More than twenty years ago.
Sent alone to the empire, Blanca soon had to marry a man she had just met for the first time.
There was no wedding ceremony.
After all, it was essentially a marriage for the sake of an ‘experiment’, so a ceremony would be nothing but a waste of money.
Thus, very quietly, Blanca’s name was appended with the surname ‘Robert’.
“Pleased to meet you. I am Gail Robert.”
Her husband was a man named Gail Robert.
Young, bespectacled, tall, and handsome. He was also kind.
He taught her the imperial language, which she did not know, and personally instructed her in the etiquette of the imperial nobility.
He never laughed or got angry whenever she made mistakes.
“Everyone is inexperienced at first, don’t be discouraged. You’re doing well.”
Rather, he was always encouraging, concerned about how she felt.
But as a husband, he was not a good man.
He was the worst kind of husband.
Because he already had a woman he loved.
Gail often drank. Nearly every night.
And whenever he drank, he would call out that woman’s name.
His voice, yearning for a woman from his past, was deeply sorrowful.
One day, he drunkenly went on a tirade in front of Blanca.
About how much he loved that woman, how happy he was back then, and how cruelly she had abandoned him.
“…She said I was worthless. She said she loved me, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted power more than love. I just wanted us to be quietly happy, but she didn’t.”
“Can’t you forget her? She left you.”
“She did. But she said she loved me ‘til the end. I can’t forget that face, not even in my dreams. My father, disgusted by me, forced this marriage… Ah, I’m sorry. Sorry. What am I saying? I’m just…”
I’m so sorry.
He kept muttering apologies.
His voice grew fainter, the glass slipping from his limp hand.
As the spilled drink soaked the floor and the drunken man fell into sleep, Blanca quietly watched him.
‘Pitiful.’
Both him and herself.
Pity for the man tormented by an unforgetting love despite being abandoned…
And pity for herself, realizing she would never be loved by this man, even in death.
‘I thought it might get better someday.’
No matter how loveless the marriage began, she thought things might improve as they lived together.
He was a good man, so maybe they wouldn’t be a bad couple in the future.
She hoped that, as they just lived, they might become an ordinary couple someday.
But with that drunken confession, any faint hope shattered completely.
Day after day, it was the same routine.
The man, Gail, was still kind, but he always longed for his past lover, and Blanca was always lonely.
Aside from her husband, no one cared for her.
The servants subtly disregarded her, and the mages who had bought her lost interest when there was no news of a child between the couple.
Every time Gail looked at her, he wore a strange expression and apologized.
Unaware that his apologies only made her feel more miserable.
It was empty.
After a point, it was just emptiness.
Life seemed so dull that it felt like death.
‘Isn’t there something exciting?’
That was the first step that led her to a secret guild.
In search of something that would make her feel, she ended up in the back alleys, where she learned about the guild.
Since no one particularly cared about her whereabouts, no one knew what she did.
Even Gail didn’t probe further when Blanca said she would be going out for a bit.
And so, she immersed herself in the guild activities.
Always veiled to hide her identity, she frequented the guild she had created.
As she was a witch, she harnessed her abilities and gradually expanded the guild.
Seeking more excitement.
Looking for more fun.
That was her only goal.
She even made and distributed potions that shouldn’t have been created.
It was wrong, but at that time, ‘excitement’ was her only lifeline.
It was around this time that she met ‘Logan,’ the son of a local apothecary.
Anyway.
One day, while she was living in search of excitement, the event that made the blood rush in her veins the most occurred.
It rained heavily that morning.
Despite the pouring rain, she had to attend the duke’s second wedding, so it was a hectic day.
She returned home, ate an early dinner, and fell asleep.
She woke up to the sound of thunder when darkness enveloped everything.
“…I’m so thirsty.”
Waking up, she felt an unbearable thirst, intensified by the sound of rain.
Reaching for the jug in her room, she found it empty.
The indifferent servants never bothered to refill it promptly.
Blanca put a shawl on her shoulders and left her room.
After drinking a glass of water in the kitchen, she walked back through the dark corridor.
Her steps halted upon noticing something.
A faint light was seeping from Gail’s room.
‘Is he still awake?’
The discovery of the light and the sudden desire to say goodnight to him were purely coincidental.
Or perhaps it was fate.
Blanca walked towards Gail’s room.
Knock, knock.
She knocked softly, but there was no response.
Knock, knock.
She tried again.
“Gail, are you asleep?”
She called out quietly, but again, there was no answer.
Something felt off.
An unusual intuition stirred within her, a witch’s sensitive instincts sending a shiver up her spine.
Blanca cautiously opened the door and found Gail asleep in the dim light.
She sighed in relief.
It was just her being overly sensitive.
She even chuckled to herself.
Blanca quietly approached Gail, intending to cover him with a blanket since he had fallen asleep without one.
His sleeping face looked peaceful.
His eyelids, tightly closed, showed no movement.
…No movement at all.
Not his eyes, nor his nose, nor his lips.
No pulse in his neck.
Nothing at all.
He lay there, utterly still, not breathing a single breath.
“…Gail?”
The eerie, unsettling feeling returned, engulfing her.
Despite her calling, he did not open his eyes.
Blanca reached out slowly.
“Gail, wake up.”
She shook his cold body, but there was no response.
Gail was asleep.
“Gail… Gail!”
He remained asleep, never to awaken again.
.
.
A few days later.
Gail’s funeral was held. The cause of death was ruled as suicide by poison.
A spare vial of poison had been found in his drawer, they said.
Blanca stared blankly at the drawer where the poison had been found.
The poison had already been taken by the count.
All that remained in the drawer was a small ring case.
She reached out and picked up the case.
Inside was a woman’s ring, identical in design to the one Gail always wore.
〈 To my beloved 〉
‘It wasn’t for me after all.’
A hollow laugh escaped her as she read the inscription on the case.
Blanca quietly tried the ring on her left ring finger.
Though clearly not meant for her, it fit her finger perfectly, almost absurdly so.
She turned away, still wearing the ring.
If it was never going to reach its intended owner, perhaps it was alright for her to keep it.
Not long after Gail’s funeral, his father, Count Robert, summoned her.
“I’m sorry, Blanca.”
That was his first statement.
The count began with an inappropriate apology and then asked her for a divorce from his son.
A divorce from a dead man, such an absurd situation.
Yet, Count Robert was resolute and desperate.
“I shouldn’t have done it. I hated seeing my son hung up on one woman, so I forced him into this marriage. When I heard they were looking for a husband for you, it seemed perfect. But I was wrong. It wasn’t fair to you or Gail… I shouldn’t have done it.”
His late regret spilled out in tears.
The count knelt before Blanca.
“I wish to set things right.”
He expressed his wish to free Gail, to give him the freedom to long for his past lover in peace.
Though he couldn’t bring the woman from Gail’s past to him, he at least wanted the spot beside his son to be empty—so that he could be free to yearn for his beloved.
Blanca nodded blankly. No tears came.
Count Robert, having removed the ‘Robert’ surname from Blanca, gave her a considerable amount of wealth.
Adding that she should come to him if she ever needed anything.
The count’s previously authoritative and high-handed demeanor was nowhere to be seen.
Now, he was just a father who had lost his child.
Before leaving the count’s estate, Blanca made a request.
“I want to see the poison.”
She wanted to see with her own eyes the poison that had taken Gail’s life.
What had cut his breath so abruptly.
It was a feeling akin to wanting to see the face of an enemy.
The count hesitated for a moment, then reached into his pocket and produced a small vial.
“They said it was an unidentified poison. Perhaps he got it from some black market.”
With a bitter mutter, Blanca took the vial and suddenly slumped to the ground, her mind going blank.
It was a poison she had made.
‘How could this happen…’
She had only sold poison once.
She had sold other potions, like those that enhanced the possibility for pregnancy or controlled its timing, but she had only made and sold poison that one time.
But how could her own poison have ended up killing her husband?
‘Who bought it…’
A memory suddenly flashed through her blanched mind, of the day she had sold the poison.
“What do you need the poison for?”
As she handed over the finished product, the woman who bought it replied with a calm face.
“To settle a troublesome past.”
Tears streamed down her face at the vivid memory.
She staggered to her feet and asked the count.
“The name of Gail’s former lover… was it ‘Eiane’?”
At the name ‘Eiane’, the count’s eyes widened.
Slowly, he nodded.
Blanca covered her mouth and retched.
Gail hadn’t committed suicide.
It was murder disguised as suicide.
He may have ingested the poison himself, but someone else had compelled Gail to take it.
Eiane.
The woman who had bought the poison that day.
Whenever Blanca visited the guild, she changed her hair color with magic and covered her face with a veil.
That must have prevented her from being recognized, but she had instantly recognized that woman.
She was a person recently gaining fame in noble circles.
Eiane.
Eiane Carter.
The second wife of Duke Carter and…
‘The woman who abandoned Gail.’
Gail’s former lover, whom he had so dearly missed, was none other than Eiane Carter.
More than twenty years ago.
Sent alone to the empire, Blanca soon had to marry a man she had just met for the first time.
There was no wedding ceremony.
After all, it was essentially a marriage for the sake of an ‘experiment’, so a ceremony would be nothing but a waste of money.
Thus, very quietly, Blanca’s name was appended with the surname ‘Robert’.
“Pleased to meet you. I am Gail Robert.”
Her husband was a man named Gail Robert.
Young, bespectacled, tall, and handsome. He was also kind.
He taught her the imperial language, which she did not know, and personally instructed her in the etiquette of the imperial nobility.
He never laughed or got angry whenever she made mistakes.
“Everyone is inexperienced at first, don’t be discouraged. You’re doing well.”
Rather, he was always encouraging, concerned about how she felt.
But as a husband, he was not a good man.
He was the worst kind of husband.
Because he already had a woman he loved.
Gail often drank. Nearly every night.
And whenever he drank, he would call out that woman’s name.
His voice, yearning for a woman from his past, was deeply sorrowful.
One day, he drunkenly went on a tirade in front of Blanca.
About how much he loved that woman, how happy he was back then, and how cruelly she had abandoned him.
“…She said I was worthless. She said she loved me, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted power more than love. I just wanted us to be quietly happy, but she didn’t.”
“Can’t you forget her? She left you.”
“She did. But she said she loved me ‘til the end. I can’t forget that face, not even in my dreams. My father, disgusted by me, forced this marriage… Ah, I’m sorry. Sorry. What am I saying? I’m just…”
I’m so sorry.
He kept muttering apologies.
His voice grew fainter, the glass slipping from his limp hand.
As the spilled drink soaked the floor and the drunken man fell into sleep, Blanca quietly watched him.
‘Pitiful.’
Both him and herself.
Pity for the man tormented by an unforgetting love despite being abandoned…
And pity for herself, realizing she would never be loved by this man, even in death.
‘I thought it might get better someday.’
No matter how loveless the marriage began, she thought things might improve as they lived together.
He was a good man, so maybe they wouldn’t be a bad couple in the future.
She hoped that, as they just lived, they might become an ordinary couple someday.
But with that drunken confession, any faint hope shattered completely.
Day after day, it was the same routine.
The man, Gail, was still kind, but he always longed for his past lover, and Blanca was always lonely.
Aside from her husband, no one cared for her.
The servants subtly disregarded her, and the mages who had bought her lost interest when there was no news of a child between the couple.
Every time Gail looked at her, he wore a strange expression and apologized.
Unaware that his apologies only made her feel more miserable.
It was empty.
After a point, it was just emptiness.
Life seemed so dull that it felt like death.
‘Isn’t there something exciting?’
That was the first step that led her to a secret guild.
In search of something that would make her feel, she ended up in the back alleys, where she learned about the guild.
Since no one particularly cared about her whereabouts, no one knew what she did.
Even Gail didn’t probe further when Blanca said she would be going out for a bit.
And so, she immersed herself in the guild activities.
Always veiled to hide her identity, she frequented the guild she had created.
As she was a witch, she harnessed her abilities and gradually expanded the guild.
Seeking more excitement.
Looking for more fun.
That was her only goal.
She even made and distributed potions that shouldn’t have been created.
It was wrong, but at that time, ‘excitement’ was her only lifeline.
It was around this time that she met ‘Logan,’ the son of a local apothecary.
Anyway.
One day, while she was living in search of excitement, the event that made the blood rush in her veins the most occurred.
It rained heavily that morning.
Despite the pouring rain, she had to attend the duke’s second wedding, so it was a hectic day.
She returned home, ate an early dinner, and fell asleep.
She woke up to the sound of thunder when darkness enveloped everything.
“…I’m so thirsty.”
Waking up, she felt an unbearable thirst, intensified by the sound of rain.
Reaching for the jug in her room, she found it empty.
The indifferent servants never bothered to refill it promptly.
Blanca put a shawl on her shoulders and left her room.
After drinking a glass of water in the kitchen, she walked back through the dark corridor.
Her steps halted upon noticing something.
A faint light was seeping from Gail’s room.
‘Is he still awake?’
The discovery of the light and the sudden desire to say goodnight to him were purely coincidental.
Or perhaps it was fate.
Blanca walked towards Gail’s room.
Knock, knock.
She knocked softly, but there was no response.
Knock, knock.
She tried again.
“Gail, are you asleep?”
She called out quietly, but again, there was no answer.
Something felt off.
An unusual intuition stirred within her, a witch’s sensitive instincts sending a shiver up her spine.
Blanca cautiously opened the door and found Gail asleep in the dim light.
She sighed in relief.
It was just her being overly sensitive.
She even chuckled to herself.
Blanca quietly approached Gail, intending to cover him with a blanket since he had fallen asleep without one.
His sleeping face looked peaceful.
His eyelids, tightly closed, showed no movement.
…No movement at all.
Not his eyes, nor his nose, nor his lips.
No pulse in his neck.
Nothing at all.
He lay there, utterly still, not breathing a single breath.
“…Gail?”
The eerie, unsettling feeling returned, engulfing her.
Despite her calling, he did not open his eyes.
Blanca reached out slowly.
“Gail, wake up.”
She shook his cold body, but there was no response.
Gail was asleep.
“Gail… Gail!”
He remained asleep, never to awaken again.
.
.
A few days later.
Gail’s funeral was held. The cause of death was ruled as suicide by poison.
A spare vial of poison had been found in his drawer, they said.
Blanca stared blankly at the drawer where the poison had been found.
The poison had already been taken by the count.
All that remained in the drawer was a small ring case.
She reached out and picked up the case.
Inside was a woman’s ring, identical in design to the one Gail always wore.
〈 To my beloved 〉
‘It wasn’t for me after all.’
A hollow laugh escaped her as she read the inscription on the case.
Blanca quietly tried the ring on her left ring finger.
Though clearly not meant for her, it fit her finger perfectly, almost absurdly so.
She turned away, still wearing the ring.
If it was never going to reach its intended owner, perhaps it was alright for her to keep it.
Not long after Gail’s funeral, his father, Count Robert, summoned her.
“I’m sorry, Blanca.”
That was his first statement.
The count began with an inappropriate apology and then asked her for a divorce from his son.
A divorce from a dead man, such an absurd situation.
Yet, Count Robert was resolute and desperate.
“I shouldn’t have done it. I hated seeing my son hung up on one woman, so I forced him into this marriage. When I heard they were looking for a husband for you, it seemed perfect. But I was wrong. It wasn’t fair to you or Gail… I shouldn’t have done it.”
His late regret spilled out in tears.
The count knelt before Blanca.
“I wish to set things right.”
He expressed his wish to free Gail, to give him the freedom to long for his past lover in peace.
Though he couldn’t bring the woman from Gail’s past to him, he at least wanted the spot beside his son to be empty—so that he could be free to yearn for his beloved.
Blanca nodded blankly. No tears came.
Count Robert, having removed the ‘Robert’ surname from Blanca, gave her a considerable amount of wealth.
Adding that she should come to him if she ever needed anything.
The count’s previously authoritative and high-handed demeanor was nowhere to be seen.
Now, he was just a father who had lost his child.
Before leaving the count’s estate, Blanca made a request.
“I want to see the poison.”
She wanted to see with her own eyes the poison that had taken Gail’s life.
What had cut his breath so abruptly.
It was a feeling akin to wanting to see the face of an enemy.
The count hesitated for a moment, then reached into his pocket and produced a small vial.
“They said it was an unidentified poison. Perhaps he got it from some black market.”
With a bitter mutter, Blanca took the vial and suddenly slumped to the ground, her mind going blank.
It was a poison she had made.
‘How could this happen…’
She had only sold poison once.
She had sold other potions, like those that enhanced the possibility for pregnancy or controlled its timing, but she had only made and sold poison that one time.
But how could her own poison have ended up killing her husband?
‘Who bought it…’
A memory suddenly flashed through her blanched mind, of the day she had sold the poison.
“What do you need the poison for?”
As she handed over the finished product, the woman who bought it replied with a calm face.
“To settle a troublesome past.”
Tears streamed down her face at the vivid memory.
She staggered to her feet and asked the count.
“The name of Gail’s former lover… was it ‘Eiane’?”
At the name ‘Eiane’, the count’s eyes widened.
Slowly, he nodded.
Blanca covered her mouth and retched.
Gail hadn’t committed suicide.
It was murder disguised as suicide.
He may have ingested the poison himself, but someone else had compelled Gail to take it.
Eiane.
The woman who had bought the poison that day.
Whenever Blanca visited the guild, she changed her hair color with magic and covered her face with a veil.
That must have prevented her from being recognized, but she had instantly recognized that woman.
She was a person recently gaining fame in noble circles.
Eiane.
Eiane Carter.
The second wife of Duke Carter and…
‘The woman who abandoned Gail.’
Gail’s former lover, whom he had so dearly missed, was none other than Eiane Carter.
