After quickly preparing, I headed north with the knights.

The land had turned into a wasteland due to monsters that had seeped through a rift. Thankfully, no civilians lived in this area, avoiding immediate human casualties.

“Make sure to scour the area for any stray monsters and eliminate them all.”

“Yes!”

“At your command, Master!”

The knights, armed with weapons infused with my spirit power, began their extermination run.

Accompanied by the captain of the guard, I moved towards the site of the rift.

When I finally reached the rift and when I was about to invoke a spirit to seal it.

“Master! Stay back!”

The captain suddenly wrapped me in his arms and rolled us to the ground. A tearing sound, like fabric being ripped apart, whizzed overhead, and the terrified neighs of our horses echoed behind us.

“What is that…?”

I stood up to witness an astonishing scene that I couldn’t even close my mouth at.

The rift had widened significantly, and an unusually large monster was attempting to break through.

Not just one, but three monsters. The three that had already invaded our world charged at us.

I summoned Frigga and I engaged them while keeping an eye on the rift, which had stretched upwards to about five meters.

No matter how….This was an abnormal size for a rift.

‘…Since we never know what else might pop out, we might need reinforcements from Valentino.’

That was when. The sound of a horn signaling an advance resonated through the air.

I quickly turned towards the sound, and upon seeing the arriving figure, my eyes widened in shock.

‘Theodore.’

He had arrived with reinforcements.

With Theodore and the Valentino knights joining the fray, the battle quickly tipped in our favor. Although monsters continued to pour from the rift, Theodore incinerated them all.

Witnessing this, Somnia muttered with a click of her tongue from within me.

– He’s become even more of a monster.

Experiencing the defense of the land first hand made me realize just how formidable Theodore truly was.

Brienne wasn’t a region plagued by frequent rifts, making the task less burdensome. Yet, heading out to seal them always left me exhausted.

Theodore, on the other hand, had been single-handedly stopping numerous rifts that erupted simultaneously across Veronis, without help from any other families.

He was truly an extraordinary lord.

It seemed like the end was near, but with the unpredictable nature of these rifts, we still need to be careful.

Somnia’s role in the battlefield, being a spirit unable to wield physical force, mainly involved meddling. While she provided useful information and weaknesses of the monsters, her physical contribution was limited.

I immobilized the monsters with Caligo’s darkness and then froze them solid with Frigga’s cold, shattering them to pieces.

As we continued this method, the number of monsters emerging from the rift noticeably decreased.

Theodore sent me a silent glance, signaling me to close the rift while he covered me.

I nodded in acknowledgment and approached the rift again. Theodore incinerated any monster that dared approach me. His blue flames protected me, stirring an odd sensation within me.

I resolved to treat Theodore and his knights to a grand feast after this battle. Just as I reached the rift.

“…!”

Suddenly, the rift split further, reaching up to seven meters high, and a giant hand reached out towards me.

Just as the dark hand aimed to snatch me, Seraphim’s blue flames blocked its path.

Theodore swiftly came to my side, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me into his embrace.

“Lily, are you alright?”

“I’m…. fine.”

Breathless from shock, I listened to Somnia’s voice ringing in my head.

– That’s a leader among the monsters, akin to their king. Be careful, Lily. This one’s no easy foe.

‘…Why did something like that suddenly appear?’

– I told you before, didn’t I? The world beyond the rift is chaos. Anything can emerge, and it wouldn’t be strange. Chaos has no order.

Essentially, we were just unlucky. I sighed, gathering my strength. Apparently, one can’t always be lucky. My life has been extraordinarily blissful until now.

I realized we were living in a world where…..rifts and the monsters that slip through them could appear anytime, anywhere.

And the spirit contractors, tasked with sealing these rifts…. were always at the forefront.

Living a life where death could come at any moment.

Both Theodore and I… were walking the tightrope of such existence, a realization that belatedly hit me.

“I’ll take on this monster. Lily, you focus on closing the rift.”

“No, let’s deal with it together.”

“We have to consider the possibility of more monsters emerging from the rift while we’re both preoccupied. It’s better to close the rift as soon as possible.”

“…You’re right.”

__