The Grand Duke caught me as I fell over. I ended up burying my face in his chest.

But then, the Grand Duke’s large hand gripped my shoulder.

……Your Highness?

I should move away, but why can’t I move?

Through my ear pressed against the Grand Duke’s chest, I can hear his heartbeat.

– Thump, thump

A fierce heartbeat, unable to tell if it’s mine or the Grand Duke’s.

I become lost in the scent of the blue forest emanating from him. I feel like I’m losing my mind.

A warm embrace that is simultaneously too tense.

‘What kind of situation is this?’

That’s when it happened.

The Grand Duke’s hand left my shoulder.

“Your body is cold. It’s not good to be exposed to the night air for too long.”

His body pulled away from me.

– Crackle crackle

The sound of burning flames in the fireplace brought me back to reality.

A feeling as if time and space had temporarily disappeared.

‘What is…… this feeling.’

For some reason, I felt embarrassed to look up at the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke had turned his back to me again and was gazing at the fireplace.

With his head bowed, he spoke.

“Your Highness, I have recorded in the Imaging Stone the conversation I had with Medeia’s messenger. And I also found out what is happening to that woman named Cecilia. It is important evidence to prove the south’s misdeeds.”

My throat choked up without me realizing it.

“Bring Arcadia.”

“Yes.”

“No, I will go.”

The Grand Duke walked towards the door without looking at me.

“You sit and rest by the fire for a moment. That’s an order.”

He paused briefly, left those words, and went out.

[This is the timeline separator]

Shortly after, Arcadia followed the Grand Duke into the office. He said nothing to me, as if he had already heard something from the Grand Duke.

Feeling needlessly tense, I took out the Imaging Stone from my bosom and grasped it tightly.

The Grand Duke sat on the black velvet sofa, gazing at the white wall next to the fireplace. Arcadia also sat beside the Grand Duke.

I was about to command the Imaging Stone as I had learned from the proprietor of the fortune-teller street.

“Ventus”

“Esther.”

The Grand Duke called me.

“Yes?”

“You should sit by the fireplace as well.”

At the Grand Duke’s invitation, I sat on a small sofa a little distance from them, next to the fireplace.

“Then I will try to show what I have recorded. It’s my first time, so I don’t know if it will work well……”

In fact, I myself don’t know how well the images were captured. That’s why the tension didn’t subside.

I placed the translucent green stone on the table.

“Ventus, will you show us?”

As soon as I finished speaking, the Imaging Stone gradually became transparent. Then after a while, it shot a bright green light towards the white wall next to the fireplace.

In that light, there I was, sitting in a cheap tavern. A mug of butterbeer appears in front of me, and I caress the mug. That scene was being shown from the perspective of another.

Sitting on the sofa, I observed the expressions of Arcadia and the Grand Duke.

Since the footage was in real-time, it was a bit embarrassing.

‘When is that red caterpillar coming? Did I start recording too early?’

But the Grand Duke seemed to be fully focused on the scene in the footage. As if he had completely forgotten what had happened just before.

He must have been surprised thinking I had run away, that’s all it was.

Suddenly, the Grand Duke’s nonchalant appearance now felt irksome. A flustered feeling that I couldn’t understand myself.

I quickly averted my gaze from the Grand Duke.

My heart was still not completely done racing.

Shortly after, the red caterpillar revealed himself. That appearance was also fully captured from the perspective of a third party.

[Still arrogant, aren’t you. To dare speak His name in a place like this.]

The red caterpillar growling at me was shown as vividly as if he was actually sitting and speaking in front of the fireplace.

‘I should keep watching more closely……’

The flames of the fireplace were so warm.

Why…… do my eyes keep closing?

[This is the timeline separator]

Sion Belfast could not take his eyes off Esther in the footage.

In a corner of a cheap tavern, where the occasional drunken rambling of inebriated men could not reach, the silver-haired woman sat.

With a mug of butterbeer in front of her, Esther merely fiddled with the mug. The mug she wouldn’t even drink from, with vacant sky-blue eyes.

Why do you have such a lonely expression?

– Did the black bug die and you took his place?

– I’m not here either, so I guess you were able to succeed him.

In the footage, she provokes the red-haired man – clearly a swordsman – who is Medeia’s subordinate.

By saying that she was able to succeed him because I’m not here, Esther herself revealed that she was someone who could take the black bug’s place.

She confessed that she herself was an assassin like the black bug.

‘You have just shown me and Arcadia that you were an assassin. Are you not afraid? Arcadia could misunderstand you. Is securing evidence more important to you than your own safety?’

Sion Belfast looked at Esther, who was curled up on the small sofa next to the fireplace. With her body turned towards the wall, her face was not clearly visible.

‘Are you prepared to endure being misunderstood?’

The Grand Duke observed Arcadia’s expression beside him.

A fact that he himself knew from his previous life but Arcadia did not.

The assassin named the black bug who had tried to kill him, and Esther who could have succeeded that assassin’s position.

Arcadia’s face was stiff upon learning that fact now.

At that moment, Medeia’s messenger in the footage said,

– When you return to the north, try to build a friendship with Julia Nugent.

Julia Nugent.

Sion Belfast was surprised.

Julia, Arcadia’s younger sister who hates me because of the death of their father, Hern Nugent.

At the mention of his sister’s name, Arcadia’s brows twitched with anger.

‘Medeia…… Are you trying to win over Julia this time as well? Did that attempt start this early in the previous life?’

Sion Belfast remembered what Julia had done to him in his past life.

How could he forget that memory?

A moment later, the one called the red caterpillar violates Esther.

– Your smile is still quite unpleasant.

In an instant, an unbearable rage boiled up in Sion’s stomach.

– Do you know who assassinated the former Northern Grand Duke’s regent?

Esther grabs the red caterpillar who tries to leave and brings up the story of ‘Hern Nugent’. That red-haired fellow mentions the ‘black bug’ again.

Sion Belfast firmly pressed Arcadia’s hand.

It was a comfort.

The North had suspected the South’s involvement in Hern Nugent’s death.

But without evidence, that suspicion was merely speculation. It was the same for Arcadia.

But through this footage, Arcadia Nugent also learned.

That the Laherts had directly killed his father, the Northern Grand Duke’s regent, using an assassin called the ‘black bug’. That they weren’t merely behind the scenes.

‘Esther, you are exposing too much to us.’

Sion Belfast already knew that the black bug was a murderer. But Arcadia did not.

Arcadia’s fist, pressed under the Grand Duke’s palm, was trembling.

Esther runs through the cold air.

She runs and runs, even capturing the scene where the red caterpillar meets Cecilia.

He also learned that Medeia had pinned himself, the Northern Grand Duke, as being behind Cecilia.

“Those bastards.”

Finally unable to hold back, Arcadia let out a cry of rage.

The footage ended with Cecilia waking from the hypnosis and leaving.

A heavy silence filled the space.

The Grand Duke was the first to break that silence.

“Arcadia, are you alright?”

“……Yes. No, I’m not alright. Your Highness.”

“……”

“Actually, I’m not alright, Your Highness.”

“Arcadia, we have…… a lot to do now.”

The Grand Duke showed a faint smile.

His friend’s eyes were red with burning anger. No, perhaps it was not anger but tears overflowing with rage, the Grand Duke thought.

He looked at the small sofa next to the fireplace. There lay a small woman, curled up. She had not moved at all for some time.

Sion Belfast rose from his seat and approached her.

Esther had fallen into a deep sleep with an extremely tired face.

As he got closer, he heard a shh- shh- sound, like a baby bird breathing.

Sion knelt down on one knee and silently gazed at the sleeping woman.

Strands of shining silver hair slightly disheveled, flowing over her tiny ears. Long silver eyelashes resting as if they would never open again.

Perhaps thanks to the fireplace’s heat, her cheeks, which had been pale and cold, had returned to their original rosy color.

‘On this cold night, you risked that danger.’

Sion Belfast unknowingly bit his lip.

What is making you like this, Esther? What is making you…… like a white butterfly flying into the flames?

I can’t just watch you fluttering alone anymore. I want to believe in you now. I want to cast aside any doubts.

Sion’s large, long fingers carefully brushed Esther’s silver hair that had fallen over her face behind her ear. As if carefully caressing a glass that seems like it would shatter at any moment.

“She fell asleep.”

Sion muttered.

At that moment, Arcadia came to the Grand Duke’s side. Then he wordlessly picked up Esther in his arms. She was cradled in Arcadia’s embrace like a weightless feather…… and fortunately did not shatter.

“Arcadia?”

“She seems to be in quite a deep sleep. I will take this one to her room and return. We can’t have her snoring in Your Highness’ office.”

“Do you know where it is? Her room.”

“Of course.”

Arcadia carried Esther and walked towards the door.

“Arcadia.”

“Don’t worry, Your Highness. There is no longer any misunderstanding or suspicion. It seems I owed this one a debt I cannot repay. She allowed me to execute the black bug with my own hands. She enabled me to avenge my father with my own hands. I don’t know how to express this gratitude.”

“……Right. I’m counting on you.”

“Yes.”

“And Arcadia. After you lay Esther down, go meet Baron Shumael right away.”

“You’ve thought of a plan.”

Arcadia gave Belfast a trusting look.

“Yes. There is still time until Rucella comes out for the ball tomorrow morning. Tell the baron that I will go to his prison myself at dawn.”

“Where are you going now?”

“Somewhere I can undo hypnosis. Could you call Hans?”

“I’m here, Your Grace.”

The butler Hans answered from outside the half-open door.

“Hans, there would be those among the fortune-tellers who can cast or undo hypnosis, right?”

“Of course. You should be able to find them at the place where you purchased the Imaging Stone last time.”

“Prepare the fastest horse.”

That night, a black horse dashed out of the estate of the North, cutting through the wind. It was the horse Sion Belfast rode.

With his face covered by a black cloak, Sion thought amidst the cold wind.

‘That footage can’t directly prove the Laherts’ misdeeds. It can prove the red caterpillar’s crimes, but there’s no evidence that the Laherts and the red caterpillar are in league. Even if the footage is made public, the Laherts can just cut ties with the red caterpillar and that would be it.’

Sion recalled the blind old man he met on the fortune-tellers’ street.

‘That person may be able to undo the hypnosis placed on that woman named Cecilia.’

Tomorrow morning, it will be revealed that Cecilia is not the Emperor’s granddaughter.

If she points to the North as being behind her then, as the red caterpillar’s hypnosis dictates, an unmanageable storm will arise.

Of course, that would be the case if I was unaware of that fact. Something that will no longer happen.

The evidence my butterfly, Esther, painstakingly obtained will be stored in my blade, layer by layer.

Wait, Laherts.

You will receive your misdeeds, the sin that made my butterfly leap into the cold wind, returned as a typhoon.

Without realizing it, Sion pictured Esther’s sleeping face.

Until I return, please do not shatter and rest, even if only a little.