The uninvited guests turned out to be Calliope and Zenfri.

Although Calliope was not a member of the knight order, she was oddly close to all the knights. Rumor had it that this was because they shared a hobby: badmouthing Calix.

“You look awful. I hear you’ve been drinking yourself senseless lately — is something bothering you?”

She spoke in a tone that made it clear she wasn’t genuinely curious. As expected, Calix did not respond.

“Oh, I’m sure he does. After all, the plan he so carefully laid out has gone completely to ruin.”

“What plan would that be?” Calliope asked.

“The kind where you fall into the trap you set yourself.”

“Get out.”

Seeing people he already found irritating—especially in a moment like this—only made his mood worse.

Calix grabbed Zenfri by the back of the neck and shoved him toward the door.

“H-hey! You told me to investigate Libero! I came to report that it looks like some of the knights were involved—!”

Calix, who had been on the verge of flinging Zenfri away entirely, paused.

He set Zenfri squarely in front of the door and ordered him,

“Wait there.”

Then he turned towards Calliope.

Despite her unattractive appearance, he couldn’t bring himself to manhandle his own blood relative. Instead, he snatched the bag from her hand.

“Hey! You can’t just take someone else’s bag like that!”

“Leave before it gets torn.”

Calliope tried to grab the bag back from Calix’s outstretched hand, but failed.

He threw it far down the corridor. She chased after it like a puppy chasing prey, but then stopped short and turned back to her brother.

“Come to think of it, I saw Selina last night. She didn’t look well—seemed like she might be quite ill.”

“…What?”

Calix’s previously impassive expression crumpled in an instant.

Catching that exact moment, Calliope broke into a bright smile.

“I’m lying.”

“……”

“Your Grace the Grand Duke—do you realize how obvious your emotions have become lately?”

“Stop talking nonsense and get out.”

“Even so, I still have some affection left for my little brother, so I’m offering you a word of advice.”

Calliope said this as she lightly tapped Calix on the shoulder.

“Don’t waste your time clinging to some pointless specter. Pull yourself together.”

They shared the same specter.

Because of that, Calix understood exactly what she meant the moment she spoke—but still,

“You’d do well not to speak out of turn.”

It was a subject Calix had no desire to entertain.

Feigning complete innocence, Calliope waved her hands and continued.

“Oh my! Your face clearly shows that you need help, and I thought you might welcome some. You might not realize it, but love doesn’t just go away if you avoid it.”

She paused for a moment, looking worried. Then, as if nothing had happened, she spun around and ran off towards her bag.

“Th-then I’ll come back later.”

Zenfri, who had been gauging Calix’s mood, sensed that his expression was far from normal and quietly backed away as well.

Once all the intruders were gone and he was alone, Calix roughly shut the door to his office.

After locking it so no one could enter, he lay back on the sofa and closed his eyes.

“Love?”

Perhaps because the thought was so absurd, a hollow laugh escaped him.

Calix could say with certainty that he had never given his heart to anyone.

This was true of his parents and his uncle, who had acted as a father figure to him.

At most, he had felt a faint stir of concern for the nameless girl he had met at the monastery once, but even that had not been love. It had been nothing more than pity or gratitude for a kindness received.

“Don’t waste your time clinging to some pointless specter. Pull yourself together.”

And yet, why did Calliope’s words keep circling in his mind?

The specter she had spoken of was their parents.

His father had been a ruler weighed down by the responsibilities of the Grand Duchy, yet he was also a man who allowed his emotions to take precedence. At the time, the Grand Duchy was under threat from multiple nations. To withstand that pressure, the Grand Duke’s authority needed to be strengthened.

An alliance with a powerful house would have achieved that. The obvious choice would have been to marry someone from a family as influential as the Grand Ducal House itself.

However, his father defied everyone’s expectations by choosing his mother, a woman from a fallen family who were barely surviving.

They said that love was not a crime. And so Calix had never thought to condemn the two of them.

But the consequences of their marriage were devastating.

From that moment on, the Empire continued to fix its gaze on Thalia, and eventually a prolonged war broke out between the two nations.

Even amid the chaos of war, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess chose to travel to the outskirts to spend time alone together. They lost their lives in a carriage accident on the very day they set out on that journey.

“They died after making nothing but foolish choices to the very end.”

At his parents’ funeral, his uncle condemned them in an utterly emotionless voice.

Calix had no intention of blaming them, but he had learned one thing with painful clarity: Loving someone could endanger not only oneself, but also those around them.

“The one haunted by a specter isn’t me—it’s you.”

Calliope was the one who had inherited that tendency the most faithfully.

She lived as though she could not survive without love, moving from one man to the next and espousing absurd ideas about marrying someone you truly love.

But if that were truly the essence of marriage, the institution itself would never have come into existence.

He could not fathom why anyone would squander such an important life opportunity for such a trivial reason.

And yet—

‘The one I can’t understand right now is myself.’

He covered his aching eyes with the back of his hand, hoping it would block out the turbulent emotions swirling around in his mind, too.

***

After her argument with Calix, Selina’s physical condition began to deteriorate rapidly.

She had never been particularly healthy to begin with, but after enduring one ordeal after another, her body had grown dangerously frail.

‘Even so, I can’t just lie here.’

Selina forced herself to move.

If she stayed still, she would inevitably fall asleep and the nightmares would start again.

They had come without fail every night since that day, tormenting her and steadily gnawing away at her sanity.

Now, she feared falling asleep. The moment she closed her eyes, she would see her mother’s corpse and Libero hurling accusations at her.

‘Move.’

All Selina wanted was a place — anywhere — where she could catch a glimpse of sunlight.

As long as it wasn’t shrouded in shadow, that would suffice. When she stayed in dark places, she felt as though she would be consumed by the darkness and become horribly dark herself.

That was why Selina liked Calliope’s room; it was always filled with sunlight. But today, with the Grand Duchess away, Selina headed for the training grounds, where the sun shone unobstructed.

The knight order’s training grounds were located behind the Grand Ducal Castle. It was a vast expanse where countless knights trained beneath the blazing sun.

Afraid of disturbing their training if she got too close, Selina kept her distance, walking along a narrow path to one side.

“Madam, the sun is getting quite strong. Shall I hold the parasol for you?”

The voice belonged to Yuri, the new maid who had been assigned to Selina. Although she was not particularly warm-tempered, she was attentive to Selina’s needs.

Anticipating that Selina might struggle in the heat, Yuri was about to open the parasol, but Selina stopped her by raising a hand.

“No, it’s all right. I just want to get a bit of sunlight…”

Selina smiled faintly, placed the parasol back into Yuri’s hands, and said,

“I’ll take a short walk here. Could you come back to get me in thirty minutes?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t leave you alone, Madam.”

“If you stay with me, I don’t think I’ll be able to walk properly. Besides, His Grace has given strict orders—I can’t leave this area anyway.”

At Selina’s gentle insistence, Yuri hesitated, then finally set the parasol down beneath a tree.

“All right. I’ll come back in exactly thirty minutes, so please stay here. And if it gets too hot, make sure you use the parasol.”

“Thank you, Yuri.”

Selina waved at Yuri as she walked away. She then strolled along the path beside the training grounds, watching the knights.

She enjoyed watching them move their bodies, sweating as they wielded swords or loosed arrows. Every time she saw them, she could feel herself coming alive again.

However, there was another reason why she had come to the training grounds.

‘I heard that His Grace the Grand Duke sometimes comes here as well…’

Selina wondered if she might bump into Calix.

Since that day, she had been exploring other options for obtaining a divorce. Aside from acting recklessly and fabricating a pretext, there were several other possible methods.

If she told Calix the truth, it would probably speed up the process.

‘Maybe I should tell Calix in advance.’

It was for his own good. Perhaps it would have been only natural to tell him beforehand.

Yet Selina could not bring herself to do it.

She told herself it was for his own good, but the truth was that she lacked the courage to leave Calix.

She wanted to see him, but she didn’t.

That was how she felt.

Lost in those conflicting emotions, Selina absently watched the knights as she heard footsteps approaching from the opposite direction. Assuming they were knights heading towards the training grounds, she shifted slightly to make way.

“Madam?”

One of them greeted Selina warmly.

“Sir Rocheste?”

“What brings you to the training grounds, Madam?”

Selina returned Rocheste’s greeting with a smile of her own.

But the moment she recognized who was standing behind him, the smile vanished from her lips at once.

“Madam, you look well—I’m so relieved!”

Beside him stood Karen and Calix, side by side.