With a strict scolding, Yanan left first to check what was happening outside.

After a while, with a towel infused with the scent of fragrant apple mint, Latifa wiped away her sweat and came out of Hamam. The oppressive heat was gone, and her skin felt smooth, but her heart continued to beat rapidly, as if something unpleasant was about to happen.

‘Is it because it has been peaceful for the past few days? Why do I feel so uneasy?’

“Hades hasn’t returned to the estate yet, has he?”

As Latifa, who had come out of Hamam into the courtyard, felt the texture of the silk caftan with a beautiful crimson carnation pattern, she tried to dispel the uneasy palpitations.

“It’s almost dinner time, so he should be back soon.”

As the late afternoon heat of the slightly loosened Grand Bazaar swept over Latifa’s face, she couldn’t shake the feeling of unease.

“!”
Along with the heat, loud noises came from beyond Caleb’s sand walls and fences. However, the distance made it unclear what was being said in detail.

Latifa asked her maids, “Amirah, you mentioned that woman came? Seeing the commotion, it seems something is happening, right?”

“Should we go out through the main gate?”

The maids were filled with curiosity, and eventually, driven by curiosity and the lingering unknown anxiety, Latifa walked along the central corridor, adorned with Turkish tile crafts, towards the main gate.

” Gyah!”

However, as she got closer, what resonated loudly was not voices but screams.

Latifa, who was walking slowly, suddenly, upon hearing the screams, started running towards the main gate.

Thump, thump.

The heart she had tried to suppress started beating rapidly again.

“Ugh, it hurts!”

It was undoubtedly screams in the imperial language. What was heard beyond the large walls and fortress was undoubtedly not the language of the desert.

Arriving at the main gate, which was firmly closed, Caleb’s servants, Yanan, and Lucwan, upon seeing Latifa rushing towards them, stiffened their faces.

“Stop! Stop it! I was wrong!”

Mixing weak desert language and the imperial language, cries of pain from various directions reached Latifa as she hurriedly ran to the large oak door.

“Why, why is this happening? Yanan! Lucwan! What’s happening outside?”

When Latifa touched the closed door and asked, Yanan tried to send her away in a hurry.

“Lady Latifa, please go inside. It’s just the noise of troublemakers. You shouldn’t come out right after the sauna. Lord Hades will be here soon, so please go inside!”

“Ack!”

“There are imperial people outside! Someone is suffering!”

Even with Latifa’s plea, Caleb’s servants remained silent, only bowing their heads.

And the moment Latifa saw their faces and her white hand resting on the door, she once again realized what kind of existence she was in this exotic Grand Bazaar.

She was nothing more than a captive of the fallen empire.

For a moment, as Latifa leaned against the door, a harsh voice of a woman outside reached her ears.

“Lady slave from the empire holding a coming-of-age ceremony?! Everyone passing by will laugh! If Lord Hades hadn’t picked you up, you would have been whipped just like these slaves!”

“Slave…”

Thinking of the illegal slave traders she almost encountered during her refugee days, Latifa’s hands trembled sweetly. There was nothing wrong with Amirah’s words.

‘If Hades hadn’t discovered me… I would have been brought here like them.’

With a pale face, Latifa, in her distressed state, asked Yanan,

“That woman, Amirah Shadi, right? The woman whose coming-of-age ceremony coincided with mine.”

“I’m sorry. We can’t force her out since she’s not causing trouble. Moreover, we can’t easily expel someone from Shadi Merchant. It’s awkward.”

Yanan bowed his head as if truly sorry.

Just by seeing Caleb’s name written in the spice market last time, it could be suspected that the market and Hades were closely related.

And since Shadi Merchant was mentioned as a large spice market, it was likely a significant support for Hades and Lucwan.

‘If I provoke her anger now, it won’t be good.’

“It’s not wrong.”

Latifa laughed bitterly, but as screams from outside reached her ears again, she couldn’t help but drop that laughter.
‘But we can’t just leave the imperial people to continue being whipped!’

Biting her lower lip tightly, she eventually grabbed Yanan’s arm and pleaded.

“Please open the door. I have to talk to her directly.”

“Perhaps Lady Amirah’s temperament is not well-known to you. She’s not someone you can talk to.”

“Hades may come, and if he sees this chaos, that woman might die at his hands. A person from a large merchant like Shadi? Who knows, it could lead to a significant incident. Have you forgotten what happened during the trial?”

To Latifa’s fiercely reasonable words, Yanan remained silent without any response.

Latifa tightened her grip on Yanan’s wrist, looking around and speaking to Lucwan and the gatekeepers.

“Please open the door. Anyway, she is not a royal or a quasi-royal, just the daughter of wealthy commoners. I faced trial in front of the Sultan, claiming to be the Moon Goddess. With that severe situation, Hades could have forgotten.”

Yanan vehemently shook his head, signaling that it was impossible, and they began to watch the expressions of Yanan and Latifa.