You crazy bastard! Do something I can understand for once! This is a threat!

Edan’s sharp gaze was staring at me fiercely as if it would devour me, but I tried to think calmly without panicking. Let’s try to persuade him, let’s try to persuade.

“Master.”

“Yes.”

“I said I’d do well for you, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

“So, I fully understand and appreciate that big, considerate heart you’ve thought of for me, and I’d like to bow down, but it’s. fine. I don’t want to touch your face like this when you don’t like being touched…”

“I’ve decided I don’t dislike it.”

“…”

That’s a lie. Didn’t you say you hated it since childhood? Didn’t you say you hated anything touching your face even on the battlefield, so you blocked it with your body? There’s no way that could change so easily. Why should I touch someone else’s face like this in the first place?

Who benefits from this anyway? Isn’t it a minus for both of us?

“You’re okay with it?”

“Yes. Ah. If you want to stay between my legs longer like this, I can wait as long as you want.”

“No!”

As if that could be.

“Then… I’ll touch you right now!”

With no more escape routes left, I swallowed hard once, then raised my hand.

After hesitating several times, my fingertips finally touched Edan’s cheek.

Edan quietly let out a silent laugh and slowly lowered his eyes that had been looking straight at me.

Edan’s face, without a single scratch, was beautiful enough to marvel at.

Anyone who saw this face would fall for it. It’s very much my type to begin with.

“How does it feel?”

Edan, who had been lazily closing his eyes, loosely raised his gaze. It was like witnessing a sleeping beast waking up.

I don’t know why he’s asking about my feelings at this timing, but I nodded slightly. With a smile that was neither here nor there, just in case he would tell me to touch more.

“Then touch more. It’s okay now since you don’t have a fiancée anymore.”

Edan grabbed my hand that I was trying to sneak away and put it back on his cheek.

And he just looked at me quietly.

“This is enough. And that’s not the issue.”

“Then what is the issue?”

The issue is that we’re not in any kind of relationship. The issue is that you’ll eventually feel Ivy’s healing power and abandon me.

I lowered my gaze, avoiding Edan’s eyes.

“Hey. Lati.”

As I was trying to lower my hand and move away, Edan put strength in his legs. And he placed one hand on top of my head, as if it had become a habit now.

So I ended up raising my gaze to face him again.

Edan wasn’t smiling. His pupils moved slowly under his languidly lowered eyelids.

From the crown, forehead, eyebrows, to the cheeks.

As if not wanting to miss a single thing in his sight, he was tracing me intensely and persistently. When his gaze touched my lips, he looked like someone with delicious food right in front of them. Edan’s tongue came out between his parted lips, gently brushed them, and went back in.

“You know.”

The hand that was resting on top of my head slowly came down and touched the corner of my eye. The touch caressing around my eyes seemed to gain a little strength, and it felt like Edan’s pupils grew colder as he watched this.

“Should I eat you?”

Huh?

“When you’re close, you smell so sweet, I’m really curious what you’d taste like.”

“…What?”

“Especially those eyes.”

What are you saying? How can you say such things with such a serious and sincere face? I’m not food!

As I was internally shocked, I remembered. Come to think of it, Edan had said I smelled sweet after I healed him with skinship.

“You, you’re not really saying you want to eat me, right?”

“But I am.”

Wo-world, there’s a madman here! He’s an eyeball murderer!

I flinched and retreated back forcefully.

Well, as always, I ended up back in place by Edan’s hand pulling me sharply, but still.

“Let go. You absolutely can’t eat my eyes.”

Edan laughed out loud, throwing his head back. As if it was funny but he was trying hard to hold it in, even his shoulders shook.

“Lati.”

“What!”

What nonsense are you going to spout this time. I raised my voice courageously and glared at Edan fiercely.

“I’ll let you meet the Grand Saint.”

It was sudden, but welcome news.

“Re… really?”

“Yes.”

Edan hugged me tightly. With a bright smile on his face as if he was about to die laughing.

A few days later, I was standing in front of Edan’s northern grand duchy.

Although we used a portal, we couldn’t move directly inside the grand duchy.

“It’s cold, but please bear with it for a bit.”

Ruben asked me worriedly.

“It’s more bearable than the night of the unbreakable wall. I’m fine.”

“There are so many assassins targeting the Grand Duke that we’ve magically blocked the installation of portals inside, so there’s no choice.”

“I see.”

Now you might click your tongue wondering what kind of foolish person would target Edan, but it seems Edan had many enemies when he was young.

If I had to guess, it would be Killian’s birth mother, the empress, or her followers.

Fortunately, the portal was just in front of the castle, not inside, and I got on a carriage and headed in.

The grand duchy I saw for the first time was much colder and chillier than I had thought. It felt even colder because the cool north maintains early winter temperatures even in midsummer.

The dark gray castle was very large and tall, surrounded by an artificially dug moat.

There were high defense towers on both walls of the bridge entrance connecting the moat and the castle, and the castle gate. When we arrived at the entrance after crossing the bridge, the huge castle gate opened.

‘Wow. This is completely a villain’s castle no matter who looks at it.’

The inside was much more impressive than what was visible from outside the moat.

There were many people moving busily, and every single one I saw was a knight.

The real Grand Duke’s castle was at the very center inside the defensive walls.

When I saw it from outside the moat, I only saw one side, so I didn’t know the inside space was this big. After passing through the bumpy stone roads for a while, we could finally arrive at our real destination.

With pointy triangular towers impressively positioned in the center, I moved inside following Ruben’s guidance.

“This way, please.”

Passing through the empty, barren-feeling lobby, I headed to Edan’s office at the very top of the castle, receiving the hospitality of Edan and Ruben.

“Your Grace, we’ve arrived.”

When Ruben stood in front of the office with me slightly behind him, the knights standing on both sides holding spears reported.

The door opened immediately.

Perhaps because it was on a high floor, bright sunlight was coming down through the large windows in the office.

It didn’t have particularly different interior from other places, but it looked uniquely bright.

Edan’s golden hair shimmered.

Someone else was already inside.

“Oh my goodness.”

The man with a particularly pale face who exclaimed upon seeing me widened his eyes in surprise.

It was the same surprised reaction as when Ruben first saw me.

Just how many people know about me?

“Latieana Merigold… right?”

I nodded lightly and quickly examined him. Pale skin that seemed to have hardly received any sunlight, and a thin build.

The clothes he was wearing looked big on him, and although it wasn’t very noticeable because he was tall, he looked thin and physically weak.

He was wearing priest robes with gold embroidered patterns on the hood, large sleeves, and the bottom.

I had heard about this on the way here, but it seems this man hadn’t.

That I was the one who wanted to secretly meet Ivy. That’s why he was so surprised.

Disguised as a priest of the library god, I was completely covered from head to toe in pure white priest robes.

Most of Ivy’s alone time was in the evening or at night, so I thought this would be the safest.

Since most of the library priests didn’t wander around the temple because they were busy researching books, I thought there wouldn’t be much problem even if we encountered knights.

Following Maxium’s plan, we safely passed through the temple entrance and headed towards the building where Ivy was said to be.

As we passed through the garden that felt fresh and green even in the middle of the night, I felt strange.

The temple was all white.

Nevertheless, it was a splendid and magnificent place. It was so beautiful that it was hard to believe that saint candidates died here. While looking around, I suddenly asked.

“Which building do the saint candidates stay in?”

Maxium pointed to the left with his fingertip. There was a building that looked like a tower, wide horizontally and quite tall.

“Over there. If Latieana hadn’t escaped, she would be staying there now.”

At those words, the building I had vaguely thought was beautiful became terrifying.

…If that had happened, I would be dead by now. I glanced at the building and hurriedly followed Maxium.

As we entered Ivy’s building and passed through the wide and splendid corridor, we saw holy knights standing with swords.

“Good work.”

Before climbing the stairs, Maxium greeted them first to avoid looking suspicious, and the holy knight turned towards us.

“What brings you here at this hour?”

“We’ve come to retrieve a book that the Grand Saint borrowed from the library. She said it was fine even at this late hour.”

Although the temple was closed off, we could easily pass through the entrance just by wearing priest robes, but it was certainly more difficult once we entered the building.

The holy knight who checked the clock turned his gaze towards me. I was particularly small in stature and had my face completely covered, so it felt like he was suspicious at first.

“Is the person behind you also a priest from the library?”

I nodded silently as Maxium had mentioned beforehand.

“Let me see your face for confirmation.”

“He’s a new recruit with very ugly scars on his face, so please understand.”

My heart was pounding as if it would burst from the tension in the particularly quiet atmosphere of the building.

That’s when it happened.

Someone’s heavy footsteps were heard from behind.

The holy knight, who recognized the person before Maxium and I, bent his waist perfectly in a bow.

“We greet the Captain!”

What? Maxium and I turned around almost simultaneously.

A man with silver hair and sharp upturned eyes was walking in, exuding a murderous aura.

It was Hillstain.

Startled by the holy knight’s loud voice, Maxium and I also hurriedly bowed to Hillstain.

We bowed our heads and shoulders with our hands clasped in the middle, and thankfully, the priest robes covered our entire bodies.

Meanwhile, I thought it was fortunate that I had tied up my hair. It would be better to cover it since the color was so unique.

Under our bowed heads, Hillstain’s black shadow on the marble floor passed by Maxium and me in turn.

After a couple more steps away, Maxium subtly gestured towards me with his eyes.

He even shook his head slightly from side to side.

The meaning was clear enough without words. Today was a failure.

Just as I was about to raise my head and turn around.

“You there.”

Suddenly, Hillstain started walking towards me.

In just two or three steps, Hillstain came in front of me again, and my heart started racing madly with an uneasy feeling.

The inner cry for him to please pass by was of no use.

In an instant, my hood was pulled off.

I opened my eyes after squeezing them shut, and at the edge of my vision, Hillstain was looking at me with a sardonic smile.

“Ha. Look at this?”