Yui

Now that her misunderstanding about their engagement being a farce to please the nobles and pacify the current political climate has been resolved, Elianna and Prince Christopher are able to set a date for the official wedding in the spring. In the meantime, the prince is sent off on a diplomatic errand, and Eli is selected to act as his proxy in this year’s Autumn Hunting Festival. Scheming is afoot as someone suspicious from a foreign land infiltrates the festivities—their sight set on Eli. But just what are their intentions? And who is the mysterious phantom of the past, “Ladybird”?

As winter whips to a crescendo, the year’s most anticipated celebration is nigh! In the midst of the season, Eli finds her own intelligence being weaponized against her. There’s a traitor near, and they’re leaking Eli’s private words to her political opponents. Furthermore, the queen reveals some of the darker aspects of wearing a crown—including the prospect of a harem?! Is Eli really prepared to take her seat beside the crown prince? Or will the “Ashen Nightmare” cut the year short?

The winds of change are whipping through Sauslind. Malduran officials are headed for the capital to discuss diplomacy, and although it was Eli’s actions that spurred these talks, she has a different errand to attend to. The king’s younger brother, Bernard, has fallen ill. Since it’s customary for someone from the royal family to visit in such times, Eli is sent in the prince’s stead. Along the way, devastating secrets are unearthed that threaten to rock the very foundation upon which Eli stands. Is everything she thought she knew a lie? Or does the truth even matter when the worst comes to pass and Sauslind finds itself on the brink of disaster?

Tensions run high at the palace with the arrival of Maldura’s delegation. Chris is more aware of their delicate situation than he’d led Eli to believe, but even Sauslind’s handsome prince can’t anticipate the betrayal of a close ally. Now he doesn’t know who he can trust, and the political world is in an upheaval. Allegiances shift as various factions make their move. People Eli and Chris once thought of as friends may now be enemies. Can they sniff out the traitors before it’s too late? Or will this nightmare tear them and the entire country apart?

Elianna Bernstein, the Bibliophile Princess, is far from the safety of the royal capital in search of a cure for the Ashen Nightmare. After being betrayed by her trusted manservant who destroyed her only hope, Eli is left with nothing but despair until she unexpectedly encounters a familiar ally—Irvin Orlanza, a prince of Maldura. With renewed determination, she and her companions just might be able to discover the cure after all. If she can outrun the assassins relentlessly targeting her, that is.Meanwhile, in the royal capital, rumors of the prince’s new fiancée are flourishing, and Prince Christopher is cornered by forces trying to get rid of Elianna and take the kingdom for their own. Will the two lovers reunite and wake the kingdom from the Ashen Nightmare? Or will villainous schemes volumes in the making finally best the Bibliophile Princess?

After so long apart, Elianna and Chris are finally reunited at last, but the repercussions of the epidemic known as the Ashen Nightmare still linger. When Elianna works herself to exhaustion trying to sort out the aftermath, her father whisks her away from the royal palace and sentences her to strict bedrest at the Bernstein estate. How will Chris cope with being cut off from his beloved yet again?In the meantime, a visit to the port city of Kelk to gather evidence of the Odin faction’s crimes takes a few of our heroes on a trip down memory lane. Will they manage to track down the crooks who hurt their loved ones and bring them to justice, or will the culprits give them the slip?