To Ariana, who didn’t know the outside of the palace yet, Adelia’s story was like an exciting novel.

Knowing everything, Adelia narrowed her eyes and fell into thought for a moment.

‘He should know that keeping her locked up in a greenhouse isn’t always safe.’

They raised her with overprotection, feeding her the best food, dressing her in the best clothes, and showing her the best things. The palace was spacious and it contained various entertainments and scenery, but no matter how vast the palace was, it couldn’t have everything.

There was no bustling market, no children playing innocently, no high mountains or beautiful seas.

No matter how much they covered Ariana’s eyes and raised her in a greenhouse, they couldn’t block the information coming from outside. The princess, having heard about various things outside the palace, wanted to go out, and the Emperor strongly opposed. Perhaps it was natural for things to happen.

‘I don’t intend to stop the second escape. Rather, I’ll help with the escape then.’

Ariana’s second escape was with the male protagonist. Knowing what happened there, she had no intention of stopping it, even if she helped. The safe and happy journey made Ariana and the male protagonist closer, and it was a very important event where the two pledged their love.

‘The first escape absolutely must not happen. Even if I have to go against His Majesty the Emperor, I don’t mind as long as I can prevent that tragedy.’

She frowned at the thought of the tragedy in the original work that occurred after she escaped secretly without escorts.

Unable to bear the Emperor’s overprotection, the princess escaped. And the events that unfolded when the hidden villain who had been watching the princess and kidnapped her were the darkest part of the original work.

It hadn’t happened yet, and since Adelia had taken the power of the villain who created the tragedy, the possibility of it repeating was low. But there were still groups threatening the imperial family.

The identity of the group that shot arrows last time hadn’t been revealed yet, and they couldn’t be sure that new dangers wouldn’t occur.

‘At least if she has the artifact I gave her, she should be safe, but she might leave everything behind when she runs away.’

The necklace showcased at the banquet was now hanging around the princess’s neck in a simple form with just the artifact attached, after removing various small decorations.

Various spells were cast on it for the princess’s safety, including location tracking. Knowing this fact, it was obvious that she would take off the necklace when running away.

So it was important to eliminate her reason for running away in the first place.

‘And I hope Her Highness isn’t confined to the palace like in the original work. Children should grow up experiencing many things.’

No matter how much she thought about it, she concluded that the princess should go out. If she gets used to going out safely, there would be no need for her to run away dangerously alone, and she could grow up seeing many things like a normal child.

Then, the first step was for Ariana to have a firm desire to go out.

Having made up her mind, Adelia smiled softly with her eyes curved into crescents.

“Then shall I show you?”

Ariana tilted her head quietly as if she didn’t understand.

Without further explanation, Adelia lightly closed her eyes and put her hands together. Soon, a shimmering blue light burst from her hands, and when she opened her empty hands, a small magic stone appeared.

Seeing the blue magic stone that looked like Adelia’s eyes, Ariana asked with round eyes.

“What is this?”

“It’s a memory stone made by mixing special magic with the original recording stone.”

“A memory stone?”

“As the name suggests, it shows memories. I’ve kept memories of beautiful things I’ve seen. I can extract them separately and play them like this.”

Adelia tapped the memory stone. Then, along with light, a misty smoke puffed out.

The smoke swirled in the air and then gathered into one like flour dough. And like a sky clearing of fog, the center gradually became transparent, and the exact scenery Adelia had described unfolded within the smoke.

Ariana let out a short exclamation at the sight that looked as if it had been plucked right out of that place. Then she stared blankly at it, unable to take her eyes off, absorbing every detail of the scene.

She looked intently like a child seeing the sky for the first time. Adelia smiled bitterly at her appearance of wanting to remember everything from start to finish.

“This is the second gift. If you tap it twice, the video you just saw will play again.”

“Isn’t this precious? Is it okay for me to receive it?”

“It’s the only one in the world right now, but I can make more anytime. So this one is yours, Your Highness.”

Adelia placed the memory stone in Ariana’s hand.

As she sees the outside of the palace, her desire to go out will grow stronger.

Whether she knew Ariana’s thoughts or not, Ariana preciously held the memory stone with both hands. It was a careful touch, as if she was handling dandelion seeds.

“Thank you, sister… You’re really the best!”

Her red eyes curved with a pure light, pleased.

The pure and bright smile, like the rising sun in the morning, seemed to purify even the dark future.

Although Adelia’s conscience ached at the pure and transparent smile, she could do even more if it meant preventing tragedy.

Ariana replayed the video several times on the spot. Adelia’s lips naturally curled up seeing her smiling and enjoying it.

Only after watching it about five more times did Ariana realize and turn off the memory stone, hugging it preciously to her chest.

“I watched this too much with you right in front of me…”

“It’s okay. Even I would have done the same if I had such an interesting and beautiful object.”

Adelia shrugged and smiled leisurely. Ariana blushed and smiled shyly at the action meant to reassure her.

“Hehe… By the way, this is so amazing! To show memories exactly the same… Why hasn’t there been something this good until now?”

“It’s a slightly modified version of magic from ancient times. Originally, it was magic that showed all memories, but I modified it a bit to show only visually recorded memories. Then I combined it with a video stone.”

“I’ve never heard of magic that shows memories before. It sounds good, but why was it in ancient times and not now?”

“Well… There are side effects.”

“Side effects?”

Ariana asked with round eyes. Faced with her curious gaze, Adelia let out a groan and turned her gaze away.

Her mind was full of worries. It was important to satisfy a child’s curiosity, but there were many terrible facts that were too much for a young child to know.

‘There’s always a reason why magic is forbidden. The process of creating it is too horrific, I wonder if I should explain…’

If it was possible to extract one’s own and others’ memories, magicians jumped into experiments with the significant purpose of being able to hide the truth.

In ancient times, when the rules of magic were not established, countless magicians went mad while repeating experiments until memory magic could be demonstrated clearly and precisely.

One of them, with a crazed mind and genius magical ability, harmed countless people, and this magic became forbidden magic, disappearing into history without a trace.

‘That’s why there’s no trace left and even the data disappeared. I only know because of the information that flowed in when I obtained white magic. Even though I can’t use the original magic as it is, it’s quite useful when modified.’

Although the formula was very complex, in this era, the rules of magic were established, and combined with Adelia’s unique method, it was magic newly supplemented and created.

It required much more magic power than before, so commercialization was difficult. Still, Adelia, who had more magic power than others, was using it conveniently when she needed to record something secretly.

After pondering for a moment, Adelia finally decided to heavily edit the cruel story and began explaining in a way suitable for all ages.

“To explain it simply, human memories are stored in a room with thousands of identical doors. To find the memory I want, I have to open all those doors and look into the rooms. Now, what do you think happens to the magic caster?”

“Ah! It takes a lot of energy!”

“That’s right. It requires a considerable amount of magic power. And you have to see and feel the memories in that room to know if it’s the one you’re looking for or not.”