Selina was utterly devastated upon hearing that Calliope had also died.

Rocheste’s final words had been a plea to protect those who remained. Yet she had failed to fulfil his wish — she had failed to protect Calliope, too.

Someone approached Selina, who was lying motionless in the attic as if she were dead, having not drunk any water.

“So you were more useful than I thought. You do know how to cling on, at least.”

Iden looked down at his half-sister with cold eyes.

He had probably come to hurl cruel words at her and tear her down as always, but in her current state, Selina could not muster a response.

She lay limp on the floor like a marionette with its strings cut, as though she were already dead.

Iden watched her silently, the corner of his mouth twisting.

“Stupid b*tch. From the start, all you had to do was exactly what Father told you. This is what you get for letting yourself care about someone who was bound to die anyway.”

He continued to spit venom, yet he did something she could never have imagined.

Iden brought Selina a meal personally and fed her spoonful by spoonful.

He didn’t care if she weakly struggled to refuse or simply let the soup dribble from her mouth as if she were already dead.

“Pathetic and useless—now you even look like a dying corpse. You’re more pitiful than ever.”

Although he shouted at her every time he fed her, it was undeniable that it was Iden’s actions that had played a significant role in keeping Selina alive.

‘Why am I still alive?’

She was in a daze most of the time, but whenever she became lucid, even if only for a moment, she had the same question.

Although she swallowed the soup that Iden had forced on her, food was not her main concern. She had never taken the antidote, so how was she still alive without experiencing any side effects?

Sometimes she wondered if she was already dead and if this place was hell itself.

Now that she thought about it, she recalled reading something similar in a fairy tale once. It was about someone who had committed a grave sin and was punished by having to push a massive stone up a high mountain for all eternity.

Perhaps this was her punishment.

For abandoning Rocheste.

For failing Calliope.

And for betraying Calix.

Maybe she was condemned to relive those dreadful days forever.

“You should be grateful. Because you did earn merit by ruining Thalia, Father was generous enough to grant you the antidote.”

But the truth was different.

Selina had been waiting for the day she would die.

Now, even that freedom had been taken away from her.

‘…Let’s end this now.’

It was late at night.

Lying in bed and slowly wasting away, Selina finally decided to stop clinging to her worthless life and end it herself.

She got out of bed and walked towards the door. The servants knew she never left her room of her own accord, so they hadn’t bothered to lock it. Slipping out in the dead of night was effortless.

She resolved to climb to the highest point of the estate. If she jumped from there, she felt she might finally grasp the death that had always eluded her.

It would not cleanse her sins, but she believed it was the only thing she could offer in return for the blood-soaked tears shed by those who had suffered because of her.

She had just stood up and was about to step outside when—

Thud.

Something struck the tips of her feet near the doorway.

Lowering her gaze, she saw a pile of assorted items stacked there. Untouched meal trays, spare clothing, and jewelry lay scattered together. Beside them was a heap of envelopes, all addressed from Waldemar.

Why did this man keep sending her letters and gifts?

What more could he possibly want from her?

But she had already chosen death. There was no reason left to question his intentions.

She was about to shove the pile aside when—

‘…This is…’

Something suddenly caught Selina’s eye.

Among the many items Waldemar had sent her was a small, utterly unremarkable envelope.

Unlike the other letters, it bore no sender’s name.

One corner of the envelope was torn, and something had fallen out.

She picked it up.

“Ha.”

The moment she recognized it, a hollow laugh escaped her—one she herself could hardly believe.

After losing Calix at Lumos Gorge, she had searched for this endlessly.

Like a madwoman, she had torn through her surroundings, questioned everyone she met—but no one had known anything about it.

‘Then why… now…?’

In Selina’s hand—

Was the moonstone bracelet Calix had given her.

Once, it had gleamed with a vivid crimson hue. Now its color had faded, dull as an ordinary stone one might find along the roadside.

And yet, as she examined it again and again, she could tell.

‘It’s faint… but it’s glowing.’

Like moonlight veiled behind heavy clouds.

It no longer shone brilliantly as it once had, but as though refusing to be completely hidden, it emitted a dim, steady light.

“…He’s still alive.”

Selina pulled the moonstone bracelet tightly against her chest.

Calix had once told her that the moonstone set into the bracelet reflected his own condition.

The fact that its light had not gone out completely meant that Calix was not truly dead.

The glow was so faint that someone might have mistaken it for a stone whose light had already died.

But to Selina, Calix being alive was truth itself—an undeniable certainty.

She had to find Calix.

From that moment on, Selina resolved to search for Calix, who had to be alive somewhere. And there was only one thing she intended to do after finding him.

To return everything Calix had lost.

No matter how capable she had become at handling spirits, it was impossible to bring the dead back to life.

So Selina wanted to help Calix exact revenge on those he wished to punish.

Even if that person turned out to be Selina herself, there would be no exception.

“I wish to join the Knights of the Sun. I believe I can be of help in persuading the remaining Thalian forces.”

To do that, she first had to go to the front lines—where news of Calix was most likely to surface.

The marquis did not seem inclined to trust his daughter, who had once been willing to give her very life for Calix.

However, perhaps thinking that sending forth someone who had once been the Grand Duchess of Thalia would allow them to swallow up Thalia more quickly, he permitted her enlistment.

A watcher named Callios was assigned to accompany her in the process—but that did not matter.

Her goal was not to deceive her overseer.

It was to find Calix.

Ironically, the objectives of the Knights of the Sun—seeking out Thalia’s remaining forces—and Selina’s own purpose aligned perfectly.

Perhaps because of that, the more fervently she pursued her goal, the more she appeared to others as someone blinded by the desire to accumulate merit.

Perhaps because of that, the more fervently she pursued her goal, the more she appeared to others as someone blinded by the desire to accumulate merit.

‘I thought I had been deceiving everyone so well all this time…’

Yet now, everything she had worked so desperately for felt meaningless.

How could someone who had failed to protect even a single precious person claim to seek Calix?

Callios, who had been leading the way with Alter slung over his shoulder, turned his head before ascending to the first floor.

Selina—whom he had thought was following closely—had not moved an inch.

He could not understand what sudden whim had come over her.

No—what he truly could not understand was why she had set foot in a place like this of her own accord to begin with.

“Vice-Commander.”

He lowered Alter to the ground and approached Selina.

Her eyes were tightly shut, her body trembling uncontrollably—it was an odd sight.

She did not seem ill, yet cold sweat was beading on her forehead.

“Vice-Commander.”

Grabbing Selina by the shoulders, he shook her.

After a long moment of unresponsiveness, she suddenly snapped her eyes open as if she had been jolted awake from a nightmare.

Her blurred violet eyes filled with his face.

Staring at Callios, she murmured hazily.

“Cal… ix?”

For an instant, it felt as though his heart dropped straight down. But he showed none of it. Composing his expression, he asked coolly.

“What are you talking about? Pull yourself together.”

“…Ah. I’m sorry.”

At his cold rebuke, focus finally returned to Selina’s eyes. She shook her head once, then steadied herself.

“I just felt dizzy for a moment.”

She looked as though she might have fainted on her feet—her condition clearly poor—but he did not press further and changed the subject.

“We need to get out of here.”

“…Yes. We should.”

Even after regaining her senses, Selina still seemed unwell.

Like someone who had lost all motivation in an instant, she merely agreed with his words, never taking initiative herself. She did not seem particularly eager to escape either.

It felt as though he had been saddled with an annoying burden.

For a moment, he even considered leaving Selina behind.

But doing so would reduce his chances of getting close to Duke Bryson—so she was not something he could discard just yet.

With the mindset of holding onto a useless yet unthrowable card in a game, he grabbed her arm.

“I’ll lead. Stay close behind.”

“…All right.”

It was as he was forcibly guiding the woman—who seemed to have neither the will nor the desire to live—up the ladder leading above.

Fwoosh—

All at once, an ominous sound came from beyond the entrance, accompanied by a wave of searing heat.

Upon realizing what it was, Callios’s mouth twisted.

‘They set it on fire from the outside?’

He knew the slave traders were fools, but he hadn’t expected them to resort to something this idiotic.

They likely hadn’t figured out who Selina really was—but it seemed they believed their trail had been discovered.

And so, in an attempt to erase all evidence, they intended to burn the entire place to the ground.