Leonel should never have been born? That statement was unpleasant, but something about the goddess’s words seemed off. Called her out in despair?

“The memories I gave you in the form of a book weren’t entirely made up.”

“Memories…?”

“Yes, everything actually happened. Some parts were hidden, and some were dramatized.”

So everything had really happened. Then… was Leonel’s final choice real too?

“Why didn’t I completely destroy Siegfried and instead cursed them? Even I can’t completely kill Siegfried.”

Even the goddess Elaina had things she couldn’t do?

“Even monsters have their own god. The best I could do was that level of a curse. Completely driving them out was impossible.”

A god of monsters existed. It was the first time she had heard of it. Elaina frowned, as if the mere thought of it disgusted her.

“Though it was settled, I couldn’t trust it. I never knew when those monsters might kill my children again.”

Siegfried had done wrong, but… wasn’t it the goddess who invaded first? In a way, it was self-defense.

“You’ve completely taken their side.”

“You can tell by looking at the victims. Only Siegfried is cursed.”

“Gods shouldn’t interfere with the human world. But I couldn’t help it.”

Amelia thought she understood why the goddess did it. She hadn’t met other gods, but the goddess before her was more human than anyone. Perhaps she intervened so much because she was close to humans. Probably because she loved her descendants too much. She couldn’t overlook their deaths and misfortunes.

“I took care of my children and warned them of dangers through oracles. As long as it wasn’t direct interference, it wouldn’t go too far astray.”

There was no god who had been so devoted, even sending oracles for over 700 years. In a way, it could be seen as extreme favoritism.

“I also wanted the empire my man and I built to prosper. All I had left were this land and my children’s children.”

“That’s not what I’m curious about. Your children’s stories have nothing to do with me.”

Of course, strictly speaking, she was also one of the goddess’s children.

“I gave a gift to the first emperor. I couldn’t watch my children die helplessly again. So I made a brooch imbued with my power.”

The first emperor’s brooch. It was that golden brooch. The treasure of the empire that granted the owner’s wishes. So it wasn’t just symbolic?

“It’s not just an ordinary brooch. It’s a special item that only my bloodline can use in times of danger.”

“Only those of your bloodline…?”

“Yes, it’s a brooch that can summon me. Gods can’t directly interfere with the human world. But if a contract is made, it’s a different story.”

Come to think of it, the brooch didn’t belong to the emperor. She remembered that in the original story, it was Leonel’s possession.

“There’s a medium, a brooch, and since a contract was made with a human, it’s not direct interference.”

“Leonel… summoned you….”

Leonel had summoned the goddess. The original owner of the brooch was Leonel.

“Of course, just because a contract is made doesn’t mean everything can be done as one pleases. There are restrictions.”

“Leonel did call you, right?”

“Yes, he called me at that moment of despair.”

Despair?

“I turned a blind eye to Kendrick’s atrocities because they were my children. That’s where it all started. Kendrick didn’t stop and even created a fake saintess.”

A fake saintess? Then Sierra wasn’t the real saintess?

“And Kendrick, fearing his secrets would leak, massacred all the imperial family. The empire that my love and I built changed in an instant.”

This was the first time she heard such things. They weren’t written in the book.

“Then someone called me. He probably didn’t intend it, but Leonel has two kinds of blood. My power and Siegfried’s power. Unlike Siegfried’s power, my power doesn’t destroy. Most humans can’t use it for their entire lives.”

She thought of Aaron, who used white magic. Had Aaron also used the goddess’s power?

“By now, you should understand. My power and Siegfried’s power are opposites. They can never coexist.”

“But Leonel….”

Elaina just smiled silently. That smile made Amelia feel an inexplicable anxiety.

“To gain one thing, you must give up the other. Leonel gave up his life.”

As a result, he finally could use my power.

***

So Leonel’s death was real. She had hoped it wasn’t true….

“Thanks to that, I could use my power, which had been suppressed by Siegfried’s power, and I was summoned.”

“What kind of contract did you make with Leonel?”

She had only observed for a moment, but the goddess Elaina was biased. Whatever contract she made with Leonel, it wouldn’t be favorable. It was probably something excessively beneficial to the goddess. Naturally, she became wary.

“He wanted everything to return to how it was. And he wanted you to be saved. Coincidentally, those were also what I wanted.”

“You erased my memories as you pleased and now you want to restore them? And you made me hate Siegfried. Do you know that not only me but everyone was unhappy because of it?”

“…Yes.”

The curse wasn’t only on Siegfried. The imperial family had to hate Siegfried for no reason. That’s why Amelia hated Leonel so much.

Leonel had Siegfried’s blood. It was bound to lead to disaster. Raphael, she, and Leonel were all used by the goddess.

“At that time, I couldn’t bear to see my child love Siegfried! I only thought I had to stop it somehow. I didn’t know what the consequences would be….”

It was all just a cowardly excuse. Elaina probably didn’t care what happened. What mattered was Siegfried’s misfortune.

“No, you ultimately sacrificed my son once again.”

“You might think so, but… it was what Leonel wanted. Too many things had gone wrong, and there was no other way. Except to turn back time.”

Turn back time? Is that even possible?

“I wanted to start completely from the beginning, but that was impossible. In the end, I compromised with Leonel. I couldn’t completely erase your memories, so I only implanted parts of them.”

Amelia couldn’t believe the goddess’s words. Was all this a situation created by Leonel and the goddess? She was speechless to hear it was Leonel. The oddities she occasionally felt from Leonel, that was because of this.

“But even after turning back time, you were still in danger. Because you didn’t have a complete soul.”

“….”

“To restore your soul, I had to bring you to the temple.”

That’s why Enoch received an oracle about her from Elaina.

“So why did you appear now…?”

“I told you. To save you, to restore your soul.”

“Leonel knows everything, doesn’t he?”

“…Yes.”

Thinking back, there were many strange points. Leonel was unusually earnest about her escape, his overly mature behavior.

“But things got complicated. I didn’t expect Enoch to do something like that….”

“Technically, it was Kendrick who made the move.”

Now she understood everything. By turning back time to prevent the same thing from happening again, the goddess used the book to implant memories in her. And she had no choice in any of it.

“We need to go back quickly. Otherwise, it will be really dangerous.”

“No need.”

“What?”

When she first developed feelings for Raphael, she was very confused. She thought it was Amelia’s original feelings, not hers. She ignored it several times because she believed it was a feeling she shouldn’t have. So when she realized she was Evelyn, she had no expectations of receiving his love.

But now, knowing that all this was a setup, maybe even Raphael was influenced by the goddess’s power and swayed. He couldn’t explain his obsession with her and acted irrationally. As if he was being controlled by something.

“Evelyn? You could die if this continues….”

If she didn’t know, it would be one thing. But now that she knew everything, she had no intention of going back. More than anything, she didn’t want to see Raphael being controlled.

“What is this…!”

“Are you doing this because I’m not listening to you?”

The surroundings began to distort and shake violently as if they were about to shatter. It seemed like Elaina, angry, was doing something. The space might completely disappear at this rate.

“It’s not me!”

Elaina seemed helpless against it, so it didn’t seem like she was lying. If it wasn’t Elaina’s doing, then what?

“Quickly, take my hand!”

“…….”

“Evelyn!”

Maybe it was because she called her Evelyn. For some reason, she didn’t want to take the goddess’s hand. She was about to give up everything in the collapsing space. She felt a desperate hand gripping her wrist tightly.

“Found you.”

A familiar voice. Golden eyes shining brightly in the darkness looked sharper than any beast.