Maximilian spoke earnestly, as if that was all he wished for. Anton’s eyes remained fixed on Rosalyn. The child’s face was so peaceful that it seemed she might wake up at any moment.

At that moment, Embley’s knights who had been waiting outside entered.

“My lord.”

“Have you confirmed?”

“Yes. Though we cannot be certain due to the decomposition of the dead knights’ bodies, it was clearly not an ordinary attack. They were definitely trained knights.”

The knight who had visited the site where Rosalyn was attacked reported in detail what he had observed. Anton clenched his jaw.

“Anything else?”

“We found this.”

“… It’s certainly Atilei.”

What the knight brought was a carrier pigeon used by Atilei. The white snake drawn on the tip of the bird’s wing was clearly visible.

Anton beat his chest violently. He could not bear the thought of his innocent daughter’s death. Even if one has little life left, it is a parent’s heart to wish to see their child for even one more day.

The anger that had subsided began to boil up again. However, he is the head of the Embley family. He cannot proceed with everything based on anger alone.

At that moment, Maximilian rose unsteadily from his seat. He took the newborn child from the maid’s arms and showed it to Anton.

“This is the child Rosalyn left behind. She said she named him Daniel.”

“Daniel.”

Seeing the child’s hair with a reddish tinge, Anton’s heart crumbled. He carefully took the child and embraced him. Being the only child Rosalyn left behind, it felt like an extension of his daughter.

Then Maximilian spoke.

“For Daniel and Rosalyn, I will fight against Atilei alongside the Embley Elector.”

“What help could the likes of you be?”

“Of course, having lost my magic, I may not be of much help. But I have lived in the hateful Atilei for my entire life. I know better than anyone their weaknesses and how their family’s private army is structured.”

“Mere information like that.”

Anton snorted. Maximilian bowed his head.

“I am already a dead man. If the Elector had not saved me, if Rosalyn had not persuaded the Elector to let me go to Ansen with her, I would have been executed in the palace dungeon. So now my life belongs entirely to the Elector.”

“Then you would have no regrets if I were to cut off your head right here?”

Anton drew the long sword at his left hip. The sharp tip of the blade touched Maximilian’s neck. Anton slashed across his throat without much hesitation.

Blood flowed along the sword, but Maximilian did not utter a single groan. He simply waited with his eyes closed, as if awaiting Anton’s judgment.

Finally, when the sound of the sword being sheathed was heard, Maximilian opened his eyes.

“What do you know?”

“I devoted my life to obtaining Atilei. Dedicating my soul to destroy it is nothing.”

Maximilian smiled with all his heart.

However, Anton, finding that smile disgusting, simply brushed past him. The reason he didn’t kill him immediately was that there were more pressing matters to attend to, not because he had found any use for him.

Maximilian, Atilei, none of it mattered to him. Only Rosalyn was important.

“Load Rosalyn into the carriage.”

“Yes, my lord.”

The priority now was to bury his daughter in a sunny place and hold her funeral. He wanted to leave this hot country with his daughter as soon as possible.

Anton felt a sense of emptiness as he watched the coffin being loaded into the carriage.

When the physician who first examined his daughter’s heart said she wouldn’t live long, he thought he had prepared himself for everything. But now, seeing Rosalyn’s cold face, that preparation crumbled like a sand castle.

He still couldn’t believe it. That his daughter was no longer in this world. It felt like she might still come out of that carriage calling “Father” at any moment.

Anton tried to ignore the rising sorrow and started the carriage.

Daniel, unfamiliar with the sudden change in environment, kept bursting into tears. Anton took the child from the wet nurse and patted his back.

“It’s alright, everything’s alright. I’ll protect you.”

It’s unclear whether the child understood those words or not. The sporadic crying sounds simply quieted down at some point.

Anton, recalling how he used to care for Rosalyn, awkwardly held and comforted the child.

* * *

The life that Rosalyn left behind allowed her father to live day by day. If it weren’t for Daniel, Anton might have wandered like a vagrant, drowning in alcohol.

He searched for traces of Rosalyn while examining the face of the newborn whose features were not yet fully formed.

“I think his nose resembles the young lady’s.”

Said the wet nurse who had cared for Rosalyn. At those words, Anton spent the entire day holding the child and examining his nose.

It was the day before they were to board the ship from Ansen to Ershe.

“Aah!”

While they were camping in the forest, a human scream was heard along with the sound of wind from somewhere. The knights were the first to react, drawing their swords.

Sophia and the other maids, who had already experienced this once, trembled in fear, hiding in a corner.

“What’s happening?”

“I’ll go and find out.”

The oldest knight volunteered to go towards the source of the sound. But no matter how much time passed, he did not return. The summer nights in Ansen were usually hot, but at that moment, the wind that brushed against their cheeks felt extremely cold and sharp.

Anton gestured to the wet nurse holding Daniel.

“Stay in the carriage with Daniel. Value the child’s life more than your own.”

“Yes, my lord.”

She hurriedly adjusted her hold on Daniel and entered the carriage. Anton drew his sword, cutting through the eerie wind.

“Who goes there! Show yourself!”

The other knights also circled around Anton, on high alert. That’s when it happened. An arrow flew from somewhere and struck the knight right in front of Anton.

“Argh!”

“Over there! The enemy is there!”

One of the knights shouted. Reacting to those words, a few soldiers and two knights rushed out. Those who remained stood even more firmly to protect Anton.

Bang—

This time, it wasn’t an arrow but a ball of fire that flew towards them.

* * *

“Hello. May I sit here?”

“What? Oh. Yes, please sit.”

While eating alone in the common dining hall, a black-haired man approached with a friendly greeting. He looked two or three years older than Cordelia and was quite handsome.

“I’m Ilias Nassau.”

“I’m Cordelia Vasquez.”

“I know. There’s probably no one in the Mage Association who doesn’t know you now.”

He said as he naturally set down his tray of food opposite Cordelia.

“Me?”

“Yes. You were famous when you appeared as the disciple of Master Atilei, who everyone thought was dead, but you also passed the intermediate mage test shortly after officially showing your face at the association.”

“Ah, um.”

“Everyone wants to talk to you, but they’re hesitant because of Master Atilei.”

“Why my master?”

Cordelia asked with round eyes at the sudden mention of her master. Ilias laughed lightly.

“You didn’t know? Master Atilei recently sent an official letter to each school. He said he wouldn’t let anyone who dared to lay a finger on his disciple go unpunished.”

“No way, that’s ridiculous!”

This was overprotection to the extreme. Cordelia was dumbfounded by Ilias’s words. This wasn’t Diloa’s territory teeming with magical beasts, but the Mage Association. She couldn’t understand what was so dangerous that he needed to be so protective.

In fact, this wasn’t the only instance.

Ever since the day Leonard drank too much tea in Matilda’s research lab, his overprotection reached its peak, and he wouldn’t let Cordelia leave the lab at all.

Coming to the dining hall was only possible after a week. During that time, Leonard even brought meals to her personally.

“But is it okay for you to talk to me?”

“It’s fine. I’m already known as a crazy guy anyway. And don’t call me ‘you’, call me Ilias.”

“But come to think of it.”

“Yes?”

“Why are you speaking informally to me from the start?”

“If you want, you can speak informally too. I’m also an intermediate mage like you.”

“Really? Then I won’t hold back.”

Cordelia immediately switched to informal speech. Ilias chuckled, apparently amused by Cordelia’s sudden change in attitude.

“What’s so funny?”

“You’re more interesting than I thought. They say you’re a genius, right? Master Cannon said you broke through a 7-layer magic circle in just one minute. How do you do it?”

“You just need to inject mana into the weak points.”

“What? Tell me more details. I still find it difficult to break through a 5-layer magic circle.”

“You just do it, that’s all?”