From the moment I stepped into the office, the atmosphere felt off, making me uneasy.

I felt flustered as I looked at the Crown Prince’s cold, hardened face. He sighed and spoke.

“After applying the medicine and examining my mother, it only calmed the affected area, but the expected healing effect was not there.”

“That can’t be…”

In the end, it meant the development of the medicine had failed, and I was greatly disappointed.

But the Crown Prince himself was more disappointed and despairing than me.

“I don’t know where it went wrong. No, it’s probably just because of my lack of ability…”

He uncharacteristically made a low self-esteem statement and rubbed his face.

“Sorry, but I need to rest today. Miss, just go back.”

“Your Highness…”

The Crown Prince, holding his forehead and staggering, left the office first.

I stood there blankly, unable to move easily.

If I give up like this, I’ll be expelled from the capital for half a year. Boo hoo.

‘No, I have to do something myself…!’

I boldly rummaged through the Crown Prince’s desk. I found the forbidden book I had seen earlier at the bottom of the drawer.

A piece of paper, which seemed to be the Crown Prince’s handwritten recipe for the medicine, was tucked between the pages.

‘What exactly went wrong?’

I placed the forbidden book and the paper side by side and compared the contents.

[Among the curses of the Great Demon Rudvalt, there is a ‘disease that rots the skin.’

To cure this, you must make a medicine by mixing calendula grown in the morning dew, golden lavender that blooms once every three years, leaves of a 100-year-old tea tree, and red aloe grown in the desert of the Kingdom of Aloe.]

There are a few typos in the original text.

Hmm, anyway, it seems like he wrote down all the ingredients without missing any?

On the paper, each ingredient was circled with ‘procurement complete’ written next to it.

Moreover.

[When the medicine is perfectly mixed, it condenses into an ointment with a blue hue.]

The medicine the Crown Prince left behind also had a blue hue, just as the book described.

Then what was the problem?

“Ugh. I can’t figure it out right now…”

After much contemplation, I left a note and took the forbidden book with me.

I’ll just borrow it for a moment, Your Highness.

I returned to the Duke’s residence and began reading the forbidden book slowly from the beginning.

‘There are quite a few characters I can’t understand. Is it encrypted?’

I had to skip nearly half of it, unable to comprehend it.

At least the part about the treatment was composed of coherent sentences.

Even after painstakingly finishing reading it once, I couldn’t glean anything and felt frustrated.

Holding my head in distress for a moment, I lifted it again and returned to the first page of the forbidden book.

‘When you don’t understand something, you have to read it again and again until you do.’

Anyway, the answer must be in here, so I will keep reading until I find it.

The next morning.

“Miss, did you sleep well… Aah?!”

Mandy, who came to greet me as usual, screamed when she saw my face.

I waved at her, who was shocked, with a gentle smile.

“Did you sleep well, Mandy?”

“Y-yes… D-didn’t you sleep last night, Miss…?”

I smiled silently.

In reality, I hadn’t slept a wink. I stayed up all night digging into the forbidden book.

But thanks to that, I finally found the answer I was looking for.

“Hehehe.”

“Miss… your eyes are very bloodshot. Your mouth is twitching, you seem very tired, you should lie down…”

Mandy said worriedly to me, who was smiling with satisfaction.

However, since there was no time to leisurely lie down and sleep, I firmly refused.

“Get me ready to go out, Mandy. I have somewhere urgent to be.”

“Oh… yes, understood.”

I wore a wide-brimmed hat to cover my haggard face and went outside.

My destination was the central market.

I wandered around the market, which wasn’t crowded in the morning, looking for what I wanted.

‘Here it is!’

I found it in a small, ordinary herbal shop and bought a bag full.

Then I headed straight to the imperial palace.

“Miss Sharofe? What brings you here at this hour…”

The Crown Prince looked startled to see me suddenly, then hesitated when our eyes met.

Perhaps he sensed the madness in my bloodshot eyes.

I strode over to him and declared, holding out the forbidden book.

“I figured out why Your Highness failed.”

“…What? What do you mean?”

I opened the forbidden book wide and spoke to him, who looked bewildered.

“There is an encrypted phrase on every page, but strangely, there was none in the treatment section.”

“Yes, that part was the exception…”

“No, it wasn’t an exception.”

I pointed to a specific sentence with my finger and calmly explained.

“The author generally adheres to proper spelling. But here, even basic words are misspelled.”

After repeatedly reading, those mistakes stood out more and more.

‘Morning dew’ was written as ‘morning due.’

‘Blooming’ was written as bluming.’

Counting them out of curiosity, there were seven misspelled characters in total.

Focusing on those, I discovered a hidden sentence.

“Combining the misspelled words forms this sentence: Add centella if it fails.”¹T/N: I can’t translate it properly considering the different scripts/letters but just pretend it formed that sentence guys…

I handed the Crown Prince the bag of centella I bought at the market.

“……!”

The Crown Prince took the bag of centella with a surprised face, looking bewildered.

“Try making the medicine again with centella, Your Highness. Then I’ll take a nap since I’m too tired.”

Before he could respond, I collapsed onto the office sofa.

The aftermath of staying up all night, stabbing my thigh to stay awake from drowsiness, hit me.

“Miss Sharofe… to your room…”

The Crown Prince seemed to say something, but I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the sofa, so I didn’t hear it clearly.

And when I opened my eyes, it was already afternoon with the sun high in the sky.

I rubbed my face against the soft, fluffy blanket and stretched lazily…

‘Wait, soft, fluffy blanket?’

Realizing I was lying on a spacious bed instead of the sofa where I should have been sleeping, I snapped to attention.

What is this, where am I?!

“Awake?”

Then, a familiar voice came from beside me. Turning my head quickly, I saw the Crown Prince sitting on a chair next to the bed with his legs crossed.

“Your Highness, this is…”

“This is my room. I couldn’t let you sleep on the sofa, so I brought you here.”

“Huh…?”

Does that mean I slept soundly in the Crown Prince’s bed?

Is that okay? I was confused, and the Crown Prince gave me a faint smile and spoke.

“I made the medicine again with centella, just like you said.”

“Gasp, really?”

“Yes, now I just have to take it to my mother.”

He showed me the newly made ointment he took out of his pocket. It had a stronger blue hue than before.

“Then I’ll be off, so you can continue to rest here.”

“Yes, please be careful!”

I waved my hand to see the Crown Prince off. He also left with a rare bright face.

Left alone in the large room, I felt relieved with a good feeling that the mission would succeed.

Now I won’t be expelled from the capital, right?

But life never goes as planned.

The Crown Prince returned after a long time with a twisted face and delivered shocking news.

“My mother refused the medicine.”

“Her Majesty the Empress? Why…”

“She said she has already given up, and told me to stop as well.”

He ruffled his hair in frustration and continued in a low voice.

“I tried to persuade her, but it was no use. She seemed resolute.”

The Crown Prince laughed bitterly, then sighed and looked at me.

“I feel sorry for you, Miss. I made you go through unnecessary trouble.”

“No, Your Highness. It’s absolutely not like that.”

I waved my hands in denial and cautiously asked.

“What will you do from now on…?”

“I must respect my mother’s wishes.”

He seemed quite upset, sliding the medicine bottle over with a serious expression.

“Could you dispose of it on your way out?”

“Ah, yes.”

Feeling he needed some time alone, I quietly left the Crown Prince’s room with the medicine.

Walking down the empty corridor, I looked down at the bottle full of ointment.

I can’t just dispose of this.

‘…Should I try persuading Her Majesty the Empress myself?’

Come to think of it, I hadn’t heard the Crown Prince say the mission condition yet—‘Thanks to you.’

If I resolved this, it would be enough to hear such words.

‘Now there are only three days left until the mission deadline, so I must act quickly.’

I asked a passing maid for help and headed to the Empress’s palace.

A place exuding elegance and antiquity, yet somehow carrying a lonely atmosphere.