A feeling of yearning and thirsting across a more distant, infinitely longer time.

Like now, when he couldn’t reach deeper even while holding her in his arms, couldn’t touch skin-to-skin even while in contact.

It felt like seeing without truly seeing, hoping while knowing it was a pointless hope.

Constantine wept again, calling out her name.

“Saena…. Please… come back to me…”

Drop by drop, his tears fell onto her face.

Without even realizing it, the tears that fell from him rolled down her face. The wet trails made it look as if she was crying.

His hand moved to wipe away those tears but stopped. Even in this situation, he was reminded again that he was someone who couldn’t touch her.

Even with gloves on, he couldn’t bring himself to reach out.

Only his trembling fingertips and eyes could express his urgent feelings.

‘Saena…’

Swallowing down feelings that felt like they were rotting inside him, he called her name like a wish. Every time he experienced such helplessness, he felt like he would truly go mad.

Though there was nothing he could do, please just wake up.

Perhaps his tearful wish reached her.

Suddenly, Saena’s eyes snapped open.

Unlike before, her silver-lashed eyes gave a strangely different impression, but fortunately, her irises remained the same violet color.

“Saena!”

As if she couldn’t hear his urgent call, her expression remained dazed even as she looked at him.

It was like she was looking at him but not seeing him, like she’s seeing something else.

“…Are you alright?”

He carefully asked about her condition, noticing something strange about her.

But suddenly, Saena bit her lip and drew in a breath.

“…hic.”

“—Saena?”

“…huu…”

Then she began to cry.

“S-Saena?”

“—ugh, huu…, waaahh—!”

The burst of crying turned into wailing.

“Why! Why did you do it…!”

She cried out loudly, blaming and lamenting.

Watching her, Constantine felt his heart constricting.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I should have stayed by your side…”

He had fled, unable to bear seeing her wet body.

But he shouldn’t have done that.

Even if it felt like his body would burn up right then, he should have endured and stayed by her side.

“Why… Why!”

She cried while starting to punch her own chest repeatedly.

Constantine quickly grabbed her hands. He fixed them against his chest to prevent her from hitting herself. At this, Saena struggled and cried even louder.

“I was wrong. Saena… I was wrong.”

He held her more firmly to prevent her from getting hurt while struggling, as he begged for forgiveness.

“What am I… you…”

Constantine felt like his heart was being torn apart at her crying voice that was beyond desperate, filled with deep resentment.

“Saena, please…”

Her head, which had been crying as if she would stop breathing, suddenly snapped back. Her slender body went limp as if she had fainted.

“—Saena!”

He hurriedly embraced her delicate body that he had reflexively caught.

Without thinking, he checked her breathing by placing his hand under her nose again, and put his ear to her chest to check if her heart was beating.

Though he felt like he would go mad with anxiety, he pulled himself together.

* * *

The area around the lake was quite bustling.

The pillar of light that had remained for a full day had drawn an enormous crowd of people. While most were sightseers who came to see the strange light pillar, among them were also those dispatched from various places to discover the identity of the Oathkeeper.

Including these observers, the onlookers were confused because the pillar of light happened to rise from the center of the lake.

Very few people knew there was an island inside the lake, and since currently only the water’s surface was visible from the outside, opinions varied as to what the pillar of light rising from an uninhabited place could mean.

“How are we supposed to interpret this? There’s no way someone made a contract in the middle of the lake?”

“Maybe this wasn’t a light pillar caused by the Covenant after all?”

“Is it even correct that light pillars appear at the place where contracts are made?”

“The last contractor was hundreds of years ago, how would we know?”

“Ah, maybe if you contract with a water-related Guardian Spirit, the light pillar appears over water?”

“Oh? That’s a plausible theory!”

As the day’s sun was setting,

This was when Constantine emerged from the cave with Saena.

The lake’s perimeter was still noisy with gathered people, and he frowned as soon as he sensed the countless presences outside.

Due to Saena’s precarious condition, he wanted to return to the castle immediately. But unable to do so because of the situation outside, he felt like sweeping away all the onlookers, though he barely managed to hold back.

Although Saena was completely wrapped in Constantine’s cloak from head to toe without exposing even an inch, leaving on horseback and exposing their identities would still be the worst choice. If his appearance was revealed, Saena’s existence would become very easy to deduce.

He had no intention of revealing Saena’s identity without discussing it with her first, and even if she agreed, he honestly wanted to oppose it.

He waited quietly for the sun to set further before secretly leaving the island under cover of darkness.

Saena, who was thus moved to Castle Cream, did not wake for over a day.

Even though the doctor assured him there was nothing wrong, Constantine couldn’t help but worry. He couldn’t tell if it was fainting, sleep, or something else. Feeling as if his very core was burning away, he stayed by Saena’s side, keeping watch.

Then, in the middle of the night, she suddenly woke up.

“…Saena?!”

Having stayed by her side without sleeping, he quickly noticed her trembling eyelids slowly lifting.

“Are you conscious?”

“……”

Seeing her eyes still red, he asked softly.

“I’m, I’m sorry.”

“…Constantine?”

As her eyes gradually came into focus, they turned to look at him with a puzzled expression.

“I’m sorry.”

“…For what? What’s wrong?”

“I, I couldn’t save you…”

At his trembling voice, Saena looked even more confused and glanced around.

“But this is my room… Didn’t you bring me here?”

“That’s true, but…”

“Then why are you saying such things?”

Though he had brought her out, he couldn’t say he had saved her.

If she hadn’t been safe in there, things wouldn’t have turned out this way. So…

“…Ah!”

While he was lost for words due to self-loathing, Saena suddenly sat up.

“Yolly!”

She looked around searching for Yolly.

At her cry, Constantine also suddenly noticed his absence.

Since Yolly usually stayed away when they were alone, he hadn’t thought much of it, but now that he considered it, it was strange. Saena had been brought back in this state, yet he hadn’t shown his face at all.

It was unlike him, given how sensitive he was about her wellbeing.

“Have you seen Yolly?”

“I’m sorry. I failed to pay attention. I’ll make inquiries right away.”

Constantine immediately went out and ordered the butler.

Then he returned to check on Saena. He needed to stop her if she tried to go out crying looking for Yolly like last time.

The whole country was frantically searching for the new awakened one, so they couldn’t let anyone see that Saena’s hair color had changed.

Though it would come to light eventually, not right now.

But fortunately, perhaps…

She sat dazed on the bed, lost in thought about something. She didn’t seem to be thinking of going out herself. Though that didn’t mean she looked alright.

“Your Grace.”

After some time passed, the butler came.

The current floor with the bedroom was in a state where only a very few trusted people were allowed entry.

“What about him?”

“I apologize.”

“Couldn’t find him?”

“Darielle says he suddenly disappeared two days ago. She meant to report it right away but couldn’t because both of you were absent.”

After the previous disappearance incident, Darielle had been personally keeping track of Yolly’s every move. As such, she was also the first to notice when Yolly went missing.

As soon as Darielle discovered Yolly’s absence, she ordered the maids and servants to search the entire castle but couldn’t find him.

Having lost track of Yolly’s whereabouts again, Darielle was tremendously self-reproachful and wanted to beg the Duchess’s forgiveness, but since the Duke currently wasn’t allowing entry, the butler had come to relay the message.

“Should we deploy the knights?”

“……”

From an outside perspective, deploying knights to find one beast might seem excessive. But knowing how much she cherished Yolly, they had to find him.

But what worried him was something else.

‘Her condition is already unstable, if we can’t find him…’

How would he tell Saena that…

Constantine sighed while rubbing his brow.

“…Very we–”

“No.”

But Saena, having gotten up at some point, answered as she came out of the bedroom.

While she still had that delicate feel about her like before, unlike when she had black hair which gave off an impression of inner strength, with silver hair she was somehow…

There was something ethereal about her, giving the feeling that she might disappear at any moment. That’s why he unconsciously reached out to hold her.

“Your body… isn’t well yet, why did you come out.”

As if he had meant to support her all along.

“I’m fine. And there’s no need to dispatch knights for Yolly.”

“But…”

“I think I know where he is.”

Saena answered while gazing somewhere beyond the window with distant eyes.

* * *

Saena found and put on a hood.

“Where is it?”

Though Saena was bothered by her hair that had grown too long, she couldn’t cut it right away so she roughly tied it and hid it inside the hood.

“Not far.”

“I’ll come with you.”

Saena looked at Constantine’s anxious eyes before answering.

“Alright.”

Constantine was rather taken aback, as if he hadn’t expected her to agree so readily. But he quickly collected himself.

He hurriedly followed behind her as she walked out without hesitation.

“……”

And shortly after, Constantine had to experience a very strange feeling.

He knew most of her usual routes around Castle Cream. As he had started receiving reports about her daily routines after becoming distant from her.

It wasn’t to monitor Saena.

He just needed to do something, even if it was just tracing her movements, out of longing.

Also, since he could no longer take care of her directly, he wanted to make sure nothing was being overlooked.