Freia suddenly remembered her forgotten brother. She recalled Ian’s voice as he held her hands tightly, crying, “Don’t die, Freia!” Although she hadn’t completely opened her heart to them, she also remembered the kind servants of the mansion who always pitied the frail young lady.

One by one, she recalled the things she had left behind.

“I want to go back.”

As she whispered, a pond appeared in the middle of the garden as if by magic.

Freia chose a large rock by the pond and plopped down. The pond’s surface, which should have been calm without a breeze, was rippling. Instead of sand grains, some kind of scenery flickered at the bottom of the clean, transparent pond.

The pond was somehow showing countless scenes all at once in an incomprehensible way. She could see a beggar with amputated legs lying face down begging with a moldy rice bowl at his head. She also saw a king sitting in the most glorious seat, holding up a brilliant scepter. There were even soldiers going to war with ancient weapons said to have disappeared long ago.

Some scenes were hazy and unclear as if covered by fog, making them unrecognizable to Freia. When she got down from the rock she was sitting on and dipped her hand in to gently stir the clear water, the original scenes disappeared and new ones appeared.

Freia lightly dipped her foot into the pond. She clearly felt the cool, refreshing touch of water. Several scenes undulated and changed with the ripples created by her foot. When she pulled her foot out, it was completely dry as if it had never touched the water.

Freia stared intently at the pond for a while. When she finally discovered the image of Ian Nigritia holding the hand of his feverish young sister while praying, Freia threw herself into the deep, transparent water without a moment’s hesitation.

For a moment, her vision turned black.

She felt the softness of a bed. When she opened her eyes, she saw the chandelier on the ceiling of a cozy room. She heard Ian’s voice calling excitedly, “Freia! Freia! Are you conscious?”

That was Freia’s oldest memory.

♣ ♣ ♣

Freia was deeply religious. When she went to the temple, she could forget that she was ill. Strangely, the deeper she went into the temple, the more refreshed and lighter her body felt. Freia believed it was the goddess’s grace. So she always visited the temple, whether she was sick or not.

At seventeen, she began to fall ill from the evening after visiting the hill where her mother’s bones were scattered. She kept coughing up blood incessantly. After Freia barely survived a near-death experience, Ian asked her with a desperate expression if she would refrain from going out for a while. Unable to resist her brother’s expression, Freia stayed inside the mansion for some time. However, when she finally went outside again, the first place she visited was the temple.

There, she met Ikanel Riman Akelan.

Their first impression of each other wasn’t very good. On a drizzly day, Ikanel was caught by Freia while climbing over the temple wall to follow a subordinate he cared about. The devout Freia was so shocked that she threw her umbrella and was about to scream, but Ikanel stopped her. The two people who met for the first time quarreled like that.

When Freia went out for the second time, she met Ikanel again. The two discovered that they surprisingly got along well.

Freia had never been introduced to society, let alone visited the imperial palace. She was already a half-abandoned daughter. So she couldn’t recognize Ikanel Riman Akelan, and the same was true for him.

If their first, second, and third meetings were by amazing coincidence, the subsequent meetings were intentional. For the first time in her life, Freia secretly slipped out of the mansion.

♣ ♣ ♣

Freia took off her shoes, held them in her hand, and tiptoed quietly. Her heart was pounding as if it would burst. The dark, wide corridor was quiet without a single person. At this hour when everyone was asleep, only Freia was moving alone in this vast mansion.

She had never once imagined that she would ever secretly sneak out of the mansion. She often experienced heart palpitations or shortness of breath, but today she learned that her heart could pound just as much from tension as from illness.

When the large door opened with a creaking sound of rusty metal, her tension reached its peak. She even held her breath. Cold air seeped through the slightly opened door. She felt like coughing but forcibly swallowed it without making a sound.

In contrast to trembling at the slightest sound and tiptoeing carefully, as soon as she left the mansion, she put on her pointed shoes and ran with clicking footsteps. She was in a hurry. It was already well past the time she had promised to meet him. The servants had stayed up later than expected, patrolling the corridors.

She quickly became out of breath and stopped to catch her breath. There wasn’t much left to the meeting place. Since it was late at night with no carriages running, she deliberately chose a place not too far from the mansion. However, if it was too close to the mansion, there was a risk of her identity being exposed, so “not too far” still meant a good 15-minute walk. Time mercilessly refused to wait for her, even though she was already significantly delayed from the promised time.

Freia finally spotted a familiar silhouette standing with his back turned. It was definitely him. She caught her breath for a while. She didn’t want to show him that she had run here in a hurry. As she approached leisurely with clicking footsteps, he finally turned around.

“You’re quite relaxed for someone who’s 30 minutes late for our appointment.”

He, Ikanel, sarcastically remarked with as much elegance as Freia’s gait. However, Ikanel soon noticed that her face was drenched in sweat. Now that he looked closely, her complexion was very poor.

Freia, who had been walking upright pretending to be elegant, suddenly staggered. Ikanel quickly caught her falling body. Freia shook her head slightly and blinked a few times. She pushed Ikanel away and stood up straight.

“I’m sorry.”

“Are you apologizing for suddenly collapsing and startling me, or for being late for our appointment?”

“Both. It’s my first time sneaking out of the mansion, so I didn’t properly check when the servants would fall asleep.”

Ikanel was quite shocked by Freia’s sudden collapse, but Freia herself didn’t seem particularly affected. Ikanel clicked his tongue in disbelief.

“Fine. Are you okay? Are you sure it’s alright for you to be out like this?”

Freia was about to say she was fine but then objectively assessed her physical condition. She was not fine. Usually, she read books, ate meals, and talked with her brother Ian in bed. She rarely left her bed. It was natural since she was a seriously ill patient who would suddenly gush nosebleeds even while walking normally. But today she had secretly left the mansion and even ran at full speed in shoes, so her body clearly couldn’t handle it. If only the servants had fallen asleep a little earlier, she wouldn’t have needed to run like this. She frowned.

“If it doesn’t matter where we go, shall we go to the temple? We can still talk while walking slowly in the temple.”

“What?”

Ikanel was dumbfounded again. From his perspective, it was understandable. When asked if she was okay, she unexpectedly suggested going to the temple.

Until now, they had always accidentally met at the temple. They first met on a rainy day when Ikanel was caught by Freia while climbing over the temple wall to follow his knight, Sir Mihail Callisto, on a date. Fortunately, thanks to half persuasion and half intimidation, Freia kept quiet, avoiding an awkward situation. After that, they exchanged a few words whenever they happened to meet at the temple, and surprisingly, they got along well.

It was so enjoyable talking to each other that they had arranged to meet separately like this, but now she wanted to go to the temple again. It was natural for Ikanel to be displeased. Seeing Ikanel’s expression subtly distort, Freia added an explanation.

“As you can see, my physical condition isn’t good. You may find it hard to believe, but even when I’m suffering, I naturally calm down when I go to the temple, so there’s no better place for me.”

“As you expected, that’s hard to believe. What on earth does going to the temple have to do with feeling better?”

Ikanel asked, half mockingly. Freia chuckled. When she had told her father the same thing, he hadn’t even listened to her. When she told her brother Ian Nigritia, he just silently smiled and stroked her head a few times. Ikanel’s reaction was refreshingly different from what she had seen from others.

“I’m not asking you to believe me. No one in my family believes it either. I just have very deep faith and want to go to the temple, so please think of it as a request from a sick person.”

Come to think of it, there weren’t many places to wander around at this hour. There was no reason not to comply when she asked like that. But there was a problem.

“Do you think we can enter the temple on this dark night?”

“Ah, they won’t open the door for us.”

Freia replied nonchalantly. The temple wasn’t as heavily guarded as the imperial palace, but it was still protected by holy knights. During the day, it was freely open to outsiders, but night was different. Freia had never been out at this hour, so she hadn’t considered this fact.

“It’s okay. Even just going near the temple will make me feel somewhat better.”

After saying that, Freia began coughing. As the coughing showed no signs of stopping and only grew worse, Ikanel hardened his expression, unable to decide what to do.

“At this rate, we’ll be knocking on the door of a medical clinic instead of the temple. Let’s go to the temple for now.”

Freia coughed into her handkerchief as if she was about to die. When the coughing stopped, she removed the handkerchief from her mouth. Blood had seeped into it.

Freia glanced at Ikanel. Due to the darkness, Ikanel hadn’t seen Freia’s handkerchief. Freia quickly wiped her mouth and put the handkerchief away so he wouldn’t notice.

This was a regular occurrence for her, but if Ikanel found out, their rare excursion would be ruined.