Ruyan was literally rampaging.

The unconscious maid found in one corner of the bedroom and Helix who was beside Leah. Both were dragged to the basement and locked up, while the knights guarding the villa were summoned.

“What kind of men are you all!”

Ruyan stomped his foot while shouting at the 2nd squad of the Piert knights.

Crack!

The marble floor where he kicked crumbled like a biscuit.

“Crazy……”

The subjugation force knights approaching after spotting Ruyan couldn’t believe their eyes.

“No wonder he sliced through monsters so easily……”

“Th-that… isn’t Lord Piert the real monster?”

The subjugation force knights whispered, turning pale.

Their thoughts of trying to help out of curiosity about Peirlily and to curry favor vanished.

‘He’s completely lost it.’

‘If we get involved, nothing good will come of it.’

Slip slip.

While the subjugation force knights backed away, Ruyan ordered the Piert family knights. He said to catch all suspicious people in the villa and they could use force on anyone who resisted.

At his fierce demeanor, the villa’s people followed his orders without a peep.

“This is concerning……”

Prince Patrick worried watching this.

As the only prince and crown prince who had been in politics since childhood, Ruyan’s actions looked precarious to his eyes.

“I should try to stop Lord Piert.”

The subjugation force knights waved their hands.

“Your Highness, even you can’t handle this right now. That crazy bas… I mean, look at how Lord Piert has lost it.”

“That’s right. You know Lord Piert’s temper, don’t you? He’ll stop on his own after rampaging like this.”

“Hmm.”

With the subjugation force knights actively dissuading him, Prince Patrick decided to observe for now.

Ruyan Piert would be fine.

What worried him was Lady Leah.

The image of her bravely and brazenly rescuing her sister during the witch hunt still left a deep impression.

If he had known she had such a personality, he would have tried to get closer to her in the capital’s social circles – he felt regretful about that.

‘When passing by in social circles, she looked like the epitome of an elegant and pure noble lady. I thought the nickname Peirlily suited her perfectly.’

She who acted as she pleased was a much more vibrant and interesting person.

His heart was heavy hearing that such Lady Leah had been poisoned, while Ruyan was rampaging like this. The prince muttered worriedly.

“When you corner rats too much, they tend to bite……”

***

Prince Patrick’s worry hit the mark.

In a dark old warehouse of the Piert villa.

There, spies planted by the Count Trow family were gathered in anxiety.

“Why did that mad dog suddenly come to the north……”

“How is he just a mad dog? He’s a mad tiger.”

Ruyan Piert, whom Count Trow always dismissed calling him a mad dog, was a much more frightening figure than expected.

“If we’re caught, our limbs will be separated from our bodies right away.”

“If we knew it would be like this, we shouldn’t have infiltrated the Piert Ducal Family……”

“What do we do now?”

Someone suggested.

“Let’s just run away.”

“…Do you think Count Trow will leave us alone if we run away from here?”

The spies clutched their heads.

If they fled back to the capital, Count Trow with his wide connections in the capital’s underworld would not leave them be.

And other regions’ underworld organizations would not accept them without connections either.

The underworld was a closed community, and all they knew how to do was spying, poisoning, and assassination.

“If we knew it would be like this, we should have learned to beg……”

Ruyan Piert in front, Count Trow behind.

While the spies were despairing feeling all life’s exits blocked,

“It’s all or nothing.”

Someone said.

“Lady Leah did collapse, so it’s not a complete failure.”

“Th-that’s true.”

“How potent is Jenin’s poison? The lady must be on the brink of death now.”

He lowered his voice.

“Let’s finish killing the lady and run.”

Gulp.

The spies swallowed.

“Will that work?”

“Won’t we get caught?”

“Are we not going to get caught staying still? When Ruyan Piert’s eyes are bloodshot like that.”

That was true.

“Until now we acted separately to avoid detection, but now it’s life or death. Let’s join forces.”

The spies looked at each other and nodded.

“Alright. Let’s kill her and run.”

“When do we do it?”

The spy who spoke up looked around at them and whispered.

“Tonight. Everyone come out when you see the signal.”

***

Helix was lost in anguish.

The narrow basement where it would take just a few steps for someone of his large build to cross. The dark basement had no light, and in the corner crouched the assassin who had tried to kill Leah, now conscious.

But Helix felt neither the darkness nor the occasional strange sensation under his feet.

He just walked, paced, and suppressed sighs.

His mind was filled only with worry and regret.

Everything felt like his fault.

‘I should have focused more on safety instead of needlessly troubling Leah.’

He berated himself while pacing again.

As he sighed and stretched his body, he suddenly recalled the warmth of Leah in his arms.

Her trembling and clinging to his neck almost choking him. Her honest way of speaking, trying to act brave but quickly admitting her fear. Those blue eyes sparkling with genuine wonder when she briefly forgot her fears.

It all came back vividly as if it was painted in his mind.

She was so lovely in her moment-to-moment reactions that even while thinking he should stop, he kept carrying her.

By the time he realized his mistake, they had already returned to the villa.

Leah acts tough but has delicate sides, what if she has nightmares while sleeping? He went to check out of worry… but what awaited him was an unexpected scene.

‘I should have guarded more carefully. I should have gone earlier.’

Should have stayed closer by her side. As if pushed by belated regret, his pacing brought him to stand before the basement entrance.

A heavy oak door with a bolt blocked his way.

Helix placed his large hand on the door. If he wanted to, he could not just open but break through this thing.

‘However.’

However, would that be the right thing to do?

He couldn’t help but hesitate.

Helix looked uncertainly at his hand resting on the door. The mana stone ring, proof of the contract, sparkled with a peaceful light unlike last night, indicating his contractor was safe.

“……”

He slowly lowered his hand from the door.

Quietly withdrawing from Leah’s side was his own choice. He felt Ruyan’s suspicions were justified, and he had the right to imprison Helix and investigate his crimes.

‘Leaving arbitrarily now would be disregarding Ruyan’s authority, wouldn’t it?’

He had no right to do that.

His role was Leah’s contractor, not her protector. With Leah unconscious now, her most reliable protector was her brother Ruyan Piert.

He steadied himself.

‘Helix, you are a guardian.’

A voice from the past rang sharply in his ears.

‘Helix, you are a failed guardian.’

It was Dragonlord Azura’s voice. Helix ground his teeth.

‘I am not a failed guardian.’

He could say it confidently. Everything he had done until now was right and fair as a guardian, for protecting the world and maintaining order.

‘A proper guardian does not shake legitimate authority.’

If Ruyan Piert’s way was right and he decided to follow it, he had to keep to that. That was what he should do as a guardian.

Helix lowered his hand with the mana stone ring, clenched his fist and turned around.

Leah’s pale face floated before him on the dark basement wall.

His clenched fist twitched.

He vividly remembered her pulse in his hand. The flow of mana disturbed by poison and the Dragon’s mana thrashing about. Helix unconsciously raised his hand to check the mana stone ring.

‘Leah is safe.’

Though he knew this, why did he keep thinking of her pulse when she first collapsed after consuming the Dragon’s mana? Why did he remember that feeble energy that was barely different from a dead person’s?

He gritted his teeth.

Though she seemed fine, her condition could quickly worsen. If something were to happen to Leah…

‘If something were to happen?’

Losing Leah?

Suddenly finding it hard to breathe, Helix clutched his chest as if pressing down on it.

His chest tightened like it sometimes did in the seal. That despair of feeling he might have to stay imprisoned like a statue indefinitely. The feeling of being alone in the world.

Though it wasn’t long ago, it felt like ancient history. Because his world had changed so much since Leah appeared.

‘…It’s fine.’

It was fine. It had to be fine.

Because he was a guardian.

Thud.

Helix pressed his head against the basement’s stone wall. Cold spread from the middle of his forehead.

“…It’s fine.”

***

While Ruyan and the spies were each causing chaos as a storm swept through the Piert villa.

The bedroom where Leah, the eye of the storm, lay was quiet.

Wheeze, wheeeze.

Buried in the large bed, she was breathing heavily like an elderly person on their deathbed.

Leah’s white hands had no pulse, and were burning hot like embers each time they were wiped with a wet cloth.

“How is the lady? Has she improved?”

To Janet’s worried question as she brought fresh wet cloths, the court physician answered.

“Don’t worry too much. She’ll overcome it easily this time.”

Unlike the previous Dragon’s mana, they could immediately identify what this poison was. It was a paralytic poison commonly used by assassins.

For the old Leah, it would have been a deadly poison taking her life within a day, but now was different.

‘Lord Helix must have taken measures before being taken away.’

The court physician’s thoughts were correct.

The poison was already being neutralized by the physician’s medicine, but the problem was the Dragon’s mana taking this opportunity to break the balance and trying to take over Leah’s body.

The mana Helix had hastily infused was trying to calm that rampaging Dragon’s mana.

‘Being a matter of mana, I as a normal physician cannot understand. I can only trust in Lord Helix’s measures…’

He could only guess. That inexplicable forces were fighting while holding out inside Leah’s body. As he was lost in thought, Janet cried out.

“Court physician, the lady…!”

At the scream-like cry, the court physician quickly examined Leah. He nearly bit his tongue.

Her fever was rising madly.