While the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess were displaying their passionate love as husband and wife, drawing the gazes of all the nobles crowding the Golden Hall,

Airy was sitting on the roof of the hut of the forest keeper beyond the Imperial Palace, in a blind spot of the Black Magic Formation within the palace discovered by Kassandra, sighing heavily.

[I just realized how scary ‘The Enchanted Night’ is. To think the Grand Duke would confess and even pounce on her!]

Gaius, sitting next to Airy, slowly nodded his small head.

[The Grand Duke is an admirable young man. An ordinary youth would not have been able to resist the temptation of ‘The Enchanted Night’ and would have crossed the line.] [Silly Popo. The Grand Duke is the Tower Lord’s rival, so what’s the point of praising him?] [I have to praise him. Thanks to him, my child still has a chance, doesn’t she?] [Wake up. Yuriella asked the Tower Lord to become sworn siblings. Even if Ricarion drank a whole chest of ‘The Enchanted Night’, he’d grow old and die a bachelor.]

Popo bristled, straightening his back.

[My child is the owner of the great holy sword Gaius, a 10th Circle Grand Mage that may appear only once every 500 years! With that power, he saved Yuriella’s life twice!] [Hey, Nero! You can’t just eat anything!]

Airy cleanly ignored Popo’s words and flew over to the black cat Nero, who was nibbling on weeds, grabbing him by the scruff and bringing him back onto the roof.

– Meow!

Nero let out a disgruntled meow, his jewel-like green eyes narrowing into slits.

Airy lifted Nero’s eyelids as far up as they would go.

[Nero. Stop messing around and open your eyes wide. See that golden roof there? That’s the Imperial Palace. Flama should be there. Shouldn’t you be sensing something at this distance?]

– Meow.

Nero irritably flailed his plump front paws at Airy, as if annoyed.

[Sigh. I’d find my holy sword faster at this rate.]

Airy let out a heavy sigh.

[Didn’t Kassandra say she’d find a way to get close to Flama? If she can just break the spell, it’s not entirely impossible for Nero to become one with the Crimson Phoenix.] [Can Kassandra succeed?]

Airy turned her gaze worriedly towards the Imperial Palace, which was topped by a golden roof.

Imprisoned in the dungeon beneath the Imperial Palace, Kassandra stared fixedly at the entrance, magic restraints on her wrists, ankles, and even her neck.

Her tortured body was screaming in pain, but her tense back remained straight.

Before returning to the northern cave, the Grand Duke had given her a secret order.

[Empress Dowager Sophia must be very anxious right now. The Emperor has begun to go astray.]

Creak. Creak.

At the sound of light footsteps descending the old wooden stairs, a smile tugged at the scab-covered corners of Kassandra’s mouth.

[Since we stopped the Emperor from investigating the coma patients, the Empress Dowager will be looking for another way. Kassandra. You must become that way.]

The prison door opened and the Empress Dowager entered.

“It’s been a while, sister.”

Sophia della Ponti. The Empire’s Empress Dowager, once called ‘Lady Figueira’ alongside her, approached with a smile on her doll-like face.

“My sister is so unfortunate. Not only were you sold to a northern pig, but now you’ve been tortured by my son and become a veil-wearing cripple.”

Kassandra trembled, shedding tears.

“Please spare me, Your Majesty. I really didn’t cause the coma.”

“Stop resisting and confess. That Frost Ielheim locked you up in a cave and threatened you, so you had no choice. Who knows? His Majesty may show mercy and throw you into a convent.”

“Your Majesty knows I didn’t do it. It was you who did it.”

“Has living in a cave eating only bugs addled your mind?”

“I can also guess why you caused the coma. Solas Moretti. You’re looking for the one who holds the soul of the Knight of Flames, aren’t you?”

The Empress Dowager’s thin lips twisted crookedly.

“Did the Grand Duke tell you something? That boy talks as if he knows who the culprit is.”

“It’s probably just a bluff. Even if I’m the owner of the holy sword Iello, how would I know the spell of black magic?”

“You didn’t tip him off?”

“Me? To the one who locked me in a lightless cave for 6 years? To my mortal enemy whom I’d turn into a pig if given the chance, to vent my anger?”

The Empress Dowager smiled brightly.

Even after being imprisoned in a cave for 6 years, her skills hadn’t died.

“How did you know it was me?”

“It’s impossible not to know. Your Majesty the Empress Dowager was also born with the same outstanding talent for black magic as me.”

The magical talent that manifested only in the women of the Figueira family for generations developed into black magic that couldn’t be brought to light.

If it became known, the individual would be burned at the stake or chased by the Tower for life. The family would also face extermination, so the previous Duke of Figueira hid Sophia’s talent.

Only the illegitimate child Kassandra was used for the family’s dirty work. And the only reward they gave was throwing her to a northern trash worse than a pig and receiving an emerald mine.

“I never felt it was unfair that I took the blame in Your Majesty’s place. Rather, I felt sorry for you.”

Kassandra put on a pitiful sisterly act, shedding tears. It was an expression that the selfish Sophia, who grew up receiving only love, fell for quite well.

“I wondered how serious the situation must have been for Your Majesty to personally step in, and it made me worry and question things. And then I remembered that Solas Moretti’s star hasn’t gone out and is still stubbornly twinkling.”

“So sister also saw that star?”

Seeing Sophia let her guard down and call her sister, Kassandra inwardly scoffed.

“I thought Solas’s soul was in Jedo. Because that’s the only place where the coma occurred. But I’m starting to wonder if that thought was wrong these days.”

“Wonder about what?”

“That the soul might have gone to the North.”

“How can a soul that left its body go all the way to the far North?”

Kassandra shook her head as if it made no sense.

“Right. It’s impossible. Unless the Tower Lord personally intervened. They say he was born with unparalleled talent. The Tower acknowledged him as 7th Circle, but who knows. He might even be 10th Circle.”

“The Tower Lord doesn’t show his face in worldly affairs. No one even knows what he looks like.”

“True. He couldn’t have intervened. But-”

“Even if a soul could be transferred, a vessel is needed to hold it, and the blessing of the wind is required. But Airy hasn’t appeared in over 500 years.”

“Right. I know. But there’s someone who makes me nervous.”

Empress Dowager Sophia frowned and gnashed the flesh inside her mouth.

[The Empress Dowager will be wondering why the Emperor is obsessed with my wife. She’ll be dying of curiosity as to why her son, who only reacted to Solas Moretti, went crazy over the mistress of the far North and even convened a meeting of the high nobles.]

The Grand Duke accurately pinpointed the Empress Dowager’s inner thoughts.

[She may suspect that Yuriella Ielheim is Solas Moretti.]

At the Grand Duke’s words, Kassandra had to bite her tongue hard to hide her shaken expression.

[It mustn’t be discovered. No matter what.]

But she ended up biting her tongue at the Grand Duke’s next words.

[You probably already know. Who she is. You must have seen her while performing the ritual to summon the soul.]

Kassandra didn’t ask how he knew.

His deep eyes gazing at Her Grace the Grand Duchess were already answering.

There are things you see when love deepens.

Even if it’s a trivial wildflower to someone, the one who loves that flower can count its petals one by one.

Let alone someone who has given their entire heart.

[Divert the Empress Dowager’s attention away from my wife and turn it elsewhere.]

Kassandra whispered softly to the Empress Dowager.

“I can find Solas for you.”

“You can, sister? How?”

“Show me Flama.”

The Empress Dowager narrowed her eyes and looked at Kassandra assessingly.

“Why Flama?”

“I will try to use Flama to make Solas lead me to them.”

[Flama will make a good bait. The Empress Dowager will never be able to refuse.]

Kassandra anxiously watched her suspicious younger sister to see if she would take the bait.

“Flama is just a shell consumed by magic. What can you do with that?”

“It’s not just a shell. If Solas’s soul hasn’t been destroyed, the sword’s contract should still be valid. The lingering flames will surely react to their master.”

The Empress Dowager lifted Kassandra’s chin to meet her gaze.

“Are you confident?”

Finally. She took the bait.

Kassandra inwardly let out a sigh of relief.

The Grand Duke was truly a strategist who could deceive even the heavens.

Soon after, Empress Dowager sent Karina Pioni to Kassandra.

Karina, who removed the magic restraints, secretly guided Kassandra to the Emperor’s bedchamber.

Following Karina into the inner chamber of the Emperor’s bedchamber, Kassandra slowly approached the glass case containing the holy sword Flama.

As Kassandra raised her hand above the sword and chanted a spell, the thick black magic swirling inside and outside the glass case began to gradually dissipate.

The sword, which had lost its original luster and turned a murky color, began to faintly glow crimson, but it quickly faded.

“Tsk tsk. Looks like the title of the Empire’s greatest black mage is just for show.”

“I will try again.”

As Kassandra began chanting the spell again, Karina burst into laughter.

“Lady Yuriella is quite greedy. Even after becoming the owner of the holy sword Airy, you still need Flama back?”

Kassandra’s lips, which had been chanting the spell, twitched and stiffened.

“…Young Lady Pioni. What in the world are you-”

“You deliberately got caught to blind the Empress Dowager and take out Flama, didn’t you?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about-”

Karina’s hands, which had somehow approached, tightly gripped Kassandra’s neck.

“Ack.”

“Kassandra Cavesa. You may deceive the Empress Dowager, but you can’t deceive me.”

The mage’s two feet flailed in the air.

“Cough. Cough.”

“The Goddess has looked upon me with pity and poured unprecedented holy power into me, giving me the ability to see what others cannot. For example, the soul of a knight residing in a body that is not their own. Or a pitiful little spirit of the wind that has lost its main body.”

Even as her breath was being choked, Kassandra couldn’t help but admire the Grand Duke’s strategy.

[The holy maiden candidate will bare her claws at you. Judging from the witchcraft she used in Collina Rosa, it’s safe to assume she has grasped our situation. But the fact that there has been no movement from the Empress Dowager’s side means Karina doesn’t trust the Empress Dowager and is acting alone.]

Karina threw Kassandra to the floor and walked lightly towards the glass case.

The black mage’s eyes widened as she held her throat and coughed.

Because dazzling holy power and black magic simultaneously burst from Karina’s hands.

“…!”

Kassandra’s shocked eyes trembled violently.

As the holy power and magic, coiled like two snakes, passed through the glass case and began tightly wrapping around Flama, the weakly flickering red light began to waver and fade like a candle flame in a fierce wind.

“Disgusting Solas. Undying Solas. How can I make His Majesty give up on that woman?”

“Lady Karina!”

Karina clicked her tongue and lowered her hand. The holy power and magic disappeared without a trace.

“Don’t worry. I have no intention of turning Flama into scrap metal.”

Kassandra looked up at Karina with a sickened expression.

Karina’s eyes, jet-black up to the whites, shimmered with tears, looking grotesque.

“Flama will soon have a new owner. But I don’t want to hand this over to someone else. Kassandra Cavesa. Can you make me Flama’s owner?”

“Flama is now just an empty shell, so why would you…”

The holy maiden candidate sneered and gazed at Flama.

“Nonsense. If Flama is reborn as a true magic sword, even Iello and Gaius combined won’t be a match, right?”

*

Frost entered the terrace holding a glass of cold fruit juice.

“Shall we return home if you’re tired?”

Yuriella, who had come out to the secluded terrace to avoid people’s gazes, glared at the Grand Duke with sharp eyes.

“Why do you keep smiling?”

“Because I’m so happy. I had no idea my duchess was such a bold woman. I will also express my love for you more abundantly and courageously, to keep pace with you.”

Frost held out the glass of juice to Yuriella.

As Yuriella absentmindedly took the two glasses with both hands, Frost wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close with a jerk. Yuriella swayed, nearly spilling the swishing juice.

“It’s not what you think. What happened earlier-”

“Yuriella.”

In the landscape she looked up at upon the affectionate call, there were captivating blue eyes and a straight nose. And the moist lips that had touched hers in the hall just before.

A beautiful waltz melody flowed softly through the terrace doors. The gentle moonlight illuminated the terrace with a sweet glow.

As Yuriella stared blankly as if entranced, Nero burrowed into her arms.

– Meow! Meow!

Nero, who had leaped over the terrace railing, writhed in pain with his claws extended.

“Nero!”

– Meow! Meow! Meow!