Chapter 61 The Festival And The Rumors

• The days bled into one another, and the sprawling castle transformed into a frantic hive of activity. Countless servants bustled endlessly through the stone corridors. Tonight, the long-awaited autumn festival had finally arrived, and every resident of the estate—from the lowliest scullery maid to the highest-ranking noble—buzzed with a palpable, electric excitement.
• However, amidst the intoxicating grandeur of the preparations, Luna was suffocating under a blanket of sheer anxiety. Since the crack of dawn, she had been pacing a relentless path across her bedchamber floor. Her chaotic modern thoughts were entirely fixated on her disastrous conversation with Alvius the night before. Did the heartbroken soldier honestly think she had lost her mind after that bizarre, desperate confession?
• A sudden, frantic knocking shattered her thoughts. The heavy door burst open, and Ellie rushed inside, her youthful face a pale, terrifying mask of absolute panic.