“You need to hold out for 5 minutes until the medicine takes effect.”

“What? It doesn’t work right away?”

“I thought so too, but turns out it doesn’t.”

“How can that be…”

The continuous close combat with the Marquis moments ago had severely depleted Kelic’s power.

More than half her strength had already transferred to the Marquis. In her current state, she absolutely couldn’t last 5 minutes.

“I’ll face him, so you fall back.”

“But…!”

Evolaine urgently grabbed Cardel.

It was too dangerous and reckless. How could he hold out in this desperate situation where the opponent was even absorbing Kelic’s power?

If his magic power got stolen instead, Cardel would be in danger too.

If that happened…

Cardel quietly watched Evolaine trembling with anxiety.

His hand overlapped hers as she gripped his arm.

Blue light rippled in his warm golden eyes. His world had already been dyed blue long ago.

Only Evolaine didn’t know it.

“Trust me, Evolaine.”

“……”

“Please trust me. I’m begging you.”

To prevent a sacrifice requires another sacrifice. It was the most terrible law among all the laws of nature.

Evolaine hated that so much.

“Be careful.”

“Yeah, I’ll be careful.”

“If you get hurt, I’ll never see you again.”

“I won’t get a single hair hurt.”

He was someone who always kept his promises—too reliable to dismiss with sarcasm about just talking big.

Eventually, Evolaine released Cardel’s arm.

When Evolaine stepped back, the Marquis started growling again.

He seemed to instinctively recognize that Cardel was a Magic Swordsman who could suppress Kelic.

“It’s been a while, Your Excellency.”

“……”

“Your daughter is tired, so I think I should entertain you now. Is that all right?”

At the sharp provocation, Nailik roared and charged at him at high speed, and Cardel drew his sword to defend.

The difference in their strength wasn’t huge, but Nailik, having transformed into a monster, was slightly stronger.

Feeling himself being pushed back little by little, Cardel changed the direction of force by stabbing his sword into Nailik’s arm and twisting it.

Fortunately, the Magic Swordsman’s magic power seemed to exert control over him too—Nailik writhed in pain, moving his body this way and that to pull out the sword.

As Cardel drove the sword deeper and deeper, the intensity of Nailik’s suffering grew stronger, and a tense power struggle between them began.

To subdue, to avoid being subdued.

The back-and-forth fight continued, and 5 minutes passed in the meantime.

Amazingly, exactly 5 minutes later, Nailik’s body slowly began returning to normal.

Hair that had grown unkempt from not being cut for so long. Loose clothing.

But absurdly, his appearance alone remained unchanged, like time had passed him by.

“…Ceril?”

“Nailik…! Ah…”

Ceril, her strength drained, collapsed to the floor.

It was finally over.

The time had come to bid farewell to those past days that had been a terrible nightmare.

How much she had longed for this moment.

Ceril burst out with the resentment she’d been holding in and beat Nailik’s chest.

“Do you know, do you know how hard it was for me? I…!”

“Ce-Ceril. That hurts.”

“You deserve to hurt a little. Your daughter just went through hell trying to save you!”

“…Daughter?”

Nailik looked past Ceril.

A young woman in a white uniform covered in wounded hands and countless cuts stood behind Ceril, hesitantly watching them both.

Though he’d never seen her before, he could be certain. Her appearance was exactly like Ceril’s. Tall. And eyes and hair dyed purple.

Suddenly, an old memory surfaced.

The day he’d walked through the garden with Ceril, newly pregnant—it was a story Ceril had brought up.

“What should we name our daughter if we have one later?”

“Hmm…”

What had he said back then?

Definitely…

“If it’s a daughter, let’s name her Evolaine. If it’s a son, Hereis.”

“Good. I like it.”

“…Evolaine.”

Nailik’s voice trembled as he called Evolaine’s name. It was his first time seeing his daughter. And she was a fully grown, proper adult at that.

He couldn’t believe it.

“…Father.”

Evolaine called Nailik in a choked voice. Tears welled up in her large eyes.

“Come here.”

Evolaine hesitated, then approached Nailik’s open arms and embraced him.

His large embrace. A scent similar to the refreshing grass smell from Ceril brushed past her nose.

Evolaine felt relief at the comfort she instinctively sensed.

Eventually, Evolaine burst into tears.

Her crying like a small child made the hearts of those watching feel torn.

“Are you really, really my father?”

“Yes, I am.”

Family she’d met for the first time. My precious family.

Evolaine cried frantically in Nailik’s embrace. Ceril, watching her, also embraced them both.

It was a thread of connection formed after two cycles of life and death.

* * *

Afterward, the Founding Festival was hastily concluded. Though there were witnesses who saw the monster in the banquet hall, they silenced them with sufficient compensation, and as a result, the details of the incident didn’t leak.

After wrapping up the Founding Festival, Astrian’s funeral proceeded immediately.

The Crown Prince’s funeral, held on a grand scale, allowed not only the empire’s nobles but also commoners to freely pay their respects.

It was implemented following Astrian’s philosophy of wanting to ensure commoners’ daily lives didn’t become too disconnected from the nobles’.

On the day the empire’s small sun departed on a long journey, the Emperor couldn’t hold back his tears.

When he, who’d been like a solid fortress, collapsed, the mourners attending the funeral were also in tears for quite a while.

Since he possessed sufficient qualifications as a leader and carried many expectations on his back, the sense of loss from losing him was also great.

It was a month when darkness fell over the empire.

The guards reported that the imprisoned Marchioness wasn’t speaking at all, so eventually a physician visited the prison to examine her.

The physician diagnosed the Marchioness with aphasia. He said people who suffered deep emotional wounds sometimes developed it.

But her wounds couldn’t be justified.

The Emperor sentenced the Marchioness to life imprisonment and stripped her of all her noble title and status.

Her assets were returned to the state, and he announced at an official event that they would be used as a relief fund for the poor.

The Empress took her own life less than a week after being imprisoned.

She seemed to find it utterly unbelievable that she had to receive such treatment.

In the end, she showed the fate of a villain who pitied herself and cowardly ran away.

First Princess Ashiel also threw herself into the river following the Empress’s death.

The exact reason wasn’t revealed, but people speculated it was probably because she’d lived projecting herself onto the Empress while both despising and fearing her, receiving much influence.

Verit fled with Haina.

Haina, freed from the Empress’s clutches, had tried to escape when Verit caught her, and they apparently fled together—that’s what the Naoremi Guild Master investigated and reported.

“From what I checked, those two seemed quite close.”

“…Is that so?”

Close with the Empress’s minion. Moreover, that minion was a former assassin, and knowing that, she still grabbed that escaping woman and followed her.

Whether she had guts or no fear.

Verit was no longer someone to worry about, but the uncomfortable feeling didn’t fade.

“Just in case, please investigate a bit more.”

“Understood.”

Following their trail would reveal whether she was just following along or planning something.

‘So now only Hesion remains?’

The pretext for bringing in Hesion was drugs.

They needed to summon and interrogate him for illegally distributing and consuming narcotics, and along with that, find out what had been happening at the Marquisate of La Voletta all this time.

However, no matter how much they searched the capital, they couldn’t find even a trace of where he was hiding.

Meanwhile, intelligence came in regarding the whereabouts of the Duke of Arpi’s household, which had disappeared, and they arrested Hesion, who’d been staying with Siana.

However, Siana, seemingly sensing something amiss, abandoned Hesion and fled first.

Hesion’s face looked hollow when he learned that fact after being arrested.