“He should be at your cabin. He said he needed to bring you back and would wait in front of the cabin to avoid missing you on the way. He told me to keep watch at the entrance to the village.”

“Ah, then I’ll explain everything to him when I get back and send him home.”

After exchanging grateful bows with the woman who kept thanking her, Olivia left the house and dragged her heavy bag toward the cabin. She couldn’t remember how many crisis-like situations she had dealt with in the past few days. She was truly grateful that she had been able to resolve them all without major incidents, but her mental strength had been so depleted that her head was spinning.

“A healer’s clear mind is essential for treatment……”

Muttering the words her mother used to say constantly, Olivia decided it would be best to wash up and rest as soon as she returned. She pushed open the door of the cabin she had reached.

“Kale!”

Since she always kept the doors of the cabin open except for the bedroom and herb storage, she naturally expected Kale to be inside, but there was no answer no matter how many times she called his name. The unlit house was filled with a strange quietness at the end of the gradually darkening day.

‘Did we miss each other?’

As she lit the lamp on the desk, wondering with a tilted head, Olivia’s gaze stopped at one spot. When the candle was lit, she saw a book she hadn’t taken out spread open on the desk. 『Encyclopedia of Animals and Plants』, a book containing the knowledge of Olivia’s now-deceased mother, was something Olivia had already memorized completely and had no reason to take out.

“Why is this open……”

Olivia’s fingertips trembled as she reflexively tried to turn the open page. Slowly, she traced the content of the open page with her hand.

[……an herb also called the gift of the gods, it has been presumed to be an ingredient for the elixir of immortality passed down in ancient legends due to its powerful life force. Artificial cultivation is nearly impossible, so it can only be gathered in nature, but even its natural habitat is very limited, making it impractical to use despite its excellent effects. However, if one can obtain it, it is very useful for restoring depleted energy and excels at temporarily reviving life force……]

This was information she already knew well—that the plant was practically impossible to obtain in reality and should be considered nearly extinct—yet strangely, each letter seemed to burn into her eyes.

“K-Kale?”

Olivia called Kale’s name again with a trembling voice. Only cold silence returned. Her anxiously wavering gaze turned to the sentence her fingertip was pointing at.

[Its only habitat is the private land of the ducal family in the ‘Schraien’ domain, but as the forest has now died, it is presumed to be extinct.]

As if caught in a trap, Olivia could not turn her gaze away from the words “the dead forest of Schraien domain.”

* * *

A week had passed since Kale’s disappearance.

They had searched the entire village thoroughly with the villagers and checked all the forests they could reach, but they couldn’t find Kale. Meanwhile, Ricky’s body had completely recovered under Olivia’s care, but Kale, who would have been happier than anyone about this, still had not returned to his place. Olivia, after checking Ricky’s condition, carefully peeked into the bedroom where Kale’s mother was lying.

“……”

The woman, who had refused food for days and taken to her bed, showed no sign of life in her face. After crying and searching for Kale together for days, Kale’s mother had eventually collapsed, and although Olivia was taking care of her, her condition did not improve easily. The grief of losing a child was more fatal than any poison, making any medicine meaningless.

Today again, Olivia quietly closed the door while looking at the untouched bowl of stew. Not long after, the sound of sobbing came from inside the room. Even that crying sound had become feeble.

‘Did he really go to the forest?’

What she had thought was impossible was gradually becoming a certainty. They had already searched everywhere people could go, even deep into the forest. No one knew the forest better than Olivia in this village, and since she had searched everywhere she could go, there was only one place left.

The dead forest of Duke Schraien.

The dead forest was a vast forest surrounding the duke’s mansion, which, before ‘that incident,’ had occasionally been opened to villagers, allowing them to gather or view rare fruits and herbs. It was said to have been a treasure trove of rare medicinal ingredients.

But that was all just a distant past passed down by word of mouth. Even her mother had never gone through the thorn bushes to enter the forest, so it was truly an unknown forest. A tale so old that no one knew if the rumors about the duke turning into a monster were true.

‘So I’ll have to go look for myself.’

She deliberately didn’t tell Kale’s mother. It was obvious that if she knew, she would rush to the forest immediately. Olivia didn’t want her to be in danger, and if Kale wasn’t there, it would cause even greater disappointment and shock.

Instead, Olivia decided to go to the dead forest herself. It wasn’t just out of concern for Kale, but also a sense of responsibility and guilt. Kale had likely headed to the forest after seeing the herb in that book because of the sick Ricky, and Olivia felt partly responsible for Ricky’s condition.

If she had been at the cabin when Ricky got sick, if she had written the letter better so the administrator wouldn’t have thought of playing such a trick, wouldn’t this have been avoided?

One could say it was just an unfortunate series of events, but both Ricky and Kale had come to her trusting her, and they were officially her patients and guardian, so she couldn’t stop worrying about them.

“Of course, the administrator is the worst culprit.”

Olivia glared into the air as if the administrator’s face had appeared there, then pulled the hood of her cloak over her head. She carefully left the cabin in the early dawn before the sun had risen, to avoid being seen by people. She didn’t forget to leave a letter in the cabin bedroom just in case.

‘Ah, I need to reply to my brother……’

She belatedly remembered that she hadn’t sent a reply amid the succession of chaotic events, but she reassured herself that she could write back after returning safely.

‘I’m not going there to die. My goal is to find Kale and return safely! Besides, who knows the forest better than me?’

Comforting her anxious heart, Olivia steeled herself and headed bravely toward the dead forest in the dim dawn light.

* * *

The dead forest was blocked by thick thorny vines intertwined between densely packed dead trees. Just as she had glimpsed from a distance when gathering materials, the sky was grayish and gloomy, and the ground was parched with dust and sand, without even a single weed growing. Looking at the bleak, faded forest that truly seemed devoid of any life, Olivia took out her gathering knife.

“If I’m careful, it should, should be, should be fine, right?”

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t scared or worried, but her determination to go in and find Kale remained unchanged. Carefully removing the tangled thorny vines, Olivia created a gap large enough for her to enter. The vines were so entangled that she spent a long time cutting, spreading, and breaking through them. Although she wore a hooded cloak and gloves, the repeated scratches from the thorns inevitably made her protective gear gradually tattered.

“Ugh, I think I’m almost through……”

After burrowing deep into the vines, even the light that had illuminated her path was blocked. Fortunately, she spotted light from the other side leaking through the vines in the distance, and Olivia hurried her steps with a brightened expression. After cutting through the last thick vine and squeezing through the narrow gap, bright sunlight welcomed her.

“Huh, what is this……”

Not even thinking to wipe the blood seeping from her scratched cheek, Olivia stopped and looked around in a daze. The forest had clearly been a barren, gray forest devoid of life, but now… Confused, Olivia looked back at the narrow thorny vine passage several times. She must have entered the dead forest, but what unfolded before her eyes was a completely different landscape from what she had seen from outside.

As she hesitantly took a step forward, soft and fluffy grass embraced her feet. The breeze blowing gently was kind, and the flowers swaying in the wind released a fragrant scent. The straight trees were laden with lush green leaves on every branch, and the sky visible through the dense foliage was clear blue and dazzlingly sunny.

“This is impossible.”

The sound of a peacefully flowing stream echoed cheerfully in the distance, and the chirping of birds came and went. Even on the most beautiful day, she had never seen a forest overflowing with such vitality. Perhaps a garden in the imperial palace crafted with the utmost care might be this luxuriously beautiful? It was hard to believe this was a naturally formed space—a beautiful earthly paradise unfolded before her eyes.

“It’s like I’m under a spell……”

Muttering dazedly, Olivia removed the hood she was wearing. Her light pink hair sparkled in the sunlight. Her figure standing alone on the green grass looked like a large flower blooming in a field. As she slowly moved, her hair, tied in two braids, rippled and swayed. I feel like a protagonist in a fairy tale. Olivia’s expression subtly flushed with the excitement that the beautiful nature bestowed.

Rustle. At the sound of rustling leaves, Olivia’s head turned slowly. Three rabbits, twitching their large ears, emerged from the low bushes and sat in a row, staring at Olivia. They seemed completely relaxed, showing no wariness toward humans. Rather, it was Olivia who froze in a strange pose, startled by the sudden appearance of the rabbits.