***

Afterward, Heather called in a doctor to examine Isabel.

?The wound on your shoulder should heal with good care. Thankfully, it’s not deep.?

It was a stroke of luck. She’d fallen into the water with an untreated wound from Grace’s shotgun.

Luckily, it only grazed her shoulder and didn’t seem to hurt much.

Isabel ate for the first time in days. Part of her wanted to gorge herself, but she managed to control herself and ate slowly.

These people believed she was of nobility, so she had to act like it.

Every time Leos made eye contact with Isabel, he was at a loss for words. He told her he had the servants clean up the best guest room.

‘Hmm, it’s usable.’

Isabel’s spirits lifted when she saw the room ready.

It was quite luxurious compared to her previous hut room. There was even a small terrace just for her.

Isabel went out onto the terrace. As she gazed up at the night sky, she smiled.

‘The world is on my side, and I’m still alive!’

But at the same time, Isabel was feeling down. She’d lost Jen and Karen, who she’d tried to use as her hands and feet, and she’d nearly burned her family to death.

‘The truth is…… I didn’t want to kill them that horribly, I just wanted to be free, but Nicole pushed me to do it.’

It was all Nicole’s fault. She’d been so patient with that stupid thing all this time, and then she betrayed me!

‘But the worst part is…… that Isabel lost to Nicole, that stupid bitch with no healing powers!’

As far as Isabel was concerned, Nicole was the most unnecessary member of the family, like a maid.

Born to the same parents, but far inferior to her.

Isabel spent the rest of the night trying to figure out why she had been taken advantage of by Nicole, and she came to a conclusion.

‘I was too nice.’

She could have taken care of her family. There were plenty of opportunities to kill Nicole.

But Isabel had the grace to abandon them and run away.

But Nicole took advantage of Isabel’s goodness.

‘I have to succeed. I was born to do it. People are born that way, and until I get where I deserve to be, I’m going to have to give up all recognition and goodness.’

Isabel giggled.

“Yes, I can start over here. I’m quite fond of my new home, though it’s not the fancy mansion in the imperial capital I wanted…….”

Isabel closed the terrace door.

“Well, we’ll just have to change that, and I suppose I can make this new home my own.”

For that to happen, she must first—

She has to own this house. With a new goal in mind, Isabel hummed to herself and looked in the mirror.

She was already very happy with hope for tomorrow.

***

Three weeks later, when Isabel was able to get around, she asked the Blancs for a favor.

?Now that I’ve met these benefactors that saved my life, I want to go to the south and give thanks. There’s a huge temple for the Lord around here, isn’t there??

The village was very small, but a couple of hours’ carriage ride away was the Southern Great Temple.

It was the largest temple in southern Gydia, and there were only five such temples in the entire empire.

Leos discouraged her, but she persuaded him.

?I’m a very religious person, and how could I not give thanks to the gods when I’ve been saved by such kind people? It’s a miracle of the highest order!?

In the end, Leos let her.

Isabel, of course, had other ideas.

‘If it’s as my father says, then the southern temple must be Mother and Father’s emergency means of contact.’

The Southern Great Temple has a special means of communication that few people know about.

Each provincial temple has a mailbox that allows for secret communication.

No one else could see what was being sent or received, and it was a secret known only to the highest echelons of the temple.

Isabel heard about it from her father, when she was very young.

?Father, what if you don’t come back??

?I’ll tell you a secret, Isabel. Mommy and I have a secret line of communication through our old mailbox, so we won’t be separated forever. If anything happens, tell your siblings, too.?

Her father was particularly weak with his children.

Nicole and Jay grew up too early to bother their parents with little things, but Isabel was always asking him for things.

Isabel was especially good at asking her father for the things she wanted. If he couldn’t afford it, he would feel terribly sorry for her.

Isabel would then probe relentlessly, as if she had caught a weakness. That’s what she’d heard, too.

‘I’m sure Nicole, since she’s a wimp, cares about Father.’

Once she heard it, she never forgot it.

She also remembered the mailbox access and password her father had given her, which was easy enough to memorize. It was a combination of the first letters of Nicole’s, Isabel’s, and Jay’s names.

Isabel opened the mailbox door with ease.

‘Oh my God, what’s in there?’

Isabel’s eyes widened. There it was, a rambling letter from Nicole.

‘I’m staying in the capital. I’ll be looking for a chance to see you soon, so hide yourself somewhere safe, and I will send some money to ……..’

Isabel wanted to giggle now that she knew.

‘So the wretch has gone to the capital to stick to Grace? Grace, I knew her status was high despite being stuck in the countryside, and I was right!

Naturally, Isabel snatched the letter away.

‘Alas, I am so glad to know. But what can I do? This letter will never get into my father’s hands.’

Isabel pondered.

‘There has to be a way to mess with Nicole.’

As she pondered, she remembered the forsythia and ribbon Freya had given her father on the day he left.

?Have a safe trip, and when you come back with some money, let’s not be apart until fall.?

Isabel went to a general store near the shrine.

There she was lucky enough to find a ribbon that looked exactly like it.

All the satin ribbons sold in the general store were there.

Isabel paid for the ribbon with emergency money Leos had given her. She also bought a deck of playing cards.

‘Ah, Nicole. I know what’s going on in your head, and I want you to look at these cards and try to figure it out.’

Isabel was excited. How crazy Nicole would be when she realized it was her and not her father who had sent this reply?

“I can’t wait to get to the capital, so I can get back at that bitch.

And it was Isabel’s dream to go to the capital anyway.

She thought about how she would take advantage of her new host family.

No matter how she thought about it, the Blanc family wouldn’t be hard to roast.

***

It’s been two and a half months since Nicole became a Shadow Agent, and she’s rarely left Grace’s house.

But it hasn’t been all fun and games; she’s learned a lot about the capital’s politics and powers through her conversations with Grace. Most importantly, she learned about…….

“Nicole, are you in the basement again?”

Nicole looked up from her crouch.

She was in the basement of Grace’s house now. She was wearing muddy gloves and an apron.

“Grace.”

“It’s looking pretty good now. I can’t believe there’s a plant that grows underground.”

“They’ve been in the YvesChapel family for generations. ……They thrive better where there’s no sunlight.”

Nicole grew pots of herbs in her newly decorated basement. Some of the dozens of pots had already sprouted, while others were still growing.

“What a legacy. I can’t believe the YvesChapel family kept these seeds hidden.”

“These plants are all ancient heritage, almost extinct now.”

Nicole asked Grace to take the seeds and the YvesChapel books she had hidden in a secret place, knowing their hidden value.