“I forgot about this.”

Nellia took out Charlotte’s pendant necklace, which she had carefully placed in her pocket.

The pendant necklace tinkled under Nellia’s hand.

Despite going through various hardships, the pendant necklace still sparkled. Even with only the moonlight coming through the corridor window, it emitted a subtle glow.

“Here, the pendant necklace.”

As Nellia was about to hand over the pendant.

Tock

The pendant, which had been tightly closed, opened.

“…!”

“…!”

Nellia and Charlotte exchanged surprised glances.

The pendant necklace, which had never opened before, had opened now.

“The pendant is opening…”

Charlotte brought her hand to her mouth, unable to believe it.

“It has never opened before.”

Nellia was aware of that fact as well. Not only had the necklace not opened despite the efforts of a considerably strong ruffian, but even in the original work, Charlotte’s necklace had never opened.

Then it happened.

Drip. Something sparkling inside the pendant fell to the floor and rolled to a corner.

Nellia stooped down to inspect what had fallen.

“What is this…?”

A gem?

The round gem with a bluish light seemed peculiarly radiant, appearing almost like a jewel.

“Charlotte, look at this. It seems something was inside.”

Nellia handed the gem she picked up to Charlotte. Charlotte examined the gem carefully, turning it around.

“There was something like this inside…”

“Is there any writing or drawing inside the pendant?”

In response to Nellia’s question, Charlotte unfolded the pendant on the palm of her hand.

Both Nellia and Charlotte could see the inner sides of the pendant.

Inside the pendant, something resembling hieroglyphics was drawn on a white background.

“Charlotte, do you know what this means?”

“No…”

Although Nellia thought it might be a language used only in the monastery, judging by Charlotte’s puzzled expression, she really seemed to have no idea.

“The priest who gave me this pendant said it’s very old. Could it be a language used in the past?”

Nellia nodded.

Certainly…

While she didn’t know every language in the world, it seemed unlikely that such characters resembling drawings were used in this era.

‘There are symbols like fire in the characters… What is this? An animal…?’

There were characters that could be roughly guessed, but it still seemed impossible to interpret the meaning.

Nellia was curious.

Although Charlotte was surprised that the pendant had opened, she didn’t seem to care much about the meaning of the inscribed characters.

Charlotte decisively closed the pendant and, without any regrets, picked up the gem that had come out. Then, she brought the transparent inside of the gem closer by peering into it.

“Nellia… I don’t know much about gems, so I’m asking, could this be valuable…?”

Nellia was somewhat surprised by Charlotte’s question.

If an ordinary person suddenly acquired a gem, they would naturally have the same question as Charlotte.
However, the Charlotte that Nellia had experienced seemed rather uninterested in material things, making this question surprisingly unexpected.

“Yeah, Charlotte is a person too.”

Nellia scratched her head and responded.

“I don’t know much about gems either, but it probably isn’t valuable, right?”

“Yeah…?”

Charlotte’s eyes sparkled.

Was it the feeling of suddenly acquiring a gem?

However, Nellia was once again surprised by Charlotte’s subsequent actions.

After Charlotte placed the gem in her palm, she extended it towards Nellia.

“Well… I’ll give this to you, Nellia.”

The blue gem, illuminated by the light, sparkled beautifully.

In that moment, a strange sensation came over Nellia, and she momentarily failed to comprehend Charlotte’s words, just silently gazing at the gem.

‘… This isn’t the time for this.’

Regaining her composure, Nellia pushed Charlotte’s hand away.

“Charlotte, I can’t accept this gem. I don’t know what value it holds, and that’s why I’m giving it to you.”

Despite Nellia’s firm voice, Charlotte shook her head.

“I’m giving it to you because I don’t know its value… If I find out later, I might not feel like giving it to you anymore…”

Charlotte pulled Nellia’s hand forcibly, pressing her finger against it. Then she handed over the gem she had been holding.

“The fact that the pendant, which had never opened before, opened is thanks to Nellia. So if it weren’t for Nellia, I wouldn’t have obtained this gem…”

“…”

“I can’t fully express my gratitude with this gem… But please accept at least this much…”

Charlotte’s voice was earnest.

Seeing someone so insistent, not even the recipient but the giver, made Nellia ponder how to handle this burdensome gift as she looked up at Charlotte.

In fact, Nellia didn’t really need this gem.

Perhaps it was because she had lived so poorly in her past life. The current surroundings were sometimes overwhelming, with Hart, the duke, bringing things even before she could mention a need.

On the contrary, Charlotte’s situation was not so comfortable.