Larinne quietly released a shallow breath and steadied her trembling heart.

“…Good morning, Lord Winterd. And ladies.”

“Lady Larinne. You must be in quite a hurry. You look rather untidy.”

“Ah.”

Only after Lady Dius’s sharp remark did Larinne realize her shoulders were damp from her wet hair.

In her haste when she rushed out, she had quickly wrapped her hair with the dry cloth Chardi had pressed into her hands.

“Please conduct yourself with proper decorum. In two months, you will become the Empress, is it right?” Honestly, one would doubt you’re even receiving imperial etiquette lessons, tsk.”

Lady Dius’s maids swept their eyes over Larinne with open contempt.

Even to the eye, the gorgeously dressed and perfectly groomed lady stood in stark contrast to her.

Yet Larinne did not shrink back.

“Our honored guest left behind a personal belonging, so I came to return it.”

“Could you not simply have sent a servant to do the errand?”

Lady Dius pointedly glanced at the man’s shawl in Larinne’s hand.

“He is a guest of honor. I merely wished to show proper courtesy.”

“Ah, of course. To earn His Majesty’s favor.”

There was a faint trace of mockery at the end of her words, but fortunately Lady Dius did not press the matter further.

“Very well. Do your best. You must try your hardest, after all. Then I shall take my leave. Until next time, Lord Winterd.”

With that farewell, Lady Dius and her maids departed.

Phew.

It seemed she had not aroused any major suspicion.

Just as Larinne quietly swallowed a sigh of relief, a man’s hand suddenly appeared before her.

“I didn’t expect you to return it so quickly.”

Using the excuse of taking the shawl, his large hand brushed against the back of hers.

She flinched slightly, yet he showed no sign of withdrawing his hand.

In the end, Larinne pulled her own hand away first.

For a brief moment, his gaze lingered on the back of her hand before dropping.

“My apologies. I was simply pleased to see you.”

His voice carried a soft chuckle, and Larinne’s fingertips curled inward.

She quickly turned toward the direction of the bedchamber and added, hoping to clear away any possible misunderstanding.

“I came to give you the treatment I owed you from yesterday.”

“So you said you could not help me, yet it seems you’ve changed your mind.”

“A promise must be kept. Besides, didn’t you say that you absolutely needed me?”

“……”

For a brief instant, Libehi Winterd’s expression twisted subtly.

Then it returned to its usual calm.

His lips moved faintly, releasing words so quiet they were barely audible.

“…You are far too soft-hearted…”

“Pardon?”

“Just a passing remark.”

He shook his head with a strangely bitter tone and turned away.

“Let us go to your bedchamber.”

“Please promise me something first.”

His gaze shifted back to her.

“A promise?”

“In exchange for helping you, I would like you to keep your mouth shut.”

Larinne replayed their conversation from yesterday in her mind, convinced that he knew something.

She did not know how much he knew, but at the very least, he seemed aware of the existence of Pellet.

She had to silence him somehow.

During the short walk here, she had already organized her plan.

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“It isn’t a difficult request. You only need to remain silent about the plan you know about. In return, I will provide you with holy power treatments whenever you require them.”

“Whenever I want?”

“I’ll try to adjust to your schedule whenever possible.”

“……”

Was he calculating something in his head?

He only stared at her silently, and the longer the silence stretched, the more impatient Larinne began to feel.

“Can you promise?”

“To know and pretend not to know… that is the basic rule of life in the imperial palace.”

It meant he accepted her proposal.

Larinne let out a small sigh of relief.

“Then the treatment—”

“I’d like to receive it immediately. Let’s go.”

Almost without realizing it, Larinne took the lead while his quiet, deliberate footsteps followed behind.

She tried not to be conscious of it, but she could feel his gaze on her back. Her hand, gripping the sleeve of her robe, grew damp with sweat.

For some reason, she felt as if she were being pursued by a predator.

While she was walking in tense silence, Libehi Winterd suddenly asked a question.

“I’ve heard that to perform purification, you must directly touch the area infected by the curse.”

“That only applies in special cases. Usually, simply observing it with the n*ked eye is enough.”

“And what would count as a special case?”

“When someone is infected with a severe curse of advanced rank or higher.”

For no reason, the dream she had last night flashed through her mind, and her steps quickened.

She meant to put some distance between them, but Winterd’s long strides quickly caught up to her.

Seeing her discomfort, he asked another question.

“Have you ever done that before?”

“What exactly are you asking?”

“I mean the question exactly as it is. Just simple curiosity.”

Libehi Winterd shrugged calmly. Yet beneath his gaze, she sensed a strange unease she could not quite understand.

Turning her eyes away from him, Larinne answered,

“No, I haven’t.”

The people she usually helped—often on weekends—were those afflicted with low-rank curses.

Occasionally, among the monster-subjugation units or the Zhakan army, she would encounter someone suffering from a mid-rank curse.

In most cases, observing the curse with the n*ked eye was enough to resolve it.

“…That’s a relief.”

Was it her imagination, or did he sound faintly excited?

“Yes, it truly is a relief. I’ve heard the pain of a high-rank curse is absolutely dreadful.”

“Then that makes me your first.”

The faintly amused voice struck Larinne’s ears just as they stopped in front of the bedchamber door.

“…Pardon?”

Startled, Larinne instinctively turned around—

And suddenly Libehi Winterd’s face was close.

“!”

If she had not taken a step back without thinking, their lips might have collided.

Like a sunset spreading across the vast sky, his crimson eyes overlapped with her widened blue ones.

“Just a moment—excuse me.”

Holding the doorknob, he opened the bedroom door and murmured softly.

Almost without realizing it, Larinne followed the pull of his hand and stepped inside. Only after the door closed behind her did she come back to her senses.

“Now it’s just you and me.”

Why did those simple words make her tense?

The silence filling the room slowly crept upward from her toes, swallowing her whole.

More than anything, the man’s gaze was far from neutral, and that alone stirred an inexplicable tension within her.

“……”

“Are you planning to keep standing there and admire the view?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“Well, I don’t particularly mind.”

Larinne hurriedly turned away, the nape of her neck flushing red.

Unaware that Libehi Winterd was clearly engraving that sight into his memory.

With her eyes squeezed shut, all she could focus on was her heightened hearing.

The sounds of the world gradually seeped into her senses.

Was he removing his outer garment?

The faint sound of thin fabric brushing against bare skin surged through the silence like a tidal wave, swallowing her eardrums.

Before she knew it, an image had formed in Larinne’s mind—Winterd removing the shawl of the Eastern Empire that he had been wearing over his shoulders.

‘This is ridiculous.’

For no reason, her lips had gone dry.

She wanted to stop imagining it, but in her mind his bare upper body had already appeared before her.

Then came the soft sound of the thin shawl dropping to the floor.

Her clenched fist tightened even more.

At this point, it felt as though every sound in the world was conspiring to throw her straight into a pit of fire.

Suddenly, it felt unbearably warm.

“It’s done.”

Larinne turned around with the most composed expression she could manage. But that calm collapsed instantly.

The sight of his body shocked her—but for an entirely different reason than in the dream.

She had not expected the curse to have spread so widely.

Black lines radiated outward from the left side of his heart, forming geometric patterns that covered his entire upper body.

“That’s impossible.”

“Why are you so surprised?”

His question, laced with laughter, sounded oddly teasing.

“You’re laughing right now? The extent of this curse—”

“It’s a little large.”

“What on earth have you been doing?”

Larinne was incredulous.

No matter how one looked at it, this was far beyond something that could be described as “a little large.”

She had treated countless people afflicted with curses, but never someone whose condition was this severe.

At this level, it would not be an exaggeration to say he had been thrown directly into the jaws of a monster.

‘Judging by the range of the corruption and the patterns formed… the curse’s intensity is at the highest level.’

And it was clear it had been left untreated for quite some time.

“I suppose I was unlucky.”

“On the contrary—you were lucky. Surviving a curse this strong is practically a miracle.”

Most ordinary people exposed to such a curse would suffer violent seizures before dying from shock.

Yet this man appeared almost absurdly unharmed.

‘What on earth is he?’

Perhaps noticing her confusion, Libehi Winterd casually tossed out a joke.

“I fell from a cliff, and it just so happened to be a dragon’s nest below.”

The mention of a dragon’s nest made her heart drop.

Trying to push away the thoughts that threatened to surface, Larinne forced out another question.

“…Is it an old curse?”

“It must have been about five years now.”

“……”

Five years ago.

That was also when the Zhakan army—the unit that he had belonged to—had gone to subjugate the dragon of the northern eternal snow mountains.

She could not help but think of him.

Was this also merely a coincidence?

Winterd’s dark crimson eyes swept over the frozen Larinne, as if coaxing and soothing her.

“Does this silence mean it’s a curse that even your holy power cannot purify?”

“I can’t say for certain. I’ve purified many curses, but I’ve never encountered one this powerful.”

“First time… this is also a first.”

He fell silent for a moment, as though lost in thought.

Then his lips moved faintly.

‘Not bad.’

Larinne did not hear the quiet murmur.

Instead, she watched him cautiously, assuming he must be discouraged.

“I’ll do my best, as far as my power allows. However—”

“However?”

“Even if I try to purify it every day for the next two months, there’s a high chance it won’t be completely cleansed.”

“Good.”

“…What?”

“At least that means it isn’t something that can be solved in just a day or two with you.”

What part of that situation was amusing?

She could not understand how he could smile after hearing that his curse was so severe.

“Lord Winterd. I don’t think you quite understand the seriousness of your condition—”

“I understand. That’s precisely why I came to you.”

Why was it that even the most ordinary words sounded strangely suggestive whenever they left his lips?

Before she even realized it, the thoughts of her former lover had vanished entirely from her mind.

Without noticing, Larinne placed her hand over the left side of his chest.

“Then I’ll begin.”

“……”

Beneath the heat of his skin, she felt his heart beating strongly.

The sensation of another person’s heartbeat traveling through her fingertips left her with an inexplicably strange feeling.