“Not here either?”

Mikhail was looking for Karina after coming down to the dining room.

‘Surely she didn’t go to the Grand Duke?’

He already knew that Karina had no feelings whatsoever for the Grand Duke.

But even so, just the thought of the two of them being in the same space made him feel down.

‘Should I go check the office? Or would it be better to wait quietly in my room until Karina returns?’

Mikhail pondered.

As he stood there lost in thought, he could sense a continuing commotion outside.

When he stepped out of the dining room, he heard the voices of maids whispering in the corridor.

“A hostage situation in the middle of town? Is that even possible?”

“From what I hear, they even sent demands. Seems like it was a completely planned operation.”

“There were those escaped prisoners who hadn’t been caught yet from last time. Some are saying it’s their doing.”

“They say His Grace the Grand Duke went there himself, so it should be resolved well.”

“Still, we don’t know what will happen to the hostages yet. Have you ever seen His Grace negotiate with criminals?”

The conversation sounded ominous.

But what caught Mikhail’s attention was that the Grand Duke had left.

‘If the Grand Duke left, that means he’s not in the mansion? If she didn’t go to meet him, where did Karina go?’

In the end, Mikhail cast a perception spell and searched the entire Grand Duke’s mansion.

It was the fastest way to find Karina.

But.

‘She’s not here.’

Karina was nowhere to be found.

‘Did she go out? Alone without saying anything?’

Startled, Mikhail immediately tracked the location of the hairpin he had given Karina.

On the day he bought Karina the hairpin, they were unexpectedly separated due to the appearance of a magical beast.

And Karina had almost fallen into great danger.

While watching over Karina as she slept, Mikhail had placed a location tracking spell on the hairpin beside her.

He had cast it just in case such an incident happened again, but he didn’t expect to use it so soon.

“Huh?”

Mikhail let out a surprised sound without realizing it.

Because Karina’s location coordinates were picked up, quite unexpectedly, in the center of the northern village town.

‘When did she go there?’

As Mikhail was dumbfounded, an ominous feeling suddenly washed over him.

‘Wait, didn’t the maids just say there was a hostage situation in the middle of town?’

And he also recalled them saying the Grand Duke himself had gone to where the hostage situation was unfolding.

Mikhail hurriedly left the mansion and headed towards where the signal was detected.

[This is the timeline separator]

Due to the backlight, the face of the person standing at the door was not visible.

But even without seeing the face, a chilling sensation ran down Karina’s spine.

An icy aura flowed from the robed man that made her bones shiver.

‘Ah…’

Karina was terrified.

‘What is this? This person… feels extremely dangerous…’

Karina tensed up, her body stiffening.

But the robed man, disregarding Karina in front of him, opened his mouth.

“Who.”

The man’s voice was deep, but cold enough to give chills.

“Told you it was okay to do something like this?”

Though his voice was flat, it felt sharply chilling.

“No, well…”

One of the escaped prisoners, watching the atmosphere warily, opened his mouth hesitantly.

“We just captured hostages to try to get the magician detained at the Grand Duke’s estate released. We’ve already sent our demands to the Grand Duke’s estate, so there should be some response from them.”

“You sent demands to the Grand Duke’s estate?”

“Yes, yes.”

The skinny escaped prisoner, seemingly trying to lighten the mood, continued with a grin.

“We lost the other hostages, but it’s fine. We still haven’t lost the Grand Duchess over there…”

Pung!

The head of the escaped prisoner, who was pointing at Karina as he spoke, exploded along with black smoke.

“…!”

Karina was so startled her shoulders jerked.

The body of the escaped prisoner, with only the neck remaining, slowly tilted.

And it collapsed to the floor with a dull thud.

Kuung!

Blood began to pool heavily on the floor.

“…”

It felt unreal, an unfamiliar and strange scene too unbelievable.

It felt dreamy, as if in a trance.

Karina froze in place, unable to even scream.

It wasn’t just Karina.

The escaped prisoners gathered around also closed their mouths and trembled.

Even the man with the fierce expression who seemed to be their leader closed his mouth with a pale face.

The robed man asked in the same voice as before.

“If you cause trouble so thoughtlessly like this. Who do you think will clean up after?”

But no one opened their mouth.

They bowed their heads and held their breath, pressed down by fear.

“Haa.”

The robed man sighed.

“I guess. Should I just kill them all?”

It was a calm and slow voice, but the content didn’t match the tone at all.

“We… we’re sorry. We’ll take responsibility for this…!”

“Shut your mouth.”

At the man’s word, the leader’s mouth snapped shut.

“I just came to get that.”

The man stretched his arm towards the black stone attached to the ceiling.

When the robed man flicked his finger, the magic stone flew into his hand.

After checking the black stone that entered his grasp, the man soon tucked it into his chest.

The man was about to turn around as if his business was done, when he glanced at Karina in front of him as if just noticing her.

“Are you the Grand Duchess?”

“…”

Karina couldn’t give any answer to the man’s question.

It was partly due to fear, but mostly because she had lost too much blood.

Even standing still, blood kept flowing out, making her feel dizzy.

She was barely standing, but now even that was at its limit.

No, she had already passed her limit a while ago.

‘It’s over. I can’t hold on any longer… This must be the end.’

Karina collapsed to the floor.

The light in her eyes gradually faded.

Karina looked up at the man with a blurry, dimming gaze.

Looking up from below, she could faintly see the man’s face.

The man stared blankly at Karina, who was on the verge of losing consciousness.

It was an emotionless, dry gaze as if looking at an inanimate object.

Then suddenly he turned his eyes to look outside the entrance.

“Looks like they’re coming now.”

After saying that, the man glanced at the escaped prisoners and made a decision.

“No need to take such fools along.”

With those words as his last, his form began to gradually blur.

Before his form completely disappeared, Karina heard something in her ear.

“Da… e o…”

‘Huh? What… I can’t understand what he’s saying.’

But Karina’s consciousness was hazy, so she couldn’t properly register the voice.

When the man completely vanished, the leader, who had let out a sigh of relief, shouted angrily.

“What are you doing! Go catch all the hostages who escaped again!”

“Yes, yes…!”

The escaped prisoners, hearing the leader’s shout, came to their senses and each picked up a weapon.

The leader approached Karina, who was sitting down, and grabbed her hair.

At the same time, as her head was lifted, the wound on her neck was pulled.

She felt a large gush of blood seeping out.

“Urgh…!”

She was in no state to resist, barely able to hold her body up.

The hairpin stuck in her hair fell to the ground.

But all Karina could do now was take shallow breaths.

“This damn wench is causing so much trouble! Damn it!”

The leader vented his anger on Karina, unleashing his fury.

“We’ll take your X as hostage and get all our demands met from the Grand Duke’s estate! Otherwise this won’t pay off!”

At that moment.

Kwang!!

With a loud noise, one wall of the building collapsed.

As the wall crumbled and chaos ensued, the surroundings became a mess.

Karina fell face down on the floor limply.

The leader of the escaped prisoners who had been holding Karina seemed to have been blown away somewhere by the impact.

Through the rising dust and beyond the collapsed wall, the tall figure of a man could be seen.

Karina stared at the scene before her eyes with a dazed, blank gaze.

The ringing in her ears blocked out the surrounding sounds.

Due to her blurry vision and foggy mind, it was difficult to clearly identify who the person in front of her was.

The person who appeared approached Karina, who was sitting down, and caressed her, examining her condition.

‘Ah, could it be Mikhail who came?’

At the sight of him checking on her first thing after arriving, Karina had such a random thought.

Karina looked up at the figure and squeezed out her voice with difficulty.

“Mi… khail?”

The hand stroking Karina’s face paused.

“…”

There was no answer or reaction from the other party.

Karina felt puzzled, but soon accepted it.

‘Ah, he must be very shocked.’

Her clothes were soaked in blood now, so she must look like she’s about to die any moment.

But Karina didn’t feel like she was going to die.

It was a completely different feeling from when she had sensed the end after drinking the potion of wishes in the past.

‘Don’t worry. I’m not going to die.’

She wanted to say this, but her voice wouldn’t come out anymore.

Instead, Karina tried her best to put a smile on her face.

To convey that she was alright.

‘I hope it gets through.’

With that thought, Karina lost consciousness in the strong embrace.

[This is the timeline separator]

A little before Karina lost consciousness.

Jeremiah was heading to the scene where the escaped prisoners were staging the hostage situation.

“Where is the location?”

“It’s near Nabiloga, close to the town center. The area has dense alleys, so the roads are complex and it’s difficult to find the entrance. It seems the escaped prisoners deliberately chose this location.”

“I see.”

Jeremiah showed no agitation at the knight’s report.

“We’ve prepared the knights to be ready to enter at any time, just in case. What should we do?”

“Have them stand by for now.”

Even as he said this, Jeremiah was thinking of sweeping away all the escaped prisoners at once.

With that thought, he arrived at the scene, but encountered a completely unexpected situation.

People were rushing out from the alleyways of the building where the escaped prisoners were presumed to be.

“What’s going on?”

“I’ll check, sir.”

The knight who answered quickly secured some of the people who had run out of the alley.

“Knights! Please save us!”

“Calm down. We came after hearing that escaped prisoners were holding hostages. What happened?”

“Well…!”

“Honey! Kids!”

At that moment, a child’s father spotted his family among the knights and rushed out.

“Daddy!”

“Honey!”

The child’s mother and children, reunited with the father who had headed to the Grand Duke’s estate, burst into tears.

Jeremiah quietly watched the scene from a short distance away.

‘I’m not sure how they escaped, but it seems the hostages are safe.’

As he was thinking that now he just needed to sweep away the escaped prisoners, their conversation reached his ears.

“How did you get out?”

When the child’s father asked, the child’s mother answered.

“The Grand Duchess! The Grand Duchess is inside!”

‘…!?’

Jeremiah’s eyes widened at the mention of the Grand Duchess.

But he soon shook his head, thinking it couldn’t be.

‘Though I don’t like it, the Grand Duchess should be with that escort mage right now.’

So there was no way the Grand Duchess could have been captured by the escaped prisoners.

“The red-haired woman I saw earlier…! That was the Grand Duchess!”

But when the mention of red hair came up, Jeremiah’s certainty began to waver.

An uneasy feeling grew, despite his disbelief.