“Are you asking me to decide the outcome, Eclace?”

“You hold the key to how this wager ends, Your Grace.”

“It’s none of my concern.”

Shed said, snapping the file shut and turning away. There was no need for him to meddle in some pointless bet among the maids. If anything, getting involved would only make things more ridiculous.

“You really ought to care, though.”

Eclace flipped the coin in his palm, smiling faintly. And he was right—making a show of warning the maids would only draw more attention to the wager.

If the whole household was talking about it, it meant people genuinely believed Shed was interested in Liana. He knew that—and that was exactly why the wager bothered him so much.

“Public perception can change the course of history.”

Eclace said, turning his wrist and letting the coin dance from one hand to the other.

“So, what’s your point?”

“A bet is always meant to have a winner and a loser.”

Eclace replied. It wasn’t really about who gained or lost a few coins; it was about the ripple effect the wager could create. And those ripples should always be controlled by the master of the house.

“What I’m saying is that you should ensure the outcome goes the way you want—even if it’s just a trivial game among the maids.”

Shed fell silent again, his mind growing tangled over something that should have been trivial.

“What is it you want, Your Grace? What result do you hope for?”

What did he want?

Shed went over the conditions of the bet. Did he want to see Liana in his bed? No. Any love he’d once felt for her had already been reduced to ashes long ago.

Then did he want her to leave House Lester? No, he didn’t wish for that either.

Then what outcome did he want from this bet? What was he really after, in the end, when it came to Liana Serpens?

Revenge? Her suffering? Her death?

Yes. He wanted that.

He’d always told himself that someday, he’d be the one to end her life with his own hands.

And yet…

Shed pressed his fingers against his temple. Such a simple question, and yet his mind was a tangled mess. Eclace watched him silently, then finally spoke.

“Since things have come to this, why not join the wager yourself, Lord Lester?”

At the unexpected suggestion, Shed’s long lashes lifted, revealing the surprise in his eyes.

“A wager? With whom?”

“With me.”

Eclace smiled, gesturing at himself with a flick of his finger.

“I’ll stake a hundred thousand della that Miss Liana Serpens leaves. What do you say?”

He set a lucky gold coin down on the table, his lips curled in a playful smile. His crimson eyes, bright with amusement, were clearly baiting Shed Lester.

A hundred thousand della—enough to build several mansions. Even for a Vitel, it was a ludicrous sum to risk on a simple bet.

“…Wouldn’t this be a losing wager for you? What if I decide to win by simply dragging Liana into my bed?”

“I trust you’re not that sort of man, Lord Lester. And—”

Eclace lifted his hand from the coin. Where his hand had been, the surface of the gold coin gleamed blank and polished, without even a single engraving.

“If we’re talking about unfairness, aren’t you at a disadvantage as well?”

“Disadvantage?”

“If I were to decide to take Miss Liana away secretly, the bet would be over immediately.”

It was no idle boast. With House Vitel’s reach and information network, spiriting away one Liana would be nothing at all.

For a moment, a flash of cold menace flickered in Shed Lester’s eyes. Eclace, hands raised in mock surrender, let out an easy laugh.

“I’m just making a point. As long as you don’t interfere, neither will I. The contest should be fair, after all.”

His smooth tone grated on Shed’s nerves.

“So, will you take the bet?”

🌺⟡───⟡🌺 🌺⟡───⟡🌺

Sunlight slanted through the cracks of an old window. A breeze stirred around the lemon tree, now dotted with the first white blossoms of spring. The fresh, sweet scent drifted in through the open window, bringing with it memories of Ideana—Liana’s home.

Liana looked up at the suddenly warm, spring sky. Above that deep blue, she could make out faint patterns woven across the heavens—a barrier of protection, shimmering like opal or mother-of-pearl, shifting with the light. It was as beautiful as any work of art.

It had been only a week since Dietrich and the other priests arrived, yet they had already cast a protective barrier around the entire Faradel estate, one leagues beyond anything that had existed before.

Even someone who knew nothing about holy power could tell, at a glance, that this barrier was infinitely stronger than the feeble, haphazard ward that had barely covered the house before.

“You should start moving around a bit—get some fresh air.”

The doctor said as he cleared away the medicine bottles and leftover bandages.

Only then did Liana draw her gaze away from the window and back inside the room. “Thank you,” she replied, bowing her head slightly to the doctor who’d treated her.

“I should be the one thanking you. For surviving.”

His words pricked at her heart. Was simply staying alive really something to be grateful for?

“You’re recovering remarkably fast,”

He added, praise in his voice for her miraculous recovery.

Liana averted her eyes awkwardly. She was doing her best to suppress the regenerative powers of black magic, but she couldn’t fully hold it back. Inevitably, she regained her strength much faster than most.

“The weather is lovely today. Why not take a walk?”

The doctor suggested before leaving the room. Liana lingered, lost in thought. Staying shut up in her room all this time had left her feeling heavier by the day. Old memories clung to her, dragging her down like a swamp.

She had to shake off this inescapable gloom somehow. Would stepping into the sunlight help, even a little? Or would the ever-closer sights and scents of Ideana only become more suffocating?

It wasn’t something she could figure out just by sitting and thinking. Besides, she’d always hated being confined to bed, even as a child…

In the end, Liana borrowed a few hours that afternoon and stepped outside her room for the first time.

One upside to being a maid was that she could move freely, without having to be accompanied by anyone. Back when she’d wandered this estate as Luise Ideana, she’d always been surrounded by maids and knights.

At the time, she’d believed it was her father’s kindness—his way of looking after his sickly daughter, who so often collapsed without warning. But perhaps he’d only assigned people to watch her, to report on side effects or see if she’d noticed anything about his experiments.

‘Stop it, Luise. Enough with the old memories.’

She tried to shake herself free from the quicksand of her past, but once again, she found her feet carrying her, almost by instinct, to the back garden—a familiar path from her childhood. Out back, she found the lemon tree and the old wall she’d often seen from her window.

Once, the white wall had been lined with flowers in every color. But now, except for the lemon tree, everything had faded. The low bushes and grass were choked with weeds and tangled vines, remnants of time left untended.

Liana felt unexpectedly grateful to the lemon tree for stubbornly holding its ground all these years.

She sat down where sun and shadow mingled, leaning against the crumbling wall. In the distance, she could hear birdsong, and the leaves whispered in the wind.

The heretic still lingered, and nothing of the past had been erased. But for the first time, just a little, Liana felt something close to peace.

Just then—

“And the groundwater purification is nearly finished too. I, um, always regretted not getting to complete it before…”

She heard voices in the distance. Liana turned her head toward the sound.

“Once the groundwater purification is complete, you—well, you won’t have to travel dangerously far upstream just to fetch water anymore.”

When she looked, she saw Dietrich in his High Priest’s robes, surrounded by priests and Shed’s group as they moved together across the grounds. It looked like they were touring the estate, discussing the purification and barrier that had been put in place around Ideana.

Surprised, Liana sat up from where she’d been leaning.

“It’s all thanks to you, Your Eminence.”

Just then, Shed’s gaze landed on Liana. The moment their eyes met, she looked away as if she’d been caught doing something wrong.

‘Why am I avoiding his eyes?’

She didn’t understand it herself. She felt like a stone that had rolled into a place it didn’t belong.

‘Should I quietly slip away, as if I wasn’t here? Or should I approach and greet them properly?’

 She ‘hesitated, torn between the two options.

“Let’s talk about the rest later.”

“Ah—yes… May the Lord be with you…!”

At Shed’s words, Dietrich and the others withdrew, leaving the garden silent. Even the birds that had been singing had vanished, leaving only the gentle breeze stirring between the two of them.

Liana, unable to leave and equally unable to stay, stood awkwardly with her hands clasped in front of her.

“Your Grace.”

She offered a belated, formal greeting. Shedregarded her quietly.

“…Are you allowed to be out here?”

“The doctor said it would be good for me to move around a little…”

Liana replied, her voice uncertain, as if she were a child afraid of giving the wrong answer.

For the first time, she realized just how awkward it felt to be alone with Shed Lester. Even when they’d faced each other with their words as weapons, it had never felt like this. It was strange.

Both of them floundered in the silence, at a loss for what to say. There were too many wounds for kindness, but too much understanding to hurl new ones. Neither had the courage to ask a question, nor the nerve to be the first to speak.