Yu Na-gyeong was staring down in a daze at London, which had all but become a battlefield.

BOOM!

["Oh my God!"]

Her initial shock at seeing something suddenly drop out of the sky lasted only a moment. Then her eyes went wide.

["Countess?!"]

A bloodless, pallid face. A uniform burned and scorched in places. And above all, an arm hanging limp, with fresh blood staining her lips and scattered across her uniform.

As Yu Na-gyeong stared in horror at Rose, who looked for all the world as though she had fallen after sustaining serious injuries in a fierce battle, an anguished cry rang through the air.

"How... how could this happen...!"

Yu Na-gyeong looked up at the lament, which sounded more agonized than a scream, and flinched.

An old man floated in the air, his clothes slashed and torn to tatters, though not as badly as Rose's. Karl's face was so hideously fierce that it inspired instinctive fear.

"You actually brought the mist of the Misty hours back to London!"

Karl howled as though he had witnessed an atrocity beyond imagining.

To him, the resurrection of the Great Barrier of London, which he had barely managed to destroy after devoting half his life to the task, was that devastating.

That was why he fixed Rose with a venomous stare.

"Countess Rose, how exactly do you intend to answer for this?"

"I merely made the best decision I could to protect London."

"You fool!"

Unlike her battered, wounded body, Rose's reply did not waver in the slightest. Karl roared in frustration.

Of course, he was not blind. He could plainly see both the shadow monsters attacking London and the ghosts fighting them.

It was not as though he could not understand why Rose had helped the witches do this.

But even so...

No, precisely because of that, he ground his teeth and shouted,

"Have you still not realized? This is all a conspiracy by the witches!"

"What do you mean?"

"They unleashed the monsters to throw London into chaos, then pretended to solve the problem so they could revive the Great Barrier!"

"..."

Rose remained silent. She was at a loss for how to respond to this preposterous conspiracy theory.

It was Yu Na-gyeong who opened her beak in Rose's stead, looking distinctly unimpressed.

["Wow, that old guy has some serious nerve..."]

Cir also gave a derisive chuckle.

"Hehehe. An asshole only sees other assholes, doesn't he?"

Their reactions were only natural. Creating a problem himself and then solving it was the very method Karl had used to corner House Seaserpent.

Then again, perhaps that was why he was so certain of this conspiracy theory. As Cir had said, people tended to believe others could do whatever they themselves were capable of.

"Lord Karl, please stop this."

"Stop what? Those wicked witches are trying to control London however they please!"

"Did I not tell you that this is not the witches' doing, but a plot by the Liberation Brigade?"

Rose spoke calmly. Despite the blood and wounds covering her body, her unwavering, earnest expression and clear eyes held a sincerity that would have made anyone instinctively nod in agreement.

Unfortunately, Karl was not among that 'anyone.'

"The Liberation Brigade? Do you think that trash could possibly pull off something like this?"

"By the same token, the witches have no motive for doing this either."

"Ha! A motive? They have more than enough!"

Karl roared. Then, with blazing eyes, he glared at Cir behind Rose... no, at the witch spirits around her as well, and bellowed,

"Because I destroyed the Misty hours! They did this because they fear the truth about the Great Barrier of London being exposed!"

"... The truth about the Great Barrier of London? What are you talking about?"

"The price paid to create it!"

In a voice that tore through the air, Karl cried out the reason he had come to resent the witches of the twenty-seven magical lineages—and the truth he had sought to uncover by studying the Misty hours since before he became a Monarch.

"That all those people who vanished during the Misty hours over the past several decades, including my daughter Amelia, were used as sacrifices for the Great Barrier of London!"

* * *

Magic always required a price. The more powerful the magic, the greater that price, and even the Great Barrier of London could not escape that law.

It was even said that the three Great Witches, absolute beings of the Silver Age, had only been able to complete the Great Barrier because a god had paid the price for them.

Having investigated the Great Barrier of London for many years, Karl knew that well.

That was why he had begun to wonder how the witches of the twenty-seven magical lineages had managed to revive such great magic. Even if they were the successors of the three Great Witches known as the Ladies of the Lake, they could not have ignored magic's price.

According to Karl's investigations, there was only one price that could have made it possible: human lives.

And not merely one or two, but human sacrifice on an immense scale, paid for with hundreds upon thousands of lives.

"... That is an utterly unfounded misunderstanding."

Rose's expression remained perfectly calm. Yet, unlike her face and demeanor, her lake-clear eyes had grown deeply somber from the moment she heard the words 'human sacrifice.'

It was as though the accusation had struck home, and she was trying to conceal the turmoil in her heart.

The shrewd old Karl did not miss her unease.

"A misunderstanding? Then answer me. What price did the witches of the twenty-seven magical lineages pay to raise the Great Barrier of London?"

"Surely you know that divine relics disappeared from London at the time, Lord Karl."

"Hah! Do you think such things could pay for the Great Barrier of London? At most, they served as its anchors!"

"..."

If magic on the scale of the Great Barrier could have been cast for so small a price, the Silver Age would never have fallen so easily.

After stating this coldly, Karl sneered at the silent Rose.

"Well? Will you now admit that the Great Barrier of London is a product of black magic?"

"... I acknowledge that there is room for misunderstanding. But I swear on my honor that the Great Barrier of London is not black magic."

"Don't talk nonsense! How can magic that uses humans as sacrifices be anything but black magic?"

Rose remained silent. The certainty in Karl's eyes told her all she needed to know.

He had already decided on his answer and fitted every piece of reasoning to it. Persuasion would never work on him.

There was only one option left: to use something other than words.

As she hesitated, unable to bring herself to decide, a voice reached her ears.

"Hey, Countess. Why not just show him?"

"...!"

Rose turned her head with a start.

How long had he been there? Leaning against a chimney with his arms folded, a black-haired young man was watching her. She looked flustered at the sight.

"Why have you come here?"

"Why else? I came to see what was taking that old hag Cir so long."

"It is too dangerous here!"

"I can tell that just by looking at you, Countess."

"That's..."

She had been so composed only moments ago. But under Limon's gaze, Rose suddenly became conscious of her appearance and blushed.

She hurriedly pulled her coat closed to hide her tattered uniform and the skin exposed through it.

Limon, however, paid no mind to her appearance. He simply said offhandedly,

"Anyway, from what I've heard, that senile fool seems to have gotten a pretty ridiculous idea into his head. Since it's come to this, just lay it all out and show him."

"What are you asking me to show him?"

"The price paid to raise the Great Barrier of London during the Demon God War."

Rose's face stiffened at those words.

"... You knew as well?"

"Yeah."

Rose's expression darkened at his utterly breezy affirmation.

Limon spoke to her matter-of-factly.

"I understand how you feel, Countess. I'm not exactly eager to do it either. But unless you show him, that senile fool will never accept it."

"It is not something I can show him simply because I wish to. Without the consent of the twenty-seven magical lineages..."

"To find out whether they'll agree, you first have to make up your own mind."

He would not force her. This was only his opinion.

Rose silently regarded Limon, who remained firm in his resolve to respect her choice, then turned her gaze to Cir.

Reading the deeply complicated meaning in her eyes, Cir smiled gently and spoke.

"I'm not one of the twenty-seven magical lineages, so I have no right to offer an opinion. But the other girls say they don't mind, as long as you're all right with it."

"I see..."

Did their consent feel so bitter because, deep down, she had hoped that at least the witches of the twenty-seven magical lineages would object?

For a moment, Rose looked bitter at her own irresponsibility in trying to leave the decision to someone else. Then, at last, she nodded.

"Please show him."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. It is something we should have done long ago."

Had they revealed the truth from the beginning, they might have prevented this catastrophe.

Their failure to reveal it until now was not solely because of their covenant with the twenty-seven lineages. Nor was it merely the Blue Dragon Clan's tendency to see others as weak and try to resolve everything themselves.

There was one overriding reason: it was an immense source of shame.

If the other clans learned of it, in particular, members of the Blue Dragon Clan would take their own lives in droves.

Cir gave a small chuckle as she watched Rose steel herself and decide to reveal everything despite knowing that.

Then she took out a blood-red pearl, rubbed it between her fingers, and murmured an incantation.

"Kidari keDiru Akidr."

RUMBLE...

The pearl rolling between Cir's fingers crumbled of its own accord, scattering powder through the air. Suddenly, a crystal pillar rose from the center of the magic circle.

Karl's eyebrows bristled at the sight.

"What wicked trick are you trying to pull now?"

"There is no need for alarm. This is merely the answer to your question, Lord Karl."

"The answer to my question?"

Karl looked puzzled. Rose spoke to him evenly.

"Did you not ask what price was paid to raise the Great Barrier of London during the Demon God War?"

"What does that have to do with this—!"

Karl had been about to challenge Rose's words in disbelief when he suddenly flinched.

Only then, through its slightly translucent surface, did he notice that there was something inside the crystal pillar that had risen from the magic circle.

SNAP!

As though helping him get a better look, Cir snapped her fingers lightly, an enigmatic smile on her lips. The translucent crystal gradually cleared, revealing its interior.

When the contents of the crystal pillar were finally revealed, Karl's eyes bulged.

"... This is..."

Antique armor. Gently lowered brows. A face as beautiful as a sculpture.

Karl caught his breath as he stared at the woman's corpse resting quietly within the crystal pillar, looking almost asleep.

Though she was clearly a stranger, her appearance seemed strangely familiar, and an air of pure, aloof nobility could be felt even through the crystal.

Above all, her vivid blue hair filled Karl's eyes with horror.

"She is... surely not...!"

"This is the secret our clan has been hiding."

Rose spoke evenly. Then she revealed the identity of the corpse in the crystal pillar... no, the crystal coffin—the identity Karl suspected but could not bring himself to voice.

"She is the Blue Dragon Princess from two generations before me, who willingly gave her life to pay the price for the Great Barrier of London."