Rhea Asteria has a notebook of prescriptions that she never leaves behind. There is a yellowed newspaper clipping taped to the title page - a silhouette of Crown Prince Aoife Stormwatch, next to the words she had written in pencil when she was thirteen: "He will be kind to half-bloods."
Many years later, she entered the royal capital as a fiancée. The place is resplendent and well-organized, without the smoke and shouts of a safe haven. Her soothing tea was turned from hot to cold, the honey cake she served was returned intact, she was called a "little witch" at tea parties, and she had two-thirds of her hand held at a banquet. But she was still laughing, still mixing medicine, and still repaying evil with kindness - until a well-designed conspiracy pushed her into the abyss.
Years later, mixed-race mothers in a border town spread word of mouth about a veiled Oriental apothecary. Her medicine can reduce children's fevers, mint is planted in front of her clinic, and there is a little girl with blue eyes beside her. In the royal capital, some people sat under the wisteria trellis until late at night, some used sword cleaning cloths to trace smile marks, and some wrote the same sentence at the end of every letter sent——
"No need to reply."
Intent: Goodwill is not a transaction, it is a beacon