The wedding preparations took quite a lot of time and effort.

Yesterday afternoon, we went to the furniture store to choose furniture, ordered a golden goose down comforter, and in the evening, we checked the wedding invitations to be sent to the nobles.

This afternoon, Evan and I were scheduled to go to Rosento’s shop to get fitted for the wedding dress and tuxedo.

So, the morning tea time was the only precious moment.

“Sasha……”

Today, there was a guest to have tea with.

“Casillion, welcome.”

Casillion seemed to have grown taller than when I saw him a week ago.

Being seventeen and in his growth period, he was showing more signs of manhood day by day.

Of course, he still had a delicate beauty that could pass for a woman if he dressed up, but still.

I’m the same age as Casillion, but I came back seven years older from the netherworld.

Perhaps that’s why, since I returned, I feel like Casillion is like a younger brother when I see him.

“I hope I’m not stealing your time when you’re busy with wedding preparations?”

“What’s wrong with stealing a little? You’re my precious friend.”

Casillion smiled brightly at my words.

He exuded a fresh, youthful feeling.

I think to myself how much he’s changed compared to the beginning.

I was startled when he used to sniff around, calling me ‘Ingredient Unni’.

“I’m glad to see you after a long time, Sasha. I’ve been a bit tired lately, buried in the lab and immersed in work, but I feel energized now.”

Now he’s become a friend with whom I can have such human-like, normal conversations and share a healthy friendship.

I smiled and asked Casillion, who let out a small sigh.

“Have you started a new project again?”

With Jin’s support, Casillion had been working on several projects.

Most were successful and brought quite a bit of profit to both the family finances and Casillion himself.

“It’s research on extracting human scents and implanting them into dolls. You know, in life, there’s always one or two people whose scent you’d like to smell forever, right?”

“……”

I flinched at Casillion’s words.

Casillion continued excitedly, his purple eyes shining.

“But if we could capture that scent in a doll, wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

Were Casillion’s eyes always this murky… Yes, they were.

I retracted my momentary assessment of Casillion as fresh and normal.

Right, this 180-degree turned version is Casillion’s true self.

“Well… It could be useful. If you give a child a doll that smells like their mother, they might sleep holding it tight and feel secure. Good luck, Casillion.”

I awkwardly smiled and wrapped up this conversation.

Adding the most positive imagination I could, that is.

Casillion, his cheeks flushed red as if just imagining a doll with captured scent was pleasant, took something out of his pocket.

“……”

I instinctively flinched.

I shouldn’t be so wary of friends, but it’s instinctive and can’t be helped.

“…What is it?”

What Casillion held out to me was a small glass bottle.

The glass bottle had a red ribbon tied around it, and inside was a blue liquid.

‘Surely it’s not the extracted scent.’

Seeing my slightly cautious expression, Casillion smiled brightly.

His face is truly admirably beautiful.

But the fact that something quite dangerous is inside that beauty is known only to me and a few others.

“It’s something you requested long ago, Sasha.”

At Casillion’s words, I thought for a moment and then opened my eyes wide.

“Could it be……”

I lifted the palm-sized transparent glass bottle and examined it closely.

The blue liquid sparkled every time the glass bottle shook.

I looked into Casillion’s eyes again and said,

“Is this really the elixir?”

Casillion nodded proudly and said,

“I’m sorry it took so long. The extraction took too much time. I had to recheck the mixing formula several times as well.”

“…Ah……”

To think this is the elixir that can cure all diseases.

A wave of emotion swept through my heart.

“If you drink that, you’ll become completely healthy, Sasha.”

After using my power in the final battle with Phersetos, my remaining Vitality was 50.

It wasn’t a high number, so I felt more fatigued compared to when my Vitality was high, and I seemed to catch minor illnesses quite often.

While it’s not to the point where I could be called ‘sickly’, I couldn’t be called healthy either.

“Drink that, and live a long, healthy, and happy life with the Duke of Taylors.”

I heard Casillion’s voice.

I untied the ribbon and opened the lid of the elixir.

This is a moment I’ve been waiting for for a very long time.

And slowly, I lifted the bottle.

“……”

But in the end, it didn’t touch my lips.

Casillion looked at me with a puzzled expression.

I gradually sorted out the complex thoughts flowing into my mind.

As my wavering gaze settled, Casillion asked,

“Is there a problem, Sasha?”

After a moment, I made up my mind and spoke.

“Casillion, can I make one more request?”

***

In the afternoon, I went to Rosento’s dress shop with Evan.

While waiting in the drawing room to see the dress, Evan asked,

“Don’t you regret it? You’ve been waiting for this your whole life.”

“Ah… You mean the elixir?”

Casillion’s offer was as sweet as honey.

The absolute medicine that could completely bid farewell to a sickly or diseased life, the elixir.

Surely, if I drank it, I wouldn’t have to worry about my health anymore.

But my memories held back my hand that was about to drink it.

“In the netherworld, I met parents looking for their children.”

I spoke quietly, recalling the scenes of death I had witnessed.

“……”

“They were crying, searching for their child who had died first from illness.”

Life can be as cruel as death.

“I also met a child looking for their mother. The mother had died first from illness, and the child died because there was no one to take care of them.”

Although I grew up receiving the sweet love of Winchester, I knew what the landscape outside the mansion looked like.

Behind the peace, there are people crying sadly.

“And, in the other world I came from, I had a mother too.”

I remember my mother, who was always sick.

“Mom was sick all over and couldn’t work. She would often get fired even when she did work, so I had to work to feed my siblings.”

Mom was always sorry for me.

“Disease, misfortune, and poverty always come together, and if we could chase away even one of them with the elixir……”

“…Sasha.”

“Isn’t that also why Mechius sent me to this world?”

Evan’s eyes wavered deeply at my words.

“…You are…”

His lips moved slowly, as if shocked.

“…too great a hero for me.”

“Oh, come on, a hero? If I were really in a sickly state now, I would have drunk it of course, but I’m already in a livable condition, so it seemed wasteful to drink it all just to become a bit healthier.”

I waved my hands in denial at Evan’s expression, which was looking at me as if I were a true saint, but his gaze didn’t change.

“I feel like I’ve stolen a saint from the whole world. How wicked of me.”

What’s with this atmosphere! I fanned myself awkwardly.

“Evan, stop it. You’re embarrassing me.”

I requested Casillion to mass-produce the elixir.

But he said he couldn’t produce more because he had used up all the divine tree roots. Instead, he said he could produce a powerful new medicine that would be effective against all diseases using the elixir as an ingredient.

It wouldn’t completely cure all diseases, but it would definitely have a massive health improvement effect on the empire’s citizens.

I chose that direction instead of drinking the elixir myself.

Casillion was surprised at my decision and opposed it at first, but eventually respected my wishes.

“Winchester’s poison manufacturing facility will now become a facility for producing life-saving medicine.”

And he said with a bright smile.

“Sasha, you really are special.”

“…The dress is ready. Would you like to try it on now, Saint?”

The shop assistant guided me, using the still unfamiliar title of ‘Saint’.

I followed the assistant with the back of my hand on my slightly reddened cheeks.

Seeing Evan looking thoughtful, I regretted saying those words.

I wouldn’t want him to feel any emotional distance from me.

As I entered the room following the assistant, I saw the beautiful dress I would wear at our wedding.

This dress, the latest work of Rosento’s most famous wedding dress designer, was so beautiful that I couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration and decide on it immediately.

The name of this dress is ‘Mechius’s Blessing’.

The assistants carefully helped me put on the dress.

When I finished putting it on and looked in the mirror, it was indeed several times more beautiful than what I had seen in the catalog.

The color of the dress, matching my silver hair, truly looked like an angel’s garment descended from heaven.

It feels like wings might pop out if I raise my arms.

“Now then, shall we show it to His Grace the Duke?”

The assistant asked me with a wink as I was looking at myself in the mirror with satisfaction.

Thump, thump, my heart started to race.