Chapter 2

The next morning, I took my saved-up gold coins to the Silver Deer Merchant Guild.

Star Wheel tickets were festival lottery tickets issued by the guild. Match all six runes and each ticket paid a fixed hundred thousand gold. One person could buy ten at most, and the prize money was pre-sealed by the guild.

The witch behind the counter warned me that buying ten identical numbers usually just meant they'd all lose together.

"These ten."

She shrugged and pressed my personal sigil into the ticket corners.

The tickets grew warm. I tucked them into my inner pocket and buttoned it carefully.

On my way home, I passed the garden. Behind the rose hedge, I heard Caspar's voice.

"Come closer. She's not here."

Sybil laughed softly.

Then the rustle of fabric, and a long kiss.

I stopped walking.

"At White Crown, are we still going to have to sneak around like this?" she asked.

"Just bear with it a little longer. Evelyn can't handle this kind of thing."

Caspar sighed, like my existence was some enormous inconvenience.

"She's like a shadow, following me everywhere. Good thing she went out early today."

"Don't talk about her like that." Sybil's voice softened. "She doesn't have a mother. Her grandmother's dead too. You're the only one who's always been there for her."

"That's exactly why I can't tell her now."

"I understand. The engagement can be broken after graduation. I'm not in a hurry."

She paused, then added: "Evelyn's so smart. If she found out, she'd never help us study again."

"She'll do what she promised," Caspar said. "You just focus on enjoying school. I'll handle everything else."

A rose thorn scraped the back of my hand.

I looked down and saw blood beading into a tiny red dot.

Caspar Thornwick was someone I'd known since childhood.

When I first went back to my father's house, he rode a flying mount over in the middle of the night because he was afraid my stepmother would mistreat me. He pressed a spare communication stone into my hand and said if it ever lit up, no matter how late, he'd come get me.

Later, he even convinced his family to transfer him to my preparatory school.

When I was sixteen, he slid an engagement ring onto my finger.

"After we graduate from the academy, we'll get married."

I believed him.

Because back then, I wanted so badly for someone to choose me without hesitation.

Behind the hedge, Sybil laughed again.

I didn't storm in. I didn't draw my wand. I circled around the garden and went back to my room through the side door.

For the first time, I looked at the ring on my left hand and didn't think about the way he'd put it there.

I just felt how tight it was.

That day, I packed everything I needed for Grey Thorn into categories and retrieved my grandmother's will and the house deed from the storage box in my father's study.

He'd been "keeping them safe" for a long time.

But I was an adult now.

In the evening, Sybil and Caspar knocked on my door.

"Evelyn, you've been ignoring us all day." Sybil reached for my arm. "We wanted to ask if you want to come to Moon Bay for vacation."

A sapphire necklace hung at her throat.

Caspar had once let me choose the shape of that gem. He said it would be my coming-of-age gift.

Later, Sybil said it was pretty, and the necklace went to her.

"She's younger than you," he'd said at the time. "It's not like you're short on necklaces."

I pulled my arm back.

"No."

Caspar's smile faded.

"What now? Because we suggested White Crown? You already agreed, so stop sulking."

I glanced at the bronze time-bird on the wall.

Five more minutes until the Star Wheel opened.

"Is there anything else?"

Sybil's eyes immediately welled up.

"Evelyn, we just wanted to bring you along..."

"Now you know my answer."

I shut the door and cast a soundproofing spell.

On the desk, the ten tickets slowly began to glow.

The Silver Deer Guild's drawing image rose from the ticket surfaces, six star rings spinning in midair. The first five stopped in sequence: five, eight, twelve, twenty-three.

The last ring kept spinning.

I gripped the edge of the desk.

The silver light snapped still.

Six.

All ten tickets burst into golden flame, merging into a single sentence.

【Congratulations. Total prize: one million gold.】

Outside the door, Caspar was still calling my name.

I couldn't hear him anymore.