In the reception room covered with white cloth. On the dusty shelf that hadn’t been used for a long time, there was an out-of-place object. A portrait faded beyond recognition of its original colors, and a strange jewel embedded at the top of a round frame.
It caught the eye immediately. Despite its alien beauty, the deep purple-blue transparent jewel looked so fragile it might crumble at any moment.
She remembered the cold sensation when her hand, reaching out as if entranced, touched the jewel. A temperature lower than the already cool room. The moment she felt the chill like a frozen lake in midwinter, her vision went dark.
And countless memories flashed by.
There was a man who held her blood-soaked body and wailed. A man who, even in dire straits surrounded by enemies, refused to let her go and desperately tried to survive.
It was a luxury even to question why this had happened. Survival was the only priority during those times.
Their escape didn’t take them very far. After barely receiving treatment, they hid in a border town adjacent to the Tridelia Empire. From there, they went deep into the forest where no human footsteps reached, and that became their shelter.
In these passing memories, there was a vivid daily life she had never experienced before.
For a brief moment, she felt happy. Having lost everything, Ashika smiled because this last remaining happiness was precious. Seeing her like that, that man smiled too. Despite carrying unresolved worries, his face was quite happy.
But even that didn’t last long.
The intense pain that pierced through her entire body in the final moment. The heavy smell of blood as life drained from her body. The desperate terror of knowing this was the end.
But beyond all these sensations, the most painful was those eyes looking at her. Those deep blue eyes left behind more despair than pain, more love than despair, and thus an unshakeable lingering attachment.
Eyes that held unspoken words.
What did he want to say? Those gentle gazing eyes, those loving glances, those blue eyes that sometimes lowered in guilt when looking at her who could barely walk, yet still overflowed with love despite it all.
“…Rushia….”
She couldn’t do anything except breathe. No attempt to escape, no struggle to break free.
“Hng….”
The darkness faded from her vision and dim light entered.
Though her eyes were open, nothing registered in her sight. She could only feel that she was alive from the thump, thump of her heartbeat.
After some time like that, she recognized the familiar ceiling decorations and the trembling in her body subsided. She closed her eyes tightly, steadied her breathing, then opened them again. This was to confirm her present reality.
Ashika gripped the bed with her weak hand and raised herself up. She was even careful in raising her body, as if the dream world was her present reality.
“Haah….”
A tired sigh escaped. Her hand wiping her forehead came away drenched in sweat. Her whole body felt heavy, soaked in sweat as if drenched in water.
“That dream again.”
Since returning from the imperial palace banquet, this recurring dream had been tormenting Ashika at all hours. As if it were something that must never be forgotten. When she tried to push it away, it came back as an even more terrible nightmare, visiting her every night.
“It’s just a dream. Just a terrible nightmare.”
Even as she comforted herself like this, the nightmare remained deeply rooted in her mind, refusing to fade.
Ashika threw off her blanket and got up. It was too early to call for a maid. She moved mechanically, with no particular plan in mind.
As she reached for her shawl, something caught on its hem and fell to the floor with a thud.
“Hm?”
What fell at her feet was a necklace. One with a blue sapphire set in high-purity platinum craftsmanship.
Suddenly, her attention was drawn to the small beads encircling the central jewel. Looking at the familiar necklace, an entirely different image came to mind, one that bore no resemblance to this one.
“Ah!”
The nightmare had been so intense that she had overlooked it. The jewel she saw just before fainting at the imperial palace. She had seen something similar to the broken jewel in the frame.
“To think I only remembered it now.”
Ashika hurriedly left the room.
It was still early dawn, with everyone asleep. Though wall lamps were lit, the corridor was dark. Taking careful steps so as not to wake anyone, she arrived at her study.
“It wasn’t in the safe.”
A place more secret than the safe. A place that no one could find unless they knew the secret.
Without hesitation, Ashika lay down on the floor. As she lifted the edge of the plush carpet, densely laid marble flooring was revealed. It was a floor that showed no difference to the naked eye.
She knocked on the floor one section at a time, checking each area the size of a document page. After several dull impact sounds, a subtle resonance was felt at one point.
“Found it.”
After confirming the location, she searched the drawer again and found a paper knife. It took considerable effort to scrape away at the edge of the interlocked marble slab and lift it up.
Finally, beneath the marble slab, a small space large enough to fit two fists was revealed. Inside was a black velvet pouch.
She hadn’t taken it out for the past 14 years. No, she had even forgotten that it existed here.
In the deep night when everyone was asleep, instead of singing her a lullaby, her father had held her and brought her here.
[This is my mother’s keepsake. When she gave this to me, she said never to show it to anyone. Not even to tell father about it.]
For some premonition or another, her father had shown such an item to Ashika. It was supposedly a keepsake from her grandmother who had passed away long before Ashika was born.
Weive’s lover who could never enter the family due to opposition from the previous Duke and Duchess. A woman who couldn’t even leave her name behind. Because of this, Ashika’s father had to live his entire life bearing the dishonor of being an illegitimate child.
Thump, thump. Her heart beat rapidly as she untied the tightly bound string and opened the velvet pouch. With a clink, an icy coldness poured into her palm.
“Ah….”
It was exactly the necklace she remembered. A diamond-shaped pendant connected to a platinum chain, with somewhat crude craftsmanship as if it were an old item.
An inverted teardrop-shaped jewel was set in the center of the pendant, and on both sides of the diamond-shaped platinum setting were two small jewels each, making a total of five.
All five were the same jewel – a distinct purple-blue that didn’t lose its color even in darkness.
“It’s the same kind.”
That day, the same jewel had been set in the frame she found at the imperial palace. Though smaller, it was an intact jewel that wasn’t broken.
“What kind of jewel could this be?”
Too purple to be sapphire, too blue to be amethyst. The subtle metallic shine was transparent yet piercing to the eye. It seemed ordinary at first glance, but raised questions because she had never seen anything like it before.
Why was it? The chillingly cold touch calmed her anxious heart. Was it just her imagination that it felt like a charm her father had left her?
Somehow, she didn’t want to let go of it. Without hesitation, Ashika put the necklace around her neck.
The long chain hung down so that the pendant was hidden between her deep cleavage.
“I’ll wear it just for a while.”
Until this anxiety subsides.
Ashika released a calm breath and rose from the floor.
****
The next afternoon, as Ashika was about to leave the mansion, she drew in a sharp breath at the sight of a tray piled high with letters.
“What is all this?”
“These are letters inquiring after your well-being.”
“How could you bring all of these?”
At Ashika’s criticism, Julma’s face became troubled.
“I’ve already filtered them once at my level. I’ve only gathered those from high nobles in the capital and families with high shares in the United Trading Company.”
It had only been ten days since the engagement was broken off. Since the news of the broken engagement reached the capital, Julma had been getting headaches from the flood of incoming letters.
Ashika’s forehead wrinkled slightly before smoothing out. It was a resigned displeasure of “here we go again.”
“I feel like a product put on display. Right now they’re courtesy letters, but soon enough they’ll all turn into invitations.”
Given the timing, they would be too embarrassed to show their true colors right away. But that would only last for a moment. With the capital’s finest unmarried woman entering the marriage market, how could they just stand by and watch?
She had forgotten. The flood of meeting requests, marriage proposals, ball and tea party invitations. The thought of having to go through the chaos she experienced two years ago again made her head spin.
Ashika waved her hand and turned away from the letters.
“Just handle it yourself, Julma.”
“What? You won’t look at any of them?”
“Send appropriate responses while leaving some room for possibility. There’s no need to even tell me unless it’s something really exceptional.”
A surprised expression appeared on Julma’s face.
Ashika had always maintained noble relationships while minimizing direct encounters. At the very least, she would read the letters to see what kind of attitude different people showed.
However, all of these matters now felt trivial to Ashika.
“I have business to attend to, so please take care of this, Julma.”
Leaving just that simple instruction, she called for Jeanne. When Ashika took the lead, saying she would go out right away, Jeanne was taken aback.
“We don’t have enough guards. I should bring at least two more.”
“No, Jeanne alone is enough.”
Ashika blurted out without much thought. The sole heir to the House of Igraine going out with just one guard knight.
“Or at least let’s take Libron.”
“If that’s the case, I’ll just go alone.”
“My lady!”
Jeanne became even more troubled by this unprecedented stern attitude.
Ashika wasn’t someone who made things difficult for her subordinates. She was always an easy mistress to serve, never stepping outside established boundaries. But this Ashika had changed.
After a moment of silence, Jeanne reluctantly agreed.
“I’ll prepare the carriage. Where are we going?”
“Let’s go to Bairid Street.”
Bairid Street was an area where shops dealing in expensive luxury goods were concentrated. However, high nobles like those from ducal houses had merchants visit their mansions, so there was no reason for Ashika to go there directly.
After a brief questioning look, Jeanne silently followed behind Ashika.
****
In the late afternoon, Ashika entered the largest jewelry store in the capital. The entire three-story building consisted of jewelry showrooms and craftsmen’s workshops.
Ashika told Jeanne to wait and followed a clerk inside.
“Is there something specific you’re looking for?”
“I’m looking for a rather unique jewel. Would you have anything cut from a purple-blue raw stone?”
Though Ashika’s attire was modest, her natural dignity and familiarity with being served were evident. The clerk assessed her status before bowing their head.
“Of course. We have several varieties.”
The clerk guided Ashika to the showroom and brought out various jewels.
It wasn’t difficult to find raw stones with a purple-blue color. They came in various materials with various names, but nowhere was there anything similar to what she possessed.
Ashika, who had come with inner expectations, couldn’t hide her disappointment.
“Is this all the varieties of raw stones?”
“Among stones used as jewels, there are none that our store doesn’t carry. If it’s not among these, it would just be a rare stone, nothing more than a pebble. Are there any other characteristics besides the color you mentioned?”
“Well, it’s transparent but has a metallic shine.”
“A metallic shine?”
“It has a silvery feel, but it’s not mixed in.”
The clerk wore a face that seemed to say ‘what does that mean?’
“Where did you see it? If you have a sample, I might be able to look into it.”
Ashika kept her mouth shut. She couldn’t just show around something her father had so earnestly warned her about. When Ashika held her tongue, the clerk’s expression grew frustrated.
Judging there was no more information to be gained, Ashika left the store. After that, she went around to all the jewelry stores in the street, checking if there was anything similar to hers.
When she couldn’t find what she wanted in Bairid Street, she took the carriage to Palmred Street. Though quite some time had passed since sunset, Ashika tirelessly searched throughout the streets.
Jeanne, who had been silently following, finally couldn’t hold back anymore and spoke up.
“It’s gotten quite late. Wouldn’t it be better to return for today?”
Following Jeanne’s gaze, Ashika also looked at the darkened sky.
Between the heavily hanging clouds, a crescent moon curved beautifully as if painted with a brush. The gray clouds slowly drifted, surrounding the moon as if about to swallow its faint light.
In the dim darkness, she felt a cool chill. The sensation enveloping her entire body made her head fuzzy, enough to make her spine tingle. The scent touching her nose seemed familiar, as if she had smelled it somewhere before.
Ashika clutched her cloak with a start. Not even knowing what had startled her.
“Jeanne?”
Ashika checked behind her and opened her eyes wide in confusion.
