The man’s face resembled the boy in her memories, but with more mature and strong facial features.

The figure standing in the doorway was unmistakably her lover and fiancé, Seiard Hilan.

Was she dreaming right now?

Faced with an unbelievable sight, Kisa could only blink repeatedly before barely managing to move her lips.

“W-why are you h-here…?”

At that, Seiard strode into the room and closed the door.

He approached Kisa, and the sound of his shoes hitting the floor told her this was definitely not a dream.

Her heart, which had seemed to stop for a moment, began to beat fiercely.

Seiard’s calm face in the lamplight heightened her tension even more.

“…”

Kisa unconsciously took a step or two back, bumping into the table behind her.

As Seiard drew closer, Kisa gulped, but he simply walked past her.

“Let’s turn on the light first. It’s too dark.”

His unexpectedly calm voice was heard almost simultaneously as the room brightened.

Seiard had lit the gas lamp hanging on the wall.

Then, turning back to face Kisa, he said with satisfaction:

“Now I can see your face clearly.”

Kind eyes, not much different from usual.

What would have normally reassured Kisa now only confused her heart more.

Several questions stirred in her chest.

What was this? Why was he here? When did he return? Wasn’t he angry? How could he act so normal?

There were countless things she wanted to ask, but rather because there were so many, Kisa had to keep her mouth shut.

Perhaps reading his lover’s inner thoughts, Seiard gently said to Kisa, who had her head bowed:

“If you have anything you want to ask, please do so. I welcome it.”

“…Pardon?”

“I thought you might have many questions after seeing this room. Was I wrong?”

From the beginning, he touched on Kisa’s biggest weakness without any hesitation.

She had disregarded Seiard’s request and entered the secret room, confirming what was inside.

And she had used the brass key that he had entrusted to her out of trust.

Yet despite this clear act of betrayal, Seiard’s reaction was completely unexpected.

The man currently before Kisa didn’t seem particularly angry, nor did he appear disappointed in her.

There was no sign that he was trying to suppress any surging emotions.

Even though Kisa was holding the scarf, evidence of her crime, right in her hands.

‘Why?’

In the suffocating silence, Kisa’s mind raced.

She began to consider things she hadn’t thought of earlier due to the shock.

No matter how she looked at it, Seiard’s presence here right now was not a coincidence.

The possibility that he had turned back due to a sudden problem while heading to the Hilan family’s territory?

‘Extremely unlikely.’

Kisa had already considered most variables before sneaking into the secret room.

The weather had been favorable for days, there were no reports of bandits, and even the royal court, which used to summon Seiard frequently for retaliation, had been quiet lately.

Even if an unforeseen issue had arisen forcing him to turn back, it would have been normal to send someone ahead to this mansion to inform them of the situation.

That way, they could prepare for the Duke’s return accordingly.

Moreover, there was one decisively strange point among everything else.

Why did Seiard come to this room first as soon as he returned to the mansion?

Even if he had returned quietly to avoid waking the servants due to the late hour, it would have been natural to go to his bedroom to rest or to meet his lover, Kisa.

‘If it was the latter, he might search for me upon finding I wasn’t in my room, but coming directly to this room doesn’t make sense.’

Above all, Seiard showed no sign of surprise at seeing Kisa in the secret room.

The conclusion drawn from these clues was singular.

“Seiard.”

Breaking the long silence, Kisa finally raised her head to meet his gaze.

“Were you testing me?”

If that was the case, all questions would be answered.

If we assume that all of this was a series of acts orchestrated by Seiard to observe Kisa’s behavior from the beginning…

“You didn’t actually leave the capital, did you?”

If he hadn’t gone far, returning quickly would have been easy.

“Was the talk about going to the territory for business reasons a lie too? Did a problem really occur with the family business?”

The man’s expression changed slightly at Kisa’s continued questions.

“I’m sorry, Kisa. Your guesses are mostly correct.”

He apologized with a regretful face.

“I have told you several lies until now. It’s true that a problem arose with the business, but it wasn’t an issue that required me to go down personally, and our party has been staying near the capital for the past few days.”

The admission was so quick and prompt that it was Kisa who was left speechless.

“I won’t make excuses for the lies. But please believe this one thing. I−.”

“Wait, wait.”

She pressed her hand to her forehead and furrowed her brow.

“Give me some time to process this.”

“Gladly.”

Seiard’s attitude as he stepped back compliantly was truly gentlemanly.

And the collision of this side of him with the truth she had just heard made her feel increasingly lost in a maze.

“Why… why aren’t you angry?”

Kisa bit her lip as a chill settled in her heart, hunching her shoulders.

“You were testing whether I was trustworthy or not, right? And as a result, I failed that test spectacularly.”

“Kisa.”

“To be honest, the fact that I was tested, that you didn’t trust me that much, isn’t very pleasant. But I suppose I don’t have the right to blame you when I broke my promise and entered this room.”

Kisa muttered with a sense of resignation.

“So get angry at me. Scold me all you want.”

Imagining her beloved criticizing her made her chest tighten, but it seemed better than the current ambiguous state.

At least it would be clear and certain.

But Seiard slowly shook his head.

“That’s not it. I’m not angry with you at all. There’s no reason to be.”

“Why?”

“Because Kisa didn’t do anything regrettable to me. And I didn’t orchestrate this because I didn’t trust you in the first place.”

“Then for what purpose…?”

At that moment, the corners of the man’s mouth curved upwards in a gentle smile.

“I hoped Kisa would open that door. I wanted you to enter this room of your own accord and confirm it.”

Though his words became more puzzling the more she heard, Kisa asked as if entranced.

“Confirm what?”

In response to her question, Seiard’s gaze lowered.

He glanced at the scarf Kisa was holding, then whispered in a low voice.

“I wanted you to recall that memory.”

Kisa immediately understood what memory he was referring to, and Seiard also knew that she understood.

“N-no way…”

As Kisa inhaled sharply, unable to continue speaking, he gently stroked her back.

“Come, Kisa. You have more questions for me, don’t you? I’ll gladly answer, so please ask.”

The face of the boy from her memories overlapped with that of her lover before her.

The boy had clearly introduced himself as Visek.

And just now, Seiard spoke as if he knew well about that day.

‘Was that boy really Seiard after all?’

If so, the most plausible possibility was that the young Seiard had used his brother’s name instead of his real one.

Thinking about it, it wasn’t such an outlandish assumption.

At the time, the boy had clearly committed the deviation of running away from home, and he might have wanted to hide his identity due to feeling guilty about that fact.

It wasn’t particularly strange that the alias he spontaneously came up with in response to Kisa’s question was the name of someone he was familiar with.

However, for some unknown reason, a deep part of Kisa’s heart denied that assumption.

She herself couldn’t give a clear reason, but she kept feeling that it wasn’t the case.

Instead, an implausible possibility began to emerge faintly.

Impossible. It can’t be. How could that even be possible?

While Kisa’s rational mind strongly opposed such a fanciful notion, her heart refused to yield.

After a brief but fierce battle, her heart finally emerged victorious.

The greatest contributor to this victory was a certain place Kisa had recently visited with Seiard.

A girlish and pretty villa by the lake.

A villa that was long out of fashion, but seemed perfectly tailored to Kisa’s tastes.

It might have been a mere coincidence, but it was quite similar to the house of the three family members that appeared in her old memories.

And the person who built that villa was…

“N-no way, are you…”

Kisa took a deep breath before moving her trembling lips as she looked at Seiard.

Even as she cursed herself for asking such a foolish question…

“Are you… Visek Hilan?”

At that, Seiard smiled.

It was the most innocent smile she had ever seen.