“Alright, I understand. I know what you mean.”

Eustar answered, and Laila also nodded. Muge, who let out a short sigh, carefully gathered his creaking body.

“Then let’s go.”

Eustar opened his eyes wide.

“You’re saying you’ll come with us?”

When he asked in disbelief, Muge frowned as if to say, what a silly question.

“Were you two planning to go alone?”

Eustar immediately shook his head.

“I understand what you’re worried about, and I know how the wizard Nierdora controls other wizards. But I can’t go with you.”

“What are you talking about? My limbs may not be in perfect condition, making me look a bit unsightly, but if you don’t take me with you, you’ll regret it before taking ten steps.”

Laila wore a worried expression towards Muge, who was growling as if deliberately trying to intimidate them.

“But Muge, it will be too dangerous. If you get hurt any more here, recovery will be too difficult.”

Muge’s eyes blinked silently once. Then, she repeated Laila’s words as if somehow dejected.

“‘Get hurt,’ you say.”

Muge let out another hollow laugh, feeling Laila’s sincere gaze fixed on her. ‘Get hurt,’ she says.

Seeing this form that could hardly be called human from any angle, yet speaking as if it were nothing out of the ordinary, rather as if she couldn’t imagine Muge Olga as anything but ‘human’, Laila’s attitude evoked complicated feelings that were hard to put into words.

If she had had a rapidly beating heart, it would have felt like someone gently caressing that wounded and bleeding thing. It also felt like a wish too unrealistic to even hope for had come true.

“Go back, Muge.”

Eustar said in a serious tone.

“The two of us can manage somehow.”

But Muge shook her head.

“I’m the best one to make a quick escape if things go bad anyway. That’s why I came, so don’t worry and just listen to your elders now. Understood, babies?”

Meanwhile, the disturbance that occurred in the Sierou Royal Palace, specifically in the king’s quarters, was quietly suppressed without anyone knowing.

Caught off guard by Ord’s sudden action, Himierd dropped her sword and retreated, while Viscount Poet quickly wrapped up the situation.

He called in the guards to restrain her, and had a servant summon the court physician to treat Ord.

Ord Hyanmorik suffered a severe injury to his hand, but he did not collapse or worsen critically.

He watched as Himierd was restrained in a daze, and slowly looked around at Count Toman and the officials who noisily came to check on his condition, then spoke in a hoarse voice.

“Everyone withdraw. Release Viscount Himierd and clear the room.”

“Your Majesty, that’s not…”

Count Toman immediately objected in confusion. But Ord frowned with a tired face, closed his eyes and raised his voice.

“Didn’t I say to leave? I’ll call if needed, so withdraw!”

Everyone opened their mouths and then closed them again. Even Himierd was bewildered, not knowing Ord’s intention, when Viscount Poet gestured to the guards to release her restraints.

She led the people out of the bedroom. Among them was Mel, who had an injury on his wrist.

The bedroom immediately fell into silence. Although her limbs were free, Himierd remained motionless like someone still tied up, just staring at Ord.

“Come closer.”

Ord silently watched Himierd’s startled expression.

While she was just breathing heavily without any response, Ord’s mouth twitched faintly. He looked like someone who wanted to smile but couldn’t.

“Didn’t I tell you to come closer, Sui?”

Himierd’s shoulders flinched. She rose as if possessed and approached Ord. There was a smell of life fading away.

She stared blankly at Ord’s hand, which the court physicians had applied medicine to and wrapped in several layers of linen. The blood had already seeped through, staining the inner layers of linen red.

After staring at her face for a long time, Ord let out a chuckle.

“You look as if I’m about to kill you any moment.”

Himierd suppressed the urge to scream and her lips trembled.

“To be honest, I wonder why you don’t.”

Ord smiled wearily, as if he had known she would give such an answer.

“Killing you would be a loss for Sierou.” Ord broke the eons-like silence. He looked up at Himierd. “Sometimes we need stubborn loyalists like you.”

Himierd’s gaze turned to his face. His face, devoid of any excess flesh, looked small enough to be held in one of Himierd’s hands.

“I don’t understand your intentions in saying that.”

“No, you do know. And you can guess what I want to ask of you.”

“I don’t know.”

The word ‘Your Majesty’ kept trying to stick to the tip of her tongue, but Himierd deliberately shook it off. Wasn’t it just minutes ago that she had intended to kill Ord?

She had raised her sword against him and tried to force him off the throne.

Just because that didn’t go as planned, and because she had a strong feeling that Ord would spare her life—for reasons she didn’t understand—she couldn’t simply flip her stance and address him as ‘my king’ again. That would be too cowardly.

Ord swallowed dryly. His throat felt parched, but he didn’t feel like drinking water.

He was staring at the shadow of death slowly but surely approaching. He was listening to the sound of the black horse said to bring death, plodding towards him.

“Laila is essential to Eustar. Promise me that you will leave that child alone even after Eustar takes the throne.”

Rough breathing overlapped. One was Ord’s, and the other was Himierd’s. She bit her lip with an even fiercer expression than when she had held the sword.

“What do you mean that witch is necessary for His Highness the Prince?”

“Exactly what I said.”

“I don’t understand.”

Feeling his concentration scatter again after briefly coming together, Ord shook his head. A headache arose, but there was no way to alleviate it.

How desperate would it make a person to bear an illness that no medicine could cure, an illness whose identity no one could know? At least Ord knew the answer to that. He had just never told anyone.

Ord, who had been rubbing his temples, slowly began to speak.

“You’re worried that Eustar will be negatively influenced by Laila, aren’t you? And if Laila bears Eustar’s child, you’re concerned that child might inherit witch’s blood. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes, it is.”

Himierd answered immediately. It was the truth, without a shred of falsehood. Her long-held love for Eustar was no longer an issue.

Such petty jealousy, engaging in a love quarrel, was completely against Himierd’s nature. Ord knew this, which is why he pinpointed her concerns so accurately.

“It’s the opposite. Only with Laila can Eustar live safely for his entire life. It was I who ordered to find a powerful medium and witch, and it was I who made Laila Kristrad, whom we found, my brother’s wife. Everyone gossiped that I had made him marry a witch out of fear that Eustar would usurp my throne. I knew that. But that was my aim from the beginning.”

The more she heard, the less sense it made.

Himierd had only heard once about the incident where the previous king and queen, along with numerous nobles and those involved in social circles, all perished. But it was so shocking that she couldn’t forget a single detail.

As she was just a child at the time, the horrific event that occurred in the royal palace became a fantasy that grew more and more exaggerated.

It was similar to imagining something terrifying beyond when furniture creaked for no reason in the middle of the night, or when hearing the sound of window frames rattling in the wind.

After catching his breath for a moment, Ord spoke.

“At that time… You must have been about 7 years old. Or maybe 8. Anyway, we were both young. Especially me, I was at an age where I couldn’t live up to my position as crown prince despite holding the title. Officials ran in all directions to contain the chaos in the capital and the kingdom as much as possible. They couldn’t hide the terrible deeds my parents had committed, but at least people could be relieved that no demon had appeared in the royal palace. However, that wasn’t true. The demon…”

“Was it Baso?”

At Himierd’s question, Ord’s expression momentarily became ashen. His thin chest rose and fell with difficulty.

“…How did you know?”

Himierd recalled the last image she had of Baso. Those eyes that seemed to burn, the cruel and arrogant look she had never seen since knowing him.

She had been feeling more and more frequently that Baso had somehow changed, but the Baso she saw that day was definitely not the king’s chamberlain. He was a different person. No, a different…

‘Something,’ Himierd thought. It wasn’t human.

But now she knew its identity. Himierd felt her mind settling down calmly. Her heart was beating roughly as if screaming, but separately from that, the blood flowing through her body cooled and became calm.

“Please continue.”

After hesitating for a moment, Ord spoke.

“As you said, Baso who had been by my side for a long time… was not Baso. Even I don’t know when he was replaced. It appeared before my eyes on that day, the day my only brother almost died. That demon said that Eustar had made a contract with it. I didn’t know what had gone wrong where. I still don’t know and don’t want to know in the future. But at that time, there was only one thought in my mind. The thought that I had to get Eustar, my only brother, out of those evil clutches. That was all.”

“Then…”

“I became the demon’s contractor.”

Himierd, who had inhaled sharply, unknowingly covered her lips with her palm. Ord slowly closed his eyes as if he might lose consciousness at any moment, then looked at Himierd again before his head could tilt.

“However, Eustar also couldn’t completely escape the demon’s influence. A human touched by a demon, even briefly, one who allowed its intrusion, has a part of their mind twisted and crumbled. If there were such a thing as a fortress in a person’s heart, Eustar’s fortress would be no different from a fence made of straw. If someone were to charge at it with determination, the fence could collapse in an instant, or burn without a trace.”