Episode 08
“Still. We need to organize the formation, hold a strategy meeting, decide marching formations, check supply routes and paths… There’s going to be a lot of meetings.”
Enya lazily counted on her fingers, folding them one by one with deliberate slowness.
“I’d like you to come to the tower. I should at least act like a proper reclusive tower master.”
Helios nodded absentmindedly—then paused as he checked his schedule.
“I have plans that day.”
“What plans?”
“Plans you don’t need to know about. Nor concern yourself with.”
Enya let out a scoff.
“You’re really something, you know that?”
“Fine. There are other days anyway. We’ll be seeing each other often enough. That’s all I had to say.”
She turned her gaze out the window.
Helios, unwilling to look at the same scenery as her, instead looked at her—her chin, her long black lashes that showed no interest in him whatsoever.
A moment ago she had seemed irritated, but now she looked almost… lively. Like a cat that had spotted prey.
Did the atmosphere just change?
“Can you stop for a moment? I need to get off.”
Enya tapped on the carriage window. To reach the Morgenda Forest, she needed to pass through the outskirts and borrow a horse from the city.
“If we go any further, I’ll be sleeping outdoors.”
She grabbed the door handle of the still-moving carriage—
—but another hand covered hers.
A hand steeped in slaughter, far removed from the nobility of its name.
Helios gently removed her hand from the handle. As he leaned in, his breath brushed faintly against her forehead.
Just as their eyes were about to meet—
he turned away and knocked on the window instead.
The moment slipped.
“Commander?”
“Head to the Morgenda Tower.”
“Yes, sir!”
The carriage jolted as directions were relayed and the route changed.
Helios crossed his arms lightly.
The sensation of her hand lingered in his palm—smaller than expected… and far softer.
Not disgusting.
…Fragile.
As if it would crumble if he gripped it.
The contradiction unsettled him.
Enya smirked.
“That’s pretty far from the temple. What, suddenly interested in me?”
Helios replied flatly.
“Don’t misunderstand. I’m just confirming the route to the tower. I don’t intend to waste time.”
“Then why not refuse?”
Enya masked her intent just as coldly.
From the look of him, he was the type to obsess over cleanliness—yet he had agreed to come to her tower so easily.
Like walking straight into a starving bear’s den.
‘Idiot.’
She glanced at him.
Perfect appearance. Broad shoulders, narrow waist—his proportions almost unfair.
There wasn’t a single flaw she could pick at.
‘Makes me want to ruin him.’
But not through his past.
Not out of courtesy. Not out of pity.
No—because digging into that would only reflect back on herself.
And unlike him, she didn’t have a sibling like the crown prince. In that regard, she had already lost.
Still…
She remembered the fleeting vulnerability hidden beneath that noble face.
‘I’ll tear that apart.’
Her goal crystallized.
Her chaotic emotions receded like a tide.
She leaned back lazily.
“Good thing you chose to play the crown prince’s dog. Wouldn’t want some stray rock rolling in and turning the palace into a bloodbath. That’d be troublesome for a tower master.”
“Is that all you have to say?”
He didn’t even blink.
As if that would make her back down.
***
By the time they reached Morgenda Forest, not a single word had been exchanged.
***
Laila stepped into her master’s office—and nearly lost her mind.
“Didn’t you say Sir Helios is coming this afternoon?”
“Mhm. Why?”
Enya’s voice came muffled from beneath a book draped over her face.
“Why? You’re asking why? Look around you!”
The circular chamber, carved from sheer stone walls, was a chaotic mess—books piled like cliffs, research notes scattered, strange plants growing from unidentified soil, half-smoked pipes lying about.
Yet even this was tidy compared to usual.
The real problem was the mana.
Unrefined, overflowing mana filled the forest and tower alike—so dense it seeped into every grain of soil.
Touch it, and—
“Ah!”
A vine twisted—then instantly transformed into a white snake and dropped to the floor.
It slithered up Enya’s ankle, coiled around her head, and became a crown of pink roses.
Enya touched it casually.
“No problem.”
“Enya, today’s guests are holy knights. With this level of mana density, they could get hurt!”
Mana and divine power clashed by nature.
Even touching would cause them to devour each other.
And this concentration? Even elite knights would struggle.
Enya shrugged.
“They should prove their worth. If they can’t handle this much, how are they supposed to hunt a nightmare demon?”
“That’s not ‘this much’!”
“Not my problem. Didn’t he kill the Demon King? He’ll manage.”
Her foot dangled lazily from the chair.
Laila sighed.
“What exactly happened between you and Sir Helios?”
“Since when did you start calling him that?”
“His name is Helios, so I call him Sir Helios.”
“He has a surname! Depert!”
Enya suddenly sat upright, leaves from her floral crown scattering.
Laila tilted her head.
“You usually can’t even be bothered to get angry. Why are you so worked up?”
“Do you know what he said to me?”
“Whatever it was, people talk like that all the time. You usually just brush it off.”
As Laila continued, Enya found herself… speechless.
He was especially irritating—but still.
“Someone who spends all day making aphrodisiacs suddenly floods an entire forest with mana just because one man is visiting?”
“…The more I hear it, the more pathetic it sounds.”
Enya slumped.
‘It really does sound ridiculous.’
Had she really prepared all this… just because of him?
‘I look like I was excited over Depert showing up.’
Her reason slowly returned.
And she didn’t like it.
“Fine. I’ll stop.”
“No, no!”
Laila waved her hands.
“If I wanted you to stop, I would’ve said so earlier. I’m just happy to see you lively for once.”
“Wait, Laila—”
The moment she spoke—
the mana shifted.
A tremor rippled through the forest like a giant had stepped on the earth.
A shiver of excitement ran down Enya’s spine.
“They’re here.”
She stood like a cat bristling with anticipation and pressed her hand against the wall.
The stone parted.
The forest appeared like a living painting.
Zooming in—
Helios Depert and his knights came into view.
White uniform. Perfect posture. Immaculate presence.
Flawless.
‘Ah… I really want to ruin him.’
“How long will he last?”
The forest teemed with mana—one wrong move would be fatal for the knights.
A wicked smile spread across her face.
It had been a long time since she’d felt this urge.
‘I’m already beyond saving.’
She imagined him—drenched, trembling, broken beneath her magic.
Her grin widened.
“Hehe… heh—”
Behind her, Laila simply rested her chin on her hand.
“Well… as long as you’re having fun.”
***
“We appear to be lost.”
An hour into the dense Morgenda Forest, Marie—Helios’s right hand—looked troubled.
They had followed the correct direction.
Yet not even a trace of the tower could be seen.
The forest was endless—identical trees, thick leaves blocking the sky.
Marie stabbed a dagger into a tree trunk.
‘Marking the path. We passed here before.’
And when they saw that same dagger again—
They realized.
“We’re lost.”
Worse—
Unrefined mana filled the forest like a monster’s domain.
They had to constantly maintain divine power just to move.
It was exhausting.
A tower master fully controlled their territory.
Which meant—
Everything here… was intentional.
