(unedited)

***

When the carriage carrying Nicole pulled up, Grace jumped out.

“You made it back safely.”

“Were you waiting for me?”

“Not much…… I wasn’t worried.”

“It sounds like you were …… worried?”

Nicole’s heart sank at the sight of Grace. This stern-looking woman had a kinder side than she thought.

“……I see you’re back safely, so things must have gone well. I was just nervous that Raul was going to fail you, he’s got a mean streak in him.”

“Thank you, Grace.”

Nicole said in a small voice.

“I really appreciate it.”

Nicole knew Grace was only seeing Sienna’s shadow through her.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t sincere. Nicole blushed unnecessarily.

“This is not the time. Let’s go inside and get something to eat. I’ve got it ready.”

Grace had reheated the food several times today as she waited for Nicole.

Nicole finally ate and relaxed.

***

That evening, Grace dropped Nicole off personally. Nicole drank her tea with Grace, looking out the window.

“So……you’ve become a shadow agent for the Sith?”

“Yes.”

Nicole gave a small nod.

“And you’re going to get a name?”

“Yes……. They said I’d get the name of a flower. Dagger…… Dahlia has both names.”

Grace sighed.

“You already knew all about the structure of the Sith, didn’t you Grace?”

“Of course. I built the system from the ground up, but I purposely didn’t tell you. It’s not easy to pretend you don’t know what you know.”

Nicole could see why Grace had done that. Raul was tricky, and if Grace had given Nicole the information ahead of time, he could have used it as an excuse to fail her.

Worried about that, Grace hadn’t given her any information in the first place.

“I don’t want you to join the Sith. I told you, to not get too involved. You’ll learn too much, and you won’t be able to escape like I did.”

“I know.”

Nicole replied calmly, and the look on her face made Grace realize.

“So……that’s what you’ve been planning all along.”

“Yeah. My goal wasn’t just to barely survive. I was aiming to join the Sith from the start.”

“Why? Do you not realize that your original identity was the fiancee of the Grand Duke? Being the daughter of a surviving member of House YvesChapelle is a more useful card than you might think. If he ever finds out who you really are, you’ll be…….”

“I will never be a Grand Duchess, and that marriage is one that must be broken and lost.”

She doesn’t hate Raul. But she knew full well that the position of Grand Duchess was a grave.

‘I’ve already spent my whole life running away and avoiding reality.’

Her family was powerless, and they all met a miserable end. Even in this life, she couldn’t prevent her mother’s sad death.

The world of the past life was like a broken guillotine for Nicole.

A guillotine that, if she closed her eyes and held it to her neck, would one day fall on her head. There were too many people who wanted her dead.

“The way for me not to become the Grand Duchess isn’t to run away, it’s to be the kind of woman who can never be the Grand Duchess. But I can’t be like that now. I have to know a lot, and I have to have power, and I have to have money, and I have to have a lot of accomplices who can hide me if my identity is ever revealed. No, I need to create a situation where it’s like, ‘My identity cannot be revealed.'”

An entourage that knows many of Raul’s secrets. A woman of a different class who could never marry him.

Nicole was going to be that person.

Who would think that Raul’s confidante would be Nicole, the eldest daughter of YvesChapel? No one who hears it would believe it.

Not even the imperial family, who thought she was an eyesore and would kill me as soon as they found her.

Nicole decided to catch them off guard.

“I’m going to hide in their closest places, and I’m going to change the reality around me, and that starts with moving up in Sith.”

In that sense, Nicole liked Karen’s current status.

Starting at the bottom, with room to move up.

Besides, as far as she knew, Raul was a powerful man who valued his entourage. In her past life, she hadn’t wanted to recognize his merit, but now she did.

‘He was still a nobleman, a nobleman who cared about his entourage.’

The Grand Duke is loved by all the people of the capital; they call him the protector of the capital, and he is even a victorious general. His accomplishments are even sublime.

At least he tries to protect his people. As if he were their lord.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on in your head, but you’re not wrong. It makes sense…….”

Grace was both impressed and convinced by Nicole’s plan. Nicole recounted the details of the test.

“……How did you know that Dahlia was the hidden examiner?”

“I wasn’t completely convinced that she was the examiner, but……. She seemed a little different from the other candidates, so I thought maybe she was at least acting as a go-between, feeding information to the examiner, or something like that.”

Nicole chimed in.

“Dahlia used to get beaten up a lot by Marlin, and when I looked at her arm, I realized that she’d made a fake wound, and when I touched her hand to check it, her temperature wasn’t high, because someone with a big cut like that on their arm would have a high temperature. Plus, Dahlia is a very smart and clever person, so it doesn’t make sense that she would just let Marlin take advantage of her, but…… I was confused until the end because I thought she was telling the truth when she said she had a daughter. I didn’t even realize that Dahlia or Dagger was a man, he was very clever with his disguise.”

“You…… seem to be more talented than I thought.”

Grace said in disbelief.

“Thank you for the compliment, Grace……. And for your genuine concern for me.”

Nicole said. It was the unvarnished truth.

Grace coughed in disbelief.

“Nicole. You have to know what kind of man Raul is. He would never forgive you if he knew you had deceived him. He’ll retaliate in the most horrible ways.”

“But even if my true identity is revealed, I won’t be able to marry him, because using me as a servant would be treason to the imperial family.”

“I may as well have excommunicated Raul, but if you’re thinking of harming him,…….”

“No, Grace, that’s not it either, I’m not…….”

Nicole said in a small voice.

“I’m going to protect the man who’s supposed to be my master.”

Because Nicole owed him.

A debt she’d given nothing but an imperfect sacrifice in her last life. Such a debt.

“I’m going to do my job as an agent to the best of my ability, and maybe that’s the only way we can help each other.”

“I’ll do my best to protect you, too.”

Those were the last words Grace said that night.

Nicole nodded small, deeply emotional.

***

After her final exams, Nicole became a Shadow Agent of the Sith.

At first, she was ready to do anything. But despite her determination, Nicole continued to stay at Grace’s house.

‘No word from him today.’

She wondered if Raul really hated her.

Contrary to Dagger’s assurances that he would call for her at any moment, Nicole remained on standby, which was peaceful and a little boring.

Nicole was not allowed to live openly in Grace’s house, so she mostly stayed in her room, study, and basement.

It wasn’t that she had nothing to do, but there was a sense of impatience, of waiting for something.

Nicole’s only solace was her letters to and from Jay. Jay was now studying in the academy of a distant temple, courtesy of Grace.

Maybe one day, when she’s settled in the capital, she can live with her brother.

‘I must be a strong protector for my brother.’

In her two lives, the only person who hadn’t betrayed her was her brother. Her parents had left her too soon.

‘And…… father…….’

For Nicole, her father was a thorn in her hand. Just thinking about him made her heart ache.

‘I hope he didn’t think we were really dead and made a bad choice somewhere. Maybe he’s weaker than he looks and has fallen ill…….’

But she couldn’t check on him often enough. If she were to be caught checking the mailbox, it might bring some sort of blemish to her.

‘Be careful, the slightest thing you do can catch up with you, and the House is watching you.’

So it wasn’t until a month after her final exams that Nicole nervously made her way to the Great Hall.

The day was overcast. There were few people on the streets.

In some parts of the Empire, including the capital, transparent floating objects would appear in the air on days like this.

This was an ancient legacy called the Flame. From what she’s heard, the land of the capital was once a place overrun by demons and rampant with magic.

It was uninhabitable, but it was fertile and warmer than any other land.

The Flame has existed since then. People regarded it as an ancient legacy.

No one knows why it appears or how to make it go away.

In the capital, the Flame was nothing more than a rainbow that appeared on a whim.

But people were superstitious and avoided going out on days when the flame appeared.

In other words, it was the perfect day for Nicole to go out.

‘My father knows about the secret mailbox in the temple. If he was alive and received my letter, he would have checked the mailbox on the other side of …….’

Her mother’s and father’s emergency contacts were simple. They rented two secret mailboxes directly from the main temple.

One in a city near the edge of the empire where Nicole lived.

One in the capital, the center of the empire.

The two mailboxes share the same number, and anything dropped in one is immediately moved to the other.

In other words, you could send and receive letters to a fictitious address.

The High Priest’s secret mailbox was located in a small prayer room, just outside the apprentice priests’ quarters, where no one went.

It was a place where few people came to pray.

Nicole headed to the prayer room as she had the previous time.

She said the number and password for her mailbox, and the priest directed her to a secret mailbox.

Beep. The mailbox opened. Nicole’s eyes widened as she peered inside.

‘There’s something in the mailbox.’

Nicole fumbled and pulled out an envelope. She opened the envelope, which was about the size of her two palms combined.

“Ah…….”

Inside were dried forsythia petals and a ribbon. The satin ribbon was a deep purple.

‘I remember this ribbon.’

Nicole’s eyes nearly filled with tears.

‘It must be the one my mother tied the flowers with the day my father left!’

He’d tucked the petals and this ribbon into his arms before he left for his business. And then there was something else, a playing card in an envelope.

‘A card of spades?’

The card was common throughout the Empire. Nicole furrowed her brow.

‘In trump cards, the spade card is…….’

Her father had said it once in passing. It means priest.

‘Does that mean he’s staying in a temple?’

Nicole pondered. The temple provided all sorts of shelter for people who had nowhere else to go.

Since her father had nowhere else to stay, it did make sense that he would turn to them.

There was a small checkmark in the spade.

‘Anyway, I’m glad I heard from him.’

A coded message known only to family members. He understood Nicole’s warning to be careful and never call first.

Still, it was the first time she’d heard from her father in far too long. Nicole was so happy she thought she might cry.

‘As long as my family is safe, I can handle anything.’

With that thought in mind, Nicole left.