Lilien had returned to Ezer.

“Haa… Haa… Y-Your Majesty…”

She collapsed at Tia’s feet, clutching her neck wound with a torn piece of cloth.

“I’m sorry.”

“Was there something to apologize for?”

Tia spoke quietly as she looked down at her.

“So you failed.”

“Yes.”

“What happened?”

At Tia’s question, Lilien recounted everything that had transpired. After listening to it all, Tia nodded.

“I see.”

Her response was as calm and dry as could be.

“Your Majesty, it was the Demon King’s trap. He’s trying to divide Ezer.”

“Let’s treat you first.”

Tia extended her hand toward Lilien.

“Sanatio.”

Whoosh!

The light that burst from Tia’s palm flowed into Lilien.

She felt the pain subside in an instant and reflexively pulled her hand away from her neck. Her wounds were already completely healed.

Overwhelming healing power.

As Lilien swallowed hard and looked up, Tia spoke again.

“Lilien, the Demon King… didn’t appear at the scene?”

“What? Oh—no, only a man named Cardin was there.”

“I see.”

Tia lowered her gaze slightly.

“It’s a shame he didn’t show himself… but still, things went just as I hoped.”

“Sorry… what do you mean?”

“There’s no need for the Demon King to make an enemy of all humanity. It’s better for him to focus entirely on confronting Holy Krata.”

“You’re saying you expected this?”

“Not quite expected… more like hoped for it.”

Tia’s words were beyond anything Lilien could have imagined.

“The Demon King was once a Hero. Someone who saved people.”

His duty had always been to protect and preserve life, not to take it.

“Even if it’s part of a scheme, doing something that awakens old habits will confuse him. Slowly, he’ll begin to blend in again…”

Tia met Lilien’s eyes directly.

“Into the person he used to be.”

“!”

Lilien’s eyes widened in shock, and Tia continued, as though making a solemn declaration.

“I don’t intend to let Clay remain the Demon King, Lilien.”

“W-What are you saying…?”

“Clay has to return to where he belongs. There’s no other way.”

A sense of loss.

That crushing realization one only comes to after losing someone.

But for Tia, there was something even stronger than that.

“Even after Yuru left, I kept denying my feelings. I told myself that Clay had done something unforgivable, that he was no longer part of my life. But I was wrong.”

She had tried to preserve what remained by giving him up—but everything fell apart in an instant. It was all so empty.

“Back then, I thought sacrificing one thing would protect everything else. I didn’t realize it was the opposite.”

Even after losing Clay, she’d fought desperately to avoid acknowledging the truth, but in the hollow stretch of time that followed, she had to endure a pain that crushed her heart.

“Clay was everything to me, Lilien.”

She had always been someone who struggled to get along with others. Clay had always stayed by her side.

As a member of the royal family in a small nation with a laughable claim to the title of Empire, she’d fought to survive through sheer political will. She’d had to suppress every emotion just to endure.

And then came Clay—one of the palace’s lowly servants.

He was just a few years older than her, the difference in status vast. But whenever he encountered her, alone and withdrawn, he would smile and bow.

One day, she’d struck up a conversation out of curiosity—and that had been the beginning.

Clay always shone with brightness. Even someone like her, who wore only somber expressions, had found herself smiling around him.

He was like sunlight.

Everything he touched came to life. She had known he was worthy of being a Hero. When he fulfilled that potential, she had felt proud.

So when he was accused of being a pawn of the Demon King, she had been terrified. She had tried desperately to save him.

All the evidence pointed to him, so her first goal was simply to reduce his sentence. If she could just keep him alive, there might be something she could do later.

But then came the variable.

“He betrayed me.”

It was Elhaen’s voice.

“He must be executed.”

The god had demanded his death.

“My will cannot fully reach that place.”

“Before he uses my power to destroy the world, crush him.”

Even before Tia received the power of the Saintess, Elhaen’s mark had appeared in her room. When she touched it, the voice she heard spelled nothing but ruin.

A revelation.

Unable to directly intervene, Elhaen had reached out to a fellow deity still in hiding to avoid detection.

But it wasn’t a plea for help—it was blackmail. A threat: If you don’t stop him, the world will end.

“I’ve seen it all.”

“You must protect your world.”

Her choices were severely limited. And still, they were brutally difficult. She had to make decisions not as a human—but as something above.

“Lilien, there are things I can’t explain to you.”

Tia stepped closer and bent down in front of her.

“But you’re the sword I chose. So even if it’s too much, all I can ask is that you follow my command.”

“Y-Your Majesty…”

“I need to live as a human, Lilien.”

She couldn’t endure the pain of losing someone precious again.

“Clay hasn’t completely turned his back on me yet—not enough to truly kill me. I’m going to hold onto him, no matter what.”

“Your Majesty!”

“Clay must know how I feel, at least a little. He’ll try to use me, I’m sure. But I don’t care. The more he tries to use me, the deeper he’ll get tied to me again.”

“He’s already become a disaster!”

“Yes, perhaps he has. Ignoring death and coming back to life the way he did—it’s a distortion that outright mocks causality. Maybe I’m being deceived.”

“Then…”

“Even so.”

Tia’s eyes lost focus as she stared toward Lilien.

“I still have to try—this time.”

A deep anxiety—that if she let it go any longer, she might truly never be able to do anything. Lilien sensed that fear in Tia and swallowed hard.

“...Your Majesty, why are you trying to burden me with this trial?”

“Because I already know, Lilien.”

Tia placed a hand on Lilien’s shoulder.

“I know why you ran.”

“!”

“I know what Clay once taught you.”

His will still lingered in many places. Whatever his intentions had been, only one thing mattered to Tia.

“Become my comrade.”

That was all she wanted from her.

“You’re meant to follow the Black Master, aren’t you?”

“I-I…”

Lilien’s lips trembled.

A sword did not question its master’s intent.

A master wasn’t meant to explain those intentions to a sword.

But he had.

Not because he wanted a true comrade,

But because—

‘He wanted an accomplice.’

“……”

Lilien’s face turned pale. A mere sword had no right to choose.

“I…”

Just as she was about to somehow speak up—

“How interesting.”

The door to the room creaked open, and a familiar voice flowed in.

“Thinking of joining this disgusting little game, are we?”

A blue-haired woman stepped over the fallen soldiers and into the room.

It was none other than Yuru.

♧

Lately, the things Yuru had done could only be described as violent and savage.

She attacked both Marfane and Yaphenon, effectively declaring war on the Holy Alliance. In the process, she killed a Guardian Knight—an act so far beyond the role of Blue Tower Master that her title was all but meaningless now.

She had become a notorious grand mage across the continent.

“I even stopped by the Tower, but turns out no one’s expelled me just yet. Was that your doing? Did you tell them to think it through?”

Yuru twirled the hat on her head and giggled.

Lilien turned ghostly pale the moment she saw her.

“Y-Yuru!”

“Yeah, Lilien. Good to see you.”

Yuru walked forward and stopped not far from them.

“Didn’t hear much. The barrier on this room kept things quiet—had to get up close. But I heard you asking Lilien to become a comrade, saying she learned something from Clay. Can I assume it’s what I think it is?”

“Sh-Shut up!”

Lilien shot to her feet.

“Her Majesty would never stoop to your level—!”

“She would.”

Tia interrupted her.

“Yes, something like that.”

“Y-Your Majesty…”

“It’s fine, Lilien. You don’t need to defend me. It’s the truth, after all.”

Tia stepped past Lilien and walked directly to Yuru.

“It’s been a while, Yuru.”

“Mm.”

Yuru curled her lips into a smirk.

“They said you became a Saintess, so I came to see if there was anything worth stealing.”

“Is that so?”

“If I’d known you’d changed your mind, I would’ve come sooner. Then maybe we could’ve worked together faster.”

“……”

“What? Don’t tell me you still don’t want to cooperate.”

Yuru let out a sigh.

“With how wishy-washy you are, I bet you don’t even want to dirty your hands. But that power of yours? Just hand it over.”

“Did you come here just to spew nonsense?”

“What? Worried you won’t be able to stop me from taking it?”

Boom!

As Yuru spread her hand, the air around her surged as if pulled by gravity.

“Sorry to say, but thanks to your interference, I’ve awakened to even greater power. I can now approach divine power like it’s just more mana.”

Yuru’s eyes glowed blue.

Tia’s hair shimmered gold in response.

“Even if you resist, I could still forcefully rip your divine power from you. As long as I can locate its source.”

“You talk as if it’ll be easy to find.”

“Usually, ripping out the heart does the trick.”

Tia was slowly pulled forward by the gravitational force Yuru had conjured.

“If you don’t want to be shattered, cooperate quietly. Then maybe I won’t have to kill you to take your power.”

“Hah…”

Tia let out a deep sigh.

“You’re terribly mistaken.”

“Huh?”

“Origin, is it?”

Tia looked calmly at the woman who had grown more arrogant since rising to her current station.

“The highest rank a mage can attain.”

“Why ask when you already know?”

“Because—”

Tia extended her hand.

“That’s a rank meant only for ‘humans,’ isn’t it?”

Crack!

The gravitational field splintered.

“You and I are not on the same level.”

Tia’s hair scattered like solar flame.

“I don’t know why, but that’s not what’s important.”

What mattered was—

“You, who’ve never properly borne anything, have nothing you deserve to possess.”

Clench!

Tia’s hand closed into a fist, as if seizing something.

(End of Chapter)

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