Episode 2
The Kailani house, which had seemed like it might join the Crown Prince’s side, returned to neutrality the moment Nathan died.
Donovan was sore about it, but back then, he still believed he could win the Kailani family’s support.
He’d been weighing Kailani’s favor against the powerful Lowell marquess family, and suddenly the balance tipped completely to one side.
So Donovan took Victoria Lowell — who had been engaged to Asterion when Asterion was a minor duke — and made her his second consort.
After that, the Crown Prince’s faction and the Kailani house were bound to be enemies.
“Why don’t we just quietly remove someone with no backing?” someone suggested.
“Hm. You really think it’ll be that easy?”
It felt like the Duke of Kailani wouldn’t just stand by and do nothing.
“Even if we do, we only have to deal with the Kailani house itself. If we succeed, we can plant our people inside the duchy.”
At Alton’s words, Donovan’s eyes flashed like a snake’s, and the corner of his mouth twisted into a cruel smile.
At dawn, Roxana woke up and blinked.
The first thing her eyes caught was the fancy, unfamiliar silhouette of the ceiling.
She slowly sat up and leaned back against the headboard, giving the room a casual glance.
This bedroom was the duchess’s room.
A small mana lamp gave the room a soft glow. The luxurious, rare things around her made it clear this wasn’t a dream — Asterion’s proposal had really happened.
Roxana turned her head toward the window.
Pale morning light seeped through the translucent curtains.
Is it because my bed changed…?’
She’d dreamed of her parents again after a long time. Faces that popped up in her dreams were usually blurry.
Today’s dream was so clear. I wish it had lasted longer…’
A strange ache warmed a corner of her heart.
Roxana turned the memory of the dream over and over in her mind.
When her parents were alive, she’d been too little to remember things clearly… yet the dream was vivid.
‘Mom, Dad… I’m getting married soon. Did you come into my dream because of that?’
The wedding was two weeks away, and she wondered if her parents had come to comfort her in her sleep.
Roxana lifted the pendant on the necklace she wore.
“Keep this necklace on you always. The spirit’s necklace will protect our Roxi.”
A necklace that was said to protect its wearer. If you gave it to someone you wanted to protect, it would guard them.
One thing was true: the necklace had kept her alive. She’d felt its blessing.
There were other secrets, too. The biggest one: the necklace had led her to meet a real spirit and given her knowledge of another world.
Roxana smiled faintly when she remembered the first time she’d met the spirit. The smile was touched with nostalgia.
Eighteen years ago, a mother and daughter sat close together on a sofa.
Skyla Avelio hung a necklace around her little girl’s neck.
Roxana toyed with the necklace with her chubby little hands.
“Mom, what’s this?”
“This is yours now, Roxie.”
“Roxi?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow!”
Roxana’s eyes shone with liveliness.
Then, like spring itself arriving, a pale green light surrounded the girl and faded away.
Roxana tilted her head, then went back to the necklace.
Skyla smiled and smoothed her daughter’s hair.
“Mom wants to tell you a story. Will you listen?”
“Yeah!”
“One day, there was a girl who had a special ability….”
Skyla’s soft, clear voice filled the room.
In Skyla’s story, the girl started seeing spirits. She built a bond with them, made contracts, and learned to use their power.
Traveling with a spirit, the girl helped people in need using that power.
Her travels eventually brought her to a place called ‘the end and the beginning of the world,’ where she gained one more mysterious power.
It gave her experiences and knowledge of another world, real and vivid, as if she had really been there.
The kind girl used that power to help the weak.
But jealousy and malice grew in others who disliked what she did. They killed her.
Right before she died, she entrusted her mysterious power to a spirit and said, “One day, a child will come who can inherit this power. Please watch over that child.”
After the girl died, a star fell from the sky and entered the necklace. The spirit then passed the necklace down through the family.
When Skyla was finished, Roxana’s face crumpled.
“Is the girl dead? How come… sob!”
“Roxi, it’s okay. It’s okay,” Skyla hugged her and stroked her back.
“This necklace belongs to that girl.”
“Th-that girl… sniff, what’s her name?”
Roxana asked in a sniffling voice.
“She’s dead, but she’s not really gone. She became a star.”
“She’s a st-star?”
Roxana held the pendant close, staring at it. Her green eyes widened.
“Mom, look — it’s a star! A star is inside! It’s really here!”
She pointed excitedly at the star-shaped jewel in the pendant.
Roxana believed the girl who had seemed to die was now a star sleeping in the necklace.
She brushed the pendant with her tiny hand.
“Can I meet the spirit, too, Mom?”
“Of course.”
The Avelio baron and baroness gave embarrassed smiles — they weren’t sure a spirit would appear.
But their doubts vanished that very afternoon: Roxana truly met a spirit.
The baron and baroness froze when their little daughter opened the door.
“Mom, Dad, look! The spirit came! It really came!”
The clear, cool presence of a spirit filled Roxana’s room, and beside her stood a spirit that looked like a boy, about ten years old.
Skyla recognized the spirit from the necklace.
“Hello. Long time no see, Skyla.”
“…It’s been a while, Lord Shayli.”
“Twenty years, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Shayli, my name?”
Sebastian murmured, surprised. From the first moment, he’d thought the unfamiliar boylike figure might be a spirit.
“Ah — Lord Shayli, this is my husband, Sebastian Avelio. Seb, say hello. This is Shayli, the spirit of the necklace.”
Skyla introduced her husband and the spirit.
“Nice to meet you, Lord Shayli. I’m Sebastian Avelio, Skyla’s husband, Roxana’s father.”
“Nice to meet you, human. But it’s Roxana, not Roxi?”
“Roxi is just a nickname for Roxana.”
Sebastian smiled.
From that day on, the spirit Shayli stayed by Roxana’s side.
But in time, the spirit that Roxana thought would stay forever ended up sacrificing itself to protect her and then vanished.
After that accident, Roxana lost most of her spirit power.
Still, the strange knowledge of the other world remained with her. She didn’t know why.
Shayli had once said that the otherworldly knowledge changed depending on how the user employed it.
Roxana’s mother, Skyla, also had strange knowledge related to another world.
But she used it rarely.
She sometimes used it for work, but mostly she liked trying recipes from the other world.
If she found ingredients similar to those from that other world, she’d often make special dishes for Sebastian and Roxana.
Back in the present, Roxana pushed the old, long memory aside, climbed out of bed, and went to the window.
She drew the curtains and opened the sash. Fresh morning air brushed her face.
Her eye caught a small living thing outside — a baby bird perched at the edge of a nest, flapping its tiny wings like it might fall.
Roxana glanced around, then reached out her right hand. A stream of wind flowed from her fingertips.
With the help of that breeze, the baby bird slipped safely back into the nest.
A few beads of sweat gathered on her forehead. Not from heat, but from using spirit power.
It’s this hard now. Back then, it was as easy as breathing…’
She felt again how little of her spirit power remained. Still, she didn’t give up hope.
If some of the otherworld knowledge and spirit power still exist, I’ll meet Shayli again someday.’
Even a little power could help her survive outside the duchy’s safer lands if she ever had to leave.
So please, let me get my strength back before then.’
Roxana whispered another wish to herself.
In the afternoon, Dr. Alec, the duchy physician, came to visit Roxana.
By the duke’s order, he had come to examine the bride-to-be.
Roxana’s face was calm — she’d been told in advance.
“Good day, Lady Avelio.”
“Hello, Alec.”
They weren’t strangers — both served under the duchy — though they hadn’t interacted much.
“Excuse me.”
Alec sat across the table and carefully reached out. He took Roxana’s wrist and blew mana into her.
Roxana thought it looked like the pulse diagnosis she’d seen in memories of otherworldly healers.
