1.

It was a strange sensation she had never felt before in her life.

Marian’s eyes twitched.

Marian trembled as she pressed down and endured the unfamiliar sensation freely swimming across her skin while clenching her fist. She exhaled slowly with her face buried in the pillow.

Her black hair, flowing down like a waterfall, seemed to undulate like snakes. Marian shuddered at the dizzying feeling of being pushed into an unknown world. She wanted to peel off the hot body temperature clinging to her back, yet strangely hoped it would stay there.

She felt foreign even to herself.

Tears welled up in Marian’s blue eyes.

“Ah.”

What she had been holding back while biting her lips burst out with a small sound. Marian turned her body. If she stayed like this, she might show an unseemly sight that she couldn’t show to anyone.

Marian took a deep breath while steadying herself on Abel’s shoulder.

The man’s eyes burned as he stared at her parted pink lips. Abel gently captured Marian’s lips. Marian shook her head.

“Isn’t…… isn’t it unsightly?”

These were the only words she could barely manage to speak.

“Unsightly?”

Abel asked in a low voice. He couldn’t understand what could possibly be unsightly. She was enchanting from head to toe. It seemed like Marian’s very existence was stimulating Abel. A tear fell from Marian’s eye.

“My back.”

Abel let out a languid laugh as if that was absurd.

“That’s impossible. That’s probably your most enchanting part.”

Abel kissed Marian’s forehead. Marian’s tears flowed endlessly.

“You’re crying so much when we haven’t even started yet.”

Abel gladly drank in Marian’s tears. What he wished for was just one thing. That this night would never end.

Abel whispered in the most gentle voice he could muster.

“Marian. Close your eyes.”

**

Black flames flickered in Marian’s large eyes. Lorenzo, stretching across the desolate plains, was gradually increasing in size, seemingly determined to end it this time. Marian slowly turned her back.

Her retina captured Federico’s army fleeing in panic and confusion. It was utter chaos.

“Move!!! Move right now!! You cursed fools! Have you forgotten who you’re supposed to protect! Clear the way this instant!!”

A sharp voice rang out. Marian blinked slowly. That figure pushing away the fleeing soldiers and running away to save his own life was Federico’s Commander-in-Chief. The one responsible for this war. Federico’s Crown Prince and Marian’s only brother.

Marian let out a sigh between her slightly parted lips.

“A mess until the very end……”

Her voice was mixed with moisture. Emotions she thought had dried up completely surfaced. Marian’s lips trembled. Leni’s eyes looking at Marian were full of sympathy.

“You always knew he was that kind of person, Your Highness.”

“That’s true.”

Marian smiled with tears in her eyes. As always, the cleanup was Marian’s responsibility. Marian turned her back again. What was summoned from Lorenzo was the flame of death. Beyond the flames, she seemed to see the beautiful face of a familiar man. The man she had crossed swords with countless times over the past 2 years. He was also the master of those flames.

Marian knew better than anyone how deadly the flames this man created were.

His mysterious orange eyes, like captured sunset light, were burning. Their eyes definitely met. Marian smiled slowly.

Lorenzo’s hound, Abel Frite Lorenzo.

A man who was abandoned by Federico and became Lorenzo’s hound, adopted as the king’s son. His eyes looking at Marian burned with anger and hatred.

It was none other than Marian and her family who drove Abel to that cliff. Federico’s Emperor had massacred Abel’s family and made the young Abel a slave. He had lived as a gladiator slave for 12 long years, so his hatred toward Federico could only run deep.

All these calamities were brought on by Federico themselves.

“How nice it would have been if my father had been more conscientious. If he had known shame.”

“……That would have been impossible, Your Highness. I think you’re the mutation in the Federico Imperial Family.”

Marian let out a laugh. It was ridiculous to have such a conversation before death. Marian swallowed dryly. She would definitely stop that fireball. If Marian dodged, her people would die. Marian intended to be Federico’s final shield. Even if Federico was falling to ruin, she couldn’t just let it be.

Just because her siblings and father had abandoned their duty didn’t mean Marian could turn away as well.

‘What can a woman like you do? Marian, you just need to support your brother well.’

‘Marian, let’s conclude this as something your brother did. It’s better for you too if the future emperor does well.’

‘Do you want the monarchy to end like this? This war! This is a war for all of us!’

‘Save your brother. You must save your brother and send him back. Do you understand what I’m saying?’

Even though Marian’s family had driven her to this cliff’s edge. Still, Marian had to make a choice worthy of herself. Following her beliefs, and following death.

She would perish along with that thing.

“Your Highness!! You must dodge!!!”

Leni pulled at Marian but she pushed her away. It was enough for just Marian to die here. Leni was also one of the citizens Marian had to protect. Marian could see Leni screaming as she was pushed far away by Marian’s magic.

“No, Your Highness!!”

“It’s alright.”

Marian slowly closed her eyes. Pure white streams of light spread out from Marian and scattered. Somehow she wasn’t scared at all. Truly.

‘……If I’m born again…… freely……’

A transparent tear fell from Marian’s eye.

**

Abel also witnessed that white light that was overwhelming just to look at. The small body floating high up as if the very act of standing on the ground was unacceptable. Wings made of light spread from her back, which seemed infinitely small and modest compared to the huge fireball that Abel and Lorenzo’s mages had grown.

The wings gradually increased in size and embraced Federico.

And that small body alone endured the catastrophe created by Lorenzo.

When Marian, who had been burning pitch black, fell, Lorenzo’s mages trembled as if they felt sacrilegious for shooting down a god.

Abel stared at the sight with burning eyes. Abel thought coldly.

‘Is she dead.’

The hot blood pumped from his heart coursed through his entire body. Uncontrolled magic felt like it would burn even Abel himself.

‘See you again.’

He remembered the smile that spread across her face like a sun-ripened peach in summer. He still remembered the touch of her palm that seemed too small to believe it contained such enormous magic.

How dare she die. So easily like this.

Marian was Abel’s only understanding one. And Abel was also Marian’s only understanding one. Their excessive magic, which was like violence, isolated the two from the world.

But when the fairy tale-like cage crumbled and the two faced reality, they could no longer stay by each other’s side. Still, he had never thought about her dying and disappearing like this.

‘Leaving me behind alone.’

He had never lived in a world without Marian. Some emotion mixed between hatred and anger leaked out. In a pitch black color without a single speck of light.

Delin, who had finally come to his senses, urgently spoke to Abel. At that moment, Abel’s thoughts also stopped.

“Your…… Your Highness…… is this alright?”

“Is there a problem.”

Abel said coldly.

“No, everyone is running away right now……”

Abel let out a hollow laugh. He noticed that just now? Well, they did witness quite a shocking scene.

“Should I order pursuit?”

“No, leave them.”

This war is won anyway. What remains in Federico after Marian disappears? Just a ragtag group of defeated soldiers gathered together. So that’s for later.

“Search for survivors without chasing them.”

“There couldn’t possibly be any.”

“You’re still not done talking.”

Abel muttered coldly.

Marian was different from others.

‘She might not be dead. No, you must not be.’

A fallen god doesn’t die. They are merely wounded.

Abel’s orange eyes flashed like the sunset.

Abel also spurred his horse. Life and death were divided based on the boundary where Marian had stood. The completely burned outside and inside of Marian’s embrace is still overflowing with vitality.

‘You can’t die before I allow it, Marian.’

Abel exhaled a cold breath. His outward demeanor was too cold compared to his boiling insides.

Meanwhile, Crown Prince Benjamin had escaped safely.

A vile and lowly character.

A rat busily hiding behind his sister’s back.

While Abel was searching through the ruins at a slow pace, Delin raised his hand high. Abel felt an inexplicable hope flickering as he turned his head.

‘Hope?’

A futile emotion. Abel is someone who doesn’t even deserve to feel such emotions.

“Your Highness! I found her!!”

Delin called out to Abel in a loud voice. It was an inexplicably reverent expression. Abel got off his horse to check the survivor.

‘Marian.’

The woman groaning through blood-stained lips was definitely Marian. Her black hair that was always tied up high was spread across the ground. It was a face he had encountered countless times over the past year and a half. Her eyes, nose, and lips densely embedded in her small white face were harmoniously arranged.

Abel bent down.

“She seems about to breathe her last, Your Highness.”

Delin murmured in a hushed voice.

Abel reached out his hand. Delin frowned at the touch gripping her pale cheek. Abel could see it too. Marian was now standing at death’s doorstep.

‘So you’re really going to die.’

Marian’s eyelids fluttered at the force on her cheek.