Do Flowers Bloom in the Fallen Land?

She couldn’t find a way to counter Calrad’s power or control her raging power, but it wasn’t like she didn’t gain any progress.

‘Maybe I should keep a double contract in mind.’

Louis Franto and Baron Jeff… the two of them needed to be involved. If so, she had to make a way to work things out before she signed a contract with Louis.

She grabbed her throbbing head from all the complicated calculations that came into mind, and Seira thought of what Louis and Baron could really want from her.

‘First, let’s get everything that might be helpful for now.’

She was going to take the remains of the nest as well as the angcoras that she captured and put them in the greenhouse.

The remnants of the nest, which were stolen with the intention of digging up secrets hidden by the temple, seemed to be impossible to find out without going through the research institute anyway.

‘Some say it’s dangerous if handled in the wrong manner.’

Rather, after commissioning research through Louis, it could be more helpful to determine whether there was a special link between Franto and the temple.

Seira left the bathroom with her body dripping wet and a roughly worn gown on.

‘I put it in the jewel box.’

Crossing the room to check the black piece in the jewelry box on her dressing table, her eyes gravitated towards the door.

“Aven,” she said with widened eyes.

Somehow, a stiff-faced Aven was standing in front of her bedroom door.

“Duchess…” he greeted her after approaching her and stopping a few steps away.

“Is everything all right?” he asked her.

“What?” Seira blinked at him. She really didn’t understand where his question was coming from. “Oh! Did you see the wheat field from the Dews estate on your way here? Even I was truly surprised. I think Franto’s ability is more than I thought.”

“…”

“Other than that, nothing in particular, I think? What are you doing here? Do you have any bad news?” she asked.

Looking into her eyes, he dropped his gaze and said, “His Majesty has called a grand meeting. He said he would charge treason to anyone that wouldn’t attend.”

“What? Treason?” Seira opened her mouth in bewilderment. “Why did he call for a grand meeting?”

“The official letter did not specify the reason.”

The conference to summon all the duke, marquis, and count household heads wasn’t convened unless it was very important to the security of the empire. This is because it takes more than three days to get to the ecliptic from the furthest border, even if one was accompanied by an intermediate wizard capable of moving magic.

“When would it be?”

“In five days.”

Seira, who had been lost in thought, soon concluded, “Then there is a high possibility that it is related to the nest.”

The first to find the beast’s nest was the temple, not anyone else. She didn’t know if their searching ability was great or if they received trust through the saintess, but there were few exceptions.

‘Not to mention on the night of the banquet, the high priest and saintess came to see him.’

It must’ve been something urgent for them to come to the banquet hall and ask for an audience with Calrad.

“Just in case, our Knights should hurry up with maintenance.”

Less than a week after the dissolution of the subjugation party, the beast’s nest appeared, and if the location wasn’t good, there was enough reason to summon family heads from the counts and higher.

“Understood,” Aven answered calmly like he always does.

Seira looked at him with meaningful eyes, “Did you worry about what happened to me? Do you think Calrad would come this far out?”

His expression froze at her funny question.

“His Majesty is extremely obsessed with you…”

Seira burst into laughter.

“No, but there’s no way we’re going to call a grand meeting because of me alone.”

Aven, who had his whole world centered around her and worried for her constantly, was cute and a bit absurd too. He lowered his gaze as he looked at her laughing and laughing.

“I don’t know. I don’t know how I’m going to tie it up next time…” he suddenly stopped talking and his eyes widened at something. His hands grabbed for her sleeve and then exclaimed, “Duchess, your hands! How did you end up with this?”

“Oh… I got injured by mistake while training. It’s not that big a deal. It doesn’t hurt much.”

“There’s no way this wound won’t hurt,” he worried.

As always with matters like this, he didn’t take her word of “all right” as the truth.

“Please wait for a moment. I will bring the ointment.”

Seira stared at Aven’s back, who immediately left the room.

“Well…”

She thought that if he had an Omega that he liked, his attitude towards her would change a little, but it seemed to have stayed the same. The way he gave her attention and worried for her…

‘I shouldn’t like things like this.’

Helping herself, she sat down on the bed and stared at her palms.

She was fine when she was alone, but now that she showed Aven her wound, it suddenly began to tinge strangely.