Iella immediately ran after her.

Why was she here instead of the northern forest, when did she come here—such thoughts briefly crossed her mind, but there was no time for lengthy contemplation. With the sole determination not to lose her this time, she moved her feet.

She pushed through crowds of people, passed between buildings, and turned corners two or three times. No matter how fast the other person was, making the distance difficult to close, she didn’t give up and persistently pursued.

They say superhuman strength emerges in the most desperate moments, and that seemed true. Unlike when she was walking around with Chase earlier, Iella didn’t feel tired.

“Huff, gasp……”

However, when she turned the fourth corner of an alley, her previously unfaltering steps came to a halt. A dead end blocked her path.

Only then did Iella clutch her painfully squeezed lungs and breathe heavily as the impact hit her all at once. But there was no time to stay like that for long. With eyes squinted from exhaustion, she thoroughly scanned ahead.

‘Where did she go?’

She had never lost sight of her. She had been properly following her original body. After such a tenacious pursuit, the gap was finally closing. So naturally, the real Ailexia should have been stopped at the dead end too.

It shouldn’t be empty like this.

‘Could there be some mechanism I don’t know about?’

Iella went a little further into the alley. The surroundings were dark as if there was no sunlight, making it difficult to see clearly, but since it was still daylight, she could at least distinguish shapes. She examined the blocking wall carefully.

But she couldn’t find anything particularly special.

‘Could it be sorcery….’

Suddenly, such a thought crossed her mind. Like the sorcery Vanessa had shown during the secret outing, could there be a similar sorcery mechanism on this wall?

It wasn’t entirely impossible, because although Ailexia didn’t have the power to perform sorcery herself, she had someone who could help her. The old woman in the forest hut.

‘Just because Ailexia suffers from sorcery depletion doesn’t mean she lacks knowledge about sorcery. Since her mother was a sorceress, she might actually be well-versed in the theory.’

Based on that, she could have obtained something helpful from the old woman. For instance, a paper with a sorcery formation drawn on it for one-time use.

‘…Am I getting ahead of myself?’

But soon she touched her forehead with a sigh. A paper with a sorcery formation—she felt her speculation was going too far. If such a thing existed, it would have already been traded illegally in the shadows.

Despite the strong bonds between sorceresses, there were always individuals who prioritized personal gain over the welfare of their clan. Surely someone would have already been selling these to those who wanted to use sorceresses.

‘Even if they exist, they would be very expensive. Like magic scrolls.’

Magic tools were widely used items in the Empire, but magic scrolls were not. The imperial family had imposed various restrictions out of concern for indiscriminate use.

The main restrictions included: only high-ranking mages belonging to the imperial family could create them; detailed reports on the purpose and reason for creation must be submitted before and after production; the purpose and reason for use must be reported in detail before use; in case of buying and selling, the purpose, use, and reason must all be reported; and all of these records must be thoroughly documented with the names of both the creator and user for verification.

Scrolls created through such rigorous procedures were appropriately attached as imperial items, not to threaten the creator’s authority but simply to notarize the scrolls.

Of course, there was a share of profits gained from this, but considering that most buyers were nobles, the share taken by the imperial family was relatively small. The credibility provided by imperial certification had a significant impact on the price of scrolls.

However, now they had become exclusive items that only high-ranking nobles could use due to their sky-high prices.

‘Anyway, Ailexia, who had to hitch rides in carriages, couldn’t have had money to buy such things. If they even exist.’

Iella let out a deep sigh. She felt immensely disappointed at the thought of losing track again this time.

But she couldn’t just stay there either. She needed to hurry back and contact Nix at least.

‘Maybe I’ll look around the area a bit more first.’

It was the moment Iella, having made her decision, turned to leave the alley. Someone was standing at the entrance of the alley.

The distance wasn’t very far, but in the alley where sunlight barely reached, and with the person wearing a robe, it wasn’t easy to distinguish who it was. But Iella stopped as if she recognized the person.

After a brief, quiet standoff, the other person slowly entered the alley. As the distance closed, the figure became clearer in her vision.

“Hello.”

Even in the darkness, bright silver hair and light pink eyes.

The all-too-familiar figure greeted Iella.

If she were to meet Ailexia, what should she say first? Iella had thought about this a few times. But she never properly concluded and always stopped at that level of thought.

Mostly because she had drawn conclusions based on her speculations while tracking Ailexia’s activities, and partly because she dismissed it thinking, “It will all end when I return to my original body anyway.”

However, underlying this was the belief that when they actually met, something would come to mind. They were in the same boat, after all.

“……”

But in the actual situation, no words readily came to her.

In contrast to the numerous topics that flooded her mind—returning the greeting, consoling each other about their difficult situations, or even discussing what happened at the auction—she remained silent.

It was only later that she realized this was due to the alienation and strangeness of seeing her own appearance through someone else’s eyes.

“Oh my, you seem surprised.”

When Iella just stared intently at her original form, Ailexia covered her mouth with her hand and smiled. Iella felt a very strange sensation watching actions and words she would never do or say coming from her own face and voice.

But she consciously snapped out of it.

“So I was right.”

“You knew and followed me, didn’t you?”

“……”

“I had a hard time leading you to a place where others wouldn’t see, just in case, but I’m glad you managed to follow me. I was worried about the emperor’s surveillance, but that seems to have been resolved beforehand.”

Only then did Iella realize why the distance had seemed to close yet never did. From the beginning, it had been to bring her here.

‘No wonder it seemed to get closer whenever it felt too far away….’

She thought she had caught up with superhuman strength, but that wasn’t entirely the reason. What she thought was pursuit was actually falling for a lure.

But it didn’t matter. Iella had been earnestly hoping for this meeting.

“I thought you were in the northwestern forest.”

“I just entered the imperial city.”

“Did you give up on finding the sorceresses’ village?”

“Well, yes. No matter what, I wouldn’t be able to enter. It seems even they don’t treat the sick as part of their clan. More importantly, there was something I really wanted to ask you when we met.”

Ailexia, who had been mumbling something quietly, suddenly smiled and took a step toward Iella. In contrast to her smiling face, her eyes narrowed sharply.

“Why did you win the bid for the Tear of Grace at the auction?”

Iella learned then for the first time that her round eyes could transform into such a sharp look. Perhaps it appeared that way because Ailexia was inside.

Blinking, Iella opened her lips as Ailexia narrowed her brow impatiently.

But she immediately stopped speaking. The voice she had heard the moment she saw the Tear of Grace came to mind. Iella briefly considered whether she should explain this to Ailexia as well.

She wasn’t sure if Ailexia would believe her, and she couldn’t think of a good way to explain the warning not to hand over the jewel.

After contemplation, Iella spoke again, omitting that part.

“I want to return to my original body too. I thought if you went as far as an illegal auction in my body, it must be related to that. I thought it might be an item that could help.”

“If you thought we had the same goal, you could have just let me win the bid. I could have used it more effectively since I can move more freely than you who’s stuck in the secondary palace.”

“That’s……”

It was a valid point. In reality, Iella had repeatedly failed to escape and had never left the secondary palace.

Unable to find a rebuttal, Iella bit her lip, and seeing this, Ailexia exhaled an irritated sigh. Ailexia pressed her throbbing forehead and reproached Iella.

“Thanks to you, it’s become harder to get the Tear of Grace. Seeing that you haven’t been able to do anything so far, it must be in that man’s hands now. Right?”

“By that man, do you mean His Grace the Grand Duke?”

“Yes! That person!”

Ailexia, who had been reproaching Iella sarcastically, suddenly spoke in a highly irritated voice. She seemed displeased just by the mention of the Grand Duke. It was such obvious antipathy that even Iella could clearly see it.

Iella suddenly became curious about the reason but swallowed her question. It wasn’t her concern.

“He probably wanted to use this as an excuse to get involved with me. Ha! What a creepy and filthy character. He’s so desperate to fulfill his desires!”

But hearing Ailexia’s voice filled with disgust, Iella felt anger rising within her involuntarily.