Arianne had acted hysterically, like someone who had lost her mind from the shock of losing Snow. She had fallen into a panic state and desperately insisted on going to find the Saint, which led to her being locked in a room. Martadia and Elios had secretly freed her and brought her along. Snow saw all of this vividly.

“Snow.”

Martadia called Snow again.

“Prince Elios, fearing that you would be framed for the Emperor’s assassination, tried to ride to the Grand Temple in this weather. If a temple priest hadn’t found him unconscious and collapsed on horseback, I cannot guarantee what would have happened to him.”

Elios, who had been hanging his head like a guilty person, finally raised it slowly when Martadia mentioned him.

The moment Snow looked into Elios’s eyes, she knew what he was thinking and everything that had happened after she jumped out of the Emperor’s office.

She fully understood the depth of despair Elios felt when Snow fell out the window, and how even as he dragged his ailing body and rode his horse, his thoughts were only of her, not his own safety.

Also.

“Elios, are you thinking of giving up the throne?”

Elios was startled. He was truly acting like a criminal. It was markedly different from when he had embraced Snow earlier. He couldn’t even look her in the eye properly.

“I, Snow. I am thinking of that, but how did you…”

Elios couldn’t finish his sentence. The next moment, Snow’s face contorted as she looked at him.

Snow knew what a momentous decision Elios had made. It was a decision that would change his life. Although he had always been skeptical about the position of Emperor, Elios had still considered it his destiny.

Yet he had resolved to completely overturn his fate because he couldn’t bear to see one woman he loved being sacrificed. Even if numerous reasons for not wanting to become Emperor had occurred to him afterward, that initial choice was because of Snow.

And that woman he loved, Snow, was someone who had tried to kill Elios’s father.

Snow’s legs gave way, and she collapsed onto the snow. The fate of the three people who would die in the blizzard still hadn’t changed. What am I? What am I worth…!

“Why go this far for someone like me?”

None of the three answered that question.

“Elios, you’re destined to be Emperor. Destined to stand above everyone in the world. How could you give that up for someone like me?”

Elios maintained his silence again, as if his mouth were padlocked. Snow knew why he was acting this way. After hearing directly from her that she was Freia’s reincarnation, he had developed a sense of guilt toward Snow about what the imperial family had done to Freia. He was at a loss, knowing the whole truth but unable to reveal it to the world.

‘Snow. Do I have the right to love you?’

Elios only thought this to himself, but Snow heard it clearly. She wanted to answer him somehow, but she still believed it would be better for Elios to detach himself from her.

“Wasn’t it you, Snow, who called us three here? Then why are you trying to send us away again? Why do you tell us to forget?”

Martadia knelt down, lowering herself to look at Snow as she spoke. Now Elios was the only one standing upright on the snow. Only he stood precariously on two feet with his head hanging weakly. That posture looked even more unstable and precarious.

“…I don’t want the three people I love most to be hurt.”

“What do you truly think hurts us?”

“No. Elios, Ceres, and Arianne don’t understand anything. I called myself a witch with my own mouth, but you still don’t realize it. If you truly accepted those words, you wouldn’t approach me like this.”

Snow spoke urgently, like someone being chased. Her silver eyes trembled as if cracking.

“Are you referring to your statement that you are the reincarnation of Freia Nigritia?”

Martadia recited calmly. Snow examined Martadia’s expression. Martadia didn’t seem frightened or disappointed at all. Snow couldn’t read her expression. Strangely, at this moment, she couldn’t even read Martadia’s thoughts.

Reading thoughts and seeing the future wasn’t something Snow could control at will. Sometimes the future of others appeared clearly, and sometimes it was hazy as if covered by clouds.

Unable to know what Martadia was thinking, Snow hesitantly answered, “Yes.” She had been unconsciously pouring out her true feelings for a while now. Her desire not to lie in front of these three people grew stronger.

“Because of me, countless people have died. Tens or hundreds of thousands of people died without even knowing why they were dying. No matter how you three think of me, I am far more terrible than that. I am a witch.”

“Snow. You are not a witch.”

Elios abruptly interjected. His expression was not good.

“You are not a witch, and neither is Freia. Freia Nigritia is innocent.”

“…What?”

Snow questioned. Even Elios, who had been standing alone, knelt on the ground. Just hours ago, he had been in such a feverish state that he could barely stand up. Even if he had improved somewhat, he was not in a condition to endure this long in the snow. His physical condition, which had improved slightly, was beginning to deteriorate again. Perhaps that’s why he couldn’t control his words.

“I, I found out everything. I… heard everything. F-Freia Nigritia is not a witch.”

Snow finally realized that Elios was not in a normal state.

“Elios, are you sick?”

“Freia, at least Freia was just a poor person who died bearing false accusations. That’s all.”

Elios had heard the general truth from the Emperor. That’s why he could speak like that. But until just a moment ago, Elios had…

“You were planning not to tell anyone about everything. Why are you suddenly saying such things now?”

Snow understood Elios. It was a matter intricately entangled with the Empire, the Temple, and the position of the Saint. Revealing that Freia was innocent and the imperial family was wrong in the current situation would be like forcibly tearing apart that knot. But she asked because she found it strange that Elios had suddenly changed his mind and was reciting the truth. At Snow’s words, Elios flinched.

“I, I…”

Elios buried his head deep in the snow.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry Snow…”

He apologized, his voice choked with emotion, repeating endlessly as sorrowfully as Arianne had been crying earlier.

“I am truly a piece of garbage who doesn’t deserve to appear before you… But I couldn’t bear to hear you call yourself a witch…”

“I am indeed a witch.”

“No!”

Elios shouted with all his remaining strength. He slowly crawled toward Snow.

“F-Freia Nigritia being known as a witch was a rumor deliberately spread by the imperial family. Freia is innocent. Not once in her life did she commit a sin great enough to deserve being treated that way from beginning to end.”

At those words, the part of her that was “Freia” rather than “Snow” reacted strongly with a thump.

Snow suddenly clutched and tore at her chest below her neck.

“Ugh, hnngh.”

Snow groaned painfully. Elios rushed to her and grabbed her hands to stop her. After Snow calmed down, Martadia, perhaps thinking it wasn’t her place to intervene, quietly stepped back, knelt down again, and remained silent.

From the time her family was exterminated and she was betrayed by Ikanel, left alone in prison, Freia had never heard a single warm word. The guards spat on her sprawled skirt hem and hurled insults like “wicked woman.” She was a witch even after death, and she thought she would probably be one forever.

“That’s right, Snow. ‘She’ is innocent. I know that. And now Ceres and Priest Arianne here know it too, since they heard my words. All three of us whom you called here, all of us whom you said were most precious to you, know it.”

‘Can this fact remain concealed? Should I reveal Freia’s innocence to the Empire? And then what? What will happen to Father? What will unfold? But is it right to keep hiding the truth until the end?’

Snow could clearly hear even the cries Elios swallowed inside.

“It’s not ‘she.’ It’s me. Freia is me, ‘Snow,’ Elios. Don’t you still not realize that?”

“I, I, Snow.”

Elios unconsciously tightened his grip. When Snow let out a small groan of pain, he was startled and quickly released her hands. Then he said:

“I believe your words, Snow. I believe that you are that… reincarnation. Until I came here, I didn’t believe there was any connection between you and Freia, but after hearing you say it directly, I strangely became convinced.”

It was exactly as he said. He had thought there could be no connection between Snow and Freia. Snow was born as an illegitimate child of the Arbor Baron family. The Arbor Baron family had never been entangled with the Nigritia Ducal family, either by blood or politically. He had thought the two were opposing beings—a witch and a saint—with completely different dispositions. But now he was strangely convinced.

“If you truly are Freia’s reincarnation, if you have all those memories, Snow, I cannot face you properly. How could I possibly do that… I don’t deserve to be here.”

“Do you perhaps think that you too are responsible for what the imperial family did?”

Snow asked carefully. She couldn’t know everything either.

What she just asked was something Snow couldn’t know unless Elios answered. There was no response from Elios. Snow waited persistently.

Elios realized that if he didn’t answer, this moment would never pass.