Chapter 2

Just before departing for the capital.

Alicia stood at the railing and looked down.

Knowing Rina would be coming along made the long journey feel a little less daunting.

While the maids loaded the luggage onto the carriage, Alicia stood at the window for a moment and took in the domain.

‘I won’t be coming back for a while.’

A pang of longing at the sight of a home she might never return to.

Perhaps even the sky felt it.

Whoosh.

A warm breeze drifted in from somewhere and brushed past her cheek. The hanging curtains swayed gently, and warm sunlight seeped through.

The spring this year is unusually warm.

Sunlight that made even the heart feel drowsy filtered through the curtains.

Then, a butterfly with wings as beautiful as flower petals fluttered to the windowsill and rested there for a moment.

‘A butterfly……’

Alicia’s eyes wavered.

A dream she had dreamed years ago came back to her.

A bright spring day.

A dream in which a beautiful yellow butterfly had flown into her arms.

Back then, when she had been suffering as her memories slipped away, it had been the one dream that brought her any comfort.

She had not known it was a dream foretelling a child……

The pain of that day surfaced, of having missed what had been a welcome greeting from a precious gift.

A tragedy that had come during a time when neither her body nor her mind had been whole, ravaged by the poison Helena had fed her and the relentless torment she had endured.

But no matter how understandable the reasons, the guilt did not lessen even slightly.

Her closed eyes trembled faintly.

“Miss, shall we go now?”

Rina’s voice brought her back.

When she opened her eyes again, the butterfly had already vanished somewhere.

“……”

Alicia’s chest ached as she looked at the windowsill where the butterfly had rested.

All she could do was close her eyes and whisper softly.

‘Just once…… couldn’t you come back to me just once more……’

A sorrowful wish, knowing it was impossible, drifted into the empty air.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Early morning.

The entire Windmore comital household came out together to see Alicia off.

“Are you ready to go?”

Count Gallien and Countess Emily’s eyes were full of worry at having to send their sister off on such a long journey.

“Yes, please don’t worry.”

“Right, I’ve already contacted your cousin Baron Mark, so you can stay there during the ball.”

“Understood.”

Countess Emily stepped forward and took Alicia’s hands firmly in hers.

“Alicia, if anything happens, come back right away. We will always be here.”

The heartfelt worry made Alicia’s eyes grow hot. She had finally met the parents she had longed for in her dreams, and now she had to part from them again.

Unable to hold back the emotions she had been suppressing, she pulled Countess Emily into an embrace.

The warmth of a mother she had missed so dearly.

Countess Emily gently patted Alicia’s back.

“Take care of yourself.”

“Yes, I will come back. Mother……”

She hurried onto the carriage to hide the tears threatening to spill. The coachman, as though he had been waiting, cracked the whip.

“Hyah!”

With the coachman’s strong cry, the carriage set off. Count Gallien watched it grow smaller in a haze of pale dust and let out a quiet sigh.

“I hope nothing goes wrong……”

“Don’t worry too much. Lord Delpiro will watch over her.”

“Yes, Delpiro is all we can count on.”

Countess Emily nodded. But her expression soon grew clouded.

“But why do you look like that?”

The countess, who had been lost in thought for a moment, slowly opened her mouth.

“Just now, when I was saying goodbye to Alicia. She called me Mother. I’ve been wondering what she meant by it.”

“Mother?”

Count Gallien slowly stroked his beard.

“Well, what deeper meaning could there be? You raised her like a mother since she was young, so that’s probably all it was.”

The count dismissed it without much thought.

Countess Emily laughed reluctantly.

“……I suppose so.”

A wistful look settled in the countess’s eyes as she watched the carriage disappear into the distance. She clasped her hands together and prayed for Alicia, setting off on such a long road.

Meanwhile, Count Gallien unrolled the scroll once more and drew a deep breath. It was the scroll with the list Alicia had given him.

A plan no different from treason.

Dangerous enough to stake the family’s very fate on.

But why does it feel reassuring?

The changed face of his younger sister.

Within it, a small glimmer of hope had begun to show.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

The figures of the count and countess, waving their hands in farewell, were no longer visible. She repeated inwardly the words she had never managed to say aloud.

‘Father, and Mother…… please stay well until we meet again.’

A firm promise to meet again.

There was much to be done to keep that promise. Naturally, the last thing she needed to do before leaving the northern domain came to mind.

“Driver. Before we head to the capital, stop at Chaplin first.”

The coachman glanced back with an uncomfortable look.

“That will take us quite far out of the way.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s something that has to be done.”

The coachman’s words did nothing to shake Alicia’s resolve.

The carriage left the Darlington domain behind and traveled a long way down snow-covered roads.

More than half a day’s ride.

Over a snow-covered hill, a small village came into view.

The village was called Chaplin. But it was better known by its other name.

The Frozen Hill.

Snow, ice, and nothing but biting wind. It was the most notorious exile ground in the North.

“Whoa, Miss. We’ve arrived.”

“Wait here for a moment.”

Alicia stepped down from the carriage and walked forward without hesitation.

A few soldiers guarding the exile grounds recognized her and stepped aside. She cut straight through the middle of the village, packed with dangerous criminals and convicted offenders.

Crunch. Crunch. She pushed through knee-deep snow and arrived at a small stone house.

Creak. She pushed open the rotting wooden door and stepped inside.

A cold that chilled the bones.

Everything was familiar except for the small wooden cot.

“Just as I remember.”

She was thirty years back in time, yet nothing had changed. Alicia’s eyes drifted naturally to the cot.

‘I was exiled here for over a year.’

The hellish days flashed past her like a reel, days spent drowning in guilt over losing her child without ever knowing it had been Helena’s doing.

“Goodness, why do you walk so fast? I can barely breathe.”

Rina came in, gasping for air.

“But why did you want to stop at such a grim place all of a sudden?”

Even bundled in thick furs, Rina shuddered against the cold pressing in from all sides. Alicia looked around the interior slowly and spoke.

“Anna and Sonya are here, aren’t they?”

“I would assume so.”

“Bring them to me right now.”

“Pardon? Oh, yes.”

Rina hurried out. A short while later, Anna and Sonya limped in on crippled legs. The marks of the flogging were still plain to see.

“Eek.”

The moment they saw Alicia, fear seized them.

They threw themselves flat on the ground and pressed their foreheads to the floor.

“Y, you called for us, Miss?”

“Yes. I have something I need you to do.”

“P, please, just say the word.”

She had only spoken a single sentence, yet they prostrated themselves in a frantic rush. Alicia noted once again the efficiency of fear and slowly opened her mouth.

“From today, think of this place as your home and keep it clean and in order.”

“Pardon? Oh, yes……”

“Bear it in mind. There is no telling what punishment may follow if you do not.”

Gulp.

The two maids swallowed hard and nodded frantically.

“Whose orders could we possibly neglect…… We will put our very lives into keeping it in order……”

Having made herself clear, Alicia stepped back outside. Rina followed behind her, tilting her head.

“But, Miss. Why did you tell them to put this place in order?”

Alicia let out a quiet sigh and looked out toward the distant snow-capped mountains.

“Because someone will be coming to stay here soon.”

Alicia stood on the frozen hill.

Gazing out beyond the white snowscape, her eyes narrowed.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

A carriage was cutting through the open snowfield at full speed.

And behind it, a group of knights following in quiet formation.

The soldiers under Grand Duke Evander’s command were on extreme alert. Their eyes never left Alicia’s carriage ahead, watching every movement without exception.

“Why did she stop there?”

At Lieutenant Derick’s question, Grand Duke Evander looked toward the carriage that had halted near the exile grounds.

“Hard to say.”

Evander himself could not understand why she had taken such a long detour to visit the exile grounds.

His gaze drifted naturally toward Alicia.

She stood on the hill, looking out over the exile grounds. Her eyes held a tangle of complicated emotions, and there was a gravity to them, the look of someone who had made a decision.

There’s simply no predicting her.

Her behavior was so unlike the rumors that it only stirred his curiosity further.

“It looks like she’s setting off again.”

When the carriage began to move at last, Evander gave his lieutenant a quiet order.

“Escort her to the capital without being seen. There’s no telling what Helena is planning.”