Chapter 74

As if nothing had happened, Larie answered brightly and left the bedroom, leaving Evelyn to let out a soft sigh between her lips.

“She truly is hopeless sometimes.”

Her gaze drifted to the flower petals resting softly atop the duvet.

“Did you actually trust me?”
“…Well, something like that.”

As the memory of that conversation with Axion surfaced out of nowhere, embarrassment flooded her green eyes.

‘Why did he look at me like that?’

No matter how hard she tried to ignore it, the smile he’d given her kept flashing through her mind.

Hmph, as if being that handsome isn’t enough of a nuisance!

As Evelyn gently toyed with a daisy petal, her cheeks grew steadily redder. Overcome by a feeling that was both stifling and embarrassing, she ended up kicking the covers off in frustration.

︵‿୨ ₊‧꒰ა ཐི༏ཋྀ ໒꒱ ˚₊ ୧‿︵

After rescuing Mordian from Dr. Fabian, Evelyn threw herself straight into her experiments. She carefully sprinkled the fertilizer she’d worked so hard to cultivate onto the Dirkworth, then spent several days monitoring the results.

‘This time, it has to bloom.’

With her heart pounding, she flung open the doors to the greenhouse.

Passing by the familiar green leaves, she made her way to the little vegetable patch she’d tended so lovingly. Then, squeezing her eyes shut, she began counting.

Three, two, one, half, a quarter…

She stretched out the counting as long as she could, and when at last she steadied her breath and opened her eyes—

A bud, vibrant and green, peeked out as if taking its very first step into the world.

“I-It worked! There really is a bud!”

Overwhelmed with emotion, she covered her face, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. Now that she had finally solved the problem that had weighed on her for so long, it felt as if a burden had been lifted from her heart.

“I actually did it…!”

One by one, the faces of those she cherished, her birth parents, whose portraits she now needed to look at to recall, and her beloved family of today, floated through her mind. She felt quietly relieved, thinking she had come one step closer to the truth.

Wiping her tears away with a sleeve, she straightened her back, determination lighting up her face.

“All right. I should stop by the apothecary while I’m at it!”

Fueled by the thought of studying the Dirkworth flower buds, she hurriedly gathered her things.

︵‿୨ ₊‧꒰ა ཐི༏ཋྀ ໒꒱ ˚₊ ୧‿︵

A secluded alleyway, set a little apart from the capital’s main square. Evelyn couldn’t help but shiver. The gloomy atmosphere here still unsettled her, no matter how many times she visited.

“My lady, you could’ve sent a servant for errands like this.”

Gideon grumbled under his breath, his face heavy with disapproval. Clearly, he wasn’t pleased to see his lady wandering through such an unsavory part of town.

Evelyn offered him an apologetic smile.

“If I find it today, I won’t have any reason to come back for a while.”

“Hm, I believe I heard the very same thing from you two weeks ago, my lady.”

“But this time, I really mean it. I promise, Sir Gideon.”

With her Dirkworth research progressing smoothly, she truly believed she wouldn’t need to return here anytime soon.

Gideon gazed into her clear green eyes, as if searching for any hint of pretense, then shrugged lightly.

“Well, is this really something worth making promises over?”

Evelyn couldn’t help but smile at her knight’s understanding words.

“Oh, are you saying you trust me? I’m actually touched…”

She prattled on, but suddenly her words trailed off.

…Ah. Now I get it.

Now she finally realized why Axion had looked at her that way during the midnight soirée.

‘So this is what it feels like to be moved by loyalty, or something like that?’

Only then did it feel as if the heaviness that had weighed on her heart all this time had finally lifted.

“My lady, why did you stop in the middle of your sentence?”

“…It’s nothing!”

For some reason, she had a hunch that this was something she should keep to herself.

As usual, she let her escort knight’s endless nagging go in one ear and out the other. Even so, it stung a bit, so she deliberately glanced around at her surroundings.

‘Is that alleyway different from the ones in the underworld?’

Noticing a narrow path that led away from her destination, she suddenly stopped in her tracks. Then, as if she’d stumbled upon something she could hardly believe even with her own eyes, her expression hardened.

She blinked several times in disbelief, but no matter how many times she looked, the scene before her didn’t change.

Why on earth…?