So it would be the same even if another region was taken. If Roxiana took it, it would be a problem, but if Floyd took it, there wouldn’t be a big issue.

‘If I help Torkan’s power grow, I’ll become a valuable person to the people of this country too. At least the people in this grand ducal palace will have to acknowledge me.’

He didn’t expect much in return for that land.

‘Just return my family to God’s embrace. If they give me a lot of land, I should be able to ask for that much.’

To do that, the first thing to do was to confirm whether the spirit could really purify the polluted land. He had to gauge whether it had the power to revive a dead region, and if so, to what extent.

Roxiana asked Eledrun, who was looking down at her teacup with a worried expression.

“Lady Housekeeper, may I stop by your house later to take a look at the garden?”

+++

Realizing there might be a useful way to use her power, her heart fluttered and she couldn’t sleep.

‘Once I confirm that I can purify the housekeeper’s garden, it would be good to try that dead forest next.’

That forest didn’t die from pollution but from Floyd’s flames, but she wanted to check if she could quickly revive such a dead area as well.

‘I’m sure it will be possible. I even drove out the pollution in a human body.’

She recalled nearly dying because of that.

‘Now that I’ve recovered a lot of strength, I won’t collapse like last time. If I try slowly, little by little, it should be fine.’

She wanted to retrieve her family’s bodies from the well as soon as possible. Roxiana would do anything for that.

Eledrun was delighted at Roxiana’s proposal and said she would send a formal invitation after finishing preparations to receive guests. Judging by how she left the reception room, an invitation would probably arrive in a day or two, but Roxiana felt she couldn’t just sit and wait until then.

Her nerves were so on edge that even the soft bed and thick blanket felt bothersome. She wanted to hurry and try something. She wanted to prove that she could do it.

For my family.

In the end, Roxiana gave up on sleeping and got out of bed. She put on a coat over her nightgown, left the bedroom, and walked through the dark hallway to exit the building.

She hadn’t paid much attention to the garden before, but after hearing Eledrun’s words, she noticed that the Lily Palace garden was unusually lush. Even in this cold wind, each and every leaf was full of vitality, and not a single fallen leaf was in sight.

Roxiana crossed the arch of the Lily Palace. The guard standing nearby seemed a bit surprised to see Roxiana wandering at such a late hour, but he simply bowed his head slightly in respect without stopping her.

Several trees were growing on the way to the main palace as well. Those trees had only bare branches left without leaves, befitting trees welcoming winter.

‘So it really was only the trees in the Lily Palace garden that were growing well.’

She regretted the time wasted not realizing this sooner, if only she had turned her eyes slightly and looked further.

Roxiana approached a dry tree and gently placed her hand on it.

‘The Lily Palace garden was full of vitality even without my intention. So it shouldn’t take much strength to awaken this one tree. Right, everyone?’

Though she couldn’t hear the spirits’ answer, thinking their silence was affirmation, Roxiana whispered earnestly.

‘Help me, everyone. Let this tree open its eyes.’

For a while, nothing happened. After a few quiet minutes, a faint vibration began from deep underground, but Roxiana didn’t notice it.

“What are you doing?”

It was because of the voice from behind.

Roxiana was startled, took her hand off the tree and turned around. And she was even more surprised by the figure of the person standing behind her, her breath stopping.

Floyd was standing there, shirtless with his upper body exposed.

Broad shoulders and bulging muscles, a chest and abdomen that looked firm without an ounce of fat, a slim waist. As if he had just come from rough training, his bronze skin was wet with sweat, glistening like a jewel.

His chest rising and falling with each breath was sensual. Though knowing she should look away, she couldn’t take her eyes off his body exuding such overwhelming vitality.

The sight of a bead of sweat trickling down from his collarbone to his chest was etched very slowly.

Heat was emanating from him. Not just the heat coming from a sweating man’s hot body, but clearly a thick and strong heat.

Roxiana found it amazing that a person could emit such intense energy. His heat was so vivid that she felt she could see the red energy with her eyes.

She wanted to know the true nature of that heat.

As if entranced, Roxiana approached him and reached out her hand toward his chest. Roxiana’s hand stopped just before touching his chest.

The heat that had revealed its presence disappeared instantly as Roxiana’s hand drew near, but Roxiana was certain that the source of that heat was somewhere inside Floyd’s body.

‘Who are you?’

Floyd looked down at Roxiana with great bewilderment, but she didn’t notice his gaze. She tried to focus on the presence curled up inside him.

‘Did you really make this man your plaything? Are you tormenting him, or helping him?’

As Floyd had said, the ‘mad presence’ inside him gave no answer. It seemed not that it didn’t exist, but that it was stubbornly maintaining silence.

Floyd stared down at Roxiana concentrating with furrowed brows, then grabbed her slender wrist and pulled it. Her hand that had stopped just before touching landed firmly on his chest.

Roxiana looked up at him, startled. Focused on the ‘mad presence’, she hadn’t thought about how strange her behavior must look.

Seeing Roxiana flustered, he raised the corner of his mouth.

“You looked like you wanted to touch but were hesitating.”

In that moment, Roxiana’s face turned bright red. To Floyd’s eyes, it looked like a flower blooming. A delicate pink peach blossom blooming in spring. A dainty peach blossom coloring the blue sky.

He couldn’t take his eyes off her, flushed red down to her neck. For some reason, the part of him she touched felt hot. He didn’t understand why it felt this way when her body temperature was much lower than his.

He felt something gathering warmly in his lower abdomen.

“That’s… not…”

Roxiana whispered with parched lips. Her voice didn’t sound like her own.

His intense heartbeat transmitted through her palm made her head feel all jumbled.

“I was just…”

As she fumbled for words, moving her stiff lips, she realized she was still touching his chest even though he had released her wrist. Feeling her face grow even hotter, Roxiana quickly withdrew her hand.

She tightly grasped the hand that had touched with the one that hadn’t, and lowered her gaze.

“I was trying to speak to the presence inside Your Highness…”

“Ah, I see.”

He responded nonchalantly as he swept his sweat-drenched hair back.

“So, what were you doing? Looking for a suitable tree to hang yourself?”

“Your Highness certainly has a way with words.”

When Roxiana retorted before she knew it, Floyd grinned.

“You flatter me. I was thinking of having a beer, do you drink?”

“In moderation.”

“Then keep me company for a drink. I’ll be right back after wiping off this sweat.”

Only after he disappeared did Roxiana realize her heart was beating rapidly. She placed her right hand on her chest and stroked her heated cheek with her left, trying to calm the unfamiliar sensation jumbling her thoughts.

But once aroused, the sensation did not easily disappear. Belatedly, she realized the palm on her chest was the hand that had just touched his chest.

It was her first time touching a man’s bare chest.

The smooth, hot, and damp skin that clung to her palm. The steady beat felt beyond it.

Flustered by her incomprehensible recollection of such things, Roxiana’s eyes fell on the branch of the tree she had just caressed with her hand. On the previously bare branch, a few small green leaves had sprouted.

‘It woke up!’

The moment she saw that, the strange, subtle, and peculiar sensations she had felt until now disappeared as if they had been a lie. The feeling transmitted to her hand that touched his chest, and the resulting flutter of her heart, were completely erased.

Roxiana’s eyes were fixed solely on the leaves that the awakened tree had produced.

Some might scoff at what could be done with those few small and tender leaves, but Roxiana found great hope in them.

‘I too have something I can do.’

The sense of defeat that had crushed her so miserably was pushed away like dark clouds after rain stops. The thick fog that had obscured her vision cleared, and the path beyond began to come into view.

Absorbed in reexamining the possibilities she possessed, Roxiana didn’t even notice someone coming to stand behind her.

“Excuse me, Princess.”

Snapping back to her senses at the call, she turned to see a man wearing a black eye patch over his left eye. He had jet-black hair and slightly dark skin, and his remaining eye was a pale green like the newly sprouted leaves.

He too seemed to have come from training, drenched in sweat. Fortunately, he appeared more considerate than Floyd, having hurriedly put on the shirt he was holding before addressing Roxiana.

“Ah, I’m Cain. Cain Tellis. Um, I’m the captain of the Black Bear Knights.”