Eriel took a deep breath.

She frowned as she saw Gerald passing by her, then blinked her eyes.

The years they believed to be a friendship fell into the abyss in an instant and rolled in the mud.

Was Eriel used for his political comeback?

Really, did Gerald really……

She couldn’t believe it.

The tears of that day, our conversations were not all sincere.

“E…… ri, el.”

Damian, who had difficulty uttering each syllable, was looking at her.

His trembling blue eyes gazed at Eriel’s tears with a sorrow greater than the tears she shed.

Only then did Eriel startle and touch her cheek.

She hurriedly wiped the flowing liquid with the back of her hand, but just as spilled water cannot be put back, wiping away the flowing tears did not mean she had not shed them.

“Damian. I’m sorry. But…… this.”

“It’s okay.”

His stiff voice rang out.

Damian’s Adam’s apple shook as vigorously as his blue eyes as he swallowed.

A great silence blocked the space between Eriel and Damian.

No matter how she explained the meaning of the tears, it seemed it would only hurt Damian now.

Nevertheless, she wanted to tell him it was nothing and reassure him.

Eriel slightly moved her lips and tried to reach out to Damian.

Just as Eriel’s trembling fingers were about to move, Damian’s stiff face finally passed by Eriel.

As Damian turned his head as if avoiding her, Eriel stopped reaching out her arm.

She should call his name.

She knew now was the time to call his name, but why……

Of all things, the memories that had already passed came to Eriel’s mind.

The wounds she had already left in her heart while Damian was checking the access records and she had blurted out in anger stirred.

Why……

Eriel blinked.

Why…… did she think of that now?

Eriel, who had stopped reaching out, lowered her arm.

The flowing tears stopped, but even through her clear vision, Damian’s face was not visible.

Damian, who had turned his face away from her, said he was fine, but he did not approach Eriel.

“I…… didn’t even show it on that day when the heavy rain poured……”

Eriel’s voice with one corner of her mouth strangely raised echoed in the drawing room.

“You turn your head away at just one of my tears?”

It was Damian’s face that had finally turned back to Eriel, but with the moisture welling up in Eriel’s eyes, she couldn’t see what expression he had.

“Eriel……”

“I’ve never wavered. It’s true that it was my fault for being hasty over a glove at the departure ceremony. But you…… you understood me too.”

“Eriel.”

Damian took a step closer to Eriel and reached out to her, but this time Eriel stepped back.

She didn’t want Damian’s touch on her body.

“How much, how many times do I have to keep proving my innocence to you whenever something like this happens? Until when?”

Damian had no answer to Eriel’s question. Silence once again blocked the space between Eriel and Damian.

Eriel felt a disgusting feeling.

She was grateful that he believed in her at the departure ceremony. But when it was just the two of them, whenever we were together, why…… why did it turn out like this?

“When I am there as the duchess, you take my side. Am I supposed to be satisfied with that?”

When there were many people, Eriel had to maintain her status as the duchess.

To do that, she needed Damian’s proper support, and through that, Eriel gained his trust.

But when it was just the two of them.

Why……

So, so……

“Is it Eriel Genova as the duchess that you want from me?”

She thought that perhaps a piece of sincerity had escaped from what Damian had said emotionally.

There was no answer from Damian.

Eriel left the drawing room before Damian and walked. Eriel’s face crumpled as she walked down the corridor of the ducal residence.

The flowing tears felt disgraceful, and no part of the ducal residence felt like her own.

Because of the surname attached to her name, the place she had spent 8 years with felt more unfamiliar than a strange land.

*

Gerald stopped walking for a moment after leaving the ducal residence.

There was a reason he had deliberately refused the butler’s offer to escort him to the carriage. Looking at the vast garden spread out before him, Gerald gazed at the sky for a moment.

It was a wait with nothing to lose.

It would be nice if Eriel showed up, but even if the duke came out instead of her, Gerald thought it would be fine either way.

Because Gerald’s very existence could make Damian feel like rolling in the mud.

Of course, it was possible that neither Eriel nor the duke would come out. But even so, Gerald had nothing to lose.

Gerald closed his eyes tightly and felt the wind. In that brief wait, his wish and anxiety mixed together.

He didn’t know much about Duke Genova, but he knew Eriel well.

Innate personality and thoughts never changed. Eriel had been prone to tears since childhood.

As she developed the habit of holding back both tears and laughter under Viscount Borgese, at some point, she would laugh and cry easily whenever she left the viscount’s house.

He didn’t want to make her cry, but for Gerald now, there was nothing else……

“There’s nowhere to lean on.”

So cry for me. Eriel.

Let the duke, who doesn’t know your heart, expression, or thoughts well, misunderstand because of your tears.

……Click.

“Ah……”

Gerald let out a short sigh and looked at Eriel, who appeared through the open door.

Eriel’s eyes, looking up at Gerald who was leaning against the wall right next to the door, widened and her lips parted.

……See. Eriel. That duke doesn’t suit you. He misunderstood your tears in the end.

I don’t know where the line of friendship is, but between us, the difference between a friend and a lover might be just a sheet of paper.

“Hello. Eriel. Looks like you have nowhere to go this time either.”

I have the weapon of countless memories between you and me.

Just like me back then, who waited for a very long time by your side when you didn’t want to return to the viscount’s house.

“…….”

She moved her lips, but in the end, Eriel’s figure unable to turn back came into view.

The servants waiting behind her would find Eriel’s stopped action strange.

Eriel’s gaze hurriedly went back and returned to Gerald.

Her voice, uttered softly, lacked strength.

“Count Shannon. Why aren’t you leaving……”

It wasn’t a coincidence, but even if they met by chance, it wouldn’t be a moment she would want to tell her husband.

She would hate it even more if it reached her husband’s ears through the servants’ words.

Gerald slowly examined Eriel’s reddened eyes.

“Because I thought this would happen.”

Gerald said the same words as in the past memories.

Eriel’s trembling eyes turned to Gerald. Gerald, who shrugged his shoulders, acted as if he had completely forgotten his attitude in the drawing room.

For Eriel, the feelings between a friend and a lover were very different, but not for Gerald.

If the feelings between a friend and a lover were just a sheet of paper apart, then to you, like a friend. Slowly, like that.

“A friend’s concern. ……Ah, I’ll make you regret it.”

Grinning, Gerald very lightly wiped away the tears flowing down Eriel’s cheek.

Eriel flinched and pulled her body back, but it was already after the situation had ended.

“I’ll get going.”

Gerald deliberately turned his steps that hadn’t moved away even faster.

Just then, he heard the voices of the servants calling for Eriel from behind.

“Madam……?”

At the maid’s voice, Eriel gripped the doorknob with more force. Now Eriel had reached the point where she didn’t know what to do.

Should she go to Damian right now and confess that Gerald was here, that he wiped away her tears?

Then, would he hold her responsible for why she couldn’t avoid Gerald’s touch?

Or would he lock her up so she couldn’t even open the door of this ducal residence anymore?

“The sky outside was too clear…… So the sunlight was too bright……”

Eriel closed the door she had opened.

She had intended to take a short walk in the garden, but if she went out and met Gerald standing there again, she felt like she wouldn’t know what to do this time.

At the same time, Eriel felt guilty about the question she had asked herself in her mind.

Did she really not avoid it? Wasn’t it that she had reminisced about the past memories at Gerald’s words?

Was it because of that she didn’t…… avoid it?

Eriel closed her eyes.

It was the first time she hated her tear glands that wouldn’t stop no matter how much she cried.

Eriel, who had turned to go back to the ducal residence, choked on her tears and breath at the sight of the ducal residence spread out before her.

“Ha……”

A deep sigh burst out of her mouth.

She wanted to hold back the sigh, but she had no room for that.

“I think it would be better to just stay in the residence.”

As the door closed with a thud, the brightly pouring sunlight disappeared completely.