The palace covered in darkness was still quiet.
However, unlike the days when it was called the Ghost Palace, the exterior and interior touched by the hands of the beastmen were regaining their neat appearance of the past.
When Sepia looked away, Roxanne asked,
“What’s wrong?”
“I thought I heard something. I guess I was mistaken.”
Roxanne looked around at the place where Sepia’s eyes had landed.
“It may not have been a delusion. It may have been a sound that humans cannot hear. For example, the sound of small animals or leaves rustling.”
His hand grabbed the blonde hair that was swaying in the summer breeze.
He kissed her soft hair and let it flow back in the wind.
It was just as he said.
After following Roxanne’s trail, she was awakening to a sense that she had never felt as a human.
It was especially so when she made contact with him.
Sepia didn’t know what to do because she felt a clear heat in every part of her body that he touched, to the point where she thought her nerves were reaching her hair.
But why?
‘Why don’t you have me?’
A kiss that has each other. A trace of something that belongs to you. Now that they were officially a couple, there was nothing more to be afraid of.
However, Roxanne only made sweet contact and kept a subtle distance.
Sepia realized this after entering the palace.
Was it a delusion that he was pushing her away?
And were these doubts justified?
As countless questions swirled around in her head, Sepia's mind became dizzy involuntarily.
To avoid being consumed by anxiety, she had to shift her focus.
“You said that the mate of ‘that’ is here.”
What Sepia was talking about was the legacy of the Red King.
The seal of the Drodiens that she thought had been lost. It was referring to the female one.
Roxanne nodded.
According to the overlapping maps, the seal of the female Drodiens should have been in the Ghost Palace.
However, no matter how many times she searched, she couldn’t find any trace of it.
“There are two possibilities. Either someone found it first, or no one has found it yet.”
If someone had acquired the Drodian seal, things would have been more complicated.
However, Roxanne was the only one who knew where the lost seal had been.
“It probably wasn’t the former. Even if it was the latter... maybe we need another way.”
Just like the hint that appeared only after overlapping the two maps, there must be a way to retrieve the seal hidden in the Ghost Palace.
After all, it was always darkest under the lamp.
Just like the warlock behind Titie and the Louvre.
Sepia recalled her conversation with Swany.
When Roxanne returned to the capital, Swany had been the first to visit him.
She had joined hands with Roxanne early on, telling him what the Empress had traded with the Emperor of Huron.
However, the black magic book that Yerdial had had a fatal flaw.
‘The black magic book that the Empress had was only half.’
To use magic, a magic stone, which was the raw material, was needed.
However, black magic could use life as energy instead of magic stones to perform more powerful and forbidden magic.
Here, the raw material was divided into two.
The person performing the magic would be the sacrifice or would perform the magic by offering a new sacrifice.
However, the black magic book that Yerdial had only described how to use magic by offering herself as the sacrifice.
If that were the case, the method of using the sacrifice to perform magic would be in the missing half.
The former Empress also tried hard to find the missing half but eventually failed.
However, it was not without gains.
Because there was something she learned thanks to her hard work.
An extinct family that was forcibly erased from the records of past history.
The former Empress regarded black magic as an evil existence and made the family that used the black magic book as a treasure disappear from the world.
Swany guessed about the record like this.
'I dare to guess, I think that a descendant of that family is alive and has the remaining half. That descendant is behind the government.'
Even the former Empress, Yerdial, took more than a decade to find the missing records. The only ones who knew of the black magic book, whose traces were erased from history, were the Emperor of Huron and Yerdial.
The only others who could guess were the missing descendants.
If the descendants had the other half, they would also be searching for the other half to restore the black magic book.
This played a big role in the descendants’ journey to the imperial palace.
'The Empress cast a spell so that only she could access the book of black magic. Only the Empress could find it.'
However, there was a loophole in the spell.
The spell to recognize the owner was not cast on Yerdial herself but on her position as Empress.
When Yerdial became the Empress and then passed away, the ownership of the book of black magic went to Sepia, who ascended to the throne as Empress.
However, Sepia at the time did not know about the book or the existence of the black magician.
To Sepia, who was puzzled, Swany said,
'The reason the black magician did not approach Your Highness may be because the Empress was too upright.'
If she had known about the existence of the book in advance, she would have chosen to burn it before it was released into the world.
Therefore, the descendant chose the next best option.
He would create a new Empress herself and take back the other half.
The book, whose owner was determined, also depended on the Empress's will to transfer its authority.
Titie had eventually taken the position of Empress.
'That means already...'
The book was likely passed down to her descendants.
If Titie had any use left as Empress, her descendants would have saved her no matter what.
Now, all that remained was for him to decide what purpose he would use the completed black magic book for.
Before entering the palace, Sepia recalled the prophecy Roxanne had told her.
The one riding the red-eyed divine beast would be a descendant of a fallen family.
Roxanne's figure was reflected in the moonlight.
He was reaching out to Sepia.
"Let's go."
His lips caught her eye more than the hand extended in front of her.
A sweet sensation that she had tasted for the first time.
Was it right to put her arms around his neck and kiss him?
"Yes."
Sepia reached out to him.
She was used to suppressing her desires.
Her life, suppressed by watching others and understanding them, brought about a sense of detachment even in the process of looking at her lover.
A subtle sense of avoidance.
Marriage, blessings, and a couple relationship that skipped the first night.
This made her doubt whether their relationship was a normal couple.
In the not-so-distant past, Demios and she were also a couple.
Did Demios think this way?
Sepia leaned her cheek on his shoulder.
Roxanne gave her a side as if this was okay.
A set line.
Maybe he had drawn a line that she couldn’t see.
Sepia closed her eyes.
***
Charity Department.
Sepia was looking through the piled-up documents in the same office as Roxanne. It was natural to handle the work of the charity department.
However, there was one thing she didn’t understand.
‘Why do the work I did when I was Empress keep coming here?’
She could no longer exercise her authority as Empress.
And yet, as if the work of the Empress was natural, it was flocking to her.
It was as difficult a situation as persuading the Emperor.
However, it was even more so because she couldn’t ignore everything.
However, what was more concerning than these tasks.
Roxanne lowered her eyes at Sepia’s gaze.
‘Again.’
It wasn’t a guess that he was avoiding her.
He had been avoiding contact for the past few days.
Seeing him being cautious even about the slightest contact when delivering documents, Sepia swallowed her words.
“Sepia, I actually have to go out for a while.”
“What is it?”
“It’s personal. I’ll be back within a week.”
How far would personal reasons be tolerated between a married couple?
She didn’t know, having never experienced a proper marital relationship.
However, she couldn’t easily accept it.
The fact that he was avoiding her.
“I’ll tell you after I get back.”
Those words asked her to trust him.
It overlapped with the back of his head that had left her when she was young.
“Wait a minute...!”
Sepia was about to call him out.
The door that had been quiet opened and Viscount Elon came in. His expression was that urgent.
Sepia, who was trying to grab Roxanne, asked while catching her breath.
“Elon, what’s going on?”
“Your Highness, that... please look outside.”
Elon pointed to the window with a troubled expression.
The curtains that had been drawn to block out the sunlight made it impossible to see outside.
Sepia went inside the curtains and opened the door.
When she did, she saw a magnificent procession waving a red flag.
Dozens of regular soldiers, attendants, carriages decorated with jewels and flowers, and court ladies formed a long tail and headed toward the business district.
Just like a delegation coming to welcome a bride. The one standing in that fleet was the Emperor.
'...Demios?'
Sepia was at a loss for words.
At that moment, Demios raised his head along with the procession that had stopped.
"Sepia."
Demios, wearing a red cloak on his shoulders, was looking up at Sepia, who was standing by the window.
He was holding a bouquet of summer roses in full bloom in his arms.
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