The Emperor's shout rang across the area. At that same instant, thunder surged forward in waves, like a golden tsunami sweeping toward them.

The countless arrows surrounding Sister Glasses were destroyed all at once before they could enter their target's body and spill blood across the ground.

Even when the papal soldiers fired a rain of arrows, all they managed to create before Sister Glasses was a mass of black ashes.

She walked out of the imperial palace on a powerful gust of wind, and with every step, the ashes scattered rapidly.

Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop.

The approaching footsteps weren't trampling on the hearts of the papal soldiers, but the force behind them was as though it meant to crush them beneath its feet, greatly intensifying the oppressive atmosphere in the area.

With a single person, she created an atmosphere of terror that made her enemies afraid.

Now that she had appeared, the misfortune belonging to all of them had begun.

Hundreds of bolts of lightning struck down from the heavens, taking dozens of lives with every impact.

In an instant, the number of papal soldiers who had formed such a huge army became far smaller than before.

Deterred by that imposing figure, neither the elite soldiers nor the cannon fodder advanced to fight. They merely maintained the encirclement.

Thanks to this, Isabella was able to reach Sister Glasses and perform the following act.

She held out her little finger. Even though Sister Glasses had no strength left at all, Isabella still pulled her finger over and linked it with her own in a pinky promise.

“The promise we made back then must still be kept by the person who became Emperor. You’re the one who serves me—what right do you have to give up halfway?”

In many important ways, she still hadn't changed from the little girl she had been back then.

After being able to accompany someone like that for so many years, Sister Glasses had almost no regrets left about her life.

If there was one thing she absolutely had to say before dying, it would surely be this:

“Your Majesty, considering how hard I've worked all these years... could you maybe—raise my monthly salary a little?”

Saying something like that at the moment between life and death was practically an atmosphere-breaker.

But as it turned out, Sister Glasses wasn't the only one who did that. Isabella was exactly the same.

“Don’t change the subject. Those are two different matters. Your salary and pension still can’t be increased!”

As if she wanted to make sure her trusted aide could die with no regrets, Isabella answered at once. She had no intention of offering comfort or even considering the request.

From childhood to adulthood, she had always been this uncompromising when it came to matters of principle.

“Hearing that at the final moment... I feel like I might not be able to stop myself from cursing you once I reach the other world...”

“You’re not going to die!”

Isabella took a white herb from inside her clothes and kneaded it into a ball. Then she used her fingers to pry Sister Glasses's mouth open.

She grabbed the herb, now curled into a ball, and stuffed it directly into Sister Glasses's mouth.

Given where they were, it was absolutely impossible to give Sister Glasses some water to help her swallow. She'd just have to force it down like this.

“It tastes awful.”

“It is grass, after all. Even though it’s an ancestral miracle medicine for treating injuries, it was never going to taste like meat.”

Just as Isabella had said:

The “awful-tasting grass” left behind by their ancestors had an extraordinarily long shelf life and was enough to save someone on the verge of death, but it truly had no value whatsoever as food.

No matter how awful it tasted, though, the person taking it wasn't allowed to spit it out.

After all:

“This herb is very expensive. It’s worth ten years of your salary, and there’s only one piece. You can’t waste it.”

Isabella had originally prepared this herb for herself.

Even someone as powerful as her couldn't guarantee that she would never suffer a fatal injury in battle. The fact that it hadn't happened before didn't mean it never would.

With it, Isabella effectively had a second life.

But if she kept the herb for herself, Sister Glasses would definitely die soon from the severity of her injuries.

Between her own second life and the life of her trusted aide, she ultimately chose the latter.

The reason was easy to understand:

“You’ve been running errands for me for so many years. I’d have a hard time getting used to someone else.”

Those were Isabella's completely genuine feelings.

Perhaps because she had considered this possibility from the beginning, once Sister Glasses's complexion improved slightly, Isabella took another object from inside her clothes.

A teleportation scroll. It could move a target from their current starting point to a destination that had been set in advance.

That place was extremely safe. The people who had temporarily left the city were there as well.

“Your mission is over. It’s time for the Emperor to handle her own work!”

After activating the teleportation array on Sister Glasses's behalf, Isabella gave her a meaningful look, silently urging her to leave.

An imperial command could not be disobeyed.

Sister Glasses treasured this new life, granted to her by the person she served, and walked toward the teleportation array with gratitude in her heart.

Once both of Sister Glasses's feet had stepped into the array, one after the other, Isabella could no longer hold herself back.

If she didn't say it now, she might never have another chance!

Even though Isabella had prepared herself for the worst—that she might die in battle—she still couldn't suppress the words inside her, the ones that might represent a farewell for the rest of their lives:

“Shetiwa, I need to make this clear:

That herb wasn’t free. The cost will be deducted from your future salary! For the next ten whole years, you can look forward to working hard to pay off your debt.”

When Sister Glasses heard this terrible news, she felt as though her heart had been completely blocked up. It ached and ached with a swelling pain...

As the magical light spread, the person being teleported left the city.

The papal soldiers were utterly miserable when the target they'd nearly killed escaped so easily.

“Let this place become hell. From this moment on, the only thing needed to paint the ground is your blood!”

After sending her trusted aide away, Isabella could finally fight the enemy before her without holding back.

Thanks to Cai helping remove the curse, Isabella felt that after the negative influence inside her body had been cleared away, her strength had become even greater than it had been a short while ago.

She had risen from the “City-Toppling” level to the “Quasi-Nation-Toppling” level, and that included the power of the “Holy Banner.”

Thanks to this increase in level, the crusaders who had once been somewhat troublesome no longer posed the slightest threat to her.

Just as the papal soldiers thought their deaths had arrived, an unexpected fighting force—unexpected to both sides—came to this crucial battlefield.

His defining feature could be summed up in one sentence:

His entire body was covered in full plate armor...

Since quite a few of Dibiles's allies in the surrounding area had been wiped out, the Northern Marshal could use the teleportation arrays belonging to those vassal nations.

With the teleportation arrays to aid him, he was able to reach the imperial capital faster than planned.

Even so, it was already late by the time he arrived. It was past two in the afternoon.

The lower-ranking soldiers didn't know much about the situation. They merely saw the emblem of the Inran Empire on the Northern Marshal and assumed he was one of their own.

Since the most troublesome enemy had a “fellow soldier” to deal with him, why should they stay here?

“We’ll leave this place to you. We’ll go fight somewhere else first, then come back and support you after we deal with the stragglers nearby.”

After leaving behind a lie that could be pierced with a single poke, all the remaining papal soldiers withdrew from the area.

Even the crusaders, who had never cared about life or death, chose to temporarily avoid this powerful opponent so they could complete as many missions as possible before they died.

With only one opponent left, Isabella studied the Northern Marshal.

“The crest on your armor is... Oh, you have nothing to do with the Papal State. You’re from Inran.”

Isabella identified the enemy's affiliation at a glance, but unfortunately, she was only half right.

“That’s right. Until this moment, I was indeed still Inran’s marshal. But from now on, I can cast that identity aside.”

“You betrayed them, man?”

“No. I was never truly loyal to the empire. The reason I maintained that identity until now was always for days like this.”

Isabella didn't quite understand, so the Northern Marshal seemed to remind her by deliberately bringing up the past:

“Don’t remember? You once personally visited Inran as the ruler of a nation.

“When the Empress met with you at the time, didn’t she have a group of guards with her?”

“Get to the point. Don’t waste time spouting nonsense!”

Ignoring Isabella's impatient attitude, the Northern Marshal continued explaining at his own pace:

“At the time, I was among those guards, watching you from neither a close nor distant position.”

His reminder jogged the memory of Isabella, whose recall was excellent:

“There seemed to be a guard in full plate armor among the Inran troops that followed Xiyun here.”

Recalling the scene from back then and looking at the person standing before her now, she connected the two figures and made them one.

“You’re that guard?”

After being recognized, the Northern Marshal let out a cold, sinister laugh. The sound alone made it clear how pleased he was.

“The reason I became Inran’s marshal and stayed in the empire for a time was to pass the time while using my position to find a suitable target.”

“...”

Isabella hadn't asked, but the Northern Marshal seemed determined to share his joy, so he continued the subject on his own:

“I was looking for a woman who caught my eye. For that purpose, I worked hard to climb to my current position, and I searched throughout Inran many times.”

However, the results of his search had been less than satisfactory.

As mentioned before:

The men and women of Inran were quite open in that regard, and many of the young women were rather amorous.

Women like that were popular with many men on the continent, but the Northern Marshal happened not to like that type.

His ideal woman had to possess the following traits:

Conservative, devoted, and constantly restraining herself with a sense of propriety.

By that standard, only two women in the Northern Marshal's social circle met his requirements.

The first was Ye Chuxue.

In theory, this princess knight should have been the Northern Marshal's best target. She was also in the same country as him, making her relatively convenient to pursue.

But! If the Northern Marshal wanted to pursue Ye Chuxue, there was one thing he could never put his mind at ease about.

Ye Chuxue always wore a mask. Other than her older sister, Ye Xiyun, no one had ever seen her true face.

The Northern Marshal was worried that Ye Chuxue might turn out to be an ugly woman once she removed her mask.

Put simply, he was a man who judged by looks, too!

Since he didn't want to take the risk—or rather, didn't dare take a risk in that regard—the Northern Marshal decided not to consider Ye Chuxue.

That left Isabella as his only remaining hunting target.