“……!”

But it was just as Joseph was about to open his mouth.

In that moment, his head suddenly turned outward. What his highly developed senses caught was clearly someone’s scream.

“Lord Joseph?”

And that someone was…….

Joseph sprang to his feet, but he couldn’t help but stagger immediately.

His body felt unusually heavy, like a wet sponge. It was because the sickly pallor weighing down his body had not yet fully lifted.

Lieselotte, who didn’t miss that momentary gap, urgently grabbed Joseph’s arm.

“What on earth is going on? We were just in the middle of talking.”

She spoke, suppressing her undisguisable anger with a somewhat calm voice. Only then did Joseph’s reason cool down a bit.

His sudden action might have appeared as evasion to the other party.

“My lady, this is not the time.”

“So what do you mean?”

Their conversation was important. But now there was something that needed to be prioritized over that.

“It seems that Lord Sergei has had some kind of accident.”

Sergei was found several hours later at dawn.

Quite absurdly, he returned to the campsite on his own feet, rendering the efforts of the search party futile.

Of course, he was in a completely disheveled state.

There had clearly been an accident. The court physician who rushed over immediately found injuries on his body.

He had a crack in his right leg bone and his right arm was broken.

Even his right eye was so swollen he could barely open it. The right side of his body seemed to have been severely scraped somewhere.

“What on earth happened, Sergei?”

Only after the situation had calmed down a bit could I hear the circumstances from Sergei.

According to Sergei, he had gone for a walk and sprained his ankle on a rock that had become slippery due to rain.

Because of that, he had rolled down under the rock for quite a while?

It was truly fortunate that he didn’t lose consciousness during that time, but it was also enough to make one’s heart go cold with fright.

Because near where Sergei had rolled, there was a habitat of an enormously large bear.

It was the hungriest time when bears just waking from hibernation start hunting, even eating their own kind.

Fortunately, the bear was absent at the time.

If he had just remained fallen, the search party directed by Lord Joseph would have had a higher chance of finding Sergei earlier.

But Sergei, who didn’t lose consciousness, immediately gathered himself. He says he couldn’t even feel his body’s injuries at the time.

With only the will that he had to return to survive, he painfully opened his blurry right eye and got his bearings.

“It was fortunate that my left eye was still relatively fine. If I hadn’t recognized the bear’s traces inside the cave, I would have thought to use it as a shelter to check my condition for a moment.”

As he said this, Sergei sincerely thanked Lord Joseph.

Only then could our party finally end the long, long dawn of searching and set out in the carriage again.

Thus, after many twists and turns, we arrived in the city.

In this city where we should have arrived the previous day, there was a clinic run by a professionally trained doctor. This was because a noble with the rank of baron resided there.

There, Sergei was able to receive proper treatment.

I was finally relieved when I heard that if he received treatment for a few months, there would be no problem using his arms and legs.

Oh yes, his right eye was just bruised, so once the swelling goes down, it will be fine both in appearance and function.

“Why are you out here, Lord Joseph?”

Only after everything was settled could I finally rest comfortably at the hotel.

And the same would have been true for Lord Joseph.

Even though he had been breathing heavily until yesterday, now he was making quite calm breathing sounds.

Even so, it didn’t look good for him to be catching the cold wind on the balcony.

“Shall I give you my shawl?”

“I’m fine, my lady.”

“Then how about some warm tea? If you’re worried about not being able to sleep, wine is fine too.”

“I prefer tea.”

I seated Lord Joseph, who had just come in from the cold, in a chair. Soon Loretta brewed a warm cup of milk tea.

After sending Loretta away as well, Lord Joseph and I had a late night tea time in the suite room with one person missing.

“The room… seems somewhat quiet.”

Lord Joseph was the first to break the silence.

It certainly felt somewhat empty.

It must be because Sergei, who used to read books with the lights on until dawn, wasn’t here. By the way, Sergei was scheduled to be hospitalized at the clinic until our departure tomorrow.

“Well, I thought you might be thinking something else.”

“Something else?”

“For example, being glad that the nuisance is gone.”

“Hmm…”

After seeming lost in thought for a moment, a strange smile soon twisted on Lord Joseph’s face.

“Well. I wonder if I would be a nuisance between the two of you.”

Huh?

But what does this mean? I couldn’t help but frown. What an unconfident thing to say.

“That’s an uncharacteristic statement from you, Lord Joseph. I’m taken aback. I thought you wouldn’t care about such things.”

“It’s too much to overlook when your relationship seems overly close.”

He said, folding his eyes like a mask.

“You speak comfortably with Lord Sergei as well.”

At those words, I shrugged my shoulders. It wasn’t such a big deal by my standards.

“Well, Sergei and I are old friends, that’s why. We used to speak comfortably before too.”

“Then did you speak formally with me?”

“Pardon?”

I blinked at the sudden remark. He retorted.

“When you met me in the slums, I mean.”

“Ah.”

“I don’t remember anything from that time at all.”

Come to think of it, Lord Joseph had permanently lost some memories from when he was called ‘Yusep’.

Now that I think about it, it made me feel strange that it was only memories related to me.

“I was… too young then.”

“If you want to say it’s invalid, I can’t help but feel a bit hurt from my position.”

“……”

At this point, I suddenly came to my senses. It felt like I was being swept along by someone who was just childishly expressing their emotions.

I didn’t want to continue this unproductive conversation that would only hurt each other’s feelings without gaining anything.

I didn’t want this. I clearly had a definite purpose in arranging this meeting with Lord Joseph.

“So you want me to speak comfortably to you from now on, is that it?”

“Well, not exactly that…”

“Alright, Joseph. From now on, I’ll omit the honorific ‘Lord’ in private. You can call me by my name too. Ah, but we should maintain formal speech for now. It allows us to respect each other more. Especially between lovers, mutual respect is even more important.”

“Pardon?”

“Did I speak too quickly?”

For a moment, Lord Joseph’s… no, Joseph’s expression became dumbfounded. I slowly opened my mouth again at a pace he could understand.

“You can call me by my name in private too. But please refrain from doing so in front of the children for now. It seems the children haven’t yet accepted that I’m marrying you.”

We’ll have to persuade them slowly. Even after I finished speaking like that, Joseph was still blinking his eyes in bewilderment.

“So you’re saying… No, that’s not it…”

It was undoubtedly the most foolish face I had seen of Joseph so far.

“W-wait. Please wait a moment…”

He roughly rubbed his face, his tongue seemingly tied as he stumbled over his words. No matter how you looked at it, he seemed to be fumbling, unable to find a sense of reality.

Is being told to call someone by name such a hasty progression? Wasn’t that what he wanted?

“Did I say something strange?”

“N-no, it’s just that earlier…”

Earlier what?

“If you mean the marriage talk, I think I’ve repeatedly said I would marry you from before… Ah!”

Only then did I realize why Joseph was acting like such a fool.

Given the situation, it seems I was slow to recognize it too. I should have said this first.

“Come to think of it, I didn’t tell you the important part!”