“My lady — where are you off to today?”
Sena asked, working a brush carefully through Kasha’s hair.
“Hmm…the library.”
“The library! Oh my. What would suit a library, I wonder.”
She contemplated this with complete seriousness.
“Something intellectual — the beige dress with the buttons at the collar? Hair half-up, white lace ribbon. What do you think, my lady?”
Kasha absorbed the stream of words in a vague, drifting way and nodded quickly.
“Perfect.”
“My lady, honestly — you always just say ‘perfect.'”
She said it reproachfully, but her expression gave her away entirely — the compliment had clearly made her day.
Sena was back to humming contentedly and drawing the brush through Kasha’s hair when she paused and touched the back of her hand to Kasha’s forehead. Her expression changed.
“My lady — if it’s nothing urgent, perhaps you should stay home today.”
“Why?”
“You don’t look well. Your hand still hasn’t fully healed, and I think you might have a fever.”
“I’m fine.”
The wound from the garden had been treated with bloodwort and was healing cleanly. The tiredness was genuine — since her return she hadn’t taken a proper day of rest, and several late nights over research had added up.
But postponing today’s appointment was not an option.
Today might be the last opening she would have to get close to Leon.
“But you haven’t slept properly in days. Whatever weight you’d put back on seems to have come off again.”
Kasha tilted her head at her own reflection in the mirror.
“Has it?”
“It really has. Look at the shadows under your eyes.”
Sena clicked her tongue. Kasha nodded, turning slightly.
“Ah. So that’s why.”
“What is, my lady?”
“Nothing — I was wondering if that’s why he refused me. I must have looked too haggard to be talking about a courtship.”
She said it without thinking, and the brush fell out of Sena’s hands.
“My — my lady? Who refused you? Who are we talking about?”
“Hmm.”
Paying no particular attention to the increasingly agitated Sena, Kasha tilted her face at various angles in the mirror, then looked over at her.
“Sena.”
“Y— yes? What is it, my lady?”
“I want to look very beautiful today. Is that something you can do?”
“Of— of course, my lady! I will stake my entire career as a lady’s maid on making you the most beautiful person in the world today!”
The expression on Sena’s face was, perhaps, slightly more solemn than the occasion strictly required. But that was fine.
“I’m counting on you. Do whatever you think best.”
The absolute and unqualified trust in her mistress’s voice ignited something in Sena’s eyes that could only be described as a flame.
“Leave it entirely to me, my lady!”
⁂
When Kasha stepped into the Imperial Library, her eyes went wide.
“Is this — is this heaven?”
She had always had books brought to her — by servants, through Simon, by letter request. She had never been inside the library itself.
In person, the Imperial Library was immeasurably grander than anything she had imagined. The smell of books in every direction. The low, amber light. The dense, serious warmth that came from many people absorbed in reading all at once.
Kasha clasped her hands together and looked around with undisguised awe.
“I never once set foot in a place like this in my previous life.”
The regret arrived fresh, as though for the first time.
To make up for lost time, she moved straight toward the nearest shelves.
Oh — a commentary on the ancient magical script of the Archmage Elios? Wait. And this is the botanical atlas of the continent by naturalist Juvenavy. Look at those illustrations—
Before long, Kasha had pulled an armful of books from the shelves and was barely staying upright under the weight.
I can look through them until Leon arrives. Just a quick browse.
She found a patch of floor where afternoon light fell between the shelves, folded herself down onto it without ceremony, and opened the first book.
In that moment, she forgot entirely what she had come for. She forgot she was tired. She forgot she had missed both breakfast and lunch while fixing errors in her latest blueprints.
She had no idea that someone had been watching her from behind the shelves for quite some time.
Time passed.
Then, without warning, something reached her nose — a scent that made her frown before she had consciously identified it.
…What is that?
It was the sensation of a needle pushed into the center of the mind. A sharp, intense stimulus followed immediately by deep revulsion and something very close to fear.
The moment she understood what it was, she put the book down and got to her feet.
A wave of dizziness hit her. She steadied herself and looked around.
That smell—!
Her eyes went cold.
That’s the one. The perfume. The same one as in the prison, before my execution — the person who came with Simon.
An overpowering floral scent.
One she had not encountered anywhere since her return.
Is that person here? Right now?
She moved quickly, scanning the area.
But the library’s interior was a maze of towering shelves, and nothing could be seen clearly from where she stood.
If I can get to the second floor, I’ll be able to see the whole ground floor at once.
She gathered a few of the books she had been reading, tucked them under her arm, and started hunting for the stairs.
The sudden stress had made the dizziness worse, and there was a burning heat behind her eyes that had nothing to do with reading.
The scent is fading.
She walked faster. Her skirt caught around her ankles.
There — the stairs.
She spotted them at last and stepped up quickly.
At that same moment, she caught a glimpse of white skirts disappearing into the dark corridor leading to the second floor.
“……!”
The floral scent struck her nostrils again, unmistakably sharp.
That’s her.
Heart pounding heavily, Kasha took the stairs two at a time — and ran directly into something.
“Well, well. Who do we have here.”
The line of a second-rate villain in a cheap novel, and the voice to match. Someone behind her spoke her name.
Just hearing it made her skin crawl.
“Kasha Rüschino. You’ve been so impossible to reach lately, I was wondering what you were so busy with. To think I’d run into you here.”
She turned slowly.
“Simon Blanche.”
He showed no sign of being troubled by the complete absence of warmth in her expression, running his eyes over her with open appraisal.
Sena’s careful work had made Kasha look better than usual today, and Simon’s gaze lingered a beat too long on the red of her lips.
“Good — you at least still remember my name. I’ve been sending so many letters without a reply, I was beginning to wonder if you’d forgotten that too. Ha-ha.”
A twisted smile in place, Simon began climbing the stairs toward her.
Kasha looked at him coldly.
“If I could actually forget you, that would be quite a relief.”
At that, the smile faded from his face entirely. His posture remained controlled but the anxiety underneath it was showing.
“Kasha. Can’t we just talk? Those offensive magitools and the magical detonators you were working on — how far along is the design? Hmm?”
“…….”
Kasha made no reply and turned to go up the stairs again.
“Come on, this is — Kasha Rüschino! Are you really going to keep doing this?”
But Simon was quicker than her. He took three stairs at once and stepped in front of her, blocking the way.
He at least had the sense not to grab her after the scalding tea, which was something.
“Kasha, Kasha. Come on. Calm down, just listen to me for a minute. If I’ve hurt your feelings, I’ll apologize — a real apology, seriously. Yes?”
“Your apologies are the last thing I need, Simon.”
“Then — oh, I know. Do you remember that café in the center of the city? You said you wanted to try their desserts.”
His tone had shifted to something gentle, as though managing a difficult child.
She did remember.
In the time she had believed he was her future, she had quietly dreamed about ordinary things like that. Walking through a bright street with someone she cared about, looking in windows, sharing tea, laughing over something small.
And what he had actually given her instead was black bread delivered to a tower. Hardened cheese. Dried meat with visible mold.
When the cart was late, there were full days when I had nothing at all.
The dormant anger rose again, new and sharp. Alongside it came a rush of heat — and with the heat, a wave of dizziness.
She steadied herself, blinking through the warmth in her eyes.
“I will never sit across a table from you again, Simon. And I will never give you anything I’ve made.”
“God, Kasha—”
He rubbed his forehead and stepped in front of her again.
The revulsion alone was enough to turn her stomach. She clenched her jaw and held it down.
Too absorbed in himself to notice her condition, Simon glanced around and lowered his voice.
“I explained everything to you. You still haven’t worked out the situation?”
“The fact that you’re here right now — that tells me something.”
“What are you muttering about?”
Kasha’s quiet words made him frown.
“That woman.”
“What woman?”
The person who plotted every atrocity alongside you. The two of you, who cut down innocent people like grass growing along the road, for nothing but your own gain.
Stumble.
Her knees buckled. The books in her arms fell to the floor.
“Kasha! Are you all right?”
Simon moved in like he had been waiting for this, reaching to support her.
But before he could touch her, Kasha shuddered away from him.
“Don’t — don’t touch me.”
“Kasha, you’re—!”
Embarrassment flushed his face and he glanced around. Even now, his first concern was clearly whether anyone was watching him be refused.
Kasha tried to straighten herself.
But her posture kept collapsing, no matter what she did.
No. Not here. Not in front of you, of all people.
She gritted her teeth.
Her body, worn down by days of insufficient sleep and a steadily climbing fever, was spectacularly unwilling to cooperate.
“Stop being stubborn and just lean on me, Kasha. Who else do you think is going to help you right now?”
Simon smiled with easy confidence and extended his hand.
“We’ve always been good together, haven’t we? I’ll take care of you. You’ve always been too fragile to be out running around like this — you don’t have to do anything. Just work on your research, and I’ll handle everything else. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
Get away from me and go.
She wanted to say it at full volume. Her body refused to cooperate.
And in the space of her silence, he took another step toward her.
She tried to step back the same distance. She meant to.
“Kasha! What are you — watch out!”
Simon’s startled shout and the sudden loss of her balance arrived at the same moment.
The edge of the step was no longer beneath her heel.
This isn’t right.
The thought arrived as her body tipped backward, fully and completely.
Thud.
Two arms appeared from nowhere and she fell into them, and the world went dark.
