He confidently declared that Shahar would soon come looking for him.

I wanted to believe his words too.

‘Shahar….’

Muttering that name, I tried to gather my scattered thoughts.

[Shall we wait here?]

The place where the wolf settled was a terrace of the castle with a good view of the stars.

Originally, it was a great spot to enjoy the city’s night view, but now the city was completely dark.

I mustered all my strength to speak.

“Hey, it’s freezing.”

The night in Pontos was too cold. At this rate, I might end up in the underworld before Shahar arrived.

[Oh, you can’t die yet. You have to die in front of my brother.]

The wolf clicked his tongue as he saw me shivering with my teeth chattering. Then he snapped his fingers, lighting a fire in the air.

[Is this better?]

Not really. The cold subsided, but the pain remained.

Meanwhile, the wolf seemed to be in a good mood, even humming a tune.

[Is this what you call a song? There were no songs when I was alive. All I heard were the souls humming in Tartarus.]

“You sing well.”

I answered absentmindedly and closed my eyes. When my body warmed up, fatigue set in.

Since it didn’t seem like he would kill me right away, I decided to let things take their course.

[You’re still carefree.]

Suddenly, he acted as if he knew me well, even though he had barely seen me.

But I was too sleepy and he seemed too erratic, so I pretended not to notice.

As I dozed off, bits of his story occasionally reached my ears.

Most of it was complaints interspersed with boring explanations about what the world was like when it was still intact and what Tartarus was like.

[When I was first born, the world wasn’t much different from Tartarus. Everything was chaotic. But chaos is the most natural state.]

Sometimes he would curse Shahar in a fit of anger. Those moments would briefly bring me back to my senses.

[No matter what kind of pretense he put on in front of you, don’t trust Shahar too much. He’s more cunning and ruthless than you can imagine. The reason I ended up like this is all because I fell for his tricks.]

“Enough… When is Shahar coming…?”

Half asleep, I blurted out my true feelings, making the wolf burst into laughter.

[Do you like Shahar that much?]

Nodding.

[But you’ve never even seen his face. Do you still like him?]

“Looks aren’t everything…?”

I couldn’t believe those words came out of my mouth.

[Hmm. Looking at you, that seems true. What’s so pretty about you? No matter how much I look, you seem ordinary.]

The unexpected comment about my appearance woke me up completely. He must have been holding a grudge from being rejected earlier.

‘This bastard….’

“For your information, I’m not bad-looking.”

[Oh. Confidence is a good thing.]

As expected, older guys didn’t match with me. Except for Shahar, of course.

Since I was now awake, I decided to ask something that had been bothering me.

“Why are you doing this? And why do I have to die?”

[Because you are his happiness. My brother’s happiness is my misfortune, so conversely, my brother’s misfortune is my happiness.]

“Well, I don’t think Shahar is that happy either.”

Ever since the great King of the Underworld met me, he was treated no better than a dog and couldn’t fully utilize his abilities due to some restrictions.

I was probably the only one he could rely on, but I was always busy turning my attention to other men.

‘If he considers this to be fortunate, does that mean the environment in the underworld is that harsh?’

[Even though he’s my brother, I really hate him. He always looked down on me with arrogant eyes. It’s funny. Mother loved me more, though. Do you know why I have no name, but he does?]

Of course, I didn’t know.

[It’s because before Shahar was born, I was the only one for Mother. So there was no need to give me a name to distinguish me.]

His face was brimming with pride as he said this. But it soon turned into anger.

[Why did Mother designate him as the successor instead of me? I was confident enough too. I always tried to earn Mother’s recognition.]

‘Why do you think?’

Committing such atrocities for such reasons.

The extreme personalities of Iscallion and the Pontos family must have been inherited from this man.

I looked up at him blankly.

[Why are you looking at me like that?]

“What happened to Iscallion?”

[What happened? I took over his body. Since he’s my descendant, his body is very suitable for use in this world. It would be foolish to desire another body when this one fits so well, wouldn’t it?]

“What? But he’s your descendant.”

[So?]

Seeing his questioning face, I realized I had asked a foolish question.

To a man who would harm his brother and mother, a distant descendant was no different from a stranger.

“Then what’s going to happen now?”

[Well, what do you think will happen?]

As I looked at him with contempt, his eyes turned cold.

[You’re looking at me like that too. Just like my brother.]

He suddenly grabbed my neck. Then, as if he had a thought, he let go and brought his face closer to mine.

[Thinking about it, wouldn’t Shahar be more distressed if you loved someone else rather than just dying? I’ll let you live, so how about loving me instead? You’re quite amusing, after all.]

“Ugh, gross.”

I didn’t have time to prepare for his sudden confession attack.

My genuine reaction seemed to have angered him.

[Well, I wasn’t serious either. So don’t worry about it.]

He didn’t seem to realize that saying such things made him look like someone who actually cared deeply.

Apparently, being rejected was quite a shock to him, since he finally closed his mouth after talking nonstop.

And I fell asleep again.

After a long while, the wolf shook me awake.

[Rejoice. He’s coming.]

Even without his words, I could feel something approaching.

Unlike before the wolf was summoned, there were no disasters like the ground shaking. On the contrary, everything was calm.

Suddenly, the campfire went out. It wasn’t that cold. The fierce wind that had been blowing stopped.

And a dreadful silence descended as if all living things were holding their breath.

I, too, felt an instinctive fear.

But it seemed that my heart was pounding not just out of fear.

The wolf laughed at me.

[Are you that happy?]

“Of course.”

[Will you still be happy after meeting him?]

“What do you mean?”

[To confront me, he can’t appear as you know him. But if the King of the Underworld wields his power, what do you think will happen to the living creatures on this land?]

The wolf whispered kindly to my frozen self.

[I’m curious. Which will you choose, your life or others’?]

* * *

Without Shahar, we can’t win. But if he appears now, Pontos will become an irreversible land of death.

I thought about how to summon him safely.

I had a secret weapon the wolf couldn’t imagine: the spirit summoning method.

Summoning a transcendent through spirit summoning required a sacrifice but had less impact on the surrounding environment.

However, even if the summoning succeeded, the problem remained.

When summoning the Sun God, Pinion, his descendant, was the medium, and Janet was my blood-mixed contractor, so no special price was needed.

But Shahar was just a nominal mate, not connected to me in any way.

‘Connections are the best even in a romance fantasy world….’

Still, as a Duke’s daughter, surely there must be someone among my ancestors who had a connection with Shahar.

I pondered for a moment.

But from the founder of the family, we were honest, self-made wealthy farmers from the countryside.

‘Well, let’s give it a try.’

I had no pen or paper, but a master doesn’t choose their tools.

My motto was to live with what you have.

[What are you doing?]

“You don’t need to know.”

I drew a small circle and an X on the stone floor with blood from my numerous wounds.

Even as I openly drew the summoning circle in front of him, the wolf didn’t notice anything.

I quickly chanted the spell while drawing circles in the air with my fingers.

“Shahar, Shahar, please come here.”

[You…!]

The wolf, belatedly sensing something unusual, yelled angrily, but it was already too late as darkness enveloped everything.

“He’s here…?”

I barely managed to speak while looking at the invisible void.

Facing him as a transcendent and summoner, not as a mate, his presence was overwhelming.

Whether he appeared in his true form or as the stone I knew, I didn’t care at the moment.

It was rather fortunate that I couldn’t see. Facing his true form would have been unbearable.

“You.”

Even in this situation, his voice calling me was so gentle that it brought tears to my eyes. I wanted to tell him right away how hard the past few days without him had been.

But first, I had to make a contract with him. I wasn’t sure if he’d understand through my sobbing.

“Shahar. Please grant my wish. Can you take that guy back to hell? I’ll give you everything I have if you can just deal with him.”

I knew that even if I gave everything I had, it wouldn’t be enough.

If he refused, I’d have to offer Pinion too. As the male lead, he’d be a decent sacrifice, unlike me.

For some reason, there was no response.

Just as I was starting to worry if something had gone wrong, he spoke.

“No sacrifice is needed. I have no intention of becoming a man who takes from his mate.”

A gentle hand caressed my rough face.

But before I could lean into that hand, he moved away.