Letia’s mind.

‘Just… I thought I had forgotten everything…’

“There’s no reason for a useless thing to be here.”

For the past 5 years, she had tried so hard to escape this voice…

The voice of Empress Terisia, deeply ingrained in her bones for years, would prick that gap whenever she became even a little weak.

To Letia, the presence of Empress Terisia made her feel insignificant at every moment.

Every action and expression.

She needed Empress Terisia’s permission, and if she displeased her even a little, she had to be locked up in the Winter Spire under the name of reflection and blame herself endlessly.

Without knowing the reason, no, there was no reason.

Simply because everything was Letia’s, her fault.

Empress Terisia was a trap that dragged her down to the bottom endlessly like that.

“I’m really useless, useless…”

“No one has ever called you useless!”

At that moment, Kallion’s sharp cry shattered the Empress’s voice that was swallowing Letia.

Letia blankly raised her head and looked at him.

“You’ve been protecting me then and now!”

‘I… protected?’

“So pull yourself together. Didn’t you say you would run away?”

Kallion was dealing with the shadows around her, ignoring his injury.

As if, protecting Letia.

‘Why is he protecting me?’

Every time she was alone.

Even the person she trusted and relied on the most wasn’t on her side, and eventually left her.

Towards Kallion standing firmly in front of her, she moved her trembling lips.

“You said you wouldn’t help if I fell behind.”

“…”

“I wasn’t helpful, was I? Since I’ve become useless, shouldn’t you abandon me?”

Because everyone has abandoned her like that until now.

But.

“I told you. That you protected me. And now I’m finally repaying that debt.”

“What?”

“So now I will never abandon you either.”

At the words that he would never abandon her, for a moment, her heart ached.

Although it wasn’t a kind answer, it was the words Letia had wanted to hear so much from before until now.

‘I want to be helpful to him too. More properly. I want to protect properly!’

Kallion gripped his mind, which was blurring with pain, and sent a strong sword energy towards the shadow.

As the shadow faltered in that gap, he turned his head and shouted at Letia.

“Go, hurry!”

In the moment Kallion turned his eyes away, the shadow that had been pushed back by the sword energy rushed towards him at full speed.

“No!”

This time, as Letia stepped forward and hugged Kallion, a powerful barrier formed around them, repelling all the shadows.

Kallion hesitated at the unbelievable situation, and when suddenly a bright white light poured down, he barely lowered his gaze.

“You…”

“…You said I protected you… Then I should protect you until the end…”

Her ash-gray hair was shining white like that day.

The warmth of that spring day that he had never forgotten, not even for a moment.

That warmth flowed so warmly and sacredly, enveloping Kallion, taking away the pain that had been so painful, and erasing the wounds and making new flesh grow as if breathing new life.

Kallion, with his gaze fixed on her, whispered as if enchanted.

“…Spinel…”

Letia whispered, unaware of what she was doing now.

“…This time I really helped properly, right?”

Kallion grabbed Letia’s hand tightly and said.

“Yes. You protected me this time too.”

At those words, Letia finally sighed in relief and smiled brightly.

“Thank goodness. Really, thank goodness…”

As if she had used up all her strength, Letia collapsed right there and Kallion quickly embraced her.

At that moment, something shiny was seen on her nape.

‘This is…’

As she lost consciousness, the barrier disappeared, and when the shadow attacked again, Kallion swung his sword roughly with a look that said there was no need to spare anymore.

Then the sharp sword energy swept around, tearing apart and annihilating all the remaining shadows.

Eventually, Kallion erased the peridot magic circle that had been engraved on Letia’s nape.

She had hidden magic circles not only in her hair but also on her nape.

“You persistently set traps to kill me and yourself.”

Is this also the work of Empress Terisia?

Even after already breaking off the engagement.

Why are they trying to get rid of her to this extent?

Yes, come to think of it, the Empress hated Letia from the beginning.

‘How many times were you alone in that frozen tower while I was gone?’

Kallion’s eyes grew darker and darker as he looked at Letia who had lost consciousness in his arms.

There was only one reason why he entered this red forest knowing it was a trap.

To find Gemma, Spinel, who had disappeared from this world.

‘Because I must reveal my father’s innocence.’

That war that pushed Takel into hell was clearly a strange war somewhere.

The cause of defeat was the enemy’s ambush.

It was known that the failure to detect the ambush was due to General Takel’s misjudgment, but the upper reaches were relatively wide terrain where ambushes were not easy.

Moreover, even if they were suddenly attacked, Takel’s unit was composed of those with a lot of combat experience, but they were breached too easily and annihilated in an instant.

What was particularly suspicious was that all records and traces of the war at the time had been erased.

‘Only the power of the Emperor and Empress can eliminate the records of war as if to erase them.’

Among the candidates for imperial succession at the time, Takel, who had gained the trust of the imperial people and even seized military power, was superior, and Kalua was overwhelmed by Takel in all aspects and did not receive the trust of the previous Emperor.

But as Takel collapsed, Kalua and Terisia moved as if they had been waiting, reversing fate.

Takel’s dishonor became the honor for Kalua to ascend to the throne.

To solve this question, which was only circumstantial evidence, there was only one method left now.

To hear the truth of that day directly from General Takel.

Although it was taboo, just for one day.

There was a magic that could summon the dead, which was resurrection.

The gem that could cast this resurrection was the red gem symbolizing the blood of all things, Spinel.

But decades ago. After the record that Gemma, who possessed Spinel, raised a rebellion and was exterminated, Spinel could not be found without a trace.

For this reason, the Gemma clan, which was one of the 10 great families, became one of the 9 great families.

Still, to find possible survivors.

Kallion traveled around all the empires and small countries under the pretext of roaming the battlefield, but in the end, he couldn’t even find a trace of Spinel.

So he came to this red forest where Spinel’s last protective magic dwelled.

Even if Spinel was gone, if the magic was still being cast, it meant that the magic circle they left behind was hidden in this red forest.

If he could find it, he might be able to unfold the resurrection magic by borrowing that power.

But now he could save such trouble.

He gently stroked Letia’s ash-gray hair.

“Spinel should be born with a red color. Have you been hiding such a brilliant gem in this ash color all this time?”

The gem that shone only in front of him, then and now.

“In the end, we met again like this. I lost you once, but.”

On that day when they met in the Winter Spire, when he regained consciousness, she was nowhere to be seen.

He wanted to find Letia again somehow, but Kallion had to leave the imperial palace by order of the Empress and Emperor.

But on the day when Crown Prince Asiz’s engagement was officially announced.

Kallion met her again and heard her name in full.

‘Letia Crystallos.’

A bloodline of the Crystallos family who might be enemies, and the woman who would become Asiz’s wife.

The her he met again was not the her Kallion knew, and he thought he should forget her forever like that.

He tightened his hand holding Letia and turned his body.

The fog that had blocked his view had all disappeared, and the lost path was visible.

It was thanks to the barrier Letia had spread that had removed all the fog.

‘It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember. I said I would bring everything back and reclaim it, and now that includes you too. So you must shine for me.’

Kallion’s pupils took on a cold light as he slowly traced Letia’s face.

“My beautiful gem.”