Vellest took care of the stalls for the merchants, Riena handled the acrobats, Biella managed the flower petals and fireworks for the ball, and Granja, the wife of Viscount Grania, was in charge of the magical torches to be lit in the evening.

These were personnel capable of easily preparing for the splendid ball held at the palace, and Ermeldine couldn’t be more grateful even for such a humble event.

Even though the ball hadn’t started yet, Ermeldine’s heart was already filled with a delightful excitement.

“You’ve all worked so hard! Tomorrow’s ball will undoubtedly be enjoyable, but I’ve truly enjoyed every moment of preparation with all of you. Thank you for making it possible for us to have a good time together.”

Ermeldine bowed her head gracefully to the precious six people.

“Your Majesty!”

Starting with Runi, everyone sincerely bowed their heads more deeply to Ermeldine.

“While we’re bowing, how about gathering together?”

Suddenly, at Ermeldine’s suggestion, Runi and the maids discreetly gathered around her.

“Sir Fellio, come here too!”

Fellio, who had been making an envious expression from a distance, reluctantly approached Ermeldine and squeezed in between them.

“I’ll share a very secret spell with you.”

“A spell?”

“Yes. But this isn’t a curse spell. It’s a spell I use to give myself strength.”

“Is there such a thing?”

In response to Runi’s question, Ermeldine nodded with a smile, making her eyes form large crescents.

“There is. A very effective spell.”

“What is it!”

“Fighting.”

“Fighting?”

“Yes. It’s my secret spell, so only we should know about it! When I shout three, we all cast the spell simultaneously, okay?”

As Ermeldine signaled with her eyes, everyone nodded their heads seriously.

Their appearance looked incredibly cute to Ermeldine.

“One, two, three!”

“Fighting!!”

Fortunately, the determined glances had an effect, and Ermeldine and the other six people, including herself, were able to shout the spell at the same time.

“Now! Since we’ve cast the spell, we’ll all be able to do our best tomorrow!”

It felt strange after so long.

After leaving the orphanage, there had been no chance to belong to a group.

Always having to survive desperately alone, she had forgotten how pleasant it was to have colleagues working together with a common goal.

Although she cheerfully shouted “Fighting,” there was a constant urge to burst into tears. In a hurry, Ermeldine sent Fellio and the maids away.

Sitting quietly while looking at the cat doll, Runi approached and spoke gently.

“Your Majesty, I’m actually jealous, but I like it.”

“Huh?”
“At first, I really didn’t like that people didn’t know the true feelings of Her Majesty the Empress. But these days, I occasionally envy Sir Fellio and the maids who have become close to Her Majesty the Empress.”

“Envy?”

“Yes. But then again, it’s also nice to think that Her Majesty the Empress is no longer lonely.”

Perhaps finding her own words strange, Runi scratched the back of her head.

“There’s nothing to envy. Aren’t you my first?”

“First?”

“Yeah. The first comrade who recognized me. My ally. Even if more people come by my side in the future, that fact will never change.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! It’s true!”

With Ermeldine’s firm answer, Runi, with a shy smile, retreated backward and left the reception room.

It seems she went to prepare for bedtime.

In Ermeldine’s eyes, Runi’s cat doll, placed side by side on the table, was visible.

It had been a long time since she felt the emotion of not being lonely.

She had passed the time when everyone she faced was afraid and repulsed by her.

‘Well done. Yun Hye-young. You really endured well. Fighting, really!’

Ermeldine, once again casting a spell on herself, closed the window through which the chilly night wind was blowing.

Finally, on the day of the ball, there was no room to move on the square in front of the palace.

This was because people crowded there to witness the Emperor personally declaring the end of the epidemic.

On the stage set up in the square, Henri, concluding the declaration of the end, threw his mask high in the air.

Although it was an expensive item, what was the cost compared to its significance?

Following him, people gathered in the square also threw their masks into the air simultaneously, turning the masks Ermeldine had prepared expenses for into garbage.

“Don’t worry. I’ll collect all the masks and return them to you.”

Henri thought that Ermeldine, who had been subtly glancing down at the square, regretted the expense put into the masks.

“No need to return them. Wash them well, keep them in the palace, and if there’s no need for them, it would be good. But if the day comes when they are needed again, please use them.”

Without looking at Henri, Ermeldine focused her eyes on the joy and exhilaration reflected on people’s faces.

In the original novel, more lives were sacrificed, and the epidemic was not eradicated until the end.

Since the ending was a spectacular wedding scene between Henri and Valier, when she was a reader, she couldn’t feel the atmosphere of the capital well. However, now that she had directly experienced it, she understood.

If the epidemic had continued for a few more months as in the original, the background of the novel’s final part, which was described so beautifully, would have turned into a land where death raged.

It was uncertain how many of the people gathered here would still be alive.

But even in this joy, Ermeldine knew well.

That her sins wouldn’t be washed away with this.

Unless those who died first come back to life, it would never happen forever.

Naturally, she thought it would be pleasant, but her mind became more complicated than she thought.

Because her being possessed had changed the stories of hundreds or thousands of people.

‘Why did I have to be possessed in this villainous body? If someone wanted to change the terrible background of a novel, they could have done so without changing the original work this much. I should have possessed Valier’s body; then, I might have been able to proceed faster, right?’

After adapting, she was busy for a moment, but when the story reached a turning point, the question that had been put off in a corner of her mind came up.

‘Ah, it’s a relief that the thoughtless one wasn’t able to become the empress…’

Seeing Valier, who was on the stage in the square while being on the front of the people but still showed no interest in the end of the epidemic, Ermeldine sighed involuntarily.

Now, in this body, she would see how her fate would unfold for a while.
Due to the large number of people gathered, it was difficult to distinguish each face, but one person, no, the face of one child stood out distinctly.

As if showing off his young son to Ermeldine, the child’s father lifted him high above his head.

“Ha….”

The baby who had been saved during the Alhyeon War.

The baby, who had grown considerably since then and now had quite skillful arms and legs, smiled broadly at Ermeldine, as if performing a gesture.

The baby only laughed because he found his father’s repetitive lifting and lowering amusing, but to Ermeldine, that smile was unique.

In her previous life, she couldn’t save him at the end, but here, after receiving a second chance, he was the first life she saved.

To avoid death and simply to change her miserable future, Ermeldine, who had struggled desperately, at that moment, felt like she could somewhat understand the incomprehensible will of the higher beings.