Chapter 8
Reluctant to part with Estina, Roabellyn approached her and began to plead.
“Aunt, it’s our last night before you leave… can you sleep with me tonight?”
“Again?”
“Once tonight is over, we’ll be separated again.”
Seeing the disappointed look in those pale violet eyes so similar to her own, Estina couldn’t help but soften.
“Hehe, you spoiled child. Fine. It’s the last night anyway.”
Unable to refuse her adorable niece, Estina went to Roabellyn’s room and lay down beside her on the bed.
“Aunt, they say at magic school, statues walk around at night and the ivy on the walls moves. Is that really true?”
“Hmm… most of that is a lie, but there is one statue that can move.”
Because her parents worried about her safety, Roabellyn rarely went outside the ducal estate. So to her, Estina’s stories from a completely different world felt like dreams.
Still wide-eyed instead of sleeping, Roabellyn suddenly asked what came to mind.
“Oh, right. Aunt, do you have a boyfriend?”
Her eyes sparkled with curiosity. At the question, Estina briefly thought of someone.
“…No.”
She shook her head, forcing herself to hide a bitter expression. Pretending to be playful, she added,
“No one ever asks me out.”
“What? But you’re so pretty! How could that be?”
“I know, right? Even the boys I was close with… once they start to feel something for me, they immediately distance themselves and get awkward. It’s like someone’s threatening them or something. Though that can’t be it, haha…”
Before long, the two of them fell asleep.
How much time had passed? Estina woke to a distant commotion.
“Mm… what’s that noise?”
Rubbing her eyes, she went to the window and looked outside—and her mouth fell open.
A battle was taking place in the garden. From the hands of unknown figures in black robes, red streams of magic stretched outward. The Hertness family knights tried desperately to stop them, but it was futile.
For a moment, Estina went blank at the unreal sight of knights’ corpses piling up.
‘A dream… is this a dream…? What in the world is this…?!’
Just then, her eyes met those of a black-robed figure who had just cut down two knights and looked up.
No—his face was hidden by the robe, so it might have been her imagination. But she was certain he had looked this way. And Estina knew that her platinum-blond hair stood out even in the dark.
She quickly hid beside the window. Her heart pounded wildly.
There was a rustling sound from the bed. It seemed Roabellyn had woken from the noise of the fighting as well.
“Mmm…”
Estina crouched low and hurried to the bed. Leaning close to Roabellyn’s ear, she whispered urgently,
“Roa, wake up! Quickly!”
“Mm… Aunt?”
“There are intruders. Change into the easiest clothes and shoes you can as fast as possible. We have to run away right now. Hurry!!”
At the word “intruders,” Roabellyn jumped up instinctively. Stuffing jewelry into the emergency escape bag that had already been prepared, the two of them ran straight for the secret passage.
After many twists and turns, they escaped the ducal castle and ran endlessly. Their breaths were at their throats, but they had no time even to catch them.
Only one thought spun through Roabellyn’s mind as she ran in agony.
‘This is all because of me. Because I’m a daughter of Huga… because I’m the only direct daughter…!’
The only daughter of the kingdom’s greatest noble house—the duke’s daughter, the designated princess consort—had become a fugitive clinging to her life in less than a few hours.
‘Could this be… some terrible dream? It’s just… too absurd.’
But she had never heard of a dream so vivid that smell and pain could be felt so clearly.
Fearing that someone might jump out and attack at any moment, Roabellyn and the surviving group ran without rest. Perhaps because of fear and tension, their minds felt even sharper.
The dreadful night slowly came to an end, and dawn began to break.
“Roa, close your eyes. Let’s change your face.”
Estina cast magic on herself and Roabellyn, slightly altering their hair color, eye color, and facial features.
“If I could use powerful magic to change our gender, age, or even height, that would be best… but there must be high-ranking mages among them. They could track us by detecting magic power, so we need to use as little magic as possible right now.”
Mages could only detect the magic power of those weaker than themselves. Estina’s divine power was not low, but among those who had annihilated a ducal house guarded by knights in an instant, there would certainly be high-ranking mages.
“If they’re that kind of people… they won’t be weaker than me. We have to be extremely careful.”
Two people with rare platinum hair and even rarer violet eyes walking together would stand out anywhere.
And aside from that, both of them were strikingly beautiful wherever they went, so even at some risk, they had no choice but to change their faces.
The five of them continued moving while hiding in bushes.
After three full days of travel like that, they managed to leave the Kingdom of Aventador without being discovered—without knowing whether this was the end of their hardships or the beginning.
After drifting through several countries and cities, Roabellyn’s group settled in Razny, a commercial city of the Kingdom of Avery.
There were many blond people in this country, and although violet eyes were rare, eye colors were diverse overall. So Roabellyn and Estina believed their appearances would attract less attention here.
Also, rather than a countryside village where a small group lived together for a long time, a commercial city with constant flow of outsiders was less likely to draw attention.
Fortunately, their expectations were correct. With only simple magic to alter facial features, they were able to settle in the city without attracting much notice.
Estina retrieved money from a continental secret bank vault left by her late mother and bought a small house.
Because she was a collateral relative and her mother had died long ago, there was no fear of being tracked by the royal family, which made it possible.
After that, life gradually stabilized, and the five of them lived together relying on one another like family.
A few days after completing his explosion, Kaisertern, fully prepared, set out immediately for Aventador to meet Roabellyn.
‘Since she’s the woman who made me explode, should I propose first? No… we should get to know each other better first. I grew suddenly, but I still have the same face—she won’t fail to recognize me, right?’
With happy fantasies and a fluttering heart, he arrived at the Hertness Ducal Estate…
…only to find a place that was nearly reduced to ruins. The once modest castle had completely burned down, and where the buildings had stood was now a deep pit.
“T-this is…”
Kaisertern froze at the sight of the devastation he had never imagined. The desire to know what had happened and the desire not to know clashed violently in his mind, like a raging storm.
Before long, the servant he had sent to investigate returned with a report.
“Your Highness, we learned that the ducal house was attacked several days ago by an unidentified group. Regrettably, it appears that everyone was exterminated.”
Shocked once more, Kaisertern asked urgently,
“Then… Roabellyn?”
“Since the entire family and all retainers were slaughtered, she probably…”
Unable to continue, the servant trailed off. He had heard that due to the nature of the family, the duke’s daughter had likely been their main target and probably killed first—but he could not bring himself to report that.
Kaisertern stood blankly. Just ten days ago, she had been alive—walking, running, and laughing with him.
‘Who… who dared… to harm the girl who would have become the Empire’s princess consort?!’
He could not believe reality.
‘It makes no sense. That kind, beautiful girl… gone from this world.’
A maddening emotion rose like a furnace in his throat.
‘You saved me… and yet I couldn’t save you…’
Then suddenly, the scene felt familiar.
‘Ah… that dream!’
Kaisertern realized that the nightmare he had repeatedly seen during his explosion was not merely a dream—it had been the reality that unfolded here.
At that time, he might have been mentally connected to the girl who caused his explosion.
Overwhelmed by grief and rage, he collapsed, then after a long while staggered to his feet. The attendant Hile hurried to support him.
“Your Highness…”
Forcing himself to steady his mind, Kaisertern asked,
“Did they hold a funeral for the ducal family? Where is the grave? I must at least go and say my final farewell.”
“Th-that is… the assassins burned all the bodies together in the front yard of the ducal estate, and people claiming to be from the Aventador government threw what remained into that pit. They said the bodies were burned beyond recognition… so there was no recovery, and no funeral was held.”
Even though he was only reporting what he heard, the attendant’s voice shrank with guilt at the blasphemous content.
He thought he could not be more shocked—but he was wrong. At the outrageous treatment of the ducal family, Kaisertern felt his blood boil.
To treat Roabellyn—whom he had longed to see so dearly and who was so precious to him—in such a way…
Suppressing the rage surging inside him, he fell silent for a moment, then gave Hile a low command.
