That one was the <Post-Fainting Pepper Spray>, next to it was the <Squeaky-Clean Grime-Be-Gone>, and below that was the <Freshly-Caught Hairtail Glow>.

Each and every one of them was a medicine made by her own hands, and so each was precious beyond measure.

Irena opened the lid of the box placed at the very top.

￦82~84￦ Lachichi 3, hammerflower root 34g, golden helmet stem 24g……

It was a trial-stage ‘death-feigning medicine.’ A medicine that, once drunk, would cause all vital signs to cease as though dead, then return after a set period of time.

The small problem was that the ‘returning’ part was not easy.

‘It seems to be a concentration issue after all.’

Irena’s gaze moved toward the rachichi berries.

The rachichi berry, determined to be the most suitable ingredient out of 84 pharmaceutical experiments.

A secret medicinal ingredient that was as hard to obtain as plucking a star from the sky, with a price that bled one dry, and a processing method unknown to the world at large.

There was only one place in the entire empire where it could be obtained, no matter how thoroughly one searched.

‘I really do not want to go there……’

When she tried to list the reasons, a face wearing a mask naturally came along with them.

Irena scrunched her face as though she had bitten into something astringent.

But no clever alternative came to mind. Reluctant as she was, she packed the medicines she had prepared one by one.

2 bottles of <All-Together>, 7 bottles of <Wake-Up-Three-Hours-Later>, 3 boxes of <This-Deserves-Highest-Praise>, 14 bundles of <Hair-Growth-Remedy-for-the-Follicly-Challenged>, 14 boxes of <Pain-Free-Hair-Removal>, and so on.

As Irena was tying up the bulging opening of her backpack, Parcha carefully added a word.

“You need to rest, and yet you say you are going there again?”

“I have to go. Fortunately, it seems I’ll be able to cover the payment.”

“That is not what I mean. That place is too……”

“Parcha.”

Irena’s voice was firm. Parcha pressed her lips shut.

On the days after Irena returned from the main house, Parcha would always treat her as though she were a newborn child.

‘And she is even younger than me.’

Irena found that overprotectiveness both amusing and welcome.

The maid who was normally meek and compliant with every word would, at certain moments, behave like an angry squirrel.

At times like those, Irena would smile at Parcha just like this. Softly and kindly, but elegantly and firmly.

“Parcha, do not forget our promise. You are using me for medicine for your ailing siblings, and I am using you to escape this place. That is what we are to each other.”

“……Yes.”

“So let us each do our best in our respective roles. Do not ask for anything more than that.”

Irena spoke more coldly than necessary.

It was not words directed at Parcha. It was closer to words directed at herself, at the part of her that was trying to grow weak.

Parcha wilted like a squirrel whose acorn had been taken away.

Irena put on a worn robe. The rattling bottles clinked against each other inside the backpack.

“……I’ll be back.”

She did not hear a reply.

* * *

Behind the annex stretched a vast forest.

The black forest of Walterburg. A forest where no light entered due to the trees that had grown tall as if in competition with one another, dark as its name suggested even in the middle of the day.

Into it, Irena stepped without hesitation.

“Hh. Hah……”

Around the time the air grew heavy like a sealed room with not a single window, Irena looked back.

‘It seems to have grown even denser.’

Both the number and size of the trees seemed to have doubled compared to when she had first seen them. As though growing with a will of its own.

The reason was related to the owner of the forest.

And that owner was……

[Young contractor. Have you finally come to make a deal with me?]

Irena looked up toward the youthful voice coming from above.

On the thick branch of a great old tree, a girl clothed entirely in shades of red was dangling her legs.

[Have you decided to tell me what you want? Go ahead and say it. I am a merciful queen, so as the medium of the promise, your eyes or fingers rather than your heart would be perfectly acceptable.]

The girl smiled brightly and tilted her chin up slightly.

Irena recalled the first time she had seen the queen.

It was the day she had fallen for the duchess’s scheme and been abandoned in the forest where wolves roamed.

[Who are you to cry so freely on my land? Your noisy wailing has woken me from my sleep, so how do you intend to compensate me?]

‘Ugh, hh. Wh, what, who are you.’

[Ha! You? You? How dare you address this body, who has lived for eons and is the pinnacle of purity, as ‘you’? What an insufferably noisy and fearless little brat!]

When she fiercely raised her eyes and shouted, Irena urgently raised a finger to her lips.

‘Y, you’re the noisy one. Be, be quiet. There are w, wolves here!’

[Hmph, so wolves are frightening but I am not? Every inch of this land is mine, so what do a few wolves matter.]

At a single arrogant wave of her hand, the howling of the wolves that had been circling nearby grew distant. Irena wiped her tear-streaked cheeks and let her eyes shine.

‘What? You did that?’

[Obviously. As the embodiment of ancient magic, there is nothing this body cannot do.]

‘Then why are you tied up here?’

[What?]

‘There, there is a red thread tied behind you.’

A trembling hand pointed directly behind her.

Following the direction of her fingertip, the queen turned her head and stared at Irena for a long moment before smiling arrogantly.

[It is you. My fated contractor.]

Irena, who had been reminiscing about something from quite long ago, gazed quietly at the being in the tree.

Crimson hair that curled and fell to her ankles, white and translucent skin. An arrogant and cruel expression. A youthful face that had not aged in the slightest compared to back then.

It was plain at a glance that she was no ordinary being.

Irena readjusted the bag pressing down on her shoulders.

“We made a proper contract. I do not need anything beyond that.”

Her tone was somewhat prickly, but she paid it no mind.

This pinnacle-of-purity ancient being would remain a child forever, even after eons had passed.

But the child who had sobbed in fear of wolves had grown up and become a sad adult, too busy finding her own way to survive.

“In this day and age, who would offer up a body part to make a wish. It is precisely because you push such unfair terms that you end up bound by contract to a little brat.”

The red bird queen had asked Irena to find her physical body in exchange for lending her power.

Of course, she had no intention of releasing this high-efficiency magical computing life form graciously.

A contract, what a powerful and sweet word that was.

The red thread visible behind the queen was, to Irena, a pouch that produced magic when pulled, a fool’s pouch, or rather, a treasure pouch.

[That, that, that insolent mortal.]

The red bird queen was a little put out. After meeting for the first time in a while and playing a small prank, to receive such a cold reaction.

She had no idea who her contractor’s temperament took after to turn out that way.

With a swoosh, the red bird queen leaped down from the tree and landed lightly before Irena.

[Irena, no matter how fond I am of you, sometimes like this……]

The red bird queen abruptly stopped mid-sentence.

The vivid red pupils, slit vertically, were fixed on Irena’s abdomen.

Her voice, compared to just moments ago, turned cold beyond comparison.

[……You, who did this to you?]

In an instant, the air froze.

The leaves that had been swaying gently as if in playful delight shuddered and went still. It was the moment the forest, sensing its owner’s fury, held its breath.

The red bird queen’s body rose into the air.

[What I permitted was mischief within my domain and nothing more. I allowed even the making of that laughably weak medicine since there is no place within the Walterburg ducal estate beyond my reach. But this……]

The rim of her red eyes shone brilliantly gold. Around the genuinely enraged queen, a vivid red aura surged and swelled.

[What is the meaning of this?]

From far away, a rumble shook the earth.

‘The queen is truly furious.’

Her fingertips tingled as though an electric current passed through them. Irena furrowed her brow at the pressure, like being squeezed inside a tightly wound rubber tube.

[How dare anyone do this to my contractor.]

A cruel light flickered across her pale face.

Irena felt it viscerally.

This is bad.

‘This is exactly why I was reluctant to come.’

She had had a feeling it would come to this the moment she drank the Haibick. Even so……

“……That is why.”

[What?]

Forcing her way through the heavily descending air, Irena abruptly lifted her head.

“I am genuinely busy. I would appreciate it if you did not get angry.”

[What did you say?]

Irena scrunched her face, finding it uncomfortable to breathe.

“I understand that you are angry, but I need to be on my way, so could you cast the spell for me?”

[Ha!]

“Today is the day I go to sell medicine, so make it Oliver.”

The red bird queen pressed a hand to the back of her neck as though she felt a strain there.

She does not even have blood, so what is there to strain. Irena pouted.

She had bound her sense of existence to Irena through the contract. Irena’s danger would be her danger as well.

That was why, every time they met, she would say half-jokingly that they should form a stronger contract.

‘So what of it?’

She understood that she was angry, but there was no reason to indulge it.

A contract was bilateral, and as the queen herself had said, she was a transcendent being and Irena was a mere human, so the risk of contract breach always fell on Irena’s side.

Something about her soul being shattered so that she could never be reincarnated again. To Irena’s ears, it sounded like a story from a world too far away to concern her.

“And while you are at it, fixing my stomach as well would be appreciated.”

You rescue a carriage from a ditch and it demands a fare. Irena loved that kind of proverb most of all.

No parent can win against their child. That was also a truly satisfying proverb.

[How did I end up with such an ungrateful mortal……!]