"Y- you……"

  Just as I recognized Ethan Klus at once, he saw my true identity, whose hair color had changed, at once.

  "You’re the girl……!"

  My whole body stiffened and didn’t move.

  I wanted to hide behind Perez’s back again, but it didn’t go my way.

  All of a sudden, Klus got on his back, where some of Sushou’s soldiers were, and were trying to tie his hands and feet with a rope.

  But, as if he didn’t care about such things, his burning gaze was only directed at me.

  "Hheu, heh……"

  And Ethan Klus began to laugh.

  Like the one who had lost everything saw a ray of light before his eyes.

  Both corners of his mouth sprang up, and dark blood vein stood on his forehead.

  "Hahaha".

  The soldiers frowned at the behavior of the wanted man, who suddenly began to laugh.

  "Why is this guy?"

  "I don’t know, he must have gone crazy thinking it’s over now. Yes, tie it well……"

  "Gahh!"

  Ethan Klus got up from his seat, twisting his whole body with a scream.

  The rope that bound Klus’ hands and feet, which had been there a while ago, was broken in vain, and the soldiers surrounding him fell like fallen leaves.

  Ethan Klus, who was freed, rushed towards me, crawling on all fours.

  "I will kill you!"

  With a bloody scream, his hands covered with wounds reached out toward me.

  As if he was going to strangle me with his bare hands because he had no weapon.

  However, his body, exhausted from his long escape life, was not completely healed.

  To the point where his splendid career of being the commander of the knight of Angenas was overshadowed.

  He was just ahead of his life trying to kill me.

  "How dare you." (TN: How dare you!)

  Perez moved with a low voice.

  He naturally reached out and pulled out a soldier’s sword that was checking his ID card, and rolled it once in his big hand as if it were his own.

  And he drew it up like he was swinging it.

  No, I thought so.

  At that moment, all I could see was Perez’s large hand that covered my eyes.

  "Arghh!"

  Ethan Klus’ screams seemed to be heard from a very distance.

  Soon, the sound of the soldiers, who had been observing the situation in a daze, rumbled, mixed with the screams of evil.

  "That bitch! I have to kill that girl……! Let go of this!"

  But even that sound faded away at some point.

  Clang.

  Perez threw the sword he was holding randomly on the floor and stood in front of me.

  Then his big hands covered my ear.

  Ethan Klus’s scream became smaller.

  The chaos on the deck has also faded away.

  Until everything subsided, the warmth that touched my ear and Perez’s red eyes protected my world.

  ***

  Ethan Klus, whose hands and feet were tied tightly, was firmly gagged.

  Perez looked down at the loser lying at his feet with his indifferent eyes.

  It was terrible to see the tendons in his ankles cut and bloody.

  "Eup! Eeup!"

  Nevertheless, the former commander knight of Angenas was still screaming some evil, but no one listened to it.

  It was the last remnant of Angenas.

  The end of the lung that he missed while dealing with Angenas.

  He can’t believe he found such a person unexpectedly in a place like this.

  It was an unexpected achievement.

  "Eeup! Eup!"

  Perez, who was still watching Ethan Klus twisting his body like a bug, glanced at the movements of the soldiers of Sushou.

  They, who suddenly arrested a wanted person, sweated as they were preparing to move to the military ship with excitement at the thought of the bounty.

  Dripping.

  "Is it a tradition of Angenas?"

  Perez leaned slightly towards Ethan Klus and said in a low voice.

  "The impatient thing."

  The former Empress and Patriarch Angenas used to ruin things in this way, too.

  "I guess the reason why you dared to board the cruise to the East while being chased was probably to target the Lombardi family."

  It was a fact known to all citizens of the Empire that all the Lombardi family members attended Larane’s wedding. (TN: Now I think of it, Chanton is actually helps capturing this criminal that might harm at Larane’s wedding, right? I feel bad for swearing at him at the previous chapter.)

  "If you had just humbled yourself and lived in hiding according to the subject, you would have been able to live alone in honor of the empress."

  Perez raised the corner of one of his lips wryly.

  "This is the end of Angenas."

  "Gasp! Eup!"

  When Lavini was mentioned, Ethan Klus rebelled even more, but it was all just a meaningless struggle.

  "Excuse me."

  A man who seemed to be in charge among the Sushou soldiers approached and talked to him.

  "I received great help in arresting the wanted person. How many months I’ve been suffering from him."

  "What’s the name of this person?"

  Perez raised his bent body and asked.

  "Well, we don’t know, but our superiors know."

  "I see."

  Perez’s guess was right.

  If they had known who Ethan Klus was, the inspection would not have been conducted only by ordinary soldiers.

  "Now I feel relieved."

  The soldier who muttered while looking at Ethan Klus with disgusted eyes asked Perez carefully.

  "By the way…… your sword-handling hands look good. You’re……"

  The person in charge seemed to be more sensible than expected.

  Perez pulled out a small medallion from his arms.

  It was an object imprinted with Chanton Sushou’s personal seal and was proof that the holder was moving according to his orders.

  "In the order of Lord Sushou, I was on my way to the East in case of any danger."

  "Oh, I knew it!"

  The eyes of the responsible soldier who recognized the medal widened.

  "I thought it was unusual to overpower the wanted person at once."

  The soldier, whose tone had become polite all of a sudden, nodded his head again and again.

  "I will take responsibility and deliver Sir’s performance so that the Lord knows."

  "Thank you."

  Saying that, Perez calmly placed the medallion on his pushed hands.

  By the time it reaches Chanton Sushou, the ship will already be in the East.

  A few years ago, he brought what he used to travel to the South just in case, and it was useful.

  "Then, you will take the criminal to the Imperial Palace safely."

  "Yes! Don’t worry!"

  The soldier, who was still holding the medal imprinted with Chanton Sushou’s seal, replied with a voice full of enthusiasm.

  Perez gave Ethan Klus a cold glance one last time and left them behind.

  Thinking about how to deal with Ethan Klus after his trip to the East, he moved.

  As he breaking through the crowd excited by the commotion from the moment ago and the expectations of the upcoming fireworks view, his red eyes found Florentia at once.

  It was always next to her where he would go back.

  ***

  Perez, who returned after handing Ethan Klus to the soldiers of Sushou, looked somewhat relieved.

  "What Chanton Sushou was looking for was Ethan Klus."

  Oh.

  I laughed in vain when I recalled the past few days when I was nervous that the tight security was aimed at us.

  "I thought he was following me because he knew I left for the East……"

  I couldn’t finish speaking.

  It was because Perez held both of my hands.

  "Why are you shaking like this?"

  Mm. As expected, I got caught.

  I could see my fingertips trembling finely on Perez’s large hand.

  "As expected, I can’t hide it from you."

  Perez’s forehead was wrinkled as if it hurt his feelings more when I tried to be okay.

  He let out a small sigh and put my hands together in one place and wrapped them in one another.

  Warmth spread through my cold hands.

  "Ah really. Today, I tried to set a romantic atmosphere. What else is Ethan Klus going to pop out of there? Don’t you think so?"

  "Sorry."

  Instead of answering my question, Perez spoke in a deep voice.

  "If I had moved a little faster, there would have been nothing for you to be afraid of."

  "No."

  I shook my head.

  "It was scary, but it wasn’t because of Ethan Klus."

  "Then?"

  I also looked down at my hand instead of answering.

  Before I knew it, the trembling of my fingertips stopped.

  "What I was scared of was this."

  I looked at his red eyes and said.

  "Because I realized how great you are to me."

  Someone rushed to kill me.

  Of course, it was a situation that should have been scary.

  But I wasn’t that scared.

  "I thought everything would be fine just by the fact that you were next to me."

  It’s very strange.

  A smirk leaked out.

  "You are such a being, Perez."

  As if my shaking had shifted from a while ago, his red eyes were shaking.

  I slowly reached out and placed my hand on his cheek.

  "It was like that last time. You can’t be my first."

  "Tia, that’s……".

  "You’re right."

  I didn’t mean to soothe Perez by lying awkwardly.

  "As I said, I have a lot to protect. Lombardi, and the people who follow me."

  However.

  "It’s you that makes me able to protect those people. Without you, I don’t think I’ve been able to do a lot of work, and I can’t."

  So.

  "Will you be by my side from now on?"

  It was a bit of a selfish confession.

  But Perez laughed.

  So that his eyes curve nicely, and his red lips draw pretty arcs.

  Then I rubbed his cheek with my hand.

  "Please."

  Perez sighed.

  "Please let me be by your side, Tia."

  Boom! Boom!

  Colorful fireworks exploded in the black night sky.

  I was buried in the deafening sound, but I could clearly read Perez’s brief additions.

  "For the rest of my life."

  Yeah. No more words were needed between us.

  "Yeah, forever."

  Until the second and last day of this life ends.

  Boo-m! boom! boom!

  The fireworks view that Cruise was proud of and the people cheering for it all became distant and distant noises.

  We left everything behind and walked to the room as if we had promised.

  Step by step.

  Not slow, but not too hasty.

  As we walked together holding hands like that, we were in front of the tightly closed door of the room.

  However, Perez no longer moved on that spot.

  "Tia, I……"

  He gave strength to his hands and spoke as if throwing up.

  "If I go inside now, I…… I won’t be able to stop."

  Red eyes fluttered at the flames that lit up the distant sky.

  Every moment, it lit the fire like it was burning, and now my resolution in front of this darkened face is getting bigger and bigger.

  It just got tighter.

  "I know."

  "……Do you know?"

  "Yes, I know."

  Woow.

  Listening to the cheers from afar, I smiled at Perez. (TN: That our cheers.)

  "Tia, you don’t have to overdo it……"

  Click.

  With the sound of the door opening, Perez’s speech stopped.

  "I know everything, Perez."

  I opened the door as it was and led Perez into the dark room.