Snow had no reason to harm his father. Moreover, she was clearly in a strange state when she was strangling his father moments ago. She was herself, yet not herself. As if there was another persona within her.

Snow struggled to fix her trembling silver eyes on Elios. Looking at him directly was not easy. Feeling as if her Freia self might emerge at any moment, Snow eventually lowered her head. Avoiding his gaze, she answered softly:

“It was my will.”

Her small answer, given without even making eye contact, did not convince Elios much. He became certain that it was not done by Snow’s own will.

“Snow. Is there any reason why you can’t answer honestly?”

“It. Was. My. Will.”

Snow repeated, enunciating each word distinctly.

At that moment, without any warning, her consciousness switched with a blink. She became Freia. Sharp ice crystals erupted from the ground beneath her feet with a cracking sound, instantly spreading as if creating a path toward Elios, stopping just in front of him.

It happened so suddenly that there wasn’t even time to dodge. Mihail only realized what had happened after Elios gasped and stepped back. The Saint had attempted to assassinate the Prince after the Emperor.

Snow, having regained her consciousness, backed toward the window. No one could predict how she would act next. And then she…

Climbed onto the windowsill.

The Emperor’s room was located at a high point in the imperial palace. She would certainly die instantly if she fell. Her body swayed precariously in the fierce blizzard that howled around her.

“Snow! Snow, please!”

Finally, Elios called to her with a tearful voice.

“Come here. Come down.”

Elios pleaded desperately, but Snow released one hand that had been holding the windowsill. Then she began to speak incomprehensibly.

“I’ve seen people freezing to death, starving to death because of the calamity. Not just one or two. At this rate, this country will perish. I, I couldn’t just watch that happen because of me, so I thought if I could die and stop everything, that would have been good. But since the calamity didn’t stop when Freia died, it seems unrelated to death.”

Neither Elios nor Mihail could understand exactly what Snow was saying. Only Ikanel was quietly listening to the Saint’s words with an indescribable expression.

“Freia’s. The witch’s. My emotions need to be calmed, so I kept wondering what I should do. She told me you, you.”

Snow stammered severely. She was still crying. She bit her already bloodied lip hard again, then continued:

“She, no, I thought I should kill Ikanel’s children. Because Ikanel, His Imperial Majesty k-killed my brother, Freia’s brother, Brother Ian.”

Her pronouns were inconsistent. She referred to Freia as the witch, then as herself, then as “she.” Her mind was confused. Freia was Snow, and Snow was Freia, but it seemed as if the two personas existed separately. Her brain buzzed.

“But I, Elios. Sob, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I couldn’t hurt you, hic.”

Painful sobs climbed up her throat, one lump after another. It was as hot as spitting out balls of fire.

“So I had a wrong thought. Ah, since I can’t kill Elios, if I kill His Imperial Majesty, Ikanel with my own hands! With Freia’s, my own hands directly.”

Snow released her other hand that had been holding the windowsill. Now her slender body seemed about to fall backward at any moment.

“Come down! Come down and let’s talk. Snow, please! Come down from there.”

Elios was afraid to move carelessly, fearing that Snow might jump if he approached. This moment just felt like a nightmare. How could this be happening? Snow, that Snow, had strangled his father, spoken incomprehensibly as if she were a witch, and now had climbed onto the windowsill of this dizzying height and was about to jump. It seemed like something that could only happen in a terrible nightmare, not in reality.

“So I, I dared to weigh the value of lives. I put the lives of the princes and princesses, including you, and the life of the Emperor standing there on a scale. And I chose to sacrifice the Emperor. How dare I.”

“Snow!”

“I am not a Saint. I am a witch.”

“Snow, please.”

“So Elios. It was my will. Wanting to kill His Imperial Majesty.”

Snow had been crying all along, and now tears flowed down Elios’s cheeks, frozen from the cold. Elios said tearfully:

“I don’t care about any of that, just come down. Please. Come down from there. Snow. Don’t do this.”

Snow realized that Elios still couldn’t let her go.

‘How? I tried to kill your father. Elios. I am your enemy.’

Looking at Elios, who was crying and couldn’t approach her for fear she might fall, Snow unconsciously said:

“If I die now, no one will be able to stop the calamity. I won’t die. Elios.”

Elios looked at Snow with his tear-soaked face. Beyond his eyes was still the fear that Snow might fall.

Her head throbbed with pain. Her Freia self was trying to awaken again.

Before she could harm them again, Snow hurriedly threw herself out the window.

“Snow!”

Elios’s screaming voice was faintly heard.

♣ ♣ ♣

Her fragile, slender body, like a flower, tilted and fell out the window.

“Snow!”

Elios shouted in a voice that scratched his throat. He lunged toward the place where Snow had fallen. He leaned his body out the window but could see nothing. The raging snow-white blizzard filled the empty space outside the window like a hazy dust.

“If you lean out any further, you will fall down!”

Lord Callisto pulled Elios back inside.

“Sob, Snow, Snow!”

Elios struggled like someone who had lost his mind while being held by Lord Callisto. Lord Callisto knew that restraining the Prince’s arms was disloyal, but he held Elios tightly, fearing that the moment he released him, he would jump out the window after the Saint.

Elios, who had been shouting “Snow, Snow!” as if his blood was boiling, suddenly became quiet and then ordered Lord Callisto:

“Let me go. I won’t go near the window, so you can rest assured.”

As soon as Callisto released Elios, he rushed out into the corridor. At this moment, he didn’t care about his father or the fallen soldiers. ‘Snow. Snow. Snow.’ Only one person’s name echoed in his mouth like a lingering sound.

He rushed outside the building without thinking. Elios was in indoor attire, and his body was already chilled from directly facing the fierce blizzard that had blown through the broken window of the Emperor’s office. But he didn’t care about such things.

He ran to the snow field directly below the Emperor’s office. No, he approached it desperately. His legs sank into the snow up to his knees. Even walking was not easy.

“Snow. Snow, please. Ah, Snow.”

Elios called her name. With the snow piled so softly, perhaps she might have received less impact even if she had fallen. Elios cleared the snow and forced his eyes open, which were difficult to keep open due to the blizzard, as he looked around. On the snow-white field, where not even small animal tracks were visible, Elios’s path was etched like a crack.

Elios wandered around the snow field for a while. His frozen body began to protest its limits.

It was strange. Snow had clearly fallen straight down, but there was no trace of a person falling anywhere in the snow field. Elios recalled what Snow had said just before she fell:

“If I die now, no one will be able to stop the calamity. I won’t die. Elios.”

She was, despite what anyone said, Amir’s Saint, and she had already experienced performing miracles. No, the weather that fluctuated according to her mood was itself a miracle. She was a being who performed miracles every moment.

“I won’t die, Elios.” If those words were true, should he be happy about it?

Ah, Elios was truly happy about those words at that moment. If Snow was really safe and unharmed. If only that could be true.

The moment the assumption that Snow was safe formed, his thoughts began to return to rationality. Lord Callisto, who must have had a hard time finding him with his vision obscured by the blizzard, finally discovered Elios and ran over.

“You must go inside”, Lord Callisto said, but Elios stood there without moving. When emotions reached their peak, he became rather calm.

Snow at the moment she was strangling his father and Snow afterward seemed like completely different people. Of course, the Snow that Elios knew was the latter. And Snow had acted as if she were the witch Freia Nigritia.

“Your Highness!”

Lord Callisto shouted resoundingly. Only then did Elios snap out of his thoughts. Elios trudged through the snow on his own feet and entered the building.

“Haa, haa.” His breathing was somewhat rough. His face was flushed red. Elios staggered. Several knights, led by Lord Callisto, rushed to support him, but Elios raised his hand to stop them.

In the brief time he had gone to search for Snow, the imperial palace had been turned upside down.

It was natural. The guards who had been patrolling the corridor had collapsed one after another, the special glass window of the office had shattered like thin ice, and above all, His Imperial Majesty had nearly been assassinated.

The identity of the would-be assassin was known only to Emperor Ikanel, Prince Elios, and Knight Commander Mihail Callisto. And none of the three had yet spoken.

The Emperor had nearly been assassinated. In such an urgent time, the nobles who should have rushed to assist the Emperor were trapped in their mansions due to the blizzard and hadn’t even heard the news yet.

Since the nobles couldn’t come to the imperial palace, the noble council couldn’t be held, and the state affairs, which had already been half-paralyzed before, were now even worse.