That morning, Peon was very happy. What made him happy was tenderly bathing his wife who could barely walk, carrying her in his arms, and directly feeding delicious food to his wife who could not even hold a spoon properly.

It was his favorite hobby and joy.

“Do you want one more bite? Shall I cut you some peach?”

Peon, who always said “just one more bite” to Kaella, who liked sweet fruits with soft flesh that made her mouth water, like peaches, plums, and strawberries, finally fed Kaella one more strawberry.

“Well done. Thank you.”

Peon, who had heard the word “elder brother” so much all morning that it overflowed his ears, felt full even without eating. Seeing Kaella chew everything thoroughly and swallow well made him feel even fuller and grateful.

“Hm? What’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable somewhere? Does something hurt?”

As soon as her calm expression slightly worsened, he was the first to notice and ask.

“Why… why isn’t it getting better?”

“What isn’t?”

“Why does it hurt more and more each time?”

Though much was left unsaid, Peon understood everything immediately. Kaella could barely walk now. It was fortunate that he had wrapped her in one arm and brought her when she tried to leave the bed without knowing any better, otherwise she might have fallen out of bed.

“It wasn’t this bad at first.”

At the mention that it still hurt, Peon quietly held her and kissed her forehead. He felt sorry.

That night, he had seen a fantasy that he had to bury deep inside with guilt while feeling happy and joyful, but how much pain and suffering must she have endured?

“I’m sorry. I should have taken better care of you.”

His voice was full of new regret and guilt. That incident would always remain like a brand deep in his heart, never to heal.

“I can’t walk… Why can’t I walk?”

“Because you used muscles that hadn’t been used intensely.”

It was truly a knightly answer and the correct one. He spread his hand over the thin, comfortable dress he had deliberately put on her and pressed firmly on her waist.

Last night, he got excited while massaging her legs, and today he had to give her a massage and knead her as punishment for getting excited again. It was fortunate that her swollen feet had improved somewhat, but in any case, Kaella couldn’t walk yesterday or today.

“It won’t be this bad once you get used to it.”

At those words, she met Peon’s gaze.

“You said the next night would be free. Was it not good?”

His thick forearm was wrapped around her waist. After asking, he always kissed her swollen eyelids from crying too much, her cheeks, or her puffy lips. He often sat her on his lap.

You’re disgusting just by touching me.

This wasn’t just not disgusting, but rather at the level of being desperate to touch her.

“It doesn’t seem like it wasn’t.”

To the extent that the words ‘Do you like me that much’ dared to linger on the tip of Kaella’s tongue, Peon kissed her, caressed her, and embraced her fully with his gaze as if she would wear out.

That, quite unfairly and shallowly, still felt good.

“Was it really not good?”

It was strange and nice how Peon would immediately become serious if she delayed her answer even a little, and become happy again if she said just one word. She liked how he was swayed by her.

‘Ah.’

Kaella was a bit surprised. How could she think that Peon was swayed by her?

“You’re thinking of something else again.”

Peon made a clicking sound with his mouth to divert her attention.

“You’re always so difficult.”

She often turns her gaze away and gets lost in other thoughts, completely leaving reality. It was also extremely difficult for Peon to grab her and make her live in the present rather than the dark past, and moreover, to make her face him directly.

“Next time.”

“Hm?”

“The next night, next time.”

“I wasn’t trying to whine like a child.”

It’s just that I’m anxious because you didn’t promise. Peon just hugged her and endured his anxiety. Kaella, with her face buried in his firm chest, quietly thought.

‘This isn’t betrayal.’

What was the reason she heard such harsh words from him that just touching her was disgusting? It was because Kaella tried to fulfill her duty as an heir.

Continuing the lineage was a significant duty for all nobles. Since duty should be diligently performed while alive and breathing, this isn’t betrayal. It’s not betraying her who was quietly dying locked up in the northern tower. Right?

Above all, hadn’t she decided to try everything she could before dying?

So there was no reason to refuse if she unexpectedly received affection from Peon, and if he loved her more, well, that was good too. Love is a good thing, right? Even if she doesn’t have the strength to reciprocate.

It was still an unchanging principle that it was best and lightest to die after just receiving what she could receive and fulfilling her duty without causing gossip.

Everything would disappear futilely, and it was all just a fleeting moment. Just like how the childhood spent with Peon had disappeared.

But, nevertheless.

Despite having let go of all lingering attachments and not even expecting anything.

It was possible to desperately want something while simultaneously not forgiving. Kaella closed her eyes for a moment in his embrace.

‘Is it a temporary compromise?’

Kaella’s face, sitting in the shade, shimmered slightly in the summer sunlight seeping through the windows. Peon looked down at his wife with cool eyes, blocking the light. He wasn’t sure if it was a compromise or if it didn’t matter either way.

How could she forgive a husband who had neglected her to death, an incompetent husband? Peon, who didn’t ask for forgiveness because he knew he couldn’t be forgiven, simply plunged her into brief pleasure.

Having experienced too much, she didn’t flounder in pleasure for long and quickly put on a cold face.

‘Will it be less when the emperor disappears?’

No, that’s not possible. For the sake of his clever wife who feared imperial power itself, Peon was in the process of making the emperor fall in the most ugly and dirty way.

*

The ship carrying the princess of the Keruzhan Kingdom finally arrived at the port.

The crown prince was completely preoccupied with matters related to the engagement ceremony and the agreement to be made with Keruzhan, the Duchess of Schroze was still paralyzed with fear and unable to do anything, and the emperor, experiencing anxiety for the first time, immediately summoned Beatrice Lavallee.

“The magicians say it’s not possible.”

Of course not. Beatrice glanced at the empress visible in the distant bed. The empress was lying down covered with a thin summer blanket.

She lay motionless except for being turned every hour to prevent bedsores. She couldn’t disappear on her own.

“They’re all saying the same thing!”

The emperor said he hadn’t slept a wink because he was so shocked.

Just when I thought I had managed to pry him away from this room a little, he’s going to sit back down by the empress’s side and act like a pitiful widower. Beatrice inwardly made all sorts of grimaces, but outwardly maintained a gloomy and heavy expression.

“I saw it clearly!”

But the emperor said he was heavily intoxicated with alcohol and drugs at the time.

Beatrice, who already knew that the person the emperor was with at that time was not a woman but a man, was in the process of searching for that guy. She intended to interrogate him about the emperor’s condition at that time and dispose of him appropriately.

‘Of course, the quick-handed Count Horchen might have already taken care of it.’

Because there shouldn’t be any outsiders who know about the emperor’s strange symptoms.

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty. Please calm down. What Your Majesty saw must be true.”

Everyone said it was true. But thoughts can be different. Would the emperor, intoxicated with alcohol and aphrodisiacs, really have been in his right mind? People were sane enough not to dare voice that thought out loud.

That’s why Beatrice called the emperor in a gentle voice and soothed him.

“Your Majesty, you need to tell me in detail how Her Majesty the Empress disappeared. Very detailed. Did she suddenly vanish and then appear again?”

“It’s not that, she became transparent. Like a dragonfly’s wing or glass.”

Dragonfly’s wing, this is a new development.

“A person became transparent and I couldn’t grab her. I clearly grabbed her but she slipped away.”

“Her Majesty the Empress?”

“My hand!”

The emperor raised his hand and trembled.

“This hand couldn’t grab the empress!”

Beatrice half-listened to the emperor speaking as if having a seizure and thought about the more nutritious side. For example, the prophecy she had stolen a glimpse of when she stole Kaella’s poison in Lycenford.

‘The pearl has cracked.’

Pearl. The roundest and whitest pearl among the oysters that divers swim deep to retrieve from a limited sea is a jewel favored by noble ladies because it’s so hard to obtain.

And the most famous and representative of the empress’s crowns was the tiara made of pearls.

That massive tiara built with round pearls for the first layer, diamonds for the framework, carefully selected large teardrop pearls for the second layer, and the largest pearls gathered for the third layer.

The prophecy Beatrice saw began with the pearl cracking. It’s the empress’s tiara breaking. In other words, it meant that the empress would soon disappear.

‘I wondered what to do, but indeed the prophecy I saw was unmistakable.’

I don’t know why, but if something strange has happened to the empress, it means the prophecy is being implemented. Beatrice was certain. Then, what’s next?

‘The red rose was torn.’

The rose petals flew everywhere as if torn on their own. When the red rose petals touched the broken pearl, they became blood. No, it was as if the petals became blood and splattered on the pearl.

The pearl is the empress, the most noble lady. Then where is the red rose that will stain that pearl with blood?

Beatrice, as a sorcerer interpreting prophecies, already had a hunch about who the red rose would be that would be torn, become blood, and ultimately fall, shatter, and burn along with the crown.

“I see. You must have been very shocked, Your Majesty. I will repair the magic tools and try to find out the cause. Is there anything that comes to mind?”

What the emperor wants now is a kind sorcerer who listens well. Not a woman charming enough to covet the position of empress.

“I don’t know.”

The emperor shook his head.

“If I had any idea, I would have said so.”

Pretending not to know. Beatrice saw the emperor pause for two seconds before answering. He’s keeping in mind what everyone knows but doesn’t say.

There was only one person who could perform such impossible magic and throw people into panic.

‘The evil dragon Gusalante.’

The dragon who lost his only wife is said to be unable to use any magic against the Crania Empire due to a promise with the first emperor, but he must still be glaring at Crain with fierce eyes.

It was a strange thing, but prophecy is prophecy. What will happen will happen.

“Is there a way?”

Beatrice smiled meaningfully.

“I’m thinking of going to Avenro.”

*

Dragons were mysterious beings. The one that was somewhat known was the evil dragon Gusalante. His domain stretched to the northern end of the Crania Empire, and the first emperor encountered the evil dragon while pushing northward.

Dragons created large territories and lived alone, with no interest in their own kind. So even if the evil dragon was engaged in a love quarrel with the current emperor, there were no other dragons to help their kind, so the emperor only had to deal with the one evil dragon.

Since Gusalante was the only known dragon.

Thus, in people’s perception, the existence of dragons was limited to just one dragon raging in the north.

No one knew how dragons lived, how they reproduced, or what kind of family structure they formed.

Dragons were just Gusalante, a calamity filled with madness and greed beyond human comprehension, covetously eyeing the empire. No one thought he had any emotions other than madness and greed.

“It’s here.”

On a pitch-black night, a carriage entered an alley in a very small city called Avenro, located in the northwest of the Crania Empire.

This city, so small that it wasn’t even very famous, had hot springs, so there were occasional vacationers who came just to enjoy the hot springs.

But the person who got out of this carriage didn’t have business at the hot springs. The person who pulled their hood down low and covered their face as much as possible stood in front of a building, guided there.

“Is anyone there?”

The hooded person was a woman. To her question, the escort who had been guiding shook his head.

“I’ve been checking constantly, but there was no sign of anyone.”

They couldn’t return empty-handed after coming this far. The woman ordered.

“Knock on the door.”

At her instruction, the guide raised his fist over the tightly closed door. But before his fist could knock on the door, it opened silently from the inside.

“Please come in.”

Black darkness pooled inside the open door. The voice calling the unfamiliar visitor from deep inside was low, but it was heard clearly in the visitor’s ears. It was truly a bizarre experience.

“I was waiting, thinking you might come around today.”

It was a very polite voice, but it exuded boundless arrogance. The courtesy that voice put on plausibly wasn’t respect for an equal being, but grace bestowed generously.

“We both don’t have time, so shall we hurry, Lady Lavallee?”

Beatrice stepped forward immediately.

“Welcome to the guild.”

Splendid lips smirked in the darkness.