Countless people came and went through the Central Temple. Yet the path to the cardinal required passing through layer upon layer of watchful gates.

Behil, the emperor’s teacher, who had been pouring every effort into the Oracle, sat quietly with a faint smile at the corners of his lips.

Creak. With the soft sound of a door opening, someone slipped into the cardinal’s still chamber.

It was not the heavy, weighty presence of the knight who had been receiving the Oracle from Behil all this time. The presence that reached him was of someone far more familiar.

“You’ve come, my pupil.”

“……”

Behil murmured without turning around.

The figure who had strode forward threw back the hood pulled low over their face. No one could have guessed it. A woman with black hair spilling loose, flashing a crooked smile at her teacher. That the empire’s sovereign, the emperor herself, was standing in this place.

“Why have you graced me with such heavy footsteps?”

“Are you mocking me?”

Iberis drew a quiet breath as she looked around her teacher’s quarters, sparse to the point of being bleak. The one said to be most beloved by the gods, her teacher, remained a person she could not understand.

A man of profound warmth and yet profound coldness. He possessed a tender heart that would stake everything he had to protect his pupil, yet when that same pupil had pleaded with him to at least let her people live, he had been the one to close his eyes without mercy.

“Teacher.”

What sacrifices had he made, yet again, in order to obtain the Oracle? She had deliberately cut off her visits and kept her distance, and still she had ended up burdening her teacher once more.

Behil, who had been meeting Iberis’s quiet gaze, swept back his silver hair that seemed untouched by the passage of time and gestured to a chair.

“Sit, Iberis.”

Iberis nodded and settled herself onto the worn wooden chair without hesitation. A brief silence followed.

Behil smiled gently and blinked, as if urging her to speak, and she, unable to resist the mood, was the first to open her mouth.

“Your pupil is no fool. After choosing three, I found I could tell who the fourth would be without needing to receive the Oracle.”

“Oh? And what have you worked out?”

Iberis let out a long sigh.

“Every one of them has either helped me or shares a deep bond with me. How could I not know? Is the last person the one I have in mind?”

“Indeed. My dear pupil does not have many people she holds dear.”

Letting her twitching eyebrow do as it pleased, Iberis narrowed her eyes sharply.

“Yes. When I first heard about the Oracle, I made up my mind. Even if it had to be anyone else, I did not want to drag that one into this. And yet……”

“Regrettably, it has come to this.”

That was why it had to be her who came here in person, rather than her upright knight.

To confirm it properly. And to make her decision.

“Ha. Really.”

“Are you angry?”

“Should I be? When a way to live has opened up right before death, I ought to be nothing but grateful.”

“Your eyes say otherwise, Your Majesty.”

“Don’t tease me.”

Even without receiving the Oracle, she had now confirmed who the last person was. The one who could protect the emperor Iberis’s mind. The one she could trust most. The one she could entrust her back to, until the very last.

And a man who could hold her.

“As I thought…… It’s him.”

The emperor’s knight.

Was there anyone else like him in the world?

“Understood.”

That was confirmation enough.

Everyone knew that the emperor’s teacher was the cardinal of the Central Temple, yet Iberis had refused to set foot in the temple, even if it killed her. Even now, she had come in secret so that it would not become an official imperial visit.

So as not to burden her teacher. And so that the power of the church would not grow any stronger than it already had.

What stopped her as she rose from her seat and prepared to leave was her teacher’s quiet call.

“Iberis.”

“What is it?”

“You have done well not to give up until the end.”

“……”

“Such a thing does not suit you. Even the mightiest current of water can be redirected. All the more so when it comes to someone’s life and fate.”

“……”

“Now, go. I will always be cheering for your future, so when your heart has found its ease, you are welcome to visit this teacher again.”

Listening to the voice of her teacher, who occasionally glimpsed fragments of the future, Iberis pressed her lips firmly shut. The door closed with a sharp click.

The cardinal, who had paused his prayers for the visitor, began quietly reciting the prayer he would offer up to the gods, a gentle smile on his face.

* * *

Sirak was a composed man.

The emperor’s right hand. Her most trusted knight.

The captain of the imperial knight order, who had turned down high titles and prosperous estates and chosen instead to remain at the emperor’s side.

A knight as steadfast as he was strove to carry out his liege’s commands to the best of his ability. Which was why the present situation was anything but welcome to him. He was failing to resolve a command he absolutely had to fulfill, one on which the emperor’s very life depended.

“Hiding like a rat.”

Whether she had shot up into the sky or sunk into the earth, there was not a single trace of the Grand Witch to be found.

He was certain there was no one who would shelter that witch. Every person capable of doing so had been rooted out and their power severed, so no one bold enough to attempt such a thing should remain in the empire.

Then why had she not been caught until now? And what reason could she have had for taking her young daughter with her, even in that desperate moment?

‘That woman would never do it out of maternal love.’

She may have borne the girl herself, but the Empress Dowager had not only tormented Princess Iberis. She had raised her own daughter in near neglect as well. She had put on every show of affection with her words, but Sirak remembered just how cold those eyes had truly been.

And there was something else that nagged at him.

“Haah. Your Majesty.”

Standing alone in the empty training grounds, Sirak dragged a hand roughly across his face.

For some reason, Iberis’s declaration that she would go to the temple alone had left Sirak on edge. Why had she still not returned? With so little time left, she should have sent word at least, to pass along information about the next partner, yet there had been no message at all.

‘Could something have gone wrong?’

Or perhaps the information was scarce, as it had been when they were searching for the second man……

Sirak’s brow furrowed sharply.

“Why is Maria so quiet?”

Under normal circumstances, Maria would have been making far more of a fuss than he was. So why was she so calm?

When he had pressed her, she had given him an inscrutable look and tried to soothe him. To wait, she had said. That everything would be fine.

“How can everything be fine!”

It was Her Majesty’s very life at stake.

And so he was here, making every effort to keep his mind blank.

Crack. A chilling sound came from the hand gripping his sword’s hilt. Murderous intent rose in the gray eye that remained on one side of the knight’s face.

If he could. If he truly could.

Rather than those three men chosen by the gods, if, just if.

Sirak cut off his own thoughts and squeezed his eye shut.

“I’ve truly lost my mind.”

It was an impossible thought. One that would never be permitted. Burying the inexplicable restlessness within him, he pulled the sword he had driven into the floor of the training grounds.

Everything would be all right.

No matter how little time remained, Sirak would do anything for his liege. Even if the last partner was of the most exalted standing. He would drag the man in by force if he had to and deliver him before her.

“Your Majesty.”

As long as you can live.

If only that were possible.

And that night, the emperor, who had been away for a long stretch, slipped back into the palace in secret.

Unable to conceal the agony of the curse on her darkened face, she had bled profusely.

After a hellish stretch of time had passed, the first command Iberis gave, her face drained of color, was this.

“Enter, Sirak.”

To call in her knight, who had been pacing anxiously outside.