The journey was painful and sorrowful enough to leave a hole in her chest, but this was no time to be lost in feeling.

She focused, and the sound of wind flowing through the vast Grand Ducal Castle reached her.

She felt the night weeping. Behind her closed eyes, Meliciel searched for the traces of the curse.

The divine painter’s spiritual power could sense the malignant energy that served as the root of illness and absorb it in place of others.

That was how she became Kahar’s ward-maid shadow in Lani’s body.

Of course, it was something she couldn’t do in Meliciel’s body now.

But she heard it.

The voice of the wind. The screams of resentment.

Then let all of it come to me.

Come to me and shatter and be gone.

She had to light the way for the little star to return. A pure spirit could not find its way to a place thick with murky energy like this.

A strange silence settled heavily, and all manner of malignant energy began to swirl around Meliciel.

These lingering dark things would not help what she needed to accomplish going forward.

She had to rid herself of them someday, without fail. Meliciel kept her eyes closed for a time and slowly expanded the spiritual power she hadn’t yet fully awakened.

“The wind is cold. Let’s go inside now.”

Chayden appeared at her side without her noticing, and only then did Meliciel open her eyes and nod.

“The northern weather is truly beyond anything I imagined.”

“You’ll need to adjust. Shall I have warm tea brought first?”

“Yes.”

Meliciel exhaled once and headed inside. Behind her, the malignant energy trailed after her in a trickle, then scattered and dispersed.

Completely eliminating them would take effort, both great and small.

***

This time she dreamed of Kahar. Whether it was because her body grew weak, or because she was in a different body.

Meliciel often dreamed of things from the past.

In any case, the Kahar who appeared in the dream was about to leave for the capital, right after learning of Lani’s pregnancy.

“Do you have to leave right now?”

“I’ll be back soon. Wait for me.”

“I wish you wouldn’t go.”

“Ha, what’s gotten into you. You never act like this.”

She said something uncharacteristically clinging, and Kahar left coldly.

She waited for him, day after day, even as he didn’t come.

Right. He must have wanted to be rid of the burden. It must have disgusted him that someone of low birth was carrying his child.

But the pregnancy was not something Meliciel intended. She took contraceptive herbs before the bonding ritual.

As Kahar’s ward-maid shadow, her only thought after completing the bonding ritual was to leave his side, so when a child suddenly took root, she was thrown into confusion as well.

She never thought about having a child, but she couldn’t erase the life that settled inside her.

She waited for Kahar beneath a small tree, and waited some more.

The one who approached that Lani was not Kahar, but the golden-haired witch, Viviana Chloe.

It was not a birth. It was a death.

***

The people of the Grand Ducal Castle were generally kind. Belita, the head maid who would directly assist Meliciel, was impeccably courteous and gentle.

The day after arriving at the Grand Ducal House, Belita brought breakfast to her room. An hour later she came back with tea, and after that she didn’t appear before Meliciel again.

Meliciel was more comfortable alone than surrounded by many maids, but she still found it a little odd.

A young duchess had arrived, set to become the Grand Duchess, and she expected someone to show interest, whether out of goodwill or hostility. Yet it was strangely quiet.

Meliciel struggled her way down from the enormous bed. It was so wide she had to shift her body several times just to get off it.

Meliciel’s bedroom connected to a private sitting room, and that private sitting room in turn connected to Kahar’s private sitting room.

She was to use the room right next to Kahar’s.

The memory of Od Castle came to her, where a great tree stretched across the window of the room she stayed in as Lani.

The difference between then and now was, as always, like heaven and earth, and every time she realized it, her heart ached a little.

The station one was born into was never a matter of one’s own will.

Meliciel wandered aimlessly around the private sitting room and discovered the door connecting to Kahar’s space.

She hesitated, then knocked.

“Grand Duke.”

There was no answer, so she turned the handle, and it turned easily.

The room was similar in size to Meliciel’s sitting room, but the overall furniture, wallpaper, and carpet were different in color.

Unlike her room, dressed in shades of red, rosy pink, and white, his room was dark but clean.

“Grand Duke?”

Meliciel was about to call out to him when she suddenly spotted something on the mantelpiece and her eyes went wide.

“……Huh?”

On it sat the hand warmer Lani used. A round iron-shaped thing where you put charcoal inside and could control the temperature.

Kahar personally bought it for her at the market…….

Why is that here?

Meliciel felt her heart pounding as she carefully moved closer. She reached up to the mantelpiece and lifted the hand warmer down.

Clink. The sound of iron fitting together. The worn marks from repeated handling, in just the right places. It was identical to the one Lani used.

“It’s real……”

But why is this here? She left it behind at Od Castle.

It didn’t seem likely that Kahar would have gone out of his way to Od Castle to retrieve it.

Meliciel was too absorbed in fiddling with the clasp of the hand warmer to notice someone approaching from behind.

The sensation of the hand warmer being taken from her made Meliciel spin around quickly.

“Ah……”

“So you have a habit of sneaking into other people’s rooms like a little rat.”

“I called out, but you didn’t answer……”

“Touching other people’s things without permission, isn’t that vulgar?”

He said it in a way that suggested he kept that word stored up just for her. Meliciel waved her hands hastily.

“It looked like something a friend gave me, and before I knew it…… I’m sorry.”

“A friend?”

Kahar tilted his head and placed the hand warmer back on the mantelpiece.

“A friend I’ve known for a very long time…… um, from home, or rather, something like a childhood friend……”

She couldn’t think straight trying to come up with a lie, and Meliciel rambled.

The moment their eyes met, he curved the corner of his mouth into a smile. The feeling it gave her was cold enough that Meliciel stepped back without thinking.

When she had nowhere left to go, Kahar closed in on her like a net. The thick curtain pressed against her back.

“Why, why are you doing this?”

“What exactly am I doing?”

Kahar asked and lowered his head. He tilted his chin slightly and pressed in toward her nape.

“……You’re touching me.”

“Your friend.”

She realized in that instant that Kahar was showing interest in the excuse she made up moments ago.

“Ngh……!”

Kahar parted his lips and lightly bit her skin. Before she had time to be startled, something soft slipped out from between his lips and licked the pale skin.

Fine hairs rose along her nape.

Meliciel froze with her eyes open. She barely managed to grab Kahar’s arm and keep breathing.

“Grand Duke……”

“Seems like you weren’t just lying sick in bed.”

His slightly husky voice slipped out from between his lips, and a wet, dragging sound rose again from Meliciel’s nape.

She was easily swept along by the light kisses drifting down the line of her neck.

“Ngh, wait.”

“Do you always respond this easily?”

“……It, it tickles.”

“Is it really tickling?”

Kahar asked, meeting her eyes. The moment she noticed his breathing had grown slightly rough too, her legs gave out.

One step closer. Kahar pressed a firm thigh between hers and pulled her lower stomach flush against him.

He clicked his tongue, seemingly irritated by how quickly her composure scattered.

“When you act like this, it gives me other ideas.”

“What do you……”

“I’m wondering whether you were sharing a blanket with some man while you were laid up in bed.”

“……”

“Aren’t you a little too sensitive?”

He was truly shameless. He was the one who made her body this way.

In the past, after the bonding ritual, she slept with Kahar three more times. Each time they were together, Lani’s body became frighteningly susceptible to pleasure.

There was a time when she was shocked and overwhelmed by everything he taught her.

So when his hand caressed her hip, a hot breath broke free from her immediately.

“How am I supposed to interpret being so easily stirred up?”

“……That’s you, Grand Duke.”

“What?”

“You’re the one who’s experienced at this sort of thing!”

Her feelings thoroughly wounded, Meliciel’s eyes reddened as she tried to push him away. But Kahar’s solid chest didn’t budge.

“Right, so what’s the harm in two people who’ve been around enjoying themselves a little?”

“Have you been drinking?”

“You think I’d do this on a whim from drinking.”

He laughed lightly. True enough, Kahar had a body that never got drunk no matter how much he drank.

A fragrant smell of alcohol drifted from between his lips.

Breathing somewhat heavily, the two of them looked at each other with burning eyes. Their gazes locked slowly, like they were intoxicated by something.

And then Kahar bent down and claimed her lips.

He came at her softly. The momentum of her head tipping back let him slip easily into the space between.

He drew the sighing Meliciel into his arms and began to explore her in earnest.

She floundered for a moment, then placed her hand on his arm, like she was giving up.

She felt like she might cry.

Soft lips trailed along her jaw to her earlobe. Then slowly down her nape.