Several days later.
Kasha traveled for two full days by carriage to reach Elhor Bay.
The ducal family would already have arrived at the villa a day ahead of her. Kasha planned to come as a guest and stay with them for around ten days.
The Duke, of course, would be furious at her appearance — but his reaction was the least of her concerns.
I’m going to save Eve.
She held that resolve firmly in her chest.
I freed Leon from his curse. There must be a way to save Eve too. I can do this.
She repeated the words to herself over and over, and before long, the scent of the sea began drifting in through the carriage walls.
She cracked the window open — and the sight that spread before her was so breathtaking it ached.
A sweep of golden sand curving gently along the inlet, following the soft bend of the bay as it pressed inland. A turquoise sea blazing under the fierce summer sun, scattering countless glittering sparks of light across its surface. White sailboats drifting above it all, languid and dreamlike.
Elhor Bay.
“Kasha! Kasha!”
The moment the Rüschino carriage pulled up to the villa’s front gate, Eve came tumbling out and flung herself into Kasha’s arms.
“Why did you take so long! I’ve been waiting all day.”
Eve pressed her cheek against Kasha’s face, beside herself with joy.
The sweet, lovely warmth that radiated from Eve brought a smile to Kasha’s lips — and at the very same moment, a fierce tightening seized her chest: I cannot lose this child. I cannot.
They clung together as though they hadn’t seen each other in years, savoring the delight of reunion.
“I’m sorry. I came as fast as I could. Shall we go inside now?”
At Kasha’s words, the brightness drained from Eve’s face almost instantly. She darted a glance toward the villa with a look that could only be described as wary.
“Mm… but I want to go for a walk on the beach with you, Kasha.”
“Alright. Then let’s just go in first, say hello to the Duke and to Leon and Anthony, and then—”
“Um… that’s sort of…”
Eve kept hesitating. Kasha thought she understood why.
Leon and the Duke must be in the middle of an argument about me.
She turned to Eve with a gentle, reassuring smile.
“Which way is the beach? Show me your favorite spot. Let’s go there.”
“Really? There’s a beautiful beach — the sand sparkles golden!”
Eve’s face lit up at once and she took Kasha’s hand, leading the way.
Shhh. Shhh.
Kasha sat perched on a sand dune near the water’s edge, watching the endless rhythm of the waves rolling in.
It seemed impossible that water so vast it looked ready to spill beyond the edges of the sky could be held by such quiet, orderly discipline — and yet there it was.
She thought, with something like quiet grief, of her past life — a girl who had grown up in the cold mountains of the north and had exiled herself from the world, voluntarily and without respite.
Once I’ve recovered all the magic stones and unmasked whoever is behind everything — I want to see the world.
The desert of the central continent, they said, blazed like hell in daylight and froze like death come nightfall. The Crystal Falls plunged from peaks so high they seemed to brush the very end of the sky. Small, mysterious islands dotted the edges of the north and south, strung like beads along the horizon.
All the things she had once dismissed as belonging only to the pages of books — she now knew were real.
The same was true of the friendship Margaret offered her so freely, of Daryl’s family love — bewildering as it was — and of the shy admiration this small girl in front of her couldn’t quite conceal.
And now that she had actually experienced them, she knew: real things were far more powerful than anything she had imagined. Powerful enough to make the frozen heart of a woman who had died and returned begin, again, to beat.
“Kasha! Look at this!”
Eve turned to her with a wide, brilliant smile.
The sandcastle she had built with her small hands was surprisingly impressive. The governess standing nearby, however, was beside herself with distress at the sight of sand all over the young duchess’s hands and hem.
Eve’s shoes, too, had been abandoned somewhere and were rolling freely in the sand — because Kasha, realizing it was impractical to walk on sand in shoes, had gone barefoot, and Eve had immediately followed suit.
If the Duke were to see Eve like this right now, he would almost certainly declare that the mad young noblewoman had been a terrible influence on his daughter.
But Kasha wanted Eve to be free — free to stand before this magnificent expanse of nature without fretting over whether grains of sand might find their way into her silk slippers.
I want you to live. To taste every good thing your life has to offer. To smile exactly like this, exactly this beautifully.
She looked at Eve and nodded.
I’ll do everything in my power to make sure of it. I saved your brother — and I’ll save you. That is how I begin to repay what I owe.
“You did well — you dug a moat around it!”
“Yes! I’m going to fill it with seawater to make a proper moat!”
Pleased to have her creation noticed, Eve announced this with great pride.
Kasha had been quietly observing the tides, and she already knew that seawater poured into the moat would quickly seep into the sand — making a proper water-filled moat nearly impossible. But she simply nodded.
“Try it. I’ll help you.”
Hehe.
Eve’s peach-blossom cheeks dimpled with pure delight.
As Kasha watched Eve absorbed in the sandcastle, she began to feel the sun beating down on her head, followed by a faint ringing in her ears and a slight dizziness.
Of course — I’ve never spent time in sunlight this strong before. And now that I think about it, Eve has been under the sun too long as well. Her skin might burn.
She raised her hand to call Eve’s governess — and just at that moment:
“Why, isn’t that the young duchess?”
A young woman’s voice rang out in exaggerated delight, and the beach around them erupted into sudden noise.
At the sound, Eve’s expression immediately darkened. She stood up stiffly, casting a wary glance over her shoulder. Kasha, too, turned slowly to look.
The procession that had appeared atop the dunes was magnificently adorned.
Noblewomen with the finest lace parasols and the latest fashions in gowns, the gentlemen who accompanied them. Among them, Kasha recognized one pair who outshone the rest. Without betraying any surprise, she rose and curtseyed gracefully.
“Katiyana Rüschino of the Rüschino Countship — honored to be in the presence of His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince, and Her Imperial Highness the Crown Princess.”
The courtesy of her greeting belied the way her senses flared beneath it.
A sharp, overwhelming floral scent that pierced simultaneously through her nose and into the base of her skull.
It was the perfume that the mastermind had used before her regression. The Crown Princess Jasmine, along with several other nobles, wore that suffocating fragrance — and with it, they regarded Kasha from above with expressions of barely concealed disdain.
Eve, standing just behind Kasha, curtseyed with impeccable poise as well — though her governess had gone white in the face and was frantically trying to brush the sand from Eve’s dress and hands and coax her shoes back onto her feet.
“Leave her be. It is a summer holiday — and only one per year at that. The young duchess should enjoy herself as befits her age. Isn’t that right, Eve?”
Crown Prince Nigel smiled pleasantly and spoke in a warm, melodic voice, and the nobles who had been casting subtle glances of scorn all nodded in unison.
“But of course. It’s a delight to see the young duchess so full of life.”
“Thank you, Your Imperial Highness.”
Eve replied in a voice barely above a whisper and bowed her head.
Then Jasmine, standing at Nigel’s side, turned to Kasha with a direct question.
“You said you were a daughter of the Rüschino family?”
Kasha lifted her head.
Jasmine looked down at her with an expression of cool superiority.
The white dress she wore suited the holiday setting, and her exotic golden-brown complexion glowed beautifully against the fierce afternoon sun.
This was the woman who had brought that perfume into the empire — the only clue Kasha had to the identity of the mastermind. She hadn’t expected to come face to face with Jasmine quite like this — but Kasha examined her with quiet, careful attention.
A woman raised as a princess of a powerful kingdom, who had always had everything she reached for. A woman who had even claimed the love she fell into at first sight, becoming Crown Princess of the empire.
She shared Odette’s arrogant self-centeredness — and yet her eyes seemed somehow more guileless than Odette’s. Whether that was a quality of character, or simply the expression of a bride who had only recently married and was still basking in the happiness of a new marriage, Kasha wasn’t sure.
Jasmine was examining Kasha with the same focused interest one might give a curious creature, looking her over from head to foot. When her gaze landed on Kasha’s bare feet pressing into the sand, she gave a small, incredulous scoff and shook her head.
Kasha observed each tiny reaction without expression and answered quietly.
“Yes, Your Imperial Highness.”
At Kasha’s answer, Jasmine’s interest became openly apparent.
“You’ve been invited to the Duchy of Oshilote’s villa, I take it?”
“Yes.”
At Kasha’s reply, the assembled nobles exchanged glances laden with various unspoken meanings.
Elhor Bay was a territory accessible only to those of imperial blood and those they chose to invite. As a place that symbolized the exclusive privilege of the imperial family, not just anyone received an invitation — and having been invited here was, in itself, a kind of official acknowledgment of one’s ties to the imperial family.
First a public courtship — and now a summer holiday spent together at Elhor Bay. It was plain as day that rumors of something serious between Lord Leon and Miss Kasha would be spreading through the capital in no time.
But even as she took in the gossiping nobles around her, something else caught Kasha’s eye.
…Why is he here?
One man in the group stood out — his family’s standing, reputation, and influence made him an ill fit among this gathering.
Kasha noticed that he alone of all the assembled guests had his gaze fixed not on Kasha, but on something — or someone — else entirely. She followed the direction of his stare.
The moment she understood what he was looking at, her expression turned cold.
“Ah, Leon — I was wondering where you’d gone off to. Here you are at last.”
Crown Prince Nigel’s bright voice scattered Kasha’s attention.
She turned.
Walking toward them through the blazing sun, dressed in a white shirt, was Leon.
