Erin stared intently at Isis. Her lips, usually curved upward pleasantly, had fallen into a straight line, and her eyes revealed wariness.

She wasn’t oblivious to what he thought of her. He was likely suspicious, believing she sided with the Emperor and Ditrion. She couldn’t blame him—she would have felt the same in his position.

They exchanged no further words after that. They simply continued walking toward their destination.

During their journey, Hellix sensed something unusual. The danger zone was quieter than normal. Typically, they would have encountered several mid-level monsters by now, but strangely, no creatures had appeared, making Hellix uneasy.

‘Something feels about to happen.’

Just as this thought crossed his mind, Isis spoke.

“We’ve arrived.”

Hellix looked ahead to see their destination—the orphanage.

As they were about to enter, Isis turned to Erin. ‘Before entering, there’s something I need to clarify.’

He finally asked the question that had been weighing on his mind throughout their journey.

“Erin Liserth, before we go in, I want one thing made clear. What is your purpose in approaching Lord Ferdin?”

Instead of answering, Erin drew her sword. Seeing her unsheathe her weapon, Hellix also drew his, but he couldn’t block Erin’s attack. In an instant, her sword flew past Isis and pierced something behind him.

Isis turned around in surprise. Erin’s eyes gleamed coldly.

Monster blood dripped from her blade.

“Something feels strange,” Erin said, frowning and touching her forehead. The moment she finished speaking, Isis also felt the disturbance.

“Magic? A large-scale spell like this?”

Something was disturbing his mind.

‘What is this?’

The ominous energy was so powerful that without holy power, he would have succumbed before even recognizing it as magic.

The powerful force seemed determined to drive out the holy power surrounding his body, violently shaking his consciousness.

Isis turned to Erin with a panicked expression. While he and Hellix could withstand this thanks to their holy power, Erin, being an ordinary knight, would surely struggle.

As he expected, Erin’s eyes had become empty.

Hellix urgently grabbed Isis and shouted, “Isis, use your holy power now!”

They had little time to deliberate.

Isis grasped Erin’s shoulders and began channeling his holy power.

* * *

Erin slowly closed and opened her eyes. She knew everything before her was an illusion.

Had she not been a Sword Master, she would have been completely consumed by the vision—it was that vivid.

This was a malicious spell that trapped the victim’s mind in past memories, forcing them to live eternally in nightmares.

Erin looked around, examining her surroundings. She recognized this place.

The Liserth estate—her home and the origin of all her nightmares.

‘Ferdin?’

Noticing a human figure in the distance, Erin slowly blinked. Suddenly, Ferdin stood before her.

Despite constantly reminding herself this was merely an illusion—a terrible nightmare—Erin couldn’t move a step.

Unconsciously, she placed her hand on her sword hilt.

“Lady Erin.”

Ferdin approached her, his body drenched in blood. Someone’s skull rolled at his feet.

At that moment, someone grabbed her ankle.

Erin looked down. Familiar faces appeared beneath her—Calips, Amon, Lilia, and countless others.

‘This is definitely a nightmare. I’m certain of it.’

The corpses at her feet were all people who had died protecting her.

This was the nightmare she always had after Ferdin’s death…

Though she hadn’t experienced it since time reversed, it was a situation she had endured countless times in her previous life.

Erin knew what would happen next. Ferdin came closer. His eyes were filled with resentment.

He placed his hand on her face, smiling seductively, attempting to enchant her.

And just like in her recurring dream, he said, “You killed them.”

She knew everything was false. Yet Erin remained frozen, staring only at Ferdin. In the past, she had never responded to the Ferdin in her dreams, believing he must resent her.

Without realizing it, she opened her mouth, “I wasn’t happy for even a moment.”

These were words she had always wanted to say.

“After you died, every time I went to sleep, I wished I would never wake up again. Life was so difficult… I wanted everything to just end.”

She both longed to see Ferdin and dreaded it. Seeing him, even in dreams, made her heart feel like it was being torn apart.

“If I hadn’t been born into the Marquis’s family, and if you hadn’t been born into the imperial family, would our lives… have been better?”

A meaningless hypothetical. Thinking this, Erin smiled.

“I thought I could meet you if I died…”

But even in death, she couldn’t find him. Erin felt something firmly binding her feet and looked down. She saw corpses pulling at her legs.

As Erin slowly raised her sword, Ferdin’s illusion tilted his head at her.

“Are you going to kill me again?”

At his words, Erin gave a sad smile.

Then, without hesitation, she swung her sword.

* * *

Blood flowed from Erin’s arm. Isis stared blankly at her. She had cut her own arm. Deep red blood dripped from the severe wound.

Isis’s face showed shock at Erin’s action, performed without the slightest hesitation.

Unconsciously, he stepped back.

Erin slowly turned to face him. When their eyes met, he felt an indescribable chill.

Isis had tried to help Erin regain consciousness using holy power. With such malevolent mental magic, failing to escape the illusion quickly could trap one forever.

During this process, he caught a glimpse of the vision she was experiencing.

‘What did I just see?’

Corpses scattered around. And Erin choosing to cut herself rather than the Ferdin before her.

Why? Was she not in her right mind, bewitched by the illusion? Had black magic controlled her mind, forcing her to wound her arm?

But Isis soon realized she was remarkably lucid.

Erin’s eyes were clearer and more transparent than ever.

Resisting such powerful magic without losing consciousness was impressive enough, but her extreme method of breaking free was simply madness.

“You…”

Ignoring Isis and Hellix, who stared with wide, surprised eyes, Erin roughly tore her clothes and crudely bandaged her wound.

Isis’s face, usually masked with a smile, crumbled.

He asked her, bewildered, “Are you insane?”

Isis approached to heal her wound, but Erin rejected his help.

“Don’t heal it.”

“…?”

“I need it to stay focused.”

Isis was dumbfounded. Erin’s white clothes were already stained red.

“Lady Erin, are you alright? I know you’re badly hurt, but… we don’t have much time. A horde of monsters has suddenly appeared,” Hellix said.

Isis regained his composure at these words.

His face turned pale seeing the sudden flood of monsters.

He didn’t know where they had come from, but it was clear they would all die if they remained. No, not just them.

Everyone in the western territories was in danger.

Growl!

Hellix’s face hardened as he cut down a monster charging at him. Even with holy power infused in his sword, the resistance he felt was alarming.

These were clearly no ordinary monsters. They were mid-level at minimum.

“A horde of this magnitude couldn’t just appear suddenly…”

Hellix turned to Isis and asked, “Where did they come from? We haven’t heard reports of monster activity nearby.”

“They seem to be coming from beneath us.”

Isis felt nauseated by the foul energy rising from underground.

Hellix continued swinging his sword, gritting his teeth. He suspected that somewhere below, in the place Isis mentioned, lay the clues they had been searching for.