“A chill?”

“Uh huh! A chill!”

“What kind of chill even... Ah. Family problems.”

Bale frowned.

“But where did that suddenly come from?”

Tie shrugged.

“I don’t know. The princess suddenly...” 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

After glancing around, the child crooked her finger as though asking him to come closer.

When Bale bent down, Tie whispered into his ear,

“She suddenly hugged Tie and started crying really, really hard. Can you believe it?”

Bale froze and looked at Tesetan.

Tesetan silently stared toward the empty corridor.

Beside him, Tie continued chattering away.

“Brother, remember how Tie said before that maybe the princess gets bullied at home?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“You know why Tie thought that? The princess is supposed to live happily in a super pretty castle. But the Association Head Princess even joined dangerous things like the Watchtower assault.”

“True.”

“And then! Today Tie realized she was right. When she was talking to the emperor, he looked at the princess like he really hated her— Mmff.”

Bale covered the child’s mouth with his palm.

Tie’s eyes widened, and ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) she frowned indignantly.

“Mmph! What was that for?!”

“You can talk about that later. Later.”

After saying that, Bale looked back at Tesetan.

“Vice Captain. Shouldn’t you go?”

Only then did Tesetan turn around.

For several seconds, he stared seriously at Tie before nodding at Bale.

“Take her inside first.”

Tie watched in confusion as Papa headed back toward the direction she had just come from.

A heavy sigh came from behind her.

“This is complicated. Damn complicated...”

Tie turned her head.

“What’s complicated?”

Bale stared at her for a long moment with an unreadable expression.

Then very gently poked her forehead with his finger.

“You don’t need to know yet.”

“But Tie wants to know too!”

“And what exactly am I supposed to explain? When the time comes, you’ll figure it out yourself.”

“Hmph!”

Bale took the pouting child’s hand.

Then led her toward the banquet hall doors.

Tie puffed out her cheeks and glared at Bale, but eventually nodded reluctantly.

Even so, her gaze kept drifting back again and again.

Ardiana could still hear Tie’s subdued voice echoing in her ears.

‘They said it’s a burden...’

Covering her aching eyes with one hand, Ardiana leaned back against the old chair.

A short distance away from where she and Tie had walked together was a secret place known only to her.

This corner of the western garden had long since been abandoned.

At one point, they had planned to build a pond there.

But after construction was halted because the ground was unstable, the entire area had become overgrown with grass and trees.

It was Ardiana herself who had made a small path leading here and placed the old chair the empress had loved sitting in during her lifetime.

‘Tie will never hold Papa back.’

Why did those words feel like a knife?

Maybe that was why Ardiana had simply held Astie tightly and cried for such a long time.

Unable to say a single one of the countless things she had wanted to tell her.

While she sobbed, only one thought kept repeating in her mind.

‘Why are you even worrying about something like that?’

Why would you think such a thing?

Why would you say it out loud?

Astie was only four years old.

She was not at an age where a child should fear being hated by someone.

Not at an age where she should worry about becoming a burden.

‘Please don’t hate Papa because of Tie.’

Just hearing that single sentence made Ardiana feel as though she had suddenly seen all four years of the child’s life.

As though the hidden loss the little girl carried inside herself had finally become visible.

‘I kept hoping it wasn’t true. That it couldn’t possibly be true.’

Her absence had already left a mark on the child like a scar.

Ardiana bit down on her lip as if her heart were collapsing apart.

And at that moment—

“Ardiana.”

Amid the rustling leaves, someone called her name.

She lowered the hand covering her face.

Through vision blurred by tears stood Tesetan.

“So this is where you were.”

Breathing heavily, he approached her.

Ardiana stared at him blankly.

Tesetan spoke.

“I searched for you for a long time. Then I remembered you once briefly mentioning this place...”

“I remembered everything.”

Ardiana interrupted him.

Her eyelashes trembled.

“Everything you wrote in the letter. Everything you said I needed to know.”

Tesetan fell silent.

Tears streamed down Ardiana’s cheeks.

“That’s why I came. This banquet never should have happened, but I... I wanted to see the child so badly.”

“......”

“Sniff... I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to say something, anything at all. To tell her everything I couldn’t say before. But the words just wouldn’t come out.”

Ardiana lowered her head.

It felt as though something sharp had lodged itself in her throat, making it painful to speak.

And if that were the only problem.

But after her memories returned, another thought had lodged inside her like a thorn.

“What’s going to happen to Astie now...?”

Ardiana looked up.

Magic activated through spatial distortion.

A child born in a place and time where she was never meant to exist.

“Answer me.”

Even knowing almost nothing about magic, Ardiana instinctively understood—

Great magic always demanded a proportional price.

Miracles never came for free.

“Answer me. Tell me that Astie, my daughter, will not become that price.”

When she decided to oppose the emperor.

When she secretly began contacting the nobles of the late empress’s faction.

All this time, she had thought—

If she started moving now, she could still change things.

That doing something was better than standing still.

That this way, she could protect the child.

But all of that hope only had meaning under one condition.

If Astie remained alive and unharmed.

Yet Tesetan remained silent.

Ardiana shook her head as if denying reality itself.

“No.”

With trembling hands, she repeated again and again,

“You can’t do this... I can’t...”

Tie’s voice comforting her while patting her back echoed through her ears once more.

‘Association Head Lady, you can cry more if you want.’

‘....’

‘Tie also, hic, cries all alone for a really, really long time when she’s sad. But afterward it feels better.’

The words about how the child had become used to crying alone stabbed painfully into her heart.

It felt as though the little girl had already learned far too well how to hide her emotions.

She had clearly learned much too early how to stand alone instead of simply laughing, whining, and crying in someone’s arms like an ordinary child.

“...There’s a way, isn’t there?”

That was why Ardiana could no longer stand by and merely watch.

She could not leave Astie like this.

That was why she was prepared to overturn the entire Imperial Palace.

Even if it meant staining her hands with blood.

She wanted to give Tie a world where the child would be safe.

Only then would Astie finally be able to laugh and cry like a real child.

But if Tie disappeared from this world?

If the child vanished as the price of magic?

Then what meaning would any of this even have?

“It can’t be without Tie, Tesetan...”

Ardiana grabbed his hand.

“If she’s gone, everything loses its meaning. Everything, absolutely everything...”

Her body trembled.

But Ardiana still forced herself to steady her ragged breathing.

After wiping away her tear soaked eyes, she looked directly at Tesetan.

“You have a plan, don’t you?”

Ardiana knew Tesetan as exactly that kind of person.

Someone who prepared the best option, a backup option, and even a final escape route in case everything failed.

“Tell me. What do I need to do?”

Tesetan’s gaze grew heavy.

A cold wind lingered between them for a moment.

Finally, he spoke.

“When we reach the Central Continent, I was planning to investigate the World Tree.”

Ardiana frowned.

“The World Tree...?”

Tesetan nodded.

“Do you remember? The moment in the underground plaza beneath the Imperial Palace when Tie and I were dragged into another dimension.”

Ardiana fell silent.

How could she possibly forget?

That day, enduring the poisonous energy, she had destroyed the heart of the Magic Crystal.

And then Tesetan and Astie had appeared from beyond the collapsing wall.

But there had been no time to rejoice over their reunion.

“...Yes. Something emerged from the heart of the Magic Crystal back then.”

That golden, shining thing had instantly disappeared into Astie’s chest.

Tesetan lowered his voice.

“If my guess is correct, that was the World Tree.”

Ardiana’s brows furrowed even more deeply.

That golden creature was the World Tree?

“But...”

She looked at Tesetan uncertainly.

“Tesetan, the World Tree is corrupted. According to the Church, it entered slumber in the Forest of Rokshe to restore its holiness.”

“But nobody has seen it.”

Tesetan said quietly.

“There are only claims that it went into seclusion. But no one has actually seen the World Tree with their own eyes in the Forest of Rokshe.”

His gaze lifted toward the top of the palace chapel in the distance.

The sacred spear, symbol of the Temple, pointed toward the Central Continent where the Church headquarters stood.

“Except for Pope Luciano, who acts suspicious every single time.”