Gasping for breath, Isabel’s eyes burned and tears welled up.

‘How… How could I have forgotten all of this until now?’

“Aaah! Get down!”

At that moment, a flashbang rolled across the ground, bursting into blinding white light. Someone screamed out alongside it.

“Cover your ears!”

The deafening blast shook the earth. Layered over that, another voice echoed in Isabel’s mind—the same desperate voice that had once shouted at her as a child, when she’d been flailing in panic.

Through tear-blurred eyes, she watched herself clamp her hands over her ears. A fragment of memory flickered by—someone tearing open a packet of gunpowder, quickly assembling it, and then hurling it at the transport vehicles parked at the bottom of the hill.

It was all happening again, right here.

Everything from back then surged up, piercing through Isabel’s body.

In front of the burned, shattered ruins—where nothing but trampled, blackened earth and the scattered footprints of soldiers remained—the front yard where she’d once planted vegetables was now ablaze and being trampled all over again.

“Kuh—!”

The man dragging her away was hit by a bullet, falling to the ground and pulling Isabel down with him. Grit from the damaged ground, tangled cobwebs and broken glass scraped her cheek as she fell. Before she could gather her wits, another pair of hands seized her and dragged her onwards.

“Another one—set it off, now!”

One of the pursuing rebels shouted and another flashbang flared brightly. Isabel’s vision blurred and went white once more.

‘Isabel, get a hold of yourself. Isabel…!’

Ah…
There had definitely been another time when something just like this happened.

Now, the voices ringing in her ears were impossible to separate from reality or hallucination.

‘What—what is he throwing—get down!’

It was just the same.

In the chaos of that explosion, over the shouts of soldiers scattering in terror, a thunderous boom rocked the ground—just like that long-ago autumn day.

Someone had wrapped an arm around Isabel’s waist, pulling her close and dashing away from the blast.

“Hold on tight.”

Isabel heard the urgent whisper, felt herself wrapped tightly in someone’s arms as they leapt together down the opposite ravine. The image came rushing back: the deep blue river at the bottom of the gorge gaping wide beneath them.

Isabel. Isabel…!

Suddenly, her body plummeted, and everything vanished from view.

‘Kailhart clenched his teeth.’

Isabel, Isabel, Isabel…! The desperate cry he’d shouted so long ago now roared in his ears, mingling with the fierce sandstorm so loudly that it drowned out all other sounds.

He was used to this.

This had happened countless times before, and in this very place, no less. Even the way the wind howled, threatening to shatter his bones, was exactly as he remembered it. He could vividly recall the sight of their pursuers closing in on them, chasing them like a pack of hunting dogs.

Nothing had changed, even after all these years.

He could still see himself as a boy trying desperately to stop the intruders who had stormed the place to take Isabel away. His determination had been preserved by time and remained unchanged by the years. He remembered running with Isabel, who had been drugged and slung over his shoulder, stumbling and falling on the leaf-covered hillside.

Even now, everything here was for her: the light, the wind, and the scent that filled the air.

Isabel. And yet, once again…

His true feelings, coiled darkly within him for so long, stirred like a storm inside his chest. Watching Isabel fade away unconscious, he groaned through gritted teeth.

All this time, Kailhart had been desperate to restore everything she had lost.

“How—how did he—!”

“He took this route all by himself—agh!”

These were the kind of men who thrived on desperation.

This made their next move obvious. It was easy to predict what they would do. Since Isabel was their target, they would head straight for their base of operations once they had captured her.

They had already infiltrated the palace extensively but failed to get what they wanted. Now, they were resorting to even bolder measures.

Who could he blame for this but himself?

He’d been so consumed by the need to get Isabel back that everything else had faded into insignificance. They must have anticipated that someone as relentless as Kailhart—someone willing to do anything to restore Isabel’s memories—would inevitably be drawn here.

Jaw set, Kailhart cut down every man in his way, striking with ruthless precision. He drew his pistol, taking aim at the rebels who had already tumbled far into the ravine below.

Once, a river had run through that ravine, but now it was bone dry—the land unchanged, only the water gone.

Kailhart raised his weapon, eyes blazing, and prepared to fire at the man fleeing with Isabel’s unconscious body.

‘You want the princess, don’t you?’

Suddenly, a shadow rose from the ground and obscured his view.

It was the same pursuer who had hunted him down many years ago. The man with the dark, grinning head sneered at him.

“Then beg like a dog.”

The sneering voice belonged to the military commander who had once overpowered him, binding his limbs and forcing him to kneel. “If you want the princess back, beg like a dog.”

There was nothing he wouldn’t do.

If it meant preventing Isabel from being dragged away, he would do anything. Without hesitation, he pressed his forehead to the ground and begged for her release while the commander laughed at him.

Bang!

Kailhart pulled the trigger, shooting the commander without hesitation.

He watched the men carrying Isabel collapse, then descended into the thick, smoke-filled ravine.

It was a dangerous place, and another sandstorm could sweep through at any moment and claim his life. But Kailhart didn’t care. He moved straight towards Isabel, who had fallen.

Just as he reached her and tried to gather her in his arms, however, one of the rebel corpses — still clutching a knife — lunged at his chest.

The man hadn’t died yet.

“As long as my father is alive, you’ll see. Everything you have will eventually leave you of its own accord.”

Kailhart seized the man’s head and wrenched it up, forcing him to look him in the eye.

“Tell that to your boss.”

He wasn’t speaking to the rebel, but rather sending a warning to whoever was watching through the man’s eyes.
Suddenly, the rebel’s head began to tremble in Kailhart’s grip, his eyes rolling back in his head. In an instant, his gaze shifted — it was as if someone else was looking out through his eyes.

“I’ve already heard. That was quite a rousing speech you gave.”

A completely different voice emerged from the man’s throat; it was nothing like before.

“Do you think everything is over now that you’re on the throne, Kailhart?”

Hearing his name again after such a long time, Kailhart’s eyes narrowed slightly.

The man’s bloodshot eyes rolled with malice.

“This woman is damaged goods, you know.”

‘Are you really fine with that?’

Although it was a minor provocation, he felt a surge of rage because they had dared to speak of Isabel as if she were an object.

Kailhart immediately slashed at the man’s eyes, but he hardly seemed to feel any pain. He must have blocked his senses in order to fight without fear of death.

“Ha! No matter how noble you pretend to be—”

The taunt was cut short.

Even after cutting the rebel’s throat with a single stroke, the raspy, choking laughter lingered in his ears.

They had come prepared to die from the beginning. They had willingly injected themselves with drugs that were destroying their bodies from within because they had never intended to return alive. And it wasn’t only that.

“After spilling not just your own bl＊＊d, but that of countless others—you think you can just walk away now?”

Even in death, they continued to mock him. Kailhart glared down at a pair of eyes that had opened beside the fallen corpse.

He had clearly stabbed the man in the throat and killed him, yet now another corpse had opened its eyes and was blocking his path.

“It’s so easy to fool people with these childish tricks, isn’t it?”

The corpse’s mouth split open into a twisted grin, and its eyes rolled grotesquely. Once again, the enemy was standing between Kailhart and Isabel, who was lying unconscious behind him.

“Humans are so foolish.”

“Do you even see them as human?”

They were the kind of people who treated their followers as disposable extra lives. They would stop at nothing — drugs, brainwashing, bombs, terror attacks — to hold him back.

“Look who’s talking. You’re the madman who wiped out an entire nation—past and present—just for Isabel.”

The moment the words ended, the fallen soldiers’ corpses cackled all together, mocking him.

“Ah, one country wasn’t enough, was it?”

Watching Kailhart’s lips twist, they continued to jeer, each adding their own barb.

“Look at yourself, Kailhart. You’ve been nothing but a broken creature from the day you were born. You think tying that woman to your side right now will satisfy you?”

“Shut up.”

“No matter how strong you become, no matter what heights you reach—it’s meaningless.”

“I said shut up.”

“In the end, your thirst will never be quenched.”

No matter how many he struck down, the whispers only grew, echoing from every direction. Each fallen foe released a denser, bl＊＊d-red smoke that choked the ravine. Even as the edges of his vision bled into darkness, Kailhart clenched his teeth, forcing his wavering focus to sharpen.

“As long as there are shadows, we will never leave you.”