When Elysia turned seventeen, her father never returned from a mission to exterminate monsters.

The first time she saw Yulias May Demint was at her father's funeral.

“Thank you for coming, Your Grace.”

“Your husband was a swordsman who always put his comrades before himself. Failing to protect him was my responsibility…”

His black hair reminded her of a raven’s feathers. At first glance, he looked like a grown man, but traces of youth still lingered on his face.

Even so, the line of men standing behind him made it obvious.

So that’s the Grand Duke.

Dressed in a black mourning dress for the funeral, Elysia wore a hat to conceal her striking red hair.

As he spoke with her mother, he turned his head and their eyes met.

Amid the sea of black clothing, it was his eyes that drew her attention the most.

They were a deep orange, like the glow of the setting sun.

Elysia stared blankly at him until she felt someone tugging at her skirt. Startled, she looked away.

“Noona! I’m hungry!”

“We’ll eat after everything’s over. Can you both wait a little longer?”

It was Joshua, her younger brother. Having just turned seven, he rubbed his stomach miserably.

“How much longer do I have to wait?!”

“Hmm… why don’t you count slowly to one hundred in your head? Very, very slowly.”

Raised with endless love and affection from her parents, Elysia cherished Joshua more than anyone.

“At his own father’s funeral, and he’s shouting like that…”

But others didn’t see it the same way.

Joshua’s booming voice drew disapproving looks.

While gently patting her brother’s head, Elysia finally noticed the gaze directed at them and turned around.

“You two seem close.”

“Your Grace.”

Before she realized it, Yulias had walked close enough that they stood face-to-face.

When Elysia hurriedly tried to bow, he raised a hand as if to say it wasn’t necessary.

Joshua, sensing the heavy atmosphere, hid behind her back.

“I apologize for the noise. My younger brother has difficulty hearing.”

“If only we had learned earlier that a breach had formed at the fortress. Thanks to your father, the damage was minimized.”

“…My brother admires our father very much as well.”

“Is that so? I only hope my own child grows up to be half as admirable as this one.”

He looks so young. Is he already married?

As far as Elysia knew, he was exactly twenty years old.

From a young age, he had followed his father onto battlefields to hunt monsters, and he had even graduated early from the Academy.

That was all she knew about him.

“Excuse me.”

Yulias stepped away first.

Only then did Joshua peek out from behind her and whisper loudly,

“That hyung looks really scary!”

Afraid he might hear, Elysia quickly covered Joshua’s mouth.

But Yulias never turned around as he walked away.

Three years passed.

Life had to go on after her father’s death, but her mother, who had come from another land, could not escape discrimination.

“If you’re going to Grandma’s family, we’ll go too.”

“Elysia.”

After putting Joshua to bed, her mother called Elysia aside.

“I want you to stay here and wait with Joshua.”

“But Joshua will miss you. …So will I.”

When Elysia’s voice faltered, her mother squeezed her hand.

“Your father and I loved each other very much. I left my hometown and came here because of him.”

“…”

“I can endure going back alone. But I’m worried they might mistreat you or Joshua.”

Wouldn’t it still be better if we stayed together?

Elysia swallowed those words and listened.

“Mom.”

“Your father served in the Grand Duke’s knight order, so we never had to worry about making ends meet. But my family isn’t like that. There are many mouths to feed, and…”

She looked as though she wanted to say more, but closed her lips.

Before Joshua was born, Elysia had grown up surrounded by her parents’ love and wanted to understand her mother.

“It won’t be more than two years. When the time comes, we’ll go to my hometown and live together.”

“…”

“I’ll send money every month. Can you trust me and wait a little longer?”

Elysia looked down at the hand patting hers.

The skin was dry and cracked, covered with small cuts that hadn’t been there before.

Better than staying here, where she works herself to exhaustion and still isn’t paid properly just because she came from somewhere else…

Maybe her hometown really would be better.

“All right. I’ll take good care of Joshua. I’ll write often.”

“I’ll write often too. I love you, Elysia.”

Wrapped in her mother’s embrace, Elysia finally burst into tears she hadn’t shed even when her father died.

After crying for a long time in her mother’s arms, they fell asleep together for the first time in ages.

Three days later, while Joshua slept soundly, their mother quietly left.

If she departed during the day, Joshua would cry and refuse to let her go.

She said she would take the ship leaving at dawn.

“It looks like it might rain. Wouldn’t it be better to postpone your trip a little?”

“…I’ll be back.”

Why does it hurt so much when we’re not saying goodbye forever?

Even though she was twenty years old now, Elysia still wanted to stop her mother and insist they go together.

Carrying only a small bag, her mother hugged her one last time and kissed her forehead.

“Mom.”

As she walked farther away from the house, she turned back again and again to wave.

Afraid her mother would notice her crying if she wiped her face, Elysia let the tears fall freely as she waved back.

Soon after, the light drizzle turned into a downpour.

That night, after her mother left, news spread quickly.

A newspaper reported that the ship that had departed at dawn had capsized, leaving most of the passengers dead or missing.

“Mom!”

Joshua cried uncontrollably, calling for their mother, and it took Elysia a long time to calm him and convince him they would see her again soon.

Elysia never received a single letter from her mother.

Even so, she refused to believe she was dead.

She’s just missing.

That’s better.

It has to be.

Clinging to that hope, Elysia forced back the tears threatening to spill.

From now on, she alone would be responsible for her little brother.

She was only twenty years old.

But reality was merciless.

“…It’s okay.”

Pulling the blanket up over Joshua, she gently patted him and whispered.

She was speaking to her brother, but also to herself.

“It’s okay.”

She repeated it over and over, but in the end, tears slipped from the corners of her tightly shut eyes.

“Why don’t you try visiting the Grand Duke’s estate?”

“The Grand Duke’s estate…?”

“The Demint Grand Ducal House.”

Lost about how she would support them from now on, Elysia confided her worries to Mrs. Denmins, a neighbor.

The woman had known Elysia since the day she was born.

Mrs. Denmins made a suggestion.

Since Elysia’s father had served in the knight order for so many years, perhaps she could use that connection to ask for work as a maid.

Ordinarily, however, working as a maid for a noble household required either a recommendation letter or previous experience of a certain rank.

At twenty years old, Elysia had neither.

“Mrs. Denmins, would it be all right if you watched Joshua for just one day? I’ll go to the Grand Duke’s estate.”

Grateful for the woman’s kindness in agreeing to help, Elysia planned to find some way to repay her.

But at the time, she had no idea.

“Elysia, I need you.”

That her simple wish to work at the Grand Duke’s estate would become the beginning of a dreamlike story—one that would tie her fate to the Grand Duke himself.