Ivy’s small lips parted, then pressed tightly shut.

“Then you’re saying…… you ran away? That you deliberately jumped out of the carriage that day to escape? Why?”

“That’s……”

“Latieana, we promised each other we’d come to the temple together. We swore we’d forget all the hardships we’d endured until now, support each other, and live well here.”

Had we really made such a promise? I had no memory of it.

But since it might have been something that happened between Latieana and Ivy in the past—unknown to me—I nodded meaninglessly.

“I’m sorry.”

She, who had searched for me so desperately, must have found my words indifferent; she bit down hard on her peach-colored lips. Then Ivy covered her face with both hands.

“You abandoned me and left……”

“I didn’t abandon you.”

“You just said with your own mouth that you ran away alone.”

“That……”

I tried to offer another excuse, but simply closed my mouth. It didn’t seem like words would get through to her.

“If I caused you any misunderstanding in any way, I’m sorry. I don’t know why you searched for me so intensely, but please stop now. You’ve already become the Grand Saintess, and our positions are just too different now……”

At that moment, I abruptly stopped speaking.

“Ha!”

Ivy, who had been hunched over with shoulders trembling as if crying, suddenly laughed and lifted her face.

“Ivy?”

Ivy, whose eyes had abruptly changed, stood up sharply and gripped my shoulders with both hands.

Her strength wasn’t overwhelming, but her gaze had shifted so drastically that I felt an intense sense of alienation.

“Latieana.”

Her expression—frowning as if displeased, yet smiling with her lips—was deeply unsettling.

“Yes, you’re right. As you said, we’re too different.”

“It hurts. Let go of me.”

I swatted at her hands trying to free my shoulders, but Ivy refused to release me and gripped them even tighter.

“No! I absolutely won’t let go!”

Her voice was shrill, as if she were forcibly suppressing rage rising to her throat.

“……Ivy?”

I was utterly bewildered by Ivy’s grip, which now pressed down on my shoulders even more forcefully.

We’re about the same size—where on earth was this strength coming from?

Eyes flashing, Ivy spoke.

“All this time, I’ve been terrified you’d accidentally die after falling from the carriage.”

“So I’m sorry for making you worry. But……”

“You can’t die—you’re precious to me. I need you alive because you’re useful to me.”

“What?”

Unable to comprehend her words, I widened my eyes. Ivy’s lips curled into a faint, bitter smile.

“I heard you clearly that day. Telling me to live happily—I’m not deaf, do you really think I misunderstood and searched for you by mistake?”

“What are you saying? You knew everything and still came looking for me?”

“Of course. How dare you, of all people, try to run away from me.”

Ivy lifted her chin and looked down at me condescendingly. Her absurd behavior—treating me like a subordinate—startled me only briefly.

“Ugh.”

I groaned through clenched teeth. Her sharp nails dug into my shoulders.

Still, Ivy smiled brightly. I shoved her hands away with all my strength and stepped back.

“Let go! I didn’t run away from you! I just didn’t want to come to the temple! You were always going to become the Grand Saintess anyway, and I was going to die!”

I stared at Ivy from a distance, panting heavily. I felt more bewildered than pained. The sacred, beautiful image of Ivy from moments ago had vanished without a trace.

So stunned I could barely speak, my gaze involuntarily drifted to Ivy’s fingernails.

At the tips, adorned with glittering jewels, my blood had pooled.

After staring at it briefly with trembling vision, I lifted my head straight.

Even upon hearing that I was going to die, a smile still lingered at the corners of Ivy’s lips.

“Ivy. You knew the Saintess candidates at the temple turn into mummies, yet you still came looking for me?”

Ivy grinned sweetly.

“Oh, so you knew too. How did you find out?”

I felt as if my breath had been cut off. I’d doubted it, but Ivy knew as well.

She knew that if I came to the temple, I would die.

And yet she searched for me. That’s why Hillstain had treated me so disrespectfully.

Of course. Logically, a Grand Saintess wouldn’t search for a friend so rudely unless there was a reason.

Because Ivy knew I’d die if I came to the temple, she treated me so mercilessly.

My mind turned icy cold. That meant she’d essentially searched for me to kill me. I felt my blood boiling backward.

“What’s your real motive? Why did you look for me?”

At my cold tone, Ivy picked up a snow-white handkerchief resting on the console and wiped her nails.

It was an elegant gesture.

“Would you even remember if I told you? You know nothing.”

What did she mean? What was I supposed to remember? Ivy couldn’t possibly know I wasn’t the real Latieana.

“Latieana, you can’t run away anywhere. You must stay beside me. You must die next to me. We promised that, didn’t we?”

What on earth was she talking about? My pupils trembled from shock.

By now, a crimson aura had begun swirling around Ivy.

It wasn’t healing energy. Something resembling black mist flickered intermittently within the red glow, appearing and vanishing repeatedly.

Before I could even frown to identify what it was, black veins began rising from Ivy’s chest. Simultaneously, the red aura was devoured by the mist swirling near her, turning pitch black.

I’d never felt such revulsion in my life. As my complexion turned pale, she suddenly seized both my hands.

“Latieana, your power belongs to me.”

Instantly, I felt my stomach flip as my healing energy was forcibly ripped out of me.

“Kuh!”

Black veins slithered up my arms, crawling slowly.

This sensation—I’d felt it once before.

When I healed Edan, for a fleeting moment, he’d tried to forcibly take my healing power—the same chilling feeling.

A spine-tingling sensation, as if all the blood in my body was draining away. But unlike when I healed Edan, now I felt only the sensation of death.

‘I can’t breathe!’

It felt horrifying, like sinking into deep water, never to surface again.

Tears welled in my eyes. Ivy was stealing my healing power.

“A, Ivy……”

By now, Ivy’s face was entirely covered in black veins. As the dark aura intensified, she smiled as if her mouth were splitting open.

Delighted by the stolen healing power flooding her body, Ivy reached out and slowly caressed my cheek with one hand.

“This. This is what I wanted.”

“Kuh……!”

By now, her irises had turned completely black.

Even the whites of her eyes had turned entirely black—she was no longer a Saintess.

“You’re incomparable to those useless Saintess candidates. Dozens of those girls couldn’t fill the void. Only you. Latieana, with you, I become real. You’re truly the best……!”

This couldn’t be happening. Was this why she searched for me? To steal my power?

Even knowing I’d die and turn into a mummy! No—she was the one who turned me into a mummy.

The moment I heard Ivy muttering like a demon to the empty air, everything became clear.

In the original story, the deaths of the Saintess candidates ceased after Latieana’s death.

Everything had changed from that day onward.

The deepening relationships between the male leads and Ivy, even the timing of Edan’s abduction of Ivy—all occurred only after I died.

It was Ivy who turned me into a mummy.

That’s why, even after my death, they so easily forgot me at the slightest word from the male leads and lived happily.

No. From the very beginning, my existence meant nothing to them. She only ever cared about stealing my power because I was the real one. Everything they did was possible only because of my power!

‘Damn it, Ivy……’

My tensed body gradually lost strength. My arms, which had been clinging to Ivy’s, began to sag limply.

My vision blurred hazily; even my thin, faltering breath seemed obstructed somewhere.

It felt as if all moisture was draining from me. Through my wavering sight, I saw my fingers gradually drying out.

My body was turning into a mummy, starting from my fingernails, inch by inch.

I tried desperately to regain consciousness and hold onto my stolen power, but I couldn’t control it.

I’d only ever known how to release my power—I’d never learned how to pull it back or hold onto it.

With a pale face, I barely managed to turn my head and look toward the door.

‘Maxim is outside……’

I wanted to cry out for help, but no sound came out. Reaching out was useless.

As my body turned to mummy, I flailed helplessly in midair.

Then, at the moment when my vision truly went pitch black, a familiar body warmth touched my hand.

Simultaneously, with a loud thud—

“Kyaaak!”

Ivy’s sharp scream pierced my ears, and I felt strong arms pulling me into an embrace.

A familiar scent, a familiar warmth. As I gasped desperately in the arms of someone I knew, my darkened vision rapidly returned.

Before me, Ivy lay collapsed on the floor.

The crimson aura that had surrounded her moments ago was entirely gone, and the black vein marks that had filled her body had vanished without a trace.

“It’s alright.”

Edan’s voice came from the firm chest holding and supporting me.

It wasn’t a question.

As if to reassure me, as if to say not to worry, Edan spoke again slowly.

“It’s alright, Latieana.”

At this moment, he was the one who would stand by my side above all others.