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In the immaculate kingdom of Altheria, purity is a performance — and power is inherited like a disease. Yoei Bougainvillea, a royal healer bound by blood and duty, lives under rules she never chose and truths she is never allowed to question. Every audience with the court leaves her weaker as if something unseen is slowly being carved out of her. Her brother, King Suna, rules with a gentle smile and an iron certainty that the past must remain buried — no matter how much blood it costs. When a routine visit beyond the palace walls erupts into violence, Yoei is pulled into a conflict far older than the throne itself. Assassins who worship profit, knights who choose loyalty over morality, and magic that remembers every sin begin to close in — not just on the kingdom, but on her very mind. As secrets surface and bodies fall, it becomes clear that Altheria’s greatest curse is not its enemies, but the legacy it forces its children to inherit. Here, mercy is a lie. Memory is a battlefield. And survival may demand becoming the very thing you despise.