Whoosh! The diary, thrown into the air, magically opened and began gulping down the black magic energy that was pouring toward Calix.

“Your Highness, does this mean I don’t have to run away anymore?”

“…You! I truly don’t know how to respond to you.”

Calix gripped his sword more firmly.

After his moment of confusion, he finally smiled.

“What a pathetic trap.”

It was obvious bravado.

“Did you overlook that I can set traps too?”

“What is this…?”

Calix’s sword began to glow with golden light.

“Watch carefully. This is how you set a trap.”

Calix reached his left hand into the air and pulled out a bundle of scrolls, throwing them upward.

He immediately swung his sword, slashing across the scrolls horizontally.

I frowned at the golden light filling the dark stone chamber.

“These people attempted to assassinate the royal family. Execute them.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

And then they appeared: hundreds of magicians and the group of Desart tamers he had secretly recruited.

Calix shrugged his shoulders and said to me boastfully.

“As you suggested, I expanded my forces a bit. As you can see, they’re quite useful.”

Magicians, presumably from Calix’s artifact guild, used magic to bind the elves’ feet.

The beasts summoned by the tamers tore at the elves’ throats.

“Traitors! How dare you insult Lord Morisias!”

The elf elder shouted, but I laughed and gave him the middle finger.

“Yeah, eat this~.”

“Damn it, what are you doing! Gather the magic energy and escape now!”

But as the elves hastily began to disappear, Calix shouted loudly.

“Break the barrier blocking this place and kill anyone who tries to escape.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

It instantly became chaos. In the midst of it, Calix approached me and handed me the diary that had fallen to the floor.

“We need to go to the temple. We must inform the Pope of this immediately…”

That’s when it happened. One of the magicians Calix had brought ran up, bowed his head, and urgently said.

“Your Highness, something terrible has happened. Monsters have begun rampaging throughout the Empire.”

“What?”

“They’re not just near the Hamel Mountains but have spread to civilian areas, mercilessly slaughtering imperial citizens.”

“Damn it, things are really going to hell.”

It was exactly as he said. My mind went blank.

Come to think of it, they had told Calix to become Morisias’s vessel.

Was this a plot to resurrect Morisias using his body and destroy Posnia with monsters?

I hurriedly examined the diary.

[System: The vaccine has eliminated a portion (12%) of the divine power of the first-class criminal Morisias in accordance with Dimensional Management Law Article 1, Section 1, and is tracking him.

This system prioritizes user safety :)]

A portion of divine power? I grabbed Calix’s sleeve and looked up at him.

“Your Highness…”

“First, we go to the palace.”

***

The scene that unfolded as soon as we returned to the imperial palace was horrific.

Monsters were emerging from the ground, mercilessly devouring imperial citizens who were fleeing and screaming.

My head felt like it was about to split.

If I felt this bad, how must Calix feel?

“The Emperor has called an emergency meeting. Ruel, protect Rose.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

After teleporting to the palace, Calix quickly changed his clothes and left his office.

I stared anxiously at the door he had exited through, biting my lip.

‘What should I do? What should I really do now?’

The elves knew I wasn’t on Morisias’s side.

Fortunately, I was able to escape safely this time, but without the diary, Calix would have fallen victim to the dark magic.

Moreover, the diary said it had only eliminated 12% of Morisias’s divine power.

Then what about the remaining 88%?

If I had run away and left him, Calix might have become Morisias’s vessel according to the elves’ plan.

I absolutely cannot leave his side.

Absolutely not.

“What on earth happened?”

“Morisias is trying to resurrect himself.”

“Pardon?”

I hesitated. Should I tell Ruel everything?

Right now, Ruel is the only person Calix can trust.

From what I’ve seen so far, he was someone trustworthy enough.

The reason Ruel betrayed Calix in the original story was because he lost faith in his lord due to the abuse inflicted on the female lead.

The situation now was completely different.

“You may not believe me, but I’ve already told His Highness about this, so I’ll tell you as well. What I’m about to say is strictly confidential.”

“Miss Rose, what exactly are you trying to say?”

“I am a soul from another world summoned by Morisias. He is trying to change fate through me. Moreover, he is attempting to resurrect himself by borrowing His Highness’s body because His Highness has the most powerful soul on the continent.”

“What are you saying…”

Ruel’s face went blank at the sudden outpouring of tremendous truth.

Ignoring him, I paced back and forth in the office, thinking and thinking again. The current situation was entirely unfavorable to us.

1. The First Prince plans to rebel and kill Calix.

2 . The Second Prince has been affected by dark magic and is confined in a separate palace.

3. The Third Prince… I don’t know. He’s probably just following his older brother around.

Anyway, Morisias is trying to resurrect himself by borrowing Calix’s body.

No matter how skilled Calix is, the forces he has are only his knight order and magic guild.

And his tenuous friendship with the Princess of Desart.

“My Lord, how many troops does His Highness currently have?”

I needed to find a way for Calix to safely ascend to the throne and survive.

“About 30,000 men.”

Damn, that’s too few. Of course, considering Calix’s current position, that number was quite large. For someone who is just a crown prince with no supporting factions, having a personal army of 30,000 was quite an achievement.

“His Highness is in danger.”

“…So, you’re saying Morisias is really trying to resurrect himself?”

I pressed my forehead and looked at Ruel.

“I know it’s hard to believe. I didn’t believe it either even when I saw it with my own eyes. The elves were kidnapping holy knights and conducting dark magic experiments on them.”

“So, that’s why monsters are now attacking civilian areas…”

“Yes. They said they would annihilate the people of Posnia. Just like what Posnia did to Levelon in the past.”

I had to think. What would be the best choice for Calix?

What would be the fastest and surest way for Calix to gain the nobles’ trust?

“My Lord, do you have any brilliant ideas? I really don’t know what to do.”

“Miss Rose, since His Highness is a wise person, perhaps we should calmly wait and see…”

I suddenly got angry at Ruel’s complacent words. Is that what he calls helpful advice?

“My Lord! His Highness is already pushing himself to the limit! How can you sit idle and leave everything to him instead of lightening his burden?”

“Miss Rose.”

“What His Highness needs most right now is people he can trust and rely on! How can someone in his closest circle say such irresponsible things?”

Ruel’s expression crumpled at my words.

“…Miss Rose is right. I apologize. My thinking was shallow.”

I sighed briefly and pressed my forehead. I hadn’t meant to raise my voice, but it felt like I had taken out my frustration about the complicated situation on Ruel.

“I should be the one apologizing for raising my voice, my Lord. I was disrespectful due to my troubled mind.”

“No.”

In response to my apology, Ruel shook his head and clenched his fist tightly.

“I will immediately look into frontier nobles who might be of help to His Highness.”

“Frontier nobles? Do you mean like the House of Estanya…”

“I’m referring to nobles who guard the border regions.”

He took out a map from the library and spread it on the table.

Then he pointed to several territories located at the very edge of Posnia.

“Tundera, Fiorn, Keloman. All are far from central power, but they are lords who have built considerable strength in their frontier territories.”

His finger moved to point at an area marked white like snow.

“Tundera, in particular, is a snowy mountain region in the north where monsters frequently appear, so they have one of the most formidable military forces in the empire.”

I frowned at his words and asked:

“Then wouldn’t they be too busy dealing with monsters to care about imperial power struggles? Especially now with these creatures on the loose…”

“That’s why we need to think about how to persuade them starting now.”

In this situation? It looked like it would take a full two weeks to reach the places marked on the map.

But wait a minute. Calix is the master of Arcadion.

Couldn’t he reach the north with just one scroll teleportation?

“I’m not as brilliant as His Highness, so I’m not good at devising ingenious strategies for dealing with people.”

As I was lost in thought, Ruel looked at me.

“So, Miss Rose. What do you think we should do?”

I bit my lip and pondered deeply.

“First, we should wait to see what measures the imperial family takes regarding the monster situation.”

To be honest, I was a bit anxious. Judging from the attitudes of the temple and imperial family so far, it wouldn’t be smooth sailing.

“Surely they won’t just pass the monster problem back and forth between the temple and imperial family like a hot potato, right?”

“…That seems highly likely, actually.”

Ruel said with a shocked expression.

I felt the same way.

‘…What kind of mess is this country in!’