Dahlia, who had fallen into the distant abyss, slowly came back to her senses and breathed heavily. 

 

A single tear rolled down her cheeks, and Hissin licked it away with his lips.

 

Even though his hand had let go, she couldn’t bring herself to push him away. The flood of emotions was so overwhelming and confusing that she didn’t know what attitude to take toward him.

 

“Are you… doing this to get revenge on me?”

 

Her voice trembled finely—whether from lingering traces of excitement that hadn’t yet subsided or from deep sorrow, she couldn’t tell.

 

“Because Baran destroyed your country… so you’re taking revenge on me, the daughter of my father, in this way?”

 

Hissin looked down at the disheveled Dahlia beneath him and let out something between a hollow breath and a hollow laugh.

 

“Why would I take revenge on you?”

 

He gently stroked her shoulder, still bearing vivid red marks.

 

“I’m repaying the kindness of saving my life.”

 

“I don’t need that kind of repayment!”

 

Dahlia struck away Hissin’s hand. 

 

The pain that hadn’t yet subsided stabbed sharply into her shoulder, but she clutched it tightly and refused to let him touch it.

 

“If you want revenge, just kill me instead. Let me repay a life with a life!”

 

Dahlia’s reddened eyes burned intensely into Hissin’s red ones.

 

“You must find looking at me absolutely revolting too…”

 

His parents, his family, his country, and his people were all mercilessly cut down by Baran’s blade. 

 

When she thought of Khankundra’s temperament—once called a war maniac and utterly cruel to enemy nations—Zenna’s end must have been unimaginably horrific.

 

The royal family taken as prisoners would have suffered even worse fates.

 

‘Just like what happened to me…’

 

Even for family, it was terrifying and hateful enough to make one shudder—how much more so for the person whose country was completely destroyed?

 

“You must feel the same…”

 

Hissin let out a soft scoff. 

 

The way he looked at Dahlia was closer to the gaze one might direct at a fragile baby bird that had fallen from its nest, rather than the eyes of someone staring at an enemy.

 

As if gazing at a breath that could vanish at any moment, willingly extending a helping hand toward a pitiful life.

 

“It seems facing me is utterly revolting to you.”

 

That same hand could twist her neck in an instant if he so chose.

 

“Don’t even think about running away. If you carelessly step outside Mohron, even someone like you would turn to ash all over your body before you could even begin to recover.”

 

Hissin rose from his seat. As he was about to leave her alone in the unfamiliar room, Dahlia hurriedly called out to stop him.

 

“Where is Bertha? Bring Bertha to me, at least that child…!”

 

“If you want to see that child soon, then behave yourself.”

 

Hissin curved his lips elegantly.

 

“That way you’ll be able to meet her safely, won’t you?”

 

He already knew through Hovan just how precious Bertha was to Dahlia. He intended to use Bertha as a hostage to keep Dahlia from entertaining any foolish ideas.

 

Dahlia shook her head and pleaded.

 

“Please don’t touch Bertha… That child has done nothing wrong!”

 

“Has there ever been anyone who died without guilt?”

 

Hissin tilted his head to the side.

 

“As far as I know, there was only one—Saltar.”

 

For now.

 

With that quietly added, chilling remark, Hissin left the room. 

 

Clank—

 

The sound of metal locking into place echoed coldly through the chamber.

 

“Hic…”

 

Left alone, Dahlia was overwhelmed by emotions too tangled for her to unravel on her own. She collapsed forward and burst into tears.

 

💫

 

Hic, sob…

 

From beyond the closed door came the sound of Dahlia’s crying. Hissin’s hand, which had inserted the key, tightened slightly.

 

Should he open this door even now? Should he let her go—whether she returned to Baran, now turned into a land of death, or abandoned the name of Baran in this unfamiliar land where no one knew her and lived as an ordinary woman, flying wherever her heart desired?

 

‘That would be utterly unthinkable.’

 

Baran’s Dahlia could no longer go anywhere. 

 

The only place she could set foot was within the reach of his gaze—somewhere he could seize her again at any moment.

 

Now, no one would dare take this woman from him. 

 

He would make sure of it. That was the sin she, who had saved him, must bear.

 

He could have carved the heart’s vow into Dahlia countless times and controlled her as he wished, yet he had not done so—because he wanted her to face this sin squarely.

 

The sin of saving Zenna in Baran’s name. The sin that inevitably led to completing this horrific revenge.

 

The sin of making him see her. The sin of making him long for her.

 

The sin of daring to make him yearn for Baran in Zenna’s name.

 

“Lord Levitzenna, the Emperor has awakened.”

 

Just then, Hovan’s arrival pulled him from his reverie. Hissin removed the key from the locked doorknob and handed it to Hovan.

 

“Watch her closely to make sure she doesn’t do anything foolish. A few days of hunger won’t ruin her body, but starving to death would be troublesome, so make her eat at least once, even if you have to force her.”

 

“Do not worry, my lord.”

 

Hovan bowed his head in reply. 

 

Among those who had observed Dahlia closely in Baran, Hovan was one of them—so right now, there was no one more suitable to entrust her to than Hovan.

 

‘Though she might shut her heart even more out of betrayal.’

 

After staring at the closed door for a moment, Hissin turned on his heel and left.

 

After walking for quite some time, he arrived at the prison where the criminals and the prisoners from Baran were held.

 

This place, known as the ‘Sun Iron Cage,’ was the only spot in the underground nation of Mohron that received direct sunlight. 

 

It was mercilessly scorched by the blazing midday sun, turning it into a furnace.

 

The Palan continent, where Mohron was located, sat right at the equator. 

 

It was far more affected by the sun than other regions—so much so that without a special cloak made from cave rat leather, a person’s entire skin would suffer severe burns in just ten minutes.

 

Moreover, the towering Mohr mountain range surrounding Mohron trapped the solar heat even deeper, raising the ground temperature to levels unbearable for humans. 

 

As a result, the land of the Palan continent had become so desolate that it could sustain no life at all.

 

The Sun Iron Cage, directly exposed to such intense sunlight, was the worst of it. 

 

The prisoners trapped inside had no choice but to writhe in agony from the searing hot iron and the suffocatingly hot air that choked their breath. 

 

If not for the layer of sand spread across the floor, they might have been burned all over their bodies the moment they were imprisoned and died within days.

 

“Ugh… Water, water… It’s too hot… I can’t take it…!”

 

Khankundra, his lips cracked white from dehydration, grabbed the iron bars.

 

“Aaah!”

 

His palm stuck to the red-hot bars, scalded by the sun, and peeled away with a sickening sound. 

 

The smell of burning flesh spread instantly in all directions.

 

“Woof woof, woof woof!”

 

At that, a gaunt wild dog roaming the barren land snarled fiercely toward the Sun Iron Cage far below. 

 

The dogs were so starved that it wouldn’t have been strange if they tore through the heated bars and attacked the prisoners right then and there.

 

“Haa… Ugh…!”

 

To escape the ferocious wild dogs that seemed ready to leap down at any moment, Khankundra retreated to the only patch of shade where the sun was blocked. 

 

But even that small space—barely enough for one adult to lie down—was already crowded with other prisoners huddled together.

 

“Hey, what are you doing, trying to steal someone else’s spot!”

 

“Get lost right now?!”

 

“Ack!”

 

Kicked by the prisoners, Khankundra collapsed weakly to the ground. His sunken eyes, face creased with deep wrinkles, trembled violently with rage.

 

“How dare you! Do you even know who I am?!”

 

“Ha, look at this senile old fool who’s lost all sense of fear. Are you seriously trying to bring up being the Emperor of Baran in front of us right now? In Mohron, the country where the people of the nation you destroyed are gathered?!”

 

The mere mention of the taboo name “Baran” ignited the already heat-frayed nerves. 

 

A mob of prisoners surged forward and began beating the once-terrifying war maniac Khankundra mercilessly—he no longer bore any trace of his former glory.

 

“Aaahhh!”

 

Khankundra screamed and reached out desperately toward somewhere.

 

“Mindhu… Zeta Mindhu…! Please, save me!”

 

But Mindhu merely hid quietly in the opposite patch of shade, pretending not to see that outstretched hand. 

 

With the country already destroyed and neither emperor nor chancellor needed anymore, he had no desire to step forward and invite trouble upon himself.

 

Watching the scene from afar, Hissin slowly approached the Sun Iron Cage. 

 

At his appearance, the prisoners who had been gleefully pummeling Khankundra quietly retreated into the shadows.

 

Hissin crouched down leisurely and looked down at Khankundra, who lay pathetically sprawled on the ground.

 

“How does it feel, Emperor of Baran? Isn’t our Sun Iron Cage every bit as splendid as the underground prisons of Baran?”

 

“You… you damned wretch…! How dare you deceive our Baran and pretend to be the bearer of a false god’s gift!”

 

Khankundra glared at Hissin with eyes as red as heated iron. 

 

At his fury, Hissin let out a soft scoff.

 

“It’s been quite some time since I personally spread the rumor that it was all fake, yet you’re still going on about ‘false’ this and ‘fake’ that.”

 

The faint smile vanished in an instant, turning icy cold.

 

“The one who receives divine punishment is you.”

 

“…”

 

“For the crime of bringing ruin upon our royal house of Zenna out of greed beyond your station.”