“Ah…!”

 

Dahlia’s body, stunned by the shock, was lifted high into the air in an instant. 

 

Hissin had picked her up and stood. 

 

The diamond headpiece she had been wearing on her head fell to the ground, buried in the sand stained with blood.

 

“Let me go! Let go of this!”

 

Effortlessly subduing the struggling Dahlia, Hissin gave orders to Hovan and the Moon Lions.

 

“You may kill all who resist. Just bring the necessary ones and follow.”

 

“Yes!”

 

The resounding cry of the Moon Lions echoed through the night sky.

 

Contrary to their reputation of leaving nothing behind after a raid, they obediently sent back the surrendered soldiers of the Mudhat family and Hayad’s troops. 

 

They had already witnessed the fall of Baran and had declared their surrender early, and also because Hissin had commanded not to harm Dahlia’s people.

 

The ruined imperial palace of the Baran Kingdom and the captured members of the Baran royal family, now a pitiful sight, were reflected in Dahlia’s despair-filled eyes.

 

Hissin, holding Dahlia, mounted his horse in one swift motion. 

 

Worried that Dahlia might jump from the galloping horse, Hissin tightly bound her body to his own with a belt and firmly gripped the reins.

 

“We return to Mohron.”

 

“Yes!”

 

With a shout and a spur, the horse carrying Hissin and Dahlia began to fiercely gallop across the desert.

 

Already utterly exhausted, Dahlia lay helplessly in the arms of Hissin, who held her tight and watched Baran fade into the distance. Her fallen country was sinking beneath the deep night of the goddess Nuit. 

 

All the glorious splendor of the past had vanished, and ugly secrets and brutal sins were scattered over it like dark red blood.

 

‘Goddess Nuit… Why are you so cruel only to me?’

 

Swallowing her resentment, which would never reach the goddess Nuit, Dahlia closed her eyes. She had no strength left and was desperately tired.

 

Enough to wish she could sleep forever like this.

 

💫

 

Hissin held Dahlia in his embrace and raced unhindered across the desert. 

 

Behind the horse they rode, over a hundred thousand Moon Lions stirred a fierce sandstorm as they followed.

 

The thickly billowing sand dust blurred even the bright moon that clearly illuminated the earth. 

 

Erasing the light and becoming a halo themselves, they moved away from the Baran Kingdom at an unbelievable speed.

 

Dahlia’s head swayed back and forth with the movement of the horse. 

 

With one hand, Hissin firmly gripped the reins, while with the other, he cradled Dahlia’s head, holding her securely against his chest.

 

Dahlia lost consciousness even before they had left the capital of Baran. 

 

It might have been due to the red spots covering her entire body, but more than that, it seemed the long-accumulated fatigue and tension had melted away into powerlessness all at once, sinking her consciousness beneath a sleep.

 

Hissin looked down at Dahlia, slumped limp in his embrace. 

 

Perhaps because he had been holding her close the entire time, even without a direct relationship, the red spots that had covered her had subsided considerably.

 

Unsightly spots still showed on her still beautiful face and slender neck, but it was somewhat fortunate compared to when her entire skin had seemed soaked in fatigue and covered in spots.

 

“Baran bound you in weariness until the very end,” Hissin murmured.

 

He held her tightly in his embrace once more.

 

His long-cherished desire was finally fulfilled. 

 

The Emperor, whom he had wanted to tear apart and kill, and his close associates were captured. 

 

Although the common people were left alone, he had overturned the Baran Kingdom so thoroughly that it could no longer be called an empire.

 

With no leader to install, if left alone, it would either sustain itself or collapse, but that was no longer Hissin’s concern.

 

Above all, Dahlia Baran, whom he had so desperately wanted to grasp, was now in his arms like this. 

 

To the point where he could devour her in one bite, so that no one could ever take her away.

 

Everything had gone according to plan.

 

‘So why am I so angry?’

 

Hissin tightened his arms around Dahlia. She lay limp in his embrace, sunk in a slumber so deep she couldn’t open her eyes even atop the roughly galloping horse.

 

Hovan had said she had merely lost consciousness due to exhaustion, but Hissin somehow felt she had let go of her will to live and was refusing to wake up on her own.

 

As if she no longer hoped for his rescue.

 

As if she no longer wanted him.

 

“It’s too late to refuse now, Dahlia.”

 

Hissin pressed his lips to Dahlia’s ear. 

 

He wondered if his voice would truly reach her, hiding deep in her unconsciousness, but well. It didn’t matter anymore.

 

“From the moment you, of all people, found me when I was dying, our fates were destined to be entangled this bitterly.”

 

So you must endure it.

 

Even if it’s a country you despise beyond measure. 

 

Even if it’s the country that destroyed your own. Even if it’s the country that mercilessly cut down and killed your family.

 

And even if it’s the country that dares to desire you…

 

“You saved me, and this is what I became.”

 

Hissin cruelly engraved that fact into Dahlia, over and over again. 

 

Letting his voice penetrate even into her unconsciousness. 

 

Until Dahlia struggles and is ultimately exhausted.

 

Until she dares not even possess the will to escape from me.

 

After days of relentless travel, Hissin and the Moon Lions crossed the continent, forded the Seywin River, and raced night after night across the vast wilderness of the Palan continent once more. 

 

Finally, they saw the entrance to the underground passage leading to the Kingdom of Mohron.

 

Just then, the horizon began to brighten in the distance as dawn broke, and red sunlight started to cover the land. 

 

Hissin wrapped his cloak around Dahlia and said to the warriors following him.

 

“The sun is rising! Increase your speed!”

 

At Hissin’s command, Hovan and the Moon Lions urged their horses on even more urgently. 

 

As the sun’s golden threads thickened above the horizon, an unbearable heat began to radiate.

 

The sun wasn’t even halfway above the horizon yet, but a scorching heat, as if it would peel the skin away, was already rising.

 

Even though he knew the Blood’s owner couldn’t be harmed, a fear that the sun might injure Dahlia made Hissin pull the cloak wrapped around her even tighter.

 

Then, the moment the blazing sun’s heat completely enveloped the Palan continent, the last Moon Lion entered the underground entrance, and the massive rock that served as Mohron’s gate closed firmly.

 

💫

 

Hissin entered the royal palace of Mohron. Passing through a long corridor, he finally knelt on one knee before the Queen and announced his return.

 

“Levitzenna Hissin.”

 

Hearing his own name spoken after so long felt strangely distant, like something from a past life. 

 

Perhaps it was because it had taken so many years to wash away the blood and tears of his family. 

 

Lingering on the name, Hissin continued.

 

“By Your Majesty’s command, I have brought about the fall of the Baran Kingdom and have, at last, returned to Your Majesty’s land.”

 

Hissin forced his tongue, which felt as if he had been chewing on sand, to move and finished speaking. 

 

Tefnu, seeing him returned in his majestic form, spoke in a benevolent voice.

 

“Yes. I am truly glad you have returned safely.”

 

Over the years, Tefnu, aged by time, gazed with his faded white eyes at the faintly shimmering afterimage of Hissin.

 

“Did they remember the tears of our brothers and sisters?”

 

Meeting those faded eyes, Hissin’s red pupils burned bitterly.

 

“They had forgotten completely. Both our tears and our blood.”

 

During his time in the Baran kingdom, Hissin had sought to find any remaining traces of the Janna there. 

 

But nowhere could the traces of the Janna be found. 

 

Khankundra, who had so cruelly tormented the Janna people in his desire to possess their power, upon hearing that all the Janna were dead, had thoroughly erased all records of them.

 

As if it made no difference whether he had obtained their power or not.

 

That is what had fueled Hissin’s rage even more. 

 

The fact that his entire clan had been massacred for that fleeting moment of greed made him unbearably angry.

 

That was precisely why, even though he could have brought the Baran kingdom to its ruin in an instant, he chose instead to drain its lifeblood slowly over a long time, using every possible method.

 

Just as here in the Palan continent, where everything withers and twists under the scorching sun until nothing can breathe, he intended to let the Baran kingdom die a slow death. 

 

So that it would collapse to the point where it could never again dream of its past prosperity.

 

‘Although it was already rotting beyond redemption even before I laid my hands on it.’

 

Hissin swallowed back bitterness as he recalled Khanqundra, now so ravaged that no trace of its former glory, when it had destroyed Janna, remained.

 

“You intend to handle the prisoners you brought as you see fit, I assume.”

 

“I will deal with them quietly, so you need not concern yourself.”

 

“Good. Let them experience firsthand which is more terrible: your famed underground prison or the Sun Iron Cage of the Moron Kingdom.”

 

Hissin bowed his head and rose from his seat. 

 

As he turned to leave, Tefnu’s question flew after his retreating back.

 

“That woman.”

 

“…”

 

“What do you intend to do with the last princess of the Baran Kingdom?”

 

Hissin, who had stopped in his tracks, stared into empty space for a moment in silence.

 

Was there really so much to ponder? 

 

His reluctance to answer a question whose answer was already decided likely stemmed from a faint fear of the profound resentment he would now have to face.

 

“I must grasp her firmly.”

 

Hissin finally answered, the corners of his lips lifting smoothly for the first time.

 

“So she cannot fly away recklessly.”

 

Hissin bowed respectfully at the waist and then left the royal palace.

 

To think the first smile he showed was such a wretched one. 

 

Tefnu let out a long sigh as he watched the afterimage of Hissin, who had already receded from view and vanished from sight.

 

Which god has delivered such a harsh punishment? 

 

If it is not punishment, then please, swiftly sever the bonds of this cruel fate.

 

“Even that time must be the will of heaven…”

 

Feeling the sun’s heat, which had by now seeped even into the deep underground of the Mohron Kingdom, Tefnu departed to take his rest.