The sky was high and cloudless, clear as could be.

Underneath the sun leaning towards noon, a chariot bearing the distinct emblem of the Bolshevik royal family of the empire was galloping.

Suddenly, Olivia, who had been working on documents despite the shaky ride in the carriage, looked up.

Lacking enough space to place her documents, and riding alone in the carriage without a single servant, she soon opened a small window.

Squinting her eyes in the pouring sunlight, Olivia opened her mouth, looking off into the distance.

“How much longer do we have?”

A response came to her question dispersed into thin air.

“If we keep running without rest, we’ll arrive by sundown.”

Upon hearing Cryer’s answer from a location closer than her royal guard, Olivia sighed.

“I like going fast, but I don’t exactly love it.”

Their destination was none other than the Nordend Kingdom.

A haven for those damned beings who caused a continental war, turning the sea red with blood, claiming to purify the world according to the will of the ancient gods.

Moreover, the means to erase Cryer’s slave mark could also be found there.

Although she wanted to quickly confront the magician, shake him by the neck, and resolve the problem…

Olivia had died four times at the hands of Cryer, but the one who had driven him like a beast was the magician.

Facing such an individual was not exactly an eagerly anticipated event.

A silvery ripple, like a moon at high noon, entered Olivia’s sight as she was farseeing into the past.

A vermilion gaze pierced the blue sky and entered.

“Stay by my side.”

At his whisper curling around her earlobe, Olivia couldn’t help but laugh.

“I will stay by your side.”

Even though he never said a word about protection, he was whispering that he would protect her.

He was really not like her ‘knight’.

She had said it with her own mouth, ‘my knight’, but Cryer was never her knight.

He was more like a comrade… a comrade running towards a shared objective with all they had…

Yet his words seemed plausible, and the uneasiness that was swirling inside her somehow calmed down.

Then Olivia said what she initially wanted to.

“Isaac, come in.”

Clank.

As soon as her words dropped, a small sound was heard from the empty carriage roof, and Isaac appeared as if by magic through the documents.

Thud.

Olivia closed the window. As a carriage embodying the Empire’s technology, it was equipped with all sorts of devices, from antiassassination measures to perfect soundproofing.

Of course, none of these mattered to Cryer.

That’s why, even with the completely isolated carriage walls between them, he could keep his word to Olivia.

That he would stay by her side…

“Did you call?”

As Isaac replied with a foxlike grin, Olivia nodded in satisfaction.

“Anyone notice?”

“No one.”

At his answer, Olivia tilted her head for a moment and asked again.

“What about Cryer?”

“Let’s exclude him from the humans.”

Even though his reply was laced with a hint of laughter, sincerity was the only thing imbued in it.

Olivia didn’t argue back that Cryer was also human or anything of that sort.

What meaning would such hollow words have?

In many ways, Cryer had moved beyond being human.

The magician who awakened him, raved about his fractured past, even in the throes of insanity, had said Cryer was exceptionally strong.

By becoming the slave of the ancient god, he gained abilities far surpassing that of a human, as a gift, no, damned compensation for his inherent abilities.

He was a monster.

And Olivia, who had died four times and returned four times, too, had in many ways, moved beyond being human.

So, one could say she was a slightly different kind of monster.

A man who became a monster and a woman who became a monster.

Perhaps it was fate.

Shaking off a sudden frivolous thought, Olivia gently looked at Isaac.

The day he first stood before her.

She had immediately cut off his grand proposal, suggesting the main point straight away.

‘You said you wanted to stay in the empire? You can stay. I permit it. Of course, you need to earn your keep.’

‘Earn my keep, you say…’

Olivia exchanged a brief glance with Cryer.

‘Listen carefully to what I’m about to say. Whether you believe it or not, it’s your choice. But believing will certainly help you earn your keep.’

And thus, she brought up the story of the ancient god and the magician.

Of course, not the whole story. For instance, she didn’t mention the fact that she had returned four times.

As soon as Olivia closed her mouth, Isaac remained silent for a while.

Just with eyes like a fox that couldn’t see the pupils of the socalled window of the soul, he tilted his head.

Then, suddenly, she realized that the theme of the conference sponsored by the empire was ‘world peace’.

And the organizer of that meeting was in front of her…

‘An ancient god and a sorcerer… And a continental war that leads to the end of the world.’

The princess of the empire, with a serious face, seriously told a story that was too absurd.