“What’s that?”

“A research organization operated in secret by the Imperial Family.”

It was something he’d never heard of before. Irynsis carefully observed Cassion’s reaction.

“If even a Pathsbender doesn’t know about it, it’s safe to say no one does.”

“What exactly are they researching?”

At that question, Irynsis glanced around. Her caution, checking once more to ensure no one else was around, deepened Cassion’s curiosity.

At the gentle tug of her fingers on his collar, Cassion instinctively leaned down. 

A small whisper brushed against his ear.

“Divine power.”

After the words fell, Irynsis smiled—one laced with deep bitterness.

“Wasn’t it just about exploiting divine power? They were researching it? What are you even saying?”

“They’re trying to find a way to regain divine power as strong as in the past.”

“Then were you taken for the same reason?”

He meant to ask—do you possess divine power too?

Irynsis said nothing, but somehow, Cassion felt as though she had answered.

If that was true, then her claim that the saintess’s petty miracles were actually hers…

A rush of blood surged to his head, as though someone had yanked him backward by the scalp.

The articles he’d once read while gathering information on the saintess snapped together like puzzle pieces.

‘The saintess prays each day for her foreign-born sister’s repentance.’

‘Despite public outcry, the saintess insists on attending consecration rites with her adoptive sister.’

A jolt ran through him—it was as if a fog had suddenly lifted.

“Cambria used adoption as an excuse to steal your power.” 

Irynsis tilted her head, her gaze drifting off into the distance. A faint smile curved her lips, but it was heavy with regret.

***

Her father, once a priest of the Empire, had grown disillusioned with the corruption of the temple.

He cast off his title and began offering aid beyond the empire’s borders, in the lands of the foreign tribes.

There, he fell in love with a woman of that land—and so Irynsis was born.

A corpse infected with the plague required the full power of three seasoned priests to purify.

When their daughter, only four years old, managed to do it alone, her parents were shaken to their core.

Her father, who understood better than anyone how dangerous such power could be, chose a life on the run. 

It was a desperate attempt to conceal Irynsis’s gift. But even the sharpest needle will pierce through a pocket eventually.

‘If you don’t listen, they’ll die.’

The day she unknowingly purified the body of a friend who had died from the plague, Jarvis Cambria appeared—pressing a blade to her parents’ throats.

Jarvis, a member of Quies, had been identifying and abducting those with divine blood. It was all for a certain experiment.

During the process, Irynsis’s potent divine power was further intensified—to the point where she could cleanse the plague from the living on her own.

Around that time, Crown Prince Declan fell ill with the plague.

Jarvis, a mere bastard of the Cambria line, offered her up as the prince’s cure—and in return, seized the noble title he’d always coveted, bypassing both his father and the rightful heir.

That was the beginning of Irynsis’s hell.

By day, in the imperial palace’s underground chambers. By night, in the dungeons of Cambria. She endured it all, one miserable day after another.

Until one day, she came.

Evelina, the girl Irynsis had longed to save, no matter the cost.

“Escape? How dare you?”

A vicious hand gripped her hair and yanked—so forcefully, it felt like her scalp would tear.

Through her shaking vision, a pair of green eyes drew near—the eyes of Crown Prince Declan.

“It seems you still haven’t learned who your master is.”

His voice whispered right against her face, laced with barely concealed fury—like someone bitten by the dog they had raised.

“If that’s the case, then it’s only right for the master to keep teaching.”

“…”

“Go on. Say it. Who is your master?”

Her cracked lips, caked with dried blood, parted slightly. Declan, annoyed by the faint whisper that escaped—quieter than a mosquito’s wingbeat, grabbed a fistful of Irynsis’s hair even tighter.

“Evelina, is…”

“Haa.”

A long sigh slipped from Declan’s lips.

“You see why I have no choice but to be strict with you, right? Hm? Irynsis.”

“Ugh.”

His voice was sweet and gentle, but the force with which he threw her delicate body was anything but. Opening the cell door, Declan tossed Irynsis onto the floor. His eyes gleamed.

“That pathetic friendship of yours… it must’ve been fun, huh? You wanted to send her out of here that badly?”

But what now?

“She’s already dead.”

The giggle that followed made Irynsis bite her lip and shut her eyes. The floor was soaked with blood. Evelina lay sprawled across the cold stone floor, limp and pale.

‘It’s because of me. My foolishness got her killed.’

When Irynsis heard one of the guards had gone mad with greed, she gathered up all the valuables she could find and gave them to Evelina. Because she herself wouldn’t be able to do anything even if she escaped, she had pleaded: Then you go. Find my brother. Come back for me.

Evelina had tied her cherished blue ribbon around Irynsis’s wrist and promised—she would come back for her.

That guard truly had been blinded by money. He took everything Irynsis had given and swallowed it whole. Then, he ran to the Crown Prince and spilled everything, receiving a handsome reward in return.

Even when the prince approached and yanked her by the hair, slamming her to the ground, Irynsis didn’t scream. The guilt was too heavy to allow even that.

The Crown Prince’s relentless kicks struck her fragile body over and over.

Even as the merciless pain tore through her, Irynsis crawled toward Evelina’s fallen form.

‘Just once more.’

She just wanted to hold her hand one last time.

In that moment, something rolled out from Evelina’s hand. It was the jewel that the researchers had forced Evelina to bleed into every day. They called it a sacred relic.

The moment she grasped the relic, it vanished—disappeared somewhere, likely into her own body.

From that moment on, Irynsis became someone who could not die, no matter how desperately she wished for it. She began to repeat the cycle of return.

She didn’t bother explaining the bizarre tale of her endless returns or the body that refused to die. Instead, she simply said.

“The Crown Prince was expelled yesterday under the excuse of an inspection.”

After Evelina’s death, chaos erupted in Quies and the Imperial Palace as they desperately searched for the sacred relic that had been used in experiments on Evelina.

Irynsis, of course, was certain they would never find it.

Because it had already transferred to her.

Though even she didn’t know why the relic had chosen her—or how to retrieve it again.

When the painstaking results of their experiments vanished, the enraged Emperor lashed out, banishing the Crown Prince outside the capital for a time. And that was an opportunity.

Like ripples spreading across a still lake, a glint of light stirred in her icy blue eyes. Those eyes, locked on him, shimmered with unshakable resolve.

“I have to escape before the Crown Prince returns.”

To a place far beyond his reach—somewhere his influence couldn’t yet touch.

At least until she could establish a foundation until she could forge her weapon. And under Cassion’s shadow was the perfect place for that.

“I can help smuggle you out like this.”

Golden eyes met hers, burning with fire. Cassion’s gaze fixed on the white veil fluttering in the wind.

As if daring to shred it apart at a moment’s notice—should he wish to.

“Not yet.”

There were still things she had to take care of in Cambria.

Besides, escaping with just her body would be pointless. If she did that, she’d be forced to spend the rest of her life hiding from the Crown Prince.

What Irynsis needed was a foundation. A base from which she could stand against the Crown Prince, the Imperial Family, and Cambria itself. And for that, she needed freedom—freedom to act, to build.

Cassion studied her determined expression for a moment before asking.

“How exactly did you treat the Crown Prince?”

“To put it simply, I used blood. It’s effective, though long-term use comes with severe side effects.”

“Side effects?”

“My blood drives people insane.”

Quies had claimed the side effects were simply because Irynsis didn’t know how to properly control her divine power. 

Even so, they used her blood.

The Crown Prince’s treatment was urgent, and rather than waiting for her to master control, they chose the surest method.

“Hoo.”

Cassion let out a faint sigh.

“No matter how badly someone wants to be cured, they can’t go around drinking blood that drives them insane.”

He had a domain to govern, responsibilities to fulfill.

He couldn’t afford to cast all of that aside and rampage like a wild colt, the way the Crown Prince had.

“What if there’s a way not to go mad?”

Then, would you form an alliance with me?

Her icy blue eyes pierced beyond his gaze. Something stirred within them. But it wasn’t hope for an alliance, nor simple joy.

It was something older, denser—something sticky and clinging. A kind of yearning that suffocated, yet didn’t repulse.

“What are you.”

The wind blew again. Whether it came from the cold season or from deep within this woman, he couldn’t tell.

But in the end, Cassion took off his coat. Over the thin veil and the white garments that offered no warmth, his coat—still carrying his body heat—fell gently onto her shoulders.

“Why do you need me so badly?”

He couldn’t even begin to guess the reason.

With that level of divine power, she could shake not just a kingdom, but the entire continent, if she wished.
Surely, there were countless others who would welcome her with open arms—So why him?

“Because you’re a Pathsbender.”

A baffling answer.

Cassion raised an eyebrow.

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

“I’ll explain the detailed bullshit later.”

Right now, even if she said it, he wouldn’t believe her.

“So just answer me—If there’s a way not to go mad, will you form an alliance with me?”

“What exactly does that entail?”

A spark flickered in Cassion’s eyes. But Irynsis’s next words shattered whatever expectations he had.

“Take me as your mistress.”

Take me before the Crown Prince does.