Thinking that if Herdin trusted her enough to consult about this incident, she would surely be swayed by her desire to clear Esmeralda’s false accusations.

And Blair’s method worked perfectly.

“But…”

As Agnes hesitated to give a definitive answer, neither refusing nor agreeing, Blair saw it as an opportunity and pressed her opinion further.

“Though it’s very late, I want to clear Her Majesty the Empress’s name now.”

“…”

“Please help me, Agnes.”

After a moment of silence at Blair’s earnest request, Agnes finally gave in.

“…But only this once.”

Hearing the long-awaited answer, Blair’s face lit up. Seeing this, Agnes quickly added sternly:

“If you show even the slightest sign of struggle, or suffer any aftereffects, you must follow my instructions without question.”

“Thank you.”

Agnes smiled in defeat as she saw Blair smiling despite her warning.

“Are you that pleased? It will be very difficult for you.”

“There are things that must be done, even if they’re difficult.”

Agnes looked with concern at Blair, who spoke calmly about the pain she would endure due to her trauma. Then, as if remembering something, she said:

“If you’re doing this because you want to gain acceptance in Delmark as soon as possible, I want to tell you there’s no need. The people who reject you for that reason are in the wrong.”

At Agnes’s words of concern, Blair’s eyes widened in surprise before she gave a faint smile.

“…I used to feel that way, but not anymore.”

Her smile was tinged with bitterness as she answered.

“I regretted that incident for a very long time… and now I no longer want to regret it. That’s all there is to it.”

Agnes thought Blair’s eyes seemed to be looking at some distant place, but she pushed the thought aside upon hearing the faint chime of a grandfather clock.

“Alright. Shall we begin then? Before His Excellency returns.”

* * *

As the evening twilight settled.

A woman in a black robe stepped out of the carriage, followed by another in a dark green robe.

The temple guards blocking their way to enter were stationed at the side door.

“I apologize, but you’ll have to return today. The temple’s closing time…”

The woman in the black robe then took something out of her inner pocket and showed it.

It was a badge engraved with the imperial crest.

Only then did the guard look at the woman in the dark green robe, flustered.

Luxurious platinum blonde hair, crimson eyes, and a beautiful face that seemed to have defied the passage of time.

Recognizing her face, the guard hurriedly bowed his head.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t recognize you. Please, go inside.”

He gestured to the guard beside him, who was puzzled at not recognizing Katrina, and stepped back.

The two women entered the temple, unaware of another gaze watching them.

They stopped at a private chapel.

The temple had private chapels prepared for high-ranking nobles who wished to pray quietly and enjoy meditation.

The woman in the black robe remained outside the chapel door, while only the one in the dark green robe entered, removing her hood.

Katrina’s face was revealed underneath.

As Katrina personally went around lighting candles in the chapel, another person entered.

“What concerns have brought you here in such a hurry?”

Gerard approached Katrina with his usual gentle smile.

Katrina’s previously composed expression crumbled at his appearance. Like a beast showing its weakness only to the one it trusts most.

“…Your Holiness.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Please tell me anything. I will help as much as I can.”

Katrina bit her trembling lips hard, then spoke as if expelling her pent-up pain.

“Blair… she’s trying to recover her memories of that day.”

“…”

“What should I do?”

Her crimson eyes, as she asked this, were filled with a mix of emotions – anger, betrayal, fear.

Gerard, as if understanding her without further explanation, smiled and approached to hold her trembling hands, comforting her.

“The Imperial Princess is Your Majesty’s daughter. What is there to worry about? She’s not someone who would go against filial piety.”

“No, that’s because you don’t know that child, Your Holiness. She’s quite capable of dragging me through the mud. I know her well.”

Katrina recalled Blair’s calm response to her demands to stop the hypnosis and counseling immediately.

‘Don’t oppress me anymore, Mother.’

Those eyes. That gaze.

Just remembering it made her shudder.

“She… resembles that woman. More than me.”

When Blair was born, Katrina was utterly satisfied.

A beautiful daughter who was the spitting image of herself.

One son who resembled his father, and below him, a daughter who resembled her. She thought it would be perfect for completing the family picture.

Moreover, since she was pretty like herself, she would surely excel in high society and political marriages in the future.

She also liked that the Emperor doted on the daughter who resembled her, as if it certified his love for her.

Even Esmeralda’s fondness for Blair pleased her, as if she possessed something that woman couldn’t have.

Katrina’s life was perfect.

Until she realized that Blair, as she grew, was becoming more and more like Esmeralda with each passing day.

At first, she was frantic.

‘You’re my daughter, why?’

She suddenly felt as if the child born from her womb had been stolen.

So she tried to mold that child into her own image by any means necessary.

But even with Esmeralda’s death, even as she grew to resemble her face more, her true nature couldn’t be hidden.

The moment she faced Blair, who had the same gaze as that woman with a face resembling her own, it was so dreadful.

It was as if the ghost of the dead woman had come back to life.

At some point, Blair was no longer a proud trophy, but a rival to be defeated.

How pitiful, pathetic… and delightful it was to see such a child yearning for even a shred of her affection.

But everything went wrong when Blair was married off to Delmark.

It was a mistake to follow Ivan’s suggestion to absorb Delmark’s influence through a political marriage.

“…The truth about that day must not come to light.”

Katrina muttered in a desperate voice.

If the truth of that day were revealed, everything she had built over a lifetime would crumble.

That absolutely could not happen.

Gerard, who had been watching Katrina tremble with anxiety with calm eyes, spoke.

“If you’re truly worried, then do this.”

* * *

“Then have sweet dreams, Madam.”

“You sleep well too.”

After helping Blair change into her nightgown and brushing her hair, Melly quietly left the room.

Blair stared at the door that wouldn’t open again for a moment, then got up from the dressing table.

Although he hadn’t visited her bedroom for the past few days, it seemed best to go to bed early just in case.

As Blair finished preparing for bed and was about to lie down under the covers, she noticed her hands trembling unconsciously and clasped them together.

It was the lingering effect of the hypnosis she had undergone with Agnes earlier that day.

Blair sighed as she watched her body reacting independently of her will.

The hypnosis session that had started with such vigor ended in failure.

Despite struggling for a long time with Agnes, the young Blair in her subconscious couldn’t escape from the closet she was trapped in.

Perhaps she wasn’t trapped, but had locked herself in to thoroughly protect herself.

Still, she had glimpsed something she hadn’t seen in the previous hypnosis session.

In her subconscious, Blair saw a maid’s uniform through the gap in the closet.

The face of the maid who was said to have died there that day.

But this already known fact had little significance in uncovering the truth of the incident.

Agnes consoled the disheartened Blair, saying it was “still evidence that her memories were slowly returning,” but she didn’t promise another hypnosis session regardless.

‘If you don’t suffer any aftereffects tomorrow, we’ll consider it again then.’

That’s how today’s counseling ended.

Lying in bed, Blair clasped her still slightly trembling hands and fervently wished.

That she would be fine in the morning.

After comforting herself for a while, Blair’s eyelids eventually drooped closed.

* * *

When Blair woke from her sleep, she blinked her heavy eyelids slowly, then suddenly became alert.

‘Where… am I?’

Not only had her sleeping place changed from a bed to a sofa, but this wasn’t even the bedroom where she had fallen asleep.

Yet it felt familiar somehow. The scenery even evoked a vague sense of nostalgia. Especially the subtle fragrance filling the room, which put her mind at ease.

Blair slowly raised herself. Then, without her volition, her hand moved to rub her eyes still heavy with sleep. That hand was small.

As she became aware of this, a voice flowed out, also independent of her will.

“Your Majesty the Empress?”

As she lifted her head, she saw someone doing something on the floor at the foot of the bed.

“Oh my. Are you already awake, Blair?”

A familiar voice. A familiar face.

But there was Esmeralda, who had now become a trauma for her.

The moment she saw her, Blair realized.

‘…This is a dream.’

At the same time, she knew this wasn’t just a dream, but a memory from sometime in the past that had been forgotten along with the accident.