At this moment, only one certainty burned like a brand in Reizen’s mind as he laughed like a madman.

‘That woman is alive.’

A clear light returned to his unfocused eyes. The man maintained his maniacal smile while pulling away the white cloth from inside the coffin. As the cloth scattered with the winter snowflakes, a human-shaped straw doll was revealed.

Rael, who had been having a fit, stopped moving while held by the aide’s hands, and the approaching pastor turned pale.

Reizen lifted his head with eyes full of ecstasy. The pastor who met his gaze collapsed, his legs giving out.

* * *

About a month ago.

Melissa was being pursued by the imperial army.

Knights close to Selheim persistently followed her after she boarded the passenger ship.

At first, she hid in a protected cabin with Arthur and Clara’s help, but when the knights went around various cabins with fierce expressions, the passengers grew anxious.

Melissa didn’t want to cause trouble for the passengers, so she had no choice but to move her heavy body. She went down to the basement section where a commoner theater troupe was staying, but was discovered while hiding behind the curtain in the performance hall.

“The Crown Prince is waiting.”

She was trapped with nowhere to go. Arthur brought people to rescue her from the basement cabin where she was confined, but the imperial army wouldn’t back down easily.

They were nobles to the bone, Selheim’s direct knights, prepared to give their lives to complete their mission.

Although Arthur did his best, the confrontation in the passenger ship’s corridor only resulted in innocent people getting hurt needlessly.

No matter how large the passenger ship was, they were still at sea.

The waves were rough enough to make the ship tilt, causing severe seasickness for those not used to passenger ships. While everyone struggled, she judged that more injuries would be bad for both the imperial army and the people.

Melissa said:

“I’ll stay quietly, so please stop threatening the passengers. I won’t allow drawing swords or guns.”

Since she was carrying the child the Emperor wanted and it seemed taken for granted that Selheim would make her his concubine after ascending to the throne, they didn’t treat Melissa roughly. Naturally, they also instructed Arthur not to send anyone until they reached Tavania.

As soon as they arrived in Tavania, the imperial army found a ship to return.

“I apologize for restraining you, Your Highness. But we must complete our mission…”

A familiar-faced knight tied Melissa’s wrists with rope. And when he was about to tie her legs, saying “Excuse me” as he lifted her skirt.

Melissa kicked the man’s chest with all her might. While the knight who fell backward rolled on the ground clutching his heart, she ran and climbed up to the bow of the ship with all her strength and threw herself into the sea.

The knights seemed unable to imagine that such a timid and noble woman would do such a thing. Another knight who was maintaining the mast ran over and reached out, but Melissa was already sinking into the sea when this lightning-fast event occurred.

Later, Pastor Caleil lamented, “How could you do such a reckless thing!”

Melissa, who had no desire to return to Sys anyway, swam with the resolve to die. Fortunately, since they hadn’t departed far from the dock, she was rescued by another cruise ship.

“A-are you alright?”

The Tavanian captain asked in awkward Sys language.

When the woman wringing out her soaked maid’s uniform looked back, the ship carrying Selheim’s knights was returning.

Melissa gave her thanks and ran quickly.

Although she knew Rael’s address from asking Arthur, she would surely be discovered if she went there. She could find Rael and Arthur later when the opportunity arose without causing them harm.

With this in mind, she tore off her necklace to give to the coachman and selected a village that seemed relatively safe. Though how many villages in the world could be safe for a woman alone in a foreign country, the area near where Rael had chosen seemed okay.

“Just walk five minutes from here. Go straight through the forest and you’ll reach the village.”

The coachman said she only needed to walk a little after being dropped off in the forest, but in reality, she was soaked and her body temperature had dropped. With the forest’s appearance and temperature being different from Sys, she wandered for a while before collapsing.

When the pastor, worried that animals might be thirsty since the pond was frozen solid from snow, came to bring water, he discovered her.

Melissa was burning up. Besides having a high fever, the red brand on her arm was causing trouble. The elderly pastor was startled and brought Melissa back with all his strength. He called a renowned physician to examine her, but the physician said something surprising.

“This is an illness I cannot cure.”

It meant that Melissa was pregnant and suffering from an incurable disease.

“For now, I’ll prescribe fever reducers to save her life. But it will affect the child in her womb. What should we do?”

The pastor hesitated, not knowing what to do. But Melissa, barely holding onto consciousness, weakly shook her head. Even with her face flushed red, she protected her slightly swollen belly with her hands and cried.

She was speaking but no voice came out. Everyone had to bring their ears close to hear what she was saying as she opened her parched lips.

“Pl… please… save… the child…”

The pastor and volunteers present let out sympathetic sighs. In a state where she lacked even the strength to cry out or blink her eyes, she managed to hold onto consciousness just to plead not for herself but for the child to be saved.

The volunteers in the small village took turns caring for her. After seeing armed men come several times asking about a foreign woman, they agreed to say she was dead if anyone came looking for her.

Still, they kept searching the area so much that it bothered even the neighboring village, so the pastor devised a strategy. It was to create and bury Melissa’s grave.

Tavania’s ‘Fairy Village’ was known to have warm-hearted people, to the extent that it was named after the fairy village in children’s tales. The buildings were deliberately built to be cute and painted in pastel rainbow colors, and they felt that the village’s history would be meaningless if they couldn’t protect even one unborn child.

“We don’t need any special reason to protect a child in the womb. Not for us.”

Under the village people’s protection, Melissa recovered safely after a week. But since the red brand on her left arm wouldn’t heal, the villagers brought an old woman.

The old woman, who said she had forgotten her exact age, examined Melissa’s brand and simply applied ground herbs to it.

The result was miraculous. Melissa covered her mouth, unable to believe that the brand that wouldn’t go away even with strong medicine could disappear so easily.

The short grandmother laughed “ho ho ho” with her eyes barely open. Her face was full of wrinkles that gathered tightly like wooden rings, but it was a pleasant smile.

“If you want to remove it more completely, go find my disciple’s disciple’s disciple. I had a recent letter from that child, where was it…”

Melissa found a letter over 10 years old in the house she followed the grandmother to. Though she thought there would be no contact after more than 10 years, the disciple’s disciple’s disciple was still staying in one place.

“It’s so far away, I’m not sure if you can go alone…”

The grandmother expressed worry with her eyes closed, but Melissa had no intention of giving up.

“I must remove this brand, for the child’s sake too.”

After all, if she didn’t, her body might worsen again and hover near death’s door.

She couldn’t afford to have her body fail her while being pursued. Above all, it would be problematic if the brand kept manifesting while raising the child alone.

‘I might want to go back.’

When the body weakens, the mind weakens too.

What if she wanted to return to Reizen, unable to endure this brand’s pain? She had already chosen to leave, and had struggled to escape this far, so she needed to take responsibility for her choice until the end.

So Melissa returned to Sys.

After a month had passed, snow was falling even in Sys where autumn had ended. But compared to Tavania’s winter, this place was practically paradise.

The woman, with a winter hat pulled low over her head, disembarked at an unfamiliar port.

When the woman wearing a plain dress and holding a leather trunk exhaled deeply, white breath escaped like fluffy clouds.

Now used to traveling by ship alone, Melissa took confident steps while smiling faintly at the sound of her native language coming from here and there.

Though she struggled a bit because the bag was somewhat heavy, this much was bearable. The luggage had doubled in size because she was carrying medicinal ingredients to deliver to the disciple at the grandmother’s request, but what could she do? Anyway, it was a weight she had to endure to go to Bayern alone.

“Ugh…!”

She wouldn’t have made such a strange sound if only the leather bag hadn’t caught and scratched on a protruding nail on the ship.

“Are you alright, Lady?”

When a passing man spoke to her, she pulled her hat down low and nodded.

She tried to minimize speaking outside because her noble background showed when using Sys language. But the man she thought would just pass by bent down to look at her closely.

“Oh?”

Could he have recognized her?

When Melissa tried to run away with her bag like someone being chased, a man followed after her.

“Just a moment, Lady!”