– Meow! Meow! Meow!

The black cat Nero leapt up and fiercely swung its claws towards Aerie, raising its front paws.

[Stop it, Nero! I said stop!]

When Aerie blew a gust of wind to push Nero away, the cat rolled off the table and a vase crashed to the floor.

Thud. Crash.

– Meow!

“Nero, stop it. Aerie, calm down too.”

After confirming that Leo had completely left the doorway, the tower master turned to the noisy beings with a frown.

[Nero seems to have gone crazy. He keeps making cat noises, meow! meow!]

Aerie flew past Nero’s nose, circling in the air and fluttering its transparent pair of wings.

[Nero is a cat. Cats naturally meow, meow.]

A low rumbling voice was heard from below.

Nero, who had been snarling at the elusive Aerie, flinched and turned towards the sound.

A palm-sized bluish-green turtle peeked out of the tower master’s coat pocket and began crawling slowly across the floor.

– Meow!

Nero gracefully leapt towards the turtle and started rolling the round creature with its fluffy paws.

The turtle, with its head tucked into its shell, struggled and shouted:

[Ugh. Stop! Stop! Stooop!]

Aerie puffed up its cheeks and created a large bubble of wind in the air.

[Don’t, Nero!]

The wind bubble trapped the black cat inside and floated in the air.

Tower Master Ricarion picked up the turtle that had been struggling upside down on the floor and blew off the cat hair stuck to its shell.

The turtle poked its head out and sternly called out to Nero trapped in the air bubble:

[Damn you! Ill-mannered brat!]

“Calm down, Gaius.”

Ricarion gently stroked the panting turtle’s shell to soothe it.

Aerie tilted its head and approached the air bubble trapping the cat, its nose almost touching.

[Hey! You really don’t remember me?]

– Meow! Meow!

The black cat, seemingly frightened of floating in the air, raised its bristling back and tail high, its pupils elongated vertically as it snarled.

[I can understand not remembering me after 500 years! But what about him? Don’t you remember Gaius? He’s the small spirit of the Earth’s Holy Sword!]

Aerie stretched out its small hand, pointing at the bluish-green turtle.

[Is it hard to remember because Gaius is so tiny and ugly? Strange. When I first saw that guy, I was so shocked I could never forget his ugly face.]

“Aerie. Gaius isn’t ugly. He’s quite elegant and pretty for a turtle.”

Ricarion quickly defended Gaius.

[It’s alright, master. I am not narrow-minded. I don’t care at all about the nonsense of a foolish wind that has forgotten where its own holy sword is.]

The end of the solemn voice cracked. It was clear he was deeply offended.

[Aerie is not foolish! Aerie is smart!]

Aerie shouted angrily, but Gaius ignored it completely, pretending not to hear.

[How strange. Fragments of memory are inside that cat, yet it doesn’t remember me. Oh, what a pity! How could such a bewildering thing happen to the Sword of Fire that has existed since the beginning…!]

Gaius shook his head, smaller than a fingernail, and clicked his tongue.

The tower master approached the black cat trembling in the wind bubble.

“Perhaps it’s better that you don’t remember who you are right now. It seems neither you nor your master are ready to meet each other yet…”

[But how did that poor child’s memories come to reside in a stray cat?]

Gaius stretched out his long neck from the tower master’s palm, tilting his head as he looked at Nero.

[Yeah. Originally, Flama’s small spirit was an extremely ugly bright red lizard.]

Aerie snorted with a contemptuous look.

[Aerie. Speak straight even if your mouth is crooked.]

Gaius sternly reprimanded Aerie.

[Flama’s main spirit, the crimson firebird, is far more beautiful and dignified than your original spirit. Even the small spirit, the fire lizard Salamander, can be said to have more dignity and elegance befitting a holy sword than your current form. I, with my excellent aesthetic sense, can vouch for this.]

Feeling somewhat embarrassed for losing his temper so ungracefully at the skinny cat, the Earth spirit lowered his voice and praised Nero’s original form.

[What? Gaius! You must be crazy wanting to die! I’m more beautiful than Flama! Both the main spirit and the small fragment, I’m more dignified!]

As Aerie raised a fierce aura, creating a green whirlwind,

[If you want to kill me, wouldn’t it be better to find your precious sword first?]

Gaius also stood up on his small four legs, spreading a dark reddish-brown aura.

“Stop it, both of you.”

As the tower master summoned the Earth’s Sword in the shape of a staff and swung it in the air, Gaius and Aerie were enveloped in a whirlwind and dust, sucked into the wind bubble trapping Nero.

[What are you doing! Let me out right now!]

Aerie shouted, banging on the wind bubble it had created.

[Master. You accidentally put me in with this ill-mannered child.]

“It wasn’t an accident, Gaius. Didn’t I tell you to practice what you preach? How could you fight just like Aerie? Act with the dignity of the Earth’s Sword. Okay?”

Gaius drooped his head and tucked it into his shell.

Since he tends to stay in his shell for at least 5-6 days once he gets upset, he’ll probably be quiet and not fight with the wind spirit for a few days.

[Let me out! Let me out!]

“Promise you won’t fight with Gaius again.”

[Gaius is bad! Gaius is nasty!]

“Then do you want to keep staying in there with Nero?”

[Let me out! Nero smells! Nero is dirty!]

“Oh really? Then just stay there like that.”

Aerie burst out in frustration when Ricarion only took Gaius out of the air bubble and put him in his cloak’s inner pocket.

[I hate Ricarion! I’m going to tell Yuriella everything!]

“What are you going to tell her? That part of Flama’s soul has seeped into the little cat Nero? Will Yuriella be happy about that?”

[……]

Aerie flinched.

“Even if Flama’s soul is there, it’s not only an incomplete part, but it has also lost its memory.”

Are you still going to tell your master? That tender-hearted child?

Aerie, who had been pulling at its fluffy hair with its small hands, sighed.

The answer was already there when it first saw Nero, no matter how much it pondered.

[Nero. Have you forgotten Yuriella, no, Solas too?]

– Meow.

In the depths of the cat’s wary green eyes, behind the vertically elongated pupils, a small, red-burning soul spark could be seen.

It was a trace of Flama, so small and fragile that even Aerie couldn’t recognize it right away.

[You’ve forgotten everything, so why did you remain in Colina Rosa?]

– Meow.

Aerie’s round eyes drooped as it looked at its old friend, no different from an ordinary stray cat.

The reason it recommended Colina Rosa as Yuriella’s honeymoon destination was because Solas and Frost had their final battle here.

Although in Yuriella’s body, Yuriella was Solas, and the commander-in-chief of the punitive force that trampled the northern lands and people.

Saying it was the emperor’s order and couldn’t be helped might be a good excuse, but Yuriella was a child who didn’t know excuses.

So it thought it should either face it completely and overcome it, or be completely broken. It had to be one of the two.

It expected Colina Rosa to be a place that would show how Solas Moretti could live as Yuriella Ielheim. What kind of person she should be, what attitude she should have. It believed it was a test that shouldn’t be avoided no matter how painful.

But it didn’t expect to encounter a small piece of Flama here.

[You’ve forgotten everything, how did you follow Yuriella?]

How did you recognize its master, who has completely changed into a different person and is now full of wind energy.

[Even though you don’t remember anything, did you… like Yuriella?]

– Meow.

“It seems Flama sealed its memories and breathed them into that cat before being completely tainted by demonic energy. Whether it’s all or part of the memories, we can’t know…”

Ricarion took Nero and Aerie out of the wind bubble and sat them side by side on the sofa.

As soon as it was released, Nero leapt up and pounced on Aerie, who had trapped it in the wind bubble. Aerie flew up and perched on top of the lampshade.

[Cassandra said that Flama in the Imperial Palace was still fighting against the demonic energy. Can Flama return to its original form if it meets Nero?]

“I don’t know. We’ll have to try, at least.”

[What if it fails? Will Nero have to live as Nero forever? What happens to Flama if Nero dies?]

“That too, we don’t know.”

[……Don’t tell Yuriella.] [You should watch your own mouth, unruly small piece of wind.]

Gaius’s solemn voice rumbled from inside the tower master’s cloak.

[Hey! Gaius, change your way of speaking. You’re the same age as me but always acting like an adult and lecturing. It’s not cool at all, you know?] [If you’re lucky and Flama returns to its original form, Yuriella will be happy. Then will you, Aerie, lose your master?] [……Shut up! Yuriella is loyal! Very loyal!]

Yuriella can be trusted. If not, it would have hidden back beyond the ice sea at the edge of the aurora and slept for another five hundred, no, even a thousand years. Among all the masters of the Wind Sword it had formed bonds with since ancient times, Aerie liked Yuriella the best.

But separately from trust…

Aerie’s round, cute eyes rolled towards the scruffy cat and narrowed.

[Flama, you must remember this. For Yuriella, Aerie is now number one. Got it? Aerie is always number one!]

Having lost everything, even memories.

The small and insignificant piece of fire, drawn like a magnet to its master’s side, called out to its master pitifully, scratching at the tightly closed door with its claws, meowing “Meow, meow.”

Unable to forget, missing too much.

*

Late at night. In the couple’s bedroom, a soothing scented candle burned gently.

Although it was a local villa, the bed prepared to pray for the coming of the first baby was soft and cozy.

Angelus’s knights guarded the couple’s night, not allowing even an ant to disturb them near the bedroom.

But Shavell and Leo, playing chess for a bet, knew.

On this late night when the butler, head maid, and Angelus’s knights were happily betting whether the first baby would be a grand prince or grand princess.

What the vigorous Grand Duke and the beautiful Duchess were doing in bed, sweating…

“Are you in pain?”

The Grand Duchess of Ielheim was busy applying silver needles, removing the Grand Duke’s bedclothes and sweating profusely, last night, the night before, and tonight as well.

“I seem to have gotten used to it. It doesn’t even tickle anymore.”

It wasn’t that Frost had gotten used to the pain, but that he had completely adapted to not showing that he was in pain.

“Your hand must be very uncomfortable. Why don’t you just rest today?”

“You’re always busy. You should get acupuncture when you have time like this.”

Frost frowned, worried about his wife’s wounds that would be under the white bandages.

It was an injury that would disappear without a trace if healing energy was used. But his wife stubbornly refused.

[I don’t want to erase it. The scar this wound will leave is like a medal I’m receiving in advance from Your Highness. It’s like a flag that will remind me of the path I must take.]

It’s admirable. So admirable it makes me angry.

Everything she does is so lovable it’s killing me. Everything she does hurts and injures her, so I hate it too.

Why do I find her lovely one moment and hateful the next, dozens of times a day?

My wife is truly… a demon who lifts me up and puts me down.

My wife’s red eyes curved gently with a smile, and her strawberry blonde hair that had fallen while applying the needles flowed softly down her cheeks.

Look at that. How can she smile so prettily like that?

Frost, who was about to stretch out his arms towards his wife, instead put them behind his head as a pillow.

“The emperor has called for a meeting of the great nobles.”

“A meeting of the great nobles?”

One of Yuriella’s eyebrows raised as if in disbelief.

“The emperor? That can’t be.”

Yes. I thought you’d react like this.

How could my wife, who hasn’t even been near the imperial palace, know about the meeting of great nobles that has only been convened once since the late emperor passed away? And that it’s very unusual and something the emperor greatly dislikes.

“No, why? Why all of a sudden?”

Frost swallowed the words that the reason the emperor was calling for a meeting of the great nobles was probably because of you.

That while you were unable to wake up, there were many nights when the emperor stayed for a long time in front of the window of your sickroom, and that his gaze seemed to be remembering someone he couldn’t forget and missed dearly.

“We’ll find out when we go.”

There’s no good reason to refuse the summons for the meeting of great nobles. I don’t particularly want to avoid it either.

Frost propped his chin on his hand and lay on his side, gazing intently at Yuriella who was putting away the silver needles in their case after finishing the acupuncture.

“Yuriella. I’m curious about something. Will you answer me?”