“……This is nothing. It’s not serious, so go and attend to your duties, Father Miguel.”

Ella turned her head firmly.

Her twisted ankle made her body sway again, and two hands shot out from behind her at the same moment.

“Miss Mariella!”

“Miss Mariella!”

The carriage entrance was completely blocked by the two men’s bodies. She hadn’t fallen, but both her arms were caught by each of them.

Ella’s eyes narrowed.

Touching the saintess‘s body without permission was strictly forbidden. It was permitted only in exceptional circumstances, specifically when the saintess was ill or in danger.

They apparently considered this to be one such moment.

It had only been a slight sway. This felt a little excessive.

Ella spoke calmly.

“I’m fine. Please let go.”

Tailian released her immediately, but Haven did not.

Tailian’s eyes narrowed. A priest defying the saintess‘s direct order was strange enough to warrant it.

Ella fixed her gaze coldly on that wrist.

‘You’ve lost your mind, Haven.’

More precisely, her gaze had caught on the familiar hair ribbon wound around his wrist.

“Father Miguel, I told you to go and attend to your duties.”

Ella frowned at him for the first time.

“Your sacred promise.”

“……”

“You haven’t forgotten that precious promise, have you.”

Ella reminded Haven of his situation through metaphor. If he was Haven, he would know exactly what she meant by that precious promise.

Only then did the burning shackle around her wrist release.

“I…… apologize.”

“The chief god will be waiting for your return. Go now.”

This too was something only Haven would understand.

Ella added one last thing. The words a priest was always expected to say at parting.

“Solea Leoni.”

“……Solea Leoni……”

Haven repeated it awkwardly, and Ella gave him a kind smile.

“Let’s depart, Sir Martis.”

“Yes, Miss Mariella.”

Fortunately, Tailian didn’t appear to be particularly suspicious.

Just before the carriage door closed, Ella and Haven’s eyes crossed. It was only a moment, but Ella read the anxiety in those violet eyes.

She didn’t know what was unsettling him so deeply, but Haven needed something to calm him.

She moved her lips.

‘I’ll wait.’

Seeing the silent sincerity, Haven’s eyes finally settled into resignation and relief.

The door closed, and the carriage set off.

Ella didn’t look out the window again after that.

***

Haven returned to the Hooly Forest. The moment he arrived, he took out Ella’s letter from inside his robe and looked at it.

He pressed his lips to the traces of her that still lingered on the paper.

Haven’s expression crumpled all at once.

“I shouldn’t have gone……”

He should have held out to the end.

His reason had told him that going would only make things harder for Ella, but his instincts had driven him forward.

Something he would never have done if his senses hadn’t responded that way.

“Why has my sense of smell gone so strange?”

At first he had thought he was losing his mind. That his memory was reacting to Ella’s lingering scent inside the cave.

But when he stepped outside, the scent had been even stronger. He had known which direction it was coming from.

The Bailia Grand Temple.

The scent was drifting from the direction of the Grand Temple, where Ella resided.

An abnormally heightened sense of smell.

It was something that could not be called human.

“I’m going mad……”

And today, when Ella’s scent had come to him stronger than ever, he had been unable to hold back any longer.

With his body in this state, even returning to the main force had been delayed.

While he was thinking, his body began to act strangely again.

“Ugh.”

The heat surged through him. The unfamiliar sensations he had thought would be quieted by seeing Ella were only growing more turbulent.

Haven roughly tore open the buttons of the priest’s robe he was wearing and ran out of the cave in search of water.

‘It’s burning!’

He needed to submerge himself in water to bring this heat down.

His running steps quickened. Haven finally reached the spring nearby.

Splash, splash.

He plunged in headfirst, submerging himself to the crown of his head.

But it was the Purification Spring, full of lukewarm water. Far from cooling his heat, it only stoked it further.

“D*mn it!”

He shoved his soaked silver hair roughly back and climbed out of the spring again.

Thud.

Haven dropped to his knees in the grass. The weeds his fingers touched were torn apart in his grip.

“Calm…… down. Please……”

He tried to steady himself, but it wasn’t enough.

A dangerous sound came from Haven’s clenched jaw. His racing heart hammered as though it would burst.

His heightened senses had become something closer to agony.

After a long time of steadying his breathing, Haven suddenly lifted his head. His eyes swept around him, wider than they had ever been.

‘Why are my eyes doing this now.’

His vision was unnaturally bright.

Then he caught sight of his own reflection in the clear surface of the spring. Something wrong made Haven’s body flinch.

“……!”

He startled and reached up to touch the corners of his eyes.

“The color of my eyes……”

His violet eyes were tinged with red.

Not just any red. The deep red of a ruby.

He blinked, he rubbed them, but his eyes showed no sign of returning to their original color.

“What…… on earth…… is happening to me……”

In none of the seven kingdoms was a person with red eyes welcomed.

Red eyes were considered a symbol of ill omen.

It was said that those who had come to possess vivid red eyes, whether from a congenital condition or an acquired illness, sometimes couldn’t bear the stares of others and blinded themselves.

But this was neither congenital nor an acquired illness.

The heat that had filled Haven’s mind cooled rapidly.

‘A curse…… or magic?’

One passing thought made killing intent rise in his eyes.

Perhaps it was a curse from his half-brother, the king of the Kar Kingdom.

‘So Kains has finally……”

The possibility was more than sufficient. Kains, who was desperate to see him dead, was more than capable of it.

Haven’s gaze landed on the red eyes reflected in the water.

If this was something to do with magic or a curse…… the one who would know best was that child, the born mage.

“……I need to go to Meivia.”

***

Ella couldn’t shake Haven from her thoughts the entire way to the imperial palace.

While she was lost in thought, the carriage entered the capital, Parem.

The city’s brilliant scenery was passing outside the window, but none of it reached Ella’s eyes.

“Haven made it back safely, didn’t he?”

The skirt she had crumpled in her fingers refused to smooth out. Her knee ached and her ankle was sore, but Ella couldn’t feel even that.

Even though she had taken hold of his leash and confirmed it, her heart wouldn’t settle.

“Right, he came because he was anxious.”

He had come to see her face before she walked into the lion’s den that was the palace.

It should have been only that.

But Haven’s eyes from the last moment kept coming back to her.

Those confused eyes tangled with anxiety and relief.

If they could exchange even occasional news, would his anxiety ease?

‘He wouldn’t come all the way inside the palace……’

But that was unknown. Today alone had shown how reckless he could be.

At last, the crumpled skirt in Ella’s hand was released.

“I’ll need a way to communicate with Haven.”

Molly came to mind immediately, but she was a priest. Ella couldn’t burden her further when she had already agreed to be her eyes and ears at the temple.

“I’ll have to find a way.”

She might even find one inside the palace.

The carriage came to a stop while Ella was absorbed in her thoughts. Looking outside, she was already within the palace grounds.

Ella turned her gaze. Outside the window, red roses bloomed in full abundance throughout the palace’s central garden.

‘Weren’t those planted for Dienne?’

It was said the crown prince had ordered it done for his consort, who loved red roses.

The thick floral scent was nauseating. Like someone she knew.

“We’ve arrived, Miss Mariella.”

Tailian’s courteous voice came, and the carriage door opened.

Within the suffocating rose fragrance, Ella finally stepped down.

The place that would become a great incinerator for trash.

“So this is the imperial palace.”

Ella looked over the palace grounds and smiled coldly.