“They’re escaping, catch them!”

Tatiana looked down at the chaos, then glanced at Gideon. Her expression seemed to expect some evaluation.

Gideon offered his critique very briefly.

“Much better.”

Of course, even in the second version, one couldn’t sense the characteristic urgency of fleeing people. However, the expressions were much more serious and intense. Having improved the weakness, this alone was remarkable progress.

‘See? You improve when you try.’

Tatiana, having recovered her wounded pride, immediately established a new strategy. She decided to launch a quantity offensive.

If illusions ran wild in all directions—north, south, east, and west—the soldiers wouldn’t be able to maintain their formation.

One pair, two pairs, three pairs……

Gideon watched with interest as the number of his and Tatiana’s replicas grew. He was inadvertently experiencing how magic was all about application.

However, when mass-producing, there’s always at least one defective product that deviates from specifications. There was one here too. Though calling it defective might be too harsh considering how adorably cute it was.

Gideon observed the teenage versions of Tatiana and himself.

“Oh my.”

Since this was a completely unintended result, Tatiana let out a sigh. Then she gradually frowned. Quite vexingly, even the childhood illusion looked exactly like the real thing.

Tatiana, half the height of an adult, was stirring through the soldiers…… with a runny nose. The reflection of reality was excessive.

“I’ve been thinking lately, I might have suffered from rhinitis around that age.”

Gideon snorted as if that was absurd. She was just a bit of a crybaby when young, why suddenly mention rhinitis? As far as he knew, there was no such thing.

He looked at his young wife again.

While the soldiers eagerly chased other illusions, they left little Tatiana alone. They seemed to think she wasn’t part of it. When a bright-eyed child appeared amid the grim atmosphere, they didn’t seem to know what to do. They felt a strange guilt about pointing swords at her.

Seeing this, Gideon struggled to contain his laughter and suddenly became curious about something.

“Titi, does illusion magic possibly……”

“Possibly what?”

“Is it related to the caster’s emotional state?”

“……”

The illusions were wearing expressions much more appropriate to the situation than the first version, but they weren’t gloomy. If anything, they conveyed a sense of solemnity.

Tatiana flinched and pretended not to hear Gideon’s question. It hit too close to home. In fact, it wasn’t just related—it was the caster’s state of mind itself.

Tatiana had known about this connection since she was very young. Everyone living in the Bloom mansion knew. After her mother had a marital fight with her father, something would always happen in the house the next day. The most common incident was fire. Perhaps that was how her mother expressed the burning rage inside.

As a result, Sir Bloom never spoke a word to his wife even when he found something disagreeable in life. If the house burned down completely, they would have nowhere to sleep.

Tatiana couldn’t bring herself to explain all this, so she feigned ignorance, but it was enough for Gideon to guess the answer.

Magic that could gauge his wife’s mood. It seemed like he’d learned a very useful tip.

Having gained this unexpected harvest, he smiled broadly and extended his hand to Tatiana.

“Let’s go now.”

Tatiana hesitated, still attached to perfecting her illusions. But Gideon thought they had truly done enough.

“How many more are you going to make? At this rate, we’ll have an entire army of us.”

Tatiana silently took his hand at those words. Even the most brilliant mage would never wake up again after creating that many. This wasn’t something to be stubborn about.

The two walked side by side on the feed storage building roof and stopped at the edge of the eaves.

Before crossing to the opposite building, he asked Tatiana just in case. The distance between buildings wasn’t particularly close.

“Shall I carry you?”

“……”

Tatiana answered with an indifferent face, and Gideon shrugged as if to say do as you please. He would have preferred to carry her directly, but his wife seemed to need no such consideration. Since that was true, he took the lead and leaped across the void.

Tatiana immediately followed. However, though she would normally have crossed this distance easily, she frowned as her feet touched the building’s roof.

Gideon sensed something was wrong and shouted,

“Too short!”

It’s unclear whether his shout came first or his grabbing of her faltering arm.

Having barely caught Tatiana who nearly fell to the ground, Gideon pressed firmly on his heart area and sighed deeply. Though he hadn’t batted an eyelid at whatever chaos erupted in the castle, he felt his lifespan had just decreased because of her.

Yet after giving him such a fright, Tatiana fixated on a strange detail.

“What do you mean ‘too short’?”

“……Huh?”

“Surely not my legs?”

Tatiana shook her head, saying that couldn’t be it. It must have been a slip of the tongue in his urgency. She was absolutely…… not short.

Gideon looked at her incredulously but promptly corrected his words.

“I meant your running start was a bit short.”

“Right? I almost misunderstood. And my running start was absolutely not short.”

As if she would make such a novice mistake. After using magic, a sudden wave of dizziness threw her off balance.

Even without his help, she would have found a way to regain her footing. Her pride wouldn’t allow otherwise—she would have grabbed the edge of the eaves and forced her way up.

However, Gideon took the opportunity to properly lift her into his arms. This felt much more stable to him.

Tatiana, whose dizziness wouldn’t subside, entrusted herself to him without complaint, and Gideon leaped between buildings without any difficulty despite carrying her.

The two stopped once more on the final rooftop.

At the end of their gaze was a modest-sized door. It was one of countless passages between the inner and outer castle, but security wasn’t strict. This was mainly because it was used by stable boys and was far from the prince’s palace where assassins were running rampant.

Only a few guards stood watch in front.

Gideon stared at them for a moment, then took out thin, sharp metal needles from his pocket. They were similar to what Kay used.

Before Tatiana could ask anything, he threw the needles in succession. She recognized exactly which points he was targeting. The sleep acupuncture points.

Tatiana had seen Kay use the same technique on the King’s guards. Not only that, she had experienced something similar herself. During a previous marital argument, Gideon had unexpectedly put her to sleep.

She had been too dumbfounded to question him then, but now she realized her husband had acquired various strange skills while leading assassins.

But what happens when a prince is too good at this? Wouldn’t that make assassins unnecessary?

Tatiana whispered while looking at the guards who had instantly collapsed,

“Teach me that later too.”

Gideon shrugged, and they soon safely landed on the ground after climbing down the wall. And just as Tatiana was about to search for keys at the waists of the sleeping guards,

Sensing a presence, she immediately drew her sword and took a defensive stance. Then she froze with her eyes wide open. Someone who shouldn’t be here had appeared.

It was Prince Vaikal.

‘How……’

Tatiana recalled that he too was a mage, albeit with minimal magical power.

Vaikal had observed the illusion magic Tatiana had cast and estimated the source of the magical power and their movement route. It was remarkable that he had tracked them here alone with just that limited information.

However, Tatiana was no longer in a position to applaud her student.

Her expression hardened, and tension swirled in her eyes.

In truth, this fight was very simple. If they eliminated Vaikal here, they could easily put an end to everything.

What did Gideon want to do with his brother? If Vaikal needed to be eliminated, if such a situation truly arose, who would carry out that task?

Perhaps it wouldn’t be Gideon but Tatiana. Although it might not sit well with her personally, becoming the king’s sword originally meant exactly that.

But had he thought the same thing? Vaikal stared at his half-brother for a moment, then suddenly began to chant a spell.

“Fire, blaze forth. My magic shall always fulfill its duty……”

Those were the activation words Vaikal used when summoning flames. But how much effort had he put in? The spark forming in his hand was drastically different from before.

It used to fizzle out without even burning a single log, but now its size looked ominous at a glance.

Tatiana belatedly came to her senses and embraced Gideon. She wanted them to dodge together. However, the direction the flame flew subtly missed them. She hadn’t noticed this beforehand, probably because she was too flustered at the moment.

Gideon gently pressed down on her shoulders as if to reassure her. And the fireball passed right by them, flying toward the exit door.

The flames were melting the door’s lock. Of course, once wasn’t enough. Vaikal, looking like he might collapse at any moment, chanted the spell again.

“My magic shall always fulfill its duty. I shall always blaze where I wish. I shall become light and warmth.”

Tatiana looked at Vaikal with complex emotions.

She finally understood why Vaikal had followed them here. She also understood why he had stepped forward to remove that door for them.

Vaikal wanted to convey his intentions this way. That he didn’t want to fight. Not before, not now, and not in the future.