“Tama?”

“What would you do with him?”

Shar and Cadel asked at the same time.

Having finished purifying Violet, Jaina gathered her holy power and turned to Cadel.

“I’ve been interested in them for some time.”

“Then you should have asked me to buy one for you.”

“It wasn’t quite to that extent…”

“You don’t mean to suggest I couldn’t afford that much.”

Cadel lifted one brow slightly.

Jaina shook her head.

“No. It wasn’t about the price. I simply didn’t want one that badly.”

“……”

“I don’t particularly want one now, either. But since His Highness is troubled, I thought I might take the child instead.”

She looked at Shar as if asking whether that would be acceptable.

Shar gave a light shrug.

“At the moment, he’s nothing but a headache to me. If the Grand Duchess is willing to take responsibility, I have no reason to refuse.”

“Tama are more feral than you think, Jaina.”

Cadel spoke at once, concern evident in his voice.

“I know. But I don’t want to leave him to die.”

She answered firmly. Having already heard how he would eventually die, she could not simply ignore it.

Cadel, too, knew the fate that awaited Tama. He let out a quiet sigh.

“The rooms are ready, so let’s call it a night. We can discuss it again tomorrow. You’ve done well, Grand Duchess. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Shar winked at Jaina.

Then he glanced at Violet, Elysion, and Cadel.

“It seems tonight will be particularly interesting.”

He clearly meant the fact that all four of them would be sleeping in the same room.

A mischievous smile curved his lips.

“If I’m honest, I’d quite like to share the room as well—”

“Enough.”

Of course, Cadel silenced him with an irritated frown.

***

The room was larger than expected.

The original furniture had been removed, and four beds had been placed side by side in the center. Strangely, it looked as though it had always been arranged that way.

Jaina briefly thought the servants must have suffered at this late hour because of Cadel’s insistence on sharing a single room. Yet imagining Violet and Cadel sleeping together somewhere other than the North made her feel inexplicably displeased—so in a way, this arrangement was a relief.

“Tsk. What a ridiculous sight.”

Elysion clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction and claimed the far-right bed, dropping onto it without ceremony. Folding his arms, he raised one brow as Cadel approached the bed beside him.

“Why are you coming over here?”

“I can’t allow my wife to sleep next to you.”

“What?”

“Jaina. Sleep here.”

Cadel pointed to the bed beside his.

“Lord Cadel!”

Startled, Violet called out.

But when all three pairs of eyes turned toward her, she quickly corrected herself.

“Your Grace. You should remain near me.”

If Jaina lay beside Cadel, then she herself would be forced to sleep next to Jaina. Unless she switched places with Elysion, this would not do.

“Must I?”

Cadel frowned faintly, clearly unimpressed.

Jaina regarded Violet with a curious expression.

Violet’s face stiffened so much that she could barely control it.

She had never wanted Jaina to discover that simply being in the same room was enough to ease Cadel’s pain. The situation was more unsettling and irritating than she could bear.

Worse still, if Jaina realized that even sharing the same bed did not require their bodies to touch, she would surely insist on sleeping between them in the North as well.

‘What should I do…’

For Violet, this was an undeniable disadvantage.

Sleeping beside Cadel during the rainy season had been her exclusive privilege. The thought of that being taken from her made her restless with anxiety.

“You sleep there, I’ll lie next to Lord Elysion instead.”

“That won’t do.”

“Why not?”

“Because it won’t.”

“We’ve slept that way this whole time.”

“Are you proudly telling your husband that you’ve been sharing a bed with another man?”

At Jaina’s words, Cadel turned to her, anger flickering across his face.

“What exactly are you implying?”

The absurd insinuation left Jaina momentarily speechless. A hollow laugh slipped from her lips.

“I don’t know what you’re imagining, but do not mistake me for someone like you. I have never shared a bed with Lord Elysion.”

Her tone lost all trace of warmth as she spoke sharply.

Cadel’s expression hardened slightly. Pretending not to notice, Jaina walked to the bed beside him and sat down. Then she glanced toward Violet, who was still standing stiffly by the door.

“If you don’t intend to sleep standing up, come here.”

There were things she wanted to ask Violet, in any case. It would be better to have her close.

With no other choice, Violet approached and took the bed beside Jaina.

Some might envy the extraordinary situation—sharing a room with the Grand Duke, the Grand Duchess, and the Grand Hierophant. But this was not what Violet had wanted. Her insides churned.

More than anything, she felt slighted by Cadel—who could not endure a rainy night without her, yet treated her like this.

If it had come to this, she might as well have ignored his circumstances and followed the black mage instead.

“The curse.”

At that moment, Jaina spoke, turning to Cadel. He had been about to lie down, but he looked at her instead.

“I want to hear the details. How it began. And how you realized Violet could help.”

“…Didn’t you already hear it from Adil?”

He knew she had once learned about his curse from Adil. For reasons he could not quite explain, he disliked exposing that vulnerability to her again. His brow furrowed unconsciously.

Jaina pressed on.

“When did it start?”

Her expression made it clear she would not let the matter drop.

Cadel exhaled softly.

“I’ll explain.”

Violet interjected at once, noticing the tension in his face. But Jaina did not even turn to look at her.

“No. I want to hear it from my husband.”

At that, Violet’s face hardened instantly. She could feel it—Jaina was deliberately emphasizing the word husband in front of her.

‘My husband, my husband. She’s clearly saying it on purpose so I’ll hear it.’

Violet cursed her inwardly.

Born a saintess and lucky enough to become Grand Duchess—what right did she have?

It was obvious that Jaina envied her. Obvious that she wanted to steal her place at Cadel’s side—the place of the only woman he could not live without.

‘It won’t go the way you think. Even if you hear about the curse, you can’t go back to the past and risk your life for Lord Cadel the way I did.’

To call it a curse was wrong from the start. The reason Cadel suffered on rainy nights and needed her was because, as a child, she had risked her life for him. It had been a gift from God—a reward for saving him at the cost of her own life.

And yet they called it a curse. The word itself was wrong.

“I was kidnapped by someone I trusted.”

At Jaina’s request, Cadel let out a quiet sigh and began to speak of the past.

Violet’s expression tightened as she watched him.

Whatever the case, Cadel had always been a man who did only what he wished. The kidnapping—of all things—was a story he loathed recounting. Even when alone with Violet, who had endured it beside him, he had avoided speaking of it.

And yet, at Jaina’s simple words—”I want to hear it from my husband”—he began to lay the past bare.

From Violet’s perspective, it was shocking. Hurtful. Infuriating.

Why should Cadel go this far for a mere saintess who was Grand Duchess in name only?

“That night, Violet was taken with me. I survived because of her.”

It had been a night of relentless rain.

A servant he had long trusted lured him out, claiming there was something interesting in the rear garden. Violet, who followed him like a shadow, had gone with him.

They were seized in an instant.

It had been swift—too swift. Coordinated so tightly that neither his parents nor anyone in the castle realized what had happened.

“Looking back now, I think we were transported by magic.”

At Cadel’s words, Jaina’s eyes darkened.

‘Then was the black mage involved even back then…?’

Elysion’s voice echoed in her thoughts, as though he had reached the same conclusion.

‘It seems likely.’

‘You think so too?’

‘Yes. But something is strange. If they used magic to transport him, there would have been no need to lure him outside first.’

At Elysion’s words, Jaina’s brows drew together slightly.

Then she remembered something she had once seen on the top floor of the ducal castle—the Codex of Absolution.

‘The Codex of Absolution. It was in the ducal castle.’

‘The Codex of Absolution?’

‘Yes. A magical tome floating alone in midair at the highest level of the secondary palace. Lord Cadel said it safeguards the black mana passed down through his family.’

‘…Hm. Then perhaps magic could not be used within the castle because of that object.’

‘That seems likely.’

After finishing her silent exchange with Elysion, Jaina turned to Cadel.

“The Codex of Absolution was already there at that time, wasn’t it?”

Cadel nodded once.

“It certainly does. The Codex of Absolution and the Black Axe have been passed down as family heirlooms since the founding.”