Antor hadn’t disliked his brothers from the beginning. They had all played together when they were young, but after he grew older and learned the secret of his birth, everything looked different.

A cuckoo chick born to a maid, caught between legitimate sons.

The Hitais royal family was born with divine power at an extremely rare probability. If Dictys were still alive now, no matter how much he was the eldest legitimate son, that power was so strong that he would have to hand over the throne to Achilleon.

It meant strong legitimacy and royal authority.

After learning that he was only half-legitimate, Antor clung to the possibility that he might be born with that power. Since he considered it the only shield for his origins, he had early exchanges with the temple, built friendships with the high priest, and devoted long periods of experimentation and effort, including eating sacred fruits, but it was a vain hope.

But Achilleon suddenly wielded divine power? Had he been hiding it all this time? Why, to avoid conflict with Dictys? Or to avoid his own wariness?

Antor gripped his sword tighter and smiled coldly. How could this happen unless the gods deliberately pushed him as successor? They clearly said I was destined to become king. He wanted to question Margharita about it.

His fallen soldiers, the disappeared Margharita, the pathetic fight of the Sacred Swordsmen. 

Though rage boiled in every situation enough to make his eyes turn red, Antor barely cooled his anger. It didn’t matter anymore anyway. He had already caught Achilleon’s weakness.

“If you can’t believe it, shall I tell you again? Hari, that woman reported all your plans and told us the ambush locations of the Isthmia army. It was also that woman who advised offering sacred beasts to the king during the hunting festival and told us how to catch them.”

Antor sneered and pulled something from his chest. It was the blue fan Achilleon had given Hari as a token. Since there were no words he couldn’t say with his mouth, Achilleon could dismiss what he had heard as nonsense.

But the moment he saw what Antor held, it seemed like the glass beneath his feet cracked with a sharp sound.

“Why do you have that?”

“That woman gave it to me. She said it had no meaning to her, so please accept it as evidence of her betrayal of you and as a sign of her loyalty to me. Margharita, that woman.”

Even with the evidence before his eyes, Achilleon couldn’t believe it. Since when? Since when had the two been conspiring?

There was a possibility it had been stolen or taken, but right now he couldn’t think of such things.

“My relationship with that woman runs quite deep. Was it from when she came to my palace after the festival?”

The Pythian Festival. Wasn’t that when Hari, who had infiltrated Antor’s palace, returned in a mess?

Her disheveled clothes, her face red with excitement and fear. The memory of catching that small body trembling like a fragile bird came back vividly. When that memory mixed with his current anguished feelings, Achilleon’s expression naturally hardened.

“I think I understand why you fell for that woman. She certainly has talent for bewitching men. She threw off her clothes saying she liked it and clung to me? It was quite thrilling.”

Achilleon couldn’t say anything. The thorn-like voice scratched his eardrums, drew blood, and even when that blood filled up enough to make his ears feel stuffy.

“Cute and lovely. So I was tempted for a moment, but I couldn’t give my heart to a woman who betrayed my little brother, could I? I might get betrayed too.”

All the words drilling into his ears were hard to believe.

Why would Hari go to that bastard? Only that question lingered.

“Is there any other reason? Hari hates you, and I can help with the escape she wants.”

Thud, Antor trampled the blue fan that had fallen to the floor. The delicate feathers were mercilessly torn apart before Achilleon’s eyes.

* * *

“It’s gone……”

“What is?”

At the stiff voice, Doris, who had been walking ahead, stopped and turned around.

“Did you leave something important behind? We can’t go back now. By now, the Second Prince’s soldiers will be spread everywhere.”

Hari’s complexion darkened. The fan Achilleon had given her as a gift was gone. As soon as they heard the urgent news that Antor had seized the palace, they had to hastily pack and leave. Had it fallen during that time?

She could have put it deep inside the bag, but she had placed it on top, worried the fan might get damaged.

Hari closed the bag’s opening with a troubled face. The bag containing the Kahilans travel pass, some jewels and travel money, a little bird feed, and spare clothes wasn’t very heavy.

However, even though she had only lost a fan that wasn’t really necessary for escape, her heart felt heavy.

“Let’s hurry. Now that we’ve come this far, we must only look ahead and go.”

Right, there’s no time to worry about something like a token Achilleon gave me. It’s a little disappointing to lose it, no, more than a little disappointing……

Hari tightly closed the bag along with unnecessary thoughts and slung it over her shoulder.

Only after walking through the narrow passage for a long time could the two reach the end. When they removed the large circular cover, the stuffy air changed to the damp scent of the forest.

It was Ontra Forest, which bordered the southern frontier.

Doris, who stuck his head out of the hole first, extended his hand to help Hari out. Since they seemed to have come deep into the forest, even the air was different.

It was heavy, damp, and no animal presence could be felt. Doris scanned the map and determined the direction.

“Ontra Forest is a sacred beast habitat. I don’t know if any remain now, but since we can’t walk through the forest to Kahilans from here, we have no choice but to trust our luck.”

Our luck…. At those words, Hari suddenly remembered something she had forgotten.

“Doris, thank you so much. For helping me practice with the holy sword, and for helping me escape. Even if it was because of Princess Madalena’s orders.”

She had never properly thanked him, swept up in the urgent situation. She was grateful to Doris, who silently helped her from the side.

Then Doris wrinkled his nose bridge and muttered.

“It’s not exactly because of that reason that I helped you.”

“Then why?”

If not Madalena’s orders, there was no reason to help her. Far from gaining anything, if the fact that he later conspired with Princess Madalena to help Hari escape became known, he could be executed.

Ah…. Perhaps because of faith? Because she was the only prophet left in the world?

“Because I thought you might be able to revive the sacred tree.”

“Ah, the sacred tree.”

From some year on, it stopped blooming, then even the fruits decreased, and now even the branches and roots were withering. Originally, only half of the sacred tree was in Hitais land, with the other half, the root part, in Galate.

Even that was something Galate had forcibly uprooted from Lagonia in ancient times. They said problems arose again in the process of joining the two broken trees to make a perfect sacred tree.

“Do you want me to do that?”

But what meaning could an already rotten tree have? Perhaps, like Doris said, she might be able to revive the tree, but honestly, she didn’t want to.

“It would only benefit Hitais.”

“No.”

Doris, who shook his head firmly, searched his chest and held out something.

“In a world where the sacred tree has disappeared, magical beasts will run rampant. Then not only Hitais but your homeland and all the countries of Rodos will be in danger. There will be war all year round and the lives of common people will become impoverished. So I want to ask you. When you return to Lagonia, please plant the seeds of this fruit in that land.”

When she received the paper bag and opened it, it contained bright red sacred fruits.

“I heard there were no fruits left……”

“Yes, they’re all rotten now. I barely picked out decent ones and smuggled them out, avoiding the high priest’s eyes. If caught, well…. execution?”

“Hmm.”

This person really doesn’t care about anything except his beliefs. How can a person be so upright?

They say human hearts shift between good and evil depending on circumstances, but Doris seems to have no such standards. His eyes shone firmly, like maintaining the divine lineage and reviving the sacred tree was his mission.

“Anyway, that’s the situation, so please think that Miss Hari has shouldered the future of Rodos…. of this world, and escape safely and far away.”

But that might be difficult. Hari glanced back. The mysterious presence that had briefly stopped was following them again.

If earlier was a mistake, now someone was definitely there. Doris seemed not to notice, focused on the map, but the pursuer wasn’t even hiding their movements anymore.

Who could it be? Could it be one of Antor’s close associates she saw earlier?

As her body contracted with tension, she felt pain in her stomach. Once she started feeling pain, her stomach hurt enough to break out in cold sweat.

‘Why is my body like this?’