The investigation team, which had departed from Growen Castle, successfully returned late the following night, leaving only the mages and their联络 agents behind.

As soon as they arrived at the castle, it became clear—everyone’s memories had returned to their rightful owners.

Standing before her was Ryan, Pepe’s younger brother, waiting to greet her.

“Sister.”

“…Ryan?”

Pepe hesitated in front of her younger brother. After a moment, Ryan opened his arms. He smiled gently at Pepe, whose eyes silently asked if his memories had truly returned.

Urk. Pepe clenched her teeth, fighting back tears. Her cautious steps toward him gradually quickened, until finally she broke into a run.

“Ryan!”

Pepe burst into tears, collapsing into her brother’s embrace. Seeing his sister so distressed, Ryan gently took out a handkerchief.

It was the morning glory handkerchief—the one Pepe had made herself—that Yerpi had passed on to him.

“I’m sorry, sister. I failed you.”

“How could you forget me? How…?”

Her small fists pounded repeatedly against the broad chest of the sturdy knight. Ryan humbly accepted his sister’s reproach. He would have understood even if she had struck his cheek.

He only regretted that he couldn’t hold her tighter. Ryan tightly embraced his sister’s small frame.

As if trying to rekindle in his mind the sister he remembered—whom he had briefly lost.

Ryan’s gaze shifted toward Yerpi. When he saw the Grand Duke and his wife, he awkwardly tried to bow respectfully while still holding his sister, but Raymond stopped him.

“That’s enough.”

“I apologize, Your Grace.”

Even as he apologized, his hand gently soothed his sister’s back to comfort her. Ryan, too, seemed to be suppressing his own rising emotions.

“I am deeply grateful for your efforts. The return of my memories must mean the issue there has been resolved. I owe you a debt I could never repay in my lifetime.”

Ryan reported that not only his own memories, but everyone else’s in the castle had been restored.

Yerpi, listening alongside Raymond, felt reassured once more.

‘All the memories have returned to their owners.’

She couldn’t possibly follow every flicker of light dancing in the air. But unlike her fears, the fragmented memories appeared to have found their proper places.

After all, an abruptly emptied space naturally exerts a pull, like gravity, drawing back what had escaped.

Pepe finally lifted her head with difficulty, seemingly calmed from Ryan’s embrace. Looking at Yerpi again, her expression was now upright and free of all worry.

“How can I atone for my mistake? I put Your Highness in danger. I will pay for my sin even with my life.”

Pepe carried deep guilt for being lured by Noise’s magic and dragging Yerpi into peril.

She had been unable to lift her head throughout the journey home, only now finding the courage to apologize after Ryan regained his memories.

How could Yerpi not understand that heart? She gently soothed the trembling shoulders of her maid.

“Please continue serving as my lady’s maid. Now that you’ve been away, I realize I can’t do without you.”

“Your Highness….”

Pepe tightly shut her eyes, then opened them again, as if suppressing overwhelming emotion. Her gaze, now firmer than before, revealed her resolve.

“I will serve Your Highness with my entire body and soul.”

Ryan embraced his sister’s shoulder as she made her solemn vow. Soon after, Raymond sent the two of them into the castle first.

Yerpi agreed with his judgment. They must have been mentally and physically drained, so it was better to postpone any remaining matters.

“Thank you. I shall take my leave now.”

Yerpi watched the siblings walk away, leaning on each other. Raymond, in turn, observed her.

“Let us go inside as well.”

“Yes.”

Though she answered obediently, Yerpi lowered her eyes, avoiding Raymond’s gaze. Ever since escaping Noise’s domain, she had been unable to meet his eyes.

Now, she remembered all her past lives. All except one—the memory of the woman who had killed her.

And so, the immediate issue was that her past-life lover bore the exact same face as Raymond.

It wasn’t just a vague resemblance. Except for eye and hair color, everything—height, hand size, even the smallest details—was an uncanny match.

Memories, once recalled, become nostalgia. She didn’t know why the two men looked like twins. But she must not mistake them—they were different people.

‘I know that.’

She knew it, but the human heart wasn’t something that could be neatly divided and moved like a simple object. So she had to minimize even the chance of meeting his gaze.

To avoid misunderstanding her own feelings. And to prevent him from misinterpreting her regard.

An awkward silence hung between them. At that moment, Johan, the aide, stepped between the Grand Duke and his wife.

“Your Highness, were you perhaps a mage? How were you able to eliminate those gray masses all at once?”

“I’m not entirely sure.”

It wasn’t strange for Johan to ask such a question.

Unlike others who had merely had their memories stolen and been cast out, her case was different. She had even collapsed Noise’s domain.

“Perhaps it’s because of the seasoning.”

His sudden murmur carried an unfamiliar distance.

Raymond had personally torn through Noise’s domain to rescue Yerpi, yet his eyes had only seen the monitors filled with others’ memories.

He seemed not to have seen the screen where Yerpi’s past life had streamed out.

Not even the mark the King of Spring had left on the back of her hand.

“Yerpi.”

Raymond began, as if he had something to say.

He likely wanted to ask about the ordeal she had faced within Noise’s domain. But before he could speak, Yerpi made a request.

“May I retire to my chamber now? I’m quite weary from the journey.”

“…Yes.”

He briefly hesitated, then granted her permission.

“I hope Your Grace rests well too.”

Yerpi bowed slightly and turned away. She felt his gaze follow her back, but she chose to ignore it.

It was already so late—she had assumed no one would still be awake to greet her. Yet the Grand Duchess’s chamber already had its lights on.

“Your Highness, you must have had a tiring journey. I heard from the messenger in advance, so I prepared your bathwater.”

The maids welcomed Yerpi with sincere concern.

She had always thought she preferred being alone. Yet, apart from that preference, the fact that there were people who genuinely welcomed her felt strangely comforting—especially at such a late hour.

“Thank you all.”

“It’s nothing. Sir Ryan has regained his memories. We can’t even imagine how overjoyed Pepe must be.”

At the autumn-born maid’s words, the summer-born maid nodded busily in agreement. The two had long pitied Pepe and secretly looked after her from behind the scenes.

But the warm welcome wasn’t over yet.

Dante, who had been asleep, opened his eyes upon hearing Yerpi’s voice.

Yerpi rushed forward and tightly embraced Dante.

“I’m sorry I left you behind.”

Even though they had only been apart for about two days, Dante rubbed his face insistently against Yerpi’s cheek, as if expressing his sadness.

Late at night.

After receiving care from her maids and taking a bath, Yerpi held Dante and went to bed.

The lights were extinguished. Inside her arms, the steady breathing of the sleeping Dante echoed softly.

Though she had come to her chamber partly to avoid Raymond, she was genuinely exhausted as well.

Her body, warmed by the hot water, felt pleasantly relaxed. Yet she couldn’t easily fall asleep.

She was recalling what had happened in the Land of Discovery.

Memories forcibly taken from others had been used to preserve Yerpi’s lost past lives.

‘If I had been consumed by Noise back then…’

No one would have regained their memories. And of course, she herself would have remained trapped in her past life.

If Raymond hadn’t come to rescue her… It had truly been a close call.

Yerpi raised her hand under the dim light of dawn, examining the back of it.

There were five marks in total in Growen. One was the crest of the Growen family, symbolizing dragon blood. The others represented the four seasons—Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.

One of them.

A mark resembling pink cherry blossoms rested on the back of Yerpi’s hand.

The King of Spring had kissed her hand, as if acknowledging her. This seal had appeared at that moment.

‘But I didn’t do anything.’

Was it meant to prove she hadn’t been trapped in her past life?

She missed the happiness she had experienced within her recovered past.

What had become of him after her death? And who, exactly, had killed her?

Not all of her past-life memories were sweet. But he kept appearing in her mind—the face of Raymond, identical to her past-life lover, the first person who had ever truly believed in her.