She would not fail, if not for herself then for the little star who vanished and for the real Meliciel.

Someday she would have to pay for what she owed the real Meliciel.

Meliciel came out of the castle where Kahar was staying with her escort, and froze again.

“Goodness…….”

She let out a sigh without meaning to, then swallowed the groan that tried to follow.

At the far end of a long, long carpet embroidered with red and gold thread stood Kahar. Warhorses waited nearby, signaling the imminent departure.

Even more knights than before surrounded the area, and beside them stood Duke Dexter and Duchess Katrina, whom she was seeing for the first time. Jacob was there as well.

Faces she recognized from portraits appeared one by one, which suggested the entire ducal family had come out.

They must be here to see Kahar off.

It seemed she was the only one who found it strange that Meliciel was leaving for the Grand Duchy this quickly.

Everyone had an air of matter-of-factness, and Duke Dexter’s face was bright and open. When his eyes met Meliciel’s, he even gave an exaggerated, performative smile.

“Ha ha ha ha. That’s our Meliciel. Your Highness, our Meliciel must be the greatest beauty in all of Ferriland.”

Duke Dexter spouted his nonsense and came toward Meliciel. He planted his hands on her bare white shoulders.

“To think the time to send you off has already come. I couldn’t be more sorry to see you go. Ah, should I be calling you Grand Duchess now?”

“Not yet.”

But soon, it would be so.

Whether or not he understood Meliciel’s hidden meaning, Duke Dexter smiled at her with eyes full of ambition.

“Congratulations on the marriage.”

He leaned in closer, almost like an embrace, and brought his lips to her ear.

“You haven’t forgotten what I said before, have you?”

Meliciel did not answer and put a slight distance between them.

Duke Dexter was Meliciel’s birth father, but from the very beginning until now, he never failed to make her skin crawl.

“Your Highness, I have prepared a carriage for my departing daughter. Please accept it.”

Duke Dexter turned and spoke to Kahar.

At some point, a magnificent carriage had been brought forward.

The white carriage was slightly elongated and rounded in shape, lavishly inlaid with gold work and fitted with wings on the sides.

A considerable number of fist-sized jewels were attached to it, enough to hurt the eyes. It was a carriage that could only be called a luxury item.

“It is the carriage the Duchess rode when she first came to the ducal territory.”

Duchess Katrina wore the tired expression of someone who had no desire to add unnecessary words, but she let Duke Dexter carry on without interfering.

“It is a rare carriage bestowed by the late Emperor. Given the long history attached to it, I would be glad for you to ride in it. Isn’t that right, my dear?”

“I hope your journey is peaceful.”

Those words sounded exactly like a farewell that meant don’t come back, and that was no misreading.

Just then, a cool arm came to rest on Meliciel’s shoulder. She flinched and looked up.

From the scent alone that reached her nose, she could tell without difficulty that it was Kahar.

It was proof that the six months she spent with him as Lani were far from short.

Five months as his ward’s shadow, one month after the companion ritual. Her memories with Kahar were still vivid.

“Duke.”

Kahar, who was watching quietly, opened his mouth, and Duke Dexter answered promptly.

“Yes, Your Highness. Please speak.”

“I also prepared a gift.”

“A gift? Of course. I accept with gratitude.”

“Not for the Duke. A gift for the Grand Duchess.”

Meliciel looked at Kahar’s strangely gleaming eyes and had a premonition that something was going wrong.

A gift all of a sudden. This feels ominous.

“Bring them.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“They ought to come crawling, don’t you think?”

Kahar said something cryptic. Along the side of the brilliant carpet, several people were shuffling forward hesitantly.

Their faces were strangely familiar.

“Oh?”

Meliciel opened her mouth in surprise and quickly pressed her lips shut.

The man at the front was that knight. The scoundrel who dragged her to Duke Dexter’s quarters the first time she woke in Meliciel’s body and was wandering nearby.

And following behind him was Valt. Erik was there too, pale as a ghost in his underclothes.

“Your Highness, what is the meaning of…… Oh? Shalon? Yulina!”

Duke Dexter muttered in bewilderment, then raised his voice.

Shalon and Yulina were really there. They were dressed in extraordinarily shabby clothes.

The state the Duke recognized them in was shockingly dreadful.

Tattered nightgowns and disheveled hair made them look like ghosts.

A large bandage was stuck to Yulina’s face. The wound she got from fighting Meliciel.

“Well then. Grand Duchess. Do you like it?”

Kahar asked, tilting his head at a leisurely angle.

“I selected people I thought would be to your liking. If there are any names you’d like to add, say so.”

Kahar’s face was smiling, but his tone was merciless.

Duke Dexter was not entirely foolish either, and he did not make the mistake of rushing straight to Yulina.

Instead, he cautiously questioned Kahar.

“What on earth is the meaning of this?”

“Does it need explaining?”

Duke Dexter cleared his throat at Kahar’s implication that he should figure it out himself.

“Ahem. But, Your Highness…… Shalon and Yulina are…….”

“Should I show mercy to those who dared to threaten the woman who will become Grand Duchess?”

Kahar drove the point home, fixing Duke Dexter with his blue eyes.

“If they want to keep their lives, they’ll beg for forgiveness. From the Grand Duchess, of course.”

In the bleak atmosphere, Valt, his face flushed red, was the first to speak.

“I, I!”

He looked utterly lost as to why he was summoned and why he was supposed to crawl on the ground.

In an instant, there was the sound of a sword being drawn. A knight beside him swung a blade, and the thin tunic Valt was wearing peeled away like a shed skin.

“Where do you think it goes next?”

Kahar asked at a leisurely pace, and Erik was the first to drop flat on the ground. He started crawling without looking back.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. My life, please, not my life…….”

He pressed his palms together and begged frantically. Watching that, Shalon and Yulina’s faces turned a deeper shade of ash.

Meliciel’s mouth was going dry as well, of course. She still could not read Kahar’s intent.

Yulina sobbed toward Duke Dexter, pleading to be saved.

“My Lord!”

But Duke Dexter cowardly cleared his throat and turned his head away. He recognized how the situation was turning and was trying to extract himself from it.

“My dear, we’ve seen them off, so let us take our leave.”

The ducal couple bowed their heads to Kahar with a farewell and truly turned and fled.

The sight of their backs disappearing almost at a run was something to behold. Duke Dexter’s consistent coldness, not sparing even a glance for his own daughter, was beyond laughable.

Kahar looked down at them with composure.

“Meliciel will become the one and only Grand Duchess of the empire of Ferriland. Any insult to her is a challenge to me.”

In the end, Shalon was the first to raise the white flag. She slowly pressed both hands to the ground.

She was shuddering with humiliation, yet she submitted quietly.

Meliciel watched her in silence. She received no direct harm from Shalon. But Shalon may well have been in league with Yulina.

Yulina, torn as she was watching her daughter break, finally managed to lower her head and press her hands to the ground as well.

“Forgive, forgive me.”

“Strange. You look like my gift isn’t to your liking.”

“Grand Duke.”

Meliciel called his name with the meaning that she wanted him to stop. Kahar’s eyes curved as though he just remembered something.

“Ah, there’s one more gift.”

What?

“I should smash that ridiculous carriage.”

“Gr, Grand Duke.”

Meliciel called to him urgently, but Kahar only smiled wider.

“Remove it.”

At his command, the knights drew their swords in unison. They advanced toward the carriage together, as though it was choreographed.

And Meliciel watched, as though in a dream, as the storied luxury item bestowed by the late Emperor crumbled to pieces before her eyes.

Never, under any circumstances, was this something Meliciel wanted.

“Leave no trace.”

The knights sheathed their swords and this time began stomping the wreckage of the carriage underfoot, grinding it down piece by piece.

Meliciel stared in blank shock at the carriage being reduced to fragments and at the four people pressed flat against the ground, then finally looked at Kahar.

“That’s enough. This is enough.”

“You don’t still think the Grand Duchess’s dignity belongs to her alone, do you?”

The fear trembling through those four people conveyed the nature of power plainly.

The terror of facing someone who could never be overcome came through from them clearly.

What Meliciel wanted to hold was something similar to this.

If the child returned, she would need the strength to protect that star.

As Kahar said, the position of Grand Duchess was one that could not be made light of by anyone.

She gave a small shake of her head.

“Let’s go now.”

“Not even a word of thanks?”

Meliciel bit her lip.

“Thank you very much.”

Ha, Kahar laughed freely. The smile was too bright and clear for the moment, and Meliciel’s head ached a little.

“I thought you might at least give me a kiss of gratitude.”

“……Pardon?”

“We’re close enough for that, aren’t we?”

He was clearly teasing. Meliciel stared him down and fired back.

“Forcing a gift on someone and then expecting something in return doesn’t seem very gentlemanly.”