Lea turned her uneasy gaze toward the window.

‘It’s fine. I’ve been watching for days, and there hasn’t been a single sign of dark magic manifesting.’

She calmly pressed her hand against her chest to soothe her racing heart. Despite keeping close to Eve for days, the girl had shown no further signs of using her power. The blemishes that had begun to appear on her chest were still faint, little more than pale bruises. As long as she didn’t sustain a serious injury, her power would stay hidden.

‘It’s all right. Greeta went with her.’

Lea pulled her eyes away from the window. Her gaze then fell upon the thick scripture resting on the small table.

The Desidera Scripture—the most detailed record of dark magic accessible to the public.

It was the story of her sin, which she had chosen to ignore after giving birth to Eve, overwhelmed by happiness.

She had read it hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times. She had read every annotation, translation and commentary attached to it. And yet, she always came back to the same place.

‘Even if I read it now, nothing will change…’

It was the only thing she could hold onto as she drifted helplessly along the current of fate. What if she had overlooked something? What if a hidden truth lay buried within those pages? Perhaps clinging to such doubts and questions was the only way to endure, if only for a little while.

She knew it was a meaningless hope, one that would soon be ripped up by the roots.

And yet, she continued reading the Desidera Scripture for Eve’s sake. Because she wanted, at all costs, to save her child.

But she could never bring herself to read the final part of Desidera. The section where the demon Mephisto is condemned to eternal punishment in hell.

She could still force herself to read when she thought of it as her own fate. But when she imagined that fate for her child, she simply could not bring herself to do so.

There was a legend that the scripture continued beyond its known ending. Even if that missing part were found, though, she felt she would never be able to read it. After all, it would only describe how much Mephisto suffered after receiving his sentence.

Lea pressed her lips inward, biting down.

Just then, someone knocked on her door.

‘Who could it be?’

When she turned her head toward the door, she saw an envelope being slid through the narrow gap at the bottom. From outside, footsteps retreated down the hall.

Lea picked up the white envelope lying at the door.

The only ones who knew she was staying in this room were Eclace and the few who followed him.

Lea thought, there was no reason for anyone to slip a letter beneath her door like this…

As she examined the envelope in her hand, her eyes caught the letters scrawled across one corner.

[Liana Serpens]

The handwriting was awkward and difficult to read. And it was a name that was never meant to be spoken.

In a rush, Lea flung open the door and looked down the corridor. But only the long, empty hallway greeted her in silence.

‘Who on earth…?’

She shut the door again and carefully opened the envelope. Inside lay a single sheet of worn paper.

[If you want to see Eve, come. Alone. By sunset. At the Giant’s Head.]

Her heart plummeted at the sight of Eve’s name.

Her eyes froze upon the end of the long sentence.

[…A crescent moon?]

A crescent moon, drawn in black ink, stood out clearly.

The paper trembled in her fingertips.

There was no reason to draw a moon at the end of a message, unless the writer knew the mark of dark magic.

‘No one should know this secret…!’

And if they also knew Eve’s secret, then Eve was…

Her heart pounded, frantic.

Outside, dusk was already falling.

The sky, deepening in shades of red, seemed to throw a warning at her.

Her mind instantly filled with thoughts of Eve.

She could not turn to Eclace for help—he knew nothing of dark magic.

Lea strapped on the dagger Eclace had once given her for self-defense, just in case.

Even if this was a trap, there was no other choice.

‘I must protect her with my own strength.’

An undying body.

For the first time, her curse felt like courage.

🌺⟡───⟡🌺 🌺⟡───⟡🌺

The Giant’s Head was a cliff on the western edge of Scizlon Island.

Jutting out over the vast sea like the severed head of a titan, the remote, lofty cliff was inaccessible to ships. Few people ever set foot there.

Lea ran up the steep path towards the cliff.

Since leaving the Golden Castle, she had not stopped once, running all the way to the Giant’s Head.

Above her, the sky grew ever more crimson, urging her onwards.

The muscles in her legs ached under the strain of climbing the hill. Her breath caught in her throat and her lungs burned as if they might tear apart.

Far ahead, at the edge of the cliff, the crimson sky opened up before her. When she finally reached the Giant’s Head mentioned in the note, she saw it: a vast red sea with a great ship anchored upon it.

Beyond, the sun hung blood-red on the horizon.

“Eve…!”

Clutching the sweat-soaked note in her hand, Lea looked around helplessly.

Was she too late? Or had it all been someone’s cruel prank? A trap?

Her thoughts tangled with each shallow, ragged breath.

Then, from below the cliff, she heard the voice she had been desperately longing for.

“Mommy!”

She turned back—and there was Eve, running toward her.

In an instant, tears welled up in Lea’s eyes.

She rushed to meet her, pulling the child tightly into her arms.

“Eve! Where on earth have you been? Do you know how worried I was?”

Though she had yearned so much to see her daughter, the words of reproach burst out the moment her heart eased.

“I missed you too, Mommy…”

The small face quivered, close to tears, and her heart melted with warmth.

Lea gently brushed Eve’s cheek with her sweat-dampened hand.

“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”

“No. The bad man protected me!”

“The bad man?”

If she meant the day Eve had slipped out of her room, then…

At that moment, a long shadow fell across the two of them.

Chilled by a dreadful intuition, Lea turned with Eve shielded in her arms.

A tall figure cloaked in a robe.

As he slowly lowered his hood, the red twilight stained his face.

Her heart thundered in her chest once more as she held Eve close.

“…It’s been a long time, Luise.”

A face she could never forget, not even if she lived for eternity.

Hair black as midnight. Eyes half-lowered, and within them, glowing amethyst light.

“Shed…?”

Shed looked down into her fearful gaze as she clutched Eve tightly to her chest.

Yes, those eyes. The very eyes he had searched for all this time.

Her cheeks, beaded lightly with sweat, seemed fuller, touched with a healthier glow than before.

And holding in her arms the child who so clearly resembled her, she was here. Alive.

“It seems… you’ve been doing well.”

A dry smile curled across Shed’s lips as he looked at her.

“In the time I didn’t see you, you even went and had a brat.”

When those violet eyes shifted towards the child, Lea’s slender fingers tightened around Eve.

She had heard the news: he had stepped down from his post as governor of Blancas and returned. She had naturally assumed that he would be in Lester Territory or perhaps Ideana.

After she left, he had achieved countless merits and was surely living in splendour, wanting for nothing.

“How… how are you here…?”

She couldn’t comprehend it.

This was Scizlon, an island one could only reach by ship from the continent. It wasn’t part of Duke Lester’s domain. And yet his shabby appearance was no different from that of any wanderer.

To her dazed question, Shed’s lips twisted into a bitter smile.

“How?”

Answering that would take too long.

Since you vanished, what choices I made.
Where I searched—from the snow peaks of Prunig to the barren lands of Blancas.
Whom I met, how many nights I endured without sleep.
Why I fought in the war.
Why I risked my life pushing recklessly into enemy lines.
Why I called myself governor of Blancas.
When I realized I had been deceived by Eclace Vitel, and how I ended up here.

There was no time to explain such damned circumstances.

“You should be the one to answer, Luise.”

The heavy sound of his black boots drew closer.

With each step, the shadow cast over Luise and Eve grew darker.

“How have you been living all this time? When did you build such a cozy little family?”

Shed’s hand, which had been slowly brushing back the false chocolate-brown hair, stopped at her pale cheek.

“Did you find happiness with that bastard?”

While I scoured the empire like a madman?

Her teeth ground together, the sound harsh, as his long fingers forced her chin upward.

In his eyes swirled emotions too tangled to understand.

And within Luise, a storm of feelings surged to the point of nausea.

She could not answer. Her lips remained closed.

And his cold gaze shifted to the child in her arms.

Instinctively, Luise pulled Eve tighter against her chest.

“…What have you done to my child?”

Her voice bristled with thorns, but his lips curved into a hollow smile.

After years apart, instead of answering his questions, she threw one back at him—
as though he were guilty of something vile.

“Nothing.”

The faint smile that had flickered at his mouth hardened, pale and rigid, like wax fallen on ice.

“But if you choose to be uncooperative… who knows.”

Killing that bastard’s child would be no trouble at all.

The words fell from him in a voice dry and emotionless, even as the red twilight dyed him crimson.

“And besides… that child.”

Lowering his tone, he bent close, so near his breath almost brushed her skin.

Luise caught her breath.

“Doesn’t she know how to use dark magic? Just like you.”

Her eyes wavered as they met his cold gaze.

From deep within her, an uncontrollable fear began to swell.

He was holding in his hands the secret she dreaded above all.

“How could you possibly…?”

Her hands shook around Eve, and seeing it, his lips curved into a loosened, almost leisurely smile.

“That’s what I want to know. How is it that you and this child both carry the power of heresy?”