The moment their swords met, her feet slid backward. Screech—! A chilling sound of her soles scraping against the training ground floor.

Though her defense was precarious, her posture supporting the sword followed proper form. Raiden pulled one corner of his mouth, openly showing his displeasure. It was obvious who had taught her.

“I’ll stop going easy on you now.”

Raiden, who had stepped back, charged toward Rosé. His sword, surrounded by red Hex, carried more k＊lling intent than his previous attacks.

‘Too fast.’

There was no room to spare. Rosé changed the angle of her blade. But the moment she collided with the penetrating blade, her body tumbled backward due to their overwhelming difference in strength.

Raiden didn’t miss the opportunity and pushed his sword toward Rosé’s neck.

Wrong. She couldn’t put strength into her hands.

Seeing the blade rushing before her eyes, Rosé reflexively squeezed her eyes shut.

“……Ugh.”

Finally, the red-flickering blade tip aimed at Rosé’s nape, leaving a perilously narrow gap. In a real battle, her head would have flown off immediately.

Rosé opened her eyes and looked up at Raiden. He seemed completely at ease, not even taking a single heavy breath.

“Quit while you have the chance. Before you die a dog’s death in the field.”

The red light surrounding his sword gradually faded. Rosé clenched her molars.

She should give up now? Even though she won against the cadets? She hated it. She couldn’t back down like this.

It happened when Raiden relaxed his tense shoulders to withdraw his sword. Rosé’s sword rushed toward him.

When he swung his sword in momentary confusion, screams erupted from the watching cadets.

Raiden’s blade grazed Rosé’s nape. Though her vital point was safe, it was a deep wound worthy of concern.

Belatedly realizing he had used a real sword instead of a practice one, Raiden embraced her.

“D＊mn it!”

Raiden strongly compressed her neck while looking around. His complexion had turned so pale that it was hard to believe he was the same man who had shown k＊lling intent just moments ago.

“Instructor! Call the palace doctor!”

The instructors, startled by his almost howling voice, hurriedly left the training ground.

Raiden urgently tore his shirt with his teeth and tightly knotted it around the open wound.

The situation was serious. Unfortunately, the blade had entered in the exact direction it had been aimed at her nape when he relaxed his guard.

“Stay conscious! Rosé Mora, open your eyes!”

“Uh……”

Though Rosé blinked her eyes slowly, she couldn’t support her body on her own. She had lost too much bl＊＊d. They couldn’t just wait for the palace doctor. Raiden picked her up.

“Hold on a little longer. Please.”

His hands supporting Rosé’s shoulders and knees were filled with strength. His feet, rushing forward step by step, were more terrified than ever before.

Seeing Rosé’s face drained of bl＊＊d, Raiden bit his lip hard. Somehow, he found it difficult to breathe.

* * *

Patrick rushed to the treatment room after hearing the news.

When he arrived, Raiden was anxiously pacing around the treatment room without even thinking of washing the bl＊＊d from his hands.

His complexion was so poor that he could have been mistaken for a patient. He was so out of it that he didn’t even notice the sound of someone’s footsteps.

“Raiden.”

When Patrick carefully called his name, Raiden finally turned to him. The face he met was so terrible that it momentarily left him speechless.

Would it be his imagination to think Raiden looked more desperate than when he lost members before his eyes at the Troden boundary?

“Lady Ellinia went in, so it will be fine.”

Despite his reassuring words, Raiden showed no reaction. He stared at the door, occasionally letting out painful groans.

Patrick could do nothing but silently stand by his side.

The treatment room door opened two hours later. When Ellinia, her hair disheveled from emergency treatment, came out, Raiden’s breathing became so rapid it could be heard from afar.

“Her condition is serious.”

“How serious is it.”

“The bleeding has stopped, but she hasn’t regained consciousness. She has no Hex in her body, so only general treatment methods work, and honestly, from now on it’s purely luck.”

“What do you mean she has no Hex.”

Raiden’s brow furrowed. Ellinia sighed and answered.

“You didn’t know? That child is not a Hex awakener. She has no ability.”

“If she has no ability……”

“Black Cloak is an ordinary person. Sir Raiden.”

Raiden kept his mouth shut and couldn’t say anything. Patrick, who was listening beside him, also lost his words in confusion.

Then what was the ability of Black Cloak that they had seen? There was much he wanted to ask, but the situation wasn’t favorable.

“Would you like to go in and see her?”

Ellinia suggested a visit to Raiden, who looked deathly pale. Patrick saw Raiden’s feet hesitate and patted his shoulder.

“Go ahead. I’ll take care of reporting the situation.”

Raiden glanced back at Patrick once before entering the treatment room. Patrick clicked his tongue inwardly.

‘That guy……’

Hating Lian Mora’s daughter, my as$.

Patrick suddenly recalled the time when Raiden used to ask female knights what kind of sword would be good for a noble lady to carry.

Also, that foolish look on his face when he lectured reporters about Black Cloak with the face of someone in unrequited love.

Nothing had changed from then until now. Patrick shook his head while looking at the closed door.

* * *

Raiden sat in the chair by the hospital bed and looked at Rosé lying down.

With her neck wrapped in sterilized bandages, she was breathing lightly like someone asleep.

Ellinia said she was vulnerable to infection. Though the bleeding was controlled, they needed to monitor whether the wound area would fester.

Raiden carefully reached for her bangs. Her hair was wet with sweat, perhaps from a fever.

When he wiped her forehead with a wet towel that happened to be on the side table, her eyelids moved weakly. He thought she might be regaining consciousness, but there was no further response.

He felt contempt for himself for getting momentarily excited. Even to his own thinking, his current behavior was disgusting.

Hadn’t he despised her? Looked down on her so much that he wanted to strike her down with his own hands.

But when he saw her collapse before his eyes, it felt like his head had been struck several times.

Raiden caressed her wrist with trembling hands. The moment he felt a very faint pulse, he couldn’t help but firmly grasp her hand.

Ridiculously, at that moment, he guessed his own feelings. When he acknowledged everything, what came flooding in was self-loathing.

“What an idiot……”

Hot tears dripped onto the back of her hand. He was afraid. Afraid that he might never get to tell her anything.

* * *

Dawn.

A curtain fluttered in one corner of the treatment room. When a streak of moonlight illuminated the dark interior, a man’s shadow stretched long against one wall.

The man strode forward and stood before the bed. Rosé, lying alone on the bed, was breathing raggedly. A small sigh escaped from the man’s lips.

“Why did you pick up a sword you can’t even swing properly. You, I really.”

And another long sigh. The man tousled his blue-tinted hair in the moonlight and muttered barely audible curses.

All of them were incomprehensible terrible words directed at the man who had hurt her.

“I didn’t think I’d have to do this twice. D＊mn it.”

Contrary to his grumbling words, the man’s hands willingly moved to his waistband. His black training pants dropped to his ankles with a thud.

His c*ck that sprang out was already half-er*ect. Anyone would react this way upon meeting a beloved companion they had missed.

He gently shook his shaft while simultaneously unwrapping the bandage around her neck with his other hand.

“I finally found you, and you go and get hurt like this. I might not live out my natural life because of you. You know that?”

Even while grumbling, his hands created rhythmic noises, tak tak tak, as he rubbed against the thick foreskin.

Perhaps because it had been a while, he immediately felt tingling signals. But even so, he couldn’t ej*culate this easily.

He pulled her nightgown down below her chest. Then, intently staring at her br*asts that drooped under her armpits, he shook his lower body more vigorously.

Though it was nearly a criminal act, he had no choice. He had already urinated, so he wasn’t in need of that.

Therefore, peeking at her br*asts to produce s*men was merely a catalyst to aid in smooth treatment.

“Haa, ugh. Almost there.”

All preparations to spray the medicine were complete. His shaft grew hot with s*men rising as his t*sticles tightened.

He aimed his urethra at Rosé’s neck wound, careful not to spill.

And fired.

“Ugh!”

Due to its maturity, the whitish s*men was shot, pwoot, onto the sutured wound site. He spread the s*men with his gl*ns, dabbing it thoroughly in case he missed any spots.

Just then, brut, the last drops spewed out, seeping deep into the wound.

The effect was remarkable. The dangerously deep wound disappeared completely, and even the fever she had vanished.

“Mmm… Dad……”

She seemed to be gradually regaining consciousness, turning her body to the side while stirring. Because of this, the s*men stuck stickily to the pillow. Well, she would probably think it was pus.

“Just try getting hurt again. Next time, I really won’t let you go.”

He kissed Rosé’s cheek and whispered as a warning. Then he exhaled another deep sigh.

If Lian, that b＊stard, hadn’t told him a little about what had been happening when he asked for this favor, he wouldn’t have even known she was here in the imperial palace.

‘I had imprisoned this kid.’

He recalled the story he heard from Lian. That he had imprisoned her in the divine beast’s den.