The moment she opened her eyes, Talia dressed herself more carefully than ever before.
She silently endured the maids scrubbing her skin raw with stiff brushes until it turned red, and tolerated the relentless combing that made her scalp sting.
After finishing her preparations, she took out the velvet dress her maternal grandfather had given her on the day she left House Taren—the first gift he had ever offered her after years of looking at her with undisguised displeasure.
When she looked into the mirror, a little girl with the face of an angel stared back at her.
If Senevier had been turned back into a nine-year-old child, she thought she might have looked exactly like this.
Talia gazed intently into the deep blue eyes reflected in the mirror—the same color as her mother’s—before leaving the room with a determined expression.
But the boy who always trained at the same hour was nowhere to be seen today.
After shaking off her attendant and wandering around the castle courtyard for a long time, Talia’s shoulders eventually slumped in disappointment.
The thought that she might never see him again darkened her vision.
She herself did not fully understand why she had become so obsessed with someone she had spoken to only once.
No.
In truth, she did understand.
On that day of merciless rain, he could easily have ignored a mud-covered child and walked past.
But he had not done that.
He had stepped into the filthy pit and pulled her out, even at the cost of ruining his clothes and shoes.
He had wrapped her freezing body in warm arms and looked into her eyes for a very long time.
He had carefully protected the dying, pitiful little bird and taken it back with him.
That alone had been enough to become her hope.
Talia walked endlessly along the outer paths surrounding the towering palace buildings.
The imperial palace felt like the belly of some enormous monster.
It was so vast and complicated that even after months of living there, she still encountered places she had never seen before.
She wandered through gardens overflowing with flowers and trees, crossed wide open courtyards, and eventually reached the rear side of the main palace.
Her legs, which had been moving nonstop since early morning, throbbed painfully.
Blisters had likely formed on her feet; every step burned as though the soles of her feet were pressed against fire.
Wiping sweat from her forehead, she looked up at the blue sky peeking through the thick leaves overhead.
How long had she been standing there?
She was just about to give up and return to the detached palace when she spotted the slender back of a boy moving between the tall birch trees.
Talia’s eyes lit up with joy.
Even from that distance, she recognized him immediately.
No one else could imitate the graceful, swift movements with which he walked silently forward, his back perfectly straight.
Talia immediately began chasing after him.
But no matter how much she hurried, the distance between them refused to shrink.
She soon realized the boy himself seemed to be in a hurry.
Where was he going so urgently?
She considered calling out to him, but her breath had climbed painfully into her throat, and no voice emerged.
In the end, she lost him.
Talia collapsed beside the trunk of a tree with a devastated expression.
Needle-like sunlight poured mercilessly over her sweat-soaked face.
She narrowed her dazzled eyes and blankly stared through the thick leaves overhead for some time when faint laughter drifted toward her on the wind.
It sounded almost like the chirping of a tiny bird.
Talia slowly rose and walked toward the sound.
Passing through dense birch trees and thick bushes, she suddenly found herself staring at a beautiful flower garden overflowing with lavender, marigolds, and clusters of tiny white blossoms, along with a pristine marble gazebo and a small fountain.
The garden looked like a palace built for fairies.
Talia stared around at the dreamlike scenery, where golden particles seemed to float through the sunlight.
Then she discovered the boy kneeling on one knee before a marble bench.
He was not alone.
Sitting opposite him was a lovely little girl around his age.
She had silky dark brown hair and rosy cheeks.
As the girl chattered endlessly about something, a faint smile appeared on the boy’s lips.
The sight stabbed painfully into Talia’s chest, as though something sharp had pierced her.