Being an outsider who would leave in fifteen days.
Even if someone suspected she had stolen it, the Grand Duke couldn’t openly interrogate a princess.
It would become a political issue.
Besides, he might not even notice it’s missing.
To the owner, it was a priceless treasure that his life depended on.
But to the Grand Duke, wasn’t jewelry something he had in abundance?
That was why it had been tossed into a storage shed like this.
Alright. Let’s do it.
Zeke decided to test the princess first.
He started with small things.
At first, it was only inconspicuous supplies.
She doesn’t notice.
When there was no reaction at all, he moved on to the Wembella roots.
They were the perfect target.
Expensive enough to fetch a decent profit, yet ordinary enough that, if caught, he could always blame another servant’s mistake.
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the princess.
She was too busy chatting with that absentminded maid.
She has no idea.
Then again, I’ve been fooling the Grand Duke’s household for ten years. What would a sheltered princess know about the real world?
Now he was certain.
It was finally time to steal the real prize.
If I can just get my hands on that silver ornament box…
It was an elegant little box set with a softly glowing white gemstone.
Anyone could tell at a glance that it was valuable.
Just selling the gemstone on the outside would let me live comfortably for years.
Zeke had no idea what the box truly meant.
Nor did he care.
Only one thing mattered.
The place where it was stored was now the least-guarded location in the entire castle.
He already knew the princess’s daily routine.
At this hour, she should already be asleep.
Besides, the library was far enough from the bedroom that she was unlikely to hear anyone sneaking inside.
Now’s my chance.
Zeke quietly approached the annex’s back door.
He took out a thin lockpick and slipped it into the lock.
Click.
The lock gave way with a soft sound.
Carefully, Zeke pushed the door open.
Thanks to the oil he had applied beforehand, the old hinges made no creaking noise.
The room was dark, with even the candles extinguished.
Only the faint moonlight outlined his silhouette.
Moving with practiced ease, he scanned the room.
The small chest of drawers beside the library sofa.
His heart began pounding.
It’s in there.
He reached out and quietly pulled on the drawer handle.
Finally…
Clunk.
It opened.
At that moment, Zeke’s pupils trembled.
“…What?”
The drawer was empty.
Spotlessly clean.
There wasn’t even a speck of dust inside.
“That can’t be right… I’m sure…”
Zeke instinctively realized something had gone wrong.
But it was already too late.
A cold voice sliced through the silence from directly behind him.
“Looking for this?”
His heart nearly stopped.
Slowly, he turned around.
A lone figure stepped into the moonlight.
It was Odely.
She stood there holding the ornament box Zeke had come to steal.
In the unlit room, where only moonlight filtered through the darkness, her icy blue eyes shone with frightening clarity.
Her gaze was astonishingly calm.
As though she had been waiting for this very moment all along, she looked straight at him.
Zeke spun around, intending to flee.
But before he could take a step, her icy voice pierced his back.
“You’d better stop, Zeke.”
It felt as though his heart had dropped into his stomach.
Damn it… How does she know my name…?
Cold sweat trickled down his cheek.
The air grew so heavy it became difficult to breathe.
At that moment—
Just as expected. You showed up.
Odely stared at the thief—
No.
The murderer—
As though he were nothing more than irredeemable trash.
In her previous life, he had sneaked into this room on the very day he stole the Wembella roots.
And he had killed Leona.
After being caught trying to steal, he had cornered her and strangled her like a desperate animal.
She had only gone to boil water because I was coughing…
The girl who never came back.
The memory of that night, when Odely searched for her in growing panic, felt as vivid as yesterday.
That was why she had waited for tonight.
Before the same tragedy could repeat itself.
Before another innocent life was taken.
She had to end this cycle.
“Haven’t you stolen enough over the past ten years?”
“How do you know that?!”
The color drained from Zeke’s face.
How could a princess who had only just arrived possibly know about it?
If this gets out… My life— No, my head will be forfeit!
Then his expression changed.
The face of a thief gave way to the ugly instincts of a cornered beast.
“So… the rumors about you being sickly… were true.”
Zeke muttered as he took a step closer.
His face wore a strange mixture of fear and forced bravado.
But Odely didn’t react.
Her complete lack of response only made him more anxious.
“That’s right… This is the North… It’s freezing outside… If your weak heart gives out, you’ll die soon enough…”
He began mumbling to himself while staring blankly into space.
“In this murderous northern cold, sudden death wouldn’t seem strange at all. No one would suspect a thing… If they find you frozen in the snow, they’ll just call it an accident.”
Odely narrowed her eyes as she watched him.
His eyes had completely lost their sanity.
“You just have to disappear quietly. That’s right… Then I’ll live, and nothing will happen… You just have to die!”
With the face of a man possessed by a demon, Zeke lunged at Odely.
His trembling hand shot toward her throat.
Fear, rage, despair, and madness swirled together in his eyes.
But Odely didn’t take a single step back.
She merely looked at him with calm, sunken eyes.
Then she extended a single finger—
And lightly tapped him on the forehead.
That was all.
But in the next instant—
“AAAAAGH!!”
Zeke let out a horrifying scream as he collapsed.
He rolled across the floor, clawing at his head, twisting violently as agonized cries poured from his throat.
“…So it really works.”
Odely murmured quietly.
This was the offensive application of her power she had discovered through Rudville’s memories.
The backlash from mana.
The agony of poison that had never been cured.
The crushing pain that gripped her heart.
The corrupt energy that distorted her senses…
She had transferred every bit of the suffering she endured countless times each day directly into another person’s nervous system.
Simply put, Zeke was now experiencing all the pain Odely had suffered whenever she used her purification ability.
Rudville had called it Sensory Transfer.
She had never been able to test it herself.
She had only studied it for several days by recalling the way Rudville used it in his memories.
This had been her first real attempt.
Fortunately…
It had worked.
So this is my limit for now.
Even though she had used it only once, she could already feel her strength draining rapidly.
It was probably because she had forced her mana to operate in a way completely different from her original purification ability.
Her shoulders trembled slightly.
Still, Odely straightened her back and stood firm.
She couldn’t afford to show weakness.
It should hurt enough to make him beg for death.
His stomach would feel as though it were being torn apart.
His bones crushed.
His nerves severed.
Poison flowing through every vein.
That’s exactly how much pain he deserves.
Because Leona…
That child…
Had died alone, surrounded by freezing cold and terror.
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