“About Renee...”

“Are you telling me that you’ve been distracted by her all day?” Aiden said coldly.

Anastasia continued to speak her mind. “She was a little different yesterday.”

He was the one who had pressured her to speak, but if he’d known that the topic would be Renee, he wouldn’t have asked or even worried about Anastasia’s absentmindedness. Aiden sighed. While his reasoning was sound, he had quite a soft spot for Anastasia.

He mulled over her words, thinking back on Renee and whether she had indeed seemed a bit off. Her hair was one of a kind. Under the sun, it gleamed like fire, no, like the sun itself. Yesterday had been no different.

Armed with her blinding hair, she had stood proudly in the garden behind the palace, while his childhood friend Anastasia had collapsed in front of her. The inconvenient truth was that this wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. In fact, this happens all the time. Renee Blair loved to pin down Anastasia when she was alone to slap her. But...

Aiden shook off his thought and said bitingly, “What about her? Because she hugged you out of nowhere? That’s a sign of insanity, not change.”

“Well, you’re not wrong.”

He wanted to brush it off, but Anastasia was serious.

“But she called you Burworth.”

His face stiffened.

Aiden Burworth?

Though he had tried to forget, memories from the day before came flooding into his mind. The woman had suddenly stared dumbly at him and spoken the wrong family name. Indeed, that was certainly out of the ordinary.

“That means the potion...”

Aiden shook his head and threw his pen on the table. He looked at Anastasia, his crimson eyes locking with hers. The fierce staring contest ended with Aiden’s eyes creasing as he smiled.

“So? What are you saying? That we can go back to the way things were, just because she seems different?”

“Den...”

“Asha. She was cruel for ten years. That doesn’t just get erased because of a single hug.” Out of habit, he clenched his right forearm and let go. “You gave up years ago too. Why have hope now?”

Anastasia was silent.

“I know I always say this, but that’s not the Renee Blair we used to know. Even her blood relatives gave up on her. And you’re not even related...” His voice had started to grow irritated when someone suddenly interrupted.

“Badmouthing me, are you?”

Aiden and Anastasia both flinched and turned their heads to a man standing at the door of the chancery. His soft hair was the color of coral, just like his eyes. He looked familiar.

Anastasia sprang up to show respect. “Lord Reuden, it’s been too long.”

“You didn’t knock,” Aiden said.

Their responses couldn’t be more different. The man called Reuden turned away from Anastasia to glance at Aiden, who kept a smile on his face out of courtesy.

Aiden hated Reuden’s eyes because of their resemblance to a certain someone.

“I did knock. You didn’t answer. Anyway, it seemed like you two were talking about me.”

So he had entered with magic? Aiden’s crimson eyes darted to the locked door and back. Reuden had entered with teleportation magic, he was sure of it. He was also certain that Reuden had not knocked.

Aiden swallowed a sigh and erased the smile from his face. “So, what are you doing here?”

Reuden tended to keep his distance from everyone except Anastasia. “I’m not here for you, Duke Budworth. I’m here for my assistant.”

“I see.” Aiden quickly lost interest and turned his eyes to the pile of unfinished paperwork.

Anastasia seemed puzzled. Reuden approached her with quiet steps and pointed at the paperwork on the table.

“This is the paperwork for today?”

“Oh, uh, yes. I haven’t gotten to all of it yet...” Anastasia replied.

“It’s a lot.”

“Oh. That’s... I-I’m sorry, but I can finish them soon.” Her face turned red in embarrassment, but Reuden shook his head.

“I’m not blaming you,” he said. “Actually, if you have the time, will you find something for me?”

“Of course. What are you looking for?”

“You went through it last week. The Order of Hugo reported on a dragon hunt. Find it for me, please.”

As soon as he finished talking, she swiftly opened the lowest drawer. She thumbed through the pages and shortly pulled out a packet. “This one?”

“Yes, thank you.” Reuden glanced at the papers and nodded.

Aiden, who had been listening to the entire conversation, smiled sarcastically. That can’t be the only reason he came all the way here himself.

Just as he suspected, Reuden continued to loiter. When Anastasia blinked at him curiously, he pointed to his cheek. “How’s your cheek?”

“My cheek?” she repeated. Confused, she stared at his cheek until she let out a gasp and began to wave her hands around. “It’s okay. I applied healing magic right away.”

“I’ll tell her to apologize.”

“Renee has nothing to apologize for, Lord Reuden.”

Upon hearing this, Aiden made a harsh tut. Anastasia wanted to step on his foot with full force, but she didn’t stop smiling. She wasn’t one to open up to anyone but Aiden either.

Right then, rough, quick knocks rang out. All three looked at the door. Aiden raised an eyebrow and snapped his finger. The sound of metal came from the doorknob as the lock opened. It was proof that Reuden had used magic to enter the chancery.

“Come in,” Aiden said with a sigh.

The door burst open. They were all well acquainted with the woman who entered, especially Reuden and Anastasia. Her purple hair and eyes were striking. Horatia, one of the royal sorcerers, shook a white envelope with her signature smile.

“Sorry to interrupt, but there was a message for Lord Reuden. I had to come find you since it was sealed in wax.”

Only the Blair family indicated the importance of their letters through the color of the sealing wax. Reuden recognized that it was from the mansion itself and frowned quizzically. He couldn’t imagine what warranted the red wax, which was reserved only for matters of utmost importance.

What crazy shenanigans is she up to now? An image of the woman destroying the mansion struck his head like lightning. Reuden opened the envelope immediately. Soon, his face crumpled up.

“Is something the matter?” Anastasia asked.

Though he put on a nonchalant guise, Aiden was also curious.

“I need to go back to the mansion,” Reuden said as he placed the letter back in the envelope. “She’s fainted.”

Just as Reuden’s blasé words came out, Anastasia’s heavy pile of paperwork fluttered to the floor.

***

The moment Reuden Blair read the words “The Lady has fainted,” he truthfully wasn’t too worried. He believed that his younger sister, his only living relative, was just putting on an act in the name of another scheme. Even still, he left for the mansion as soon as he received the letter because “fainting from sickness” was a new scenario.

It’s probably an act, though. However, when he entered the mansion, and even after climbing the wide, tall staircase, servants were the only ones to greet him. She was nowhere to be found. He had expected her to appear at any moment, laughing at him with her loud guffaw.

Perhaps she was waiting in her room, doing just fine. Reuden reached his sister’s room soon enough, but for some reason, he didn’t want to open the door. As he stood there with his hand on the doorknob, the steward Catherine, who had followed him, began politely explaining the situation.

“The morning maid found her. She didn’t show any signs of sickness in the morning.”

“You’re sure it’s not an act?”

“I called the family doctor to make sure. It’s a fever, but neither divine force nor healing magic is working.”

Reuden didn’t hear the rest of what Catherine said because he was too focused on the doctor’s confirmation.

She’s actually sick? As Reuden fell into deep thought, the maid shifted nervously behind him. It was the morning maid who had been the first to find his unconscious sister.

“Sh-she didn’t seem sick but s-something was different about her,” she said.

“Know your place,” Catherine immediately cut her off, but Reuden waved his hand for her to go on.

“I-I mean, she hugged me when I c-cried this morning. And not only that...” The maid gulped. “She didn’t hit me today!” Her agitation had built up to a scream.

Catherine didn’t get the chance to call her out, though. She could only widen her eyes as if she had just heard the most outrageous statement of the decade.

Reuden, too, widened his eyes in shock. His hand had already begun to turn the doorknob.