Would he really listen to what she had to say? Yet, giving up was not an option.
“Ahwin, I have something to tell you.”
Ahwin said nothing. He stared at her with a deep-set gaze, then subtly averted his eyes.
Then he noticed her bruised hand. Ahwin’s eyes widened slightly, glancing between her hand and the closed door as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Soon after, he lowered his gaze. His complexion paled, but the dimly lit hallway concealed this from Leticia.
After a moment, Ahwin spoke in a subdued voice.
“Please, speak.”
“Do you know about Balenos?”
Without hesitation, Ahwin responded.
“No, I don’t.”
His response came too quickly. And in that swift reply, Leticia felt even more certain.
“You don’t know about Balenos?”
“No.”
“You’re preparing to unseal Balenos on mother’s orders now, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Ahwin, please!”
At her desperate plea, Ahwin flinched. But he still refused to meet her gaze.
“I know what you were doing just now. You set up a barrier to protect the ritual to unseal Balenos, didn’t you? Am I wrong?”
Only then did Ahwin lift his head.
“That’s not it.”
Staring at her with deep-set eyes, he spoke again.
“There is no barrier.”
“……”
“It’s not a lie. You can check for yourself. Nowhere is there a barrier to protect the ritual.”
“No barrier?”
Leticia was confused.
To unseal Balenos, the barrier setup had to be completed before leaving the empire.
Given that Ahwin was in charge of the envoy’s escort, now was the only time he could have set it up.
Yet, there’s no barrier. She wanted to know more, but Ahwin sealed his lips like a clam.
‘Did I get it wrong about Balenos?’
It would be better if she had, but Ahwin’s initial reaction didn’t seem that way. The fact that he claimed not to know about Balenos was troubling.
It seemed evident something was amiss, but without Ahwin speaking, there was no way to find out.
“Ahwin.”
It was all she could say at the moment.
“I wish for happiness for you and Noel. Please, don’t make a choice that would hurt Noel. You love her. I understand wanting to protect her, but this isn’t the way. Everyone will end up hurt. Both of you will be unhappy.”
Leticia was certain.
After all, she knew better than anyone what had happened to their relationship after unsealing Balenos.
Ahwin was silent for a long while, just gazing at Leticia with complex eyes.
“There’s something I also want to ask.”
When he finally spoke, he asked something entirely unexpected.
“While waiting for me here, did you ever call out my name?”
Looking perplexedly at Ahwin, Leticia smiled and nodded.
“Yes, I did. I was that desperate.”
“…I see.”
He then whispered very softly.
“So, it was indeed that voice.”
“Huh?”
“…It’s nothing.”
Ahwin brushed his face with a slightly trembling hand. Closing his eyes, he took a few deep breaths and then bowed respectfully to her.
“Please wait here for a moment.”
Ahwin entered the room. A short while later, he emerged holding a small bottle. Recognizing the familiar potion bottle, Leticia’s eyes widened.
“I apologize, but I can’t use my divine power to heal you right now.”
His eyes, looking at Leticia’s injury, twisted slightly in pain.
“If you permit, I would like to heal you myself.”
“You, personally?”
Leticia looked up at Ahwin in surprise.
“But if you heal me, there will be a mark left.”
“It’s not divine power; it’s a potion.”
“Even if you, a wing, use a potion, it leaves a mark, doesn’t it?”
“You are soon to be the national wedding’s bride. You will have a wedding, so it’s best to heal your wounds as soon as possible.”
“But…”
“Being a minor injury, by the time the sun rises, most of my energy will have…”
He hesitated, then stopped speaking. He looked down at the potion in his hand for a moment, then smirked and whispered.
“You don’t have to worry. Even if I heal you, there won’t be any trace left.”
“What do you mean…”
Leticia looked at Ahwin in stunned disbelief. Instead of answering her question, Ahwin opened the potion bottle and softly asked,
“How did you find out about Noel and my relationship?”
“…I heard it directly from Noel.”
“I see.”
Ahwin nodded in acknowledgment.
“Then, I insist you receive the treatment. If I send you off injured like this, Noel will be very angry with me.”
Given his insistence, she could no longer refuse. When Leticia extended her hand, Ahwin’s fingers gently grasped her sleeve. Then he tilted the potion bottle over her bruise and warned,
“It might sting a bit.”
“It’s okay.”
Although she said that, a sharp sensation enveloped her as the potion seeped into her wound.
Each time she flinched from the pain, Ahwin’s brow furrowed slightly. His face looked as though he was feeling her pain, an expression of anguish painted on it.
Soon, he regained his composure and stepped back, his face neutral, but the hand holding the empty bottle trembled ever so slightly.
“The treatment is complete. If you return to your room and take it easy, the bruise will fade in an hour or two.”
“Thank you.”
“Take care.”
Ahwin bowed his head.
Leticia looked at him, feeling something she couldn’t quite put into words.
Although Ahwin was always polite towards her, his behavior today didn’t seem out of the ordinary. Yet…
‘Something is strange.’
It felt like she was missing something crucial. Did he recognize her, as Noel had mentioned?
‘It doesn’t seem like it.’
Ahwin’s demeanor hadn’t changed at all. Unlike Noel, he didn’t shed tears of emotion or show any sign of reverence towards her.
Moreover, even knowing she was injured, he didn’t use his divine power.
And it didn’t end there. He had consistently pretended not to know about Balenos. If Ahwin truly regarded her as his master, such behavior was unthinkable.
Still, just to be sure, Leticia posed one last question.
“Ahwin, are you sure you have nothing to tell me about Balenos?”
“…No, I don’t. However…”
Ahwin lifted his downcast gaze.
“The matter you’re concerned about will not happen immediately. There is no barrier to protect. That’s all I can tell you.”
* * *
Even after returning to her room, Leticia’s mind remained tangled, largely due to the issue of Balenos.
‘Even if Ahwin is right and there’s no barrier guarding the capital, I can’t feel relieved.’
If not immediately after leaving the capital, releasing Balenos once they arrived at the Principality would be the strategy.
‘At least I’ve bought some time to prepare, I suppose that’s fortunate.’
Leticia began to plan for facing Balenos, trying to soothe her anxious heart.
Balenos had a few vulnerabilities. One of them was its habitat.
The desert demon, Balenos. In other words, if it wasn’t in the desert, they might stand a chance against Balenos.
‘Is there a way to lure Balenos to a wetter terrain?’
Despair filled Leticia once more. How could they possibly draw such a massive beast to solid ground?
‘If I truly were chosen by the goddess, this wouldn’t be so hard.’
A representative of the goddess could wield the goddess’s power and perform numerous miracles. Among them was the ability to control magical beasts.
Josephina had even tamed several powerful magical beasts.
Growing frustrated, Leticia looked down at her bracelet. She carefully touched the black gem and asked,
“Hey, are you really an Elixir?”
The bracelet gave no response. Hesitating, Leticia rephrased her question.
“Am I truly the chosen representative of the goddess?”
“Can I control magical beasts?”
As she awaited a glint from the bracelet, Leticia eventually laughed.
“As always, no different today.”
She had asked the same question multiple times before.
But the bracelet’s response was always the same. It gave no answer.
Despite Noel’s pledge of loyalty, the reason Leticia doubted herself was precisely this.
The agent of the goddess is only one in its time, and the moment one is chosen by the Elixir, they can use all psychic powers.
By receiving the loyalty of wings, one could also use the power granted to those wings as their own.
Leticia did not fit into any of this.
Even though Noel came to her, Leticia couldn’t wield any power.
She tried several times to control water using the water in the tea cup, but she felt nothing.
In the end, Leticia decided not to understand the situation she was in.
She decided to give up on the abilities she might or might not have and to focus on what she could do.
“Do you have Sir Julios’s remains?”
Twinkle, twinkle.
This time, the bracelet responded.
As if boasting, it looked confident.
Leticia chuckled softly.
“Thank you. It seems safer for you to hide it until I leave the empire. I’m counting on you.”
She originally intended to hand over Julios’s remains to Dietrian immediately.
But her thoughts changed after the day she fell due to the curse.
For some reason, the bracelet didn’t hide the remains that day.
She buried the remains with all her might.
After that, her memory was cut off.
When she opened her eyes, surprisingly, she was lying neatly on the bed. Her once wounded hands were now healed.
The remains she had buried were also placed on the table. Confused about what had happened, Noel came to her.
“The patrollers found you, Leticia, collapsed. I treated the wounds.”
So, did the patrollers place the remains?
No matter how much she thought about it, it felt strange. She subtly observed Noel, but she knew nothing about the remains.
“The black box? You lost it? Just wait a moment. I’ll bring in those humans we caught yesterday right away. If we search them thoroughly, we might be able to find something.”
If it wasn’t the patrollers or Noel, then there was only one conclusion left.
The bracelet had belatedly hidden the remains.
If not for that, there was no way to explain the return of the intact remains.
She couldn’t know why the bracelet didn’t respond immediately. She could only guess that she didn’t know the exact way to use it.
Regardless, the remains went back into the bracelet. To ensure that the same incident wouldn’t happen again, she decided to retrieve the remains only after she left the empire for good.
Separate from hiding the remains in the bracelet, she planned to inform Dietrian about its existence as soon as possible.
‘I originally intended to tell him last night…’
After discussing their divorce and after he finished practicing reaching out to her, she planned to tell him then.
‘I… wasn’t in the right mind.’
Leticia’s cheeks turned rosy. For a moment, she forgot about Balenos and revisited that day’s memories.
‘Because he was… so affectionate…’
How nervous was she that she couldn’t remember much?
However, she remembered his gentle lips touching hers and the comforting hands patting her back.
All of it was so gentle, that for a moment, it felt as if he loved her.
‘Even though I know that’s impossible.’
Leticia’s smile faded slightly.
Dietrian despises Leticia.
She had never doubted that fact.
His kindness was merely due to his inherently upright nature. It was like that in the past. It was the same in this life too.
If Dietrian knew, he would undoubtedly be frustrated by the conclusion.
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