There was no such thing as kindness without a reason.
That was a truth Larinne had learned painfully well during her time in the imperial palace.
Carrying a tangle of complicated emotions, she returned to the palace.
“My goodness, Lady Larinne—where did that hawk come from?”
Chardi, the maid who had been cleaning the room, widened her eyes at the sight of the desert hawk Larinne had brought with her.
As expected of a red-haired Aydin—people known for their affection toward birds—Chardi immediately showed interest in Horus.
“Oh, the poor thing. Its leg is injured.”
“Please bring me some clean water.”
“Yes. I’ll also bring some bread that it can eat.”
After deliberately sending Chardi away, Larinne immediately checked the letter.
[A warehouse flooded. Cause unknown. Currently inspecting the condition of the supplies.]
As expected, it was not good news.
Warehouse A was the place where gunpowder was stored in preparation for unforeseen situations.
If it had been flooded, even if the powder were dried, most of it would likely become unusable.
‘This can’t be a coincidence. The cave used as Warehouse A is sealed on all sides, and there’s only one entrance.’
Moreover, it was currently the dry season.
The Paktio River was nowhere near its flooding period.
Someone must have done this intentionally.
‘Please… let it not be what I fear.’
Larinne’s expression hardened as she dissolved the letter in water after reading it.
Skreeee.
As if trying to comfort her, the desert hawk perched on her shoulder leaned its body against her.
“Horus, it would be better for you to rest in the palace for a while. I know it will feel stifling, but just until your bone heals.”
As though the hawk understood her words, the clever hawk stared directly at Larinne.
For some reason, Libehi Winterd came to mind.
His final words still lingered in her thoughts.
She didn’t know why she was so conscious of that man.
***
For the next four days, Larinne kept watch on Libehi Winterd.
She could not yet trust him completely.
But as if mocking her caution, the man behaved exactly as he had promised.
Whenever they encountered each other for holy power treatment, he would occasionally ask about the desert hawk’s condition.
Yet he never once mentioned the secret letter from Pellet.
During those four days, Larinne observed him carefully, but she could not find a single clear purpose in his actions.
It was early evening, just as the sunset began to fade.
At the entrance of the Eastern Palace, Libehi Winterd suddenly handed something to Larinne.
“What is this?”
“It’s medicine that will help the bone heal.”
“I’ve never heard of such medicine.”
She had heard of ointments that drew heat from burns, or herbal decoctions that cured colds. But there were no herbs that healed broken bones.
Such injuries could only be resolved with time.
Yet there was not a trace of deceit in the man’s eyes.
Larinne quickly realized the truth.
“It’s a magical remedy.”
“If you feed it one pill a day, it should recover within a week.”
“I appreciate your kindness, but I don’t think I can accept it.”
Her firm refusal caused a shadow to pass briefly over Winterd’s face.
He smiled faintly.
“I haven’t played any tricks. You don’t need to worry.”
“It’s not that I doubt you. I simply don’t wish to treat someone else’s life lightly.”
How could she accept it so easily?
Everyone knew that the condition for activating magic was offering one’s life force as a price.
No matter how talented someone was with magic, few would use it unless they possessed an exceptionally long life.
That was precisely why mages were so rare across the continent.
In fact, those widely known as mages were often people exploited by those in power as tools.
Her fiancé had long made her sick of people who treated others’ lives as trivial.
Naturally, her expression was far from pleasant.
“Please don’t trouble yourself in this way again, Lord Winterd.”
She spoke firmly and turned to leave—
Just then, laughter suddenly rang out nearby.
“I see now—you really are as upright as they say.”
Before she realized it, someone with long hair had approached and stood beside Libehi Winterd.
It was a man she had never seen before.
Judging from his attire, he appeared to be a member of the Lemen delegation.
“Harry Zervaoon. I’m also the one who made that magical medicine.”
“I’m Larinne Ontuevi. I didn’t realize the Lemen delegation included a mage.”
“Well, it’s supposed to be a secret, officially. Unfortunately, my troublesome superior doesn’t seem to care much about hiding it. In any case, allow me to greet you in the Lemen manner.”
At the mention of the Lemen greeting, Larinne immediately remembered her first meeting with Libehi Winterd.
“That…”
Even without consciously trying to recall it, her body remembered.
The sensation of warm breath lingering near her nape resurfaced.
Harry’s hand began to extend toward the tense and shrinking Larinne—
But suddenly it was blocked.
Libehi Winterd had stopped him.
“Harry. Weren’t you busy?”
“I don’t recall saying such a thing.”
“No, you’re busy. You should be.”
The voice sounded as though it had been crushed and spat out, filled with menace, yet Harry was smiling.
“Haha. I almost lost my life just now.”
Muttering something incomprehensible, he handed the magically crafted medicine directly to Larinne and added,
“It seems the weak and powerless Zervaoon should take his leave now. But before I go—this magic was something I owed His Excellency anyway, so please feel free to accept it.”
“I can’t possibly do that. This is your—”
“It was a life that had already been discarded.”
“Pardon?”
“I mean that even if Lady Larinne picks it up, it won’t make much difference.”
In the end, Harry forced the medicine into Larinne’s hand and departed.
‘A life that had already been discarded… what could that possibly mean?’
She was still pondering his troubling words when Libehi Winterd extended his hand.
“I will escort you to the banquet hall.”
As though nothing had happened earlier, his demeanor had become gentle again.
“That won’t be necessary.”
Larinne was already aware of the glances being cast toward them from all around. But Libehi Winterd did not withdraw his offer.
“As a member of the delegation invited to your nation, please allow me to show the proper courtesy due to someone of your standing.”
Despite his polite tone, the look in his eyes carried a strong determination.
Since he had even mentioned his position as part of the delegation, she had no suitable reason to refuse.
“If you insist.”
“I will escort you in the Lemen manner.”
“No, Lord Winterd. An escort in the Eastern Empire’s style will suffice.”
As he tried to interlace their fingers in the manner of the Lirmen Kingdom, she gently pushed him away, drawing a clear boundary.
“…I was hasty.”
His thick fingers wandered awkwardly in the air for a moment.
Then, instead of seeking the space between her fingers, he quietly turned his palm upward.
It was a hand where calluses and small scars were more noticeable than the lines of the palm.
Larinne studied that hand for a moment before lightly placing her own upon it.
Libehi Winterd adjusted his pace to match hers.
Under the sunlight, the two of them almost resembled a painting.
Together, they crossed the corridor of the Eastern Palace and entered the banquet hall.
“My goodness…”
“How barbaric…”
The noble ladies who had arrived earlier gasped at the sight of Larinne entering with Libehi Winterd.
From the head seat, the emperor’s gaze struck them sharply.
“Please, sit.”
Ignoring the reactions around him, Libehi Winterd personally pulled out a chair for Larinne.
Such behavior might not have been an issue in the Kingdom of Lirmen, but in the Eastern Empire—where dining etiquette was notoriously strict—it was bound to provoke controversy.
As expected, the nobles began whispering among themselves.
“Do you think he did that intentionally?”
“Surely not. That would not only insult His Majesty the Emperor, who is hosting this banquet, but the entire Eastern Empire.”
Indeed, no one in their right mind would behave that way in another country while representing a delegation.
A delegation showed respect by following the customs of the host nation.
Yet deliberately courting controversy like this suggested only two possibilities.
Either the Kingdom of Lirmen was truly made up of uncivilized barbarians with no sense of etiquette—
Or it was a subtle, aristocratic way of expressing dissatisfaction with the current diplomatic relations.
Either way, it was more than enough to provoke the emperor.
Sure enough—
Sharp gazes pierced Larinne like arrows.
A dry laugh slipped from her lips.
‘Anyone watching would think you were a devoted husband, Seidon.’
In her relationship with her fiancé, Larinne had always been the one pushed around.
Seeing him unsettled like this was not entirely unpleasant.
She could not tell what the foreign delegation truly intended. But for the moment, it did not seem so bad to play along with his lead.
“As thanks for escorting me, I will pour you the aperitif.”
So Larinne put on a smile. It felt as though a long-standing weight in her chest had eased, even if only slightly.
***
The veins on the back of Seidon’s hand bulged as he gripped his knife.
“Perhaps she’s looking after him because they’re both Lemen.”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Lady Larinne make that kind of expression.”
The whispers of the gossip-loving noblewomen scraped sharply against Seidon’s nerves.
Was it because of the rude Lemen delegation seated across from him?
Or was it something else…?
His fierce turquoise eyes fixed on Larinne as she lifted the wine bottle from the table.
Yes, it truly had been a long time.
When was the last time he had seen her looking so alive?
Seidon remembered Larinne from ten years ago, when she served as a maid in the Eastern Palace.
Larinne had been ten years old then. Seidon had been fifteen.
The two of them had been very different in those days.
Larinne had been a much brighter child, while Seidon’s position had been precarious.
There was already a legitimate heir born to the empress.
Who would bother paying attention to Seidon, nothing more than an illegitimate son?
He was merely “the filthy bloodline of a maid who attended the late emperor’s bath.”
Nothing more. Nothing less.
Not even to his own father and mother.
In the vast imperial palace, Seidon believed there was not a single person who would treat him as noble imperial blood.
And then one day—
A scrawny, unimpressive child caught his eye.
A child his mother had picked up from the river.
“You’ve returned, Your Highness?”
Every time Seidon returned to his chamber, that child would come running out with a bright face to greet him.
It irritated him.
So for the first time, he asked her name.
“What’s your name?”
“Larinne.”
It was a name just as pitiful as the girl herself.
“So it’s true that Lemen people are so uncivilized they don’t even use family names.”
Even when she heard the mocking remark, her clear expression didn’t falter.
Watching her like that, he suddenly spoke on impulse.
“Ontuevi. From now on, use that surname.”
Ontuevi.
It was the collar Seidon had fastened onto his possession for the very first time.
At first, their relationship had been nothing more than a fleeting curiosity. But it changed on Seidon’s fifteenth birthday.
As always, he had expected nothing from his parents.
‘They’ll just gloss over it again. Without even knowing what I actually want.’
And as expected—
The emperor presented him with a rare species of fish as a birthday gift.
Something like that could never fill the emptiness inside him.
“I don’t need this!”
“Your Highness! How dare you treat a gift from His Majesty like this!”
When the fish he had thrown in anger died, Lady Lily—who oversaw the imperial etiquette education—began shrieking.
He had already braced himself to be slapped by his mother.
But instead—
That small, pale girl used holy power to revive the fish.
“Why did you do that?”
“Because it was a gift from His Majesty. I thought… if the fish died, Your Highness might be sad.”
Larinne answered in a timid voice.
Her slightly damp sleeve hung loosely, wrapping around her thin arm like a skewer.
‘She can’t even afford to feed herself properly.’
A dry breath slipped from between Seidon’s cracked lips.
“I heard it’s almost Your Highness’s birthday.”
Because birthdays are supposed to be happy.
The way Larinne smiled out of habit was clear and gentle, like moonlight reflecting on the surface of a river.
‘How dare she.’
A mere possession—so presumptuous.
“Who do you think you are, pitying me when you don’t even know your place?”
Seidon only managed to calm down after k*lling the fish Larinne had struggled to save.
Only then did the fading flame within his life ignite once again.
He would gladly become the master of that lowly girl—
And teach her to remember her place.
It was a vow born from a twisted heart.
Translator
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bluemoon238
Best way FL could help her people despite not trusting would be to end her future husband. I don’t get why even with such ability she is powerless. If she managed to survive what author is trying to portray she has she would need more strengths than that healing ability. It doesn’t make sense she can do so well as a slave amongst those types people without any other skills