Ella shook the bottle in her hand back and forth. She didn’t open the lid.

The unidentifiable leaves inside were suspicious enough, but the person who had given it was more so.

Someone who didn’t appear in Marian’s memories.

And yet the strangely familiar feeling he gave off was also odd.

“……He really is unsettling.”

Ella murmured, looking at the small bottle.

***

A few days later, the Duke of Orpen arrived at the imperial palace.

The duke, who entered the palace the moment he received Dienne’s message, first had an audience with the Emperor and Empress. The Emperor and the duke had always been close, so the atmosphere remained warm and pleasant throughout.

But when he turned his steps toward the crown prince’s consort‘s palace, not a trace of a smile remained on his face.

He stepped into the consort‘s private reception room.

“Dienne.”

“Father!”

Seeing his daughter looking somewhat anxious, the duke crossed to her in a single stride.

Dienne dismissed all the ladies-in-waiting and servants.

“What is it.”

“Father, the saintess has changed.”

“Changed, you say. What do you mean.”

“It’s just……”

Dienne reported the events of recent weeks in detail.

The duke’s face, which had been set in a serious expression, gradually relaxed as the story neared its end.

“We should take some kind of action, Father. If we leave things as they are……”

The duke raised a hand and cut off the rest of her words.

He let out a hollow laugh and called his daughter’s name.

“Dienne.”

“Yes, Father.”

“I thought you had enough sense to understand His Highness’s nature by now, but it seems not. If you show this much agitation over something like this, what will you do later.”

“But Father! His Highness has truly changed! Because of that woman, even the way he treats me isn’t what it used to be!”

“Hah, my dear. Men are all like this at heart. Being drawn to something new is instinct. You’ve been watching and learning since you were young, haven’t you.”

The duke was shamelessly invoking his own failings to lecture his own daughter.

With a perfectly unbothered face, as though it were something to be proud of.

Dienne’s expression darkened further.

“All the more so for a man who will ascend to the throne of a nation. A man like that will always have women around him in abundance. But you know that the official place at his side will be yours, don’t you?”

“……I know.”

“It’s nothing more than a passing amusement. Leave it alone. It’s  fleeting interest that will disappear on its own if left alone. His Highness, who insists on noble bloodlines, wouldn’t father a child with a common-born saintess. What is there to be anxious about.”

“……”

“If you’re truly that anxious, hurry up and give him a son first. Nothing holds a man’s heart better than that.”

Dienne stared at the duke with cold eyes.

‘Is that why Mother couldn’t hold your heart, Father? Because I was a daughter?’

Words like grains of sand rolled around and made her mouth feel dry.

Dienne pressed her lips together and gripped her skirt.

“I’ll ask your stepmother about it soon. Taking a fertility medicine might help.”

“……Leave it, please. I’m already taking something like that here.”

The duke noticed Dienne’s voice trembling and let out a long sigh.

“Is that common-born saintess truly that much on your mind?”

“……”

“It’s too early now. If something happens to a saintess who is wearing her body down to perform the oracle, sympathy will rise, and if that happens, His Highness will likely grow even more attached to her.”

“……”

“So don’t make any rash moves yet.”

The duke rose from his seat.

He adjusted the loosened cravat at his neck and spoke again.

“When the time comes, your father will move.”

Dienne’s expression brightened as she lifted her head.

“So you focus on giving him a son.”

As always, this was how conversations between father and daughter ended.

Dienne swallowed her frustration and barely managed to answer.

“Yes, Father.”

***

At that same hour, Ella was passing through the eastern garden where the secondary palaces were clustered.

“With the Duke of Orpen here, I’ll need to keep a low profile for three days……”

The Duke of Orpen’s name reached Ella’s ears while she was performing the consecration rite.

Conversation continued on the other side of the tall rose hedge.

They all seemed to be Dienne’s ladies-in-waiting.

“Everyone keep your heads down and be mindful while Dienne is in this mood.”

“Ugh, it’ll be walking on ice for days. When things were good between her and the crown prince, it was absolute heaven……”

“This is all because of Miss Mariella. Ever since she entered the palace, Dienne’s moods have gotten worse.”

“Well, lately the crown prince has been quietly looking out for Miss Mariella too.”

“Quietly? He’s been doing it openly. That’s why Dienne is like this.”

Ella gave a quiet laugh at the ladies’ complaints.

She knew the reason Dienne had summoned the duke was none other than herself.

Zikhart’s change must be making her anxious.

And yet she couldn’t openly move against her, so she must be burning inside.

‘Is she going to ask her father to deal with me?’

The smile on her pale pink lips deepened.

“Interesting. More than I expected.”

Ella stepped into the path lined with blooming red roses. The sight of nothing but red in every direction was unpleasant.

On impulse, she snapped off one rose.

The fully bloomed rose resembled Dienne with her red hair.

A scene like a thorn embedded in memory surfaced.

An afternoon tea party held in the rose garden.

The humiliation crown princess Marian had endured before all the assembled nobles.

‘Your Highness, are you aware? The Estrada imperial family has been carried on by noble blood for nearly a thousand years. Only those different from birth, like high nobility or royalty, could receive that name. Your Highness, who was suddenly granted that name one day, may not know this, of course.’

These were words Dienne had spoken while fanning herself with a fan painted with red roses.

It was a jab at Marian’s origins.

No different from denying Marian’s right to the position of crown princess.

‘How truly blessed by the chief god, isn’t it? If you grew up as a stray on Hazet Street…… oh my, what am I saying…… I apologize.’

‘Not at all……’

‘Come to think of it, it puts my heart at ease. It seems you’re receiving an abundance of Solea’s love, Miss.’

‘……’

‘I had been troubled that His Highness’s affections were too one-sided…… now I can rest easy. You’re receiving the great love of the chief god, after all.’

For Marian, who loved Zikhart, it was mockery like a blade.

The voice of Dienne whispering where no one could hear came back vividly in this moment.

‘To His Highness, you can’t even be a decorative flower. You’re less than the pebble kicked underfoot.’

Even while being laughed at by everyone present, Marian had to stay in her seat. All the more so because the Empress herself was there.

Even the Empress, her mother-in-law, had not stopped Dienne and her ladies from their cruelty.

On the contrary……

‘She had been watching it all with a pleased smile.’

Everyone in the rose garden had been in it together.

Ella’s brow creased sharply. The overwhelming floral scent made her head throb.

At the end of her cold gaze, Ella closed her fist around the flower.

‘Should I start by setting this garden on fire?’

Inside Ella’s hand, the petals were crushed mercilessly.

Ella glanced down. Looking at her hand stained red, she gave a short laugh.

“Looks just like blood.”

She was thinking it would be nice if it were actually their blood, when,

Ella’s eyes went wide.

“Mmph!”

Something surged from inside her and as her lips parted, vivid red blood dripped down in rapid drops. She pressed her hand over her mouth urgently, but it wasn’t enough to stop the blood seeping through.

Drip, drip.

Red stains spread across the white hem of her skirt like rose blooms.

To make matters worse, starting from the back of her hand, her veins were turning blue-violet.

Ella reached up to touch her own face.

‘The same thing must be visible everywhere a vein runs!’

Even the saintess‘s ceremonial robes couldn’t cover her face.

Ella’s eyes wavered with anxiety.

Why?

‘The spell should still be in effect……’

Even thinking back on what Haven had told her before they parted, in front of the ruined chapel, it held.

‘You need to have the spell recalibrated once every twenty days. The sealed mana will stay quiet until then, so don’t worry, Ella. Meivia will take care of things, so absolutely don’t push yourself.’

She still had two weeks left.

On top of that, she had drunk the potion Meivia had made for her that very morning.

‘What’s wrong?’

The situation she was in was the worst possible time to leisurely seek an answer.

If anyone were to see her like this right now……

Ella bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut. Even the thought was dizzying.

“I need to get out of sight first……”

Ella looked around, and her gaze fixed on one spot.