“I’m… listening to you now without any doubt, aren’t I? I’m sure I would have done the same then……”

“Jeff, you immediately shut down women who approach you at parties.”

“That’s……”

“I just moved in the direction with the higher probability. There’s nothing for you to regret, and it’s not that I couldn’t rely on you. It’s just… that was the situation. Anyway, things worked out well.”

Estelle spoke composedly with a deliberately bright voice.

“Are you going to keep making a big deal out of nothing? Don’t. I was really fine.”

“Estelle……”

Seeing her friendly gaze without any malice, the guilt in Jeff’s heart withered.

“I will never… ever hurt you again. I swear to the Goddess with everything I have. Really……”

Jeff thought his actions were base, but he convinced himself that he couldn’t take away the only trust from her who had experienced long frustration.

“You’re being dramatic.”

Estelle burst into laughter at Jeff’s resolute pledge, like a knight swearing loyalty to his lord.

“Then, I’ll use you to my heart’s content. Being able to control House Alexis as I please… that’s quite reassuring.”

At her satisfied response, Jeff relaxed his stiffened expression and showed a faint smile.

“More importantly, from now on, I plan to touch the holy relics of all houses. I’m curious if other holy relics will also give me abilities. Since I inherit abilities different from those passed down through families, if I do it right, I might be able to get rid of this damn regression ability.”

“Estelle… you’ve essentially gained a power no different from immortality. Is there a reason you want to eliminate the ability even at the risk of danger?”

Numerous emotions spread across Estelle’s pale white face.

“……At first, I too had many attachments to life. But starting over alone while everything else remains the same, it was very difficult. Life was sacred precisely because it happened only once.”

The memories she kept to herself were painful. As she experienced successive deaths, she acutely felt that loneliness could not be filled by anything.

“I’m struggling not to repeat the terrible past, but I don’t want to repeat this process again.”

A beginning could only be perfected when there was an end.

“I want to make efforts without regrets, enjoy the happiness given to me, and then meet a dignified rest like everyone else.”

Estelle didn’t want to become a saintess. However, it was her destiny. But regression was a mistake chosen by her foolish past. She wished to undo that mistake.

“I’ll go all the way. The Goddess must have made a mistake in giving me this ability. If not that, then there must be some grand purpose unknown to mere humans. Whatever it is, the fact that it’s not reasonable for me remains unchanged. But what can I do, I can’t just sit idle.”

In Jeff’s eyes, her strong will shone more nobly than anything else. And the shadow that emerged just as much covered the sin in his heart.

“Jeff, so about that, if we return to Alphion, could you show me the holy relic?”

“Well… I’m curious too about whether you react to other holy relics, and there’s no reason I can’t show you House Alexis’s holy relic, but……”

Jeff sighed deeply with an extremely troubled face.

“…It’s gone.”

“What do you mean gone?”

“Our family’s holy relic was stolen.”

Estelle looked dumbfounded.

“Is that… even possible?”

The holy relic could be seen as a very important medium that passes down a family’s special ability. Worth more than a family heirloom, it wasn’t something just anyone could see.

No wonder approaching a holy relic in the imperial palace alone was considered treason.

“Well… On the day I inherited the ability, I was troubled and a bit careless……”

The disappearance of House Alexis’s holy relic was a shameful secret known only to Jeff’s direct subordinates.

Jeff couldn’t bring himself to tell her that it happened while he was playing with the holy relic while drunk. He couldn’t afford to be crowned not only as a homosexual but also as a pathetic drunkard.

“Don’t worry. I’ve sent a pursuit team to find it, so we should be able to recover it soon.”

Jeff’s face somehow flushed hot, and he wanted nothing more than to hide in a mouse hole. It was no wonder she didn’t feel a lady’s shyness toward him. Even by his own assessment, he looked like a tremendous fool with no trace of masculinity to be found.

“I’ll show it to you as soon as we find it. Or… I could ask Kyle. That insensitive guy might surprisingly give permission easily.”

“……”

Estelle made a sour face. The Duke of Adrian, whom she had only briefly encountered, was at best an extremely prickly character. His aura was so frightening that when she approached him, she trembled too much to even look him in the eye properly, but his image remained vivid in her memory.

His first impression was that of a crow in a single word. Black hair. Pitch-black pupils resembling chaos. Except for skin so pale it was white and his red lips, he was completely black from head to toe. His atmosphere was like that, and the energy he emitted was darkness itself.

‘Not to mention… that aura……’

The spider web-like aura that Estelle saw in her eyes seemed fragile enough to break. He was in a state no different from being consumed by darkness, and the situation was so serious that it was surprising he hadn’t gone berserk already.

This was also why Jeff was trying to forcibly take her to purify him.

“Estelle, how was it in the past? I mean… before the regression. You’ve already met Caesar before, right? That guy has been avoiding me lately, so I haven’t sent word that I’m coming.”

“Yes. He knew nothing about it.”

The Duke of Adrian had looked at her with eyes that seemed to see an unpleasant lump rather than showing surprise.

“He didn’t… welcome us, did he?”

Even though they were friends, Jeff seemed to be quite objective.

[Jeff, don’t be tiresome, just take that back.]

Estelle shrugged and answered.

“It wasn’t bad.”

“Did he receive purification from you?”

That day, barely suppressing her fear, her outstretched finger had brushed the hem of his robe, but…

[If you touch my body one more time, I’ll cut off the part that touched me, understand?]

Caesar’s voice was low and thick, as if pressing the surrounding air to the ground. That’s why she still recognized it so vividly, as if it still resonated in her eardrums.

[Get lost, ugly.]

“Yes, he received it.”

Estelle spoke the lie with a smile on her lips.

* * *

The tavern in the village near the outer wall was always bustling with people. Having operated in the same place for a long time, it had many regulars, and travelers would deliberately make time to stop by to taste the owner’s sweet apple cider sold only there.

Even nobles who looked down on commoners’ food would secretly come to buy and drink it, which was enough to gauge the depth of its intoxication.

At a table by the window, a man was waiting for someone. The man was wrapped in a hooded robe, and while his identity couldn’t be discerned, everyone was certain he was of noble birth.

It was because not a single wrinkle marred the purple robe adorned with long golden ear-of-wheat embroidery, and he even carried the scent of powdery roses. Judging by the sturdy physique of the man who clearly showed signs of a privileged upbringing, he appeared to be a noble young man in his early to mid-twenties.

Since it was common for nobles to wrap themselves up to save face when going out, the tavern people didn’t find the man who was uniquely shining alone strange.

Jingle.

As the door with a bell opened, a guest with a similar appearance walked in. People secretly watched her walking to the man’s table before averting their gaze.

The woman, who had unconsciously tried to push back her hood, noticed her surroundings and clicked her tongue. She sat across from the man, raising one hand lightly in greeting.

“Why did you ask to meet in such an unsuitable place?”

The woman’s speech was polite, but by any measure, her tone was not welcoming to the man. It was not just sharp but densely packed with thorns.

The man stopped a passing employee and ordered two drinks with a gesture. The employee, who caught a glimpse of the man’s face briefly revealed between the hood that gently wrapped his face, nodded with an enraptured expression.

“This is called a landmark of the capital.”

The man straightened his head and slightly raised one corner of his mouth, shadowed.

“It’s also a place my brother wanted to introduce to you, Duke Biastes.”

“……”

To dare mention him with that cunning tongue. Cecil Biastes, the female Duke of the West, glared disapprovingly at the viper before her. She fidgeted, making no attempt to hide her desire to leave this place as soon as possible.

“What do you want to say?”