Although he said he would talk about Marien and himself, Logan kept looking out the window until they entered Dustin Avenue.

What is he going to say? Maybe it would be better to say that Marien has gone on a trip now. Let’s hear his story first…

Sidney cleared her throat and opened her mouth.

“Commander, what were you going to say earlier?”

“How much did you hear of what Raon Rind and I talked about?”

It was an unexpected question, so it was a bit embarrassing. But it seemed better to clarify properly rather than leave room for misunderstanding.

After choosing her words for a moment, Sidney calmly said, meeting Logan’s eyes across from her:

“I didn’t hear well, but I heard that the commander is planning a new business and marriage, and that he quite likes someone named Raon Rind.”

“You heard it all.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Logan tapped the armrest with his index finger and was lost in thought for a moment.

As the loud rumbling of the carriage faded and the rhythmic tapping grew louder, Logan Redford opened his mouth as if he had made up his mind.

“I apologize for making things uncomfortable between you and Marien all this time. I don’t plan to look for her anymore.”

It was such an unexpected thing to say that it was hard to believe. But there was no trace of obsession or lingering attachment in his face or voice.

I should clearly be happy, but I felt resentful and disappointed at Logan speaking like this. It was close to what people commonly call… a feeling of betrayal.

Betrayal? Was there any trust to begin with? A cold sneer flashed across Sidney’s lips.

“Starting tomorrow, I won’t be able to make time for approvals in the office. So… when you leave work, bring the documents I need to sign to 11 Mayfield Avenue.”

It was an extremely businesslike conversation.

Like before Marien came between Logan Redford and herself… like between a superior and subordinate.

For some reason, her insides felt empty and twisted. Sidney habitually repeated the address he had given.

“11 Mayfield Avenue, is that your home, Commander?”

“Since it’s also for handover… review the documents while waiting.”

Work even after leaving the office. And waiting endlessly for a superior who might come at any time…

Grumbling inwardly, Sidney asked with wide eyes:

“Handover?”

“Congratulations on your promotion to commander in advance.”

What congratulations. Both Logan saying it and herself listening had sour expressions…

“…Did you recommend me, Commander?”

“You’re the most usable out of the three.”

Crazy. It only felt real after hearing that barb. Sidney smiled self-deprecatingly and said calmly:

“Thank you. The competition must have been really fierce.”

Then she got off the carriage after saying she would see him tomorrow evening. The street swept by piercing winds was pitch black.

The gas in the streetlamps must be low or broken. Sidney looked up at a streetlight once and turned up her coat collar.

“Ugh, it’s cold.”

As she ran towards the building with hunched shoulders and quick steps, Logan’s shout was heard following the crack of a whip and horse’s neigh.

“Sidney! On your right!”

Blades flashing in the darkness and black silhouettes rushed in. Reflexively, she folded her arms and twisted her body while drawing the sword at her waist.

Gritting her teeth against the pain slicing her right shoulder and back, she switched the sword to her left hand.

Keeping her left arm extended, she lowered her stance and spun around.

Blood spurted from the thighs of the three thugs who had tried to overwhelm her at once. As they faltered, they fell screaming, cut by Logan’s sword blade.

“Are you alright?”

Instead of answering, Sidney kicked hard at the wrist of an attacker lunging at her. Logan’s sword slashed the side of the staggering thug.

Leaving the fallen assassin behind, Sidney leapt. Using her blood-soaked right hand as well, she brought her sword down on another thug aiming for Logan.

After cutting off his windpipe with one stroke, Sidney landed and staggered with a groan. The wound on her back had opened wider from the intense movement, causing blood to gush out.

Slashing a black figure rushing in to take advantage of that opening, Logan shouted:

“Sidney, fall back!”

Six left. Even for Logan Redford, it was a burdensome number to face alone. Above all, she didn’t feel like holding back because of a mere wound like this.

Sidney shook her head to refocus her blurry vision and grinned.

“I’m fine.”

Yes, I have to be fine. Save the whining for after the battle. If you don’t want to die, swing your sword.

Sidney stood up again and guarded Logan’s back.

Black figures flying in like moths to a flame, blood spurting following swords slicing through the air, and pain and death…

How could one not be afraid? Nevertheless, the reason she could stay alive and not go insane was… because that bastard of a superior, Logan Redford, was there with her through all those moments.

As the last enemy fell, Sidney turned her head to look for Logan with unfocused eyes. As consciousness faded from the pain tearing at her flesh, her body swayed sideways.

She would not fall. As always, that damned Logan Redford would lift her up again.

“Sidney! Wake up!”

Just like now…

The crescent moon emerged from the clouds, illuminating the dark Dustin Avenue.

In a hurry, Logan took off his coat and tied it around Sidney’s wound.

She had already lost a lot of blood, so proper hemostasis was urgent, but he couldn’t go up to Sidney’s house. There was a chance the thugs might break in again.

Fortunately, not long after, the coachman returned leading the Redford Marquis family’s private soldiers.

As soon as he got into the carriage, Logan removed Sidney’s coat and jacket. Until the moment he tore off her blood-soaked shirt, Logan was not in his right mind.

But the moment he faced the compression bandage binding her chest, it was like being doused with cold water, snapping him back to his senses.

Logan muttered to himself as he tore the shirt to make bandages:

“I’m sorry… I didn’t want to find out like this. First I’ll stop the bleeding… I’ll apologize for this later.”

Repeating the same words over and over, Logan carefully wrapped Sidney’s stab wounds on her back and shoulder with the shirt and compression bandage.

Then, after dressing her in his jacket and coat, he placed her unconscious form on his lap and embraced her preciously like a hen brooding over an egg.

Logan gazed at Sidney’s face cradled in his arms, again and again. The light and shadows from the street lamps flickered across her pale face.

Just like that time when the afterglow of the fireworks brilliantly adorning the night sky caressed Marien’s profile…

Marien saying that was beautiful. Incomparably more than those fireworks that bloom and wither away in vain.

Marien, who fearlessly took Logan’s hand and followed him to the bedroom. Those red lips asking in surprise…

Lovely Marien and cold Sidney.

Logan’s fingers tidying Sidney’s disheveled hair paused. He recalled the angry look in Sidney Warden’s eyes as she rubbed the back of her hand against her lips and backed away.

The expression and look in Sidney Warden’s eyes as she said that still said she was Marien. Yet Sidney called it a ‘mistake’.

No matter how much he thought about what went wrong and what he should do, no suitable answer came to mind…

Late at night, the moment he faced Sidney Warden who came to find him, it became clear what the problem was.

It seemed like it would be alright if they went back to before, before Marien came between them, when Sidney Warden and he were superior and subordinate.

It was a bit cowardly, but he tried to reassure her with the lie that he would no longer look for ‘Marien’ to win Sidney’s heart… Who knew it would turn out like this.

Without even thinking to wipe the blood spattered on his face, Logan spoke to himself, steeped in remorse.

“I should have just… followed her down and asked for a cup of tea. No, I should have forcibly brought her to my house. If I had…”

And leaning his cheek against Sidney’s forehead, he quietly added, “Crazy bastard.”

Vague sensations and memories, unclear if dream or reality.

It began with hands tearing off her shirt. Then it even dismantled the compression bandage that had been a symbol of the sense of duty weighing her down.

She felt dejected. Though she had been careful with her body for years to avoid such a moment, even in the face of comrades’ deaths, to receive a fatal wound not on the battlefield but in the heart of the city…

What will happen now? Now that her being a woman has been discovered, she will lose everything. Not just herself, but the Warden Count’s family will have to pay the price for deceiving the Emperor of the Asnel Empire and the Imperial Army.

It’s alright. She was prepared for that much.

But Emilia, that poor child…

Those cut-off memories were followed by the smell of strong disinfectant.

The posture of leaning on broad shoulders and the heat and pain running down her back. Wavering vision like spring heat haze and dizziness, and at a man’s voice asking if she was coming to her senses, a groan escaped involuntarily.

Why of all people… did it have to be Logan Redford? Even that resentment was swallowed up by pain and fear as her last memory faded.

When she regained consciousness again, the dawn light was faintly brightening.

Uncomfortable in her prone position, she thoughtlessly pushed against the bed with her right hand, but her breath caught at the pain stabbing her shoulder and down her back.

As she waited breathlessly for the pain to subside, the unfamiliar space came into view one by one.

Her eyes met squarely with those of the man sitting in a chair looking down at her with his chin propped up, in the spacious room exuding an antique atmosphere – Logan, wearing a black shirt and pants.

“You’re awake.”

“…Yes.”

“I brought you to my house. It seemed dangerous there.”

‘There’ must be the house where she lived, 27 Dustin Avenue.

The person who sent about twenty assassins wouldn’t give up like this. By the way, who targeted her, and for what reason?

Sidney frowned and asked:

“Has the identity of those men been determined?”

“A constable named Hamel Raker, he hired mercenaries.”

A constable is no different from an ordinary soldier in the imperial army.

Most are commoners who failed to pass the knight test, but he hired over a dozen mercenaries? There must be someone behind this…

“Hamel, there was such a name among those who threatened Peter. You didn’t hand him over to the constabulary, did you?”

“Since he messed with the Redford family… I put him in the main house’s dungeon.”

Logan Redford, the man who tried to assassinate the heir of the Redford Marquis family. Anyone who tries to defend Hamel Raker will have to face the Redford family.

“Thanks to that, the constabulary investigation should be easily resolved.”

“Then, now it’s my turn. I’ll understand that you had your reasons until now. But from now on, it would be better to speak honestly.”

Logan looked down intently and raised one corner of his mouth as if sneering. In that moment, she sensed that he had learned everything.

“That night, the woman who was with me… Sidney Warden, it was you?”