* * *

Rose Seaserpent.

To the Blue Dragon Clan, she was an exemplary princess. To the employees of Jǫrmungandr, she was a respected chairwoman, and to every citizen of the British Empire, a beloved countess.

Compassion that never begrudged generosity. Diligence in fulfilling her duties. The intelligence to grow her company steadily. Even the leadership to guide others.

With all those qualities at her disposal, finding fault with her was no easy task for anyone.

That was why her followers had always believed Rose to be the most perfect of the Seven Dragons Society's seven princesses. They considered themselves supremely fortunate simply to serve her, and even boasted of it.

Yet at this very moment, the perfect princess everyone loved and revered was wallowing in self-reproach upon discovering what a fool she was.

“How could this happen...?”

Once, she could understand. She had barely slept for almost three months because of her insomnia, and it was true that she had accumulated enough fatigue to worry Lucas.

But that had only been true until the day before yesterday. The ample sleep she had gotten that day had already relieved a considerable amount of her fatigue.

Yet she had disgraced herself by dozing off again. To Rose, it was not merely embarrassing, but inexplicable.

'Could Sir Lucas have secretly given me sleeping pills...? No, he would never do that.'

Lucas was an upright knight. If he was truly worried about her, he might bring a doctor or give her sleeping pills and encourage her to take them, but he was not the sort of man to slip them to her secretly.

Not that doing so would make her sleepy anyway. Something made by the Green Dragon Clan or the Monarch of Creation might be another matter, but ordinary poisons and drugs simply did not work on the princesses of the Seven Dragons Society.

'It cannot be magic or a skill, either.'

For much the same reason, magic, skills, or sorcery were unlikely explanations. Even a Wordsmith or a Monarch could not put her to sleep without giving her a chance to resist.

And even if, by some remote chance, they could, superhumans on the level of absolute beings had no reason to play such a prank out of sheer idleness.

'Then could it really be that?'

Rose looked out the window. Hard as it was to believe, after eliminating the other possibilities, only one explanation remained. That was why she had deliberately left the window wide open and stayed in her office.

'... If I listen again today, I should know for certain.'

Giving her head a small shake, Rose returned her attention to the paperwork. Finding the cause of this strange phenomenon was important, but she had plenty to do to make up for the time lost dozing over the past two days.

As she examined the documents, the sound she had been waiting for finally reached her.

VREEE

'At last.'

At the barely audible violin music drifting through the window, Rose set down her documents. Then she closed her eyes and drew up her psionics.

'As I thought, it does not seem to contain any special power.'

It was the result she had expected. Plenty of instruments and skills produced special effects simply by being heard, but her psionics would have reacted to such power first.

Nor was there anything particularly unusual about her condition. Her psionics were calm. Her heart beat quietly. Everything simply felt comfortable...

Her breathing grew soft and even.

... And at that moment, another half-day hole in her packed schedule became a certainty.

* * *

'That was a mistake....'

Rose reflected on her error. The violin music had been putting her to sleep in the first place, yet she had listened to it even more intently. As a result, she had fallen asleep faster than the day before.

At least that had confirmed the violin music as the culprit behind the disruptions to her work over the past several days.

What she still did not understand was why.

'No one else seems to be experiencing this. Why only me?'

She had even ordered Lucas to check whether anyone else had dozed off or fallen asleep after hearing the violin, as she had. But the results were unsatisfactory. A few servants admitted to dozing at that time, but no one had fallen asleep every day like Rose.

Then again, if everyone who heard the music fell asleep, the household would have been thrown into chaos long ago.

'It must be the accumulated fatigue, after all.'

In the end, Rose concluded that everything was due to exhaustion from lack of sleep. A couple of days of sound sleep could hardly have erased all her fatigue. If the soothing music had relaxed her mind and body in that state, she could understand why she had become more susceptible to drowsiness.

'But that ends today.'

CLINK

Rose set down her empty coffee cup. After checking her physical condition, she smiled.

She was in perfect shape. She had even drunk coffee, just in case. In this state, she would not fall asleep even if she heard an entire orchestra instead of a violin.

Fully prepared, Rose began working with the window open, brimming with confidence as though daring the music to try her.

VREEEE

And that evening, Rose's maid was left puzzled when her mistress, her cheeks oddly flushed, asked her to procure better coffee.

* * *

'I should never have trusted something like coffee.'

Rose reflected on her mistakes yet again. Drugs and poisons rarely had any effect on her to begin with; the stimulating effects of coffee were hardly going to work. Despite knowing that, she had drunk it for nothing more than psychological reassurance and taken no other precautions.

Naturally, she had dozed off again.

'There is no choice. Tonight, I will have to sleep, even if I must force myself.'

At last, Rose tried to address the root cause of the entire situation: lack of sleep. She was reluctant to devote more time to sleep during such a busy period, but sleeping at night was at least better than dozing during the day.

And so, for the first time in a while, she changed into her pajamas and went to bed at the proper hour.

Then, on the morning of the fifth day, having spent the night wide awake, Rose realized anew how reckless it had been to try sleeping again after a sound afternoon nap when she already suffered from insomnia.

Her dejection over wasting precious time was brief. In the end, she had to put everything else aside and devote herself entirely to the ever-growing pile of paperwork.

'What should I do?'

But that lasted only through the morning. Once lunch was over and the appointed time drew near, Rose stared at the wide-open window, tormented by indecision.

Confidence could only carry her so far. Honestly, she no longer had any confidence whatsoever that she could listen to that performance without falling asleep.

'Should I simply close the window?'

In truth, that was the perfect solution. If hearing the performance made her fall asleep, all she had to do was stop listening.

'I did not want to resort to it because it somehow feels like losing... but I cannot afford to fall any further behind in my work.'

After some hesitation, Rose finally closed the window. Between meaningless pride and her sense of duty, it was obvious which should take precedence.

Freed from worrying about dozing off again, she finally settled down to tackle her documents with an easy mind.

... Or rather, that was what she intended to do.

She stole a glance.

'It is nearly time.'

Another glance.

'Have they started practicing already?'

Glance after glance.

'Surely listening for just a moment would be harmless.'

Was this how a puppy felt upon discovering a delicious bone on top of a cupboard?

Rose glanced at the window every time she turned a page. The intervals gradually shortened until, eventually, her hands stopped altogether.

The thought that the performance might already have begun kept bringing back the cozy feeling she experienced while listening, leaving her unable to concentrate on her work.

After a long spell of inexplicable restlessness, Rose suddenly raised her head.

“... Yes. A knight must not flee from a contest.”

What exactly was she fighting, and what contest did she intend to settle?

Muttering words whose meaning even she did not understand, Rose tossed aside the documents in her hands and sprang to her feet.

'Just three minutes... no. I will listen for five minutes, then close the window. Surely I will not fall asleep that quickly.'

From a justification for listening to the violin to a strategy for winning the contest, Rose had everything perfectly in hand as she strode toward the window.

She never realized that she had already suffered one mysterious defeat by closing the window, and another by deciding to open it again.

Filled with anticipation, Rose threw the window wide open.

RUMBLE, CRASH!

“...”

... It was immediately afterward that rain began pouring down with a clap of thunder.

Rose stared up at the sky with the expression of someone who had lost her country. Only much later did she glumly close the window again.

* * *

“Julia, I'm a little confused.”

“About what?”

“There wasn't a gazebo in this garden as of yesterday, was there?”

“There wasn't.”

“... Then why is there one now?”

In the middle of the garden where he usually practiced violin with Julia stood a gazebo: a roof supported by eight marble columns, which had appeared overnight.

As Limon stared at it in disbelief, Julia answered awkwardly.

“Apparently, it was built in a hurry on the countess's orders.”

“Why?”

“Well... probably for the upcoming event. The household is making all sorts of preparations for it.”

“Good grief. Even so, who normally throws up a building overnight?”

“Plenty of money may not solve everything, but it does make many impossible things possible.”

Limon briefly clicked his tongue at the extravagant money-pissing, entirely in keeping with the Seven Dragons Society. Then he folded his arms.

“Well, anyway, thanks to this, we can practice here even when it rains.”

“I doubt we need to worry about that. The forecast said it would be clear for the next week.”

“Then it's useless.”

Julia gave a wry smile at Limon's instantaneous change of attitude, then suddenly looked concerned.

“By the way, I'm worried about the countess.”

“The Blue Dragon Princess? Why?”

“I hear she's been pushing herself especially hard lately. Apparently, it's become difficult even to see her in the afternoons.”

“Really?”

“Yes. She did show her face yesterday, at least, but they said she looked haggard, as though she hadn't slept for days. She also kept wandering around the estate as though she was anxious.”

“Hmm. That's odd.”

Limon was puzzled. He knew better than anyone how hardy the princesses of the Seven Dragons Society were, so it was hard to understand how she had become so haggard in just a few days.

'Is it because of the witch murders? Her dealings with the Monarch of Magic? Or is something else going on?'

Just how serious a problem had arisen to reduce the supposedly perfect Blue Dragon Princess to such a state?

After pondering it carefully, Limon finally shook his head.

'Well, the Blue Dragon Clan always makes trouble for itself. Maybe she's off on some bizarre, pointless undertaking of her own.'

In any case, Limon filed this information away in a corner of his mind. It might not seem particularly important at first glance, but even little tidbits like these could become crucial clues if properly pieced together.

The mere fact that the Blue Dragon Princess had been overworking herself lately made it clear that something unusual was going on.

“Now, shall we begin today's practice?”

Julia, who had no way of knowing what Limon was thinking, smiled and took out her violin. Limon prepared to play along with her.

It was then that a voice, somehow both familiar and unfamiliar, came from behind him.

“Ah! You! You!”

“Huh?”

Perhaps the man had come to clean the gazebo. Holding cleaning tools in one hand, he was pointing at Limon with an inexplicably furious expression.

Limon looked at him in disbelief.

“Who the hell are you to point at me?”

“What...? You bastard! Don't tell me you don't know who I am!”

“Why should I know who you are?” Limon asked indifferently.

Someone on the level of a Monarch might be another matter. But he had no interest even in presidents or kings, so there was no reason he would recognize a man who was plainly a servant doing menial chores.

The one who actually recognized him was Yu Na-gyeong.