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“Are you awake?”
Ivy opened her eyes upon hearing the voice. She was startled to see Dismas looking down at her, but she soon wrapped her arms around her head due to a terrible headache. Ivy had a feeling that she saw something important in her dream, but she couldn’t remember anything now that she was awake.
Dismas held out a glass of water in front of Ivy when she quietly groaned.
Ivy hesitated for a moment, but took the glass to her mouth. Upon glancing around at her surroundings, Ivy saw walls made of red granite and countless symbols representing the emperor built outside the window.
There was only one place like this throughout the entire empire. It was Cabragh, the capital city of the West. To be exact, Ivy was in the Red Citadel, the base of the Order of Surtr.
“I know that you’re worried. But you are safe here, Saintess. I promise you that there is nothing to worry about,” Dismas said.
Ivy bit her lips.
“Am I a hostage?”
“Hostage? No way. How could I dare to treat the Saintess as a hostage? All I did was rescue you. I apologize for taking advantage of your good intentions in the process of doing so. I will ask for forgiveness by getting myself whipped a hundred times.”
Ivy looked slightly fed up. She had seen a knight of the Order of Surtr getting whipped as a piacular rite before. They borrowed the hand of a fellow knight, since punishing themselves on their own could weaken the intensity of the whipping. She recalled not being able to watch the piacular rite until the end due to its violent nature.
“Um, no. You really don’t have to
”
Ivy wasn’t cold-hearted enough to openly say ‘Yes. Go ahead and whip your back until you become drenched in blood.’
On the other hand, Dismas opened his eyes wide at Ivy’s words and soon nodded.
“Thank you, Saintess. It seems like you are slowly turning back to normal after you’ve escaped the evil spell of the fake emperor. I appreciate you for your understanding that I was moving for a greater purpose.”
Only then did Ivy realize that Dismas had misunderstood her words. Ivy frowned and opened her mouth again.
“I’m not saying that I forgive you. I’m just saying that your habit of trying to be easily forgiven using pain is inappropriate. You are just trying to be forgiven quickly and comfortably by choosing to endure simple pain.”
Dismas slightly opened his mouth and looked at Ivy with trembling eyes. After remaining silent for a while, Dismas lowered his head.
“...That is something I need to think deeply about. But I appreciate you for your considerate advice.”
Ivy wondered if she had made a mistake. She could have bought Dismas’ trust by lying and telling him that she agreed with him. But she had a feeling that she ended up making him even more wary by saying unnecessary words.
“Are you planning to lock me up in here?” Ivy asked.
“No. I have ordered the knights to honor the Saintess and treat you the same as His Holiness. You can freely access any location, but please understand that it is limited to the inside of Cabragh. It is for the sake of your own safety, since we are at war right now. Also, one of the knights will always be with you to guarantee your safety.”
In other words, Dismas was telling her that he will always have a watchman to keep his eyes on her. Yet, Ivy was surprised to see Dismas offer her more freedom than she had expected; she thought that she would be locked inside this fortress until His Majesty or Lenly came to rescue her.
“You seem to be quite surprised. As I already said, you were only deceived by the fake emperor. I was shocked at first, but now I understand after meeting him in person. He looks remarkably like His Majesty, doesn’t he? No wonder you fell for his tricks. After all, my sister Nienna and the majority of the empire also fell for it. False prophets always tend to appear with applause.”
“He’s never been applauded,” Ivy answered in a cold voice.
Dismas looked back at Ivy. Ivy couldn’t figure out why she was standing up for the fake emperor. She was in a dangerous situation where her neck could be cut off at any moment if she was not careful with what she said.
However, due to being someone who had already heard a lot about Juan through Sina, Ivy couldn’t help but stand up for Juan.
“His Majesty has returned after being sold to a slave merchant to roll around in blood, dust, and mud in the Colosseum. No one applauded him until he set his foot in Torra. He had to prove to everyone that he was the true emperor, all the way until the end.”
Dismas looked at Ivy without saying a word.
“It seems like his grip over you is much stronger than I had expected, Saintess.”
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Ivy realized that even the little freedom she had been allowed was now gone due to her words just now. She could have found a better chance of escape, but her chance quickly disappeared as soon as she opened her mouth to say a few words in the emperor’s defense.
“I think we’ll have to talk about this for a while until we reach an agreement. I’m preparing for a showdown with the fake emperor in Cabragh anyway. Before this, I was nothing but His Majesty’s sword that was being used to destroy evil, but I promise to do my best to save you from the fake emperor’s evil tricks.”
***
The hammer narrowly brushed past Sina’s nose.
Even though her face was on the verge of being flattened by the hammer, Sina didn’t even seem to perceive this situation as dangerous. This was only because she had purposely dodged it by a narrow margin.
In fact, the knight from the Order of Surtr who was swinging his hammer in front of Sina’s eyes couldn’t even leave a scratch on her—his hammer was just too slow for Sina, and he couldn’t hurt her even after getting two more knights to help him.
“Are you ever going to do anything other than dodging!?” the knight from the Order of Surtr shouted angrily.
Of course, Sina didn’t intend to do anything. She was just patiently waiting for the right moment to draw the picture she wanted.
Upon coming to the conclusion that Sina was an opponent stronger than the three of them combined, the knights from the Order of Surtr acted quickly.
Right as one of them charged forward while risking his life, the other two quickly fell back. Their night raid had already failed and retreat could no longer be delayed further just because of Sina.
And this was the moment when the picture that Sina had been waiting for was finally completed. The moment she stamped her foot down, an ice spear soared from the ground and penetrated through the abdomen of the knight charging toward her.
The knight who was charging toward Sina struggled in the air, then soon drooped down helplessly. Then, the long ice spear grew and extended toward the heart of another knight from the Order of Surtr.
Meanwhile, the last knight was cursing at Sina from atop his horse.
Seeing this, Sina stared at the knight for a brief moment, and raised her empty left hand in the air. Instantly, seven ice spears popped out and pierced through the knight’s neck, lungs, heart, and other vital organs. The knight finally fell off of his horse, unable to even let out a scream.
The battle was still ongoing in the dark, but there would be no more tricky opponents once the knights from the Order of Surtr were overpowered. The fact that the sounds were dying down alone showed that the battle was already in its final stages.
At that moment, Sina heard the sound of horses approaching her.
It was Pavan.
He had been observing Sina ever since the night raid began.
“You’re already pretty good at handling it. Connecting three different forms of attacks in a row, huh? You are a bit slower than when you practiced, but I’m sure you’ll improve quickly considering your learning speed.”
“I’m not doing this for compliments,” Sina answered coldly.
But she also realized that she had become much stronger than before. Her mana heart wasn’t fully trained yet, but she wouldn't have to worry about shortage of mana in a battle like this as long as she had the essence of the emperor.
When Pavan trained with Sina, he also trained her on how to use the Baltic Sword using Oberon as well. Its effects were beyond imagination. It was only natural that Sina wasn’t as good as Nienna, but even so, she could now be considered to be a huge threat to the enemy.
Sina was proud of her improvement, but it was hard for her to erase the thought that her achievements were not entirely thanks to her own abilities.
She decided to change the subject; she didn’t wish to talk about her improving skills anymore.
“By the way, everything went according to your plan. I can’t believe that you anticipated all their moves. They really did conduct a night raid to attack the supply forces tonight.”
“It was only natural for them to do so if they had a brain. As soon as they started abandoning their fortresses, only leaving the bare minimum number of troops behind, I knew that the enemy would try to destroy our supply line. They probably thought that this would accelerate our advance.”
However, at that moment, Pavan raised the corners of his mouth and shook his head.
“Heh. I am just kidding
 it’s nothing more than a bluff. It wasn’t me who anticipated the enemy’s next move, but His Majesty. I don’t know if His Majesty had the same thoughts in mind, but he asked me to keep an eye on the rear supply unit today. Perhaps he sensed something before any one of us.”
“...I see.”
“His Majesty’s abilities never fail to amaze me every time I see them. But we can’t always count on him and expect him to do everything for us.”
‘And now we are back to this story again.’
Pavan looked at Sina. It was almost as if he was hinting something to her, but Sina just turned her head away. Pavan was suggesting that they had to kill Dismas with their own hands in case of an emergency, since they couldn’t always rely on the emperor.
“I already know. You don’t have to keep telling me that,” Sina said.
“Cabragh will be just around the corner by tomorrow. Dismas is not going to give up on defending it, so this is going to be a siege war. He has concentrated all his elite soldiers in Cabragh—which means that the fortress attacks that we have done so far will be considered nothing but a joke compared to what we are about to face tomorrow.”
Pavan drove his horse closer to Sina.
“His Majesty will not be able to fully concentrate on Dismas. While we might see more Cainheryars, there’s also the Pope. Oh, and don’t forget about the existence of Telgramm. One thing that is clear is that it might be a difficult battle for His Majesty to handle on his own.”
“Oh my goodness
 I know! I already know all this. How many times do I have to tell you?” Sina answered irritably.
“I’m glad that you know.”
Pavan smiled and slowly drove his horse away from Sina.
“I don’t wish for you to hate me any more than you already do, so I’ll go on and track down the remnants. Dame Sina, I wish you the best of luck.”
Sina glared at Pavan as he disappeared beyond the darkness.
***
“That’s the plan, Your Majesty.”
Juan looked at Pavan with a dumbfounded expression.
“Dame Sina can be considered to be capable enough to kill Dismas. It’s actually more than enough. Your Majesty would also have thought the same if you looked at her skills and combat capabilities while handling Oberon—although she seems to underestimate herself.”
“This is quite confusing, Pavan. Isn’t this supposed to be something you planned behind my back? Why are you telling me this?”
“Because there’s no way that I can deceive you, Your Majesty.”
Juan sighed and shook his head. Pavan’s words were true. Juan already knew quite early on that Nienna had given Oberon to Sina and that Sina was training with it. He also knew that Pavan was helping her do so.
“What’s the point of letting me know after you’ve already done it?” Juan asked.
“It is to motivate Dame Sina. She wants to simply be someone who observes Your Majesty, but she also wants to be of help. Who would want to kill Your Majesty’s child? No matter how much Dismas deserves to die, he is still Your Majesty’s son. Who knows whether or not Your Majesty would later punish the person that kills Dismas? In that sense, this is the most perfect duty for Dame Sina.”
“Perfect, huh?”
“Perhaps she might think that it is only fair for her to kill Your Majesty’s child, since Your Majesty annihilated the Order of the Blue Rose,” Pavan added.
“Do you realize that Hela’s irritating and unpleasant tone has rubbed off on you? Even Hela couldn’t be forgiven if she talked to me like that. And you’re not even Hela, are you?”
Juan grabbed Pavan by the face.
Pavan was feeling extreme pain from Juan’s hand grabbing his cheeks.
However, Juan soon sighed and let go of Pavan’s face.
“I guess I shouldn’t pull out the commander’s teeth with the battle just around the corner. You should be sleeping and eating well. Don’t think about playing dirty tricks, and just lead the battle well, will you? Don’t worry about Dismas anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
Juan glared at Pavan with displeased eyes.
Pavan swallowed a gulp upon facing Juan’s eyes that were rife with murderous intent, but he managed to barely stand without collapsing to the floor.
“I will be the one to kill Dismas. It’s a shame that your work will go to a waste, but Sina won’t have the chance to play an active role. This is the answer that you wished to hear, isn’t it? That I’ll hurry up and kill Dismas without any hesitation to keep Sina out of danger?”
Pavan bowed his head instead of answering.
Juan looked at Pavan for a while and chewed his words.
“You really want to kill Dismas that badly, huh. Are you trying to manipulate me at the cost of your own life? Do you have a life to spare or something?”
“The weak have their own ways. No matter how disciplined I am, I’ll never even be able to reach even the feet of Your Majesty’s children. So what else can I do?”