Warriors will die if they charge.

Kelly heard a hiss of hot iron cooling in water and looked up from the display stand where the crown was displayed.

Oha lay on the other side of the basement, his face toward the ceiling, his features covered by a layer of cooled crimson gold, the magnificent golden death mask already formed.

"At least, he got what he wanted..."

Duncan's low murmur brought Kelly back to her senses. Fear gripped the obsidian collar around her neck; it was not a guide to power, but a death warrant.

"Emmael, come out! Why is Ohhar dead! What have you done?"

The silent basement and the initial ecstasy in the golden palace became two extremes. Did Kelly's hysteria stem from desire or fear? Duncan didn't know.

He remained paralyzed on the ground, numbly watching the clock on the wall tick by, when suddenly he remembered the legend of the devil.

Yes, they never lie, they just don't tell you the truth.

"We have one more chance to let go, Nia."

This was the first time he had used that title. Duncan looked up at Kelly, who was gradually calming down.

My suggestion is...

"I don't need your advice. Throw away that broken crossbow. You need to become my knight."

"?"

Duncan struggled to his feet. He didn't throw down his backpack, but simply placed the repeating crossbow on the ground and walked step by step behind Kelly.

Kelly picked up a medal with a dragon emblem, and a thought flashed through Duncan's mind—

Legendary Red Dragon Master-Slave Contract.

"Dragon Knight?"

"Yes, you should become a dragon knight and protect my rule." Kelly turned around and personally hung the gold and red medal on Duncan's collar.

She looked up and down at the thief with the severed finger who had been taken from under the ginkgo tree long ago, her eyes filled with pure joy.

Yes, a dragon knight!

What a noble and powerful title! It's far more powerful than the Knight of Conrad in Glenn Village. That impotent fellow can only ride around the village on horseback with a few lousy fish and shrimp, as if he were the greatest man in the whole world.

But a dragon knight, with just a word, can make a powerful dragon unleash a deadly dragon breath, using flames to destroy all those who resist power.

She needed force to maintain her rule, and Kelly wanted O'Ha to take control of a chamber of commerce, but since he was dead, that was that.

Power and force—she was content with just those two.

Her sincere smile was like a red pine flower unfolding in June, fragile yet alluring. Duncan opened his lips several times, feeling that he could not bear this trust.

He was just a thief with a missing finger whose greatest wish was to buy an expensive limb-restoring potion so that Kelly would take him seriously.

But now, what if Kelly could be made to accept him without the limb-restoring potion? Even if the person in her eyes wasn't the one with the severed finger, Duncan, but a dragon knight Duncan existing within the devil's promise.

"Alright, I'll be your knight."

Kelly tiptoed and kissed Duncan on the cheek. She knew what the adopted puppy was always eyeing, and she wouldn't mind giving the dragon knight a reward once he left.

Duncan walked back to where the crossbow was and asked the clock: "I'm going to give up this repeating crossbow."

"Sure?"

"Sure."

In an instant, Duncan felt infinitely lighter. He looked at Nia, who was smiling and watching him, and slowly took off the gold and red medal from his lapel, reaching into his backpack.

At the same time, in order to encourage future dragon knights, Kelly also chose to give up the Duke's Certificate she obtained from the second vault and instead picked up a king's crown inlaid with various precious gems.

Together they put their medals and crowns into their backpacks, their faces filled with hopeful anticipation for the future.

I will become the queen, the symbol of power.

Dragon Knight... so that I can stay by her side?

The medal fell into the backpack first. Duncan stared at Kelly, whose hand was resting on the edge of the backpack. He wanted to call Nia's name, but found that he could no longer speak.

The obsidian necklace around her neck melted, turning into bright red lava, but instead of flowing upstream, it flowed down her right arm.

He couldn't hear what Kelly was calling out. He raised his right hand and watched as the molten lava filled the empty finger, rapidly cooling and turning into a golden ring finger.

The ring finger is so lifelike that you can clearly see the nail, joints, and folds.

"Is that so? It seems pretty good..."

The curse of Emmaus has been repeated for the second time.

Kelly's smile slowly faded as she looked at the extravagant crown she was about to put into her backpack, and the Duke's Certificate that she had just thrown on the ground, which turned into a beam of light and gradually disappeared.

The fervor turned into a desperate repression.

"I regret it. I want to get that Duke's Certificate back."

Emma did not respond. The torches in the basement whistled without wind, seemingly mocking Kelly's blind demands—she had never taken the devil's rules to heart.

Demanding means paying a price.

"But if I take nothing with me, it's like losing everything," Kelly murmured to herself, recalling that night when Conrad took everything from Nia with his fingers, a stick, and a whip.

She was so terrified at the time, wanting to escape the oppression and constraints of power, but at this moment she became a slave to power.

"We always hate the people who remind us of ourselves." She put the crown into the bottomless, dark backpack, but the mountain of pressure she had expected did not materialize.

She felt relaxed all over. The obsidian necklace remained unchanged, only the ten-kilogram gold brick reminded her that there was a price to pay for what she had.

"Why? Emma, ​​is the weight of a dragon knight heavier than that of a kingdom?! Why did Duncan die?!"

"You only saw him pick up the Dragon Knight Contract, but you don't know the burden Duncan carried."

"Will there be any more ambushes after this?"

She trembled, pleading and sobbing, hoping the cruel devil would spare her.

"Her Majesty will not die by the sword, this is Emma's assurance."

"Okay, I believe you!"

With a sense of self-satisfaction and comfort, Kelly put the crown on her head, walked to a mirror shield, and, holding the hem of her dress, admired the woman in the mirror.

The multicolored gemstones made her wine-red hair stand out brilliantly, and her scarlet eyes, shining in the red light, exuded supreme majesty.

She smiled, and the woman in the mirror smiled too. She didn't ask who she was.

"I am the queen now, and the devil never lies, right, Emmael?"

"The devil never lies, Your Majesty Queen Kelly."

She nodded in satisfaction, raised her chin, and confidently walked into the colorful vortex at the end of the basement. What awaited her was no longer the goblin meat of the Pig Lung Tavern, the rotting mud of the rainforest swamp, or the endless tasks.

Instead, it was red carpets, crystal wine glasses, and an endless supply of beef and mutton.

The exposure was fleeting; in the muddy, damp rainforest, her delicate and lovely boots sank halfway into the swamp.

Following that was a fine steel sword blade that gleamed coldly in the moonlight.

"Looks like we're in luck; we've caught a lone stray dog."