Thanks to Hwangui’s treatment for three days, Esika had recovered considerably.

She could circulate her internal energy in her dantian without difficulty as before, and her body’s condition had returned almost to its previous state.

If Esika had been an ordinary woman, it would have taken over a month to recover.

“… The weather is nice.”

She sent a letter to Hans.

Asking him to take care of work for a while until she returned.

Anyway, all she had to do was provide funding, which Hans was managing, so there wouldn’t be much to worry about.

Esika, who had come down outside the inn, was waiting for a carriage.

It was time to return to the capital, Torres.

The day after she woke up, Resban was not seen. He probably returned to the imperial palace. This place is quite far from the capital, and as the crown prince, he has a lot to do.

Still, he said he would send a carriage for her.

“… It’s here. Yes, now I must return.”

Esika, who was stretching while hearing the sound of carriage wheels from afar, furrowed her brow.

Enormous escort troops, but what made her heart skip a beat was…

A moment later, the imperial carriage stopped in front of Esika.

“I’ve come to pick you up.”

Resban opened the carriage door and extended his hand to her in an escorting manner.

The cool breeze made his hair flutter. The deep pupils in his cool gaze held a restrained warmth that only Esika knew.

A faint smile appeared on Esika’s lips as she looked at him with wavering eyes.

She placed her hand on top of Resban’s.

Sitting opposite him inside the carriage, Esika felt quite awkward.

Coming to pick her up personally… She thought he would just send a carriage.

Resban’s gaze was constantly directed at Esika.

“… Thank you.”

In the end, it was Esika who broke the silence first.

“If Your Highness hadn’t saved me, it would have been difficult.”

At those words, a smile formed at the corners of Resban’s mouth.

“It sounds like you’re saying it would have been difficult, but you wouldn’t have died.”

First of all, she was stabbed in a place that missed the heart, and although the injury was severe due to bleeding, her well-trained body wouldn’t have lost its life easily.

That person’s sword wasn’t infused with inner energy, and the stabbing form was that of someone who didn’t know how to use a sword at all.

“I won’t deny it. I don’t lie, after all.”

Resban chuckled at Esika’s very honest words.

Women always either trembled before him or tried to look good by only agreeing.

Esika is unique in the empire.

Resban, who had been looking at her, momentarily removed his smile and continued speaking.

“We’re following the traces they left behind. But they seem to be quite thorough, desperately erasing important clues even while fleeing in a hurry.”

“There were two incredibly skilled individuals. They were men wearing black masks…”

Esika, who was thinking deeply while looking out the moving window, said.

“In Tureshian, even a commoner-born knight can receive a title if their martial prowess is outstanding. They were the kind of people who could receive at least a viscount title just for military achievements on the battlefield.”

There aren’t many such strong individuals in the empire.

Excluding Resban himself, only a very few of his adjutants possessed such skills.

Callian, who is now Esika’s ex-husband. He also had that level of skill, but if it had been Callian, Esika, who crossed swords with them, couldn’t have failed to recognize him.

“There was also a magician.”

“Magicians are rarer than skilled knights. In the empire, magic and such sorcery are forbidden according to the doctrine of the state religion, making them even harder to find.”

“… But the one who actually stabbed me was an ordinary person who had never even touched a sword. And they chanted a verse related to God. It was an older woman’s voice, but it sounded boiling with excitement, so it probably wasn’t her real voice.”

“…”

“They called me a witch. They seemed to despise me greatly.”

They treated her as if they were looking at a minion of the devil.

And they acted as if what they were doing was a very sacred mission bestowed by God.

It’s not even funny, those fanatics.

A complex light swirled in Resban’s pupils within his cool gaze.

After a moment of silence, he opened his lips.

“Indeed, there’s only one person I can suspect.”

“… Who is it?”

Esika asked with furrowed brows.

She won’t let it go if she catches the culprit. They don’t know how much it hurt when she was stabbed.

“Let’s observe that person a bit more before talking about them. It would be better to approach cautiously rather than moving rashly.”

“…”

Whether he didn’t have good feelings about that person from the start, Resban’s eyes were rough.

Even Resban, the crown prince, has to observe carefully and can’t immediately capture the person.

The suspected person must be in the imperial family.

They’re likely to be someone noble and of high status.

One person comes to mind. The one who interfered with the selection of the western stronghold…

Having finished her rational deduction, Esika nodded.

“Alright. I won’t rush into fruitless actions either.”

Anyway, Esika has now safely recovered thanks to Resban, and it will take more time to catch those who left no traces.

“When they realize I’m alive, they’ll raise their heads again, so we’ll have to wait for that moment.”

Esika sometimes didn’t hide her anger, but she was also frighteningly rational.

She doesn’t waste energy on meaningless things, and if there’s an enemy, she does her best for their perfect downfall.

That tenacity that brought down Klaus was amazing.

She probably doesn’t know that this calmness also makes it hard to take one’s eyes off her.

“But why did that person try to kill me? I haven’t offended any high-ranking individuals.”

“Misguided beliefs about superior beings tend to blind one. Using God’s thoughts as an excuse to interpret the ways of the world as one pleases is very dangerous.”

Resban said, looking out the window.

“It makes those around unhappy and even devours one’s own mind. If not stopped in time, that is.”

“You mean it’s a major risk factor.”

“I too once had misguided beliefs.”

At Resban’s words, Esika looked at him with a slightly surprised expression.

He seemed like someone who wouldn’t be interested in things like God or religion at all, yet he says he once had beliefs?

“I believed in the power of the sword and war. Revenge was my god, and everything else seemed worthless.”

As expected, the object of Resban’s belief doesn’t seem to have been God, at least.

“… And now, is it not?”

When Esika’s voice was heard, Resban looked at her.

And he opened his mouth to speak.

“One loses sight of what’s important. It becomes difficult to distinguish whether one is waging war for revenge, or using the name of revenge to wage war. One becomes unable to make independent judgments and hands over control to misguided beliefs.”

“…”

“Addiction, belief is the seed of addiction.”

Hearing Resban’s words, Esika also became lost in thought.

Revenge, she too had wanted it, albeit in a different way. In the end, she succeeded.

However, apart from the feeling of satisfaction, she still feels thirsty.

“Have Your Highness regained control of your life?”

At Esika’s words, Resban smiled slightly.

“I can say I’ve regained it. Perhaps I’ve found something even more captivating than war.”

“…”

“I’ve come to have a new belief that’s more harmless than before.”

At his words, Esika’s pupils wavered for a moment.

She seemed to understand what he meant, and her fingertips tingled for no reason.

“Both drive me crazy, but while the former leaves a strange discomfort every time I achieve it, the latter…”

Resban leaned his upper body closer, facing Esika up close.

His lips moved.

“… Just makes me desperate to kiss.”

Resban’s low voice flowed into her ear.

Esika’s face was reflected on the surface of his golden eyes.

Esika felt her heart pounding and her hand twitching.

How can he say such things without changing his expression even once?

**

Esika arrived at the Klaus mansion with Resban.

The mansion was… somehow quiet.

By now, Sela should have come running out.

Esika suddenly felt a familiar anxiety.

A long time ago, sometime… she had felt this anxiety before.

“…”

Esika’s expression hardened.

Sensing something was amiss, Resban walked with Esika.

Esika entered the mansion and climbed the stairs.

The hard sound of shoes hitting the stone steps was heard, tap- tap-

It sounded like the sound of knocking on an empty coffin.

‘This feeling… I’ve felt it before.’

The reason for death, still not clearly remembered.

The spirit thought that it wasn’t destined to die at someone’s hands.

Nor was it the type to choose death on its own.

If it were to choose death, it would be to return as much as it had suffered to someone.

“… Esika.”

Resban, who had been opening the doors one by one, stopped.

And he looked at her with hardened eyebrows.

Esika tried to brush past Resban to enter that room, but Resban grabbed her shoulder.

And he shook his head.

“No. It would be better not to look.”

Bloody nail fragments could be seen on the floor.