WYDM 26

Sehera was so dumbfounded that she ended up saying that to him.

She might have looked somewhat forlorn. Her aggrieved feelings might have shown on her face.

Or… did it really look like she was blaming him?

Sehera thought either way wasn’t particularly different from the emotions inside her. It all seemed to be swirling within her.

He struggled to sit up. When he gasped, seemingly feeling sudden pain, she unconsciously reached both hands toward him.

When he glared at those hands, she hurriedly withdrew them.

He finally sat up completely, leaning his back against the headboard. As he panted, looking this way, Sehera felt her chest tighten.

Why had the envelope she thought she’d sealed and left behind burst open and overflowed?

Did this relationship have to be this messy?

She couldn’t turn away from him dying. A hundred times, a thousand times… even if she’d known it would turn out like this, in that moment it had been an unavoidable choice.

That’s why she couldn’t help blaming herself at this moment. But… she just felt bitter toward him for twisting even her sincerity.

“Don’t talk about back then. You and I are strangers now. I just saved a dying man at my house.”

At her cold response, his brow furrowed harshly again.

The two looked at each other without yielding an inch.

His cool gaze seemed to cut into her heart, but she didn’t want to show herself wavering under that gaze.

He hadn’t loved her, and hadn’t even thought of her as a business partner.

He hadn’t even responded to the letter full of her feelings that she’d left through Leri, trying to follow proper procedure, and when he returned injured, he’d just driven her away like he couldn’t stand the sight of her.

“There… I did everything I could. And even now, I’ve done my best for Duke Croft on humanitarian grounds. There’s nothing to be criticized for, nothing to receive such looks for.”

Hearing the phrase “such looks,” Ethan frowned sharply but didn’t open his mouth. Suddenly straining, his eyelids trembled as he closed his eyes.

That wasn’t an expression of anger but the reaction of someone dizzy, so Sehera nearly jumped up from her seat. She only shifted her hips slightly and carefully observed Ethan’s condition.

“Haah…”

Ethan, who seemed to have been holding his breath while closing his eyes, slowly exhaled deeply.

He still seemed to feel pain when his body tensed. Right, that deep wound couldn’t heal in just a few days. It would hurt even lying still without moving…

Sehera unknowingly made a face almost about to cry, not knowing what to do.

Ah, painkillers…!

“Wait just a moment. I’ll go quickly and bring Himoph…”

“It’s fine.”

After spitting out those words, Ethan took several deep breaths, then quietly closed his eyes and frowned.

Sehera couldn’t move, like he’d decided to hold her there, but her heart sank and a loud voice came out.

“What’s fine! A sword pierced through you, remember? And you fell forward and the wound opened more on the sword hilt… ugh, what’s fine about that?”

Sehera scolded rapidly in surprise, then calmed down for a moment and looked at him again.

Seeing him looking at her with startled eyes, Sehera bit her lower lip slightly, stood up abruptly, stared at him for a moment, then left the room.

She’d worried about this the whole time while nursing him.

What if this person wakes up? When he wakes… what will he say?

Honestly, she’d thought he might confront her about leaving behind documents and a letter. Whether ignoring it or whatever, she hadn’t proceeded with his consent.

For the first few days after first returning to the county estate… for about a month or two, she’d worried he might appear at the county estate, or someone from that ducal estate might come looking.

But until now, not a single person from Croft had come to Planer. Only after two months passed did Sehera feel relieved.

Say he’d gone out and returned, and in the meantime was so badly injured he didn’t even know if she was at the estate or not, and in that chaos even after his injuries healed he hadn’t seen the documents she’d left… but in fact, there was no way Leri would have missed that.

Even adding up all those what-ifs, there was no way there’d be no news for two whole months.

And Sehera…felt sad.

That he didn’t even come looking after she left like that, that there wasn’t a single letter… It felt like he was asking what took her so long to leave on her own feet…

She’d been living with pride as the daughter of a count estate, but living while reading others’ moods and being mindful made her feel like she’d disappeared.

With complicated feelings, she seemed to have cried a lot alone in the third month.

She’d been busy setting up business lines for Dirk with various people around her, so work was hectic, and her emotions weren’t sorted out at all.

“Coming now to say that. I would’ve taken the scolding if you’d come then.”

Sehera was flustered when a voice still full of lingering attachment came out, but soon sighed.

One year apparently wasn’t enough to deal with these feelings. To only now realize feelings that were much deeper than she’d thought—it was truly absurd.

Sehera shook her head, quickly pulled herself together, and climbed the stairs.

“I hope he’s up there right now…”

Himoph, who’d been living at the county estate constantly since Ethan came home, spent most of his time in his room but the rest of the time seemed to wander around the estate or go out the back door leading to the mountain to gather herbs.

Knock knock.

“Himoph? Are you in?”

When Sehera knocked on his door, fortunately there was immediately a presence inside. He rushed out eagerly and flung the door open.

“What brings Lady Sehera here? Good heavens, did that man die unable to endure the pain?”

Himoph rushed out and spoke urgently, but his eyes were smiling. When the person who knew his condition best said that, laughter leaked out instead.

“It’s no joke. He woke up earlier and we were talking a bit, and he tensed his body a little so he’s dizzy or something, closing his eyes and lying down, and now he seems to have strained that part again because he’s in pain.”

“Seeing you came up here yourself, he must be in quite a bit of pain. I’ll give him some painkillers now.”

He went back into the room and came out carrying a small basket from the table, like he’d been preparing it. Then he walked down with quick steps, naturally thinking Sehera would follow behind.

“Painkillers aren’t a cure-all, of course, but if he tenses up because it hurts, things that should heal won’t heal and it’ll just hurt more, so he needs to take them regularly. And he can’t just refuse to take them because they taste bad—if his mouth is bitter, he should think ‘at least my body is a bit more comfortable’ and take them. Ah, right. If you could get some water… Lady Sehera?”

Himoph went down a whole flight of stairs and was turning left when he stopped in surprise.

The sound of Sehera’s footsteps, which he’d naturally thought would be following behind him, were continuing down the stairs.

“After you give him the painkillers, do your own work, Himoph. He’s regained consciousness, taken medicine—he’ll rest on his own.”

She spoke quite coldly and went straight down the stairs.

“Well, really… doesn’t seem like the person who wouldn’t leave the room for days.”

At the coldness so unlike the person who’d guarded that room alone without entrusting nursing to anyone else, even eating three meals a day in the room, Himoph tilted his head.

He stuck his head over the railing for no reason and watched her back as she went down the stairs. She went down the stairs at a somewhat quick pace and seemed to be slipping into the side corridor to enter the reception room.

While going down, she didn’t hesitate even once and showed no sign of looking back.

“I wondered what kind of precious person she was nursing so devotedly… apparently it wasn’t that.”

Sehera had been born as the daughter of a small county estate and, thanks to the Count who got along well with the territory’s people, had frequently encountered commoners more than nobles as she grew up. So she wasn’t arrogant, standoffish, or scheming.

Though not an overflowing personality, she’d been a girl with a pure, sparkling quality, and when she returned somehow shadowed, worried voices popped up here and there.

A young lady who went to her husband’s house and came back—no matter how you thought about it, it was true they couldn’t look at her without worry.

So after a few months, when she’d worked hard going around investigating and opening paths to revive Dirk in a different form, everyone acknowledged it.

That she was indeed Planer’s daughter. And everyone close to her could feel her eyes changing.

But somehow… it reminded him of her face during those first few months after returning from Croft Ducal Estate, which weighed on his mind.

Without caring about the man beyond the door who supposedly needed painkillers, Himoph stood in front of the door for several minutes.

He couldn’t leave the railing, constantly bothered by Sehera’s recent changes who’d gone beyond that door.

Honestly, Sehera was most important, more than some knight who’d rolled in from who knows where.

“Should I ask what kind of guy he is… He’s definitely not a stranger.”

He didn’t know if the other employees had noticed, but that man wasn’t just some unknown man who’d coincidentally entered the county estate.

Even if he’d coincidentally entered here… he was definitely someone she knew. He must be the kind of person she had a reason to insist on nursing alone.

Himoph, who’d been lost in thought while leaning on the railing and carefully casting his gaze at the first floor, seemed to think he couldn’t delay any longer and immediately turned to knock on the door she’d tried to guide him to.

“It’s me, Himoph, the doctor. I’m coming in.”

Low groaning seemed to be coming from inside. After requesting understanding once more for a sound that wouldn’t be heard out here, he opened the door.

Inside, low groaning sounds could be heard.

When he’d heard from Romina that it was the room the former Count and Countess had used, he’d thought it was good in terms of using an unused space.

But there was a reason for everything not being used for a year. Tsk tsk, Himoph, who’d been about to make unnecessary comments but considered her position, walked inside.

The expression that had been indifferent when just the doctor entered seemed to distort slightly when he noticed Himoph was entering alone.

‘As I thought, someone he knows.’

And a relationship where the man’s side was in need.

“I heard you’re in pain, so I came to give you some painkillers. Oh my… can you sit up?”

But even at Himoph’s voice, he sat there blankly, staring at the door. Like he was waiting for that door to open again.