The tear ducts that she had thought were dried up for good became moist.

She had not shed a single tear when she became the laughing stock of the Eastern Empire nobles, when her fiancé was caught having an affair, or when Pellet’s comrades were dying one after another.

But the comfort she found on the edge of the cliff became a stream of tears in a heart that had been as dry as a desert.

“Lady Larinne!”

Startled, Chardi hurriedly offered her a handkerchief.

Larinne caught sight of Chardi’s flustered face, not knowing what to do.

‘To act spoiled like this… foolish beyond measure.’

Larinne swallowed her self-mockery.

She had to pull herself together. She still had a duty to fulfil.

The weight of guilt was always on her mind, but she could not abandon the lives of the remaining Pellet comrades.

Rubbing her reddened eyes, Larinne forced herself to change the subject.

“Is Kalon alright?”

“It’s thanks to you worrying over us, Lady Larinne. Me and Kalon both—we’re pretty tough, you know.”

After chattering on again, Chardi suddenly looked as though she’d remembered something.

“Oh, right!”

Clapping her hands, she went to fetch something.

“Kalon told me to give this to you, Lady Larinne.”

“What’s this necklace?”

In her small hands was a bird-shaped necklace carved from wood.

Where its two eyes should have been, small pieces of blue lapis lazuli were set—so like Larinne’s own eye color.

“Kalon stayed up all night making it because he wanted to give it to you. He even chose the best base trunk among the Ssaksaul trees.”

“I’ve heard of it. A traditional gift from the Aydin clan.”

They said it was blessed by the air.

The Aydin clan never forgot an act of kindness. They prayed to their Sky God for the happiness of their benefactor. She had heard that this blessing could only be given once in a lifetime.

“I can’t accept something this precious.”

“Please take it. If I bring it back, Kalon might nag me to death. He’d probably torment me for a whole month.”

In the end, she couldn’t refuse as Chardi pressed it into her hands, and she accepted it.

“Tell Kalon I said thank you.”

“And… I don’t really know what happened, but… I just want to say this.”

Chardi clasped both of Larinne’s hands tightly.

“What you did was right, Lady Larinne. Not once have you been wrong. Even the sky will think you’re right.”

“…Thank you for saying that, Chardi.”

Being comforted by a child she had always believed she needed to protect, it was a strangely delicate feeling.

A faint smile spread across her lips.

“I mean it. The sky is truly glad for what you’ve done, Lady Larinne.”

“How would you know that?”

“The birds told me. Birds can feel what the sky is thinking.”

“Now that I think about it… the Aydin clan did have a special ability.”

“Yes. That’s why we were taken into the Eastern Empire as a vassal state in the first place.”

Larinne knew the story of the Aydin clan, too.

Back when the clan had been free, a rumor had spread across the Eastern Continent that the famine had been caused by the sky growing angry.

It was said that the heavens had closed their gates out of pity for those suffering under corrupt rulers.

The rumor crossed the desert and travelled down rivers, eventually reaching the Eastern Emperor.

As a result, the Aydin clan became like birds trapped in a cage.

They lost their freedom in the Eastern Empire and were forced to live as servants, generation after generation.

It was a bitter story.

But the maid before her did not wear a sorrowful expression.

“I think that if a hero ever appears who will open the gates of the sky, it’ll be you, Lady Larinne. So whatever you’re thinking about, don’t blame yourself. You’re always walking the right path.”

Was it because of the clear, bright aura that seemed to linger around Chardi?

Larinne felt lighter.

Yes—Chardi was right.

She couldn’t collapse here.

‘I’ve already come too far to turn back, and so many lives are still hanging on my shoulders.’

Larinne steeled her heart once more.

“Chardi… can you understand Horus as well?”

The desert hawk, perched on the window frame and warming itself in the sunlight, blinked slowly.

It had calmed down now, but when Larinne had first found it with William, Horus had looked terribly uneasy.

It was something she had to address.

‘There’s no guarantee it won’t happen again.’

Since Horus had been distant while staying in Larinne’s bedroom, Chardi hesitated for a moment.

After a brief deliberation, she nodded.

“Mm… I don’t think horus likes me very much, but if it’s about you, Lady Larinne, I think horus talk.”

“Then could you ask what happened earlier?”

Fortunately, Horus quietly allowed Chardi’s touch.

When Chardi’s hand brushed Horus’s feathers and she closed her eyes, a gentle breeze flowed through the room.

A moment later, Chardi spoke softly.

“Horus says…”

After hearing everything, a shadow fell over Larinne’s face.

‘…William. Whose orders were you acting on?’

Larinne checked the wall clock and spoke.

“Chardi Could you find out which Zhakan soldiers are on patrol on the Pactio River today?”

***

A hazy scented candle hung thick in the air.

Beneath the emperor’s bedchamber, where a lewd atmosphere seeped out, a hunched man was bowed deeply to the floor, kneeling.

“Move the coming-of-age ceremony forward?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Seidon took a deep drag on his pungent cigarette, then looked down at the man lying prostrate beneath him.

How dare he barge in while Seidon was enjoying himself just to say something like that!

It’s exactly what you would expect from an idea born in the mind of a barbaric minority.

“Are you trying to egg me on to earn a curse?”

“H-how could that be, Your Majesty? I only thought… that since she belongs to Your Majesty, it might be better to mark her—place the brand—as soon as possible…”

Seidon found the man’s stammer irritating.

He was the kind of person Seidon would have disposed of long ago, but he had been spared because he had provided useful information.

Seeing him spouting nonsense now, however, Seidon felt like k*lling him after all.

‘His name was William, wasn’t it. They say he’s known Larinne Ontuevi since childhood.’

Seidon could already picture her expression if he presented her with a pretty box containing a severed head.

His gaze drifted, unhurriedly, to the longsword by the bed.

“Your tongue is unnecessarily long.”

For Seidon, who had recently become consumed by his desire for Larinne, the man’s words were more than enough to unsettle him.

Had there not been a protective barrier of water around them, he would have taken the woman for himself by now.

His irritation had been building for some time, and William’s words now felt like an open humiliation.

Seidon, who had been idly stroking the scabbard, suddenly rose to his feet, sword in hand.

With his forehead still pressed to the floor, William tracked the shadow’s movement with his eyes and hurriedly mumbled through his thick lips.

“L-Lady Larinne’s room… smelled like a man!”

“What… did you just say.”

Seidon stopped short.

Carrying that distinctive scent of incense as he strode forward, Seidon lifted the man’s head with the tip of his scabbard.

His deep green eyes had darkened, fury and jealousy tangled within them.

“I asked you what you said.”

“…She’s definitely brought a man into her bedchamber.”

“She brought a man in?”

Seidon’s eyes narrowed to slits.

The suffocating pressure unique to one who held supreme power weighed down on William’s shoulders, but the man did not hesitate to confess what he claimed to have seen.

“Yes. When I went there, the room was empty, so I couldn’t confirm who it was… but there was a pungent smell.”

At the mention of a pungent smell, Seidon’s expression twisted.

‘That woman brought a man in?’

Seidon knew Larinne Ontuevi as a woman whose bloodline may have been impure, but whose conduct was always honorable.

She carried herself with such dignity that he felt insignificant in comparison.

It was precisely this that had consumed him with the desire to trample on and defile this spotless woman for so long.

‘So she was doing such things behind my back…’

One particular man immediately came to mind.

The Lirmen delegation representative — the man who had shown an unusual interest in Larinne from their first meeting.

Libehi Winterd.

From the moment he singled Larinne out from the other saintesses, Seidon had found him irritating.

And that wasn’t all.

At the last banquet, Larinne herself had poured him wine. The woman, who never yielded to anything, had done it with her own hands.

The more he thought about it, the more irritating it became.

At the banquet, he had asked Larinne to dance with him.

During the State Council meeting, the two of them had shared an uncomfortably friendly atmosphere.

‘But how?’

The prohibition applied to everyone.

Even Seidon, who was revered as a descendant of the Sun God, had never been permitted to touch her.

The only reason Seidon tolerated those irritating moments was because he knew the prohibition was absolute.

There was no way a man from another land could desire Larinne more than he did.

All Larinne needed to do was play her role as a tool.

Her value lay in charming the foreign man and enabling Seidon to gain political advantage.

Someday, she would bear his child.

The arrogant emperor believed that his logic could not be questioned.

“I can no longer tolerate you insulting me with that loose tongue of yours.”

As he drew his sword, William cried out urgently.

“Y-Your Majesty! Perhaps the blessing of water has weakened because the coming-of-age ceremony is near!”

“That’s impossible.”

Not long ago, she had shown a clear rejection toward him.

That night as well, to quell the heat burning through his body, he had summoned several women—whose names he didn’t even remember—to his bedchamber.

“But the scent I smelled truly belonged to a man.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes. I can stake my life on it.”

A man who usually trembled like a frightened dog with his tail tucked between his legs was now staking his life.

It irritated Seidon unpleasantly.

‘If what he says is true… what should I do with that insolent b*tch?’

It felt as though he would only be satisfied after scraping away every trace of that filth and covering her entirely with something of his own.

“Why not confirm it for yourself this time? It’s something Your Majesty has invested so much in… it would be a shame if it were damaged.”

At the word “damaged” whispered so slyly by William, Seidon’s brow twitched.

“Will you simply stand by and watch as your own dog fails to recognize its master and instead licks another man’s crotch?”

No.

He would never simply let it pass.

Seidon’s darkened eyes, heavy with something sinister, fixed on the window that overlooked the southern palace.

“Summon someone. A young man with good stamina.”