“And just like that, we flew back to Tallocium again...!”

The first floor of the Agavert base.

After finishing her long explanation in front of the five men, Tie panted heavily.

Watching her, Alexander finally couldn’t hold back and wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes.

“Huh? Younger uncle is crying!”

Tie immediately ran over and climbed onto his lap.

“Uncle, was Tie’s story about Jongno that sad?”

“Mhm, so touching it brings tears. And it makes me proud too.”

He gently stroked her cheek.

“But it must have been good for you, Tie. You got to see the people you missed.”

“Mhm!”

Tie looked around at the other family members sitting nearby.

“I’m glad I got to say goodbye to Auntie and Grandma. It’s sad to part, but if you can say goodbye, it hurts a little less.”

As he listened, Edmund silently watched Tie.

Sitting on Alexander’s lap, Tie chirped on about everything that had happened in Jongno.

‘At first, it was hard to believe.’

Allerik and Ribia.

The stories told by Tesetan’s subordinates who had returned from the clock tower mission sounded more absurd than the last.

‘It’s true! It’s /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ true! The Squad Leader is the deputy’s daughter! I saw it with my own eyes!’

That Astie was Tesetan’s biological child.

That meant Tesetan had already gotten himself into trouble at least by the age of fifteen.

However—

‘Before he left the estate, the youngest had no women.’

Brothers who lived and trained together couldn’t possibly be unaware of each other’s routines.

Back then, Tesetan had been as consistent as Leonardo, as calculating as Alexander, and as efficiency-driven as Edmund.

In other words—

‘He barely left the estate.’

If Tesetan went out, it was only for the training grounds.

Conversations with women, even exchanging glances—there had been nothing of the sort.

It got to the point where the silent brothers began to discuss his preferences.

‘Brothers. Why doesn’t Theseos dance?’

‘He probably doesn’t want to.’

‘But he just refused Lady Betheline.’

‘Really?’

‘I’m telling you. Look, now he’s turned down Lady Roana too.’

‘......Maybe he just doesn’t like women?’

Of course, what Tesetan did after leaving the family was something Edmund couldn’t know.

‘But still.’

Judging from what he knew of him, it was unlikely that Tesetan could have easily opened his heart to someone in those early years away from home.

At the time, he had seemed weighed down by a deep sense of guilt toward his mother.

Yet the longer the conversation with the Agavert members went on, the more inconsistencies surfaced.

‘Look! They look alike! I didn’t see it at first, but now—it’s the same face!’

Especially when Ribia somehow produced a childhood portrait of Eleanor and placed it before them.

‘The eyes! The nose! The mouth! Even that expression is the same!’

‘Ribia, this is getting a bit...’

‘Just look! I’m telling the truth!’

Valentis and the three princes were left speechless.

No one knew where she had gotten it, but the girl in the portrait bore a striking resemblance to Astie.

‘Where did you even—’

‘Who in the Empire doesn’t know Eleanor Richard? The woman with the greatest holy power in history.’

‘......’

‘I got the portrait through her close friend, Lady Selina. Her mother is the head of the Vellora trading house.’

The princes couldn’t tear their eyes away from the portrait for a long time.

Valentis, too, remained silent.

Then the door opened, and a boy entered—Astie’s summon.

‘Hey, black monster! Come on, spit it out! What were you doing with the Squad Leader in that Jongno place? How did the deputy and the Squad Leader live there!’

Lucarion’s account contained everything Edmund needed.

The story of Astie and Tesetan.

And all the proof that they were family.

And two days after that—

Tesetan and Astie returned safely to Tallocium.

And now Valentis and the princes were seeing it all with their own eyes.

“Papa!”

“Daughter.”

When Tesetan returned from the dining hall, Tie jumped up.

She ran over and threw herself into his arms.

Tesetan smiled and rubbed his nose against hers.

Then he placed the foldable wooden chair he had brought in front of Valentis.

“Sit here.”

Valentis looked up in surprise.

The same expression appeared on his brothers’ faces.

And no wonder—Valentis was already sitting on a soft sofa.

Yet suddenly, he was being asked to move to a wooden chair.

Edmund’s brows furrowed.

‘I thought it had gotten better.’

It seemed the habit of treating his father coldly as a defensive response hadn’t disappeared.

Just as he was about to say something—

“...Thank you.”

Valentis stood up and, without hesitation, moved to the chair.

A faint smile even formed on his lips.

Soon, Tesetan sat beside him with Tie and said:

“Belsat poison can last up to ten years.”

The expressions of the three princes grew even more confused.

At that moment, Valentis—somewhat tense for some reason—spoke:

“...I didn’t think you remembered.”

Tesetan’s gaze shifted to his father, whose hand rested on his left knee.

“I couldn’t forget. That day, you took down dozens of belsats alone.”

Valentis’s eyes trembled slightly.

The day they lost Eleanor.

In that chaotic battle on the wasteland, Tesetan hadn’t been the only one pushed to the brink.

While Tesetan spiraled out of control and Eleanor tried to save him—

Valentis had been fighting as well, protecting his wife and child.

“I learned about it later, when I was a mercenary. The blue secretion from a belsat’s fangs...”

“......”

“...if it enters a joint, it destroys the nerves.”

That day—

The protective gear on Valentis’s left leg had been destroyed at the very start of the battle.

That was the cause.

When Valentis tried to shield Tesetan and Eleanor, a belsat he hadn’t noticed bit into his knee.

The monster’s fangs pierced unprotected flesh.

The pain in his left knee had begun that day.

“...I never told anyone.”

Valentis gave a faint smile, and Edmund abruptly stood.

“Father. Is that true?”

His voice mixed shock and concern as his gaze flicked between Valentis and his knee.

“Why would you hide something like that for so long...!”

“There’s no solution anyway.”

Belsats were cursed creatures.

Their poison had no antidote, and attempting to cleanse it with holy power caused unbearable pain.

In other words, it was pain Valentis would have to live with until his death.

“It’s nothing. I can live with it.”

After answering, Valentis looked at Tesetan with a strange expression.

Something stirred hotly in his chest.

‘You’ve changed, Tesetan.’

The youngest son who had silently left the estate after Eleanor’s death.

The one who pushed his family away and refused to speak.

‘If you’ve changed...’

“Grandpa, does your knee hurt?”

Tie approached, frowning slightly, and rested her cheek against his knee.

In her mind, a conversation with Tesetan on the way here surfaced.

‘Astie has shown both holy power and magic. The Order will inevitably take interest in her.’

“Tie can make Grandpa a special sturdy chair at the base!”

‘...If it comes to that, I’ll fight.’

Valentis’s gaze darkened.

There was nothing in the world a parent wouldn’t do for their child.

And the proof of that was in Tesetan’s eyes—exactly like Eleanor’s.

Those same eyes she had turned back to him with in her final moment, as she ran toward their rampaging son.

“I don’t need a chair, child.”

Tie’s eyes widened in surprise.

Valentis gently stroked her head.

“I’ll make one for you.”

“Huh?”

“A place where no wind can reach you, and no blade can touch you.”

“......”

“I’ll make you that kind of chair. I promise.”