* * *

 “Report everything you learn at Vicheravali.”

The shocking order fell as Reibella bowed her head before the emperor. It was an order to become a spy for Vicheravali.

Reibella finally began to understand this whole situation.

‘It seemed as if the princess wished for this.’

The emperor must have undoubtedly guided things to turn out this way. To use her like this.

‘Making someone my age act as a spy.’

It seemed he intended to use her somehow, since her life was already as meaningless as a grain of sand in the desert.

‘I never thought what I did would come back like this.’

She could guess why the emperor was doing such a petty thing. Previously, she had leaked information about a spy within the family to Duke Vicheravali, saying she wanted to repay his kindness. Perhaps because of that incident, the person who had been providing information about Vicheravali’s internal affairs had suddenly disappeared.

If so, they would need to plant a new person. Reibella seemed to have been chosen as one of them.

Therefore, there was no right to refuse this.

Reibella had to become a spy.

Once offered, refusing meant death. Since she didn’t want to die here.

Reibella bowed her head again.

“I will obey your command, Your Majesty.”

At this, the emperor stared at Reibella intently.

She was a child with pink hair. She seemed even slightly smaller than the princess. Seeing that child made him think of another with the same pink hair, causing his brow to furrow.

“You say you’re loyal to the princess.”

“Yes, because she is my benefactor.”

Reibella answered while recalling the time she was brought to the palace because of the princess’s single comment about feeling sorry for the children locked in prison. The emperor listened to this pleasantly before speaking.

His voice was cold.

“But I cannot trust you.”

Since this was an obvious statement, she didn’t get unnecessarily scared. She wasn’t unaware of the fact that the princess was the only person he trusted.

Still, Reibella had to ask for the sake of survival.

“Then please tell me how I can earn your trust.”

When she asked with an innocent face and a voice full of loyalty, he looked at her as if she were ridiculous. But soon, he revealed his purpose without hesitation.

“Stake your life as collateral.”

“……How?”

When Reibella asked back in confusion, the emperor nodded to a servant standing far away. Soon, the servant brought two small glass vials and placed them before Reibella. One contained a clear liquid, while the other contained a greenish liquid.

“Drink the poison before my eyes.”

Poison?

“The green one is a lethal poison that will take your life immediately when consumed. And the clear one is its antidote. You must take it regularly to stay alive.”

“……But it won’t cure me completely, will it?”

He remained silent, but she knew that silence was the answer.

From what she heard, it seemed he intended to control people according to his whims by feeding them deadly poison and periodically providing medicine that could only alleviate the symptoms while holding their lives hostage.

‘Isn’t this completely trash?’

Reibella had the all-purpose antidote herb that had served as a cheat key even in the original work, so she wouldn’t die. But the method made her shudder.

How could he think of doing such a thing to a young child?

‘To think such a bastard is this country’s emperor.’

While cursing all sorts of things inside, Reibella’s small hand reached for the green poison. And immediately picked it up and tilted it to her lips.

The killing intent that pricked her entire body warned that she wouldn’t leave this place alive if she didn’t drink this medicine right now.

Soon, a stinging taste entered between her teeth and flowed down her throat. It felt like her windpipe was slowly melting. Her throat constricted from the burning pain.

After swallowing everything in the vial, Reibella quickly drank the poison’s alleviator contained in the clear vial. Though the effect was slow, the symptom of her blocked windpipe gradually disappeared.

The emperor, who had been watching expressionlessly as the girl held her throat with both hands while frowning, spoke.

“I will have you watched, so you must keep taking it from now on.”

It meant he would watch what she did and where she went even after going to Vicheravali territory. If there was any sign of betrayal, there would be no alleviator and no life for you. It was an order to stick close to Vicheravali and carry out the mission, as he wouldn’t guarantee anything.

Though he should show some compassion to a child the same age as his daughter, Reibella couldn’t help but slightly furrow her brow at his attitude that showed not even a shred of mercy.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

While suppressing the indignation boiling up from deep inside, the girl repeated in her mind.

If.

If I ever gain power someday.

I’ll kill you first. 

 * * *

 “Miss, I……”

As soon as she left the audience chamber, a man in neat attire approached Reibella. It was a familiar face. He seemed to be the coachman who drove Duke Vicheravali’s carriage.

Reibella passed by him and started running. Though she heard an urgent voice calling after her, she didn’t stop. Even though her heart was pumping endlessly and her breath reached her throat, she ran and ran.

And finally reached a palace surrounded by huge trees deep in the forest.

As soon as Reibella entered the palace, she shouted loudly.

“Calyx!”

“Calyx come out quickly!”

“Calyx!”

Though she called out loudly again and again, all that returned was her own voice bouncing off the walls.

Reibella crossed the quiet corridor toward the room where she always met and talked with him. Bang, she opened the door and looked at the window on the opposite side.

However, the place where the boy who always greeted her used to sit was empty.

Reibella walked heavily and sat by the window. The seat, long abandoned by its owner, was cold.

“You jerk.”

How could you disappear so suddenly like that.

When she came to meet him a few days ago, what greeted Reibella was a short letter.

The content of the letter was concise.

[Let’s go see the ocean.]

It was the boy’s answer to when they had agreed to ‘tell each other what we want to do later’ during their last meeting.

“……You didn’t even hear my story.”

Bad guy who just says what he wants to say and disappears.

Until just recently, coming here had made her heart peaceful, but now it was no different from the princess’s palace or here. It was suffocating, and suffocating again.

“I must have relied on you a lot.”

She had thought she was comforting his loneliness, but it seemed that she too had relied on him more than expected in return.

Reibella sighed and looked out the window. The scenery that caught her eye was a fountain full of moss and a dense forest. And the entrance. She could clearly see the path she took every time she came to this palace.

Thinking about how he must have waited for her while looking at that place made her chest ache for no reason.

“Well. I’ll wait a bit.”

Because she had received a lot from him.

She could endure something as minor as feeling a little disappointed.

Reibella, who let out a big sigh, moved her steps to the table. The book he had last seen was placed on the table.

Opening the first page of that book, Reibella left a message with the pen she brought.

[Yes, let’s go see the ocean.]

Hoping he would definitely see this message.

“Let’s make sure we survive and meet again, Calyx.” 

 * * *

 When she returned to the princess’s palace, Reibella could see that her room, which had been full of her belongings until just that morning, was now empty. This was because Vicheravali’s servants had packed all her belongings.

Seeing the servants who had been waiting just for her arrival, Reibella exchanged brief greetings with the princess’s palace maids.

She couldn’t see the princess herself.

With a feeling that was refreshing yet somehow unsettling, Reibella boarded the carriage, and even while watching the receding palace, she still couldn’t believe this situation was real.

According to the servant, they would first stay at Vicheravali’s mansion in the capital before departing for the territory tomorrow.

After all those years of Vicheravali and Felicity being in such bitter opposition and ignoring each other. To think that a bloodline of Felicity would be adopted as Vicheravali’s daughter… How bewildered her parents would be if they saw this.

But as the carriage stopped and the door opened to reveal the magnificent mansion, her situation gradually began to sink in.

As Reibella exhaled what seemed like resignation and tried to get out of the carriage, someone quickly approached and took her hand. It was a familiar person.

His name was probably Henan Richfield. He was Duke Vicheravali’s aide.

“Welcome, Miss.”

When he bowed his head politely, all the servants watching also bowed their heads.

It was a bit overwhelming to receive such an earnest welcome after so long.