Hello, Readers! I am celebrating my birthday with extra chapter updates, so please enjoy this special chapter release of 4 bonus chapters! 🥳

(Lurelia’s Birthday Bonus – Update 2/4 🎉)

♡ To all readers who purchased these chapters before my Birthday: I can’t express this enough – Thank you for your support. (*ˊᗜˋ*)/ᵗᑋᵃᐢᵏ ᵞᵒᵘ*

***

Like most orphans, Leticia’s first memory was of the streets.
It was late summer, during the wheat harvest season.

A hole had formed in one of the sacks piled high like a mountain, causing wheat to spill out.
Underneath the wagon wheels, Leticia desperately caught the wheat with her hands and stuffed it into her mouth.

Her pounding heart, terrified of being caught, and the taste of the wheat grains filling her mouth—those were Leticia’s first memories.

How old had she been then? Three? Four?
Where had she been before that? Where was her hometown? What kind of people were her parents? Who did she take after?

Had her family lost her, or had they abandoned her?

“Don’t think about that anymore.”

A clear voice brought her wandering thoughts back into focus.
Leticia remembered whose voice it was, why she was hearing it, who she herself was, and what the current situation was.

“…!”

The sound of raindrops pattering onto the surface of the lake.
Then, with a splash, a hand plunged into the water and pulled her out.

“Huff, haah, haah…”

It felt as though she had been running all day. Leticia gasped for breath as Astrid hugged her tightly and stroked her back.

“From now on, no one will ever be able to abandon you.”

The whispered words sounded unusually loud.

Blinking through the rain, Leticia stared blankly at her surroundings.
The forest around her was much denser than it had been before she fell into the lake.

The lake had grown larger, and the forest was thicker. The path they had entered through was now blocked by bushes and trees.

Leticia rubbed her eyes. Her eyelashes, soaked with rain, made her blink repeatedly.

The moment she thought it was bothersome, the rain began to let up.

“Ah…”

“Don’t do that. Let it keep raining.”

Astrid whispered in a hoarse voice.

Leticia flinched at Astrid’s icy cold body, which now felt almost unsettling.

“Can I control it?”

“If you focus and think about it, you should be able to control it to some extent.”

“Then I want to stop the rain. Your Grace’s body is too cold.”

“This isn’t because of the rain, so don’t worry. It’s because I used magic with someone else’s power… Actually, staying in the rain might be better.”

Astrid’s voice was lethargic and weak.

Leticia gazed at the rain and thought it would be nice if it weakened just a little.
Soon, the heavy rain turned into a light drizzle.

It was an incredibly strange sensation. It didn’t feel like she was controlling something—it felt more like she was having a conversation with the rain…

“And stop calling me ‘Your Grace.’ Are you going to keep saying that even when we get to the Magic Tower?”

“….”

When Leticia didn’t respond, Astrid let her head droop weakly onto Leticia’s shoulder and whispered slowly.

“When we get there, do you want to become my apprentice? I’ll teach you well. Honestly, the other mages in the Magic Tower are all weirdos because they’ve never lived anywhere else.”

“What if I don’t want to go?”

“Is it because there are too many weirdos?”

“No. This is Your Grace’s home. Why do we have to go to the Magic Tower?”

Astrid replied as she slowly walked toward the lakeshore.

“It’s not your home.”

Leticia sat down next to Astrid, who had collapsed onto the lakeshore with her legs still submerged in the water.

The thin drizzle continued to fall on the two of them, already soaked to the bone.

Astrid looked at Leticia, who was drenched like a little angel, and let out a small laugh.

Even with her messy, wet blonde hair clinging to her cheeks and neck, she looked as beautiful as if she were in stage makeup.

Her vivid purple eyes, now so bright they looked like polished gemstones, were an added bonus.

How could someone be so kind and beautiful?

Astrid thought of Chamuka, who had been indifferent to everything since he was a baby, and unconsciously pulled Leticia into a tight hug.

Leticia looked up at her, startled, and Astrid smiled, seemingly entranced.

‘Ah, so this is what it feels like to be drawn to superior magic power.’

From within Astrid’s arms, Leticia timidly spoke.

“You don’t need to leave because of me.”

“It’s not because of you—it’s because of me. To clean up what I’ve done, I can’t stay here. And you definitely shouldn’t stay here any longer.”

Astrid looked at Leticia, who pressed her lips together tightly, and let out a sigh mixed with a faint smile.

Then, as she wiped the raindrops from Leticia’s eyelashes, she said.

“You really don’t let anything slide, do you? Fine, I give up. So where should I start? Hmm, how about these eyes?”

Leticia’s purple eyes blinked, glistening with moisture.

“Should I start with the story of how I told Ferik to bring me the purple-eyed Herta as a sacrifice? It was when I was pregnant with Tan…”

***

“I hope it’s a girl this time.”

At Ferik’s muttering, Astrid pushed his hand off her still-flat belly and replied.

“Unfortunately, it’s a boy, Ferik. Say hello to your second son.”

“…You analyzed it again?”

“It was the same with Chamuka. I was just checking if the fetus was healthy.”

“Then why didn’t you put away that thesis you were working on?”

Astrid casually flipped over the paper on her workbench, which read, “On the Effects of Curses on Fetuses…”

But on the back of the paper was an anatomical drawing of Ferik’s n*ked body, covered in Astrid’s messy handwritten annotations.

“….”

“…Oops. My mistake.”

Astrid quickly crumpled the paper, stuffed it into a drawer, and closed it with a laugh.

Ferik stared at her for a moment before speaking.

“I know you married me to research the curse of Basilinte, but I’d prefer if you didn’t experiment on children who haven’t even been born yet.”

Astrid sighed and sat down in her chair. Resting her chin on her hand, she looked up at Ferik.

Normally, she would have gotten angry and said, “Do you think I’d do that to my own child?” But she didn’t feel like it today.

The emotionless demeanor of the Basilinte people was starting to get on her nerves.

“You married me because you needed a mage to research Basilinte’s curse. You were the one who said I could use any means necessary, so why are you suddenly changing your tune?”

Astrid let her irritation spill out as sarcasm.

Honestly, she felt justified in being this snippy with a husband who had begged her to marry him, only to later admit that it wasn’t love but a need for a mage.

“Do emotions not apply to you, except when it comes to children?”

“….”

“If you keep this up, I’ll go back to the Magic Tower.”

“I’m sorry, Astrid. Do as you wish.”

If he was going to back down this easily, why did he always act like that in the first place?

Isn’t this love? What else could love be? Why won’t he admit it?

Feeling tired from the light argument, Astrid waved her hand dismissively and closed her eyes.

“Fine, just get out of my workshop.”

“….”

“Go. I’m tired.”

“I’ll wait for you in the bedroom. See you tonight.”

Astrid glanced at the sunset through the window but didn’t give a clear answer as she pressed her fingers against her tired eyes.

“We’ll see.”

“I’ll wait.”

“Do whatever you want. Wait or don’t. I’ll do whatever I want, too.”

Ferik finally left her workshop after Astrid snapped at him in frustration.

Left alone in the now-quiet workshop, Astrid gently stroked her belly.

She truly had no intention of experimenting on her child.

The reason she wanted to break the curse of Basilinte in the first place was because her husband and children were Basilinte. She would never sacrifice one child to save another.

She was simply tired of it all.

She was sick of a man who loved her but acted as if he felt nothing. And she pitied him. She was also beginning to see those same traits in their growing child.

That’s why Astrid hoped that, at the very least, their second son wouldn’t turn out like them.

She wanted to prevent the gradual loss of emotion that came with growth.

That was the beginning of the incident.