The light began to shift, deepening to a blue-violet.

It was the same color as the light Ella had seen in the secret passage before coming here.

The light slowly began to seep into Ella’s body.

Starting from the veins on the tops of her feet, the blue-violet lines spreading slowly upward looked almost like the stems of a plant.

When it finally reached the crown of Ella’s head, her pale blue eyes shifted to blue-violet for a brief moment.

The horrible sensation made Ella’s lips part on their own.

The hand gripping Meivia went white with force. At the same moment, something surged from the pit of her stomach.

“Ugh!”

“Ella!”

Since the procedure had ended, Meivia didn’t stop Haven as he reached forward.

In the arms of the man who rushed to her, Ella lost consciousness entirely.

“She’ll be fine. She’ll come around in thirty minutes, so don’t worry.”

“……Will she collapse like this every time?”

Haven asked, looking at Ella’s pale face. His hand was wiping the blood smeared around her mouth.

“It will vary, but most times it will be similar. I’ll prepare a potion for her, but she’ll need to come out once every twenty days to have the spell recalibrated, just like today.”

“……”

“But this is only a temporary measure. For someone with mana this strong, it’s difficult to predict when or where the blocked mana channel might break open again.”

“……I need to come back as soon as possible.”

“I’ll ask while I have the chance.”

Meivia couldn’t hold back any longer and spoke up.

“The two of you, did you by any chance spend a night together?”

The sudden question made Haven’s hand pause.

“……Why do you ask?”

“Because of the cause behind the symptoms I’m about to explain to you.”

Haven lifted his head immediately.

Meivia met his eyes and spoke in a serious tone.

“Your mother’s tribal family. They were the Wolf Clan.”

Haven sat quietly and listened, Ella held in his arms.

“It is said that the only surviving daughter of the clan chief, after the rest were slaughtered by the Haizen royal family, was the youngest. She’s your mother’s great-great-grandmother. As I mentioned before, this tends to pass through the maternal line in most cases. She later married the eldest son of the Kuran Ducal family, and daughters were born across three generations. The one born in the last generation is your mother.”

“……”

“That is the background of how your mother came to the Kar Kingdom as a lady. And then you were born.”

Meivia picked up the stack of documents she had organized on the workroom desk. Materials gathered through painstaking travel across the Haizen Kingdom using movement magic.

She spread several sheets of parchment before Haven. Most were filled with illustrations of wolves and descriptions of their traits.

Haven looked down and scanned them.

“Did you know that wolves share life and death with their lifelong mate?”

“Is that so.”

“Yes. That is said to be the trait of the Wolf Clan as it has come down through legend.”

Meivia pointed to certain passages with her finger as she continued.

“They become imprinted on the one to whom they give their virginity. In other words, the traits of the Wolf Clan begin to manifest through the person they spend their first night with. Red eyes, senses sharpened to something close to a beast’s, and particularly heightened smell. Eyesight as well.”

These were the same symptoms Haven had experienced. All of them changes that had come after the night he spent with Ella.

“After spending two more nights with that person, a complete awakening as a Wolf Clan member occurs. Following that, once the mate bond ritual joins their souls, the power spoken of in legend…… that is, the ancient power, becomes accessible. Such a being beyond human is called an Ulrika.”

“Ulrika?”

“Yes. From what I found, there was said to be only one Wolf Clan Ulrika in all of legend. It is said that if he had been alive, he would have possessed power great enough to unite the seven kingdoms and more.”

“……”

“To begin with, the traits of beast clan members like this have been gone for hundreds of years. They are all considered to exist only in legend. But based on your symptoms, it seems the legendary Wolf Clan Ulrika is indeed what you are.”

Even Meivia had been uncertain about this while researching.

But looking at Ella in his arms, she felt certain.

“……Showing blind devotion and loyalty to one’s mate is also said to be a trait of the Wolf Clan.”

“Is that…… true?”

“From what I found, yes.”

“……”

Haven seemed more shaken by this last piece of information than everything that came before.

“My…… feelings…… are just one of the traits? Is that what I’m understanding?”

“If you’re asking about the traits passed down through legend, yes.”

“……”

“It is understood to be one of those traits.”

Haven’s gaze moved back to Ella.

This feeling……

This tender, aching sense of fulfillment, was not something born of his own will.

This genuine feeling, the person who had become more precious to him than anything before, who made him want to live again…… this feeling……

“……Is a trait of the Wolf Clan……”

Haven murmured with a blank expression.

Even through the confusion in his mind, his heart was responding to Ella with wild intensity.

The sweet scent of her skin drifting to his nose settled even the turbulent senses like a sedative.

Everything matched what Meivia had said, but Haven didn’t want to accept it.

‘This feeling…… this heart is entirely my own will.’

Only after arriving at what amounted to self-justification could he reclaim his reason.

“I need to rejoin the main force soon. You know that well enough.”

“Yes, I’ll follow shortly as well.”

“No, you stay here.”

“Pardon?”

Meivia, his dedicated mage, looked surprised.

She had spent a full year preparing the magical tools for the coming battle with the Haizen Kingdom, so the bewilderment was even greater.

“Stay and help Ella.”

“Don’t worry about that, I have movement magic, so I can come by occasionally to……”

“No, go into the palace with her, Meivia.”

The palace, so suddenly……

Meivia’s face went close to the color of ash.

“Haven!”

“I’m asking you. I think it’s the only way I can focus on the battle even a little.”

Haven looked at Ella’s face as though transfixed and gently touched her cheek.

His touch was careful, as though she might break.

“If you’re with her, I’ll have opportunities to come see her from time to time. It seems better in every way.”

“This isn’t a request, it’s……”

Haven gave a faint, weary laugh.

“Right. It’s an order, Meivia.”

***

Ella’s consciousness returned an hour later, when they arrived at the ruined chapel.

She let out a m*an, feeling warmth in the comfortable embrace around her.

“Mmm……”

“You’re awake?”

At the gentle voice, Ella’s brows fluttered and rose.

Two gazes met at close range. His eyes curved reflexively.

“I was worried you wouldn’t wake up.”

“……Haven?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

Haven’s face lit up like moonlight, as though hearing his name from her lips was a gift.

His lips touched her forehead briefly and lifted.

Only then realizing she was suspended in the air, Ella began to squirm.

“Put me down.”

But Haven’s arms didn’t loosen. Instead, he tightened them and held her closer.

“You’ll still be dizzy. Stay like this.”

“I’m fine, Haven.”

“I don’t want to let go. So just a little longer like this.”

His tone was almost pleading. His downcast eyes were full of earnestness.

Rather than saying it again, Ella chose to simply let herself rest in his arms.

A ticklish feeling made her look away first.

“But where is this……”

A dark blue air lay faintly over an unfamiliar landscape.

Confirming she still had time to spare, she relaxed and looked back at Haven.

His eyes brightened as though glad her gaze had returned to him.

“We’re on the way to the ruined chapel you mentioned. You need to get back to the palace.”

“……You found it from hearing about it just once?”

Had she described it in that much detail? Or had he already known the way?

But this was a place even the Empire’s citizens barely knew about. That was precisely why the ruined chapel had been left abandoned for so long.

Ella felt a brief flicker of doubt, but let it go. What mattered right now wasn’t that.

Instead, she decided to ask something that had been nagging at her.

Ella stared directly at his violet eyes.

“I didn’t have the chance to ask earlier…… about your eyes.”

His steps stopped abruptly.

The sound of him swallowing was audible enough to reach her clearly.

“Why…… Ella?”

“Does it hurt when they turn red?”

“……Pardon?”

“I thought that might be why you went to see Meivia.”

“Ah…… haha.”

Haven laughed hollowly, as though her words had caught him off guard.

She looked up at him with an expression that said she didn’t understand.

Haven’s smile deepened.

“You really are unpredictable.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t you know the story about red eyes?”

“The story about red eyes?”

“Everyone avoids them as a symbol of ill omen. Cursed eyes, they say…… full of the evil god’s energy.”