“My lord, what shall we do with this man?”

The soldiers nearby asked the count.

Viscount Tymon clasped his hands together on his knees, begging.

“My lord…… please forgive me just this once. Please, please show me mercy……”

“How can you ask for forgiveness? You betrayed my trust and tried to sell out my very family.”

Anger, disappointment, and pity crossed through his heart in a tangled rush.

Sensing his wavering, Viscount Tymon reached out with trembling hands and clutched the count’s feet, pleading.

“My lord.”

The soldiers asked again.

“……”

The magic stones discovered in the mine. Viscount Tymon’s betrayal. And on top of it all, Alicia’s response, as though she had anticipated every bit of it. The shocks came one after another, and Count Gallien’s mind went blank.

“This man…… this man……”

Still unable to shake free of the shock, the count’s lips moved for a long moment without sound. Alicia stepped in on his behalf.

“Men. Throw Viscount Tymon in the dungeon and interrogate him immediately. We must find out who is behind this and how far word of this has spread.”

“Yes, understood.”

A single voice, bringing the soldiers known for their rough temperament instantly to heel. Count Gallien’s eyes wavered.

“……”

It was a strength he had never once seen in the younger sister standing before him. He swallowed unconsciously.

‘This…… is not the Alicia I knew……’

An absolute authority that radiated from her every word. A dignity that would not have been out of place coming from the imperial family itself.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

The moment they returned to the manor, Alicia interrogated Viscount Tymon herself.

Having given up on everything, Viscount Tymon confessed his crimes without resistance and laid bare every step of what had transpired.

Thanks to the quick capture of the middleman trader named Hellman, the existence of the magic stones had not yet leaked to the outside.

“He was trying to go to the capital to sell the magic stones?”

“Yes. Fortunately, we caught them both before that could happen.”

“Hmm.”

Count Gallien nodded as he received Alicia’s report. But his doubts were not yet resolved.

“But Alicia…… you’ve never even visited the mine. How did you know there were magic stones there?”

It was a question Count Gallien could not help but ask. She could not tell him she knew the future, but she had an answer prepared.

“Coal production had been steady until last spring, then dropped sharply. The mine isn’t old enough to have exhausted its resources, so I thought there had to be another reason.”

“But how did you know it was magic stones?”

The question came again.

Count Gallien was struggling that much to accept all of this.

“Not long ago, I went to a jeweler to buy some accessories and happened to hear that Viscount Tymon was looking for a major merchant. A mine manager with no fief of his own, looking for a major merchant behind your back…… it seemed suspicious, so I looked into it further. And it turned out to be a magic stone trade.”

She had prepared the answer knowing Count Gallien’s meticulous nature. Sure enough, the suspicion in his eyes slowly faded.

“Hmm. I see……”

Count Gallien accepted the truth at last, though with great difficulty. That did not mean the family’s immediate problems had been solved.

“So what do we do from here? We have neither the soldiers nor the knights to manage a magic stone mine……”

The Windmore comital household, situated in the barren north, was genuinely powerless. The very reason they had survived so many political struggles was precisely because they had no power. A magic stone mine would inevitably become prey for the powerful figures lurking all around them.

“There is a way. As long as these things are in place by the time I reach out again.”

Alicia held out a scroll she had been preparing for days. Count Gallien looked at her for a moment, then unrolled it.

He read through it carefully, then his eyes went wide.

“……”

Instructions to develop the mine in secret and use the proceeds to build up a military force. Things that would need to be handled covertly, without the principality or the surrounding nobles finding out.

In other words,

“……This is no different from treason.”

Treason. A word dangerous enough to make the heart plummet. One wrong move and the entire family could be erased. But Alicia’s eyes were perfectly calm.

“Building the strength to protect ourselves. That is the only way to protect the family and the domain.”

She was right.

If word got out that magic stones existed here, not only the principality but even the Empire, sharing a western border, could come invading. And no one understood that better than Count Gallien.

“But will this even work? It will be discovered eventually, and no matter how many soldiers we raise, they won’t compare to the principality’s knight order or the Empire……”

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

The confident tone made Count Gallien look up. Alicia opened her mouth slowly.

“Because I will become Grand Duchess.”

“……”

Count Gallien’s eyes wavered.

‘Could it be…… so that’s why she accepted His Highness Grand Duke Evander’s proposal?’

What he had taken for the greed of his extravagant younger sister, the choice he had resented as one that would lead the family to ruin, began to reveal its meaning one piece at a time.

“……There is no other choice, is there.”

A murmur that needed no answer. Count Gallien’s gaze, lost in thought, turned serious. True to his nature as the head of a household with dozens of dependents, he steeled himself.

“Then…… it must be done.”

Count Gallien steadied his breathing and slowly nodded.

Thump. Thump.

With that firm resolve, his heart began to beat with uneasy urgency.

The Darlington domain, tucked away at the northern edge of the world, overlooked by all.

From that place, the stirring of a great history began to be rewritten.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Back in her room, Alicia leaned against the door and closed her eyes. The image of her father struggling lingered before her.

‘It will be hard for him, but he has to accept it. Without strength, we will be trampled eventually.’

Days of effort, pushing through without sleep.

The potential dangers lurking within the domain had been dealt with, at least to some degree.

Only then did a breath of relief escape her.

Then, at that moment,

“Your sighs have grown heavier over these past few days. Is there something troubling you that you cannot speak of?”

There was a presence near the window, and a voice that came with it. Alicia quickly grabbed the silver candlestick beside her.

“Who’s there!”

She gripped the candlestick with both hands and aimed it toward the shadow. But then,

“Good. You won’t die easily.”

That unmistakably low voice.

A silhouette emerging beneath the moonlight breaking through the clouds.

“Evander…… Your Highness the Grand Duke?”

Instead of an answer, a large shadow landed lightly before her.

The dark-haired man striding toward her with the moon at his back was Grand Duke Evander.

Their eyes met for a brief moment.

The cold air of early dawn wrapped around them both.

“I thought you had gone to the front.”

“I did. And I resolved it.”

An answer delivered with complete ease.

It was not the manner of someone who had been on a battlefield risking their life until moments ago.

“Are you leaving for the capital tomorrow?”

“Yes. But…… what brings you here at this late hour?”

“I have something to give you.”

Grand Duke Evander reached into his coat and held something out.

“What is this?”

“Call it a gift suited to a young lady who enjoys luxury.”

A grey ring set with a gemstone.

A mysterious ring that radiated a noble power.

“It is not a simple ring. It is a magical artifact containing the power to protect you when you are in danger. I would have preferred to accompany you to the capital, but unfortunately the situation at the front does not allow for it.”

Even at a glance, it was something precious.

Feeling the weight of it, Alicia declined politely.

“I appreciate it, but I am fine. I am capable of protecting myself.”

Evander smiled faintly and nodded.

“I saw evidence of that just a short while ago. But there is always the unexpected, so take it.”

Grand Duke Evander pressed the ring into her hand.

“It is precious to me. Please keep it safe.”

His hand tightened as he placed the ring in hers.

“Then I will see you in the capital.”

With a brief farewell, he leaped lightly over the third-floor railing.

His shadow dissolved into the darkness without a sound, without a trace.

It was a movement so astonishing it felt like a dream, but one thing alone proved his visit had been real.

The smell of blood……

The smell of monster blood that lingered in the room.

And what that smell meant was,

He came rushing here without even wiping the monster blood from his body.

Alicia’s gaze drifted naturally to the ring.

Why……

The meaning of the grey ring, radiating its mysterious aura.

Even someone as perceptive as her could not unravel it.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Outside the Windmore comital residence.

Lieutenant Derick, leaning against a tree and chewing on a reed, felt a presence and straightened up.