Why were the Empire’s elites here?
Serena already knew the answer to that question.
She took a deep breath and gently closed her eyes. In that momentary respite, she could clearly see it in her mind —
She saw the glass bottle containing the Purple Potion that Anna had held up earlier.
“Has the Empire… already mastered the ability to control magic monsters?”
“I have nothing to say, Madam.”
There was indeed nothing left to say.
When the facts were laid bare before one’s eyes, what need was there for words to explain them?
Was the sound of the magic monsters still echoing in the forest behind her not enough to reveal the truth?
“Madam, do you have any final words? According to Marquis Sirius’s wishes, your disappearance will be described as an unfortunate incident involving magic monsters.”
‘Disappearance,’ an unfortunate encounter with magic monsters… heh, haha.
Serena stopped responding. Instead, she focused inward, sensing her remaining Mana.
Her Mana was, in fact, nearly depleted.
Even if she used this meager residue to activate Transfer Magic, let alone whether it could teleport her and the young girl she was holding to safety, she would be completely immobilized afterward.
She had never felt so-called despair in the face of a desperate situation.
But —
It was just like ten years ago when she lost her lover. Now, she was about to be parted forever from her daughter…
Why… why was she always losing everything?
All she desired, all she had ever pursued, was simply to live in peace with her family… Merciful White God, was that truly such a secondary, extravagant wish?
In that instant, Serena’s nose stung. She tilted her head back slightly, trying to blink back the warmth gathering in the corners of her eyes.
But —
“Madam… put me down.”
The voice was very faint, coming from her arms.
Serena lowered her gaze again, looking down at the girl in her embrace.
“Put me down… I can… handle this…”
Though the words were halting, they were definitely spoken by the girl she was holding.
Put her down? Handle it? What did she want to — !
A sharp sting pricked her skin as Anna gave her a light nip. That single action caused Serena’s hands to loosen instinctively, and Anna tumbled from her arms.
Like a cat rolling before hitting the ground, Anna twisted half a turn in mid-air and managed a shaky landing.
The girl brandished her Dagger once more, shielding Serena.
“Madam… can you use… Flight Magic… or something similar?”
Serena could hear the weakness in the girl’s voice.
Yet, this girl had not given up.
“Madam… you… Flight Magic — “
“I can use it, but my remaining Mana is too low. Even without these people, I wouldn’t be able to fly you out of here directly. The most I can manage right now is to hover in the air for a short moment.”
After the words fell, Anna fell silent.
But the slight curve of her lips seemed to answer Serena: ‘That’s enough.’
“Madam… in three seconds… run… behind you… don’t stop. I’ll catch up… quickly. Run toward the… five o’clock direction… get ready — “
Three.
Anna suddenly reached behind her back, grabbing something from her waist pouch.
Two.
Anna jerked her hand forward. It was a slightly damaged glass bottle, yet the small amount of purple liquid inside was strikingly vivid.
This was a small amount of the potion Anna had kept for herself.
One.
Before the Imperial elites could charge, the glass bottle in Anna’s hand was slammed down —
“Run!!”
Her exhausted body suddenly found strength from nowhere after that shout.
The moment the glass bottle shattered, the surrounding ground began to tremble slightly.
Serena focused only on running forward, even brushing past magic monsters…
She didn’t know how much time Anna’s potion could buy against those elites, but all she could do now was trust the girl.
Soon, the girl’s brown hair appeared in the corner of her vision.
At that moment, a strange sense of — exhilaration — suddenly surged in Serena’s heart.
‘If my little Elena could be freed from the name “Witch,” would I ever have a day where I could run with her like this?’
“Madam! We… can’t outrun… the people… behind us!”
Yes, Serena knew that.
After all, the sounds of the magic monsters behind them had long since vanished, and both her and Anna’s bodies were almost at their limits.
But Serena continued to run forward.
She had a feeling that the girl beside her truly had a way to escape their current predicament —
“Ahead — cough, cough!”
A sudden shortness of breath caused Anna to lose her balance.
But just as Anna was about to fall to the ground, Serena grabbed her hand.
Serena pulled with a sudden burst of strength, instantly hoisting the falling girl back up. The two continued to run forward, hand in hand, toward the front —
Toward the place where the cliff lay.
“Madam! Jump!”
To jump off a cliff in front of everyone, to take a path that led to certain death — and then, just as they were about to crash into the valley floor, to use the last bit of Mana to trade for a few moments of hovering with incomplete Flight Magic.
‘Do you trust me?’
Serena, who had intended to ask that question, simply smiled the moment her eyes met Anna’s.
There was no need to ask.
The moment their feet left the ground, Anna threw herself into Serena’s embrace.
Jump. Jump into the embrace of the abyss.
Jump into the depths of the rift, toward death — and then struggle once more, resisting fate one more time!
The wind roared past their ears, rushing up above the cliff and past the Imperial elites who watched in silence.
Gravity inverted in that moment.
The sky was beneath their feet, while the earth was above their heads.
And so, two souls “rising” from the sky plummeted toward the dim valley floor.
Just as the figures of the elites were about to vanish from sight —
Now!
Squeezing every last drop of Mana from her body, Serena finally caused the faint light of a Hexagram to flare behind her.
‘Fly…’
Accompanied by a flash of light, a surge of lift slammed into Serena’s back.
‘Fly.’
The light flashed again, like invisible, giant wings pulling them up once more.
‘Fly, fly!’
‘Toward the sky I fell from, fly!’
Snap.
It was the mournful cry of broken wings.
The Hexagram shattered behind Serena, along with the only source of light.
The valley floor after the light vanished was so dim, so cold…
Serena’s tears finally fell.
When she received the news of her husband’s death, she hadn’t cried, so as not to make the child in her arms wail in grief.
When she passed by Elena’s room at night and saw her daughter curled up in pain while suppressing the Mana in her body, she had forced herself not to shed a tear.
When she made her promise and said her goodbyes to her daughter this morning, she still hadn’t let the tears burst from her eyes.
But at this moment, she wept.
Was it because… she was going to die?
Death wasn’t frightening; given her physical condition, she didn’t have much time left anyway.
But…
But she hadn’t been able to say goodbye to Elena.
She hadn’t been able to say “I’m sorry”…
‘Elena, my only daughter…’
‘Mother is sorry. Mother is so useless… Mother couldn’t even stay by your side.’
‘Mother wanted to watch you grow up, watch you marry, and see you smile in the arms of the person you love.’
‘Then I would see you have your own children, see you have your own family…’
‘Mother just, just wanted to see you — ‘
‘See you smile again.’
“Happy birthday, my dear little Elena… Mother will always love you.”