***
By the time they returned to their residence, it was already pitch-black night.
In the lobby, brightly lit by moonlight, the attendants who had received word in advance were waiting.
When Eren opened the carriage door, Ferento, standing at the very front, cried out solemnly,
“Your Highness. Are you all right? We heard your ankle was broken!”
Step. Ail took one step forward beside him.
The sight of his smile missing was unfamiliar.
“We were told that three priests had to rush in to heal Your Highness while you were writhing in pain.”
So Ail could look serious too.
By now, she felt she was getting used to that absurd Northern way of interpretation.
“That’s wrong. They didn’t heal me. They couldn’t even heal me.”
That was because divine power didn’t work.
When the information was corrected, both knights couldn’t hide their shock.
Ferento fixed his gaze and offered stiff, serious advice to Eren.
“I knew this would happen someday. That’s why I said we should process defensive magic tools into jewelry. The world outside the Ducal manor in the North is dangerous.”
‘Magic tools? Surely not…’
As Liselotte only rolled her eyes and glanced down at her necklace, Eren’s voice came from where he was seated across from her in the carriage.
“You’re right, Ferento. I’ll look into it soon.”
The rather serious exchange almost resembled a strategy meeting.
Only Hedmilton, standing a step back, blinked in confusion, not understanding what was going on.
“Did you conduct a subjugation at the banquet or something…?”
Watching the scene from beyond the carriage door, Liselotte let out a faint, soft smile.
The thought of revealing a foot with all ten toes intact made pretending to be ill seem preferable.
To cut off their conversation, Liselotte smiled with her eyes and pointed her thumb toward the carriage seat.
“The story is getting dramatic. Should I lie down now to meet expectations?”
“Ah, s-so it wasn’t like that?”
Only then did the tension tightly drawn around Ferento’s eyes slowly ease.
Hedmilton, however, still couldn’t grasp the situation.
“Why is everyone acting like this? The letter just said, ‘The Grand Duchess injured her ankle, and even calling three priests was of no use. Stand by with a healing magic stone.’ That was all.”
As the only one among the aides from the East, he seemed to have taken the words exactly as written.
Perhaps realizing that the injury wasn’t as severe as imagined, Ail slowly regained a faint smile.
“In the North, an injured ankle usually means something serious.”
“Oh, then your ankle is actually fine?”
Ferento, who had been gripping the stone attached to a necklace in his hand, scratched the back of his head.
“We were told to prepare a healing magic stone, so I brought it just in case.”
Seated across from her inside the carriage, Eren crooked one finger toward Ferento.
“Throw it.”
Whoosh. The necklace traced a light arc through the air as it passed from one hand to another.
The transparent pale yellow stone shifted colors as the angle changed, turning white, then tinged with pink, then returning to yellow, over and over again.
Eren wrapped the necklace cord around his hand once or twice and let the magic stone hang down.
When the magic stone touched near her ankle, a soft yellow glow flowed out.
It was clearly different from when she had faced the priests earlier.
A warm energy spread as if seeping deep into her body.
The carriage, which had been lit only by moonlight, was gently filled with a faint glow.
At the same time, the slight pain she had felt disappeared.
“Oh? The magic stone works?”
Liselotte, who had been half resigned, widened her eyes.
‘Does that mean it works as long as it’s not divine power?’
At this point, the assumption that she had been singled out by the God Donia wasn’t an unreasonable suspicion.
‘Ah, but if it’s a God, it’s hard to argue about a violation of basic rights.’
Sending a formal notice demanding correction would be tricky when the residence was unclear.
Should she just try hanging it on a hawk once? Who knew, it might actually get delivered.
While Liselotte was seriously contemplating this—
Eren lightly pressed her foot to check that it was fine, then flicked the magic stone back toward Ferento.
“How many healing stones do we currently have?”
“Eleven with the subjugation force, one healing stone Sir Masid returned, and twenty-four emergency ones in storage. Thirty-six in total.”
As if he had been waiting for the question, Ail rattled off the report smoothly.
With a light hop, Eren stepped down from the carriage and escorted Liselotte into the mansion.
Behind them, Ail, Ferento, and even Hedmilton followed in a line.
“The auction date for healing stones at the Magic Tower. Is there still no announcement?”
Ail, walking closely behind, answered promptly.
“We secured bids last quarter, so judging by previous schedules, there likely won’t be one for at least half a year. Shall we look into private auction houses instead?”
As he spoke quickly, he turned his head as if something had just occurred to him.
Because of that, both Ferento and Eren followed his gaze to the same spot.
“The Magic Tower?”
Hedmilton, suddenly becoming the focus of attention, asked blankly.
Then, as if he realized something, he let out a short sigh.
“Ah. Should I send a message at dawn?”
At dawn? That was far too early.
Liselotte gently offered a suggestion.
“Wouldn’t it be better to send it after daybreak? If it’s dawn, they might be woken up by a hawk in their sleep.”
“The Tower Master has a specific time window for receiving letters. If it arrives between 3:42 and 4:55 a.m., he’ll read it.”
‘What kind of standard is that?’
Ail, on the other hand, seemed to seize the moment and immediately responded with a benevolent smile.
“Then you can send the letter at dawn and take the day off tomorrow, Hedmilton. That’s fine.”
“Oh, awesome. Thank you.”
Hedmilton replied cheerfully, a satisfied smile on his face.
***
The next day, from the morning onward, Marsha was busy packing.
With the banquet over, they were preparing to return to the Grand Duke’s estate in the North.
“We are leaving in the afternoon. His Highness prepared a first grade teleportation stone for us. Isn’t that great?”
Liselotte, sipping her morning tea, slowly swept her gaze across the room she would soon be leaving.
“Then does that mean we won’t be using this residence anymore?”
“I suppose so, unless there’s another reason to come to the Capital.”
Having finished tidying up with deft hands, Marsha hoisted a load that looked heavy at a glance up in both arms.
The baggage, slung over both shoulders like sacks, made her already taller-than-Liselotte frame look even more robust.
Her arms even gave the illusion of looking sturdier than usual.
“…Marsha. I can really feel the spirit of the North from you.”
“Oh my, really? I don’t know about that. I’ll load this onto the baggage carriage, so please wait!”
Perhaps embarrassed by the praise, she left the room with light steps.
Liselotte took another sip of her tea.
It seemed that, instinctively, the Capital still felt familiar to her.
She hadn’t stayed long, yet strangely, she felt at ease.
‘How much have I managed to save?’
Liselotte roughly calculated in her head the amount she had contributed to House Keilos so far.
Thanks to House Rovans and Masid, she had earned no small sum.
‘Hmm, for the bank certificate during Lady Rovans’ trial, the Grand Duke helped, so let’s assume that counts as some contribution…’
A rough estimate suggested that if she pooled everything together, she might be able to buy a townhouse of this size in the bustling district of the North.
If her contribution were assessed more strictly due to using Northern aides like Ail, the plan would fall apart—it was that tight a margin.
And once living expenses and maintenance of an estate were factored in, it was clearly not enough.
‘I should make sure to wrap things up neatly with Duke Gloria as well.’
Knock, knock. A knock broke her train of thought.
Soon the door opened, and Hedmilton appeared.
“Princess Liselotte. It’s time to depart. Please come out.”
It seemed he was ready to leave, as he was carrying a bag about the size of his upper body.
Liselotte looked him over and asked,
“Are you going mountain climbing in the snow?”
The fluffy fur clothing, utterly unsuited to the warm climate of the Capital, was so bulky it looked like it might swallow his body whole.
With only his face peeking out from within, Hedmilton blinked, eyes wide.
“It’s cold in the North.”
“It is cold, but we’re going by teleportation stone.”
“I asked maids from the Capital, and they said you even have to take off your shoes so you don’t sink into the snowfields?”
‘So he fell for it.’
Since she couldn’t very well ruin the maids’ fun, Liselotte smiled and played along.
“Yeah, that’s right. If you sink in, you get buried almost three thousand meters underground, and rescue operations take three days. Quite a few people freeze to death during the rescue, they say.”
“Wow. I guess everyone there survives stuff like that, so they end up thinking like Sir Ail.”
‘It’s kind of similar, but not quite.’
Worried he might catch on, Liselotte quickly changed the subject.
“Oh, what about Commander Taebon? Still no word?”
Only then did Hedmilton tilt his head.
“It’s a bit late. He’s not usually someone whose replies drag on this long. He said he took up farming—maybe he’s busy.”
