By the time Astaire arrived, Henry was already unconscious—completely unscathed, as if nothing had happened.
“My Lady!”
Elsez, who had just released her grip on Henry’s collar, flinched at Astaire’s voice and shot up to her feet.
Then, she quickly tried to rub out the bloodstains on the ground with her foot, awkwardly smiling as she turned to greet him—looking very much like a child caught red-handed.
“Your Highness.”
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No, thanks to you.”
Astaire grabbed her shoulders and examined her carefully.
His gaze soon landed on the tear in her clothes near her abdomen, where traces of blood remained. His brows furrowed in distress.
It was the wound left by Henry’s dagger.
Realizing where he was looking, Elsez gave a sheepish smile and covered the spot with her hand.
“Ah, this? It’s already healed. I’m fine now.”
“…He did this, didn’t he?”
Astaire’s eyes shifted to the unconscious Henry.
‘Wait… why do his eyes look a little… off?’
Before Elsez could even respond, Astaire pulled out a dagger from his robes and started toward Henry.
Alarmed, she quickly stepped in front of him.
“W-What are you doing?”
“Returning the favor.”
“What?!”
Elsez nearly choked on her breath.
‘Wait, weren’t you the one who refused to torture people because it was inhumane?!’
So she wasn’t imagining things—his eyes really were dangerous right now!
“Y-You can’t kill him! We need to interrogate him first!”
“I never said I’d kill him.”
Astaire replied with a serene smile.
That gentle face, completely unfazed by the brutal words he had just spoken, was even more terrifying.
‘That’s actually scarier…’
Panicking, Elsez all but clung to his waist to block his path, confessing the truth.
“I, uh… actually beat him half to death before you got here. So please don’t.”
Astaire paused.
Then, his hands gently cupped her cheeks as he gazed down into her eyes.
Those brilliant amber orbs—
She was here. She was alive.
“…Your Highness?”
Elsez blinked at his unwavering stare.
Then, without warning, Astaire pulled her into an embrace.
His arms wrapped around her tightly, his face pressing into her shoulder.
Shocked, Elsez could only blink in confusion—until she heard his voice.
“…I thought I lost you.”
His usually calm tone wavered ever so slightly.
Suddenly, she was reminded of Kashian, who still carried the guilt of Ruel’s death.
And it dawned on her.
‘For Astaire… my death must have been just as painful.’
With his already compassionate nature, and the added burden of being a healer who had failed to save his comrade—how much must that have weighed on him?
‘It wasn’t your fault.’
Wanting to ease his heart, Elsez gently wrapped her arms around him, patting his back soothingly.
“I’m sorry… for making you worry.”
At that moment—
“Ugh….”
A groan came from the nearby bushes.
Elsez quickly pulled away and strode over to Noel.
“Noel, are you okay?”
“Nuna…?”
Hearing the name, Astaire immediately realized this was the child the village kids had been searching for.
“So this is Noel. The children were worried about him.”
“Yes. He was nearly killed by the black mage’s attack, but thanks to your timely healing spell, he survived. I can’t even tell you how relieved I was….”
Elsez clenched her fists, recalling the moment Noel had been attacked.
Then, she suddenly remembered something.
“Oh, right! This child has divine power.”
Astaire raised an eyebrow.
“Divine power?”
“Yes! Before your healing magic reached him, there was a brief gap, and during that time, he started healing his wounds on his own.”
Astaire approached to check on Noel, but as he got closer to Elsez, he noticed something.
A wound on her left arm.
His brows furrowed.
If it hadn’t healed, that meant it was inflicted after the area-wide healing spell.
“My Lady, hold still. This wound…”
He cast a healing spell.
But—
The wound remained.
Both he and Elsez froze.
Elsez looked down at the wound in mild confusion, then turned to Astaire with concern.
“Your Highness, are you exhausted? That spell uses a lot of divine power, and it must be hard on your body. Don’t push yourself—this is nothing.”
“Let me try again.”
Astaire cast the spell a second time.
This time, the wound healed completely.
Elsez watched him with worried eyes, then took his hand.
“I’ll explain everything on the way back. Let’s return to the village and rest.”
Astaire nodded, then turned his gaze to Henry.
“First, we need to wake him up.”
As he walked toward Henry, Elsez’s gaze wavered.
Absentmindedly, she touched the transparent bracelet on her wrist.
And recalled what had just happened.
‘The healing magic didn’t work on me at first.’
Her bracelet was designed to activate only in the case of a fatal injury, to prevent addiction to healing potions.
Earlier, when her arm didn’t heal, she had manually adjusted the bracelet to trigger in sync with Astaire’s healing spell.
‘Then… back at the theater, when the healing magic failed to work on my arrow wound…’
It wasn’t because the healer had been incompetent.
The problem was with her.
‘Because my body is becoming less human… and more like a demon’s.’
Every time she was exposed to the dimensional rift, the demon’s power inside her grew stronger.
Realizing this, Elsez bit her lip.
Astaire hadn’t noticed yet.
But…
‘There isn’t much time left.’
****
The portal near the Holy Kingdom.
Cassian, who had dozed off under the tree, lifted his heavy eyelids.
Before his eyes was the same view of the portal as before he fell asleep.
And standing above it was Rashiel.
Rashiel was repeatedly drawing and erasing a magic circle, completely absorbed in the task.
It had been three days already.
Watching Rashiel with anxious eyes, Cassian muttered,
“What the hell is he trying to do?”
Back then, when Rashiel sharply questioned, “Where did you send them?” Dike had readily admitted that it was her plan.
“The two of them have gone to Elbrin’s territory. To take the Hero’s Trial.”
Normally, the Hero’s Trial is undertaken only after thorough preparation.
But Elsez had been suddenly thrown into the trial without any time to prepare.
When Rashiel asked the reason with a hardened expression, Dike simply smiled and replied,
“Because I have high expectations for Miss Elsez.”
Dike reassured them that there was no need to worry, as Elsez was with the world’s strongest healer, and she suggested that the three of them take some time to rest.
Cassian felt uneasy thinking about Elsez being alone with a man, but since that man was none other than Astaire, he reluctantly accepted it.
However, it seemed that Tezette and Rashiel did not.
The moment Tezette heard Dike’s explanation, he immediately joined the paladins assigned to bring them back and left for the principality.
Cassian had assumed Rashiel would go with Tezette, but contrary to expectations, Rashiel returned to the portal.
Damn it, who am I supposed to follow?
After some hesitation, Cassian chose to stay by Rashiel’s side.
Normally, the one causing trouble was Tezette, so under usual circumstances, he would have followed him. But this time, Rashiel’s gaze toward Dike seemed more unsettling.
In those crimson eyes was an unmistakable hostility, with no attempt to conceal it.
Fortunately, what Cassian feared did not happen, but Rashiel had now spent three days staring at the portal without sleep.
“That stubborn bastard…”
Rashiel was tracking the faint traces of Dike’s magic left in the portal, attempting to recreate a magic circle similar to hers.
The existing two types of teleportation magic weren’t enough to reach Elsez.
Teleportation magic allowed a caster to move to places they had never been before, but only over short distances.
The other, Return Magic, could cover greater distances than Teleportation, but it required the caster to have visited the destination before and to have drawn a return magic circle there in advance.
Moreover, only the caster could be transported, and it was a spell that only magic users could use.
Yet, Dike had sent Elsez and Astaire to an entirely different country.
She must have fused existing magic techniques.
Cassian, though unfamiliar with magic, knew enough to understand that magic fusion was impossible for most magicians.
And tracing the faint, fading traces of magic from days ago to reconstruct a similar magic circle? That, too, was nearly impossible.
No matter how incredible Rashiel may be as a magician, this seems impossible—
But at that moment—
“Huh?”
From a distance, Cassian saw a blue magic circle forming beneath Rashiel’s feet. Startled, he jumped up and rushed forward.
“Hey, what the hell are you—!”
Just as Cassian stepped toward Rashiel, whose figure was beginning to blur with the glow of the magic circle—
Rashiel furrowed his brows in annoyance and, without warning, grabbed Cassian by the collar and yanked him forward.
In the next instant, the light from the magic circle engulfed them both.
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