“We don’t have much time. You might get hurt after the sun comes up.”

Snow retrieved the ring and started to walk toward the glass tube that was far away. The snow came up to Rubica’s knee, but Snow and Shasha went ahead of her to make way. She went forward with Edgar, carefully making each step lest she might slip.

“Ah!”

However, the northern lights in the night sky kept distracting her. She knew she wouldn’t be able to see such beautiful scenery and kept looking at them, but she missed a cube of jagged ice on her way. She fell, but Blanco held her.

“Thank you.”

But Blanco didn’t let go of her hand immediately and just stared at her. Her trembling hand implied she had something to say to Rubica, so Edgar just let go of her and walked forward.

“I admire you because you let my dream come true,” Blanco abruptly said so as they were walking. However, she looked so gloomy.

“Admire me? But I just like pretty things and don’t miss a chance to make them.”

“Your dresses… wouldn’t have been made if you hadn’t cared so much about their wearers. They’re not just pretty. I could see you put great efforts into making them more comfortable and easier to wear.”

To be honest, it made Rubica feel very good. She had put a lot of thinking on how to make dresses lighter and more comfortable.

Being pretty was one thing, but they were dresses to be worn by humans, not by dolls. She had the wearers’ convenience as her priority. Therefore, she was glad that Blanco knew it.

“You feel joy when you work for or help others, right?”

“I guess I do, although I cannot say I’m selfless.”

“Do you make sacrifices for love as well?”

The sudden question made her stop on her way, but Blanco looked deadly serious.

Did she do that for love? She looked back into her memories, the moments she had spent with Edgar and Arman. She loved both of them actually, they were the same person after all.

She then recalled the moment she found the handkerchief, which she thought she had lost, on his desk. Edgar had sweated hard in embarrassment saying he couldn’t use it lest it got damages, and she couldn’t help laughing to it.

-I’ll make more for you, so just use this one.

After that, she made about twenty handkerchiefs with his name embroidered on it. At first, Edgar said he couldn’t use even one of them, but in time, he wiped his forehead and hands with them.

When he did it, it warmed up her heart. She was always so happy when he smiled after drinking a warm cup of tea made by her or wore a shirt she made for him.

“But did I make sacrifices for love… no. To be honest, I’m quite selfish.”

She said calmly as she looked at Edgar’s back walking in front of her. He was close enough to hear every word she said.

After she came back in time, she had been lying when required. Now she was almost a faithful follower of the god of lies, who she had avoided in her previous life.

But this time, she knew she had to be honest instead of what he or the others wanted to hear.

“I never gave up on myself. I can do many things for him, but I can’t give up on myself for him.”

Yes, she could do a lot of things for him. Embroidering twenty handkerchiefs hadn’t been easy at all.

She also had to stress over getting rid of the maids and visitors in front of his office because of his curse. However, none of it had been a sacrifice.

She had asked him not to dispatch the quest band for mana quartz, knowing that it would bring him many troubles.

Also, she had been unable to abandon her desire to make dresses and started to work as a designer with a fake name, despite the fact that she was Duchess Claymore.

Any other noble lady wouldn’t have such a thing, considering her husband’s honor and social status.

She smiled bitterly while thinking she had been selfish even when she loved Arman. She looked at the ring he treasured and guessed he was in love with someone else.

That was why she hadn’t confessed her feelings for him until the moment of her death. She hadn’t had the courage to beg a man who loved another woman to love her.

She just cherished herself too much for that. Maybe she loved herself more than she loved anyone else.

“That’s good.”

To her surprise, her reply made Blanco brighten up a bit. She even looked relieved.

“There are some kind-hearted people who make themselves suffer for others. However, don’t sacrifice yourself for love. Love that can exist only when the sacrifice isn’t real.”

She tried to say something more, but then Snow turned and gave her a vicious look.

“Blanco!”

Blanco tried to look normal and asked back, “Yes?”

“Don’t linger back there, come quick.”

Thankfully, Snow didn’t know Blanco had tried to give a hint to Rubica. She then sighed and offered her a huge hand, “I guess we have to hurry.”

It seemed like Blanco wanted to give her a ride as Rubica was wearing shoes made of fur, but she already couldn’t feel her toes.

She didn’t mind walking thorny paths, but she wasn’t immune to walking on ice. Therefore, she climbed on to Blanco’s huge hand without much hesitation. Blanco put her on her shoulders and started to run quickly.

“Hey, hey!”

“Walk there on your own, or crawl.”

But again, she didn’t care about Edgar. Rubica begged her to carry Edgar as well, but she firmly shook her head.

“I will never have a Claymore on my shoulders.”

“But… I’m a Claymore too.”

“You’re not Duchess Claymore to us, you’re Madam Berry!”

The underling’s steps were much wider than a human’s, and soon Edgar looked as small as a teaspoon.

Being so far away from him started to make her feel nervous. Even though the underlings were polite to her and treated her nicely, compared to what they did to Edgar, she could feel they were hiding something.

“We’re here.”

They arrived at the end of the cliff where the glass tube was standing. Brilliant lights from mana quartz came up from under the cliff, but she was too afraid to look at it.

“I’ll tell you the way to save that disgusting man.”

Snow pointed at Edgar who was still walking toward them in snow.

“Um, hey.”

No matter how nice they were to her, she couldn’t let them keep talking like that to her husband.

“I understand that you hate House Claymore, but don’t forget half of his blood belongs to the nymph who came to save your mistress.”

It made Blanco and Shasha feel a bit guilty, but it only maddened Snow. She was extremely mad about the fact that Minos, to whom she had confessed the secret about her mistress while drunk, was actually working for Claymore.

“But he became the duke and took our mana quartz, he’s no different from his predecessors!”

“That’s… yes, but not this year. He has promised not to send any more adventurers. You must have noticed it yourself when you went down to the village to buy clothes. By this time of the year, it should be crowded with adventurers, but it wasn’t. Have you seen any searching party, that should have come here in summer?”

Snow became silent for a moment because Rubica was right. Actually, she and the other underlings hadn’t found a single searching party and were worried they might have missed them.

What kind of skill had they invented that they couldn’t find even a single human? They had been wondering if Claymore had invented an invisible cloak or something similar to that.

“Is… that true?”

“Yes. If you want, I will send a message home and show you the royal order issued by the king. From now on, we won’t take mana quartz from you. We don’t want to sacrifice lives for it.”

Snow sighed. If it had happened only a little earlier… only a little earlier.

“If it’s true, I apologize for what I said.”

“Then please, bring him here. We are here to break his curse, after all.”

Walking in such high snow was dangerous, so Rubica looked at Blanco and pleaded. If she had known the underling would carry only her, she wouldn’t have climbed onto her hand.

“But Madam, we don’t need that… Claymore to break his curse.”

Blanco had to try hard not to say, ‘that bastard Claymore’. However, Rubica’s eyes widened as she couldn’t understand.

“Do you want your husband to live on as an ordinary human?”

“Of course, that’s why we’ve come this far.”

“But the price for that is your life.”