Chapter 114
“Your Grace!”
“I ended up arriving a little late. Sorry, it’s already past your bedtime.”
Winter took off his cloak and folded it over his arm.
“You’re over twenty, but still growing! You should sleep before midnight too!”
I scolded him playfully, and instead of answering, Winter pulled something from his coat.
It was a small glass jar, filled with dried purple flowers.
“These are Seraphin flowers. They make you have lucid dreams.”
“It must’ve been hard to find these. Thank you.”
“It’s not the flowers that made me late.”
“Oh? Then what was it?”
Winter smiled mysteriously.
“I went to get something old.”
Something old?
I tilted my head slightly—and then, a memory came to me:
“A rejected suitor must bring three things to ask again: something old, something hot, and something precious.”
…No way.
I awkwardly laughed and raised three fingers, raising an eyebrow.
Winter smiled and nodded.
Trying not to bite my tongue, I slowly said,
“Maybe I should just shave my head and protest to enter a monastery instead… say I want to devote my life to God.”
Winter chuckled.
“If you enter a monastery, it’ll be hard for us to meet. And if I sneak into your room and get caught, you’ll have to marry me on the spot.”
True enough.
Getting caught with a man in your room at a religious school would be a huge scandal.
Still, I was desperate to escape this situation.
“Well, getting those three things feels just as serious…”
“An engagement can be canceled anytime.”
Ugh, but still…
My face must’ve gone pale. Because—
“What if I end up being chased by your fans like the emperor’s ex-fiancées?”
I could already imagine myself crying while being surrounded by 100 jealous noble girls from romantic dramas.
Winter looked confused at first, but after a moment, his expression changed as if he understood.
“Oh right. You forgot that I’ve killed over a hundred people recently in the North.”
Winter smiled—coldly, indifferently, yet eerily calmly.
“Those kinds of stalker problems don’t happen to people like me. Actually, all the nobles, including my brother, would protect you at all costs.”
“…”
“As soon as they realize you’re the one holding my leash.”
I lowered my gaze and thought over his words.
…Honestly, he had a point.
It felt like I was stuck in a romance fantasy story, but logically, his proposal actually made sense now.
Maybe I overreacted before.
So I looked up again and joked,
“Of course, the Duke knows he’s so handsome that no woman can resist him. If things were different, you might’ve had stalkers like the emperor too.”
Winter’s eyes widened slightly.
I laughed behind my hand teasingly, and then his eyes narrowed.
“You’re right,” he said calmly.
My laughter grew, but then he added,
“But I didn’t know you thought this face was just ‘acceptable’ enough for women not to resist.”
My smile froze.
And he kept going.
“I’m glad you like my face. Even if our engagement is just for show, I won’t embarrass you when we’re together.”
I started opening and closing my mouth like a fish when—thankfully—my magical bracelet, Raglia, lit up and jumped around.
[Companion! I trust you brought my reward!]
Winter finally looked away from me.
‘Perfect timing, Raglia!’
I quickly shut my open mouth and looked away too.
Winter reached into his coat and pulled out something deep red—like blood, a beautiful gemstone.
Raglia got so excited I had to take the bracelet off. It flew straight to the gem like a magnet.
[OHHH! OHHHHHHHH!]
If it had a nose, I swear it would’ve started steaming with joy.
Winter, annoyed, shoved both the stone and bracelet into a drawer and closed it.
Then he walked over to the fireplace and pulled out a thin silver chain from under his clothes.
Hanging from it was a key.
“This is a relic from [Igrio].”
He politely ignored our earlier awkward moment and I gratefully stared at the key.
For something so important, it looked very plain. No jewels, no special carvings. Just a round, petal-like handle.
“This key can open anything.”
The story of how Winter found it was ridiculous.
It used to be a dog’s collar key in the imperial palace!
Long ago, Winter heard a divine voice say, “Don’t break it—open it.” So he assumed the sacred item must be a key.
Back then, he was trapped in time, half-crazy, and thought a relic could save him.
So he collected every key and lock in the palace—including the treasury—and burned them all.
If the key wasn’t there, he planned to burn down the whole country.
Luckily, he found the key—in the dog’s collar.
After finding it, he rewound time again to start over. But the key didn’t help much… until now.
“You can use it to open anything.”
He removed it from his neck and gave it to me.
I looked at it closely…
…but nothing special jumped out.
“In the temples of the North, there are locked sacred items with missing keys. This one could open those—but they weren’t useful. However…”
Winter’s eyes lit up with a chilling smile.
“I just had a great idea. With this… we could turn you into a living god.”
“…Excuse me?”
“Would you like to step on the world and rule it?”
Uh. No thanks…!
I quickly returned the key and stepped back.
“I had another idea for the key.”
Winter’s raised eyebrows slowly relaxed.
I turned to Loti, who was still overwhelmed, hands clasped like she was in a dream.
“Loti’s mental doors are still ‘doors.’ Maybe this key can open them? Even though I didn’t see any keyholes before, if that weird water disappears, something might change.”
“But Miss, how will you put a key into my mind?”
I shrugged.
“There’s magic for that.”
“Aha.”
Loti blinked innocently.
“If those doors open… does that mean I’ll get my past life’s memories?”
“We can’t know for sure. We’ll only find out if we try.”
I looked at her carefully.
“Are you… scared?”
Loti looked at me, then at Winter, blinking slowly.
“Honestly… this all feels like a dream. I don’t even understand half of what you’ve said.”
