Yekaterina took advantage of the moment when Astreia and Wendy had returned to the royal bedchamber to get intimate again, and silently slipped out of the palace.
She changed into a plain maid’s uniform, pulled a hood low over most of her face, and deliberately chose the most secluded paths, hurrying toward the Prime Minister’s Mansion.
With every step she took, the little Queen felt as if countless eyes were fixed on her back.
Her sister’s gray-violet eyes seemed as though they could materialize from any shadowy corner at any moment, using that gentle yet eerily strange tone to ask where she was going.
Only when she finally saw the familiar emblem of the Prime Minister’s Mansion did Yekaterina’s heart, which had been about to leap out of her chest, settle just a little.
In the study of the Prime Minister’s Mansion, a calming incense was burning.
Allison didn’t ask many questions; she simply waved away all the attendants and personally poured Yekaterina a cup of warm black tea.
“Your Majesty, your hand is trembling.”
The Cardinal’s tone was as steady as ever.
Yekaterina looked down, only to realize she could barely hold the teacup.
She set the cup heavily on the table, causing a few drops of tea to splash out.
After confirming that there was no one else in the room, the little Queen spilled out everything that had happened over the past few days, all the absurdities, her words tumbling out in a jumble, stammering like spilled beans.
“I-I shouldn’t have eavesdropped that day… In the main hall, you, Royal Sister, and Wendy…”
“Then, in the bath, I went again. I heard them…”
“Then Laxana came back, and the three of us… under the table.”
“Sister suddenly appeared at the door of the bedchamber… Laxana the idiot let something slip… Sister took Wendy away… then Laxana… fainted from pain…”
“This morning, in the dining room… I saw… Wendy with a collar around his neck, Sister feeding him… and he was smiling so happily…”
She spoke in a scattered, illogical way, her voice growing softer and softer.
But as soon as she finished, she regretted it.
Yekaterina felt her cheeks burning, wishing she could find a hole in the ground to crawl into.
As a Queen, she had become jealous over a man, quarreling with her own sister and dearest friend, and in the end, made a complete mess of things.
If this got out, the Royal Family of Valoran would become the greatest laughingstock of the entire Erashia Continent!
She would be nailed to the pillar of shame in history, her name forever infamous!
What would Allison think of her?
Would she see her as a childish, foolish, shameless madwoman?
But she couldn’t keep silent, either—what a disaster…
Yekaterina was truly frightened now.
She buried her face in her hands, her shoulders trembling uncontrollably.
Yet the laughter, mockery, and even reprimands she’d expected didn’t come.
Only a long silence filled the study.
The Cardinal merely set down her teacup and let out a long sigh.
Peeking through her fingers, Yekaterina saw that the smile on Allison’s face had vanished, replaced by a complex expression—a mixture of exhaustion and resignation.
“So, in the end… things have come to this.”
There was a deep sense of helplessness in the Cardinal’s words.
“I once naively believed that, because of Princess Astreia’s unique feelings for Prince Wendy, perhaps… perhaps a miracle could happen…”
Yekaterina’s head snapped up, seizing on the key words.
“What do you mean? You knew all along?!”
“Your Majesty.”
Allison Visseran raised a hand, pressing her aching temple.
“Since you overheard the conversation between me, the Great Princess, and Prince Wendy, you should know—the risk of Witchification is something our Church has guarded against from the very beginning.”
The Prime Minister’s words paused, her expression more solemn than ever.
“It’s clearly documented in the Forbidden Archives, .”
“For nearly a thousand years, every powerful woman confirmed to show signs of Witchification, without exception…”
“Even if they seemed temporarily stable, even if their sanity appeared intact, the final outcome was always the same…”
“——Complete fall into a true Witch, acting only on desire and instinct.”
“W-what?!”
Yekaterina let out a strangled cry, her face turning ashen.
The terrifying implications of that word poured through her every nerve like molten iron.
“Then… then what about Royal Sister—”
Her voice trembled, but an even more terrifying thought surfaced.
“Wait! What about Prince Wendy?! What will happen to him?!”
At that, Allison looked at the little Queen.
For the first time, her always smiling eyes reflected unmistakable pity and sorrow.
“Your Majesty… according to the , every Witch who completely fell would turn the person or object she cherished most into her possession.”
“That ‘possession’ would be claimed, imprisoned, and toyed with in the most extreme ways…”
“Until, in the end, it was utterly broken—or destroyed by the Witch’s own hand.”
“No one close to a Witch ever met a good end.”
Boom——!
Yekaterina felt as if a string snapped in her mind.
She collapsed backward, the soft sofa catching her limp body.
Her mind buzzed endlessly.
This meant that, before long, she would lose her sister—the one who truly loved her even in the face of power’s temptation.
And she would lose that lecherous yet surprising man who was the first she ever shared a bed with.
But it went beyond that.
For the entire nation, losing Astreia’s unmatched might in the north, and Wendy’s endless stream of creative ideas…
Valoran’s future would be plunged into darkness.
No.
No, this can’t be!
Absolutely not!
A fierce sense of unwillingness welled up from the depths of her fear-stricken heart.
“Isn’t… isn’t there really any other way?!”
Yekaterina clung to Allison as if she were her last lifeline.
“Any way at all!”
Seeing that mixture of terror and determination in Her Majesty’s eyes, the Prime Minister lowered her head, sinking into deep thought.
Only the crackling of the fireplace and the Queen’s increasingly ragged breathing filled the study.
Time passed, second by second.
Just as the fire within Yekaterina was about to die out completely—
Allison suddenly looked up.
A faint light rekindled in her eyes!
“Perhaps…”
The Prime Minister hesitated, as if weighing an enormous risk.
“Perhaps… there’s someone who can help.”
“Who?!”
Yekaterina instantly sat bolt upright.
Allison’s expression became extraordinarily complex—a blend of wariness, disgust, and reluctant acknowledgment of another’s skill.
“An old friend of mine.”
“An old friend whose research is… quite specialized.”
“But the price to ask for her help… may be very high.”
“And, with her personality…”
Allison’s lips curled into a bitter smile.
“Whether she’d even agree to see us is a problem in itself.”