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Actually, this question was on the list of anticipated queries that I had prepared in advance with Axel. It was a subtle way of probing whether I might use my authority as a Saint to threaten the imperial power.

‘Of course, I’m a supporter of the imperial authority.’  

After all, my friend Kirke is the Emperor!

I discreetly turned my head to glance at where the Emperor was seated.  

At some point, Kirke had also been looking at me, and our gazes met in midair.  

Though we hadn’t met since I reincarnated, Axel and Servian had already informed him that I was Greslin.

‘It would be odd for a noble young lady who hasn’t even had her debutante to meet the Emperor.’  

As the Emperor, Kirke always had to be mindful of the eyes around him, making it difficult for us to meet as comfortably as we did with the others.  

Like the kind Prince he used to be, Kirke mouthed a silent “Hello?” and I gave a small nod in return.  

A slight smile played on Kirke’s lips as he sat there, clearly bored.

‘He was always a laid-back prince who hated these formal gatherings.’  

The memory made me smile as well, momentarily making me forget about my aching feet.  

Of course, the moment I thought about how I’d forgotten the pain, it returned to the forefront of my mind, bringing the discomfort back with it.

Thankfully, there were many people waiting to give their greetings, so the turn ended quickly.  

I looked around for the Duke.  

He wasn’t one for noisy crowds and was quietly conversing with a few noblemen near a pillar in the grand banquet hall.  

Without hesitation, I started making my way towards him, but then I felt an unmistakable presence behind me.  

It was as if someone were grabbing the back of my head, forcing me to turn around.

‘It’s intuition!’  

I realized it instantly.  

Hadn’t I followed this same feeling at the temple once and found Eugene caught in a strange ritual?  

I was about to turn my body and head toward where my intuition pointed when a familiar voice stopped me in my tracks.

“Where do you think you’re going?”  

It was Leonid’s voice!

Startled, I spun around quickly.  

Unlike in the Ivory Tower, where he hadn’t fully grown yet, Leonid now stood tall and imposing.  

My mouth dropped open in surprise.  

Back at the Ivory Tower, Leonid wasn’t one to pay much attention to his appearance.  

Seeing him so well-dressed made him look like a completely different person.

Seeing my wide-eyed stare, Leonid shrugged his shoulders.  

“It’s the gain effect.”  

“What?”  

“The reason your heart just skipped a beat when you saw me.”  

“…What?”

“Humans are wired that way. When you see someone in a different light than usual, your emotions can change dramatically. If someone typically presents themselves poorly and then suddenly looks good, their appeal increases significantly. Since I’m usually dressed casually and now I’m suddenly well-dressed, your affection for me must have spiked.”  

“…I thought you were a different person, but you’re definitely the same Leonid Kol.”  

I let out a dry laugh as I spoke, and Leonid tilted his head slightly.  

“That was the Ross effect.”  

“…Wasn’t it over already?”  

“If you see something good and then something bad, your affection drops sharply.”  

“Sigh.”

I let out a deep sigh. It was at that moment that I realized, no matter the place or attire, Leonid was still Leonid.  

“How are you here?”  

It wasn’t strange for Leonid, the young master of the Kol family, to be here, but since he hadn’t mentioned anything when we met at the Ivory Tower, his appearance was unexpected.  

At my question, Leonid’s face quickly turned sullen.  

“I didn’t really want to come, but my father dragged me here. He’s worried about how limited my social circle is.”  

“Hmm.”

If Leonid’s limited social circle was a concern, then I couldn’t exactly escape that worry either.  

Aside from my companions from my past life, the only people I could call friends were Leonid and Eugene.  

‘Come to think of it, Eugene and Leonid only have about that many friends too, don’t they…?’  

It was a rather depressing group, to say the least.  

As I glanced around, I noticed other children our age already gathered in small groups, laughing and chatting merrily.  

Meanwhile, Leonid and I stood apart from everyone else…  

‘Is this really okay?’  

I wasn’t too concerned about making friends my age, but Leonid and Eugene were typical boys of their age.  

It made sense that Servian would worry about Leonid’s social interactions and forcibly bring him to the party.  

‘But Leonid’s personality isn’t exactly easygoing.’

He’s polite to adults, but if he thinks someone is too foolish to converse with, he becomes incredibly cold.  

Leonid was an exceptionally intelligent boy, so his standard for what constituted a “reasonable conversation” was very high.  

Distracted by Leonid, I had momentarily lost track of the strong intuition that had been nagging at the back of my head.  

I looked around again, trying to find the source of that intuition, but before I could, Leonid grabbed my wrist once more.

“Instead of looking around like that, why don’t you check on your feet first?”  

“Huh…?”

Before I knew it, Leonid had pulled me along, and in no time, we reached the terrace.  

Leonid crouched down and, without hesitation, lifted my skirt.  

“W-What are you doing!”  

Had it been anyone else, they might have screamed, but I managed to hold back.  

However, Leonid remained unfazed, calmly removing the shoes from my feet.  

The pressure on my feet disappeared instantly.  

Leonid stood up again, holding one of the shoes in his hand.

“Of course, I knew something was off. Just by looking at you, I could tell your walking was strange.”  

“You noticed that?”  

“Your stride was shorter than usual, and the angle of—”  

“Stop!”

Sensing that he was about to launch into another long-winded lecture, I quickly clamped my hands over Leonid’s mouth. He glared at me with a disgruntled expression before stepping back, freeing his mouth from my grasp.

“Aren’t you supposed to be a Saint? Can’t you fix things like this?”  

“Holy power is more like a fatigue remedy or an antidote. It can’t heal wounds.”

Of course, holy power can enhance recovery and help wounds heal faster. Skilled priests can amplify this recovery power to the point where injuries heal at an incredible speed, leading many to mistakenly believe that holy power itself heals wounds.

‘And I still can’t fully control my holy power.’  

Bael had been visiting the Elpinard estate once a month to teach me how to manage it, but I hadn’t made much progress. Since I couldn’t properly control it, I still couldn’t reintegrate the immense holy power I had gained by drinking the elixir, so I kept it in the form of an external orb.

‘Habits really are hard to break.’  

No matter how much I tried to circulate the power within my body, my lifelong habit of using black magic caused nothing but friction.  

As I looked down at my hands and let out a groan, Leonid suddenly spoke up.

“Eugene’s been acting strange lately.”  

“What?”  

I immediately looked up.  

“You asked me before, to keep an eye on Eugene.”  

I did remember asking him that. Since Leonid was always with Eugene at the Ivory Tower, I had asked him to inform me if he noticed anything unusual. Later, I found out that Servian had made the same request to Leonid.  

Given that both of us had made the same request, Leonid, being the sharp person he was, must have realized that Eugene wasn’t just an ordinary kid.

‘But until now, he hadn’t mentioned anything….’  

Worried, I quickly asked, “What’s strange about him?”  

Leonid set my shoe on the terrace railing and said, “I saw him alone in the garden at night. He was definitely by himself, but I heard what sounded like him talking to someone…”  

Leonid furrowed his brow, as if recalling the memory.