In her previous life, she heard that Maletta’s younger sister had starved to death at the Rambouillet Relief Center.

Ariadne intended to show Maletta. If you don’t listen to me properly, I’ll leave you here. You’ll meet the same fate as your sister.

“I want to go where there are people who are more sick and in need. Is there anything I can do?”

“Uh… there’s bathing service for the sick, but…”

“Then I’ll do that.”

* * *

There was a reason why the administrator trailed off. While it was called a bathing service, the reality was horrific. In a long, isolated corridor, patients who seemed to have no chance of recovery were lying on dirty straw.

The shadow of death loomed heavily over their thorn-like thin bodies. There were no proper facilities, supplies, or people to care for them.

Even if the relief center was operating on the queen’s budget alone and finances were poor, it was so terrible that it could be seen as deliberately setting up a mere facade and intentionally starving the poor to death.

‘So this is why the administrator didn’t want to send me here.’

Unlike Ariadne, who was lost in thought, Maletta’s expression had turned pale. It was only two years ago that Isabella had rescued her from this chaos.

The memories of hunger, cold, and the fear of possibly dying were vividly coming back to life.

Maletta frantically scanned the surroundings for a patient with red hair. If she found the sister she had abandoned two years ago, what should she do?

Ariadne was also looking for a patient with red hair.

‘Is that the child?’

As Ariadne began to approach a small girl among the patients, Maletta was startled.

“My lady, wait…!”

Maletta, who thought she should leave before encountering her sister, grabbed Ariadne’s wrist, turning pale.

Bare skin touched bare skin – Maletta’s hand on Ariadne’s wrist exposed outside her clothes.

– Zap!

* * *

An intense dizziness came over her, and she thought a flash of lightning and hazy clouds momentarily crossed her mind, but then something ‘appeared’ in Ariadne’s head.

– ‘I can only take one person. Which one of you should I take?’

It was Isabella. Isabella was standing outside the Rambouillet Relief Center, in the area where the healthy poor were housed.

In front of her stood Maletta, slightly younger and more disheveled than now, and a freckled girl with the same red hair as Maletta, withered and thin.

– ‘Which one of you is smarter, and which one works harder?’

The skinny girl pleaded with Isabella.

– ‘Miss, my sister and I have grown up together since we were young. We’ll work hard, so please take us both in!’

Isabella’s expression was indifferent.

– ‘I told you there’s only one spot. Don’t tell me why I should take both of you, but why I should choose ‘you’.’

Young Maletta pushed aside the skinny girl and knelt before Isabella. Almost prostrating herself on the ground with her hands clasped, Maletta earnestly cried out to Isabella.

– ‘Noble miss! Sancha has bad habits and an incurable cough!’

Sancha turned to Maletta with a shocked expression. Maletta gritted her teeth and turned away from Sancha.

– ‘If you’re only taking one person, it should definitely be me! She’s too young to be of any help with work and is weak and frail like a young mouse! I’ll work like an ox! Please take me, miss!’

Isabella’s eyes showed interest.

– ‘You have ambition, don’t you?’

– ‘I’ll work hard, miss!’

– ‘Alright, let’s go with you.’

Isabella slowly began to leave the back garden of the Rambouillet Relief Center, taking Maletta with her. Sancha, shocked that Maletta was really leaving her behind, cried out desperately.

– ‘Sister! Sister!’

From behind, Maletta’s hurried, placating voice could be heard.

-‘Shh! Stay quiet! When I get paid at that house, I’ll send it to you! I’ll save money and get you out of the relief center. One family member needs to do well for everyone to do well. Understand? Wait quietly!’

* * *

“My lady, my lady?”

Maletta was shaking Ariadne’s shoulder in surprise.

Annoyed that Maletta had touched her body without permission, Ariadne slapped Maletta’s hand away. Maletta lowered her hand awkwardly and asked Ariadne again.

“My lady, are you alright? I was shocked when you suddenly froze and didn’t move.”

“How long was I like that?”

“It was very brief, about 2-3 seconds?”

“Then it’s fine.”

What did I see? A flashback to the past? Is it true or not? It was time to check.

Pretending not to know Maletta, Ariadne approached the red-haired girl lying motionless among the poor and knelt beside her. Feigning kindness, Ariadne wiped the girl’s forehead with a wet cloth and asked softly.

“How are you feeling?”

The face she turned over belonged to a child of about twelve or thirteen. Despite being at an age where baby fat should still be present, her cheeks were so sunken that she looked emaciated.

The freckled girl opened her pale green eyes and looked back and forth between Ariadne and Maletta.

“Has your family sent you any help since you entered the Rambouillet Relief Center?”

The freckled girl desperately shook her head. Maletta’s expression grew darker.

“Do you have an incurable cough?”

The girl’s head-shaking became even more intense. Maletta’s face was now as pale as if the grim reaper had come to meet her.

“Maletta? Do you know this child?”

“Well… that is…”

Despite barely having the strength to nod, the freckled girl shot a look of immense hatred and resentment towards the flustered Maletta, then desperately grabbed Ariadne’s sleeve.

“Save… me, please save me, miss…!”

* * *

“Even if you are the daughter of His Eminence the Cardinal, special treatment is not possible.”

The administrator shook his head. This was the response when asked to save the freckled girl Sancha’s life.

Ariadne was the daughter of the second most powerful man in San Carlo, but this was merely a gilded title.

Her powerful father did not love her and paid no attention to her beyond the minimum investment needed to use her as a tool. She had neither money nor power in her own name. Without money, she couldn’t even call a doctor.

She had returned from the brink of death, but she was still a bird in a cage with nothing she could choose for herself.

“I understand. Then I will give up my share of today’s food for that girl.”

Ariadne’s share of food was just half a piece of dry bread and clean water.

Ariadne had Maletta mash the dry bread in boiling water to make it like porridge and fed it to Sancha.

That was all she could do. Ariadne felt a gloomy sense of powerlessness.

But Sancha seemed to have simply been starving, as with just a little food, she gradually became more vigorous after a day or two, like a stray kitten picked up from the street gaining a healthier coat.

“Maletta. Come here for a moment.”

Staying in the nun’s quarters, Ariadne repeatedly thought about the ‘vision’ she had earlier.

The fact that Sancha’s answers matched what she had seen in the vision, and Maletta’s terrified reaction, made it seem like the ‘vision’ was showing something that had actually happened in the past.

“Try grabbing my wrist again, like before.”

Maletta hesitantly grabbed Ariadne’s wrist once more, but this time nothing happened.

It seemed that skin-to-skin contact didn’t always result in visions.

* * *

After giving her share of food to Sancha, Ariadne quickly became gaunt.

When she insisted on taking care of Sancha, the administrator sent Ariadne back to the food distribution line. He seemed afraid that the kind-hearted noble lady might become attached to another pitiful patient if she continued with the bathing service in the great hall.

‘Ah, I’m hungry.’

Standing in the food line, Ariadne swallowed her saliva as she looked at the soup for distribution.

Normally, she wouldn’t have eaten it even if given, but now even the thin layer of oil floating on the surface looked temptingly delicious. But that soup already had owners, and the poor in the relief center were very serious about food.

Unable to touch even a finger to the soup, Ariadne finished the morning distribution, not having eaten a single meal since the evening two days ago. She leaned against a tree in the relief center, trying to forget her hungry stomach for a moment.

Then, an apple suddenly appeared before Ariadne’s eyes.

‘Who?’

Looking up at the owner of the hand, she saw a handsome boy with dazzling blonde hair and milky features. He was wearing court attire made of satin and offering the apple.

“Want to eat?”

It was Prince Alfonso. He was a fresh, willow-like boy still growing, much younger than the last image Ariadne remembered of him.

It felt somewhat unreal. He had already died at Cesare’s hands.

Ariadne reached out and took the apple he offered. The fingertips receiving the apple touched the hand holding it, and only then did Ariadne shudder.

The past had really returned. It was alive and moving, in a form before her sin had been committed.

“You looked hungry…”

He wore a slightly shy smile. His large mouth revealed neat white teeth.

Ariadne knew the boy before her was a prince, but she answered in casual speech. It was the instinct of a woman in her thirties who had been through thick and thin.

“Thanks.”

She wiped the apple on her sleeve and took a big bite.

– Crunch!

The apple tasted like honey. After starving for three days, feeling sweetness on her tongue made it hard to care about princes or anything else. The juice was so fresh.

One bite went in, then two, and soon only the core was left. Only then did Ariadne remember that the prince was standing in front of her.

Flustered, she quickly made an embarrassed excuse.

“I haven’t eaten for three days, so this really helped.”

She emphasized ‘three days’ to cover her embarrassment, but Prince Alfonso, whether he knew this or not, gazed at her with kind eyes.

“I heard you’ve been giving your food to a sick child.”

“Ah… It just happened.”

“I think that’s amazing. I couldn’t give up my food.”

Ariadne found herself smiling without realizing it. Unknown to her, it was a radiant smile like a pear blossom.

“Me neither.”

For some reason, it felt awkward to pretend to be kind in front of Prince Alfonso. She wasn’t bold enough to act fragile in front of a man she had killed.

“I gave it up because the relief center bread tastes bad. If it were delicious food, I couldn’t have given it up.”

Instead, she tried to act tough. Prince Alfonso asked Ariadne with a slightly surprised expression.

“The relief center bread doesn’t taste good?”

“It’s completely dry. There’s no milk or butter at all, just flour and salt taste.”

“I see…”

Prince Alfonso smiled bitterly. It seemed the relief center hadn’t given him real relief center food.

She deliberately didn’t act like she knew he was a prince, and a moment of silence fell. It wasn’t the atmosphere to apologize for killing him.

Fortunately, the prince asked another question.

“How long will you be here?”

“Until tomorrow.”

If Isabella hadn’t been spiteful, Ariadne would have returned home yesterday, on the third day, and wouldn’t have met Prince Alfonso today.

The prince asked kindly.

“Will you keep giving up your food until then?”

“Hmm, I was planning to eat it myself from today, but thanks to someone giving me an apple, I think I can do it for two more days.”

Ariadne grinned.

Prince Alfonso frowned slightly as if pondering something, then took out cookies wrapped in a handkerchief from his pocket and held them out.

“I wish I had something more substantial… but this is all I have.”

Ariadne took the cookies wrapped in the handkerchief. In the corner of the handkerchief, ‘AFC’ was embroidered in gold thread. It was the initials of Alfonso de Carlo.

“I’ll enjoy them. Thank you.”

As he watched the tall, skinny girl take the food with the handkerchief, the golden-haired boy asked.

The afternoon sun, falling from its peak, shone brilliantly on the boy and girl.

“What’s your name?”

“Ariadne. Ariadne de Mare.”