In the pitch-black darkness where nothing was visible.

It felt like the body was floating, unable to place feet on the ground.

There was no way to distinguish between up and down.

It felt like being alone in a quiet, empty vast space.

‘Where is this?’

Somehow, it felt like a similar sensation had been experienced before.

The moment of trying to recall when it was.

Suddenly, rippling waves were felt spreading from a place where there was nothing before.

Then in an instant, the place where Karina was changed to the front of a luxurious mansion.

“Huh…?”

Surprised, Karina looked around.

And she was even more surprised when she realized where it was.

‘This is our house.’

To be precise, it was in front of the main gate of the Millainer Viscount’s mansion.

It was where Karina had lived until just before her marriage.

“You stupid X!”

Karina was startled by a man’s angry shout.

“After all the trouble of marrying you off to a Grand Duke’s family! You got divorced and kicked out for causing trouble?”

The man in front of her breathed heavily with an angry face.

Karina was kneeling at the man’s feet.

“How dare you crawl back here, not even ashamed of being divorced!”

“F… Father.”

Karina called out to her father in a trembling voice.

“To bring such shame to our family! Do you even know how embarrassing this is for me!”

The Viscount fiercely berated Karina.

“Father. You know. I really tried. I did my best.”

Karina said, looking terrified.

But those words only further provoked the Viscount’s anger.

“Shut that mouth! What did you do well to talk back!”

Unable to control his anger, the Viscount slapped Karina’s cheeks several times.

“Fath… Aaagh…!”

Slap! Slap!

Sharp sounds of flesh hitting flesh echoed along with groans of pain.

But none of the servants watching the situation around them stepped in to stop the Viscount or tell him to stop.

“Useless thing! If we went through the trouble of marrying you off, you should have at least had a child! An heir to inherit that family when the Grand Duke dies!”

Karina trembled and replied in a small voice to the Viscount’s thunderous roar.

“But… he didn’t want children…”

“You call that an excuse! That was your one use, and you couldn’t even do that one thing, bringing things to this state!”

The Viscount’s violence continued until Karina fell to the ground unable to get up.

“After all the trouble of feeding and raising you, you can’t even be worth your keep, you damn X! Do you even know how much money and time was spent on you!”

The Viscount pointed at Karina and scolded her.

Karina lay prostrate on the ground, begging with both hands.

“Father. I was wrong. Please forgive me.”

The Millainer Viscount, Karina’s father, had been an object of fear for Karina since she was young.

If Karina did anything that displeased him or made even a small mistake, harsh criticism and violence would follow.

Tears streamed down Karina’s eyes.

Blood flowed from her burst lip, and her cheeks were already swollen.

But despite Karina’s pleading, the Viscount’s attitude remained cold.

“I don’t want to see your face, get lost!”

“Father…! Please…!”

Karina desperately called out to the Viscount.

But the Viscount didn’t even pretend to listen and went into the mansion.

“Hic…”

Karina bit her lower lip.

Tears wouldn’t stop from the rushing indignation and sadness.

Finally divorced by Jeremiah, and now chased out of her parents’ home, the Millainer Viscount’s house.

Loneliness and despair came over her at the fact that no one would accept her.

‘What did I do so wrong. What did I do so wrong to be abandoned like this!’

Resentment burst out.

Karina’s heart, which she had barely been maintaining, finally began to crumble.

At the same time.

“We came for nothing.”

On top of a high rock rising above rugged mountainous terrain.

Two people in deeply hooded robes stood there.

They were looking down at the copper mine owned by the Lambarda family.

“There’s no need to go down and inspect it.”

“That’s right.”

The mine had collapsed and caved in, and no magic could be felt from inside.

“That’s why I said from the beginning we should have entrusted the supply of mana stones to someone more reliable.”

One of the robed figures grumbled.

“No. We should have just taken it over ourselves from the start.”

The man clicked his tongue.

“The judgment and decisions are made by that person.”

The other figure cut off his words firmly.

“We just need to report this situation as it is.”

At those words, the man who had been grumbling sheepishly closed his mouth that had been voicing complaints.

“…Right.”

“Let’s go back.”

“Yes.”

“…”

The man who turned around to leave stopped in his tracks.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, something…”

The man stared intently at somewhere.

The man behind him also turned his head and looked in the direction of his gaze, but all he could see were rocky mountains with sparse trees.

“It seems I was mistaken. It’s nothing.”

As soon as the man finished speaking, in the blink of an eye, the two people on the rock disappeared without a trace.

As they vanished, a corner of the rocky mountain began to ripple.

‘Well, well.’

Max revealed himself from a spot slightly below where the man had been staring intently.

“Whew. I thought I was going to get caught.”

He let out a long sigh.

Max was in the midst of tracking down the dark wizards related to the escaped prisoners on Mikhail’s orders.

And he had followed their traces to here.

But once again, it was unintentionally related to the Grand Duchess.

‘Is it a coincidence? Or is there really something about the Grand Duchess?’

Max became suspicious.

Mikhail, who had been going around here and there looking for traces of dragons, suddenly taking up position as a guard next to the Grand Duchess was suspicious too.

‘Hah. I have to investigate what the dark wizards are plotting, and in the meantime, I also have to find traces of dragons.’

There were no easy tasks.

The reason for looking for traces of dragons at the magic tower was simple.

They had discovered that dark wizards were gathering traces of dragons and plotting something suspicious.

They needed to find traces of dragons before them to figure out exactly what they were trying to do.

But finding traces of dragons was truly not an easy task.

In the present day, dragons were fantastical and mythical creatures whose very existence was questionable.

“Damn diligent bastards.”

Max cursed the dark wizards with a frown.

They were uselessly cohesive.

Even after being found, destroyed, and swept away, they gathered again for their so-called cause.

‘It’s tiresome, so tiresome.’

Because they were working so hard behind the scenes, he became busy as well.

Thanks to that, he couldn’t even touch his personal magic research and was being run around on investigations like this.

“Haah.”

Max let out a deep sigh.

‘I want to finish quickly and return to the magic tower.’

Still, he had to carry out what Mikhail had ordered.

Max infused magic into the communication device to report what he had found out to Mikhail.

Jeremiah returned to the Grand Duke’s residence.

“Lock up all the captured ones in the underground prison.”

Jeremiah continued, pointing at Revals.

“I will interrogate that one personally, so make sure he doesn’t die before that.”

Ron, who heard Jeremiah’s order, asked back.

“You’re not interrogating him right away?”

Looking at Revals, who was already a bloody half-corpse, he thought he wouldn’t last long.

“I need to see the Grand Duchess first.”

“Understood.”

Jeremiah immediately went up to Karina’s room.

Although he had seen her escape from the mine with the guard mage and knew she would surely be safe, he still couldn’t feel at ease.

It seemed this uneasiness would only subside when he confirmed with his own eyes that Karina was safe.

Jeremiah reached the front of Karina’s room in one breath, striding with his long legs.

Knock knock.

Jeremiah knocked on Karina’s door.

“……”

But even after waiting, there was no answer from inside to come in.

Knock knock knock,

Jeremiah knocked once more.

But again, there was no answer from Karina.

Anxious, Jeremiah finally couldn’t hold back and opened the door to enter.

Jeremiah hurriedly surveyed the room.

He saw Karina lying on the bed.

“…!”

Jeremiah quickly went to Karina and checked her condition.

“Whew.”

Jeremiah let out a short sigh of relief after confirming there were no wounds on Karina’s body.

‘Was she sleeping, that’s why there was no answer?’

He thought she must be tired, having gone through such an ordeal when her body had not fully recovered.

‘I should come back later.’

Just as Jeremiah was about to quietly leave after covering Karina with the blanket up to her neck.

“Nngh……”

A groan escaped from Karina’s lips.

Surprised, Jeremiah turned back and stood beside Karina.

“Karina?”

Jeremiah carefully called Karina’s name.

But Karina didn’t wake up easily.

She tossed and turned with a deeply furrowed brow, as if having a nightmare.

“Hic……”

Soon after, sobbing sounds leaked through her clenched teeth.

Karina’s eyelids trembled, then she started to shed tears.

“…!”

Seeing Karina’s tears, Jeremiah felt his heart sink.

Flustered, Jeremiah shook Karina’s body.

“Karina, wake up.”

Jeremiah’s face contorted.

Seeing Karina in distress made his insides boil madly.

It felt like a ball of all-consuming flame was sticking to his innards, gnawing at his entire body.

“Karina!”

But no matter how many times he shook her to wake her, Karina couldn’t open her eyes.

When Karina didn’t wake up, his heart started to race wildly with anxiety.

It overlapped with the image of Karina not waking up for a while after she had a brush with death during the hostage situation.

Jeremiah raised Karina’s body with a desperate expression and pulled her into his arms.

“Karina, wake up quickly. Please…!”

At some point, Karina’s sobbing in Jeremiah’s arms subsided.

And a moment later, Karina opened her eyes.

“Karina! Are you conscious?”

The awakened Karina raised her head and looked at Jeremiah.

Karina’s eyes, which met his, were still slightly dazed as if not fully awake.

Karina’s lips slowly parted as she took in Jeremiah’s appearance.

“Jeremiah……”

“……”

Jeremiah felt a strange sense of dissonance in Karina’s voice as she called him by name.

But there was no time to figure out what was strange.

Karina’s eyes began to moisten again with tears.

Karina’s face contorted as if in pain.

“What did I… do so wrong……”

Karina said in a tear-choked voice, as if squeezing the words out.

“…!”

Jeremiah drew in a sharp breath.

Karina’s face as she asked that looked so exhausted.

It felt like she was worn down to the point of shattering at any moment.

Jeremiah’s chest tightened.

His breath caught, and an indescribable hot sensation enveloped his entire body.

The sight of Karina shedding tears was so pitiful and heartbreaking.

He had an intuition that he couldn’t leave Karina like this.

Jeremiah pulled Karina more tightly into his arms.

Held in Jeremiah’s arms, Karina began to cry her heart out.

Jeremiah held her in his arms for a long time, silently comforting her until her crying stopped.