110.

I sipped my tea repeatedly, trying to calm my excitement. Across the low table, Jonas frowned as he watched me.

“You seem quite pleased, Lord McFoy,” he said with mild sarcasm.

“I didn’t mean to, but it seems I’ve been rude. My apologies,” I replied smoothly.

“…You’re worse than Ayno,” he muttered.

“Excuse me?”

Trying to humor him, I instinctively straightened up at his remark.

I couldn’t accept being compared to Ayno. Sure, I couldn’t deny the resemblance in our faces—my eyes worked just fine—but I prided myself on having a much better personality.

“It’s just an idle thought. More importantly—”

Jonas deftly deflected my rising temper. I was a bit annoyed, but time was short, so I held my tongue. Yet despite changing the topic quickly, he didn’t speak immediately.

“Well? What is it you want to say?”

“I was worried, frankly. When I heard you were marrying Diazi out of the blue…”

“It was a necessary marriage. I didn’t know Morfolk was such a pathetic fool,” I replied.

Jonas took a sip of his tea and nodded in agreement.

“Given all the incidents since the last Founding Festival… I wouldn’t have been surprised if you said you couldn’t endure it any longer.”

“What do you take me for?”

Half boast, half resolve, my reply made Jonas chuckle softly.

“That’s why I’ve been worried about Archie. You’re his guardian, after all.”

“So it’s not me you’re concerned about, but Archie,” I said dryly.

“Is that how it sounds? But Roxanne cared for you, and I care for you as well.”

“Enough with the sentimental talk.”

“You seem better than before, Lord McFoy. Almost to the point where my worries feel misplaced.”

“Did you summon me just to say that? Get to the point. I need to be up on the wall soon,” I urged.

I didn’t deny his observation—I probably did seem better. It was likely true. Feeling slightly embarrassed, I reached for my teacup.

Jonas smiled awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable. The real reason for calling me must have been something more serious.

“I just received a letter from the Eastern Continent,” he began, his expression darkening. He must have met with his informants while he was out of sight for a while. I forced a casual smile to mask my growing tension.

“No success, then?”

“I regret to say no. We scoured the entire Eastern Continent, but the person you’re looking for… doesn’t seem to exist.”

“…”

“The one with the strongest divine power on this land is High Priest Hailot. Expecting someone stronger is unrealistic. If such a person existed, they would’ve been discovered and elevated to High Priest already.”

It was an undeniable truth. Hailot might not wield sword energy, but his pure divine power surpassed even the Diazi brothers.

But even Hailot was nothing compared to Ophelia. If not for ‘that incident’ involving McFoy, Ophelia would’ve likely taken on a role as a High Priest or something equivalent after her coming-of-age ceremony. Perhaps even as a “saintess.”

Regardless, finding someone even remotely close to her level seemed impossible. This world wasn’t designed to produce people like her.

“I apologize for not bringing better news,” Jonas said sincerely.

“It’s fine. I didn’t have high expectations anyway. Lord Norton, as you said, if such a person existed, the continent would’ve been in an uproar already—like it was when young Ophelia appeared.”

A brief silence fell between us as I sipped my tea without a word. Despite knowing it was a nearly impossible task, Jonas seemed to feel guilty. After a moment, he spoke again, hesitantly.

“…Is the seal on Nyx holding?”

“For now. But it wouldn’t be surprising if it broke anytime. We can’t keep relying on the High Priest and Lord Diazi to pour their divine power into it forever.”

Jonas buried his face in his hands, rubbing it tiredly.

“Ha… This is troublesome.”

Seeing his genuine frustration, I let out a small laugh. There was something oddly disarming about knowing that even others saw no clear solution.

“Lord McFoy, if there’s anything more I can do to help, just say the word,” he offered.

“Your words alone are appreciated,” I replied nonchalantly. Jonas sighed softly, likely thinking my indifferent tone was an attempt to mask deep disappointment—and to some extent, he wasn’t wrong.

“…I feel bad for bringing up more grim topics, but there are new rumors spreading up to the North. Have you heard?”

Jonas, likely because of Archie, showed an unusual amount of concern for McFoy’s wellbeing. His support was always genuine, and he was the only outsider with whom I felt comfortable discussing such matters.

“Do you think there’s anything I don’t know? It’s probably about the rumors that the crown prince and McFoy aren’t on good terms,” I said.

“What are you planning to do? Even if the rumors are unfavorable to the crown prince, he’s still the emperor’s sole heir. Picking a fight with him won’t benefit McFoy.”

The North’s mountainous terrain made it the slowest region for rumors to spread. If even the North had caught wind of it, the matter was already common knowledge in the central regions.

“The crown prince was indeed reckless in stirring up trouble in Romdak.”

Billinent had foolishly meddled with intelligence networks, targeting Kano, my right-hand man in McFoy. It was inevitable that such a thing would lead to unpleasant rumors.

“Our naïve crown prince probably didn’t think using an ‘informant’ would cause rumors. He likely doesn’t even realize that digging into my affairs and preparing to oppose McFoy has itself become a piece of intelligence. He’s utterly clueless about the sensitivity of this issue.”

“…Lord McFoy, you don’t mean—”

Jonas frowned slightly as he listened. As a peace-loving man, he often looked like he might faint from my plans.

“I’ll inflate the rumors as much as possible. Make them provocative.”

“Oh, Lord McFoy. I implore you to consider quietly quelling the rumors instead. Are you really planning to fully antagonize the crown prince?”

“That fool needs to be taught a lesson before he heads to Baghdad. Something to jolt him awake. Once punished, he’ll face restrictions on his movements, and his guards under the guise of ‘protection’ will double in number.”

“This is about his coming-of-age ceremony, isn’t it?”

“To some extent. Even I can’t teach him proper judgment in such a short time. This is the best I can do.”

Jonas nodded reluctantly, his expression sour but resigned.

“Well, then…”

This overly cautious man was undoubtedly about to voice another concern. Despite trying to block him out, his lowered voice reached me anyway.

“This too—is this your doing?”

“What are you referring to?” I asked, feigning ignorance with an air of confidence.

“It’s been discovered that a cultist group hiding in underground tunnels along the Seriya Mountain Range has been slaughtered en masse. Their remains stretch all the way to the northwest. I’ve covered it up for now, but…”

Well, this was news to me. But I had a pretty good idea who was responsible.

“Should we leave it as it is?” Jonas asked, sounding certain that McFoy was behind it. Given McFoy’s intense stance on cultists, it was a reasonable assumption. I took my time responding, keeping my voice calm.

“…No. That wasn’t my doing.”

“What—”

“Lord, it is time,” a voice called out, followed by a soft knock on the door, cutting off Jonas mid-sentence. A glance out the window revealed the sun sinking closer to the horizon.

“Let’s get going,” I said reflexively, though my body resisted moving. Jonas, already standing, looked at me curiously.

“Lord McFoy?”

“…Now that I think about it, it must’ve been my doing. I pushed them to the edge.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Cover it up quietly for now. And could you share the exact locations with my aide? McFoy will handle the rest and track any traces.”

Jonas nodded silently, his expression grave as the atmosphere in the room grew heavy. Only then did I rise from my seat.

“Lord McFoy, don’t overdo it,” Jonas said, his concern halting me mid-step. Every piece of news today had been grim. Nothing had improved; the problems only multiplied. There was a mountain of unresolved issues, yet I still had no clear solutions.

‘And yet, how strange.’

I still felt… good. From the half-open balcony window, the heated air carried the cheers of the estate’s residents. They were calling out to me.

My gaze drifted toward the window. The blazing sun was caught on the wall, and the sky around it had already turned crimson.

The sight had nothing to do with it, but suddenly, an image of Norma’s shy smile appeared in my mind. These days, I thought about him at the most unexpected times.

The problems were piling up, and the path ahead seemed increasingly unclear. Hearing it from someone else only made it feel more hopeless.

‘And yet, why do I feel like I can handle anything?’

I felt the involuntary tug of a smile on my lips. Slowly, I turned to face Jonas, who now looked as if he’d seen something utterly unexpected.

“No. I will give it my all. I will survive, no matter what,” I said, my voice surprisingly calm and tinged with an easy confidence.

“You saw earlier, didn’t you? There are two people now who look only to me. My household has grown, and if I fall now, things will be even worse than they were a year ago.”

The image of Norma’s face from when we parted earlier flashed through my mind, and I couldn’t help but burst into laughter again. Jonas’s expression, watching me, was more peculiar than ever.

“So, Jonas, I will find a way to survive.”