“I’ll handle all the monsters myself.”

Isis’s face hardened at Erin’s words. Her statement was nothing short of reckless. He shot Hellix an accusatory glance, blaming him for being unhelpful. Hellix returned the look with an expression of undeserved reproach.

“I can’t leave them like this,” Erin said.

“That’s not possible.”

“I know it’s a reckless choice. But what if we leave these monsters behind?”

“…”

“You said they were people from the west.”

“They likely were. People who disappeared from the western region.”

“If these transformed monsters are controlled by someone else and forced to kill the people they once loved… they would suffer even in death.”

The wish to meet their end as knights. Erin desperately wanted to fulfill that wish for them.

Isis was a man who calculated efficiency. Supporting the lives he was responsible for meant he had no choice but to calculate and weigh what would bring the greatest benefit. They needed to flee immediately. They were already severely weakened, not just physically but mentally exhausted as well. From a rational perspective, what Erin proposed was infinitely reckless and foolish.

She might die. Conversely, if Erin abandoned them and fled, she would almost certainly survive. There was no need to take such a risk.

“Isis, you don’t know me.”

When Isis didn’t respond, Erin raised her head and spoke these words. She was right. Isis didn’t know her. Perhaps no one in this world truly knew her completely.

“I’m stronger than you think. Strong enough to save them all.”

The moment his eyes met Erin’s, Isis found himself unable to refuse her.

* * *

Erin swung her sword with great force while Hellix supported her at her side. The monsters displayed the same disciplined movements she had noticed earlier, moving like knights. Their motions revealed how much they had once trained in swordsmanship to become knights.

Yes, they were knights.

CLASH!

Their lives should never have ended this way. In the future, the Emperor had deceived them in death. These were people who had wanted to protect others—someone’s child, someone’s lover, someone’s family in the western region.

Erin couldn’t stand by and watch as they were used to kill the western people. She only hoped that in death, they could rest peacefully without being deceived by anyone anymore.

So Erin moved. As she released her mana with all her might, her presence transformed. The mana climbed up her sword, forming an aura that only Sword Masters could create. Her sword, radiating a brilliant white light more dazzling than any other, seemed almost alive.

‘This is not where we’re meant to die.’

‘I always thought if I died, it would be on the battlefield.’

Small wounds appeared on her arms. Then her legs, face, and neck. In an instant, Erin was covered in injuries. A long gash opened on her arm—a wound so severe that blood splattered onto Hellix’s face beside her.

But Erin didn’t stop.

Hellix glanced at her from the corner of his eye while swinging his own sword. Long ago, he had seen Duke Asili’s sword in action. He had witnessed the power of the Duke’s blade as he faced thousands of monsters, and afterward understood what overwhelming strength beyond human limits truly meant.

Erin was right. Neither he nor Isis knew how strong she really was.

Traces of knighthood remained in the monsters’ movements. They moved with the precision of sword wielders. Knights typically used different swordsmanship styles when facing monsters versus when dueling other knights.

The sword used to survive and kill inevitably differed from the sword used in formal duels where mutual respect was maintained.

And now, Erin was facing these monsters in what resembled a formal duel.

Hellix found himself murmuring, “What an inefficient approach.”

Yet despite his words, his eyes burned with intensity. He too had noticed what Erin was doing. She was honoring the knights. And that sight was more sublime than anything Hellix had ever witnessed.

As he cut down a monster before him, Hellix recalled the words the previous Saint had spoken to him: “You might find it frustrating. But that’s because that child has a kind heart.”

His heart began to race. Suddenly, Hellix realized that Erin was the person he had been searching for his entire life—the master he was destined to serve.

* * *

“This is truly ridiculous.”

Charlotte recognized what Erin was doing. Having directly researched the monsters in this laboratory, she knew better than anyone what had happened here. She was the one who had given the journal to the test subjects, after all.

Charlotte occasionally read that journal to study how humans behaved when plunged into despair. It wasn’t done out of consideration for them. Rather, she found it amusing to watch them comfort each other through their writings.

‘Death is just death, yet they act like it needs some grand meaning…’

She assumed they were simply spouting nonsense out of fear of death. Dying while protecting someone would make their death less regrettable? No such person could exist. Anyone could speak pretty words. This was why Charlotte despised knights and their rhetoric.

Erin’s current actions were so absurd that Charlotte couldn’t help but laugh. Reading the journal’s contents and trying to fulfill their wish to die as knights? Attempting to comfort their souls was completely pointless. The monsters had lost their reason long ago.

“It’s all over anyway. They’re all dead…”

Was she pitying them because she fancied herself a knight?

“Foolish human till the end.”

Charlotte hated Erin. Whenever their eyes met, she felt an inexplicable disgust. She couldn’t understand those pure eyes, those eyes that never broke despite all the torment from Corelia.

Charlotte’s hands moved faster.

As time passed, the composure on Charlotte’s face gradually gave way to tension. Erin was dispatching the monsters at an alarming rate. This shouldn’t be possible.

How could Erin Liserth so easily fend off the monsters she had created? Erin was truly monstrous. But this was strange.

Charlotte had seen many Sword Masters in her time. Even among these impressive Sword Masters, differences in caliber existed. She could confidently say that only someone of Duke Asili’s level should be capable of facing the horde of monsters at the orphanage.

Charlotte looked down at her hands. They were trembling uncontrollably.

“Damn it, to ruin my masterpiece like this… I’ll kill her.”

Muttering these words, Charlotte rose and gathered the results of her research into her arms. If she failed in this task, Corelia’s anger would be terrifying to contemplate.

“I’m different from someone like Raymon. Unlike that weakling…”

Just then, Charlotte spotted Isis. He was praying inside the iron door, waiting for Erin and Hellix.

‘Right, there’s still a way.’

Charlotte instinctively sensed that Erin wouldn’t let her escape. She was probably already searching for the one controlling the monsters. If she truly was a Sword Master, her keen senses would have already vaguely detected Charlotte’s presence.

It would be better for Charlotte to move before Erin finished off all the monsters. Besides, there was a reason she had lured them there.

‘If I use the secret passage, even Erin Liserth won’t notice.’

A secret passage connected her room to the basement. This was her last chance to take a hostage without Erin noticing.

Lost in thought, Charlotte swallowed the mana stone she held in her hand.

* * *

While Hellix and Erin faced the monsters outside the basement, Isis had returned inside. He knew he would only be a hindrance outside. After finishing his prayers, Isis began gathering evidence of the research.

Had they needed to flee immediately, it would be different, but now there was hope they could escape. Therefore, he needed to find evidence worth taking. The truth about what happened to the people here couldn’t remain buried.

As Isis searched, a medicine bottle caught his eye.