“Rosie! Rosie! Is it over? Why didn’t anyone tell me anything?!”

From far away, Ethan came running, black robe billowing behind him.

“After Theo ran off carrying Yuta, I stayed behind alone and kept channeling mana nonstop!”

He sprinted toward me with a frustrated look on his face—then stopped short, startled by the people surrounding me. Sensing that the atmosphere was serious, he quickly knelt beside Linna.

“Uh... um, congratulations, Rosie?”

He darted his eyes around, tilted his head, and added with clumsy tact,

“I’m not the Tower Master, but as a great archmage representing the Magic Tower... uh, I support you or something? Is that right?”

“Yup! Honestly, it’s a total mess, but as long as the intention is clear, that’s what matters!”

Linna chirped cheerfully, which Ethan promptly ignored. He gave an awkward smile and looked at me.

“To defeat that monster... that’s seriously amazing, Rosie. I’m thrilled that someone this powerful and special is my cousin.”

“No, no.”

I shook my head and answered sincerely.

“That’s really not true. I’m not special at all...”

I didn’t know why, but I regressed. And because of that, I had believed my divine power was special.

But it wasn’t. Most of it came from Aietar’s amplified divine power.

Even now, though I was appointed High Priest, it was the same. Among all the past High Priests, my divine power was nothing remarkable. I’d be one of the more ordinary ones.

“If even one of you hadn’t been here, none of this would’ve been possible...”

Truly, I needed every one of them to walk this path.

The weakened Divine Beasts.

The wavering ducal houses.

The Sinesse Marquisate that had withdrawn to a distance.

The disregarded Noart Count Family.

Even Theo and Ethan, who had never found their footing in the count’s household.

The Emperor, not present now, once mocked as a puppet.

And... me, an Apprentice with no impressive divine power, always on the run, just trying to survive.

All of us—the ones Aietar looked down on, dismissed as weak and unworthy...

Yet being here with them made me feel more special than anyone else in the world.

“Rosie.”

Ray said seriously.

“If it weren’t for you, none of us here would’ve ever gotten close. So yeah, you’re special.”

“What are you talking about?”

Linna shot back, eyes wide.

“I like that dorky archmage, you know? It’s not easy to be that skilled and still be such a nerd. He can’t even look me in the eye—kinda cute.”

“Excuse me, I’d like to clarify: I can’t make eye contact with anyone!”

Unable to hold it in, Yuta burst into laughter.

“This is quite amusing... Watching two young, capable people tangled together by fate, and yet—absolutely never going to happen.”

His laugh spread, and soon everyone was laughing along.

Arhad was a complete wreck, looking like the aftermath of war.

I wasn’t acting particularly solemn myself, and I exchanged amused glances with those around me, giggling.

In the end, all of us, looking like disasters, laughed out loud together.

Just being together made it the most special ending in the world.

And only after laughing for quite some time did I cough up blood again and lose consciousness.

My body had already been wrecked, and once my mental tension released, I could no longer hold out.

* * *

The ring was back where it belonged.

“Hundred years. A hundred.”

Shulva, visiting my sickbed, shook her head in exasperation.

“Everything has to be overturned from top to bottom.”

I had been unconscious for two full days.

Yuta personally channeled divine power into me, so I recovered quickly. But my family was so dramatic about it that I’d been on enforced rest for over a week now.

“We’ve already shut down the experiments on Apprentices and are doing our best to reverse what can be undone. Lord Yuta is working hard.”

In the end, Yuta had suffered terribly, but he had spent a long time as a figure of authority in the Temple.

So he knew the internal workings intimately. That’s why he was quick to step in and clean up.

“Well, all the Holy Knights and priests who were most loyal to Aietar have been purged.”

Aietar had brought nearly all of Arhad’s most competent and trusted subordinates with him. For someone who acted so confident, he must’ve been scared.

In the end, it was the Divine Beasts who took care of them all. That made the remaining work easier.

“Also, dismantle all the Temple’s excessive profit-driven businesses.”

I gave instructions while sitting up in bed, speaking only with my mouth.

“From now on, the Temple will go back to being what it used to be—an institution focused on the teachings of the scriptures and healing the sick. That’s how it should be.”

“Yes, understood.”

“All money recovered from those business ventures should be returned. The civil war in the Kingdom of Itaa has gone on long enough—we can send medical support there.”

“I’ll submit a report soon.”

Shulva snorted excitedly at the word “dismantle.” It meant she’d be handling a lot of liquid assets for a while.

“Anyway, the Temple doesn’t need to be this big anymore. There’s no need to crowd everyone together into a class-based system. The records say people lived separately before Aietar, didn’t they?”

“Yes. There’s precedent, so that level of reform shouldn’t be too difficult. Then Lady Rosie, you would...”

“Of course I’ll be commuting.”

I wasn’t like Shulva, who was obsessed with work. I wanted to sleep in my own bed. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Until now, the Temple had functioned as its own isolated society, and I thought that was its biggest problem.

“Of course, we should take in Apprentices who have nowhere to go... but there’s no need to use them as labor.”

At the window, Linna was playing with Cashie, her cat, during her overlapping visit.

Shulva glanced at Linna and, realizing it was time to leave, gathered her documents.

“Yes. After the Arhad incident, the Temple’s size has already shrunk significantly. We should be able to handle this all in the short term.”

“That’s a relief.”

“I’ll discuss the smaller issues with Julian. How are you feeling?”

“Not great... Anyway, he’s in his room.”

Whenever Shulva asked about my health, I just said “not great.” Honestly, I’d been fine for a while, but it felt a bit wrong to just lie in bed giving orders.

Shulva nodded without expression, then continued.

“The Duke said he’ll be coming this afternoon with His Majesty.”

By “the Duke,” she meant Zahid.

He came to visit me every day.

Even when he didn’t, he was incredibly busy.

While I was recovering, Zahid personally oversaw the reconstruction of the High Temple. He worked so meticulously that except on the days he came to see me, he was in the temple all day.

He hadn’t said it aloud, but I could guess why he insisted on doing it himself.

“I’ll make sure there’s no dark, narrow space anywhere in the High Temple.”

He was turning over every inch of what used to be full of torture chambers and labs. According to Shulva, he was even personally inspecting every room aboveground.

“So even if you get lost inside, you’ll be okay.”

Everything was over, but I was still afraid of small, dark places.

It wasn’t like I magically overcame all my weaknesses.

But it was fine—because I had someone who promised to protect me from them for the rest of my life.

Even if... that promise was a little over the top.

“Are you done for the day, Zahid?”

“No. When I go back, I’ll be searching the rear garden of the High Temple.”

“The rear garden?”

“Yeah. There might be some kind of secret passage there.”

“But this late at night?”

“Well, you never know if there’s a mechanism that only works at night.”

More than eliminating dark spaces, Zahid was focused on preventing any remnants of Aietar’s faction from pulling something.

There’s nothing scarier than a fanatic. If someone sneaked in to harm me... that couldn’t be allowed.

“In my opinion... this is your fate, Lady Rosie. You must accept it.”

Shulva must’ve noticed my reluctant expression, because she spoke slowly.

“Meeting someone like the old Julian, I mean.”

“Ah...”

“Extremely overprotective. Beyond extreme, even.”

The problem was that it was way too extreme.

From my point of view, everything was already over, but Zahid kept saying, “It’s always when you let your guard down that something happens,” constantly on high alert.

As a result, we barely had any time alone. There were just too ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) many people visiting me. Our schedules overlapped every time.