With dark circles under my eyes, I stepped out of the lab.

At the entrance, the travel bags were packed as I instructed. However, the number was surprisingly large, and it bewildered me.

One, two, three, four, five?

With eyes widened in surprise, I looked at the five enormous travel bags prepared by Jerin.

Jerin, who noticed my gaze, blinked her eyes as if it was obvious and said, “I don’t know how long you’ll stay, so I had to prepare this much. I wanted to put in more, but I thought you might not like it, so I stopped here.”

“No, still…”

This seems more like moving than traveling.

Including the five bags that Jerin prepared with accessories and dresses for me, adding the bag where I separately packed magical engineering weapons, there were a total of ten bags.
“This feels like becoming an exceptionally noble lady.”

As I scratched my cheek awkwardly, I noticed people wearing masks gathering at the entrance of the lab, which was heavily damaged by yesterday’s intrusion.

At first, I didn’t know, but they seemed to be the imperial guard of Helcion.

Among them, someone, wearing a mask again, approached me, raising a cloud of white dust. Even with the mask covering his face, I could tell it was Ascan from his jet-black hair and abyss-like golden eyes.

Ascan, who came close, looked at the pile of bags around me and asked, “Are you taking everything?”

“Oh, yes. Well.”

Perhaps feeling uncomfortable with the thief at her feet, Ascan looked at me with a slightly disgusted expression, but he didn’t say anything special.

Following his instructions, my bags were loaded into the plain-looking carriage.

Ascan had prepared three carriages in total.

One was for carrying luggage, another for the people accompanying me, and the remaining one was the carriage I would board.

As I was about to get into the carriage, I felt Jerin following closely behind. So, I turned around with a puzzled expression and asked, “Are you coming with me?”

It was quite a long journey to the Kalua Empire. I had no intention of bothering Jerin for no reason, and I didn’t expect her to follow me voluntarily like this.

Jerin looked at me with a determined expression and said, “Miss, you wouldn’t know. How much I regretted not following you ten years ago… This time, I will never let you go alone.”

I didn’t know that Jerin had such thoughts all this time.

My heart became strangely sentimental. The employees who had harassed me, Tanashia, avoided me for a long time, fearing me.

Now, it was clear that Jerin’s gaze towards me had changed.

I was at a loss for words on how to express my touched feelings. But Jerin, without saying anything, faintly smiled as if she understood everything and pushed me forward.

“Don’t look at me like that, Miss. I want to repay you for your kindness all this time.”

“I didn’t even think about it, but thank you.”

Moved by my sincere words, Jerin, looking embarrassed, quickly got into the carriage, and she walked towards the carriage where the employees were boarding.

So, a few maids, Jerin, and some individuals chosen by Zen, skilled in swordsmanship, were ready to leave.

As Ascan, who had been silently observing, spoke when all preparations were complete.

“Let’s depart.”

As the coachman was about to start the carriage, I opened the window and said to Ascan, “Can we have a brief talk?”

At first, I wasn’t sure if he was forcibly trying to take me to the Kalua Empire, but in any case, now that I was going voluntarily, our relationship had to be amicable.
Ascan nodded in response to my request and stopped the carriage. He dismounted from the horse he was riding and got onto the carriage I was in.

As Ascan and I boarded the carriage, I felt Zen’s vigilant gaze as if he was watching us closely.

I looked at Zen and spoke with a firm voice, “We have something important to discuss.”

Though Zen seemed displeased, perhaps due to our conversation yesterday, he reluctantly nodded, acknowledging my request.

With that, the carriage started moving, and Zen, riding a horse, guarded closely by my side.

I closed the window and looked at Ascan sitting across from me.

His face was covered with a mask, so I could only see his eyes, but I felt the same indifferent gaze as when we first met.

“What do you want to talk about?”

It was a very businesslike attitude.

Although Ascan had lost his memory, I knew well about his personality. So, I had prepared something while working overnight.

“Hehe.”

I awkwardly coughed and handed him a prepared document.

Ascan, with a puzzled look, began reading the document I handed over. A momentary surprise flashed through his golden eyes.

He raised his head, looked at me, and asked with a somewhat stunned tone, “Are you claiming damages from me now?”

“That’s right.”

The document was filled with detailed calculations of the damages caused by Ascan’s intrusion into the lab, listing each item with its corresponding amount.

It wasn’t just one or two items. Although he had broken many things, I deliberately wrote down every single one without omission.