“Cindy!”

Cindy, who had just stepped onto the stairs with Lumiere’s meal on a tray, turned around at Tamia’s voice.

She was running toward Cindy with urgent steps.

Tamia’s usually calm face showed a rare expression of confusion.

“What’s wrong, Tamia?”

“Is that Miss’s meal? I’ll take it.”

“What? No. I’ll take it.”

“I have something to tell Miss. Let me take it. Okay?”

Cindy hesitated but reluctantly handed the tray to Tamia.

Tamia smiled softly in gratitude and quickly climbed the stairs.

‘What’s going on?’

Cindy scratched her forehead and followed Tamia’s back as she disappeared into the second-floor corridor.

Last dawn, she suddenly woke up to the sound of the lobby door opening.

She was already a light sleeper, but had become even more sensitive after the recent arson attempt.

Now she would wake up at the slightest sound outside her door, making it difficult to sleep deeply.

Anxiously, she opened the window to check outside.

She saw Miss Lumiere running toward a black carriage parked in front of the mansion entrance.

Karl Winger hurriedly came out of the carriage and embraced her.

The two hugged each other desperately, like lovers finally meeting after a long separation.

‘……Miss, you’ve fallen in love with him again, haven’t you?’

No matter how much she denied it or claimed not to remember him, love remained love.

Seeing her lady ultimately embracing that man again after going around in circles made her nose tingle strangely.

Cindy closed the curtain without watching further.

And this morning, Miss skipped her exercise routine, which she hadn’t missed once in a week.

She also skipped the meal she would diligently eat during exercise time.

‘The twins also came back when morning was almost over…… Could this be related to the fire at the Tartien mansion?’

The city was now abuzz with the fire incident at the Tartien mansion that occurred last dawn.

Everyone was talking about it.

Karl Winger would normally have been the person most likely to visit the mansion.

But yesterday he disappeared like a ghost.

And the twins who worked for him only returned when morning was almost over.

It was a dangerous thought but also a plausible story, which made it terrifying.

“I hope it’s not something serious……”

She prayed like that, but her instinct was telling her that something big was happening.

‘I decided not to ask but……’

Ugh! I’m so worried I can’t stand it!

Cindy turned her steps around.

There were two people who were best to pester at times like this.

Cindy ran as if flying to where the twins were.

* * *

Knock knock—

“Miss, it’s Tamia. May I come in?”

“Yes, come in.”

Tamia took a short deep breath and entered Lumiere’s room.

Lumiere smiled brightly when she saw Tamia coming with a tray.

“It’s a meal! I was just getting hungry, perfect timing.”

Lumiere, who had already changed into clean clothes, pulled Tamia to the table by the window.

Tamia was slightly bewildered by Lumiere’s face, which was brighter than expected.

Tamia had felt since morning that the sensation on her nape was different from usual.

Finding it strange, she examined her neck and noticed that the black line wrapped around her neck had become fainter than usual.

‘Oh no, something must have happened to Miss!’

Tamia had dropped everything she was doing and hurried to Lumiere.

Hearing that she hadn’t done her morning exercise or eaten breakfast, Tamia became more convinced of her suspicion.

But the Lumiere she was seeing now looked the epitome of peace.

‘No, she actually looks more refreshed……?’

Lumiere sat at the table by the window, chewing and swallowing the food on her plate thoroughly.

She was eating with a strangely vigorous energy, finishing even the broccoli she used to hate without leaving anything.

Tamia, who was helping with her meal, waited until Lumiere had emptied more than half of her plate.

And when she put down her fork, Tamia asked in a careful voice.

“Miss, have your memories perhaps returned a little?”

Pause.

Lumiere put down the cup she was drinking from on the table with a thud.

She stared at Tamia for a moment and then stood up from her seat.

“Miss……?”

“I have something I want to ask you about that too, Tamia.

“Pardon?”

Lumiere opened the drawer of the small table next to the bed and took out an object inside.

It was a small glass bottle containing about eight gray pills.

Lumiere held out the rattling medicine bottle in front of Tamia.

“What is this?”

“Karl gave it to me last night. He said it’s medicine that prevents exius poisoning.”

Tamia looked at her in shock at Lumiere’s words.

Lumiere fiddled with the medicine bottle in her hand, recalling what Karl had said before leaving.

* * *

“Take this.”

Before leaving, Karl hurriedly placed this medicine bottle in her hand.

“What is this?”

“It’s from a pharmacist who was working at the Tartien ducal family. He said it’s medicine that blocks the poisonous effects of the exius flower. After hearing my story, he said you seem to be already in the process of detoxification.”

Poisoning and detoxification.

Lumiere frowned at the unfamiliar words.

“This medicine prevents poisoning, it’s not a neutralizer, he said. But it’s okay. The anti-exius will arrive soon…… Just take this until then. It will help.”

Lumiere, who had been listening in a daze, asked in a trembling voice.

“……What is exius?”

He hesitated for a moment before explaining in a gentle voice as if to reassure her.

“The yellow flower that Landers sent you every time.”

At that moment, the medicine bottle Lumiere was holding fell to the floor.

Startled, she noticed her hands were trembling uncontrollably.

Karl picked it up and placed it back in her hand, continuing in a calm voice.

“It’s highly addictive and has side effects like hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, or semi-sleep. The more you try to overcome these symptoms, the more side effects like itching, pain, headaches, and sleep disorders appear as a reaction.”

Lumiere naturally recalled the traces that remained on her body.

Her thighs, chest, and nape covered with fingernail marks as if she had tried to tear off her skin with her hands, and the occasional visions.

“No way……”

“If poisoned slowly, gradually, the side effects are less severe, but if poisoned suddenly, it can completely break a person’s mind.”

Crunch.

Karl, who had been explaining calmly, gritted his teeth as if he couldn’t bear it anymore.

He took a moment to suppress his anger.

Only then did she notice that he, who had seemed calm, was clenching his fist so tightly that his veins were bulging.

“Landers probably tried to poison you during the time I was away. To poison you faster and more certainly, he exposed you to that flower at all times.”

“Ah……”

“But Lumiere.”

Karl reached out with his coldly stiffened hand and cupped her cheek.

His golden eyes wavered affectionately.

“You seem to have endured remarkably strongly.”

“……”

“Thankfully, you endured.”

Lumiere stared at him blankly.

The rims of his eyes were turning red.

Was he crying?

Or was even this her illusion?

Lumiere briefly read the guilt lingering in his eyes.

Though he was clearly smiling to reassure her, his eyes looked pained.

Lumiere, who was looking into his golden eyes that shone brilliantly even in the darkness, suddenly felt relieved.

“Thank goodness.”

“……”

“I must not have given that man what he wanted, right?”

Karl had come.

Karl was in front of her right now.

Like the slow-acting medicine, the reality of that fact finally hit her with a shudder.

It felt like a blocked airway had finally opened.

Karl, whom she had waited for and longed to see so much, had come.

Her blank gaze looking at him suddenly blurred.

Lumiere raised her trembling hand to grasp his hand that was clutching her cheek.

She leaned her face into his large palm and whispered.

“That means I don’t have to endure anymore.”

* * *

Lumiere’s mind was seething with fragments of the past.

Landers, who sent gifts without missing a day.

The tea he kept bringing in, saying it was flower tea produced by his family.

The hazy smoke of that tobacco he unhesitatingly lit in front of her……

‘Don’t you know it’s useless to resist?’

She, collapsed in a garden full of yellow flowers, being strangled.

‘Tell me the secret between the King and Karl Winger! Hurry!’

‘……Speak!’

All kinds of memories turned Lumiere’s head upside down.

Lumiere laughed while sobbing in Karl’s arms over and over again.

The long, long wait was finally over.

The curse of the yellow flower had ultimately failed to devour her.

‘I won, Landers Tartien!’