Lesta tilted his head to the side.

“If you’re fighting so hard just to elicit pity and sympathy from others, that’s wrong. Any feelings gained that way will turn to jealousy once your circumstances improve.”

“I’m not fighting like this to win anyone’s heart.”

“Then why do you throw yourself into danger without a second thought? If you’d just waited a few more minutes—let your brother, Cassandra, and the elite knights go in together—”

“There would’ve been no survivors.”

Amaranth fell silent. Lesta was right. If she hadn’t gone in first, the icefang tiger of the snowy mountains would have found and killed everyone hiding in the snow.

“See, Ara?”

Lesta raised the arm that Amaranth couldn’t stop staring at.

“It’s almost healed.”

Even though he was showing that it no longer hurt, Amaranth’s face twisted all at once. Lesta couldn’t understand why.

“My body’s like this. Even if it’s half torn apart, it reattaches in a few days. And if it’s completely severed, it’ll grow back in a few months. Like a monster. Like a beast.”

“But still… it hurts, doesn’t it?”

“It hurts, yes—but it’s better than dying. If I don’t take the lead, someone else will die. Even if they don’t die, they might end up crippled. But I don’t die easily. As long as I’m breathing, I won’t stay broken.”

Although she said she was fine, tears welled up in Amaranth’s eyes. Lesta felt a strange tightness in her chest. He felt as though the Sunray family could never truly understand her, which left her feeling lost.

“Ben from our mercenary band has a wife and daughter. To them, he is the most precious person in the world. If he were injured or crippled or worse, if he never came back their paradise would collapse.”

“…”

“That woman earlier, the mother of that child, she lost her paradise because her child didn’t return. If your brother were gravely hurt, you and your family would be consumed by grief. But me? I wouldn’t.”

“Lesta…”

“There’s no one in this world who thinks of me as their most precious person. Sure, they’d grieve if I were badly hurt or killed. But my death wouldn’t destroy anyone’s paradise. That’s why, Ara… it’s better if I’m the one who gets hurt.”

Tears that had been gathering slipped down Amaranth’s pale cheek. Lesta frowned.

“Most people agree that it’s best if I take the hit. But why are you all making such a fuss? Would you rather see your brother die than see me get hurt?”

Amaranth couldn’t answer.

Lesta was right.

It was better for someone to get hurt than for someone to die.

She knew that. She knew it was the right thing to do.

And yet she couldn’t erase the image of Lesta covered in blood, standing there as the mother’s hatred rained down on her.

The sight of it hurt. It broke her heart. Even now, though her arm had almost completely healed, the sadness lingered.

And the reason she threw himself into danger without hesitation…

“There’s no one in this world who thinks of me as their most precious person.”

….was far too heartbreaking.

“I’ll… I’ll be the one to think of you as precious.”

She blurted out before she could stop herself.

Lesta, who had been frowning as if annoyed by the entire situation, suddenly smiled.

“Liar.”

✦❘༻༺❘✦❘༻༺❘✦❘༻༺❘✦❘༻༺❘✦❘༻༺❘✦❘༻༺❘✦ ✦❘༻༺❘✦❘༻༺❘✦❘༻༺❘✦❘༻༺❘✦❘༻༺❘✦❘༻༺❘✦ ✦❘

It had been a week since Lesta began staying at the Sunray duchy.

When Toma, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, caught sight of her, he didn’t even bother to laugh.

“Wow, boss. You look like a noble lady.”

Lesta was wearing the outdoor dress that Amaranth had insisted she put on.

Made of light lavender linen blended with silk, the dress wasn’t as glittering as a ball gown, but it had a soft, misty sheen in the sunlight.

The sleeves flared gently below the elbows and were embroidered with subtle patterns that fluttered in the breeze.

The waist was subtly nipped in, and the skirt rippled softly twice: once above the ankles, and again near the tips of her feet.

There were few decorations except for a single brooch in the shape of a small lily that rested over her chest.

A large pearl hairpin gleamed like a white blossom amidst Lesta’s red locks. Since she said she was meeting a friend, Amaranth had sprayed a little perfume on her, leaving a faint floral scent that lingered as she moved.

“You even smell nice.”

Toma said, sniffing the air.

Lesta sighed.

“I don’t even know what I’m doing here.”

Lesta had tried to explain things to the Sunray siblings seriously. She promised that she wouldn’t fight recklessly anymore, but they had to admit that her approach was the most effective.

If she was given just ten elite knights, she would capture the labyrinth’s boss and return safely. After all, it was a blue labyrinth, so she might get hurt, but not badly.

However, the Sunrays didn’t seem to hear a word she said. Instead of assigning her elite knights, they sent her a dress designer, a jeweler, a shoemaker, and a milliner.

Her dressing room was now filled with gowns of every kind, along with matching hats, shoes and jewelry.

If she had followed her heart, she would already have ventured into the labyrinth alone to hunt down the boss.

But this labyrinth had appeared right here in Youngdo. If it were somewhere far away, perhaps she could have entered unnoticed, but under the jurisdiction of the Sunrays? She couldn’t just barge in alone.

She had visited the entrance several times, but the Sunray knights guarded it so tightly that sneaking in seemed impossible.

“Why complain? Isn’t it nice? You’ve got all these pretty clothes now.”

“I didn’t come here to play dress-up.”

“You’ve worked hard for years, boss. It’s just been a week of rest. You can take a short break, can’t you?”

“Serena’s started seeing the Crown Prince. No one knows whether Isabella or Dominic will move first. I planned to finish what needed to be done in Youngdo and head straight for the capital.”

“The ones in the capital can handle themselves. Whatever happens, they’ll hold out until you get there.”

Lesta slid a folded newspaper across the table toward Toma. Toma glanced at the headline and frowned.

“Duke Blackwood’s leading a labyrinth raid?”

“Richard Blackwood already knows I’ve allied with the Sunrays. He’s anxious, he’ll make a move to prove something.”

“Then it’s the poor soldiers who’ll die for it.”

“Read properly, Toma.”

Lesta pointed at a line in the article.

[The Red Labyrinth of Isden has long resisted subjugation, leaving the region in ruin.]

“It’s a red labyrinth. Even if Blackwood throws all his forces at it, it won’t be easy.’ Isden’s marquis is the Empress’s father. He’s a proud imperial loyalist, but if he accepts Blackwood’s help and the labyrinth is cleared, Blackwood will be owed a favor. He won’t switch sides, but when the time comes, he won’t be able to defy Blackwood.”

“That’s too complicated for me. Anyway, can Blackwood really conquer a red labyrinth without you there?”

“Not impossible, especially if he joins forces with Isden’s troops. But the timing is strange. He’s finally sure I’m alive, so why send his army elsewhere now, of all times?”

“He’s not sending his army,” came a voice from beside them.

Eldrian appeared out of nowhere, pulling out a chair and sitting down.

“The paper makes it sound like Blackwood’s sending troops, but in truth, he’s only sending Dominic and two knights to guard him.”

“Then the subjugation will fail.”

“The rest of the forces will come from Isden.”

“It’ll still fail.”

“I heard Blackwood’s developed a remarkable drug, one that supposedly turns ordinary men into soldiers who can fight a hundred at once.”

Lesta frowned.

“That drug turns humans into cursed bodies.”

“You know what it is?”

“I do. I’m the one who made it.”

Eldrian’s eyes widened.

“You made something like that? When?”

“When I was the Silver Mask. I created all sorts of things for Blackwood, using loot taken from labyrinths. Most of what Blackwood trades today—I made them.”

The inventions that had made Blackwood wealthy were those crafted from labyrinth spoils. One such invention was the recipe for Helos’s healing medicine, a secret known only to the Blackwoods.

“Then you know the recipe for the Helos cure too?”

“I do. That’s why I planned to meet with the Guild of Artisans once I came to Youngdo, to share the formula and form a partnership. But thanks to all these dresses and tea parties, I never got the chance.”

Despite the bitterness in Lesta’s tone, Eldrian didn’t even twitch an eyebrow.

“What kind of drug turns people into undead?”

A cursed body referred to those who rose again after death, the undead.

“It’s made by combining Shadow Speargrass and Purified Willow, along with several other herbs, in precise proportions. It doesn’t turn you into an undead immediately after drinking. Once consumed, it erased all pain. Strength flooded the body. A sense of invincibility followed, along with the confidence that you could do anything — even when wounded — without feeling any pain.

Soldiers who drink it will charge at monsters like I do. They won’t care if they’re torn apart or bleeding out. They’ll fight without fear of death. With that kind of madness, they’ll be as strong as elite knights. Even when they die, they rise again. As long as their limbs remain intact, they’ll keep fighting the thing that killed them. The only way to stop them is to crush their heads.”

It wasn’t difficult for Lesta to imagine what would soon happen in Isden.

“The Marquis of Isden will probably only send a few knights and a handful of soldiers. Dominic, also known as the Silver Mask, once subdued a labyrinth boss with that many. He won’t suspect a thing. Once they’re inside, Dominic will make Isden’s men drink it.”

Stripped of fear and pain, the soldiers will hurl themselves at the beasts without hesitation.

And, undeterred, Dominic would walk straight to the labyrinth’s master behind their reckless onslaught.

“The soldiers who last that long will be finished off by the labyrinth’s boss. But even in death, they’ll rise again, only to hurl themselves at it once more. That’s when Dominic and the two Blackwood knights will strike, delivering the final blow. Once the boss is defeated, the remaining Isden soldiers will be executed — beheaded one by one — and the knights will return to report that the men fought valiantly but did not make it back.

Even if only a handful of knights and a few dozen soldiers were sacrificed to defeat the boss of a red labyrinth, it would still be celebrated as a victory.

No one — not even the Marquis of Isden — would question why only Dominic and his knights survived. Dominic’s formidable reputation as a warrior, coupled with the skill and flawless coordination of the Blackwood knights, would make it easy to believe that they had triumphed through strength and strategy alone.

“If such a drug exists, why hasn’t Duke Blackwood used it before now?”

“Shadow Speargrass is hard to obtain. As far as I can recall, there was only one labyrinth in Blackwood’s domain that produced it, and it disappeared two years ago. It seems that when Dominic overreached himself last time, he found Helos and Shadow Speargrass there.”

A chill ran down Eldrian’s spine.

If such a drug truly existed, it wouldn’t be difficult for Blackwood to dominate the entire world.

Seeing the unease on Eldrian’s face, Lesta spoke again.