Like a man under a spell, Arsen unbuttoned Lydia’s robe. If her intention was to divert his attention, it was extremely effective.

No one was better at diverting his attention than Lydia. She seemed to know this fact well. That’s why she could manipulate him so easily.

“……”

Even so, his concern that yielding too easily might cool Lydia’s interest vanished the moment she placed her hand on his cheek.

Arsen kissed her fiercely and lifted her delicate body with a swift motion.

* * *

This was a nightmare.

Arsen remained depressed throughout his triumphant return to his territory as “Margrave Arsen Edis Bayern.” Unlike when he had first come to the capital as a retainer of the Evansi family, he felt no joy despite gaining wealth and honor.

Because Lydia wasn’t with him.

‘D*mn it.’

When he heard that the Mermaid’s Tear was the cause of this situation, Arsen felt as if he had been hit hard on the back of his head, his vision alternating between white and black in turmoil.

‘There was no other way to save Lydia.’

To save Lydia, she had to eat the holy relic. But to be separated from Lydia because of the holy relic—what kind of cruel joke of fate was this?

Suddenly, he recalled his vow that he would be content even if he couldn’t be by her side as long as she could live, but Arsen brazenly ignored it.

‘Somehow it was too easy.’

Despite knowing the layout, it had been the empress’s private vault, yet stealing from it and escaping seemed excessively easy. It was unsettling how smoothly it had gone.

Back then, he had thought the Goddess was helping him and even thanked her.

‘Was it a test? Or mockery? Does this really satisfy you?’

He had essentially delivered Lydia to the temple with his own hands. The more he thought about it, the more outrageous it seemed, and Arsen found it hard to breathe. At this rate, Lydia would never be able to escape from the temple.

Lydia had said she would open her chest to remove the Mermaid’s Tear, but that was out of the question.

Just imagining a blade touching Lydia’s body made Arsen’s blood run cold.

‘Another way, I must find another way.’

There must be a way, a way to be by Lydia’s side.

* * *

“I’m going to remove this.”

The time had come.

Looking directly at the Goddess gazing down at her, Lydia announced unilaterally.

“I can’t live as a saintess.”

Naturally, no answer came.

“But if you allow me to safely remove this, I’ll make generous donations. I’ll never miss a prayer. If you tell me to evangelize to demonic beasts, I’ll try that too.”

Just don’t make me live as a saintess.

Now that I’ve finally discovered the joy of giving and receiving love and the pleasures of the flesh, I can’t forget it all and live without it.

If you’re going to take it away, you should have never let me know it in the first place. It’s too cruel to let me know everything and then take it away.

“I believe you’re not such a cruel deity. Even if you tell me not to believe, I will, so you must take responsibility for my faith.”

Despite her bold words, Lydia suddenly feared what might go wrong after removing the holy relic. To prepare for the ‘what if,’ Lydia took out paper and began writing a letter that doubled as a will.

“Sob, Father, Sir Arsen……”

Tears fell foolishly. She felt afraid yet indignant. And thinking of faces she might never see again if she died made her sad.

So Lydia ended up collapsing on the desk, bursting into tears.

* * *

Richard’s misfortune came while he was stroking Rozena’s swollen belly.

He felt intense pain in his left leg and collapsed, and when he regained consciousness, a splint reaching up to his thigh had been applied to control the spasms in his left leg.

At the doctor’s opinion that Ludger’s disease had recurred, Richard flew into a rage and threw everything within reach.

When he came to his senses at the scream of an attendant hit by broken glass shards, Richard tightly closed his eyes at the sight of the wrecked bedroom.

“I momentarily lost my reason. This must be another symptom of the disease?”

“Your Majesty……”

He had felt similar despair and anger before, but he hadn’t lost his reason. Originally, Richard wasn’t one to get excited easily.

From his days as the neglected Third Prince, he had practiced restraint and self-control, not showing his emotions, so suppressing his feelings came as naturally as breathing.

But this time was different. It wasn’t simply anger; for a moment, like a sudden fire, his reason had snapped.

“The disease seems to be progressing rapidly, doesn’t it?”

“……Yes, it does.”

Richard knew Ludger’s disease as well as any doctor. The symptom of becoming emotional and expressing anger meant the disease was advancing to a severe stage.

“I’ll go to my office.”

“Your Majesty, you need to rest.”

“I have too much to do for that. Summon Count Bergman. No, no.”

Richard irritably removed the splint and threw it aside.

“I’ll go to the temple immediately.”

“That’s too much right now. Instead, please have the high priest or someone come to the palace.”

Viscount Guyen blocked Richard, who was trying to stand up recklessly. Even without his intervention, Richard couldn’t stand on his own, but the viscount couldn’t let the emperor fall disgracefully. Just then.

The door to the chaotic bedroom opened, and Count Bergman entered. He hesitated momentarily, surprised at the disheveled bedroom, but quickly regained his composure and bowed before Richard.

“Your Majesty.”

“That’s enough, rise. There’s glass all over the floor. I’m in this state, and I don’t need you getting injured too. What’s the matter?”

The count was clearly holding a paper with something to report, suggesting he hadn’t come out of concern.

“We’ve received word from Count Sten that there’s been friction with the Kingdom of Quecini.”

“Hasn’t there always been friction?”

“Yes, but this time it seems more serious. And it appears the Fourth Prince has defected to the Kingdom of Quecini……”

* * *

While discussing ‘surgery’ with Wellington and a priest trained in medicine, Lydia was summoned to the imperial palace. Though they called it a summons, it was essentially an abduction.

Knights from the First Knight Order, directly under the emperor, stormed into the temple without notice and forcibly searched for Lydia.

They completely ignored the high priests’ request to refrain from causing a disturbance during mourning, as well as Lydia’s plea for a moment to tidy herself, treating her almost like a criminal as they put her in a carriage.

‘After making such a fuss to bring me here, he doesn’t even show up?’

Sitting alone in the imperial reception room, Lydia pouted her lips. Only after she had finished one cup of tea and poured another, which was growing cold, did Richard enter the reception room.

“I greet the sun of the Empire……”

As Lydia stood up to pay her respects to Richard, her eyes caught the emperor’s left leg limping severely.

‘So it has finally recurred.’

It seemed he couldn’t move well up to his thigh, but Richard managed to walk to the chair and sit down. When his frost-like gaze fell on her, Lydia unconsciously gulped.

This was the imperial palace. The fact that Richard could kill her if he wanted to suddenly dawned on her.

A rational Richard wouldn’t do such a thing, but an emperor whose mind was clouded by illness certainly could.

“Lydia, what’s wrong with your eyes?”

Richard frowned at Lydia’s eyes, which were swollen like a frog’s. Lydia flinched as she answered.

“I, I slept face down, that’s why.”

In truth, it was because she cried every night, feeling sorrowful, wronged, and afraid, thinking of faces she missed—Arsen, Maria, Nella, and others.

Wellington had told Lydia, who cried daily, that if she was so scared, they shouldn’t do the surgery, but she didn’t want that either.

Anyway, Lydia had been writing her will every night while crying.

“I don’t need to explain the situation, do I?”

Richard seemed to have asked about Lydia’s eyes merely out of courtesy, as he immediately got to the point. His voice was frozen cold, making the back of her neck feel chilly.

“I need medicine, right now.”

“The medicine I gave you last time was all I had.”

“Can’t you go to that temple where you found the herb and extract more?”

“If I had any, I would have made it for you already. But that one plant was all there was.”

Richard looked like he might explode at any moment, making Lydia flinch. However, instead of getting angry, he gulped down the cold tea.

“Tell me how to obtain the medicine.”

“Do you really not know the way?”

Though her voice trembled with primal fear, she couldn’t back down now.

“The Goddess gave Your Majesty an opportunity. The choice to seize it or not was yours.”

“I reinstated the Bayern family!”

The teacup Richard was holding flew past Lydia and crashed against the wall. Having never seen Richard this violent before, Lydia tried not to but couldn’t help letting out a small scream.

A brief silence fell. Richard deeply furrowed his brow and ran his palm down his face.

“……Tell me what more I need to do.”

“You should return more than what those who were unjustly deprived deserve.”

“More than they deserve? I don’t recall that being mentioned in the previous oracle.”

“Isn’t that what compensation for damages is supposed to be?”