However, the silence was brief.

People who had been watching from the beginning and those who joined later started whispering among themselves.

“Didn’t the Pope just call His Majesty ‘darling’?”

“It seems His Majesty was proposing to the Pope.”

“No, I think His Majesty was having an affair with that pharmacy owner behind the Pope’s back.”

“Ah, so that’s why the Pope rushed here in anger?”

“Then is that why His Majesty remained unmarried all this time…”

“Oh my, was Yuria just being used then?”

“I wondered…”

Niel’s expression gradually paled at people’s whispers.

“Are you insane?”

Niel snapped at Yupheon in a voice full of displeasure.

Yupheon’s eyes curved roundly at the sight of him taking the bait.

“Sorry, but I can’t accept your proposal. God doesn’t permit it.”

Yupheon said while flicking away Niel’s ring.

The proposal ring, sized for Jella, rolled across the ground.

“Oh dear, His Majesty was rejected.”

“No, the Pope is just throwing a tantrum because he’s angry.”

“How unfortunate. What a pity.”

“What? His Majesty had an affair and ended up getting rejected?”

“Then what about that pharmacy girl?”

“No, from my view, it looks like His Majesty and the Pope are fighting over the pharmacy owner.”

“Anyway, it’s a love triangle, isn’t it?”

Niel pressed his forehead at the commotion caused by Yupheon’s mischief.

“What exactly are you doing?”

“You shameless bastard. You proposed to Jella first, breaking all moral codes.”

“Are we doing business now? Why bring up moral codes here?”

“I never knew my darling was such an unprincipled, cowardly, immoral, and unconscionable man.”

“Why am I your darling? Stop using such horrible terms.”

“Fine. My f*cking darling. I love you.”

“Ha, d*mn it…”

“Wow, did you just curse?”

“Please shut up. I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

“You did curse. I thought you were just unprincipled, immoral, and unconscionable, but now I see you have a dirty mouth too?”

“……”

Niel, finally caught up in Yupheon’s game, roughly pushed back the hair falling over his forehead.

It was chaos.

‘Wow, indeed. The only man who can fluster Niel Alpenhayer.’

Jella watched their quarrel as if it were someone else’s business, newly impressed by Yupheon’s prowess.

She had planned to reject the proposal anyway.

Even if she were to accept his offer to return the throne, it was right to reject the proposal in this setting. Niel seemed to have anticipated this and made a scene accordingly.

Jella glanced at the ring that had fallen to the ground.

As she instinctively bent down to pick it up, she frowned at the sudden familiar sense of déjà vu.

‘Haven’t I experienced something like this before?’

The time at sunset…

The falling snow…

Flowers and a ring…

Somewhere in a very old, blurry memory…

Jella picked up the ring and placed it in Niel’s hand.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I cannot accept your feelings.”

“Miss Jella.”

Niel stopped arguing with Yupheon and looked at her.

Soon, a smile spread across her face.

“I’m not shameless enough to accept a proposal from someone who already has a lover. I wish you both a beautiful love.”

With those words, Jella slipped back into her pharmacy.

***

Meanwhile, while Jella was away.

Arne thoroughly searched the entire second floor of her pharmacy building for the Holy Grail but failed.

“D*mn it, my Holy Grail! Where on earth is it!”

While fuming with anger, he looked out the window at the cheers coming from outside.

The Emperor was proposing to Jella.

“What’s this? What’s the relationship between that woman and the Emperor?”

As he watched with blinking eyes, the Pope suddenly intruded.

“…?”

Curious about their conversation, he slightly opened the window, but couldn’t hear their words.

Shortly after, hearing Jella coming in, Arne quietly headed toward the stairs.

Peeking from behind the railing, he saw Niel and Yupheon following her as the door opened with the sound of the bell.

“Think about it seriously. I’ll be waiting for your decision.”

“What is there to think about? Quickly chase that man away, Jella.”

“When did you both follow me in?”

Arne’s eyes narrowed as he eavesdropped on their conversation.

‘What is this? A lovers’ quarrel?’

Looking carefully, it seemed the Emperor and the Pope were fighting over Jella.

‘Hmph, that woman likes me. How sad that they’re fighting over her among themselves.’

Arne thought as he looked at them with indifferent eyes.

“Both of you are being ridiculous, so leave!”

Jella chased them out and even locked the pharmacy door with a click.

Arne quickly ran back to her room.

Not long after, she returned.

“Phew, some strange people suddenly came and made a commotion. Shouldn’t you be returning to your mansion now that it’s getting dark?”

“Cough, cough… I’m still not fully recovered…”

“That’s strange. You shouldn’t still be sick like this.”

Jella tilted her head in confusion.

“Anyway, I’ll call a carriage for you. If you’re still ill, it would be better to call a doctor at your mansion.”

Saying that, she went downstairs to call for a carriage.

‘W-what? She’s sending me away like this?’

The desperate Arne jumped up from the bed and anxiously bit his lip.

It seemed the Holy Grail wasn’t here after all. But if he returned like this, he would never regain his power…

‘Ah…!’

Suddenly.

A good idea occurred to him.

‘Perhaps this woman might be an even better card than Yuria.’

If enchantment didn’t work, he could just take over her body.

Although he didn’t particularly prefer a female body, since the Emperor and Pope liked her…

‘I’ll change my shell. I’ll enchant the Emperor and Pope using her body and retrieve my heart!’

Having quickly calculated his plan, Arne ran out of the bedroom and entered her still-unorganized storage room.

Earlier, while searching for the Holy Grail, he had discovered medicine bottles she had made.

‘She said all the medicine she makes turns into poison.’

Unfortunately, once he possessed a shell, he couldn’t freely change it. The only way to leave a shell was to kill the physical body.

Arne poured Jella’s medicine into his mouth to change his shell.

“Ugh…”

With excruciating pain, his body collapsed, and Arne’s soul shot out.

There was no time to waste.

Arne quickly went downstairs.

‘There she is!’

Upon finding her, Arne didn’t think twice and lunged at her body.

‘It’s unfortunate, but I’ll take this body…!’

Just as he was about to swallow her soul and take over her physical body.

‘Huh?’

Arne’s soul momentarily shrank back at the massive soul blocking his way.

‘W-what is this soul’s energy?’

Before him was a clear, transparent soul unlike any he had seen before.

‘Impossible. A mere human soul couldn’t be this strong… Aaaaaargh!’

Soon, Arne’s soul was swept away by Jella’s soul and disappeared.

After standing still in the same spot for a while, Jella slowly blinked.

“What was… that just now?”

Something felt subtly strange…

“Huh? What was I doing just now anyway?”

As a result of the collision between two souls inside her body without her knowledge, Jella experienced temporary confusion in her memory.

She forgot what she had been trying to do just moments ago and even the existence of the guest collapsed somewhere on the second floor, but she didn’t even think it was strange.

And that night.

Jella’s eyelids trembled as she slept peacefully. Then suddenly,

She sat up!

Her languid red eyes seemed to blur slightly, and a dreamy voice escaped from between her lips.

“I must… find Niel Alpenhayer.”

It was a voice as if she had been brainwashed.

Walking to the wardrobe, she threw only a thin shawl over her nightclothes and rushed outside, but suddenly stopped in place and asked herself.

“But why do I need to find that man?”

Her blinking eyes soon curved languidly.

“Ah, right. I need to seduce him and… find out where the heart is!”

Jella began running toward the imperial palace.