Hello, Readers! I am celebrating my birthday with extra chapter updates, so please enjoy this special chapter release of 4 bonus chapters! 🥳

(Lurelia’s Birthday Bonus – Update 1/4 🎉)

♡ To all readers who purchased these chapters before my Birthday: I can’t express this enough – Thank you for your support. (*ˊᗜˋ*)/ᵗᑋᵃᐢᵏ ᵞᵒᵘ*

His body froze at the violent delusion striking his mind.

‘What was that just now…?’

Did he feel wrong?

-Hurry. Take her in your arms and whisper words of love.

But with the continuing impulse, he realized he hadn’t felt wrong.

In Yuria’s eyes, as she looked at him, there was a strong belief and conviction that he would naturally confess his love to her. Which means…

‘The source of this strange force echoing in my mind is this woman.’

Niel was not only excellent in observation but also in judgment.

‘A woman with dangerous power.’

He stepped toward Yuria and reached out his arm.

‘She might be harmful to Her Majesty. If that’s the case, I should…’

After pulling Yuria’s waist closer, he looked down at the woman in his arms and smiled faintly.

‘Kill her.’

With the judgment made, all that remained was execution.

“I feel the same, Yuria.”

However, this corridor below the Emperor’s bedroom wasn’t suitable for killing someone.

“Since the moment I first saw you, I’ve thought only of you.”

Acting as the impulse in his mind commanded brought a strange sense of fulfillment. Along with a satisfaction as if he owned the whole world, a craving for even stronger stimulation rose.

Perhaps this was what the imperially banned drug felt like, he thought.

But he was Niel Alpenhayer.

To him, who had been raised from birth as the sole heir of the Alpenhayers and the future imperial consort, such numbing stimulation felt rather unpleasant.

‘Is eye contact the condition for triggering this power?’

Having quickly grasped the condition for the power’s activation, he deliberately led her into the bedroom without turning on the lights to avoid eye contact.

It would be better not to spread the smell of blood. And it should be convenient for disposing of the body…

“Ah…! The moment I saw your face, I felt this tingling sensation throughout my body and thought: I came to this world to meet you, Lord Niel.”

“Is that so.”

Then, indeed. Strangulation perhaps.

“And to think you had the same thoughts as me. I feel like we’re destined for each other.”

“I see.”

Jella’s bedroom was right above. He couldn’t disturb her sleep with unnecessary commotion…

“This feels… like a dream.”

“Yes, it does.”

That cloth would be good for gagging her.

“After we stop the mad dragon’s rampage and save this world together…”

He paused.

Niel, who had been looking around for something to gag Yuria with, questioned her words.

“Mad dragon’s rampage?”

“Ah…”

Yuria hesitated, finally realizing she had gotten too excited and said too much, but soon continued in a confident voice.

“Yes, the mad dragon’s rampage. Jella Shunaibel, that woman has a mad dragon parasitizing her body. We will join forces to eliminate that dragon.”

“…Is the Jella Shunaibel you’re talking about the same woman I know?”

Niel’s expression hardened briefly before he asked in a low voice.

“If there aren’t two women named Jella Shunaibel. Actually… I just heard from people here. That she’s your fiancée. And that because you two don’t get along well, the wedding has been postponed repeatedly…”

“….”

“Ah, poor Lord Niel.”

When Niel remained silent, Yuria suddenly threw her arms around his neck.

“But I think even the fact that you haven’t been bound to that woman until now is our destiny. If you had become that woman’s man, I would have been a bit sad. Even though she’s going to die in two years…”

“Die…?”

For a moment, Niel unconsciously held his breath and his eyes trembled.

“Yes, Jella Shunaibel is destined to die after being possessed by the mad dragon and going berserk.”

However, Yuria, unable to see his expression while embracing his neck, answered in a spirited voice.

“So we must kill Jella Shunaibel! If we don’t kill that woman, this world will be destroyed!”

“…How interesting.”

Niel slowly removed her from his body while modifying his plan to kill Yuria.

Then he languidly curved his eyes and caressed her face.

“Tell me more. About that story.”

“Yes…”

Yuria nodded while staring at Niel’s smiling face as if enchanted.

As Niel played along with Yuria, he learned about the secret Jella had been hiding all this time.

“…So according to you, the only way to kill the mad dragon is through her death.”

“That’s right. That woman is the evil of this world.”

“Is there no other way to prevent the mad dragon’s rampage?”

“No. Only by killing that woman.”

“If we can’t stop the mad dragon’s rampage, everyone will die. Including that woman who is the dragon’s host, everyone.”

“…So regardless of the outcome. She has no choice but to die.”

“Yes. Even if that woman’s soul escapes to another world, her physical body will meet its death here along with the mad dragon.”

“….”

Niel carefully organized in his mind what he had learned from Yuria.

He knew that she had lost her parents due to the strong magical power that burst forth when she was born.

He also knew that she was raised in the Holy Kingdom to control the rampage of magical power because of that incident.

But, a mad dragon?

A mad dragon parasitizing her heart?

That the mad dragon would go berserk and devour her and the world?

It was a story he had never heard before, and at the same time, it was hard to believe.

However, surprisingly, the moment Niel heard that story, he felt he had found answers to all the questions he had held until now.

And simultaneously, he realized.

The meaning behind all her actions until now.

The reason why she purged all her relatives despite the infamy.

The reason why she always discussed the future of the continent but never mentioned her own future.

The reason why she kept postponing their marriage and kept that lowly slave knight by her side.

Even the reason for her unnatural behavior at today’s hunting festival, which she insisted on holding despite the bad weather.

She had been waiting for Yuria’s appearance all along.

To achieve peace in this world through her death.

‘…Why would you go this far.’

In this world, she had no choice but to be the villain.

It was a world that would only become peaceful with her death.

Yet she volunteered her own death for this terrible world.

The moment he realized this, a hot emotion rose from deep within Niel’s heart.

It was both violent and destructive.

Niel learned for the first time that day that such an aggressive emotion could exist.

He hated this world. So much that he wanted to burn it all away…

Ah. Yes.

If it was a world that could only be peaceful with her death.

Then let’s ruin this world with my own hands.

Break it and shatter it.

And this world… let’s abandon it.

Let’s find another world where she doesn’t have to die and leave.

‘Even if that woman’s soul escapes to another world, her physical body will meet its death here along with the mad dragon.’

He pondered Yuria’s words from earlier.

He couldn’t yet understand the talk of souls and other worlds.

However, if there was a way for her soul to escape to another world…

‘Somehow. By any means necessary.’

Conveniently, right before his eyes was a woman who claimed to have crossed over from another world.

“Yuria.”

Niel spoke while looking straight into Yuria’s eyes.

“I want to know more about you.”

At that moment, although the voice of delusion rang in his head again, he willingly endured that impulse and continued his act.

The next morning.

Niel went to see Jella. She greeted him while having breakfast in casual attire.

Cail Aleret stood behind her.

Niel’s gaze turned to Cail.

Until yesterday, he had despised that man intensely.

He had to exercise great restraint to suppress and hide those feelings of hatred.

Niel still disliked that man.

But at the same time, he pitied him.

Did that man know?

That the reason she brought him and kept him by her side was for her death.

That they all were arranged for her death.

…Horrifyingly so.