Carson held Ines tightly in his arms, waiting until she stopped trembling. Sensing she had calmed down, he brushed back her hair. The tips of her hair that wrapped around him gently were completely dry.

“You won’t be able to come with me right away. You’ll come once everyone else has been gathered.”

In truth, he had considered taking Ines with him first.

Though there was a principle that they must go with the priest, additional donations would have made it feasible.

But the situation changed after meeting the Empress. He had to immediately return to his domain to check on the issues between Pulderfin and Keinz. And he couldn’t afford to refuse what the Empress wanted.

Now that he finally had a way to take Ines to Randhill, going to Monstera was out of the question. He would have to leave her behind temporarily to keep her by his side again.

The day after Carson left, Ines wrote a long letter to her father for the first time in a while.

Her parents had often sent her letters.

The content of the letters was not much.

The Dallias had bloomed longer this year, or a black cat had given birth to a bunch of kittens under the gazebo and ran away—such were the stories.

After hearing her father’s explanation, Ines’s mother had somewhat calmed down. The justifiability that there was a reason for their daughter trying to kill someone clearly comforted her mother.

That didn’t mean all of Ines’s actions were forgivable. Her mother had clearly been hurt deeply. However, it was not an insurmountable pain.

In the end, her mother had remained healthy up to now. Sometimes she even smiled, her father had conveyed. Ines was content with that.

She also sent letters back to her parents, writing about minor situations that had happened at the temple.

But today’s letter was different from the start.

She concluded the letter by asking them to handle a task she needed done, as she would soon be moving to Randhill Manor.

And in the postscript, she wrote to bring two of the black kittens if their mother didn’t return.

The day Ines would leave the temple for Randhill was only three days away.

In the meantime, Ines had looked into Monstera.

Monstera was actually the name of a vine plant native to the southern regions. Why the domain was named Monstera was unknown, but ironically, Monteras couldn’t grow in Monstera.

Monstera was a parasitic plant that grew by climbing other plants and survived only in humid areas. Monstera was a part of the arid domain that had some desert-like aspects. Winds were frequent, but rain was scarce.

People guessed the name Monstera was given because of the shape of its leaves.

Leaves bigger than a person, perforated here and there, were designed to withstand torrential rains and strong winds. And those holes allowed sunlight to reach the bottom.

That was Monstera—a land that would even tear itself apart to bring light to the empire.

“Ines.”

Charlotte’s calling of her name snapped Ines out of her thoughts.

“Ah, you’re here?”

Ines had cautiously asked Charlotte yesterday if she would come with her to Randhill. At the name Randhill, she hesitated. It was a place of painful memories; it couldn’t be helped. And today, she had come to give her answer.

Thanks to the well coming into the temple, the maids’ morning times had become a bit more relaxed. There were three maids, including Ines, who shared the room. Two of them had already gone out, and one who loved to sleep in was still asleep.

Charlotte had brought some of the pastries from last night as a snack.

“Have you thought about it?”
While waiting for a reply, Ines felt a bit tense. She truly wanted to go with Charlotte.

“I actually made up my mind a while ago but came just now since it’s late. I wanted to go somewhere other than Landhill, but being with you is more important to me.”

At Charlotte’s approval, she smiled brightly.

“Thank you.”

“Thankful? … I’m the one who’s thankful. You’re leaving Edmont sooner than me. I was uncertain what to do afterward, but this worked out really well. I also received permission to stay in the Lord’s castle even after you regain your nobility. I’ll think it over, about how to live my life going forward.”

As Ines nodded, Charlotte brushed off her clothes and stood up.

“Ah, the priest who will be going with us is Priest Hansen.”

“Really?”

It was reassuring that it was Priest Hansen. He was a mid-level priest who would soon be on the path to becoming a high-level priest.

In Edmont, there were no visible differences but there were hierarchies and distinctions.

People distinguished between those who had committed sins and become maids and those who hadn’t; even without setting it deliberately, the two naturally separated.

Priests were humans too, and so they naturally distanced themselves from those who had committed sins.

However, Hansen was different. It wasn’t known what he felt inside, but at least outwardly, he treated everyone the same.