It was when Larisa was standing under the wall of the house where she used to live with her mother, chatting about old times with Siod.

“Hey, you’re here again?”

“Ah, Aunt Linda!”

Larisa brightened up and ran over. Before Siod could stop her, Larisa buried herself in Linda’s apron and poked her face out to greet her.

“I’m seeing you again after just last week!”

“You really…”

Persistent, aren’t you? Though Larisa didn’t intend it, Linda thought she had come to see her. After pondering for a moment, she sighed and said,

“Would you like to come to my house for a bit?”

“Yes!”

Siod quietly followed behind, as if he were a simple attendant. Perhaps because their attire was simpler than before? Unlike last time, Aunt Linda seated Larisa at the table and served her tea.

“As I said yesterday… I don’t know much either. But since you’re likely to come back again, I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Gulp.

Siod secretly suppressed a laugh at the sound of Larisa swallowing.

“At first, it seems your mother planned to hide for a few months after giving birth to you. She said she had a place to return to. She mentioned someone who would come for her…”

‘Could that person be my father?’

As Larisa looked at her with hopeful eyes, Aunt Linda spoke with a pitying expression.

“But as the years passed, no one came. Not the child’s father, not even family. Marina seemed to be giving up gradually. But yes, that necklace.”

“What? This one?”

“Yes. She said she couldn’t sell that no matter what.”

‘Is it from someone important after all?’

Larisa was curious about the identity of the portrait inside the necklace.

“When I suggested selling at least that, she said if she sold it, people who wanted to kill Marina would find her first.”

‘People who want to kill Mother?’

Larisa’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Please tell me more in detail.”

Siod pulled his chair closer and sat down. As his face drew near, silver eyes flashed beneath the hood. Unlike before, Linda felt this man’s presence growing increasingly formidable.

With a somewhat dazed expression, Linda continued.

“Marina said she ran away because of people trying to kill her. It was because of the child, of course. But Marina said she didn’t want that person’s child at all. Because of the child, her life…”

“Stop.”

Siod embraced Larisa, who had turned pale. He had used magic to hear the honest story without any secrets, but he hadn’t anticipated this side effect. Siod held Larisa tightly and whispered in her ear.

“Larisa. You didn’t hear anything.”

“But…”

“Sleep for a while.”

After erasing Larisa’s memory and putting her to sleep with magic, Siod looked at Linda’s still dazed face and sighed.

“Keep talking.”

The story Linda told was a predictable one. A tale of a woman whose life was ruined by a man of high status. A story of having to flee, abandoning everything she had to survive, when she felt her life threatened by that man’s wife for the sin of bearing an unwanted child.

She never revealed who that high-status man was. But Siod had his suspicions. Siod gently laid the sleeping Larisa on her bed and quietly opened the locket to check the portrait.

“The Empress…”

It was undoubtedly the Empress’s face. The Empress’s ladies-in-waiting are usually chosen from among her relatives. So it was natural, in a way, for a lady-in-waiting to have a portrait of the Empress from her younger days.

The fact that the family crest wasn’t engraved on the locket was probably because this object was merely a tool for memorizing and familiarizing oneself with the Empress’s face before entering the palace.

So she couldn’t sell it. If she sold the Empress’s portrait, the Empress’s blade would arrive before the Emperor’s protection.

If it was true that Marina was a relative of the Empress and a prospective lady-in-waiting, it made sense that she was abandoned by her family. They would all have been currying favor with the Empress. If that was the case, the only family Larisa could find would be the Emperor.

*

“What do you think?”

After hearing everything that happened that day through Siod, Guinevere answered without hesitation.

“It can’t be.”

“What can’t be?”

“We can’t let the palace take Larisa away. Pretend we don’t know.”

She couldn’t let Larisa, whom she had brought here with a magician’s oath to Marina, be taken away by just anyone. Even if it was the Emperor.

“But what if the Emperor might be Larisa’s real father?”

Guinevere paused for a moment, then spoke nonchalantly.

“Nothing’s certain yet, right?”

“Shall I investigate for you?”

“…”

“I can do it without getting caught. I’ve been doing this sort of thing for about a thousand years. What do you say?”

“What’s the price?”

“One date with me?”

“Alright.”

However, even if Larisa was truly the Emperor’s daughter, Guinevere had no intention of giving her up.

If Larisa were taken to the palace, she would inevitably be caught up in useless political struggles, and that couldn’t happen. That wouldn’t be the happy life Marina wanted for her.

If Siod’s guess was correct, why hadn’t Marina given them a hint beforehand? It must be because Marina didn’t want Larisa to be registered with the imperial family either.

Moreover, even if Larisa were recognized as the Emperor’s daughter without any backing, that life wouldn’t be easy. It was also suspicious that the promiscuous Emperor had no illegitimate children despite his numerous affairs with women.

‘Surely not in the past life too… No way.’

In the past life, hadn’t Guinevere personally arranged the family registry and had her adopted into a noble family? It wasn’t a family deeply involved in central politics, so it wasn’t a target the Empress needed to keep in check.

It didn’t seem likely that Larisa was poisoned for that reason. Larisa had faced life-threatening crises three times around similar periods. And each time, there was only one common factor.

When she started dating William and received permission to marry.

‘It’s likely to be a matter of passion after all.’

*

“You received a house?”

“Yes.”

Larisa held out the house deed. William, taking it, carefully examined the amount and the name on it, then handed it back, thinking to himself.

‘I should have bought it for her.’

Seeing Larisa’s joyful face, William regretted inwardly.

“Why would a mere tutor buy that for you?”

“Don’t you know? He said it’s just a gift.”

In truth, Larisa was puzzled too. However, looking at William’s silver-gray eyes full of distrust, there was one thing she could guess.

“There’s no such thing as just a gift. There must be an ulterior motive.”

“An ulterior motive…”

“It’s suspicious from the start that an academy professor would come as a private tutor to teach a 7-year-old with no talent in magic.”

“But Mother brought him herself.”

“That’s why it’s suspicious. Does he have ulterior motives towards Mother?”

Larisa smiled with a clouded face.

‘You only realized that now? Willy-willy is a fool.’

Just looking at Teacher Siod’s excessively informal attitude towards Guinevere and those sweet gazes was enough to tell.

Larisa hid her true thoughts cunningly and blinked her eyes innocently. Besides, although William took too much after his mother, those mysterious silver-gray eyes were exactly like the teacher’s.

What was strange was that no one mentioned it.

“You know what? Teacher is really rich.”

“Even so, he can’t be richer than Mother, right?”

“Oh, um… And they said he’s incredibly powerful.”

“Even so, he can’t be more powerful than Mother, right?”

The standard was too high. Poor Teacher Siod.

“Still, Teacher is a good person.”

“Why are you praising him so much?”

“Praise is a good thing. Why is Willy-willy angry?”

“What?”

Am I angry? William reflected on himself for a moment.

‘Could this be… jealousy?’

William shook his head vigorously.

“I’m just worried because you seem to trust people too easily! That’s all.”

“Oh my, Willy sees me as too much of a child. I’m 7 years old.”

Larisa spoke as if 7 was a grand age, which made William chuckle. In his defense, anyone would have found it hard not to laugh.

“Why are you laughing? At 7, you can have your own territory in the back alleys. It’s an age where you can make money on your own without older siblings.”

“I see.”

Those traces of the back alleys that occasionally appeared, no matter how angelic and pretty she looked in her expensive clothes. William found it too adorable.

“Anyway, Teacher is a good person. He always praises Willy and says it would be really great if I marry Willy.”

“What?”

William frowned. It was such an out-of-the-blue statement that it made him feel strange instead. Seeing his expression, Larisa asked with a smile.

“Why? Does Willy-willy not want to marry me?”

“…”

William realized he needed to answer well here. What would be the response of a normal person? Larisa would probably say she doesn’t want to marry, right?

“Of course I don’t!”

“I see.”

Larisa nodded calmly. William clutched his pounding heart and agonized. He had answered well, right?

“Anyway, so I was thinking, after we run away, shall we open a shop here?”

“A shop?”

“You said you wanted to help a lot of people with alchemy. There are many people in need in the slums. So I’ll give you this house. Let’s open a shop together here.”

‘But isn’t that just independence rather than running away?’

It didn’t matter. Opening a shop together in the house where she lived with her mother – wasn’t this almost a marriage proposal? William was touched.

“Shall we write a contract?”

“A contract?”

“Teacher says you need to know how to write contracts well to avoid taking the blame.”

“Alright.”

Larisa started writing on a blank paper with rather round handwriting.

“Since I’m providing the house, let’s split the profits 50-50!”

“Okay.”

Naive William. Larisa inwardly grinned. The contract was completed where William would do all the work and Larisa would earn money just by sitting still.

“Now, put your thumbprint and sign!”

“Here?”

William did as Larisa instructed, putting his thumbprint and signing. Now this contract couldn’t be revoked. Larisa blew on the paper to help it dry, feeling proud.