Raonel was overwhelmed by his surging emotions and fell prostrate on the ground.
A light that washed away sin and saved the soul.
A true savior who had descended upon this land.
All of Raonel’s faith collapsed, and in its place, blind faith in Odely swallowed everything.
That day, Odely became someone’s ‘god.’
‘……What’s wrong with him?’
The person in question, however, merely looked down at the fanatic bowing on the plaza floor as if he were some strange person.
In truth, she had no time to worry about Raonel.
Cough―
Blood suddenly welled up in her mouth.
‘……I knew I pushed myself too far.’
The power of purification could cleanse every impurity in the world.
But in return, all the evil and remnants flowed into her body.
Like swallowing poison, purification could only be completed by embracing the remnants of the dark energy herself.
Odely bit her lips tightly and swallowed the blood.
Not letting even a single drop escape.
She naturally wiped the corner of her mouth.
Then, aware of the eyes around her, she raised her head as if nothing had happened.
At the same time, her eyes met his.
The silver emblem engraved on the black armor symbolized the ‘Order of Dawn.’
The man standing at its forefront was Gareth Quinton.
Commander of the Order of Dawn.
A man who had fought through countless battlefields alongside Ludville.
The Grand Duke’s oldest sword, a man who considered it a disgrace to fall before his lord.
‘He hated me terribly.’
Through thousands of regressions, in every single one of them, he had hated Odely without fail.
It was understandable.
Odely had always been the one who ruined the lord he had spent his entire life risking his life to protect.
But…….
“Because my lord valued the Lady more dearly than his own life, it is only right that my life should also be used to protect her.”
There had been one time when he died for Odely.
She still remembered it.
His loyalty, as he desperately shielded Odely and collapsed while coughing up blood.
When the Cardel family sent a group of assassins to create a new purification agent.
The man who took all the countless swords flying toward Odely in her place was this very man.
And now.
Having lost all his memories, he was looking at Odely once again.
With a cold gaze, he observed her, looking her up and down as if judging her.
Without knowing that he had once given his life for her.
“……That was quite an impressive sight.”
Gareth broke the silence.
His low, heavy voice echoed through the quiet.
“A city that was dying has come back to life, and the people have been healed as if they had never been sick.”
He slowly walked toward her as he spoke.
“But something is strange.”
A brief silence.
“The person who spread the plague was Gawin Cardel, and now, the one who saved them from it happens to be the Lady of the same Cardel family, who shares the same blood.”
Without taking his eyes off Odely, he asked firmly.
“Can you swear that the two of you have nothing to do with each other?”
Gareth stopped in front of Odely and rested a hand on the hilt of his sword.
“I do not easily believe in the word ‘miracle.’”
His tone was polite, but the blade hidden beneath his words was quite obvious.
Gareth’s eyes narrowed.
His gaze seemed to ask if she even knew how many people had died because of this incident.
“If you truly have nothing to do with this situation, you will have to prove it here and now.”
“…….”
“I do not carry out orders based on mere feelings. I am not naive enough to be fooled by a convincing performance alone.”
Odely quietly met his gaze.
She neither made excuses nor offered an explanation.
After a brief silence, Odely was the first to break it.
“Are you done?”
“…….”
“If you are, I’d like you to help me. We haven’t completely finished dealing with the aftermath yet.”
Gareth was silent for a moment.
“……You want me to help?”
He asked again, frowning.
His expression made it clear that he could not quite understand her words.
“Is it more important for me to prove myself to you right now, or to save this village as quickly as possible?”
“…….”
“Dark energy feeds on human despair. Even though it has calmed down for now, it could spread again at any moment. We need to seal it completely.”
As she said this, Odely carefully opened the sack she had prepared before leaving the Grand Duke’s Castle.
Inside were rare herbs, brown lime, mana crystals, and pieces of ore.
She knelt in the middle of the plaza and began laying out the materials one by one with neat, careful movements.
This was originally Ludville’s ‘treatment method.’
After thousands of regressions, he had discovered the most reliable way to suppress the plague.
He had developed a barrier that completely blocked the dark energy from approaching through the emotion known as despair.
But there were materials absolutely necessary to recreate Ludville’s ‘barrier’ from her memories.
Odely asked Gareth.
“Could you get me a rock?”
“……A rock?”
“About this size…… would be good.”
She pointed toward a huge boulder that was about ten times the size of an adult man standing nearby.
“And split it exactly in half and turn it into stone slabs.”
“……Me?”
“Then who else here is going to do it?”
“You want me to split that in half?”
“Can’t you?”
Odely asked, genuinely puzzled.
She had not meant to provoke him.
The Ludville in her memories had sliced through rocks like that with a simple ‘tap,’ without giving it much thought.
Gareth fell silent for a moment at her question, then drew his sword and walked toward the boulder.
To cut to the conclusion, Gareth barely managed to split the boulder in half.
“…….”
He looked exhausted, and he kept staring at her with an expression that seemed to say he had a lot to say.
But anyway.
Odely placed a flat stone slab on the ground and began setting the materials on it one by one.
Then she carefully drew the formation with special chalk.
Relying entirely on her memories, without making a single mistake.
“……Done.”
After drawing the final line, she placed the mana crystal in the center.
Because she was not a mage, she used the mana crystal to convert her magical power into ‘mana energy’ specialized for magic.
At the same time, she felt the sensation of magical power flowing through her veins.
Her heart began pounding wildly, and she could barely breathe.
Her arms trembled, and her vision blurred.
‘Ugh.’
She could feel her body reaching its limit, but Odely did not stop.
Not until light burst from the magic circle drawn on the stone slab and instantly covered the plaza.
The barrier was complete.
There was no longer any room for despair to take root.
The remnants of dark energy drifting through the plaza had vanished without a trace.
However…….
Odely, standing at the center of the barrier, staggered.
A sudden wave of dizziness swallowed her vision in white.
Her skin became as cold as ice, and even her fingertips began to tremble.
“Lady, are you all right?”
It was Gareth’s voice.
Perhaps startled, he reached out toward her for a moment, then seemed to hesitate and withdrew his hand.
“……I’m fine.”
Odely forced the words out.
But she was not fine at all.
She tried to catch her breath, but her inhales and exhales became tangled together, while a pain that felt like it was stabbing her lungs struck her chest.
‘I should have hired a mage separately.’
But there had been no time, and having Odely do it herself had been the best decision at the time.
Ludville had done it so easily, as if it were no more difficult than taking a short walk after a meal, so she had never imagined it would end like this……
The figures of the people in front of her began overlapping one by one, growing increasingly blurry.
‘Ah, this…… I’m about to pass out.’
Just as Odely felt that familiar premonition—
Before her collapsing body could hit the ground, someone pulled her tightly into their arms.
An embrace that was rough, hot, and smelled of blood.
“Have you lost your mind? Do you have any idea where you are……!”
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