Dahlia’s vision blurred for a moment.

 

“You… were waiting for me.”

 

“Because you are the true owner of the Holy Grail.”

 

Miftah explained that they were barely holding the collapsing Baran Kingdom together from Mudhat’s side, but even that might not last much longer, his face full of worry.

 

At the unexpected story, Dahlia’s mind grew even more complicated. 

 

The last remaining central noble in the Baran Kingdom had been waiting for her return. She didn’t need to ask what that meant.

 

Mudhat planned to crown her as the new emperor of Baran. 

 

The descendant of Hinna, who had been trapped underground for so long, the true chosen one of the goddess, as the real owner of Baran.

 

“A dome covering the entire land is impossible, but we can build passages necessary for travel.”

 

Miftah gazed in the direction of the Misilan continent and roughly estimated the distance.

 

“If you make the decision, we will try to extend a passage all the way to the end of the Palan continent so that the 200,000 citizens of Mohron can move together.”

 

From Mohron to Baran. It was an opportunity to gain new land, perhaps even faster than building a dome covering the surface.

 

However, there were still many things that weighed on her mind, making it hard to decide immediately.

 

“Could I… have a little time to think?”

 

“Of course. Take your time and let me know.”

 

Dahlia looked at the distant land with troubled eyes. Hissin gently wrapped his hand around her cold hand. 

 

In the eyes that met hers was the clear determination to follow whatever decision she made.

 

Seeing that deep trust, Dahlia steadied her own shaken heart.

 

🌙

 

Returning to her room, Dahlia sat down with a small sigh. Bertha, who had been waiting for her return with Map, asked worriedly upon seeing her darkened expression.

 

“What happened, Your Highness?”

 

“Ah—”

 

Map, held in Bertha’s arms, also let out a long cry as if worried. Dahlia gazed at Bertha silently.

 

Because of her, Bertha had been taken to this faraway foreign country and couldn’t even see her family, let alone send letters. 

 

Although Dahlia had done everything she could and confirmed the family was safe, how could that be enough? 

 

Having been suddenly separated from them overnight, her longing for her family must be immense.

 

“Bertha.”

 

“Yes, Your Highness.”

 

“If I said we could return to Baran Kingdom… would you go?”

 

“To the Baran Kingdom?”

 

Bertha’s eyes and mouth widened at once. But she quickly suppressed the joy that had filled her face. She only bit her lip while carefully watching Dahlia’s expression.

 

“That place… is now a ruined land.”

 

“But it’s the land where your hometown and family are.”

 

Bertha’s clear eyes blinked innocently. The rolling of her eyes clearly showed how complicated her inner thoughts and mind were.

 

“Still, I won’t go if it’s not by Your Highness’s side. I can’t go alone.”

 

“What if I said I would go together?”

 

Bertha’s eyes, which had been desperately holding onto reason, trembled again.

 

“Even Your Highness…?”

 

“Yes. I’ll go together.”

 

“But… Your Highness…”

 

Dahlia could see the Hinna tribe’s tragedy that Bertha couldn’t bring herself to say out loud, circling inside her mouth. Dahlia smiled faintly, but she couldn’t help the pain in her heart that she had been forcibly ignoring, becoming even clearer.

 

Returning to the Baran Kingdom, facing her miserable past again, seeing the traces of her family who had lost everything to Khankundra without ever seeing the light, it was too painful.

 

But aside from that, there was no land more optimal than the Baran Kingdom. 

 

It was a land with a mild climate all 365 days, where clear and clean rivers flowing from the Tibara Mountains spread in all directions to create fertile soil.

 

To the people of Mohron who could not see the sun, it was an incomparably good land.

 

Her head clearly knew it was the best choice with no replacement, yet why did her heart feel so pained? Dahlia hated herself for being unable to consider the greater good of many people just because of her own past.

 

“Your Highness…”

 

Bertha quietly held her hand, perhaps noticing the sadness on her face. Dahlia tried harder to lift the corners of her mouth when a knock sounded.

 

“May I come in for a moment?”

 

At Hissin’s visit, Bertha quickly stood up and opened the door.

 

“I’ll be in Lord Hovan’s room. Please talk comfortably.”

 

Bertha bowed politely, picked up Map, and left. Once the door closed, only Hissin and Dahlia remained in the room.

 

“You were blaming yourself alone again.”

 

Hissin, who spoke softly, cupped Dahlia’s cheek. 

 

Only after he wiped her eyes with his thumb did Dahlia realize she was shedding tears.

 

The heat of the emotion she had become aware of spread everywhere in an instant and thickened heavily.

 

“If we go there, everything will be resolved…”

 

Dahlia said in a suppressed voice, closing her eyes tightly.

 

“I don’t know why my heart is so reluctant.”

 

The tears she could no longer hold back flowed down her cheeks.

 

“I’m scared…. I’m scared to return to that land again, to face my past traces again.”

 

Would it have been better if she had known nothing? 

 

Thinking that the land that had imprisoned her was actually built with the blood of her parents, family, and now the countless Mohron people by her side made her shudder in horror.

 

She had lived imprisoned under the name of family, and the thought of serving the country and its people without knowing any of that. 

 

Perhaps what she feared more than the horror of the land was facing her past self, who had known nothing.

 

“Dahlia. Look at me.”

 

Hissin carefully lifted Dahlia’s face. When she barely raised her eyelids, Hissin’s face appeared beyond her wet vision.

 

“No one will force you.”

 

Hissin gently caressed her tear-stained face. Dahlia’s brows twisted even more pitifully.

 

“But… if I endure it alone, everyone can be happy.”

 

“We have lived our entire lives underground. It means no one will suddenly become unhappy just because they can’t go up to the surface.”

 

He lowered his head and kissed her tear-filled eyes. The thick tears disappeared without trace between his lips.

 

“If you don’t want it, I don’t want it either. So you don’t have to push yourself and make a forced decision.”

 

Dahlia bit her trembling lips tightly. 

 

Feeling Hissin’s warmth made the sense of responsibility for what happened in Baran’s land weigh even more heavily on her chest.

 

Perhaps sensing that sorrowful guilt, Hissin knelt on one knee and lowered himself. Her clear eyes filled with tears looked down at him sadly.

 

“But if the reason you hesitate is because of the burden on your heart, I want to tell you that you don’t need to.”

 

Hissin carefully wiped away the newly fallen tears and said,

 

“Do you remember the founding myth of Baran Kingdom?”

 

The goddess Nuait and the five boys and girls. 

 

The sad story of how the fifth girl received the goddess Nuait’s blessing and obtained Baran’s name and imperial palace, but was ultimately devoured by the greed of the third boy.

 

How could she forget that story? 

 

The sad history of Hinna, her root and origin, was melted into it. When Dahlia slowly nodded, Hissin continued while looking into her clear, light brown eyes.

 

“The name and land of Baran originally belonged to the fifth girl.”

 

“…”

 

“The third boy, Khankundra’s ancestors, forcibly took it.”

 

Dahlia’s eyes trembled faintly. Taking in the waves of emotion surging like waves in her eyes, Hissin said,

 

“That land has been yours from the beginning, Dahlia.”

 

Therefore, the blood scattered across Baran’s land was not her fault. She had only had her land unjustly taken by the cunning ones who usurped the throne and name, and had her eyes covered so she could see nothing.

 

“You don’t need to forcibly embrace sins that are not yours.”

 

“Ah, phew…”

 

The sobs she had been holding back flowed pitifully through Dahlia’s lips. Hissin stood up and pulled her frail body into his arms.

 

“Don’t worry about anything and think only of yourself.”

 

“Hic…”

 

“What you truly want. What aspiration did you first hold in your heart?”

 

The aspiration I first held in my heart. At that moment, the day she first decided to fight against Saltar came to Dahlia’s mind.

 

The heart that wanted to protect Hissin. 

 

The heart that wanted to protect her own life from the greedy crown prince. The heart that wanted to protect the people who looked only to the imperial palace and the land they stood on.

 

Baran. The heart that wanted to protect the country she loved. 

 

All of those things came together and heatedly overturned Dahlia’s chest once more.

 

What she had found horrific was not Baran itself, but the third boy who had arbitrarily taken Baran and ruined it at will.

 

But it was then.

 

“…Dahlia.”

 

Hissin, who suddenly stiffened his expression, looked at her in his arms. After quietly listening to a sound only he could hear, he faintly smiled.

 

“Your earnest final wish seems to have just arrived.”

 

At those words, Dahlia’s eyes shook violently.

 

🌙

 

Another set of Hinna tribe remains buried in the desert was discovered. 

 

It was the last remains that the exploration team Hissin had left on the Misilan continent that the team had found after persistent tracking.

 

The remains, presumed to be an adult woman, crossed the long continent and returned to the arms of her other family in Mohron.

 

Dahlia slowly approached the remains. 

 

As she examined them with trembling eyes, she discovered something and swallowed a small breath. Covering her mouth, tears streamed down her face.

 

Only four fingers remained on each hand. Compared to the other relatively intact remains, only this one had incomplete hands.

 

Just like the mother she had seen in her dream.

 

Hissin, who followed her gaze, spoke in a heavy voice as if confessing a fault.

 

“No matter how much they searched, the remaining fingers on that body were nowhere to be found. They will keep looking, but probably…”

 

“No. There’s no need to search further.”

 

Dahlia, her face covered in tears, very carefully held the hands of the remains that had only four fingers left. 

 

A single dry blade of grass on the tip of the remains’ finger made her emotions surge even more.

 

“This person… already had hands like this before being buried there.”

 

“…Do you know who it is?”

 

“Yes. I think I do.”

 

Dahlia, shedding tears, covered the four remaining fingers of the remains.

 

“The one who gave birth to me… my mother.”

 

She knew it intuitively. 

 

That the owner of these remains was the very woman who had appeared in her dream. She couldn’t explain how it was possible, but it felt like a divine blessing beyond the understanding of the mind.

 

“…Hissin.”

 

Dahlia, who had been sobbing while looking at the remains, raised her head. 

 

Although tears continued to flow endlessly, blurring her vision, the light within them was clear.

 

“I’ve decided.”

 

Dahlia gently closed her eyes and let all the tears pooled there flow away. Then she looked at Hissin with eyes holding a distinct light.

 

“Let’s go to Baran.”

 

For the people of Mohron who had longed for the sky deep underground. For the people of Baran, waiting for the goddess’s chosen one on the remaining land.

 

And for this man who supports me, and for myself, the descendant of Hinna who must reclaim Baran’s land.

 

“Let’s go. To Baran.”

 

Dahlia resolved to face that land once again.

 

To reclaim what was hers, even now.