While Alfred unleashed the strength he had kept hidden until now and collided with the enemy,

“Your Highness! Hurry!”

Aziel , for some reason, remained frozen in place as if nailed to the ground. Even Alfred’s desperate cry could not move him. Aziel simply stood firm, maintaining his noble and dignified demeanor. Behind the ghostly white mask shaped like a demon’s face, red pupils gleamed sharply, he had definitely heard him, he wasn’t dead. Had he lost too much blood?

Should he get the prince to safety first?

The enemy’s skills were far too great. There was no way Alfred could protect the prince while dealing with this opponent. As his thoughts grew increasingly chaotic,

“Do not think of protecting me. Do not think of running away. Pathetic. I’ll give you a chance. I’ll be watching. Even if it costs your life.”

A voice that wiped away hesitation, the prince’s voice, filled with arrogance. Madness surged within it.

“Win.”

Dark shadows filled his vision, he couldn’t see anything. Yet, the chill of blades slicing through the darkness crept against his skin.

[Reading the blade’s fate. It targets a critical point.]

[Reading the blade’s fate. It aims for the nerves.]

[Reading the blade’s fate. It targets your lungs. It seeks to take your breath.]

[Reading the blade’s fate. It targets your heart. A fatal attack.]

The fate of death surged before his eyes, each slash aiming to steal his life. Attacks filled every direction, front, back, left, right, claiming all space , the enemy had made up his mind to kill him, and had the ability to do it. But fate…Fate, by its very nature, could change from the smallest difference. In the thick shadows, both his and the opponent’s vision were blocked,  A blade rushed forward in a straight line.

“Fwaaah!”

A flash of bright light exploded in the darkness.It was the light of fate Alfred had taken, stealing it as he stripped the shadows from Sol. Under the noon sun, it might have gone unnoticed. But now, surrounded by darkness, even a small light shone so brightly it seemed to burn the eyes. A moment of distorted vision and sense.

“The foundation is laid.”

A foundation to dodge the countless fates of incoming blades, and the most important difference between him and the enemy…The eyes to see fate.

If the enemy’s vision was now blocked by the interplay of darkness and flickering light, Alfred, on the other hand, stared directly at the fate before him.

[Minor fate: Luck. Attribute activates. Multiple small fortunes are triggered simultaneously. All fortune is added to the new attribute: Narrow Escape.]

[Reading the one and only survival fate.]

[Reading the fate of this location. There is one direction in which survival is possible.]

Though he couldn’t see his surroundings, the path of fate was clearly visible, this was not mere blind dodging, this was something entirely different. In the space filled with incoming blades, one step, He twisted his body slightly, just enough to avoid the blade rushing for his vital point, and the moment he stepped toward that fate,

“Click.” Like unlocking a lock, the entirety of fate twisted. Then,

“Thud! Thud! Thud!” Blades extended by the enemy pierced into different parts of his body.

“Your Highness!”

“Prince Aziel !”

The shadow exploded, and with it, the prince and the numerous clones of the assassin vanished, as Sol and the driver gasped in shock and looked around for Aziel,

“Get out of here. I’ll find His Highness.”

A chilling voice echoed above their heads. It was a murderous aura unlike anything they had felt before. It matched or even exceeded the intensity of the assassin they had just faced. When they turned to look, they saw Alfred’s face, twisted grotesquely.

“But the prince—!” As Sol worried for Aziel ’s safety, 

“Now! Get out and call for help!” Alfred pushed her with a harsh voice.

Sol staggered and tried to leave the area, but the open canyon had turned into a maze once more. The thick scent of blood and murderous intent returned.                                           The assassin was back. With trembling eyes, Sol searched for the prince and Alfred,but all she saw were pitch-black passageways.

“Ugh! No! Get a grip! Get a grip, you stupid girl!”

Forcing herself to stay focused, she conjured a small light and lifted it into the air.

“Let’s go! We have to get help from someone, anyone!”

She led the driver as they escaped the maze. First, they had to get out and find people somehow. There were plenty of skilled individuals in Steel Castle, someone among them would be able to stop that monstrous assassin.

“One day… One day, I will too…”

Though she hated herself for not being one of those people, now was not the time for self-pity. Rescuing the prince was the priority. Just as she passed by the half-destroyed vehicle, 

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

“Here! Someone’s in here!”

A frantic voice came from the car trunk. Sol paused, hesitating for a moment. Could it be someone the prince had prepared ahead of time?

She opened the trunk, 

“Your Highness! It is…I… Andre! I am here to serve, ‘blargh’!” Andre burst out, accompanied   by vomit.

“W-where is the prince, ‘blargh’!”

“Kyaa! Get away!”

Alfred regretted it. As a member of the Iron Blood Guard tasked with protecting the royal family, he had no right to assert his personal values. In fact, his mission was to monitor a mad prince who might become a cancer within the royal lineage. If that individual proved to be a real threat, he was ordered to either stand by and let him die, or actively assist in his death. Even so, 

“Why did I just stand there like an idiot?!”

For the first time, Alfred furiously criticized his own neutral, emotionless approach that had allowed him to succeed on countless missions. Even though he had followed protocol perfectly, rage bubbled up within him. An overwhelming surge of emotion unlike anything he had ever felt.

Why?

“I still… need to watch a little longer.”

It simply felt tragic that the prince might die, the admiration he’d felt just moments ago, and the anger he felt now. For the first time in a life spent coldly calculating the royal family’s interests without human emotion, “He must be protected.” Loyalty stirred within him.There was no time to question why. Just a few moments played in his mind.

The day Aziel began acting differently. The moment he started to try. The time he invited his mother and younger brother to dinner. That confident smile as he drank wine. His figure casting a shadow with the sun behind him, walking out from the forest. Recalling those, Alfred’s legs moved quickly. He shed the outer disguise that concealed him.

His short, graying hair and ordinary brown eyes, his wrinkled face, all of him began to shimmer as black sand rose like a mirage from his entire body. It was his bloodline ability, “Sand Iron”), the gift that had allowed the orphaned boy to enter the Iron Blood Guard.

Among the guard’s trainees, he had stood out with remarkable results, rising to his current position. The fine sand swirled and hardened, gaining weight and force. When he reached the end of the maze,

“Your Highness!” He couldn’t help but shout. At the maze’s edge, he called out to his lord.

The prince stood alone, still upright, but his entire body was drenched in blood. Had his own hesitation led to the prince’s death?

As Alfred, the butler, no longer, but as “Sa-Cheol” of the Iron Blood Guard, swallowed his fury, 

“I’m not dead yet.” The prince opened his mouth.

The assassin reappeared in midair and swung his blade toward Aziel. 

And in that moment, 

“Stop that hand! How dare you!” Alfred’s body spread like smoke and slipped between them.

The blade aiming for the prince’s heart, 

“Swshshshsh!” 

Was stopped just before reaching him, by a fierce barrier of sand iron. The dense, raging iron sand formed a torrent, halting the blade just a fingertip away from the prince’s chest. And with that, surrounding the enemy, 

“Your Highness! Escape at once!”

With twin daggers in hand, the butler rushed toward the desert assassin with all his might. Confirming that the prince was alive filled him with strange relief, and newfound strength.

Even if he died, he would stop the enemy. As long as the prince survived, that was enough. A command, like a proclamation, 

“This is Steel Castle. No one shall harm the royal bloodline within these walls. Let that be proven.”

“…”

“That’s all that matters. It’s not a complicated matter, if you win.”

Amid the roaring clash between Alfred’s iron sand and the assassin’s relentless attacks,

“Until then, I will neither fall nor die. If you truly see me as your prince, your liege—then obey this command.”

With that, the prince said no more. He didn’t run, he didn’t tremble, he simply stood his ground. The madness and arrogance swirling behind him urged Alfred forward.

In the battle between the future of the Iron Blood Guard and the assassin from the far western wastes, the presence of the mad prince had a meaningful impact.

“…”

Even the assassin, who had taken countless lives, couldn’t decipher the prince’s madness, nor could he understand how the prince had survived his earlier attack,he couldn’t explain the mask, the sudden appearance of shadow and light,

He was an existence the assassin had never encountered before.