After returning to the mansion and stuffing all the clothes into the bag, I was finally ready. And the day had fully dawned. Checking the time, it was tight. When I hurriedly arrived at the imperial palace, the entire delegation was gathered except for me.

“I’m sorry!”

As I stood in the corner, receiving glares, it happened.

“Everyone has arrived now.”

‘Wait, that annoying voice?’

I looked up, and sure enough, there was the Crown Prince arrogantly looking this way from atop his horse.

“Excuse me, Your Highness the Crown Prince, why are you here?”

I asked the person next to me, enduring my embarrassment.

“A notice came down that His Highness the Crown Prince has been appointed as the delegation’s representative, didn’t you hear?”

‘Damn…….’

I had been so busy that I hadn’t checked.

The Crown Prince, seeing me, gave his usual annoying smile and turned away.

‘Well, it doesn’t matter.’

Anyway, I was a low-ranking member of the delegation, and the Crown Prince was the representative and overall in charge, so there was no need to have personal conversations.

“Lady, please board the carriage. We are departing immediately.”

At the urging of the captain of the guards, I hurriedly boarded the carriage. As long as I could meet Iscallion, I could endure the Crown Prince.

* * *

It was the second day since we departed for Pontos. The carriage, which had been running smoothly, suddenly stopped.

I opened the window to check what was happening and asked the coachman.

“What’s going on?”

“We encountered a delegation from the Holy Kingdom heading to Pontos. There was a minor issue, and our knights are helping them.”

‘The Holy Kingdom again?’

What I overlooked was that the Empire wasn’t the only one sending a delegation to Pontos.

Since Pontos opened its doors for the first time in hundreds of years, it was natural for the Holy Kingdom to send a delegation as well.

‘I hope I don’t run into Gined again…….’

Even if I met him now, nothing would happen.

Anyway, I heard that monsters suddenly appeared, causing minor damage to the Holy Kingdom’s delegation ahead. Several young priestesses lost their horses and luggage in the chaos and were at a loss.

Feeling sorry for them, I offered them a ride in my carriage.

“Thank you. If it weren’t for you, lady, we would have been in real trouble. I am Agnes, a priestess serving the Goddess.”

“I am Lou Dronay.”

While exchanging greetings with the priestesses who seemed to be around my age, High Priest Dominique appeared from somewhere.

“Lady! We meet again. I didn’t know you were going to Pontos. We seem to have a special connection. Once again, I look forward to your assistance. We have received permission from His Highness the Crown Prince to accompany you.”

“Accompany us?”

“Yes. As you can see, the path to Pontos is not fully developed yet. In these mountain paths, the chances of encountering monsters are high, and even if we are lucky enough to avoid them, we might be robbed by bandits. In fact, we can’t even be assured of safety after we arrive. There are even absurd rumors that Pontos people have fur and horns.”

High Priest Dominique’s words sent a chill down my spine.

The stereotypes about Pontos people were ridiculous, but the threat of monsters and bandits seemed real.

As he said, the path was indeed rough.

Leaving aside the poorly maintained roads, monsters appeared every other day.

One day, we encountered them three times.

Fortunately, thanks to the combined forces of the Imperial Knights and the Holy Knights, we were never in real danger, but it was definitely not a place to visit for leisure. This trip made me understand why the Empire had given up on Pontos.

Hearing the constant roars and screams of monsters and seeing the knights’ armor stained with blood made me feel nauseous.

Seren, who had come along to serve, was almost dead. Already timid and suffering from motion sickness, she looked quite miserable. Seeing her emaciated appearance after just a few days made me forget all the resentment I had towards her.

If I hadn’t been hardened by the monsters I encountered in Mount Acheron, I might have run away crying.

“I hope we can sleep in a village tonight.”

The priestesses sitting across from me muttered in exhausted voices.

Named Agnes, Margarita, and Lucia, they had been traveling with us since we helped them.

Since joining the temple, this was their first time leaving the Holy Kingdom, and they seemed to prefer riding in my carriage over enduring poor horse-riding skills.

For Seren’s sake, I also suggested they ride with us to Pontos.

The priestesses gladly accepted, and Seren’s condition improved somewhat. Though she looked more like a zombie than a corpse now.

“Please, I’m tired of camping out.”

Seren, leaning against a chair, replied weakly.

I felt the same as everyone else.

“But lady, you are really calm. We were trained in advance, but ordinary people are usually scared of monsters.”

Margarita asked.

“I’m naturally not easily scared.”

Too lazy to explain all the events I had experienced, I gave a vague answer.

“That’s amazing. To be honest, I thought you would give up and go back soon. I never imagined a high-ranking lady would endure this tough journey. May I ask why you came this far?”

“To broaden my horizons. How about you, priestesses?”

“Our purpose is missionary work and service. We heard there are no temples in Pontos. Without the blessing of the gods, it must be really hard to live on such barren land without holy power. Even if they are descendants of sinners, they are still precious lives. They shouldn’t suffer just because they don’t know the grace of the gods.”

I was secretly impressed by their firm and clear answer. I didn’t expect young priestesses around my age to have such grand ambitions.

Compared to them, my plan to travel with Shahar and catch up with Iscallion seemed very childish and trivial.

‘But that pure passion will soon…….’

I forcibly shook off the gloomy thoughts.

Turning my gaze outside to hide my hardened expression, I saw Pinion not far away. Of all times, he was also looking this way. I hurriedly drew the curtains, fearing our eyes might meet.

‘Damn, I almost ruined my eyes.’

Suddenly, the priestesses blushed and giggled among themselves.

“As a servant of God, it’s not right to say this, but His Highness the Crown Prince is really handsome.”

“Me too. I thought there was no one in the world as handsome as Sir Roengreen.”

The priestesses, unaware of my past engagement with him, seemed ignorant of worldly affairs. Thanks to that, only Seren rolled her large eyes around, watching my reaction.

I shrugged my shoulders and pretended not to know, while stroking Shahar.

The priestesses showed curiosity upon seeing him.

“Are you really raising a stone? I’ve heard rumors, but it’s really fascinating to see it in person. In the Holy Kingdom, it’s forbidden to keep stones as mates.”

“What? Why?”

“It was a special decree from His Holiness the Pope. I thought it was a sudden command, but they say it’s trending in the capital. So it was true.”

“Indeed. It seems unique but not bad.”

Anyway, the Pope was a petty man. Having suffered from Shahar, he took out his anger on innocent stones.

I felt sorry for the priestesses who would never know the coolness of having a mate stone.

While we were in the midst of chatting about the latest trends in the capital, a small window towards the coachman’s seat opened.

“Good news, lady. We’ve finally found a village. We can have proper lodging and meals tonight.”

The coachman, who was also desperate for rest, had a sudden liveliness in his haggard face.

As he said, we soon arrived at a village. It was a very small village with a population of around 50.

The closer we got to Pontos, the harder it was to find villages, and even if we did find one, most lacked restaurants capable of feeding everyone.

In this village, there wasn’t even a restaurant, so we had to give the ingredients we brought to the villagers and ask them to cook for us.

After about an hour, the villagers brought the food they had prepared to the village hall.

The amount of food seemed quite small compared to the ingredients we provided, but no one complained.

Due to the small size of the village hall, it was decided that the women would eat first, followed by the men in order of rank.

“I feel a bit unwell. You all go ahead and eat.”

I sent Seren and the priestesses out first, trying to ignore the smell of food wafting into the carriage.

Even if we ate separately, it was almost impossible to avoid running into Pinion and Gined in such a small place. It was better to starve than to face them.