#11. A Sense of Reality (3)

That day, a steady spring rain had been falling since dawn.

It was as if the goddess of spring begrudged the festival that would begin as soon as she left; for a spring shower, the raindrops fell hard, soaking the earth.

Through that gloomy weather.

By the time a messenger from House Béarn reached the Berbritz townhouse on the outskirts of the capital, Lutes, it was early morning, just after breakfast, and the household was only beginning its day.

The reason they had waited until now to report Eleonore’s kidnapping, despite it happening the previous evening, was that House Béarn had been far too preoccupied with their young lady’s abduction.

Besides, House Béarn and the Grand Ducal House of Berbritz—and Eleonore and Dmitri—were not yet formally connected.

And delivering the news in the middle of the night would have required sending someone capable, but it had been difficult to spare such a person from the search.

As soon as Dmitri heard from the late-arriving messenger that Eleonore had been kidnapped, he headed straight for House Béarn’s townhouse.

She had suffered from a fever of unknown origin and lost the memories of her life.

She had collapsed from Shilob’s poison, leaving her whole body paralyzed...