When Charlotte arrived at the Second Prince’s palace, she walked towards the prince’s room.

Agnes was still clinging silently to her shoe.

[Since my son is suddenly suffering from a high fever and cannot move from his bed…]

He recalled the letter.

The clearly remembered phrase suddenly seemed strange.

Can one have a conversation with someone who can’t move from bed? At the very least, one needs to be able to control their body normally to have a conversation.

If the Saint had come all the way from the Imperial Palace to the Second Prince’s residence, which was quite far, he questioned whether that letter was true.

Agnes would soon face the truth.

“Your Highness. His Majesty the Emperor’s condition is concerning.”

As if expecting Charlotte’s visit, Forcite naturally welcomed her into his room.

Not only was Forcite’s voice clear, but his body was perfectly fine—sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed while polishing his sword, he even appeared relaxed.

“He seemed to be healing, but then returned to his original state. I used all my holy power today, but he didn’t heal at all.”

“Then there’s nothing to be done.”

“…Pardon?”

Charlotte asked again. She truly thought she had misheard.

Even though he was born out of wedlock and was only formally adopted into the imperial family later, there was no way he could be so calm when his father had collapsed.

Moreover, it was impossible to show such a reaction when told there was no progress in healing.

Forcite still showed no emotion, and his expression remained bland.

Instead, he polished his sword so diligently that the blade not only gleamed but reflected light, shining brightly.

“By the way, Charlotte.”

“…Yes, Your Highness.”

It was a quiet and eerie silence.

The sound of Charlotte’s saliva going down her throat echoed clearly.

Forcite’s gaze moved from the sword to Charlotte’s shoe.

“You’ve brought something with you.”

……Caught!

Agnes felt goosebumps all over his body. His eyes met directly with Forcite’s.

Even though he had transformed into a mouse small enough to be invisible to human eyes and had properly concealed his energy, he never expected to be so perfectly detected.

Clang-!

While he was thinking, the sword Forcite was holding brushed past him.

‘……!’

Agnes realized that the energy he had felt in the Emperor’s room was not just rippling but overflowing from the tip of the sword.

That sharp movement just now wasn’t the skill he remembered from when they had fought evenly in the past.

Yet he couldn’t transform into an adult or a dragon in this situation.

Swords, appearing from who knows where, flew at him one after another.

Agnes crawled with all his might and barely escaped from there.

‘……I see, there was an error in the letter.’

He continued running frantically even long after leaving the imperial grounds.

‘That Saint could have easily healed a high fever, so there’s no way the Emperor would have written that in the letter.’

Thinking about it carefully, the letter itself was a trap.

The black something swirling in the Second Prince’s eyes when their gazes met. And the black aura stretched thinly from his room to somewhere else.

‘The Second Prince is definitely up to something.’

Without a doubt, the Second Prince was strongly suppressing the Emperor.

***

Night passed, dawn passed.

Morning finally came, but the person Merrien had been waiting for so desperately did not return to the mansion.

Not even a brief letter arrived.

Instead, Agnes came to visit.

“Merrien. I have something urgent to tell you.”

“…Did you find something?”

Instead of answering, Agnes looked Merrien up and down carefully.

He had already heard from the butler that the Saint had skipped breakfast and was worried, but he hadn’t expected it to be this bad.

Whether she had spent the night with her eyes open, her appearance was not just haggard but wretched.

How much had she been tormented during less than a day?

Her cheeks were sunken, and her already thin body staggered as if it would break if she didn’t lean on something or lie down immediately.

Despite this, when he arrived, she moistened her parched lips with her tongue, and her eyes showed signs of life—it was enough to make one feel sorry for her.

“Let’s have breakfast first.”

“The story first.”

“I’ll tell you if you have a meal. If you collapse, Ariel will kill me.”

“……”

Perhaps it was reassuring that he mentioned Ariel in a playful way. Merrien, who seemed to have come to her senses a bit, rubbed her arms.

‘I snapped at him when we had barely met.’

Even though she thought a dragon wouldn’t do such a thing, perhaps her subconscious was scolding him needlessly.

Worried about Ariel, she had become so sensitive that she took out her anger on an innocent person.

Not only had he infiltrated the imperial palace, but she had also spoken harshly to someone who had come out of concern.

When Mr. Nes must be the most troubled right now.

“Yes, alright. I’m sorry for being sharp with you, Mr. Nes.”

“It’s fine.”

Agnes exaggerated a smile, trying to lift the gloomy atmosphere.

He received food from the servants who had been worrying about Merrien outside the door.

Steam was rising from the reheated soup and bread.

His large hands, making the spoon he held look small, scooped up an appropriate amount of soup.

Showing care by blowing on it gently in case it might burn her mouth, he naturally tried to hand over the spoon, but then flinched.

He quickly changed the direction of the spoon.

He had almost fed her as one would a lover.

He had been unconsciously mimicking the action Merrien took when giving medicine during healing sessions. Agnes pulled at his suddenly burning earlobe while turning his head away.

“…Please eat.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Fortunately, Merrien’s blank gaze was directed somewhere between empty space and the food, so Agnes’s absurd action went unnoticed.

Merrien grasped the spoon and slowly put the soup in her mouth.

One spoon, two spoons. About half the soup disappeared.

Only after watching her chew on the bread did Agnes carefully speak. By then, his flushed face had also calmed down.

“It seems the culprit is not the Emperor but the Second Prince.”

“…What?!”

Merrien, who had been repeating the action closer to putting food in her mouth rather than eating it, raised her head.

The bread in her hand fell weakly, but Agnes caught it just before it hit the floor.

“The Emperor had lost consciousness and collapsed. The person who sent the letter to Ariel a few hours before the extra edition was published. It seems only a very few people in the Imperial Palace know about this, as everyone was keeping it quiet. And Chal…”

He tried to remember the Saint’s name. Despite squinting his eyes and racking his brain, he couldn’t recall it at all.

“The other Saint tried to heal him, but he still hasn’t regained consciousness. The prince, who was said to be suffering from a high fever, showed no such signs and was perfectly fine.”

“What? Forcite was fine?”

“Yes. The letter itself was a trap. That level of illness could have been quickly healed by a Saint’s power, yet they deliberately sent him to subdue magical beasts.”

“……!”

Merrien covered her mouth. She had been so focused on the situation that she hadn’t thought about it at all.

“The prince had an ominous energy similar to magical beasts clinging all over him. That was suppressing the Emperor. I’ll need to investigate more, but…”

Agnes rolled his eyes.

“I’m certain the prince is the culprit.”

Merrien’s already pale face turned ashen. She opened and closed her mouth but couldn’t speak, as if choked.

‘……Forcite is the culprit?’

And what’s this ominous energy?

Not having read the original work to the end, this was the first time she felt so frustrated.

More than that, even if she could intellectually understand that the male protagonist of the original work had plotted this, it was difficult to accept.

Agnes carefully placed the bread he had caught earlier into Merrien’s stiff hand. His expression showed genuine concern that she might not finish her meal despite everything happening.

“It seems the one who keeps sending magical beasts is also the prince. Moreover, I tried to return to Ariel’s side, but I couldn’t. It was as if something was blocking the way.”

It seems the prince is trying to isolate Ariel.

At his final words, murmured while checking her reaction, Merrien felt as if her heart was being thrown outside her body.