Under normal circumstances, he would have feigned ignorance, but now he couldn’t. Raymon was pushed to his mental limit.

Erin smiled at him.

Raymon shouted, his face turning pale, “I… I sur… surrender… A knight attacking someone who surrenders… isn’t right.”

The pain made it difficult for him to speak properly.

Yet Raymon desperately forced words out. He had a strong premonition that if he stopped talking now, there would truly be no turning back.

“You… if you kill someone… you believed you’d fall into hell…”

“That’s right, Raymon. I still believe that.”

Erin agreed with his words.

In her first life, her naive self believed she would go to heaven. She thought she would never kill anyone and would never hate anyone. She believed that living virtuously would grant her access to heaven.

Long ago, on the day her academy cat Titi died. Erin prayed to God while crying in front of Titi’s grave.

‘I’ll listen to mother well and continue living virtuously, so please let me meet Titi in heaven. I won’t hate anyone. Please. I want to see Titi again.’

But now she knew. To face demons, one must become a demon.

She wouldn’t meet Titi.

Because she would fall into hell.

Erin raised her sword. Seeing this, Raymon’s face contorted with terror. His body began to tremble uncontrollably. He shouted at her:

“Demon!”

Erin had no intention of denying his words.

Her sword moved directly toward Raymon. And she inflicted on him the same pain she had experienced in the past.

Erin whispered, “Go ahead and wait for me.”

When everything is over, let’s meet again in hell.

* * *

The cleanup wasn’t difficult.

In her third life, Erin had often been chased by monsters and learned what needed to be done to erase traces.

She collected the bloodstained leaves and sprinkled powder that eliminated scents. She had prepared this before the subjugation mission began.

The path to the southern mountains was treacherous with many cliffs. Moreover, this area with few monsters had various animals that had made it their territory.

Erin left Raymon at the bottom of a cliff.

‘With so many hungry wolves around, the body will disappear quickly.’

The subjugation party needed to reach the werewolf territory within a set timeframe.

They couldn’t spare a large number of people to search for someone who suddenly disappeared.

Besides, Raymon was a high-ranking knight. No one would think something had happened to someone like him in these mountains.

Most would probably assume he had some change of heart and returned to the Duke’s residence.

He wasn’t an academy student, nor a nobleman. Though his skills as a knight earned him treatment nearly equal to nobility in social circles, here he was just one knight.

Many would think it better to be without a high-ranking knight who could die from animals or potential monsters in these mountains.

Raymon’s death was just as pitiful as her own death in her first life.

‘Death is all the same.’

Despite cutting off the nightmare that had tormented her for so long with her own hands, Erin felt nothing special.

She simply stared at her hands for a long time with an expressionless face.

Was it really such an insignificant act?

Her heart beat slowly, thump, thump.

Suddenly, a memory from the past surfaced.

The central hall of the academy. Erin had once sought out Ferdin in the meeting room where his knight candidates always gathered.

What was the reason? No, she remembered there wasn’t any particular reason.

In the past, she would seek out Ferdin with absurd excuses simply because she wanted to see him.

Of course, she stopped such behavior after realizing that her very existence was a hindrance to Ferdin…

But before that realization, she had lingered around trying to meet him several times.

Back then, she probably visited him saying she had found delicious tea from the Eastern Continent.

Even though she knew intellectually that he wouldn’t like her, she couldn’t stop such behavior.

And Ferdin, always kind, welcomed her.

But that day, he stared at her more intently than usual.

Just as her face began to flush under his gaze, Ferdin spoke in a low voice:

“I don’t believe Lady Erin killed Calips.”

“…”

“You’re not someone who would kill an innocent person. At least, the Lady Erin I’ve known wasn’t such a person. If you don’t want to talk about what you’re going through, you don’t have to. However… if you ever feel ready, I’ll help you anytime.”

Erin couldn’t respond to his words. It was the first time anyone had said something like that to her.

‘But Ferdin, this time you’re wrong. I wasn’t such a good person after all. I couldn’t forgive Raymon. And… I don’t think I’ll be able to forgive others either.’

Erin thought with an expressionless face.

If she had been as good a person as Ferdin thought, would she have forgiven Raymon? If he learned what she had done now, would he despise her?

Ferdin was so kind that he might forgive even someone like her. Weren’t all his knight candidates the same? They were all excessively gentle people.

Erin knew that Amon hesitated whenever he saw her, wanting to ask something. He was probably still concerned about the wound that had scabbed over.

Yet knowing she wanted to keep it hidden, he never brought it up properly.

Erin leaned against a nearby tree, gazing at Ferdin in the distance.

He still hadn’t returned to the camp and was repeatedly scanning the surroundings, searching for something.

Watching him from afar, she thought once more.

Even if she went back to the past again, she would do the same thing.

It was fine if Ferdin despised her. It didn’t matter if people thought her a villainess because of her merciless actions.

She was used to being hated anyway.

If there were those who threatened Ferdin and his knights… she could become a demon again without hesitation.

* * *

The quiet campsite suddenly became noisy.

Ferdin, who had gone outside the camp and returned, woke everyone up saying they needed to find Erin.

But Erin was found inside the campsite. Ferdin couldn’t help but be bewildered seeing Erin naturally emerging from her tent.

Erin, who had vanished before his eyes in an instant, had already arrived at the campsite.

Not only was her speed remarkable, but she seemed too composed for someone who had just made the shocking proposal to break off their engagement.

Ferdin was left speechless as Erin greeted him with a slight nod of her head, acting as if nothing had happened.

Derek poked him in the side and asked:

“Didn’t you say you were going to have a conversation with Erin Liserth? Your expression was completely fierce… And why did you two come back separately? Did you fight? Is that it?”

Ferdin didn’t answer Derek’s dramatic questions.

He didn’t want to tell him that Erin had proposed breaking off their engagement. If he heard that, Derek would surely jump for joy.

Even now, there was a subtle expectation mixed in his tone when he asked if they had fought.

He would probably tell him to go ahead with the breakup immediately if he knew what they had talked about.

Ferdin felt inexplicably annoyed.

He looked at Derek and said, “Shut up, Derek.”

At Ferdin’s words, Derek made a sulky face. But soon he observed Ferdin’s mood and obediently closed his mouth.

He could see that Ferdin was in a very bad mood, though he didn’t know why.

Ferdin was usually quite tolerant, but there were times when joking around could lead to serious trouble.

Remembering this, Derek narrowed his eyes and observed the pair.

‘There’s definitely something going on.’

His keen senses told him so. But since neither of the two showed any signs, there was no way to know what had happened.

* * *

Others noticed something strange by morning. Raymon hadn’t been seen since yesterday.

They thought it might be temporary, but his absence until just before the subjugation party’s departure was definitely unusual.

Karon was the first to bring it up:

“Raymon has disappeared?”

Since he always hovered around Erin, noticing his absence wasn’t difficult.

“What? Did he return to the Duke’s castle without saying anything?”

“Shouldn’t we look for him?”

“But he’s a high-ranking knight. It doesn’t seem likely that something happened to him in a forest with few monsters…”

“He must have had an urgent matter. Of course, leaving the subjugation party without a word should be punished.”

“Maybe he ran away… Anyway, we can’t waste time now. Count Leon hates tardiness the most.”

Although Raymon was part of the subjugation party, he wasn’t obligated to accompany them.

His purpose was to protect Erin, but that was it; he didn’t provide any special help to the subjugation party.

He only watched Erin, sometimes in a way that seemed creepy to others.

“That guy was kind of gloomy, isn’t it better this way? The way he looked at Lady Erin was sometimes spine-chilling…”

“Right. I understand being dedicated to his duty, but he went too far.”

Some members of the subjugation party were actually glad to hear that Raymon had disappeared.

Among them, only Karon tilted his head in puzzlement.