Walking down the corridor as the dawn twilight began to seep in, the young Blair, who had been walking for a while, stopped in front of a door and soon disappeared inside.

Simultaneously, Blair’s footsteps, following the child, also came to a halt.

It was Esmeralda’s room.

Upon opening the door and entering, a sight starkly different from the peaceful and neat scenery in her memory caught her eyes.

Everything in this room, filled with blackened traces, seemed frozen on the day of the incident, and it felt strangely surreal, as if it existed only within the flow of time.

Staring blankly at the scene, Blair approached Esmeralda’s bed, recalling the dream she had before coming to the palace.

‘This is about enough.’
Considering the position where Blair lay in the dream, Esmeralda probably buried something around here.

Blair tapped the floor with the heel of her shoe in that spot. As she did so, she noticed a place among the marble tiles on the floor where a slightly different sound echoed.

Running her fingers along the edge of the marble, Blair observed that the gap between the tiles was a bit wider than in other places, making it suitable for inserting a crowbar.

Blair began to search the room for anything she could use as a crowbar, bringing various items such as a comb, a mirror, and a candlestick, and tried to wedge them between the marble tiles one by one. Eventually, she succeeded in lifting the tile.

Beneath it was an iron box with a keyhole.

“Really… it was here.”

Briefly relieved by the fact that it remained hidden from everyone just as in her memories, Blair encountered another problem.

She didn’t know the whereabouts of the key to open the box.

‘Where could she have put the key?’

Blair pondered from Esmeralda’s perspective.

Esmeralda had mentioned that only she knew about the existence of this secret box. Therefore, she wouldn’t have left the key in a place where the maids could discover it.

It was probably in a secluded spot untouched by anyone, a hidden place that even the maids didn’t clean.

Blair surveyed the pitch-black, charred room, and suddenly recalled the memory from the dream.
“At that time, the Empress Dowager discovered that I had awakened and approached immediately. However, her comforting hands held nothing.”

Between the bed and the sofa, there is a place to keep the key.

“Maybe…”

Blair, in contemplation for a moment, suddenly remembered something. She reached under the bed, extending her hand toward the ceiling.

If it were on the floor, the maids cleaning would find it quickly. However, if it were stuck to the body of the bed, at least it wouldn’t be visible to an adult’s eyes. Not until she physically felt for it.

As her hand touched a spot, as expected, something was caught. Blair pulled it out.

It was the key.

After taking a small sigh, Blair inserted it into the keyhole on the iron box. At first, it felt a bit stiff, but when she applied more force, the key aligned perfectly with the lock, turning it and opening the box.

Inside, there were documents.

Blair took them out.

As it was not yet completely visible in the darkness, she couldn’t read the text accurately, but the unique pattern on the first page was clear.

“A magic circle…?”

Below it, in Esmeralda’s familiar handwriting, a sentence was written.

“There is said to be dark magic that connects to the second condition of the ancient severed contract with the supernatural being. Perhaps…”

Blair, examining the characters in the light of dawn, suddenly heard the faint sound of bells in the distance and looked up.

It was the bell tolling to announce six o’clock.

“It will dawn soon.”
When morning comes, news of her visit to this place will reach Katrina. There was no time to linger here. Moreover, if it was related to the power of the family, Herdin would probably know better than her. Blair decided to wrap things up around here and return to the Duke’s residence. Since she couldn’t remove the box, she closed it again, took only the key and the documents inside. Before leaving the room, she looked back at the desolate scenery. Perhaps she had hoped that memories would return if she went to the scene of the accident, but ultimately, nothing more came to mind. Therefore, this room still felt like a place of memories for Blair. Reflecting on Esmeralda’s traces left everywhere, Blair made a vow. “This time, I won’t run away, Your Majesty.” Blair turned around, left the Empress Dowager’s palace, and got on the carriage. The coachman who had followed her hastily woke up from nodding off in the early morning and quickly set the carriage in motion. The carriage swiftly left the palace. Blair unfolded the documents she held in her hand. She tried to read the back of the documents, but due to the shaking carriage, she felt nauseous and found it difficult to read the characters. Eventually, Blair gave up reading the documents and immersed herself in thought. “Why were you investigating about the second condition of the contract with the supernatural being?” And why did you secretly keep this document?
In her view, there seemed to be no connection between the contract with the supernatural being rumored in Denmark and the fire incident. Perhaps her intuition that this document might be related to the accident of that day was wrong. “Still, I need to report it to Herdin.” Thinking so, the moment she organized the documents. Bang! Along with a strong impact that shook the carriage, Blair’s body collided forcefully with the carriage wall. In the midst of the unbearable pain that made it difficult to breathe, Blair lost consciousness.