Chapter 19
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Odelia felt wronged.
She didn't insist. She just, slightly, made excuses.
Theodore came into the room as soon as he heard Leona's tattling.
He immediately checked Odelia's complexion.
Worry flickered across his usually stern face, creating subtle wrinkles.
"Your complexion is still not good."
Theodore took out a small box and carefully placed it on the table.
"This is medicine made at the pharmacy. They say it has the effect of boosting energy and reducing fatigue."
After putting down the packet of medicine, he placed a small glass bottle containing digestive medicine next to it.
Then, at his gesture, a servant who had been waiting by the door brought in a lavishly wrapped box and placed it on the bed.
"A gift for the Princess."
He said politely.
Odelia looked puzzled as she untied the ribbon and opened the box.
Inside was a neatly folded navy-blue overcoat.
It had a double lining to maintain a stable body temperature even in the harsh cold of the North.
The lining was elk fur, and the outer fabric had a subtle sheen unique to precious textiles.
Leona exclaimed in admiration.
"This looks really light and warm. It's so soft... and looks quite expensive?"
Odelia silently looked at the things he had brought.
Then, she asked directly and bluntly.
"Did you buy this with your own money?"
Theodore looked at her, momentarily surprised, then lowered his head and replied.
"I cannot use public funds without His Highness's permission. But taking good care of guests is also my duty as the head steward."
The moment she heard those words.
Suddenly, she recalled a memory from long ago.
In her previous life, after Leona died, no one was left by Odelia's side.
Ludville had practically confined her to the Separate Palace to save her, so she didn't even have the chance to encounter vassals, but...
Still, Theodore occasionally came to visit.
"This winter is particularly cold. Grand Duke... is not very considerate."
"Someone must be by your side. As the mistress of the Excepcion family, I will serve the Grand Duchess to the end."
It was like that back then too.
He personally prepared her gloves and scarves with his own money, brought her medicine, and took care of her in various ways without a word.
Perhaps it was only natural.
He was originally a person with a lot of affection.
Even while being thorough and meticulous about everything, he couldn't simply pass by any of the servants.
It was the same for Odelia.
The person who quietly cared for her without anyone knowing.
In this life, he had kept his distance and been wary for a while because Odelia had come as the Blue-Eyed Woman...
But in the end, he had returned to how he used to be.
Odelia silently looked at him, then turned her gaze and picked up the overcoat.
She carefully put one sleeve on, then pushed her arm through the other.
The fur lining softly wrapped around her body.
It was much warmer than she had expected.
For a brief moment, her eyes followed the snowflakes outside the window.
This winter wouldn't be so cold after all.
* * *
'Finally alone.'
Leona didn't want to leave Odelia alone for even a moment.
Thanks to that, she had to work up a sweat to get her out of the Separate Palace.
She was still worried about Odelia waiting for Zeke alone in the Separate Palace to catch the thief, it seemed.
She didn't stop looking at her with suspicion until the end, as if wondering if she was planning to do something reckless again after sending her away...
But really, this time was different.
It was something she could do without getting hurt or injured.
Like inserting a key into a keyhole and turning it...
...Very simply.
Odelia sighed and went deep into the warehouse.
At the end of a long-forgotten secret passage.
She stood again before the forbidden magic circle.
'Finally.'
When she first decided to get rid of the magic circle, she was just impatient.
But now that she was back here, her heart was strangely complicated.
That was probably because...
'...If I get rid of this, the last connection with Ludville will disappear.'
Even knowing that this magic circle had taken half of Ludville's life force.
She might have hesitated a little.
'But it's something that should never be delayed.'
Before her eyes, the spell that had absorbed Ludville's life force and transferred it to her lay quietly dormant.
And in the center of it. An empty space remained.
A space that flickered as if demanding life.
It was a keyhole that could either 'activate' or 'deactivate' this spell.
A place where only a blood crystal could enter.
Odelia took out the necklace from her pocket.
She separated the blood-red crystal and slowly reached out towards the center of the circle.
The blood crystal was the key.
Which direction to turn the key after inserting it was entirely up to Odelia, who held the key.
If the spell was activated, it would suck away all the life force of Ludville, the owner of the blood crystal.
'...Ludville.'
She remembered the moment when he had given her his life without a moment's hesitation.
And at the same time...
She remembered the memory from thousands of years ago that she had stolen from Ludville's memories.
It must have been a spring day.
Smoke rising from the chimney, and warm light gently seeping through the window in the evening.
"I still can't believe I've escaped the Cardel family, Sir."
The Odelia in his memory was smiling.
Her blue eyes sparkled with hope, and she looked at him blindly, like a girl in love.
"I wish this moment could last forever."
Ludville looked at her silently.
After a long silence, he replied in a subdued voice.
"Me too... I feel the same. I always wish... that time would stop like this."
Odelia smiled, unaware.
She couldn't possibly fathom the depth of that confession, the desperation contained within it.
So she asked.
"Do you have a wish, Sir? I'll be sure to grant it someday!"
Ludville was silent for a long time.
His Adam's apple bobbed as he kept moving his lips.
As if afraid that the moment he uttered it, everything would collapse in an instant.
"...I want to celebrate your thirtieth birthday with you."
And finally, he spat it out.
A wish that had been held for too long, tattered and worn, but still desperately yearned for.
Thirty years old.
Odelia had reached that age for the first time in her previous life.
Alone, after holding Ludville's funeral.
'In the first place, it was a futile wish.'
A timeline in which the two of them lived together until she turned thirty had never existed even once.
If Ludville lived, Odelia died.
When Odelia lived, Ludville died.
So...
Ludville's wish to celebrate her thirtieth birthday together...
'...I'm sorry.'
She couldn't grant it in this life either.
Odelia had to turn away from his only wish in the end.
'Because you have to live.'
She closed her eyes and tried to erase the memory that had now become nonexistent from her mind.
