***

Clatter.

Only the sound of dishes colliding echoed through the quiet house.

“……”

“……”

Sitting at the dining table, Chamuka moved his spoon with vacant eyes.

Faintly reddened cheeks and ears, eyes half out of focus, a face fixed straight ahead rather than looking at his plate.

He didn’t look normal from any angle.

‘He must be… sick?’

Leticia tried to erase from her mind what she had just seen of Chamuka’s… no.

She erased that certain part(?) of his otherwise extremely healthy body from her thoughts.

It didn’t erase well, but she tried.

Since even the person himself seemed completely unaware of it, it felt awkward to bring it up first.

Leticia decided to just think that Chamuka was sick. From lack of sleep and food, even that part had malfunctioned— no, but does that make sense?

No. The world is a place where nothing should surprise you.

Leticia decided to be generous about everything in the world.

After all, sitting silently at the table without speaking or moving after finishing his porridge didn’t seem like a normal state.

“If you’re done eating, would you like to go back and rest more? The physician said you need plenty of rest.”

Leticia smiled awkwardly while meeting Chamuka’s unfocused eyes that were staring at her intensely.

And with that, Chamuka froze completely.

“Chamuka?”

Alarmed by Chamuka, who seemed to have stopped breathing and turned motionless, Leticia jumped to her feet.

Just then, Chamuka’s eyes blinked, and he slowly slumped sideways.

“Wh-what?”

The water moved according to her will before her hands did. Water flowed from the bottle and caught the falling Chamuka.

Leticia blinked in bewilderment as she looked down at Chamuka, unable to tell if he had fallen asleep or fainted.

“Is he really sick somewhere…?”

Leticia carried Chamuka to the bed using water.

Of course, her gaze absolutely did not travel below Chamuka’s face.

***

“Uweeeck!”

Grand Magician Eckle vomited while clutching a tree, suffering from the side effects of teleportation magic.

His stomach emptied itself well despite having nothing in it.

“Are you alright, Master?”

Astrid asked while patting Eckle’s back.

Eckle shouted indignantly. Whose fault was this anyway!

“I’m not alright! Not alright at all!”

“Oh dear. Master, that’s not true. You can do more. I believe in you.”

The warm encouragement now sounded only eerie.

Eckle was currently being forced to attempt a continental crossing that no magician had ever tried before.

Naturally, it was impossible to do in one go, so they were moving in several segments, but that didn’t make it any easier.

“No. It’s impossible for me. This is my limit. Leave me behind.”

Eckle abandoned his dignity and just lay flat on the ground.

If he cast the teleportation spell one more time, he would be coughing up blood.

Eckle would rather have Astrid step over him and continue on.

“Your husband is following us at our pace without any magic! Now go with him! Abandon me!”

“Master, humans can’t move at such speeds. And I am human.”

Astrid, who mercilessly classified Ferik as non-human, firmly held the hand of Eckle, who was lying on the ground.

On Astrid’s back was the sleeping Kalia.

“Kalia and I have been continuously providing magical support. Can’t you push a little more, Master? We’re almost there.”

“What’s almost gone is my magic power.”

To reduce Eckle’s burden, only Astrid and Kalia, who could provide magical support, were traveling with him while the others followed as best they could.

Ferik, who had woken up after ten days, immediately went crazy and pounced on Astrid, only to be nearly drowned by her before being rescued.

Afterward, Astrid kept her husband properly submerged in water while rushing to the capital with only Eckle and Kalia.

The thought of her lovely and fragile disciple alone in the rough and dangerous heart of the empire made Astrid unbearably anxious.

At this moment, the fact that Leticia was a more powerful magician than herself was completely irrelevant to Astrid.

“Just a little further and you’ll see our Leti, Master. Do you know how adorable she is?”

“A little further for me feels like the afterlife.”

“Imagine it. A baby angel smiling brightly at you, calling ‘Great Master!’ Doesn’t that give you strength?”

“That baby angel is taking me to the afterlife…”

With those words, Eckle’s head dropped.

Astrid clicked her tongue as she looked down at her unconscious master. At this rate, she had no choice but to continue with Ferik.

Though they weren’t far from the capital anyway…

“…Ferik’s eyes looked crazed. I wonder if it’s safe to travel with him.”

Astrid clicked her tongue again and roughly set up a campsite to lie down her master.

As she sat on the ground and brought Kalia from her back to her front, Kalia smiled broadly in her sleep and nuzzled her head against Astrid’s shoulder.

Looking at her daughter, who had become even cuter since the curse was lifted, Astrid’s expression hardened again as she recalled Ferik’s crazed eyes.

His behavior suggested not that the curse had been lifted, but that he had fallen under an even more serious curse.

If she had to name it, perhaps something like “the disease of becoming a beast with only instincts left” or “the disease of deleted rationality.”

Unaware that it was his original temperament that had been barely suppressed by the curse, Astrid waited for Ferik with an uneasy expression.

Exactly three hours later, Ferik appeared with an exhausted Tan slung over his shoulder.

“Astrid, I—”

And after a brief but profound physical and emotional conversation, Astrid submerged Ferik in water again.

Ferik, who never knew how to defy Astrid in the first place, fainted in the water once more.

“How dare you approach with those impure lips during this important journey to rescue my lovely disciple!”

Thus, Astrid, now leading two unconscious grown men, one exhausted boy, and one sleeping baby, steadily advanced toward the capital as the only sane person.

To others, she might not have appeared particularly sane either, but regardless, Astrid was finally able to reach the capital with her group full of people who were not just lacking sanity but completely unconscious.

To the land where her lovely disciple might be trembling alone!

“But why hasn’t Chamuka been in contact? He said he arrived at the capital. What on earth is he doing with my disciple!”

…At the moment when Astrid, who had just set foot in the capital, was bursting with indignation, Colin, who was sleeping in the branch office’s night duty room, woke up feeling an inexplicable chill.

It was the moment his instinctive premonition that all the peace until now was about to be shattered came to fruition.

***

Emperor Yurik of Herta had a total of seven children.

After sending Prince Sion to Basilinte, the Empress had given birth to one more daughter, the youngest.

With a total of four sons and three daughters, the relationships among the siblings were fairly good.

This was thanks to Yurik, who didn’t want strife among his children and had declared from the beginning that he would pass the throne to his eldest son, and also because that eldest son was capable enough that the succession dispute was settled early.

In the first place, unless there’s an exceptionally brilliant genius among them, the oldest child tends to be the smartest and most mature among children.

Crown Prince Peyton, Yurik’s eldest son, who was expected to inherit the throne without incident, had been in seclusion for several days.

No, it wasn’t just the Crown Prince.

Most of the Herta imperial family had not been showing their faces in public.

Nathan, Crown Prince Peyton’s confidant, carefully chose his words today as well, trying to persuade the Crown Prince, who had no intention of leaving his darkened room with drawn curtains.

“Your Highness. You don’t need to step out of the carriage. Just speak briefly from inside the carriage, then return to the palace. That alone would be enough to reassure everyone—”

“Get out!”

The cup thrown by the Crown Prince shattered at Nathan’s feet.

With this violent rejection, Nathan finally sighed and withdrew from the Crown Prince’s room.

There was a reason for the Crown Prince’s behavior.

The Herta imperial family had lost their self-composure.

Even the Emperor himself.