“Are you still going to protect her!”

“We must thoroughly t*rture her and find out who’s behind this! We must judge the reason!”

“Can you really claim that Duchess Serena Kelahinum is innocent even after this!”

Magnus didn’t open his mouth to deny the flood of accusations.

No, he looked like he couldn’t open his mouth. He closed his eyes tightly with a painfully distorted face.

‘…Magnus.’

Serena’s eyes widened.

“…I’ll follow your opinions.”

After a long silence, Marquis Lavernia answered like that and turned his body.

His face was painfully distorted as if he couldn’t bear to watch anymore.

The face of someone whose trust had been shattered was chilling just to look at.

“We must drag her out and interrogate her immediately!”

“Where is the commander of the imperial guard! We need to immediately…”

“No.”

Serena, who had turned pale, shook her head. She took a deep breath.

“I… didn’t do it. What I used was definitely medicine. Definitely…”

[Serena, I think there are moments when good intentions become evil. Wasn’t this fate too much for the kind and gentle Serena to handle from the beginning?]

“…What on earth are you talking about.”

Serena shook her head while holding it in her hands. Sadness showed beneath her distorted face.

[I want to eradicate evil from the world. You know, I think evil exists because darkness exists.]

Nyx gently touched Serena’s cheek with its soft, cotton-like paw.

[Isn’t the evil in this world actually obvious?]

“……”

[I am the Darkness and you are the evil. You’re the most hated in this world. See, no one believes you.]

At Nyx’s words, Serena blankly looked at the scene beyond the round door.

That’s when it happened.

Thud, a pistol from who knows where fell to the floor.

Nyx carefully placed the weapon, which shouldn’t exist in this world yet, into Serena’s hand.

[Serena, the final source of evil has finally appeared.]

“……”

[It’s time to eliminate the last source of evil.]

Serena’s eyes widened.

It felt like something had hit her head.

[Once we eliminate the last source of evil, this world will become the happiest and most peaceful world.]

Nyx smiled brightly.

Through the round door, people stained black with anger and malice could be seen.

Clank, clank, the sound of armor clashing could be heard from far away.

Thump, she felt scared.

Nyx patted her cheek as if to say it’s okay, smiling brightly.

Sharp white teeth were revealed inside the cute rabbit’s mouth.

Somehow, it seemed like the blackened World Tree was beckoning.

[Don’t worry, Serena. I’m your contractor and you’re my master. I won’t leave you alone.]

“Why…?”

[Let’s go together. This world will become happy, and I’ll give you a new life.]

Nyx said, sitting on Serena’s shoulder and lightly tapping its short rabbit legs.

[As long as darkness exists, chaos will continue and evil will be born endlessly. But what if darkness disappears? There will be no evil in the world.]

“…Why me?”

[What a strange thing to say, Serena. It’s because you’re the villain of this world.]

“……”

[Serena, if you’re caught, it’s t*rture. You might be slowly burned at the stake after receiving horrific t*rture over and over.]

“……”

When she raised her head, Magnus was still staring blankly at the Emperor with a shocked face.

“…I never thought Serena would do this. …I don’t know. Now, I don’t know anything anymore. I wanted to believe in her, but now I don’t know anything. I wanted to believe in you.”

“……”

Serena blankly stared at the pistol in her hand.

Looking at the gunpowder pistol, she made a face like she was about to cry.

“…In the end, she was an ugly monster with a beautiful face.”

Serena’s eyes widened at Magnus’s murmur.

She slowly raised her head. Serena, who had been looking down at the gun, frowned.

“If I die, what will change?”

Serena asked blankly.

[Evil will disappear from the world.]

At Nyx’s innocent answer, Serena slowly raised the gun.

Click, she pulled the lever to load a bullet.

“If I just die, will everyone be happy? You said evil exists when there’s darkness.”

[Everyone will be happy. Because you’re the only evil in this world.]

Serena slowly raised the gun. Nyx’s red eyes glowed even redder.

[It’s okay to stop, it’s hard. In the next life, you’ll live the happiest life of all.]

“……”

[I promise. You won’t have to go through such sad things or continue a painful life anymore.]

Nyx’s form began to blur.

Serena quietly placed the muzzle against her temple and put her finger on the trigger.

Bang–!

The gunshot echoed.

* * *

“So that’s what it was.”

Magnus, who had been searching through all kinds of history books, frowned and hurriedly got up from his seat, grabbing his jacket.

he history book brought from the temple rolled at his feet.

He didn’t expect to find the content in the temple’s history book kept at the temple, after searching through all kinds of history books and oral traditions without finding anything.

The attempted assassination of His Majesty the Emperor was being quickly wrapped up as the Emperor opened his eyes last night.

The Emperor’s condition, which had worsened, had returned to a somewhat stable state.

After hearing the full story, the Emperor frowned and testified that the medicine brought by the imperial doctor tasted different from the usual medicine, and the commander of the imperial guard began investigating again.

Since it wasn’t something Serena had been involved with in the first place, it shouldn’t be difficult to find the real culprit.

Magnus had already given orders to the guild.

He told them to investigate those who were openly hostile to Serena at the banquet, so the culprit should be caught soon.

Once they had a general outline, they could bring Serena out again.

In the meantime, Magnus looked into the World Tree and Darkness.

Although there might be a separate perpetrator, he felt that the one controlling from behind was likely that being Serena had contracted with.

“Where are you going, Your Grace?”

“Drukan, I see you’ve rested. I’m going to Serena right now.”

Magnus answered, seeing Drukan who appeared with a disheveled face.

“Just in case, I’ll go with you. Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Yes, I found out the reason. The Darkness intends to urge Serena to commit s*icide.”

It was Drukan who advised that there would be more content related to the World Tree on the temple side.

And it was also Drukan who looked into the Darkness with him.

“…Why would it do such a thing? It’s not even killing her.”

“Because the Darkness cannot kill its contractor.”

Magnus answered as he got straight into the carriage. As Drukan followed him into the carriage, the coachman who had been notified in advance started quickly.

“A long time ago, there was exactly one time when a contractor appeared for the Darkness.”

Magnus, sitting with his arms crossed, opened his mouth.

Although all related content seemed to have been erased, information remained in the book kept in the temple library.

“It’s the story of the serial killer, Ripper, who is still rumored to be the worst criminal.”

“Ripper…”

“Yes, it’s the name given because he went around killing people wherever he went over a hundred years ago. That contractor was the Darkness.”

“…But he died.”

“He did die, by someone else’s hand.”

Magnus answered calmly with his arms still crossed.

However, his expression showed impatience. He looked like he wanted to jump out of the carriage and go on foot right away.

“A man who lost his family to Ripper killed him. The problem was that Ripper had a lover.”

“…Was that so?”

“Yes, the lover who saw Ripper die developed a desire for revenge.”

Drukan furrowed his brow at Magnus’s words.

“Are you saying revenge begets revenge?”

“Similar. The Darkness’s goal is its own extinction. It seems that the contractor of Darkness shares their life with that Darkness, but when the Darkness saw the birth of new evil right before its eyes, it was reborn. They say Darkness is born from Darkness.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“Yes, from the beginning, the Darkness’s goal was clear. To annihilate ‘evil’ from the world.”

And the Darkness realized that as long as it existed, ‘evil’ would not disappear from the world.

It had experienced one failure.

So it built up its plans again, step by step.

“The Darkness must disappear without creating evil. In other words, the Darkness judged that in order not to provoke someone’s revenge by losing its life to others, the contractor needs to die by their own hand.”

“Wait a moment, that means…”

Drukan’s lips moved as if he couldn’t believe it.

“So everything that has happened so far was to isolate Serena.”

That’s why Serena had no choice but to have her body taken away in that accident when she was young.

Her misfortune was also clearly the work of the Darkness.