Yuriella untied the string of the purple velvet case and took out the smallest and thinnest of the silver needles, gripping it in her hand.

“Please do for me what you did for His Highness the Grand Duke. The blessing of Aery. You can use it, can’t you?”

Karina smiled brightly as she held out her injured hand to Yuriella.

“Of course. I saw it at Collina Rosa. The cockroach you sent then. It looked hideous. The swarm of mayflies emerging from the dried-up corpse was disgusting.”

As Yuriella frowned, Karina covered her mouth with her hand and laughed shyly.

“It’s a trivial trick. I was so surprised too. I almost ran into the newlyweds’ bedroom.”

Yuriella drew healing energy to her fingertips. The sparkling green energy slowly flowed into the silver needle.

“What’s the secret? Despite being just a street beggar child, you were chosen by the holy sword Flama. And you even made a contract with the holy sword Aery, which disappeared for five hundred years.”

“Give me your hand. It’ll sting for a moment.”

Yuriella carefully began inserting the silver needle into Karina’s reddened hand, where the dermis had melted away.

“Don’t tell me you’re putting the needle in with a heart full of ill will−. Ah!”

“If I had ill will, your little hand would have exploded entirely. Believe it or not, my needles are fair to everyone. Even the scum of the earth.”

Karina looked at her hand in wonder, feeling the warm energy spreading under her skin and the green light shimmering.

“Your Highness is so kind. If it were me, I would have blown up not just the hand, but the whole body.”

“Say one more word. You’ll get a needle full of ill will.”

Perhaps her ears were pierced, because Karina kept her mouth shut until Yuriella finished inserting the needles.

“How did you know I was Solas Moretti?”

“When I realized the Star of Solas had not fallen, the first person I thought of was Your Highness. Because His Majesty was so drawn to you.”

There was resentment in Karina’s green eyes as she gazed at Yuriella.

“Even though your appearance has changed so much, His Majesty still only has eyes for you. I had to confirm it. And at Collina Rosa, I saw something I never could have imagined. Your Highness has received the blessing of the wind.”

Yuriella sat up straight after putting away the silver needle case and glared at Karina.

“Knowing that, why didn’t you report it to the Emperor or Empress Dowager?”

Karina tilted her head slightly and narrowed her eyes beautifully.

“I’ll have to correct what I said earlier. Your posture. Your way of speaking. Above all, that razor-sharp gaze. You’re exactly like Lady Moretti used to be. So much so that it would be strange not to recognize you.”

“Answer.”

“If Empress Dowager knew, she would kill Lady Moretti again. Then His Majesty would truly go mad.”

Yuriella snorted.

“He’s already crazy enough? And you, who liked such a man enough to turn Flama into a demon sword with the noble divine power given by the gods, don’t seem to be in your right mind either.”

Karina’s delicate eyebrows arched crookedly.

“How did you know I turned Flama into a demon sword?”

“Flama is strong and noble. No matter how powerful the black magic that attacked it, it would have shattered itself rather than transforming into a demon sword. It wouldn’t have been possible without the opening created by the divine power that I trust and cherish. Who else in the empire besides you has that level of spiritual power?”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

“It’s an insult.”

“An insult from Your Highness is a compliment to me. If Your Highness suffers even a little because of me, it would be the greatest joy for me.”

Yuriella shook her head from side to side.

What on earth was going on in that head of hers? She didn’t even want to understand.

“What do you want? You wouldn’t have come to see me just to have your hand treated, would you?”

Without answering, Karina slowly scanned the reception room, which was filled with the subtle scent of edelweiss flowers.

“Your Highness seems to be very happy? Annoyingly so.”

The captain of the knights, whom she had met at the training grounds, glared at the uninvited guest with fiery eyes, worried that she might harm his mistress.

The servants of the mansion that she had encountered on the way to the reception room responded keenly to even the slightest movement of Yuriella with faces full of affection and trust.

It was a sight and warmth that could only be felt in a house where the lady was loved by the lord.

“Your Highness and His Highness the Grand Duke are a perfect match.”

“You and the Emperor seem like a perfect match too, a pair of cockroaches. May the two of you eat and live well. Don’t poke around where you don’t belong.”

Karina let out a self-deprecating laugh.

“The night waits for the sun. But the arrogant sun has no regard for the loneliness of the darkness until it is swallowed up by the night. So the darkness can’t help but be impatient.”

“You’re the darkness, and Justin is the sun?”

When Yuriella asked with a furrowed brow, Karina burst into laughter.

“Are you stupid? Your Highness is the sun, and His Majesty is the darkness.”

“Then what are you?”

“I am… Also darkness. The same pitch-black darkness as His Majesty. His Majesty can’t see me. The eyes of darkness can’t see darkness.”

Yuriella was getting increasingly irritated with the candidate saint who kept spouting incomprehensible words that she didn’t want to understand.

“Stop beating around the bush and speak so I can understand.”

Karina sighed and mumbled as if talking to herself.

“Does His Majesty have a preference for fools? I want to become a fool too.”

“You, a candidate for sainthood, are no genius either for dabbling in black magic.”

“I’ll have you know I graduated early from the Imperial Academy at the top of my class.”

“In my previous life, I put half the elite of the Imperial Academy in shackles and threw them in prison. I’ll put you where you belong soon too, so just wait for it.”

“Your Highness.”

“Don’t call me affectionately. It gave me goosebumps just now.”

Karina got up from her chair and knelt at Yuriella’s feet. Then she reached out and clasped Yuriella’s hands tightly, resting her forehead on them.

Wet tears soaked Yuriella’s hands.

“Please, I beg you. Don’t take His Majesty away from me.”

“Don’t worry. I absolutely won’t take him even if you give him to me.”

Yuriella tried to pull her hands away, but Karina gripped them tightly as if they were a lifeline.

“Promise me. Then I’ll take Your Highness’s secret to my grave.”

“I swear by the goddess Yustera. I will never take Justin Della Ponti away from you. Satisfied?”

Yuriella twisted her hands free and shuddered as she wiped her hands, damp with Karina’s tears, on the hem of her skirt.

“Then I’ll go, trusting only Your Highness.”

Karina stood up with a relieved face and smiled brightly, her beautiful emerald eyes creasing.

*

“Cassandra! Cassandra!”

Karina, who had entered the underground prison of the Imperial Palace with hasty steps, took off the ring on her left little finger and held it out to Cassandra.

Cassandra closed the book she was reading, got up from her chair, took the ring, and examined it under the candlelight.

The gem set in the ring had lost its original blue color and shimmered with a vivid blood-red hue.

“You managed to bring the Grand Duchess’s blood without getting caught.”

“It’s similar to how a mosquito sucks blood. The needle inside the ring is designed to find the blood vessel accurately without stimulating the nerves. It doesn’t hurt or itch after being pricked.”

“As expected. Befitting the skill of Empress Dowager’s favorite disciple!”

“A favorite disciple is a hunting dog to be eaten once the hunt is over.”

Karina shrugged her slender shoulders nonchalantly.

“No way. Everyone knows Empress Dowager has her eye on you as a daughter-in-law.”

“Hmph. If she really intended to make me her daughter-in-law, she wouldn’t have let me dabble in black magic. Because converting divine power to black magic requires paying a corresponding price.”

“A price? What price did you pay?”

At Cassandra’s question, Karina’s expression darkened.

“Darkness cannot embrace light. The light of life that the goddess Yustera blesses women with…”

Karina will not be able to have children. Even if she’s lucky enough to get pregnant, her womb will not be able to give life to her child. Rather, it will suck out the last bit of vitality the child has and end up withering it to death.

Karina shook her jet-black long hair.

“It doesn’t matter. I only need His Majesty. More importantly, with just the Grand Duchess’s blood, can Flama recognize me as its master?”

“They say the holy sword Flama makes a blood oath when forming a contract with its master. Even if Solas is dead, her soul resides in the Grand Duchess. That blood will be the medium connecting you and Flama.”

“Are you sure?”

“Once you become the master of the holy sword Flama, His Majesty will love you as he loved Solas. No, he will love you even more. Because you will be a saint who receives the goddess’s blessing and a powerful sword protecting His Majesty. Of course.”

At Cassandra’s confident answer, Karina smiled broadly.

It was a pure and innocent smile, like that of a country maiden who would make when plucking the petals of a flower in a field one by one, pondering whether the village boy she had a crush on ‘loves me, loves me not,’ and being left with the last petal as ‘loves me.’

Tsk tsk. The black magician clicked her tongue inwardly as she looked at Karina’s gentle green eyes.

They say love is blind. The candidate saint was just like that.

Falling so easily into a trap that would be obvious with just a little thought.

What good was graduating early at the top of the Imperial Academy, or being a candidate saint with unparalleled spiritual power?

Excessive love is like a poisoned apple. If you get intoxicated by the sweetness and gobble it down, the poison will spread throughout your body and you will die, not realizing that.

*

Yuriella was sitting on the window sill of her bedchamber, endlessly gazing at the rain that had been drizzling since late afternoon.

The macarons Rosalinne had brought were left untouched and soggy. Yuriella’s heart also felt as if it was soaked by the rain, drooping limply.

Thoughts of the demon poison deeply rooted in His Highness’s body and Cassandra trapped in the Imperial Palace kept weighing down her mind endlessly.

“I heard Karina visited?”

Frost rushed in, panting heavily.

“Your Highness.”

“Why did you meet her instead of just sending her away?”

Yuriella leaped down from the window sill and approached Frost.

A thick blend of fresh bodily scent and petrichor emanated from his damp cloak and coat. It was the scent she had longed for all day.

[Let’s draw up the divorce papers as soon as the high nobility meeting is over.]

Yuriella’s footsteps, which had been hurrying towards the Grand Duke, came to an abrupt halt.

Her round eyes, which had held a smile, also narrowed slightly.

[If it’s a relationship destined to end anyway, what’s the point of dragging it out?]

Yuriella changed direction, went to the sofa, and plopped down, leaning her back against it. Her face was contorted with a twisted mood, and she even crossed her legs.

“Once we’re divorced, we’ll be strangers. What do I care if a stranger falls victim to black magic and dies or not?”

“What are you saying…?”

“Didn’t you say let’s get divorced once the high nobility meeting is over?”

“What does that have to do with this? I’m worried about you-”

“Didn’t you say you don’t need my goodwill? I don’t need your concern either.”

Yuriella gazed at the Grand Duke, who couldn’t hide his bewilderment, resting her chin on her hand and tilting her head slightly.

“But it was suspicious. Karina suddenly grabbed my hand tightly and started crying. And then my hand hurt.”

Frost turned pale and knelt in front of Yuriella, taking her hand.

“It hurt?”

Although she felt nothing, Yuriella frowned and let out a moan as if in great pain.

The moment Karina grabbed her hand, the color of the ring on her little finger had changed momentarily, so if it had hurt, it would have been at that moment.

Yuriella quietly gazed at Frost.

She could feel Frost’s large hands, carefully examining her own, trembling.

“Did it hurt a lot? I don’t see any wounds, but…”

What Karina had likely taken was Yuriella’s blood, which Cassandra had requested.

Before Cassandra left for the northern cave, Yuriella had discussed with the black magician, without the Grand Duke’s knowledge, a way to undo the curse on Flama. It was Cassandra’s idea that Yuriella’s blood could be the key to breaking the curse.

“Not that hand, this one.”

Yuriella held out her right hand and placed it on Frost’s left cheek.

“Hmm. I think I have a bit of a fever.”

Frost placed his hand on Yuriella’s forehead. His large hand covered her entire forehead and temples.

“You don’t have a fever though?”

“Hmm. My throat is dry, and I feel really thirsty too.”

Yuriella’s plump red lips parted slightly.

“Wait a moment. I’ll call the royal physician and contact the temple-”

Yuriella tilted her head and took the raindrops on Frost’s cheek onto her lips.

One drop, two drops, three drops.

“…!”

Slender arms wrapped tightly around Frost’s neck, which had stiffened. And before he could avoid it, small lips engulfed his frozen lips.

Like a greedy deer quenching its burning thirst after running through high mountains and valleys and finding a stream. Like a hungry lion, a master of the hunt, that doesn’t let go once it bites.