“Huh?”

Deborah turned around at the youthful voice and was surprised.

The little one she had met before when out with Zen was looking up at her with a startled face.

“Oh my, how nice to see you. What a coincidence!”

Deborah said, bending down at the waist.

The child’s slightly tense expression relaxed, as if they had been wondering if this was indeed the person they had met before.

“Hello.”

“Hi there. Have you been well?”

The shopkeeper, who had been busy packaging, looked up at the sound of conversation and widened his eyes.

A familiar child was casually chatting with a customer.

“Daniel! How do you know this lady?”

The shopkeeper asked Daniel, but his eyes were on Deborah.

Daniel just mumbled, unable to answer. It’s not easy to confess one’s own mistake.

“We bumped into each other on the street before. I felt so sorry at the time.”

Deborah answered instead, smiling with the corners of her eyebrows lowered. Saying it like that made it seem as if Deborah was the one who made the mistake.

Daniel stopped fidgeting and glanced at Deborah.

“Ah, I see.”

The shopkeeper laughed heartily at the common accident and said to Daniel,

“Daniel, what brings you here at this hour? Your mother hasn’t even gone to work yet.”

“Mom told me not to come at night.”

“Ah, so you came during the day?”

“Yes. I’m going to wait here and go home with mom.”

Daniel said with a grin. The shopkeeper smiled back but was worried.

Surely Sage would scold Daniel, saying the workplace is not a playground.

‘I don’t mind, but Sage is a stickler for rules.’

Deborah looked at the child as if finding them adorable.

‘So your mother works here.’

Even on the day they first met, the child said they were going to see their mother.

‘Hehe. Your mother must be proud.’

Just then, the shopkeeper, who had been furrowing his brow with worry, said to Daniel,

“Anyway, sit on the chair and wait. Sage will be here soon.”

Deborah’s smiling face froze.

‘Sage?’

It was a name Deborah knew. And Sage wasn’t as common a name as Deborah.

[Sage, you say? That’s a very special name.] [It’s not special. It’s a name taken from a common herb.] [Your parents must have hoped you’d grow up to be healthy and heal others.] [Don’t make assumptions. My name is Sage because when my mother was in labor with me, she was in so much pain she clenched the only herb in the house, sage, between her teeth.]

Deborah vividly remembered that girl glaring at her and speaking harshly. The intelligent gleam in her twisted green eyes, her tightly closed lips.

“Mom!”

So Deborah could instantly tell that the woman who just entered the shop was the Sage she knew.

“Deborah…?”

Even if Sage hadn’t called her name with a choked voice, she would have known.

“Sage.”

Deborah called her name. It was a strange feeling.

She was the child Deborah thought of whenever she saw the common herb. Sometimes she thought of her even without seeing the herb.

Always like an angry cat, the child whose frowning face looked smart and cute.

“It’s been so long. Have you been well?”

Sage couldn’t answer. Because tears were pouring out.

Covering her mouth and sinking to the floor, sobbing, she startled Deborah, Daniel, and the shop owner, who didn’t know what to do.

“Sob, sor…”

A sobbing sound escaped through Sage’s fingers.

Deborah seemed to know what words were hidden in that sob, but she didn’t pretend to know.

It was unnecessary for Sage to say, and unnecessary for Deborah to hear.

It took quite a while for Sage to stop crying.

The shopkeeper, who had a hard time comforting Daniel who ended up crying along with his mother, said as he took Daniel into a small room behind the shop:

“We don’t have many customers at this hour, so feel free to talk.”

Usually, Deborah would have politely declined. Sage was also someone who would refuse such consideration. But today, both of them accepted the kindness.

“Are you feeling better now?”

Deborah asked first. Sage, her eyes still red, nodded and said,

“I showed you an unsightly side of me after not seeing you for so long.”

Deborah shook her head with a faint smile.

“Where have you been all this time?”

“Until recently, I was in Burmuz.”

Burmuz? Sage furrowed her brow at the unfamiliar place name. Deborah quickly added, lest Sage worry:

“I’ve been doing well. I met lots of good people.”

“That’s good then…”

Sage bit her lower lip anxiously. She looked uneasy.

As Deborah saw, Sage was indeed anxious now. She had something to say. Words she had kept in her heart for 10 years.

‘I don’t have time to hesitate like this.’

Cold sweat beaded on Sage’s forehead. Her furrowed brow, as if in pain, showed no signs of relaxing.

“Sage…”

Just as Deborah was about to express concern for her complexion,

“Is everything alright?”

Pole came into the shop. Only then did Deborah remember that Pole was waiting for her.

“Oh my. I’m sorry. Am I late?”

“No, not really…”

The shopkeeper, who had been eavesdropping at the door, hurriedly came out at the unfamiliar male voice.

“Welcome!”

Seeing this, Deborah was once again reminded that she was causing trouble in someone else’s business.

“I’m sorry. This is my companion.”

“Ah, I see.”

Deborah gave an embarrassed smile to Pole and said,

“I’m sorry. I’ll pay and leave right away.”

“It’s alright. Take your time.”

Pole, worried that he might seem to be rushing her, answered like that and went back outside the shop.

“Is the packaging done? I’ll pay now.”

Deborah said, rising from her seat and rummaging through her bag.

“The packaging is done, but…”

The shopkeeper said, looking at Sage’s pale complexion.

“You can stay longer if you’d like…”

“No, I should be going now. I came out in a hurry today.”

At that moment, Sage grabbed Deborah’s collar with trembling hands.

“Deborah. That…”

To Sage, who had grabbed Deborah but couldn’t continue speaking, Deborah said kindly:

“Sage. I’m sorry. I have to go now.”

Bending her upper body, Deborah held Sage’s hand firmly and said,

“So let’s make a proper appointment and meet. If you’re willing to meet me, of course.”

Deborah smiled. It was the same face as when she quietly smiled watching the chiffon curtains dance in the breeze that rushed in when she opened the window on a spring day.

“Okay.”

Would Deborah see her as she was back then, answering like this? Sage hoped not.

Unlike Deborah, who had always been kind, she herself had been awful. So it was okay if she looked older and more pathetic, but she hoped to appear as a better person than back then.

[This is the timeline separator]

As soon as Belus left, Zen headed back to his office.

“I almost frothed at the mouth in shock when he said he’d sleep over.”

Sedric, who had followed him in, said. Zen, sitting back down at his desk, smiled sardonically and said,

“That man would never lie down in a commoner’s house.”

Unlike other nobles, he pretended to be enlightened and friendly, but in fact, he was more authoritarian than anyone, looking down even on most nobles.

All the behavior Zen had shown in front of him throughout Belus’s visit was a lie.

He hadn’t been surprised, nor flustered, nor apologetic. He was just satisfied. To think that everything had moved according to his thoughts to this extent.

But there was one moment, just one moment when Zen was truly uncomfortable.

[I saw a carriage leaving this mansion earlier.]

His heart pounded. He felt sick at the thought that this madman might have laid eyes on Deborah.

[If I looked like Belus, I could date ten women at once, but he’s not interested unless they have black hair? He’s really strange.]

John had said once when drunk. Then Derek, looking around cautiously, said,

[It’s not just about having black hair, right? If you think about what he did to Eric back then…] [Hehe. Is it because he’s so refined that he won’t even touch a maid? But there are no nobles with black hair, right?] [What does that matter? That guy is going to be the only Duke in this country.] [Ah, Belus. He’ll end up marrying without ever meeting the woman of his dreams. Poor… No, not poor. I’d be willing to make that kind of sacrifice if I could become a Duke.]

Zen had quietly listened to their disgusting conversation, thinking of Deborah.

Originally, there was no chance for Belus to meet Deborah, but he had resolved to make sure they would never cross paths in the future.

And fearing that a problem might arise when he was elsewhere, he had even firmly instructed Sedric.

That’s why today, Sedric had sent Deborah out when she conveniently wanted to go out.

‘But for that bastard to say such a thing…’

Zen let out a sigh.

‘Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like he saw Debi.’

Given Belus’s personality, if he had seen even black hair, he would have been chattering about whether Zen had the same taste.

‘In any case, we need to be careful.’

Zen, touching the corner of his eye, said,

“You told Pole to take good care of Deborah, right?”

“Of course. I stressed it again and again.”

Sedric answered with a good-natured smile. But Zen’s expression didn’t ease.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hah. I should have sent one more person with her.”

“Is that really necessary? Pole does his job well.”

“Her return time is later than expected.”

It was fortunate that Deborah’s return time was delayed as much as Belus had left late.

But regardless of that, unsavory characters often popped up at night.

“Especially in winter, there are drunk people wandering the streets from broad daylight…”

“But the shopping district is relatively safe. Many nobles frequent it, so patrols are common.”

Zen knew this too. But he couldn’t help worrying.

‘I made an immature choice because I didn’t want another man sitting next to Debi.’

Regretting the wrong choice he had made out of jealousy, Zen hoped that Deborah would return quickly.