“Haa…”

Exhausted, Cazerose returned to her room.

At this moment, her mind was filled with thoughts of how she could escape from this place, as her mother had anticipated.

“Honestly… I should have just stayed away from here…”

Having left Santana’s side, Cazerose had returned to her hometown, the Dragona Empire’s Sophia.

To be honest, there were two main reasons she returned to this place from which she’d fled, despite not wanting to be separated from that man for even a moment.

The first reason was seeing Santana, who was in a similar situation yet had returned to meet his family, making her realize that she couldn’t continue living as she was now.

Even though her mother had opposed her desires and pushed her own agenda, Cazerose couldn’t help but think that, just like Santana’s parents worried about him, her own mother would be concerned about her. Thus, though reluctantly, Cazerose felt it was time to at least show her face after such a long time.

The second reason was the precarious situation surrounding Bohemia, which Santana constantly worried about and looked dangerously unstable from her perspective.

While they had achieved a miraculous victory through Santana’s outstanding strategy that even predicted the weather, the damage Bohemia had suffered was far from negligible.

Meanwhile, the Sacred Empire, possessing overwhelming national power and territory that even the Dragona Empire couldn’t recklessly challenge, could easily rebuild its forces with just a little time. In fact, the Emperor’s army had already dispatched a force equal to the invading troops that had entered Bohemia, swallowing Palatinate.

Thus, the overall situation loomed as a great crisis for Bohemia. Cazerose was determined to leverage her status as a princess of the Dragona Empire…

She had decided, albeit regretfully, to come here to help Santana.

However…

At this moment, Cazerose was greatly regretting her hasty “return home.”

The return of Cazerose, the youngest daughter who had run away years ago.

Her parents, especially her mother and the Duchess Kattlena, the ruler of Sophia, expressed great joy and even held a grand banquet in celebration of her return.

But…

What followed was a drastic contrast to Cazerose’s expectations.

Before coming here, Cazerose thought as follows.

Although Santana was the son of a count of the enemy state, the area he belonged to, Bohemia, was currently in rebellion against the Sacred Empire and had even defeated the Emperor’s army in battle.

In other words, following the logic of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Cazerose believed that at this point, there was sufficient justification and benefit for the Dragona Empire to ally with Bohemia and the Heretic Forces.

From the Dragona Empire’s perspective, if the neighboring strong nation, the Sacred Empire, were to divide and weaken, it would surely bring numerous benefits.

With that perspective, Cazerose tried to persuade her mother, the Duchess, to initiate an alliance between the Dragona Empire and Bohemia, but…

Her attempts were outright rejected by her mother.

When Cazerose, filled with disappointment and bewilderment, questioned her mother about the reasoning, her mother answered firmly.

“Because it goes against the direction of the Dragona Empire. The path we must take is towards the endless expanse of territory in the east, not the chaos happening in the west.”

Although the Dragona Empire had only existed for a little over 200 years, its territory could rival the 600-year-old strong nations like the Sacred Empire or the Turk Empire. In fact, it was currently expanding at a rapid pace.

The reason was that while the powerful nations in the west fought tooth and nail amongst themselves, the Dragona Empire had turned its eyes towards the east, which, although barren, was relatively easy to conquer due to the lack of castles or territories in the way.

Modernly speaking, the Dragona Empire had effectively tapped into a blue ocean market.

Thanks to this, the Dragona Empire incurred almost no losses in national power while acquiring that vast territory and could constantly and rapidly expand its influence.

For this reason…

The Dragona Empire had consistently ignored whatever was happening in the west as long as it didn’t inflict direct harm on them, resulting in no nations daring to declare war on the Dragona Empire.

Although they were a nation of heretics, entirely different from the Church and Heretical doctrines, any ruler who thought rationally would conclude that there was no reason to poke the sleeping dragon.

Thus, due to this policy, the Dragona Empire had been disregarding the issues of the Sacred Empire, which had undergone significant divisions due to religious conflicts.

They believed there was no need to concern themselves with those who were fighting amongst themselves.

Moreover, this could backfire, with the risk that the nobles of the divided Sacred Empire might band together once again to confront the “invader.”

For these reasons, the Duchess Kattlena could only firmly reject her daughter’s assertion that it was the perfect opportunity to topple the Sacred Empire. Cazerose was left feeling greatly disappointed and was about to return to Santana.

However, in response to Cazerose’s statement that if she couldn’t receive help, there was no point in staying, her mother effectively imposed a house arrest on her as an answer.

While she couldn’t provide assistance, she had no intention of sending her beloved daughter once more into that perilous place.

Thus, Cazerose ultimately spent today wracking her brain on how to escape under tight surveillance. Unfortunately, at this moment, no useful thoughts were coming to her mind.

“… Haa… If it were Santana, he would have figured out an escape method by now. Why can’t I seem to think of a good plan?”

It had been less than two months since she arrived here.

Yet…

Even so, she was already feeling an overwhelming urge to see Santana’s face.

The man who had brought light to her life, the one she truly loved.

As she thought about wanting to see his face, even just once, Cazerose was anxiously pacing in front of her door, contemplating how to escape without being seen by the soldiers keeping watch.

“The front door is definitely impossible… But jumping out the window is completely out of the question as well. With my current aura, flying isn’t an option and, crucially, there are Sirens patrolling outside right now…”

The situation was one where even a speck of dust escaping from her room was thoroughly controlled.

And unless some unexpected chaos erupted, there was virtually no chance of her being able to do anything reckless here in Sophia, so she knew well that hoping for such luck was foolish.

*

“Well, have you found out anything?”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Before her, a woman knelt.

As the Duchess Kattlena looked at the letter she presented, her expression turned slightly surprised.

“Ak-hon?”

“Yes, it seems so. It appears they acted right after Lady Cazerose left.”

“…Understood. You may leave.”

“Yes.”

After handing over the letter, the woman vanished from the room.

Immediately afterward…

A deep anger began to settle on Duchess Kattlena’s face.

‘Santana… You bastard… How dare you toy with our daughter?’