<CHAPTER 71>
At my suggestion to head to the eastern side of the garden, Greta nodded.
As we carefully moved while watching our surroundings—
“Should we just patrol that area and wrap it up?”
“Sounds good.”
We heard the guards’ voices along with footsteps approaching this way.
In a hurry, we searched for a place to hide and spotted a greenhouse with its door slightly open.
The moment our eyes met, we nodded and quickly slipped inside.
Creeeak, thud.
We closed the door as quietly as possible and hid deeper inside.
Just as I finally relaxed and turned my gaze—
Moonlight streamed through the transparent glass ceiling, faintly illuminating the greenhouse.
I let out a quiet gasp without realizing it.
This wasn’t just any greenhouse.
Rare herbs I had only seen in books were placed all over the place.
It was clear that someone knowledgeable in pharmacology had been managing it.
Could this be Esther’s greenhouse?
While curiously looking around at the plants, something suddenly caught my eye, making me stop.
This is………………!
Long flower stems with small, bead-like black buds clustered along them.
Black lavender.
To think something that didn’t even have a recorded cultivation method in books was blooming here.
“Miss Jena? What are you doing?”
“Ah, I just felt like I might need it.”
Instinctively gathering the black lavender, I let out a small laugh.
I picked a few other things nearby as well before standing up.
If this was Esther’s greenhouse, then since I was Esther right now, it should be fine to take some.
Greta, who had been watching the situation outside, gestured that it was time to leave.
After exiting the greenhouse, we found a side door nearby and barely managed to escape.
When we returned to the cheap inn where we had been staying, all the strength drained from my body.
Greta, who had carefully drawn the curtains, came over to me.
“But Miss Jena, are you really Esther Granger?”
“I’m not completely sure either, but I think I am.”
I wanted to deny it, but it was almost certain.
As I answered heavily in affirmation, silence fell.
I let out a deep sigh and ran my hand through my hair.
Let’s calmly sort this out again.
If I am actually Esther Granger, and I was caught attempting to poison my younger sister Ariana…
Then why wasn’t I dead like in the original, and instead acting as a spy?
It was a completely incomprehensible situation.
If I had known this would happen, I would have read the original to the end.
No, but Esther was a secondary villain who got eliminated midway after having a one-sided love for the Crown Prince, so I had seen her ending…
Wait!
Suddenly, the main villain of the original came to mind.
The princess who threatened the Crown Prince’s position, and the shadowy ducal family of the North that supported her.
A chill ran down my spine.
Because that shadowy ducal family was none other than Aizen’s family.
Esther… don’t tell me………………!
After being caught for attempting to murder Ariana, did she fail to come to her senses, escape, and go to kill Aizen?
For the sake of the Crown Prince!
The “beloved person” Esther had mentioned in her note…
There was a very high chance it was the Crown Prince.
About 99.9 percent.
“What a foolish person……………….”
I shut my eyes tightly, lost in thought for a moment, then slowly spoke.
“Greta, could you get me some soil and a flowerpot?”
“That’s not difficult, but what do you plan to use it for?”
“I suddenly have something I want to make.”
“Understood.”
While Greta went out to fulfill my request, I opened the ancient pharmacology book I had brought from the ducal estate.
The page I turned to immediately was—
“Method of Cultivating the Spirit-Summoning Herb.”
Esther had died after consuming poison, and somehow my soul had possessed that empty body.
So the goal was to summon Esther’s soul using the Spirit-Summoning Herb.
And then learn how to make the cure for Aizen!
At this point, no matter what, I had to save Aizen.
Even if I can’t keep my promise to return… at least the cure………………
Although the section about side effects had been erased, the method of creating the Spirit-Summoning Herb using modified black lavender was written in detail.
Fortunately, the greenhouse had all the necessary herbs.
I removed the lavender seeds and buried them in the pot, then poured nutrient solution made from rare herbs over them.
After six hours passed—
A plant shaped like two people embracing each other sprouted from the pot.
As I steeped it in hot water, worried about side effects, I instructed Greta,
“If I start acting strange after drinking this, don’t hesitate to restrain me, alright?”
“Yes, understood. But are you really okay? If it’s dangerous, then I should—”
“No, it’s something I have to do.”
The water infused with the herb was ominously black.
With determination, I picked it up, shut my eyes tightly, and downed it in one go.
Gulp.
The moment I drank it, darkness swallowed everything.
When I gasped and opened my eyes, a familiar black space appeared.
It was the place I had seen in my dreams over the past few days.
And standing a short distance away, quietly watching me, was Esther.
“Esther!”
I rushed over and grabbed both her arms.
Seeing her surprised expression, I scolded her sharply.
“No matter how blinded you were by love, how could you try to kill someone!”
“I’ll try to fix things as much as I can, so tell me how to make the cure for the freezing disease first.”
Feeling instinctively that there wasn’t much time, I got straight to the point.
Esther’s large blue eyes stared directly at me.
It felt strange.
Of course, I had been living with this face for months.
Seeing myself like this was bound to feel odd.
After a long silence, Esther finally moved her lips slowly.
“…You want to know the formula?”
Even though it was the same voice, it felt like someone else’s.
Her calm and composed expression was also different from mine.
“Of course!”
“I’ll tell you. But I can’t tell you just that.”
“What do you—”
Whoosh.
Esther grabbed my collar and pulled me closer.
Why does this woman like grabbing collars so much?!
I was helplessly dragged in until our foreheads touched.
Then her memories began to flow into me.
Her earliest memory.
From when she was a child—when she was Jena.
***
Jena was a poor girl who lived with her sick mother.
Her mother was so ill she could barely walk, so young Jena had to beg or do odd jobs to make a living.
They couldn’t even afford to visit a doctor, so Jena personally gathered herbs and taught herself pharmacology.
Fortunately, there was an old pharmacology book at home.
Though it was written in the language of a fallen kingdom, her mother could read it.
“Your great-grandmother came from that country. Even though the nation fell, the language was passed down.”
Jena learned the language from her mother and studied the book.
Surprisingly, she had talent, and her skills improved quickly.
The medicine she made with her tiny hands gradually gained reputation, making their lives slightly more comfortable.
But even so, she couldn’t cure her mother’s illness.
Her medicine could only prolong her life a little.
Eventually, at the age of eleven—
“I’m sorry, Jena. Please live a life you won’t be ashamed of, unlike me.”
Jena, who had been slowly gaining fame as a genius apothecary, lost her mother and was left alone.
Then her biological father appeared.
Count Granger.
The man who had abandoned Jena’s mother, a maid, when she became pregnant, now came looking for his eldest daughter.
“I heard you are my daughter. Come with me. If you prove your worth, I will change your miserable life.”
Jena took his hand.
Not because she wanted to become a noble lady, but because she hoped to gain a new family.
The Count gave Jena a new name—Esther Granger—and exploited her.
The Granger family was originally famous for pharmaceuticals.
But after the current Count inherited it, the family had been sinking rapidly.
He brought Esther in to use her as a solution.
Esther gradually realized the truth.
“Ha, can someone like her even be called a noble? Lady Ariana is right there.”
“Not a chance! The Count only gave her the family name to control her, not because he sees her as a daughter.”
“There’s a reason he hides her. Once she’s used up, she’ll be thrown away.”
As the servants said, the Count had only registered her to exploit her abilities.
The true Granger lady, loved and recognized by all, was her half-sister Ariana.
If only I had been born like her………………
Esther feared being abandoned.
She developed deep inferiority and resentment toward Ariana.
People around her pressured her to stay away from Ariana.
So she tried to distance herself and hate her…
But—
“Unni, why are you crying?”
When she cried alone in the garden, Ariana would come and gently wipe her tears.
“Do you miss your mom too? I miss mine all the time.”
They shared the same pain.
“But don’t cry. You have me!”
“Then why are you crying?”
“Because you’re crying, so I’m sad too………………”
She couldn’t truly hate the little sister who cried even harder for her.
Because she was the first person to cry for her.
Esther eventually opened her heart and grew closer to Ariana.
Even though they had to meet in secret.
Time passed, and Esther turned eighteen.
She was of age for her debutante, but was not allowed into society.
People called her the “ghost lady.”
The only place she felt free was the greenhouse she tended herself.
She spent her days researching medicine there.
Even when Ariana shone in society—
And then—
“Ah, I seem to have lost my way and entered the greenhouse.”
“W-who are you?”
“My name is Lionel, Crown Prince of the Elante Empire.”
Their first meeting.
“I apologize, Your Highness. I failed to recognize you…”
“Instead of an apology, I would like to hear your name.”
“I…”
Unable to speak due to her status, Esther hesitated.
Lionel smiled charmingly and stepped back.
“Ah, I think I know who you are. Lady Granger has spoken of her older sister.”
“…Ariana did?”
“Yes. Just as she said—”
He was the most handsome man she had ever seen.
Black hair like obsidian, golden eyes, sharp features, and a deep voice.
“You are a beautiful woman.”
She couldn’t help but fall for him.
Unaware of how dangerous he was, Esther began to love him.
But he was too high above her.
And his interest was in Ariana.
Eventually, Ariana’s friends began disappearing one by one.
Esther sensed something was wrong.
And soon, she learned the truth.
Lionel had been removing Ariana’s connections.
One day, Esther overheard a confrontation.
“Even if you are the Crown Prince, you cannot take my fiancée!”
“How amusing. She chose to belong to me.”
Lionel mocked him coldly.
Then the truth came out.
“You destroyed her friend’s family, didn’t you!”
“You even drove wedges between her and others!”
It meant Lionel had been eliminating Ariana’s friends.
Before Esther could process it—
Lionel stabbed the man in the neck.
Then pushed him off the balcony.
Esther covered her mouth in shock.
Crunch.
As she stepped back and snapped a branch—
Lionel sharply turned his head toward her.
