In the hallucination, the old wizard disappeared and a girl appeared.
With long limbs, slightly dark skin, and short curly silver hair, the girl who smiled with a mischievous expression on her face came bouncing over, hugged ‘Herta’ tightly and shouted.
[I love you!]
The girl’s eyes were golden.
Silver hair and golden eyes. Leticia thought the color combination was similar to Basilinte. Though not the tanned skin and mischievous face.
The innocently shining golden eyes gradually deepened.
While maintaining her mischievous gaze and habit of smiling with her face all scrunched up, the girl became an adult.
And then…
[I love you, Herta.]
The transparent golden eyes confessing love reflected the face of the other person.
Leticia could see a certain man in those eyes.
The expressionless ‘Herta.’
Leticia then lost consciousness.

***

“Your Highness?”
Leticia, who had been blinking vacantly with unfocused eyes, suddenly collapsed.
Aina caught the falling Leticia in her arms.
Both the swirling water that had been carving a path and the barrier that had been protecting them from the surrounding dirt disappeared.
Bits of soil dropped from above with soft plops.
Fortunately, the space created by the barrier was still maintaining its shape even after the barrier had disappeared.
However, judging by the falling soil fragments, it was unclear when this space might collapse too.
Aina felt anxious and examined Leticia.
She laid down the collapsed body and shone the lamp on her, but the pale face looked similar to usual… Wait?
“…Your Highness?”
Aina turned pale as she noticed Leticia’s shoulders had narrowed, her waist had become slimmer, and her neck was now smooth with the Adam’s apple gone.
It was magic she maintained even while sleeping.
Since her second growth phase had begun, the magic that had been constantly maintaining her body to look like a ‘boy’ had been released.
Why? So suddenly?
Faced with these abnormal symptoms that started without any warning, Aina didn’t know what to do and shook the prince to wake him up.
“Your Highness, Your Highness! Wake up, Your Highness!”
But no matter how much she shook her shoulders or tapped her cheeks, she wouldn’t wake up.
Wondering if it might be because she was only calling her “Your Highness,” Aina tried calling out Leticia’s name that had only existed in her memory.
“Leticia, can you hear me? Leticia! Leticia Borba!”
With Leticia still unresponsive, Aina decided they needed to get out of there quickly.
Whether to take her to a doctor or whatever else, it seemed better than staying in a place that could collapse at any moment.
At least there was the path that Leticia had been carving, so she just needed to dig in that direction.
‘…Though I don’t know how far I need to dig.’
When she heard it wasn’t that deep, she should have asked how deep exactly.
Aina carefully dug with her bare hands along the path that Leticia had been carving with water. The soil, moistened with water, was easier to dig through than she expected.
Though the speed was much slower compared to Leticia’s magic.
As Aina was digging and occasionally checking on Leticia’s condition, she paused when she felt a drop of water on the back of her neck. It wasn’t the soil fragments that had been falling.
“Water…?”
Aina absently murmured as she wiped the back of her neck and stared at where the water drop had fallen.
The soil was soaked black. And the dripping water drops soon began to pour down heavily.
As if it had suddenly started raining above ground, water began to fill the space where they were trapped.
“Your Highness, please wake up! This is no time to be peacefully unconscious!”
In the Grand Duchy’s land, was it possible for rain to suddenly fall? That was absurd.
Aina had learned over the past 10 years how precious rain was in this land. This was impossible.
Aina quickly lifted Leticia into her arms.
Although Aina knew that Leticia could breathe underwater, she couldn’t just leave her submerged in this rising water.
Something was wrong with Leticia now.
The magic she had been maintaining had all been released, and she wouldn’t wake up no matter what.
The water rose quickly.
Aina held Leticia’s shoulder with one arm while continuing to dig a path to the surface with her other hand.
She had to do something.
“D*mn it.”
Aina cursed briefly as she felt the wound on her palm reopen. Her blood began to mix with the water that had already risen to her waist.
The blood of ‘Herta.’
At the same time, Leticia’s eyelids trembled slightly, but Aina, trying desperately to dig a path, didn’t notice.
And as the water rose higher, when Aina was half ready to give up on escaping safely from this place.
Bang!
With a loud noise, the pile of dirt above the path she was digging collapsed. And light appeared.
Along with large white fingers frantically digging through the ground.
Soon, that large hand grabbed Aina by the nape of her neck and pulled her out.
“Huff!”
Aina immediately tumbled onto the muddy ground.
As expected, it was raining above ground. And it was quite a heavy downpour.
Through the rain, she could see the owner of the large hand that had roughly pulled her out.
It was Chamuka Basilinte.
…It wasn’t particularly surprising. Perhaps because she had naturally assumed he would be following Leticia.
Aina turned her eyes away, feeling awkward as she watched Chamuka, who had pulled Leticia out, tightly embrace her with faintly trembling hands.
“Leti…”
It was just an ordinary hug, but somehow it felt…
‘Ah.’
Aina’s head quickly turned back to them.
Being embarrassed wasn’t the important thing. Nor was the fact that they were creating their own atmosphere, forgetting Aina’s presence!
Wasn’t the magic that made the prince look like a ‘prince’ currently released?
Though her face and height hadn’t changed, there would still be differences in her body shape.
That crazy first young master wouldn’t be touching the slender waist of this innocent child…
“What are you doing, Lord Chamuka…?”
Despite embracing her as if he would hold her forever, Chamuka had already laid Leticia down flat on the ground.
“Increasing the surface area exposed to the rain.”
He answered a question that he would normally have ignored.
Aina felt like a bad person for imagining the first young master’s large white hands touching Leticia’s shoulders or waist.
Just as she was about to think she had misunderstood the first young master’s pure intentions.
“Dig a water pit for Leti. We need to increase the surface area in contact with water.”
Ah. It wasn’t an answer to her question but an explanation of what needed to be done.
That was indeed a crazy person. Aina looked at her empty hands and thought.
…With what?

***

Herta was a mage.
Awakened as a baby, he was sent to the magic tower without remembering his parents, and grew up there.
Though he had a mentor, the mentor feared a disciple who had nothing left to learn.
Even as a baby when he first arrived at the magic tower, Herta was the most powerful mage in the tower.
Even when he could not speak and could only babble.
Having never known family, mentor, or friends from the beginning, he didn’t know loneliness. He was just bored because there was nothing left to learn at the magic tower.
So Herta ran away from the magic tower.
In the outside world, he was still powerful. No one could defeat him or stand in his way.
Thus, Herta became Emperor.
And he fell in love.
Ah. Perhaps falling in love came first.
Herta offered his empire to his love.