The heroine of Promises of an Enchanted Heart was a mystery, almost nothing was known about her. Since the player saw the world through their eyes, they would never get to see her face in-game. The closest thing was the cover art of the game, but it only showed her back. I could only be sure she had short blond wavy hair. There were no traces of her birth name either, since the player got to choose it.

—When the Snyder family adopted me, they gave me a new name —she would say in a crucial event that showed her opening to her potential partner.

Finding her before Christopher with only those clues was quite impossible, so I look up for help for a rather unwilling source.

—You want me to look up for blond-haired babies born this year? —Maxwell Conrad said with a very justifiable scowl.

—Well, maybe one year before Violet was born, and one year after, just to be sure.

—May I ask why?

—No.

He glared at me for a few more seconds while I tried to keep up my smile, until he finally gave up and let a sigh escape from his mouth.

—I'll look it up and ask a few colleagues. But you have to know, seeking help for a childbirth is something relatively new. Most people, especially those that are not nobles or merchants just do it by themselves or get help by someone on their families.

—Hmmm, well, I wasn't expecting to find her so easily... —I said, mildly disappointed.

—Muh! —Violett said, and slapped me on the face, managing to distract me.

Seven months have passed since she was born, and she had grown a lot since then. Long were the days were she would struggle to raise her neck or sit without falling. She could now sit on her own, and even crawl, but she tended to stay near me whenever I was standing or walking; only going a bit farther when I was sitting. Playing with her was a bit more fun too; she could grab her toys, shake them, and bite them. She has also started to eat solids, which was the perfect excuse for me to try to get involved in cooking. I have been making purées with the help of Gabby, and I have even been trying to get Violett herself involved, keeping her around and letting them taste them during the cooking. She was also more expressive, though she always seemed to have her eyebrows furrowed. When she smiled, she was the cutest. But most importantly, she has started to speak, or at least make simple sounds to demand I pay attention to her.

The Doctor coughed, as I have started to ignore him completely. At that moment, we were having tea at the greenhouse. Winter was approaching, and it was a bit too windy and chill to stay at the gazebo, and I had been looking for an excuse to use the greenhouse. I was very proud of how much the flowers and plants have grown and bloomed, even some monster plants that I had gotten from Victor without Carmila realizing it. The Rose Nymph was still just a seed in a pot, though.

And of course, making the attendants walk all the way through the backyard from the kitchen to where we were would be a bit too much, so I had preemptively prepared a portable stove, a kettle, and a few cups I had ordered to be custom made. I had ask them to be painted with the words "mother", "daughter" and "guest" from my original world, though I stylized them enough for them to look more like scribbles. Ah... the daughter cup wouldn't be filled in several years, but the wait would be worthy. Hmmm? Since when do I get along with the Doctor to invite him to have some tea? Well... I guess I have learned to overlook his lack of manners and abrasiveness, and he has proven he was quite capable. I started to feel bad for sending him off immediately after our regular checkups.

—Would you mind staying a bit and have some tea with me? —I politely asked the first time.

He looked at me for a moment as if I had grown a second head, but ended up agreeing. Once we had everything set up, though, the ambient became a bit awkward. I just didn't know what to say and he didn't seem interested in starting the conversation. That's it, until something crossed my mind.

—Y-you know, I have been learning magic! —I said, quite proud of myself.

—Oh? Really? —he said in a deadpan tone.

He knew my vitals, so it was obvious for him I couldn't use magic even if my life depended of it.

—I meant as an academic subject. Knowledge by itself has some worth, even if I can't apply it myself.

Honestly, I was expecting a bit more of the one who would become the Academy's director. But apparently, my words did reach him through his cynical filter.

—That's true. Theoretical magic is a field studied in other nations, but even then it is mostly overshadowed by practicing what is already established. Nowadays there are only two or three new spells developed in a decade all over the world. I suppose having people who can't use magic to focus on the theory might yield some results.

—Oh! —I said. The idea of coming up with new spells hadn't even crossed my mind.

—Of course, I suspect for someone like you, the idea of coming up with new spells didn't cross your mind until now.

—Hmmph! Just who do you think I am? Of course I have thought of it —I said, trying my best to hide the fact he had been able to read my mind —, but, you know, I still learning the basics, it is too early for me to attempt to come up with something nobody has before.

After all, Marcus could only teach me when they came to visit, usually after they went to fulfill a quest in the nearby woods. Apparently they were one of the only places where they could find horned wolves.

—I suppose you are right about that —he said, genuinely sympathetically. Then he smirked—, would the Madame be interesting in learning medicinal magic?

—Mmm... I have heard it is quite difficult.

—It is. You have to be able to understand how the whole body works, the bones, the muscles, veins, arteries, organs, and even neurons. You can't just chant "Heal" and expect the patient to regenerate a missing limb —he said, drawing a sly smile on his face after sipping on his tea — So, what is your answer?

—It will be quite pointless to teach me, I'll never have the chance to use it and I doubt I could come up with a new spell even if I dedicate all of my life to it —I admitted—, but if you are willing to teach me, I'll listen.

Since then he had been giving me lessons while we drink tea. My basic knowledge in anatomy and medical terms made understanding him a bit more easily, unlike the esoteric and mystic sounding terms that Marcus kept using.

So our third gathering ended up lasting almost two hours, but it was getting late, and Violett was starting to demand to be put to sleep. The Doctor and I returned to the main house and from there we bid our farewells. I fed Violett and sung to her until she fell asleep. It was pretty early for me, though; the sun just was setting, so I decided to read a book instead. I might have gotten a bit carried away by the plot; it was a romance novel in which the author tended to left cliffhangers at the end to force one to keep reading. I forced myself to put it away when Sophie came to check up why my lights were still turned on, and only then I realized how much time has actually passed. It must have been around midnight already.

—I'm sorry, I'll go to sleep now —I said, and I intended to do so, but even after 15 minutes of trying, I couldn't close my eyes. Something on the back of my mind was bothering me.

I checked Violett, but she was sleeping peacefully. I looked through my window, into the backyard and the forest that extended behind the greenhouse. I felt a chill run my back.

—You are imagining things —I said to myself.

The house was protected by a barrier, even if something was out there, it could never reach us. Especially not at night when the barrier was reinforced. I closed my window and the blinds, just to reassure myself, but since the feeling wasn't disappearing, I went to the kitchen for a midnight snack. As I ate an improvised sandwich, with a glass of milk at the side, I kept looking through the doors at the backyard. I heard a noise, like a branch being stepped, but not quite. And I made the stupid decision to go to investigate. I stepped barefoot and only wearing my nightgown out of the mansion, and walked towards the forest. I felt... angry? I wanted to scream to the fictional intruder to beat it and let me sleep, but I still had enough self control to stop myself.

—This is stupid... —I once again said to myself, and turned around.

I remember thinking that maybe hugging Violett would allow me to fall asleep. At that moment, I heard the wind whistling, as if something was approaching me at a quick speed. Maybe a second later, I heard glass breaking. I turned around as quick as I could, but I lost my balance and fell backwards in the grass. As I was falling, I managed to see a figure hiding between the trees, too close to be outside of the barrier. They disappeared after a moment, just as some of my attendants started to come out of the mansion, apparently alerted by the sound of glass breaking.

—Madame, are you alright? —Iridia asked as she helped me stand up.

—Yes, yes, but I think I saw someone inside of the barrier —I said, weirdly calm. I think I was still too shoked to understand what had just happened.

—What? Only those with authorization can pass through it, and we would notice if it had been broken —Carmila said. From her expression, I could see she wasn't doubting my words, but trying to make sense out of them.

—In any case, we need to secure the Madame and the young Lady, and inspect the area —Nora said, commanding the few attendants that knew how to wield a weapon.

—Let's not be so hastily. It's just as Lady Carmila said, the barrier is still up, so nobody could have entered it —Iridia spoke, trying to calm everyone.

We quickly went back to the house; I went directly towards my room, towards my baby. Nora followed me, while the rest checked on every room, every window and every door. Everything seemed to be in order. But at the very least, we all have heard the sound of glass shattering. Even when I was hugging Violett, and with Nora and Sophie in the room with me, I couldn’t fell asleep until it was almost dawn. Nobody got out of the house until I woke up a couple of hours later. Carmila insisted that I would remain inside until Nora and the other attendants had checked the outside of the barrier. There was nothing out of the ordinary there as well . Even Adrian confirmed no one had arrived through the river. I was finally allowed to step outside, but I was still surrounded by my attendants at any moment.

—M-madame... —Sophie called me, looking at something lying in the grass, a few meters to the right to where I had fall.

It was a dart, covered in what I could presume was some sort of drug or poison. My attendants gasped at the sight of it and the implications of its existence, and insisted on me going back to the mansion. But I was intrigued by another detail of the dart. It hadn't hit me because something had intercepted it, a small, bullet-like object, was still piercing it. It looked almost like… a thorn. I raised my glare, and finally noticed that there was a glass panel broken at the greenhouse. I walked towars it, and despite the objections of Carmila, Nora, and Sophie, I went to the door and opened it. There, on a pot over a table, was the Rose Nymph.