“Raysis Kesion?”

The person holding Kenyan back was Raysis. He flashed a picturesque smile at Kenyan.

“Sir Kenyan. Is there a problem?”

“……”

“Considering that Sir Azhet and Lindsey are about to annul their engagement, this doesn’t seem appropriate.”

“Come to think of it, I can’t just agree to the annulment so easily.”

“Well, I’ve heard the ridiculous demand. It was absurd.”

“……”

“I will go instead of Lindsey. She is my sister, after all.”

Kenyan glared at Raysis in disbelief.

“What we need from your family isn’t a transcendent. It’s a priest who can use divine power.”

Kenyan moved past Raysis and approached Lindsey.

Lindsey looked up at him with a frown. He was so close that she could almost hear his breathing.

“I need to go with Lindsey Kesion.”

What is he trying to pull? Lindsey sighed.

Kenyan throwing tantrums was nothing new.

He was a man who acted according to his whims.

And his whims usually prevailed. He never faced consequences for his impulsive actions.

He was someone who could get away with it. Kenyan Redian. Just hearing his name made people tremble.

How many difficulties could he have faced in life?

“In that case…”

“……”

“If I follow your orders, go there, and complete the mission, will you finally agree to the annulment? Without any further objections?”

It wasn’t Kenyan who answered Lindsey’s question, but Raysis. He looked at Lindsey as if she had said the most ridiculous thing in the world.

“Are you crazy? Do you even know what that place is like? Have you ever seen a monster?”

I have. I’ve seen them more times than I can count.

As a guide, monsters were what she saw daily.

“You’ve barely awakened your divine power. Do you think you can handle seeing monsters and still be able to move?”

“……”

“Even transcendent beings who have been trained since childhood struggle with it. Don’t be overconfident.”

“I told you.”

Lindsey shot back at Raysis.

“You know nothing about me. If I say I’m going, then I’m going. Don’t tell me what to do.”

Raysis rubbed his forehead.

“Really…”

He seemed about to say something but then closed his mouth when he saw Lindsey’s face.

Instead, he turned to Kenyan.

“Alright, we understand. We’ll be leaving now. As you can see… someone is injured.”

Kenyan’s gaze shifted to Lindsey’s ankle. Now that he noticed, she seemed to have been uncomfortable with her ankle since earlier.

Raysis thought Kenyan wouldn’t let them go easily. But Kenyan’s reaction was strange. He stared at Lindsey’s ankle for a long time before nodding his head without protest.

It was a trivial matter that others would have simply overlooked. But Raysis felt something strange.

The other person was Kenyan Radian.

A man who never forgave anything that displeased him. Was he really letting them go just like that?

He had a face full of dissatisfaction towards Lindsay, didn’t he?

Something was off. Very off.

Raysis recalled the face of Kenyan Radian who had tried to detain Lindsay. What was Kenyan’s expression like then?

It was somewhat wistful, yet pitiful.

Raysis tilted his head.

A suspicion began to sprout in his mind.

Why was Kenyan Radian opposed to the annulment? Why did he personally visit the Kesyon Marquisate?

Raysis’s face hardened to a frightening degree as he formed a hypothesis.

⋆★⋆

That afternoon.

Crain summoned Lindsay to his office.

“I was already planning to send Mikhail there. It will be reassuring if you go.”

Crain wanted to quickly finalize Lindsay’s annulment. With other families, he could ignore them and proceed with the annulment, but the Radian family was different.

If they started to strongly oppose the annulment, it would be a headache for Crain as well.

Crain looked at Lindsay. Transcendents and priests had to be educated about monsters from a young age.

People who saw monsters for the first time were often too shocked to move properly. But Lindsay had not received any education.

“There’s no need to educate someone with dirty blood. Awakening divine power is enough!”

That was Crain’s decision. He didn’t expect that Lindsay, with her dirty blood, would awaken such strong divine power to heal Mikhail.

Crain scrutinized Lindsay with a snake-like gaze.

‘She’ll be shocked, but as long as she can use her divine power, it’s fine.’

Lindsay’s mental shock didn’t matter to him at all.

He only worried that she might be so shocked that she couldn’t use her divine power.

Crain’s gaze shifted to Mikhail, who was sitting beside her.

Mikhail’s face looked fine.

He didn’t look like someone who had reached a moment of rampage not long ago. Crain nodded in satisfaction.

Seeing Crain like this, Lindsay couldn’t understand Mikhail even more. It was obvious what Crain was thinking.

‘He’s also someone you can’t understand.’

Unlike herself, whose name was on the family register, Mikhail was a free man.

There was no reason for him to remain loyal to Crain, reaching the point of rampage.

The family members said Mikhail was repaying the favor to the Kesyon Marquis who raised him, but Lindsay couldn’t think that way.

Crain could never be a benefactor to anyone.

“It will be beneficial to work with Mikhail. There’s no need to heal any random people.”

Kesyon Marquis’s eyes sparkled as he said this.

He seemed satisfied with the thought of freely using the strongest transcendent of the empire.

As Lindsay glanced around, her eyes met Mikhail’s. Mikhail looked at her for a moment before turning his head straight again. His eyes were dry, without any particular emotion.

The same indifference as usual.

‘Let’s not think unnecessary thoughts. It was probably a meaningless action.’

Lindsay clenched her hands.

A few days ago, when Mikhail had escorted her to her room, there must have been no special reason.

‘He probably felt a minimum sense of responsibility.’

Responsibility towards the guide who had stopped his rampage. Espers often felt this.

Lindsay tried not to attach any special meaning to his actions. It was just a temporary phenomenon that happened after guiding.

But… then what about his words saying he didn’t need guiding anymore?

‘He’s never been healed without pain until now. How could he say he doesn’t need guiding?’

Lindsay snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Crain’s voice. Crain grabbed her shoulders firmly and said,

“If you complete this mission successfully, you can return to the Marquisate of Kesyon, Lindsay. You can fully return here.”

His words were full of conviction.

He truly believed Lindsay wanted to return to the Kesyon Marquisate.

As if the idea of her running away had never crossed his mind.

“Rosalyn is there, too. You can rely on each other and succeed in the mission. She will guide you well.”

“Rosalyn?”

“Yes, you will feel at ease with her. Rosalyn is kind to everyone.”

At his words, Lindsay nodded slightly. As expected, Crain knew nothing about her.

Truly, nothing at all.

Lindsay thought of Rosalyn. Specifically, the look in Rosalyn’s eyes, full of contempt, when no one else was watching.

Rosalyn, who was kind to everyone, was not kind to Lindsay.

⋆★⋆

Lindsay was heading to the northern monster subjugation site in a carriage. In front of her sat Raysis and Mikhail.

‘Raysis and Mikhail.’

It was truly a suffocating combination. Mikhail was there because he was following the orders of the Kesyon Marquis. She turned her gaze to Raysis.

He kept looking at Lindsay with a face full of discontent.

Why on earth did he come along?

‘He said we wouldn’t see each other again.’

Ever since he said that, she had seen him even more often.

He didn’t need to participate in the mission, so why did he come?

Besides, didn’t Raysis still think she was the one who tried to steal and lost his mother’s keepsake?

Receiving Lindsay’s gaze, Raysis smiled again.

“Kenyan Radian is really the worst choice.”

What nonsense. Raysis had been talking nonsense a lot lately. When did she ever choose Kenyan?

“What?”

“Surely you aren’t thinking of marrying him?”

“What does that have to do with you?”

“A huge scandal will break out. Breaking off the engagement with Ajet Radian and then choosing Kenyan Radian?”

Lindsay glared at him with disgust.

“Is that really where your thoughts go?”

“What?”

“Kenyan Radian and I are nothing to each other.”

“Then why does Kenyan Radian look at you like that?”

“Do you know why?”

Lindsay said as she approached Raysis. Her hand touched Raysis’s shoulder.