Chapter 100: Everything I Can Do

Princess Jasmin pulled back the curtain. Having kept it drawn to prevent sunlight from altering the reagents’ properties, she hadn’t noticed time passing.

“It’s gotten quite late, won’t Marquis Adrian be worried?”

“I sent word ahead.”

Bliss gathered and tied her hair back as if preparing to get serious. Her gaze remained fixed on the reagent in the beaker, prompting Princess Jasmin to leave the curtain and approach.

“Will it work this time?”

“If it fails, we’ll just have to try again.”

Bliss looked at the array of reagent bottles she had laid out. With no significant reactions yet, the experiments continued.

Princess Jasmin sat on the sofa and looked up at Bliss with curiosity.

“You seem particularly focused on experimenting today, or am I imagining it?”

“Your Highness is correct.”

Bliss retrieved the reagent bottle from the very end.

“Why suddenly so diligent? It’s not like you’ve suddenly developed more interest.”

“Because I won’t have much time to focus on experiments like this anymore.”

She drew the reagent into a dropper and held it against the beaker’s wall. Then, very carefully, she pushed the reagent into the beaker.

“Since I don’t know what will happen from now on, I want to prepare everything I can.”

Bliss’s eyes twitched as she watched the reaction in the beaker. Princess Jasmin, who hadn’t noticed the tiny reaction, half-turned and muttered.

“You’ve really made good use of my hobby. I thought taking you in as a maid would benefit me, but it was the opposite.”

Princess Jasmin shook her head at Bliss, who had been making her collections her own.

“Father is curious about what invention you’ll create next.”

“I have something in mind.”

“Already?”

Princess Jasmin tried to recall if there had been any experiments she hadn’t known about, but nothing came to mind.

“And it’s not like giving the same thing you gave to Marquis Adrian.”

“I’ve been thinking, and I realized I don’t just have one weapon.”

Bliss approached Princess Jasmin with the beaker. At her careful movement, Princess Jasmin straightened up and looked into the beaker. Only then noticing the change in the beaker, Princess Jasmin gazed at it with fascination.

“I also have knowledge that others don’t.”

The me before becoming Bliss.

When soaking in the bath with Caelan. She recalled asking him if it would be alright to show new things even if they weren’t necessarily helpful. Perhaps that was her greatest weapon?

‘Though many things have changed now, I still know the original story’s content, so it should help.’

Bliss met Princess Jasmin’s eyes as she set the beaker down on the table.

“Would it be alright if I stayed here for a while?”

“I can provide rooms anytime, but will Marquis Adrian allow it? Can’t you come and go from the marquis’s residence like now?”

“I want to save even that time.”

“Are you really… sure about this?”

“Yes. I sent a letter, so he’ll understand.”

Bliss smiled prettily.

‘I told him to come visit if he feels like he’ll go crazy missing me.’

She could experiment here, and he could visit when he wanted.

***

“The succession at House Blast was quietly completed, they say.”

This meant the heir had become duke. They would likely keep the duke’s residence locked and refrain from official activities for a while, essentially staying quiet.

If so, this meant the empire’s affairs would now flow around Caelan, who would soon receive his title.

“His Majesty the Emperor personally said he would prepare the title conferment ceremony.”

Perhaps that’s why the Emperor was paying special attention to the preparations.

“I’ve brought the content and related bills for reorganizing the newly received territory into a duchy.”

Though it was just changing from marquis to duke, the matters Caelan needed to attend to had doubled from usual. The reports stacked precariously high on one side of the desk were proof of this.

Caelan continued scanning documents while listening to his aide’s explanations. As always, he wasn’t one to waver just because he had many tasks to handle. However, that was only true when there were no interruptions.

At a small tap-tap, Caelan looked around and spotted an animal’s paw briefly visible at the window.

As soon as he confirmed it was a fox cub’s paw and opened the window, Echo entered with a letter in its mouth. Echo leaped from the windowsill straight onto the desk. Echo landed right on top of the reports. This caused the mountain of reports to collapse, scattering papers messily beside the desk.

“No!”

The aide reached out toward the reports with desperate eyes, but it was already too late. Echo placed the letter on the desk and proudly settled into an empty spot.

“A letter from Bliss?”

At Caelan’s question, Echo lay down on its side. The aide, who had gathered the fallen papers, looked reproachfully at the small animal stretching out languidly to rest.

“Go organize those.”

Caelan dismissed the aide with a single word and picked up the letter. As he examined why she had sent a letter instead of coming herself, Echo spoke.

“Bliss is absorbed in experiments. She keeps experimenting.”

“She shouldn’t overdo it.”

“She’s not that foolish.”

Bliss staying up for days to experiment? Echo absolutely guaranteed that wouldn’t happen.

“Do you know how well she managed her energy even while studying? She might get sleepy, but she never collapsed.”

Echo, who had spent those dawns with her, knew this better than anyone. She might feel some fatigue, but she had always regulated herself to avoid interfering with daily life.

Echo thought about Bliss for a moment and then looked at Caelan. Seeing this contemplative response, Caelan waited, and Echo nodded to itself. It might be good to tell him now.

“The greatest strength I’ve seen in that child is exactly that.”

Caelan lifted his eyes from the letter to look at Echo.

“Balance.”

Echo looked at Caelan with that brief, concise statement. A strange moment passed as human and fox eyes met.

“That’s why I taught her this world’s knowledge and how to manage territory. Because that child has the power to coordinate everything well.”

Once, while staying with Bliss in the form of a dagger, Echo had read her mind. To Echo, this was one world, but to Bliss, it was just a limited story written in a book.

“In the end, that child adapted well to this world, and things got very good between you two. She thinks she’s changing the original story’s content, but in my eyes, isn’t she rather maintaining this world’s balance? The proof is that Bliss, who couldn’t claim superiority in power or intelligence, has changed so much.”

Echo opened its small mouth to yawn.

“Though she says she doesn’t know how she entered the book, perhaps that was her destiny.”

“Could she go back?”

It was the first anxiety he felt when acknowledging that Bliss had changed. He had fallen in love with a woman who didn’t live in the same world. He had no intention of denying his feelings, but if she ever said she would leave, he thought about letting her go. Because she existed on a different line from him. So he had thought about the grief he would experience then several times.

“Didn’t I tell you? Balance.”

Echo clicked its tongue as if finding him hopeless. It was amazing enough that a fox could speak human language, but being able to do various things like yawning and tongue-clicking was surprisingly diverse, while Caelan considered Echo’s words.

“After settling here, she became a being that maintains this world’s balance, that’s what I’m saying. So you don’t need to worry about her returning.”

Echo thought for a moment before adding. That the soul fit the body very well.

They had always talked with Echo in places where Bliss was present. So it was fortunate they could have this conversation about Bliss just between the two of them today.

“Then I should work hard to maintain that balance.”

Caelan folded the letter and tucked it against his chest. Though it was just a short message saying she would stay with Princess Jasmin at the imperial palace, her feelings of ‘come if you miss me’ were attached at the end, so he planned to carry it with him.

To take it with him when he really missed Bliss.

“You should.”

Echo’s eyes, which had been fluttering between open and closed, finally closed. Caelan covered the body with a small blanket.

“In the story Bliss knew, you meet a different ending. Aren’t you curious?”

His own story…

Caelan gently stroked Echo’s fur.

“I’m not curious.”

Nothing besides the present was important to him. Caelan rose from his seat, leaving the sleeping Echo. Whether foxes could snore, or if it was only possible because it was Echo, he wasn’t sure, but only Echo’s snoring could be heard.

***

When only two days remained until Caelan’s title conferment ceremony… an incident occurred.

On that night when the moon, which had been the only light in the darkness, was hidden by clouds, an incident broke out in the imperial palace. That Bliss had killed Princess Jasmin.

In an instant, the palace was seized by soldiers and knights, and the Emperor was furious. The Emperor ordered Bliss’s arrest and blocked Caelan, who was outside the palace, from entering.

—

T/N: NOOOOO NOT PRINCESS JASMIN