The words “you’re of the same House Carpes as Russell, so why are you helping me” never made it past her lips. There was sincerity in the eyes of Maziel looking down at her. He bent his knees to check the wounds on her legs, then knelt before Roelia.

“I have something to give to the Light of the Empire.”

“……What is it?”

She could not find any other words to say to Maziel, who was observing royal etiquette and conducting himself according to proper form before her, even though she had nothing left.

Roelia did not forget that Maziel was Russell’s younger brother, and she was on the verge of forming a hand seal to prepare another spell.

“It is the imperial seal that the late Emperor kept.”

“The imperial seal?”

Roelia only blinked. Why was Maziel giving this to her? Was he not on Russell’s side?

“Take this with you. You must go into hiding and then come back to reclaim the throne.”

What in the world was happening?

A single house always stands as one. That was the code of the noble houses within the Wintergrass Empire. If Russell found out that Maziel smuggled the emperor’s seal out and gave it to her, he could be killed for it.

On top of that, the Wintergrass emperor’s seal was a treasure with a transformation spell built into it, one that could change a person’s appearance. And he smuggled that out to give to her.

“May the divine beast’s blessing be with the Light of the Empire.”

Maziel pressed the seal into Roelia’s hand and lowered his forehead over it. Having paid his respects to the person he held in highest regard, he bit down on his lip and rose to his feet.

“I cannot go with you. But if you follow this path straight ahead, you should be able to get out of the prison. There is only one wall to clear before you are outside the imperial palace. So please, go quickly.”

“Sir, why are you doing this for me……”

“I have simply made the choice that is right for Wintergrass.”

With those words as his last, Maziel turned away. Roelia felt a red light blooming from the seal in her hand. The seal, which was too large to fit fully in her palm, already transformed into a bracelet and settled around her wrist.

— Let’s go.

The voice came again.

Roelia walked in a trance.

She wanted to run, but she was out of breath. It was only natural, having eaten almost nothing for four weeks. If Roelia were not a mage with powerful magical power, she would have already drawn her last breath.

“W, who’s there! Seize her!”

“The prisoner is escaping!”

Reaching the entrance of the underground prison, Roelia unleashed fire magic at the knights who spotted her. It was a small spell, but fire that spreads through magical power does not die out easily. The knights whose clothes caught fire threw down their swords and rolled across the ground, trying to smother the flames.

Whoosh.

Roelia was brought to a stop by the orange flames blocking her path. When she turned around, Silena and Russell were standing there, though she did not notice when they arrived. Silena’s magical power was trivial compared to Roelia’s, but right now it looked more powerful than anything else.

“How did you undo the restraints?”

Silena’s face was twisted in a deep scowl as she moved her hand. The flames shifted and swayed at her direction. Roelia rolled across the floor to avoid them.

“Hahaha! Look at what a royal is reduced to! No dignity at all!”

Silena’s mocking laughter reached her, but surviving came first.

‘I have to escape before Russell draws his sword.’

Once he, a Sword Master, stepped in, there would be no running. With almost no magical power left, how could she hold out?

Before she knew it, Roelia was cornered. Silena’s magic drove her back step by step, and when her back met the cold wall behind her, she understood there was nowhere left to run.

Shing.

Russell drew his sword as though he waited for exactly this moment.

‘Please, just once!’

Roelia prayed desperately inside. She prayed for the red flames that broke her restraints earlier to appear.

The moment Russell’s sword came sweeping down from above, red flames like rose blossoms burst from Roelia’s body.

They were, in the most literal sense, fierce flowers of fire.

The flames rose up as though to threaten Russell and Silena, wrapping around Roelia in protection. Without missing that split second, Roelia drew her magical power to its very limit and cast a movement spell. It was a spell that could carry her no further than over a wall, but right now that was the only way.

Where the brilliant flames bloomed and then vanished, nothing remained. Realizing Roelia disappeared, Silena flew into a rage.

“Go after her right now and bring that criminal back!”

* * *

Her head was spinning. Roelia drew her magical power to its limit to change her face using the emperor’s seal, and her vision went white.

Her eye color and hair color remained the same, but her face became that of a completely different person. However, with her magical power depleted, she could barely move properly.

‘I have to hold on.’

Losing consciousness near the imperial palace walls would mean being captured by the knights. Roelia blinked rapidly, trying to keep her failing vision clear. She felt her way along the wall and put a little more distance between herself and the imperial palace.

Walking this way would take her into the back alleys, known as the most dangerous part of the Wintergrass capital, but Roelia was too desperate to concern herself with that.

Her stumbling, haggard appearance was no different from that of a prisoner in anyone’s eyes. Who would look at her now and think her Wintergrass royalty?

As Roelia staggered along in her ragged clothing, vagrants from the streets began to close in.

“Get back.”

She looked ready to collapse at any moment, but her eyes alone were sharp and fierce. Even the vagrants who drew closer flinched at those eyes, full of killing intent.

Still, they circled around her, certain it was only a matter of time before she fell.

Biting her lip to keep herself going, Roelia collided with someone walking ahead of her. More precisely, that someone deliberately stepped into her path. He positioned himself in her way and stopped her.

“Silver hair.”

The man’s low voice was the last thing she heard before Roelia lost consciousness.

* * *

Carlisle, the man who caught Roelia as she collapsed into his arms, let out a quiet laugh.

“Well, this is a strange thing.”

“Sir?”

Carlisle turned at the call of Kuz, his subordinate who followed him into the Wintergrass Empire. Maili, who cast a warning look at the vagrants from behind him, let her gaze drift slowly toward Kuz as well.

“Are you going to take that baggage with you?”

“What a thing to say about a person who is very much alive.”

“You don’t usually treat people like people, sir.”

Maili nodded along with Kuz’s words. The Carlisle they knew would never do something like this. That Carlisle, rescuing someone. It was unthinkable.

But Carlisle did not bother to respond to Kuz. The first reason was that the blood-soaked Roelia felt strangely familiar. The second was that a peculiar flow of power passed through him when he touched the bare skin visible through her torn clothing. Her face was completely different from the deposed Crown Prince’s, but the hair color was the same.

‘There’s something here.’

He was seized by the feeling that he could not leave this woman behind. And when he spotted Wintergrass knights in the distance combing through the area with meticulous thoroughness, he was certain.

‘Could it be that the deposed Crown Prince has escaped?’

The woman before him could be the deposed Crown Prince. There was a chance she had a magical artifact that could change her appearance.

He could not be sure who she was, but her condition made it plain she was locked up somewhere. And if the imperial knights were out searching for her, she had to be someone of considerable importance.

He could also use this woman as a bargaining chip to get an audience with Wintergrass’s new emperor.

He decided to make use of the deposed Crown Prince, but getting close to her was not easy. Separately from that, Carlisle looked for a way to meet Wintergrass’s new emperor to deal with the problem that arose with his own divine beast. But the firmly shut gates of the imperial palace would not open.

And now those gates opened and knights came pouring out. Was it not obvious?

‘This woman has something to do with it.’

Thinking of the time he wasted here so far, burning the Wintergrass imperial palace to the ground would not have been enough. Carlisle swallowed the rage rising inside him and layered a mild smile over it.

“……Do as you wish, sir.”

Kuz met that smile and realized Carlisle’s mood was not good. He bent at the waist in a hurry. Cold sweat from the tension ran down Kuz’s back.