“Lucky you, I’ve got one left.”

The shop owner grinned, teeth showing, as he rolled the bread in paper and handed it over.

“Thank you.”

She smiled back at his good-natured expression and left the shop cheerfully. Now that she’d successfully gotten the bread, it was time to stop by the fruit shop. She planned to buy about four apples and stew half of them with sugar to make jam.

‘Not sure if it’ll turn out well, though.’

She’d gotten the recipe from Joan the other day, so maybe she’d succeed on the first try.

Filled with confidence, she strode energetically to the fruit shop. However, Chartia quickly noticed the atmosphere had grown subtly chaotic. 

Moreover, Joan—who always called out “Miss!” in a loud voice whenever she came near—was nowhere to be seen, not even a strand of her hair visible despite Chartia wandering around inside the shop.

‘Where did she go, leaving the shop empty?’

Looking around, she spotted villagers clustered together in front of a notice board not far away. 

She’d been avoiding crowded places, but unable to suppress her curiosity, she quietly approached them.

There she found Joan. She stood at the edge of the group with an extremely serious expression. Chartia slipped beside her and spoke cautiously.

“Joan. What’s going on? You even left the shop empty…”

“Oh, Miss, you’re here? Listen, the shop’s not the problem right now! Look at this!”

Joan pointed toward a notice that had been hastily scrawled and posted. Written in simple terms and brief sentences, the notice announced shocking news.

<Due to severe damage from magical beast attacks extending to Mofileil, a territory distant from the Krachyan Mountains, investigation and subjugation teams will be dispatched to four nearby regions—Tritan, Rubenitar, Kunduv, and Sez—to assess the situation and protect the territorial residents from threats. We request cooperation from each territory.>

Chartia stumbled backward at the shocking news.

‘Mofileil’ was a territory between Tritan and Rubenitar, one of the places she’d passed through when traveling to Rubenitar in the past.

‘Magical beasts have appeared even there…?’

This third autumn, this was precisely the reason she had to return. Starting this winter, the third year, ‘that incident’ from the original story would begin.

The Grand Duke of Chester’s ‘rebellion,’ that is.

In the original work, it was clearly stated that before the rebellion occurred, the number of magical beasts increased without reason, causing civilian casualties.

Unlike ordinary animals, magical beasts mainly active in winter had begun rampaging regardless of season just a year ago. Thanks to her writing to her mother in advance, organizing investigation and subjugation teams had proceeded smoothly.

She’d thought they were handling it well… but it seemed civilians had ended up getting hurt after all.

This was the first time magical beasts had moved into populated areas and caused damage.

“This is… serious.”

“The bigger problem is that ‘Red Ant’ was completely destroyed overnight!”

‘Red Ant’ was the trading company responsible for distributing various goods in this village. It had its headquarters in Mofileil, and unfortunately seemed to have been caught up in this incident.

This was also why the villagers had gathered so seriously.

“D*mn it, prices are going to skyrocket for a while now!”

Someone nearby shouted irritably. Leaving behind the residents murmuring anxiously, Joan spoke with concern.

“Miss, didn’t you work at that herb shop? Don’t they get all their herbs from Red Ant?”

“…Ah, I think so.”

Chartia glanced at the small shop with closed doors at the end of the street Joan had indicated. It was the village’s only apothecary. 

In the early days of settling here, Margaret, the apothecary owner who’d been watching Chartia grow thinner day by day from lack of vitality, had shown her kindness, and from that opportunity, Chartia began helping with her work occasionally.

Medicine felt familiar, and as she learned, it became interesting, so she studied and experimented with herb combinations together with Margaret. 

Sometimes when Margaret left to get supplies, Chartia would watch the shop with her young son Carl.

Margaret was one of those she’d treated to stew on that winter day. Right now she was away in another territory, temporarily absent while searching for rare herbs…

Fortunately, her destination wasn’t Mofileil, but Chartia suddenly worried whether she’d be safe.

“Can’t we explain things well to the investigation team or subjugation team or whatever when they come and get it resolved somehow?”

“Oh come on, even if they come to Tritan, would they come all the way to this outskirt? And they’re imperial court mages, no less?”

Investigation team and subjugation team.

Those two words cut off her meandering thoughts completely.

“Still, from what I’ve heard, the leaders there are so amazing they solve any problem…”

“Really?”

Delighted voices popped up from various places. Though she hadn’t seen them work directly, the rumors were probably true. At the center of the investigation and subjugation teams were Rosenia and Julian.

A year ago, to solve the rampaging magical beast problem, the imperial court directly organized an investigation team led by Rosenia Blanche, the Imperial Chief Mage, while the subjugation team was entrusted to Julian Chester, an expert in magical beast subjugation.

The ceremonial collaboration between the two families had the Empire buzzing for a while. Setting aside their excellent work, old rumors about them being lovers who’d overcome their families’ opposition resurfaced and became a favorite subject for wandering minstrels.

With the title of ‘Lovers Destined to Reunite!’ no less.

The fateful story spread widely, and sightings of the two kept coming. 

People couldn’t help but admire what a handsome couple they made, or how seeing their affectionate behavior confirmed the rumors that he’d become her fiancé in place of her disappeared sister, or that they might marry soon—such evaluations and gossip reached Chartia’s ears in no time.

‘So they ended up together after all.’

When she first heard the news, Chartia naturally recalled the passionate confession she’d witnessed in the greenhouse. Her chest felt slightly tight.

She’d thought she’d emptied almost all the feelings she’d packed away over the past time, yet she felt pathetic for being shaken.

However, as sightings continued to reach her ears, she gradually grew numb. Thinking about it, it was perfectly natural.

The annulment letter she’d sent him would have been processed long ago, so Rosé would be filling her place. Besides, weren’t they two people who’d shared their hearts? 

Rather, it was strange that news of their engagement hadn’t come for so long.

She’d reached the point where she was no longer shaken.

‘But those two might come near here. Surely I won’t run into them.’

Chartia clutched her basket tightly, anxious in a different sense.

“Then why don’t we try explaining things well to them? They seem like they’d solve it easily…”

“They’ll send lackeys, not the big shots themselves to this backwater place! Get real!”

The blacksmith, a man with a bushy beard, spat out curses.

The surroundings fell silent like cold water had been poured. Then Joan, shrugging her shoulders, stepped forward through the crowd.

“That bastard said it crudely, but he’s not wrong. We can’t just wait for them to solve it and starve to death, right? Let’s find a solution among ourselves.”

“Right! We can just find another trading company!”

Listening to the hopeful voices growing one by one, Chartia turned away silently.

She also thought, like Joan and the blacksmith said, that they wouldn’t come all the way here… Still, it seemed better to keep a low profile for a while.

* * *

Chartia checked the somewhat free-flowing handwriting separate from the neatly folded paper. It was a note left carelessly on her desk when she woke up.

<Got busy, might not be able to visit for a while. Your sister might head that way, so stay quietly holed up at home.>

As expected, it was a message from Cain.

Chartia recalled the notice she’d seen in the village a week ago. The incident caused by magical beasts seemed larger in scale than expected. Seeing even the Magic Tower this busy with cleanup.

The highlight of the original work—a bloodbath and continuous chaos—had truly begun.

Chartia sighed deeply, newly realizing this. The fact that she alone was hiding and living comfortably during this chaos felt quite uncomfortable. Of course, her stepping forward wouldn’t create any tremendous change, but…

‘Ah, I forgot about that!’

Chartia, who’d been lying limply on the table, suddenly bolted upright. She scurried up to the second floor like a squirrel. 

At the end of the hallway, climbing a short ladder leading to the ceiling revealed a triangular-shaped attic. The attic the previous owner had used as storage was currently being used as her secret communication base.

Though she’d said it grandly, it simply meant the place she used to communicate with Rachel via long-distance message orb.

The message orb Rachel had given her, seemingly foreseeing she’d go far away, was extremely useful. Through this device, she’d been receiving information about the capital and Chester from Rachel.

When she placed her hand on the round glass orb, she felt vibrations beneath the touching surface. After waiting like that for some time, a woman with dark brown hair appeared hazily inside the previously transparent glass orb.

“Hello, Rachel. Have you been well?”

“Chartia! What’s with the sudden… no, you’re contacting me about the magical beast problem, right?”

Without much explanation, Rachel keenly caught on to the purpose.

“Right, things are chaotic there too, aren’t they?”

“Yes, not just the lords of the damaged territories, but even Father was summoned to the imperial palace. After all, this is the first time there’s been civilian casualties…”

Rachel’s complexion noticeably worsened. Though they’d somewhat predicted this situation by sharing the future she knew and the future Rachel had seen, they couldn’t guess the exact location or timing. Because of that, she seemed to feel needless guilt.

Chartia, who’d felt similar helplessness, quickly changed the subject. There was a more important issue than getting depressed together.

“Remember you said ‘that incident’ happens after this period?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“How is it these days? Has anything changed in particular?”

It was a question about changes in Chester, including the head of House Avery. Rachel, who’d been monitoring their movements and informing her in detail, shook her head glumly.

“No, nothing’s particularly different from before. However… I recently overheard Father arguing with Marquis Blua.”

“Those two argued?”

“Yes. The Marquis seemed to be demanding Father increase the proportion of equipment like swords and armor among the supplies being sent to Chester.”

“So what did Count Avery say?”

“He refused. Since the magical beast incident broke out, supplies have already been flowing to Chester at a dangerous level, so if they increased the scale further, the risk of getting caught would be high—he’s being cautious. The Marquis didn’t say much and left, since apparently they’re already drawing His Majesty’s suspicion these days.”

“Good heavens…”

Chartia’s lips, which had frozen in surprise, soon curved pleasantly.

“I didn’t expect things to go this well according to plan.”

Chartia recalled the day she’d first conceived the plan.

When she first settled here, it was difficult enough to take care of herself, leaving no capacity to worry about external matters. 

But after two years passed and the magical beast commotion mentioned in the original work began, she suddenly felt a sense of crisis. 

Though she’d been intermittently confirming through Rachel that there were no special movements, she wondered if it was really okay to do nothing. Such worries arose.