Faced with Alicia’s gaze, colder than the frost wind, the head maid could not say another word. This was not the Alicia she had known until now.

“What are you waiting for? Keep going.”

At Alicia’s words, the beating resumed.

Thwack. Thwack.

“Aaaargh!”

A horrific scene unfolded as flesh split open, but Alicia clenched her teeth and took in every moment of it.

‘I can’t waver. Half-hearted mercy changes nothing.’

She needed to make it unmistakably clear that she had changed.

A decision that had to be made.

With a hardened heart, she watched every step of the flogging through to its end.

Thwack. Thwack thwack.

The maids lost consciousness before even twenty strikes had landed. Everyone watching went rigid with fear.

Left out in the cold wind like that, they could lose their lives, yet no one dared step forward. Then Alicia looked at the head maid.

“All right. Take those two and have them treated.”

The onlookers finally exhaled with relief. But Alicia’s punishment was not yet finished.

“And the moment they wake, send them to the northern exile.”

The retainers’ eyes wavered.

“The northern exile…… that’s a place no one comes back from alive, isn’t it?”

It was a far harsher sentence than the flogging.

The frightened whispers of those around her carried to Alicia on the wind.

The retainers trembled as they looked at her, their eyes filled with a fear reserved for something monstrous. But Alicia only smiled.

It did not matter what she became, so long as she could complete her revenge.

‘Even a demon, if that’s what it takes……’

She gripped her trembling fingertips and steadied herself.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Late at night.

Rumors of the changed Miss Alicia had spread rampantly through the comital residence.

“They say the Miss has become a different person.”

“Exactly. Her eyes, her whole manner, everything has changed. Like she’s become someone else entirely.”

The transformation in Alicia was so stark it had left no small amount of shock in its wake. But some of them were quick to glance around nervously.

“It won’t come back on us too, will it?”

Then,

“It won’t.”

The maids flinched at the voice behind them. They turned, and their expressions stiffened.

“A, Alicia, Miss……”

It was Alicia.

She approached slowly and looked over each of their faces in turn.

“As long as you don’t do anything foolish.”

The images of Sonya and Anna flashed through the maids’ minds. They swallowed hard at the thought of the two being sent to the exile grounds in broken, battered condition.

“……We will keep that in mind.”

Shoulders trembling faintly.

Heads bowed low. Eyes shrunk with fear.

The thoroughly frightened maids retreated.

It was a sight that felt strangely familiar.

‘I wonder if Mother felt this way when she looked at me.’

The memory of herself, always trembling with fear and moving only at someone else’s command, surfaced in her mind.

‘Now I understand why you did what you did to me.’

People moved faster out of fear than out of consideration. The maids’ every action had become careful to a fault. It was the result of just a few days of change.

“……”

Alicia sent even Rina away and walked slowly through the garden to clear her thoughts.

She breathed in the cold night air and walked at an unhurried pace along the moonlit snow path.

Then, from the other end of the garden path, a familiar voice reached her.

“You seem to have no shortage of nerve.”

A moment later, the figure that gradually revealed itself in the moonlight was none other than Grand Duke Evander.

An unexpected encounter in an unexpected place.

Alicia did her best to conceal her tension and asked,

“What brings Your Highness out at this hour?”

“That is precisely what I would like to ask you. The woman who is to become Grand Duchess in a week’s time, out walking alone in the night.”

The words alone might have sounded warm, but his expression and voice were as cold as ever. Alicia kept her composure and met his gaze.

“I was thinking.”

“About the two maids who attempted to poison you?”

“How did you know?”

“It was loud enough that it would have been impossible not to.”

Grand Duke Evander turned and began walking. Alicia followed naturally behind him as he led the way.

“I underestimated Helena. She is more formidable than I gave her credit for. I moved in complete secrecy, yet she had already made her move against you.”

She was a woman who had killed her own father the Emperor and her brothers, and swallowed the Empire whole. This was only the beginning.

“This much is nothing to be surprised by. She will only grow more ruthless from here.”

Grand Duke Evander’s dark eyes turned back to her.

“You speak of her as though you know her well. Have you ever met Helena?”

Alicia drew in a quiet breath.

Outwardly, she had never met Helena in person.

‘I need to be careful……’

Alicia kept her composure and spoke again.

“There is not a single lady in the principality who has not heard the rumors about Helena.”

The Grand Duke studied her for a moment, then nodded.

“I see. Regardless, this incident showed me something promising.”

“It was nothing more than surviving.”

“Yes. Exactly.”

Grand Duke Evander turned his head and looked at Alicia.

“Above all else, what I need is you, alive.”

A low, dispassionate voice.

Within his dark eyes, only the flame of vengeance burned.

“……”

“……”

The two of them stood in silence for a moment, looking at each other.

They had nothing to say to one another beyond their mutual need. They had agreed to exchange vows as husband and wife, yet they were two people who knew the least about each other.

And then,

“Your Highness the Grand Duke.”

Lieutenant Derick came running toward them in haste.

“What is it?”

“A massive demonic beast has appeared on the northeastern front. The knight order has deployed, but the casualties appear to be considerable.”

Grand Duke Evander’s eyes narrowed.

“I depart immediately. Have the forces readied.”

“Your command will be carried out.”

Lieutenant Derick bowed his head and received the order.

He then offered a quick greeting to Alicia as well before hurrying out of the garden.

“I had intended to stay a few days, but I must leave.”

“Please take care of yourself.”

“Naturally.”

With a brief farewell, the Grand Duke turned to go. But then,

Whoosh.

A cold gust of wind swept in from somewhere.

“……”

Grand Duke Evander glanced back at her and then stepped toward Alicia.

His tall frame closed the distance in long strides, and Alicia hesitated. Then,

Thud.

Grand Duke Evander removed his thick outer coat and draped it over her shoulders.

“The night air in Darlington is colder than I expected.”

It was a gesture that looked almost tender.

But his voice carried no warmth, and Alicia looked up at him in silence.

“You need to stay healthy. At least until I have achieved my purpose.”

A single sentence that made the nature of their relationship newly apparent.

Grand Duke Evander turned and walked away. Watching his figure disappear into the distance, Alicia quietly touched the cloak he had left behind.

“……”

His warmth still lingered in it.

It was the only warmth left in the cold garden.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Through the night, Grand Duke Evander’s soldiers moved out in a thick haze toward the front lines in urgent formation.

It was a chaotic period, with monsters appearing at all hours without warning. Just as history had recorded, it was an age of turmoil.

The trouble was not confined to the northern front.

The Windmore comital household also needed to prepare for the chaos soon to come.

The assassination of her parents. And the collapse of the domain that would follow.

All of it had been part of Helena’s scheme, aimed at seizing the Darlington domain.

A barren and impoverished domain.

But the true purpose Helena had been after was,

The magic stones.

‘The military funds desperately needed to cover the cost of war against the neighboring Kingdom of Gades and the expenses of subjugating monsters. The only reason the principality’s strained finances could bear those staggering costs was the magic stone mine in the Darlington domain.’

That must also be why Helena came seeking out a northern count’s daughter she had never cared about before.

In the end, the root of every disaster was the enormous quantity of magic stones buried beneath the domain.

Remarkably, Helena had known about the magic stones buried in the Darlington domain long before she ever took Seraphiel in.

There was only one way Helena could have known about the magic stones before even the count and countess, the domain’s own masters, did.

Someone was secretly leaking the information.

Alicia already had a strong suspect in mind. It was something she had to resolve before leaving for the capital.

Standing by the window, Alicia slowly surveyed the comital residence.

The manor that had been seized by the principality and burned to the ground after her parents’ deaths stood intact before her now.

There is still time to change it.

Alicia clenched her small fist and looked toward Rina.

“Rina, you said your younger brother has a wide network, didn’t you?”