Selina stayed up late, pondering how to finalise the list.

Then she heard footsteps climbing the stairs beyond her door. At this time of night, only one person in the mansion would be up and about. Without realising it, she pricked up her ears and focused on the sound.

The unsteady footsteps ascended the staircase and stopped in front of the door opposite hers. But the person didn’t move for quite some time, just standing there.

‘Could something be wrong?’

Biting her lip with unease, Selina let out a small sigh. She had decided not to worry about Calix, yet here she was, straining to hear his faint breathing. The thought was almost laughable.

She approached her own door, placed her hand on the doorknob, then hesitated. Ever since they returned to Thalia, Calix had shown little interest in her. If she spoke to him now, wouldn’t that make it obvious that she was worried about him?

‘No… I can just say the noise woke me up.’

It wasn’t entirely untrue—she hadn’t been sleeping, but it wasn’t a complete lie either. And if someone heard something suspicious late at night, wouldn’t anyone check?

Reassuring herself with that logic, she slowly opened the door.

“Um…”

Across the dimly lit hallway stood the man she had expected, his back to her. He was bracing himself against the doorframe, his posture far from normal. As she drew closer, a strong reek of liquor reached her.

Why had he drunk so much—so much that he could barely stand? Was there something weighing on him that he couldn’t bring himself to show?

Half of what she felt was frustration at seeing him like this. The other half was concern.

“Your Grace.”

Selina called softly as she stepped closer.

But when he gave no response, she moved nearer still and reached for his arm—only to have her wrist suddenly seized.

“Y-Your Grace?”

Instead, it was Calix who had grabbed her.

“Who are you?”

With the hallway so dark and his senses dulled by drink, he seemed to have mistaken her for someone else.

“I… it’s me, Selina.”

To ease his suspicion, Selina stepped closer, tilting her face toward him so he could see her clearly.

His gaze, darker than usual, fixed on her. But as Calix narrowed his eyes to take in her features, his brows knit sharply.

“Have you lost your mind?”

The low murmur, spoken through a grimly contorted expression, made her fragile heart plummet.

‘Is he angry because I came out and spoke to him in the middle of the night?’

The displeasure in his tone was stronger than she had expected, and it made her shrink back a little. Perhaps she should have stayed quiet. Fidgeting with her fingers, she offered a small excuse.

“I… heard an unfamiliar sound in my sleep. I came out to check, just in case.”

“…”

“And… I was worried about you, wondering if you were all right.”

The truth was, she had been worried for the entire journey back to Thalia.

Calix had sustained a serious shoulder injury at the hands of the monster, but had not received proper treatment for it. If he had been on horseback, they might have arrived sooner and he could have received immediate treatment, but as he travelled by carriage, it took longer.

‘Not that we even shared the same carriage… He rode on horseback the whole way…’

She still couldn’t understand why he had asked for a carriage when his wish had been granted directly by the Emperor. Alter claimed it was for her own good, but if that were true, his subsequent behaviour made even less sense.

During the entire journey to Thalia, Calix only spoke to her when necessary and never offered a casual greeting. He wore a clouded expression, as though weighed down by some unspoken discontent, and this left Selina without the courage to start a conversation.

“So… the wound you got from the monster… is it healing well?”

Only now, after keeping the worry bottled up for so long, did she finally voice the question. She only hoped he wouldn’t think she was meddling needlessly.

“And now you’re even asking questions. I must have been a fool.”

“…Pardon?”

Calix looked down at her, his expression chilled, the faint haze of drink in his eyes carrying a strangely angry edge.

Selina parted her lips, waiting for him to go on, but—

“I should never have cared—whether your ankle broke or a monster had you in its grasp.”

The words that followed were the kind she almost wished she hadn’t heard at all, each one landing heavy in her chest.

‘Calix regrets what happened that day.’

Somewhere along the way, her tears had grown far too quick to fall. She could feel the heat building behind her eyes. She didn’t want him to see her like this—not him—so she bit down hard on her lower lip. So hard, in fact, that the faint metallic tang of blood spread across her tongue.

Calix’s eyes tightened at the sight.

“You never run out of things to pull.”

He sighed, as if tired of it all, then raised his hand and brushed at her lips.

With his brow still furrowed in something like anger, he rubbed at them over and over, as if erasing the sight of that wound. He only stopped when a soft sound of pain escaped her.

“I—it wasn’t on purpose…!”

Selina tried to explain, but Calix simply stared at her lips in silence for a long moment, looking slightly displeased. Then he turned on his heel and walked away.

Without saying a word, he opened the door and stepped inside as if she weren’t even there.

Selina stood there, dazed, staring at his retreating back. Then she whispered.

“…I’m sorry.”

The truth was that she felt more than just sorrow. A small part of her resented him. However, she knew she had no right to voice such a thought, especially not to him. So she pushed those feelings aside and wished only for the wounds she had caused him to heal quickly.

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

“Now! Sir Alter, you’re ready, aren’t you?”

“Of course, Your Grace. I’m fully prepared. Look at this!”

In Alter’s hand were two sheets of paper, covered from top to bottom in tightly packed writing.

The next day, the four members who had met yesterday gathered again in the library. They had to finalize the list of candidates by tomorrow if they were to receive samples, so there was no time to delay.

Calliope smirked, the corners of her lips curling as if she found the whole thing amusing, and set a stack of documents on the table.

“My apologies, Sir Alter. Care to take a look at this?”

In front of her sat a pile of more than ten sheets of paper.

Most of Calliope’s pages were just simple scribbles of whatever had come to mind, but gathered together, they formed such an imposing stack it gave off an air of authority.

“Hey, quality over quantity, you know!”

“In terms of quality, I’ll outmatch you there, too.”

Calliope began to read from the list she’d brought.

“In the sweltering summer, the most essential item is a fan. You might not understand, Sir Alter, with your simple-minded ‘fight fire with fire’ approach, but for many people, a fan is important both practically and aesthetically.”

She leisurely waved an oriental-patterned fan, a bright smile playing across her lips.

“And! Hats are just as indispensable. A wide-brimmed hat shields you from the sun and is also a fine accessory. Imagine a farmer’s wife, worn out from working the fields—wanting to go out for a change of scenery! How happy would she be to have such a beautiful hat?”

The one she had in mind was a wide-brimmed hat meant for outings. Prices varied drastically depending on the decorations, but since it was a luxury product to begin with, she suggested keeping costs reasonable by adorning it with a corsage made of fresh flowers.

“Affordable and stylish. The ladies will be over the moon!”

Looking as if she had already won the match, Calliope wore a triumphant expression—only for Alter to immediately fire back.

“Fight fire with fire! Well said, Your Highness. But I hardly think people worn out from working all day in the blazing sun will have the leisure to go out! Most will be too busy staying inside, enjoying what little cool they can find.”

Pointing to the carefully curated whiskey list he had prepared, Alter went on.

“What people most need at the end of a long day is a drink! Just one glass, and all the fatigue melts away. And if Your Grace insists on something luxurious they can’t usually afford—then pair it with fine snacks! Cheese, dried fruits—now that would be the perfect gift for estate workers exhausted from the harvest.”

“Food’s gone as soon as it’s eaten.”

“And a hat is useless if you have no occasion to wear it!”

As the two refused to yield an inch, Rocheste pulled out a placard he had prepared back at home.

“I abstain. I wouldn’t dare try to judge such a fierce battle.”

The moment he bowed out, both Calliope and Alter turned their expectant gazes on Selina.

“Have you made your decision, sister-in-law?”

“My lady, which do you prefer?”

The scene was exactly the same as yesterday, but this time, Selina wasn’t flustered.

She, too, took out a single sheet of paper she had prepared in advance. Compared to Alter’s two densely written reports and Calliope’s stack of more than ten pages of doodles, her contribution seemed rather modest in volume.

“I thought about it a great deal last night…”

Selina’s wide eyes moved back and forth between the two as she began to speak cautiously.

“But I came to a slightly different conclusion.”

‘Different? How?’

Both Calliope and Alter tilted their heads, having assumed that Selina would simply choose one of their proposals. Rocheste, who had also been expecting something similar, looked at her with interest.

Embarrassed by all the attention, Selina kept her gaze fixed on the paper and answered with her cheeks tinged pink.

“I… I just thought that maybe what the townsfolk really need might be something completely different.”