Chapter 236
Chapter 236: Who Is Your Fiancé?
Leah felt a wave of disorientation wash over her.
Just then, Xiangyilan stepped forward and supported Heni's body.
Watching Heni struggle to keep herself upright, her movements dazed and unsteady, Leah let out a quiet sigh.
In a state like that, it was no wonder Heni had been walking with her mind elsewhere and crashed right into her.
Heni stood in place, head lowered, swaying slightly.
Leah drew a little closer and looked at the unsteady girl, then couldn't help but speak.
"Heni, what did you lose?"
At those words, Heni's breath caught.
She couldn't lift her head. She could only shake it, over and over, trying to scatter the chaos crowding her thoughts.
"I don't know. I don't know..."
"All I know is that it was something very important to me."
Heni drew a long, deep breath and stared blankly at the ground.
"I...can't live without him..."
Her voice gradually faded, and Leah fell silent.
Something important.
What could it be?
Leah found it difficult to understand.
But she kept turning the thought over.
Could Heni's important thing...possibly be connected to her?
The moment that thought crossed her mind, Leah went completely still.
A question had suddenly flashed through her mind.
Why did she know Heni in the first place?
She remembered: Heni was a Retainer of her household, a formally contracted employee.
But...
Why had Heni become a Retainer of the Clavena Family?
Her memories felt as though a piece had been carved out.
She looked at Heni, wanting to ask.
"Heni..."
But seeing the dazed and hollow look on Heni's face, she closed her mouth again.
She turned and signaled to a Maidservant, leaving instructions:
"Take her back and let her get some proper res—"
Heni suddenly shot out a hand and seized the hem of Leah's coat in a death grip.
Leah stared at her, startled into a daze.
The girl in front of her still had her head bowed, but tears spilled from her eyes against her will.
Like a string of broken pearls, they fell—drip, drip—into the earth below.
"Please help me, Leah..."
"Help me...find him."
Leah looked at the anguished Heni, and a profound weight settled over her heart.
She drew a slow breath and reached out to take Heni's hand.
The moment her fingers touched Heni's palm, Leah could feel it.
The gentle softness in Heni's presence had grown even denser.
In that instant, a strange impulse surged from somewhere in her chest.
Something wild and savage—a sudden urge to be reckless, to tease and torment Heni.
But she held it in check with the ironclad force of her own reason, suppressing that absurd idea before it could go any further.
She carefully removed Heni's hand from her own, then gave a single, solemn nod.
"I'll do my best."
"Get some rest, Heni."
At those words, the tension drained from Heni's body entirely.
Led away by the Maidservant, she went back to rest.
But Heni's appearance had left an inexplicable heaviness pressing against Leah's mood.
She didn't understand what had happened.
Only that after Heni said something important had been lost from her life, Leah felt it too—as though something important had vanished from her own.
That feeling echoed endlessly inside her, like a haunting melody that refused to leave.
But she had no time to dwell on it now.
Leah straightened her collar, raised her head, and looked ahead.
Through the green rift, Cocotte Yadh was sprawled across a cloud, drifting lazily out.
She let out a yawn, then lifted her eyelids and languidly spotted Leah.
And then she blinked.
"Uh, hi?"
Leah blinked too, her gaze landing on Cocotte.
"Cocotte!?"
"Why are you coming out of—out of..."
But Cocotte just tilted her head with a blink.
"Because I'm the Elven Queen?"
"No...I know that."
Leah let out a sigh, rubbing at her temple as a dull ache began to build in her head.
"What I mean is, why are you coming out from there?"
Leah was utterly baffled.
Cocotte was the Elven Queen, yes, but she was also an employee of the Clavena Family.
When it came to Cocotte, Leah had always been perfectly clear.
This lazy dog of an Elf—without a direct order, she would not lift a single finger.
Leah knew Cocotte's laziness far too well.
Hearing Leah's pointed words, even Cocotte herself couldn't help but look bewildered.
"Huh, that's strange..."
She seemed to recall someone telling her to open a passage between the Elven Forest and the Divine Tree Yadh—a direct route leading straight to the back garden of the tree.
For the past several days, Cocotte had been occupied with exactly that task.
The passage had been completed. The Elves had all been informed...
But...
Who had told her to do this in the first place?
Cocotte's mind went completely blank.
Oh no.
Surely she hadn't just spontaneously decided to work hard on her own?
No, that couldn't be right...
As a 5th-Tier Mage, Cocotte's perception was exceptionally sharp.
Someone had definitely given her instructions.
Her memory was not one that could simply be wrong.
Which left only one possibility.
Her memory had been...altered.
Cocotte narrowed her eyes and began to think hard.
But Leah, by now, had already sensed that something was off.
She raised her head and stared at the passage connecting the Divine Tree Yadh and the Elven Forest.
The next instant, a ripple spread across the surface of the passage.
Before the ripple had even fully settled, she had already spun on her heel and sprinted toward the Clavena Manor at full speed.
The Maidservants stared after the fleeing Leah, rooted to the spot.
Even Cocotte, watching her go, was left thoroughly bewildered.
At last, the passage swung wide open.
Through it, Vinia Jekdela stepped out first.
Both hands curled around her wooden Scepter, she lifted her head with regal poise—as beautiful as a swan.
"Head of the Clavena Family."
"Thank you for receiving us upon our arri—?"
Her eyes slowly opened, and she looked down.
On the grass below, aside from a cluster of Maidservants and Cocotte drifting idly on her cloud doing absolutely nothing, there was not a single trace of the Clavena Family's head.
Vinia froze in her tracks.
The crowd of Elves behind her—with nowhere to go now that she'd stopped—spilled out of the passage in a tumble.
They hung sideways across the branches of the Divine Tree, staring at their High Priestess with identical expressions of blank confusion.
"...Huh?"
***
Royal Capital, Delin Manor.
A Maidservant stood at the door, holding a bowl of porridge, her face etched with worry.
Kavra Delin walked in unhurriedly and said in a quiet voice:
"Give it to me. You go and rest."
She took the porridge from the Maidservant's hands. The Maidservant gave Kavra a small bow, then slipped away quickly.
Kavra held the tray in one hand and knocked on the door with the other.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Gwen, it's me."
"You haven't eaten anything in a whole day."
From inside the room came only silence.
Kavra looked at the door, her eyes full of worry.
"If something's wrong, you can talk to your older sister."
But the only reply she received was stillness and quiet.
Kavra let out a sigh.
She bent down and set the porridge on the floor just outside the door, then leaned in to say:
"Remember to eat. Don't let yourself go hungry."
Then she turned and left.
Inside the bedroom, it was pitch-black—not a single ray of light could find its way in.
When she heard Kavra's footsteps fade into the distance, Gwen finally raised her head.
Her silver-white hair was a tangled mess.
She wore a simple nightgown, one shoulder strap having slipped down to hang at her arm, baring a stretch of pale skin.
Her face was haggard beyond words.
One leg dangled off the side of the bed; the other was bent and propped against it, with her cheek resting on her knee, her expression hollow and desolate.
Cradled in her arms was a longsword.
The blade radiated a fiery crimson warmth, bathing the dark room in a red glow—like a warm sun burning quietly in the black.
What on earth had happened?
Even Gwen herself didn't know.
By the time she'd come back to herself, she had already become like this.
Her whole being was dazed and scattered, with no desire to move at all.
This was the first time in her life she had been so listless—she had even forgotten the morning Knight drills she never missed.
No energy for anything.
Not even the smallest thing.
"Why?"
Her voice had gone a little hoarse.
As though suddenly remembering something, Gwen reached into her clothes and drew out a golden parchment.
It was faintly warm to the touch, emanating a soft shimmer of light.
It seemed to serve no purpose beyond that warmth.
Yet Gwen had the strange, unshakable feeling that this thing was deeply important to her.
She had to keep it close at all times.
Just then, the Magic Crystal resting on the table lit up with a faint, wavering blue glow.
Flickering on and off.
Gwen's gaze was drawn to that pulsing blue light.
Amid the exhaustion in her eyes, a flicker of curiosity stirred.
Who was trying to reach her?
She was about to drag herself over to pick up the crystal when she noticed something on the table—a black crow standing there, at some point she hadn't noticed.
Gwen startled.
She recoiled, pressing herself backward.
The crow's single deep eye glanced at Gwen, then spread its wings with an air of mystery and flew toward the window.
It didn't move the curtain aside. It simply flew straight ahead.
Gwen hurried to call out a warning:
"The window's not—"
Before she could finish, the crow's dark body passed right through the curtain as if it weren't there at all.
It dissolved into a streak of black shadow and slipped through the gap in the window.
"—open..."
Gwen finished the last word in a murmur.
She scrambled to the window and threw the curtain aside, staring blankly in the direction the crow had flown.
But there was no trace of the crow anywhere.
She shook herself out of her daze and drew the curtain shut again.
And in that disoriented moment, the flickering blue glow of the crystal on the table pulled her eyes toward it once more.
Only then did Gwen remember—someone had been trying to contact her.
She touched the blue crystal with her hand.
The next instant, a woman's voice came through.
It was Leah's voice.
But the tone was something she'd rarely heard: frantic, urgent, pressing.
"Gwen! Right now! Tell me!"
"Your fiancé—who is he?!"