The tone allowed no argunt, not because it was cruel, but because it carried certainty.
Valerie let out a quiet breath. She didn’t smile, but she didn’t protest either. "I understand."
Demian studied her a few seconds longer than he realized. There was sothing in the way Valerie accepted his decision calm, obedient, yet distant that made his chest tighten uncomfortably.
He stepped closer. "This isn’t a permanent restriction," he added, as if compelled to explain. "When you’re better, I’ll take you myself."
Valerie looked at him, faintly surprised.
"Really?"
Demian did not answer with words. He only gave a brief nod.
And for the first ti that night, the weight in Valerie’s chest eased not because of a grand promise, but because for once, Demian had not only decided...he had also considered her.
The days passed in a pattern that was almost the sa calm on the surface, yet layered with things left unsaid.
Valerie’s health gradually improved. The nausea eased, her face no longer as pale as before, and her steps grew steadier. The servants still treated her as though she were made of glass too fragile to be handled carelessly but Valerie was beginning to grow accustod to the attention. Even Demian, for the ti being, seed to restrain himself.
He did not seek conflict.He did not provoke emotion.
Perhaps because he knew or at least sensed that Valerie was more sensitive now than before. Not only because her body was changing, but because her heart was as well.
And today, after several requests weighed down by silence, Demian finally allowed her to go out.
"I won’t be long," Valerie said that morning, putting on a simple coat."Don’t exhaust yourself," Demian replied shortly. "The guards will remain at a distance."
That was all.Yet the permission itself felt like a small, precious freedom.
Valerie walked through the center of the city with a feeling she couldn’t quite na. Her steps carried her past the crowds until she reached the end of an alley rarely used by passersby. The atmosphere shifted there, quieter, narrower, and sohow... different.
That was where she saw it.
A pale pink door.
The paint was not bright, but faded, as if the color had been there for a very long ti without ever truly being noticed. There was no signboard. No large windows. Only the door, standing quietly at the end of the lane.
Valerie’s heart beat faster.
She pushed the door open gently.
A small bell chid.
But what she found was not a frail old grandmother leaning on a wooden cane.
Inside the modest room stood a grown woman, too old to be called a girl, too young to be called elderly. Her hair was long, dark green like wet leaves after rain. Her eyes were pale gray, sharp yet calm, as though they could pierce through anything a person tried to hide.
The woman smiled softly.
"Welco, good child."
Valerie stopped short. Her gaze narrowed.
"Where is the grandmother?" she asked flatly, not returning the smile.
The woman did not seem offended. Her smile widened instead strange, like soone waiting for a certain reaction.
"I am here."
Valerie exhaled in irritation. "I don’t have ti for jokes. The grandmother who’s usually here. The one with the cane."
For a mont, the woman only looked at her.
Then right before Valerie’s eyes. The face changed.
The skin wrinkled. The shoulders stooped. The green hair turned white, the body shrinking. In a single breath, the woman had transford into the old grandmother Valerie knew so well.
Valerie stumbled back. "A—!"
Before she could react further, the figure shifted again the youthful face returned, the upright posture restored and the woman let out a light laugh, soft yet strangely echoing in the narrow room.
"Your expression is priceless," she said casually.
Valerie swallowed hard, her heart pounding. "What... who are you, really?"
The woman leaned against the wooden counter, studying Valerie with clear interest. "A very good question."
"Why can you turn into the grandmother?" Valerie pressed. "And don’t tell this is cheap magic."
The woman laughed again. "Cheap? No, no."
She raised her hand and showed it to Valerie.
One of her fingers... was missing.
Not a fresh wound. The scar was old, clean, exactly the sa as the one Valerie had once seen on the grandmother’s hand.
Valerie’s breath caught.
"That..." her voice nearly trembled.
"So you finally noticed," the woman said gently. "Now you believe ?"
Valerie stared at the finger for a long mont, then at the woman’s face. Slowly, she nodded.
"You’re... that grandmother?"
The woman smiled this ti without playfulness. "In a different form, yes."
"My na is Lena," she continued. "And the old grandmother you kept coming to see... was also ."
Valerie lowered her gaze, her thoughts in disarray. "Why... why are you doing all this?"
Lena glanced at Valerie’s abdon briefly, yet with aning then lifted her eyes again.
"Because your life is standing at a crossroads," she said softly."And because the bitter potion you drank back then... is finally beginning to show its effects."
Thump.
Valerie’s heart beat harder.
The room felt even quieter, as though the outside world had stopped moving.
And for the first ti in a long while, Valerie realized her eting with the grandmother, with Lena, and with her own fate... was far from over.
Valerie stared at Lena with a mixture of anger, confusion, and fear she refused to acknowledge. Her hands clenched at the sides of her gown, her breathing slightly uneven.
"So then," Valerie said at last, forcing her voice to remain steady, "what exactly was the potion you gave back then?"
Lena did not answer imdiately. She walked slowly to the wooden shelf behind her, brushing her fingers over small bottles filled with strangely colored liquids, then spoke without turning around."It was a potion ant to change your life."
Valerie let out a short, bitter laugh. "Change my life?" She lifted her face. "Look at now. Entangled with a man who already has a woman chosen for him since childhood. Where is the beautiful change you promised?"
Lena stopped moving. She turned, her gaze sharp now, stripped of playfulness.
"That is your own fault," she said flatly. "You chose to et him."
Valerie froze. "What do you an?"
Lena stepped closer, her voice dropping as if she were whispering a secret never ant for others to hear."That potion wasn’t ant rely to make you likable."
Valerie held her breath.
"It enchants," Lena continued. "Not only ordinary n. Even the wolf who rules the North the one feared, cold, who never allows emotion to govern him was drawn to you."
Valerie’s heart felt as though it stopped.
"That wolf," Lena said softly, each word deliberate, "went so far as to damage his old bond... because of you."
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