The sun rose on the next day.

“Lady Vivian, it’s morning. Did you sleep well?”

I slowly raised my body at Ren’s voice waking me up as usual and answered adequately.

“Mmm, I slept well. I’ll wash up and come out.”

It was a lie. I didn’t sleep well at all.

After getting up from bed, I quickly glanced at the mirror placed on one side of the room.

The dark circles under my eyes were clearly the appearance of someone who had stayed up all night.

‘Sigh, I knew this would happen.’

Last night, I lay awake with my eyes open.

Needless to say, it was because of Ren.

How could I possibly fall asleep when the image of him smiling prettily while brushing my hair kept flashing before my eyes?

I kept telling myself over and over not to be conscious of it, but it had little effect. How could I help it when his face appeared every time I closed my eyes?

‘Come to think of it, it’s no different from what Ren usually does for me…’

Once I became aware of it, it became uncontrollable. I was dying from being conscious of his every action.

And this was the result right now.

Moving to the bathroom, I examined my face with a sullen expression.

I scrubbed my face clean, but the dark circles under my eyes naturally remained untouched.

‘I hope Ren doesn’t notice…’

It would be impossible to deduce that I had lost sleep thinking about him just from seeing my dark circles… but I still felt embarrassed and looked for makeup to cover my skin.

However, this wasn’t even where I lived, it was Ren’s house.

Someone who always maintained flawless skin without makeup wouldn’t have such things.

Having no choice, I just came out. Subtly covering under my eyes with my hand.

But… huh? What’s this?

If I wasn’t mistaken, Ren also seemed to have dark discoloration under his eyes. Though not as severe as mine.

“What’s this, Ren. Did you not sleep last night?”

“Huh? Ah, that… haha.”

He laughed awkwardly and slightly avoided my gaze. As if he had been caught trying to hide something.

‘Did something happen during the night?’

Ren usually had very good skin.

In all the years I’ve been with him, I’ve hardly ever seen him with blemishes or dark circles, which says it all.

Unless some problem arose in the middle of the night preventing him from even lying in bed, he wouldn’t look like that.

“Are you okay? Are you very tired? Or are you sick somewhere?”

Worried, I approached him while bombarding him with questions. Ren covered his face with his large hands and answered in an embarrassed voice.

“It’s just my face that looks like this, I’m not tired. I didn’t sleep properly though.”

“Oh dear, why did that happen when you were alone after so long.”

“Just… it was noisy at night.”

Strange. It was only quiet, wasn’t it? I remember clearly since I was awake until morning. Not even the sound of an ant crawling could be heard all night.

As I tilted my head in puzzlement, Ren observed me through his fingers.

I tried to hide my face belatedly, but he had already spotted my darkened eyes.

“Lady Vivian… did something happen to you too? Was it because of nightmares again…”

What nightmares. I would have had to sleep to have such dreams.

I just couldn’t stop thinking about Ren, but feeling caught, I hurriedly made an excuse.

“Th-that! Ah! I also couldn’t sleep because of the noise. It was really noisy yesterday, haha.”

“Ah, right. That’s true. It was very noisy.”

“Mm… ahahaha!”

Ren’s answer was as artificial as my awkward laughter.

A subtle and ticklish atmosphere lingered somewhere.

An unfamiliar silence soon flowed between us.

“…”

I hoped Ren would speak first, but he was just covering his face with his hands.

Wanting to break this awkward air somehow, I changed the subject casually.

“By the way, why are you hiding your face?”

I thought there might be some special reason, but an unexpected answer came back.

“My complexion is not good… I think I look ugly today. I’m embarrassed to show you.”

You must be joking right now? Who’s ugly? I know full well that Ren would be handsome even with dirt on his face and wearing rags!

However, contrary to my thoughts, he seemed to be serious. Judging by how extremely embarrassed he looked.

A handsome man not even properly recognizing his own beauty.

What a pity this is. I spoke firmly with a serious expression.

“Ren, what nonsense are you talking about. You’re so handsome. How ugly could you possibly look?”

“But I want to show only my best side to you, Lady Vivian.”

“Someone like you just goes from handsome to tired handsome even without sleep. Only the adjective changes, the handsomeness remains the same. Look!”

I removed his hands covering his face and cupped his cheeks with both hands. Ren’s face, which had been hidden all this time, was revealed.

“See, what do you mean ugly…!”

A very different atmosphere from usual was glimpsed in his face right in front of me.

While he usually had a pure and lively feeling, today’s Ren exuded a languid and decadent charm.

A different appearance I had never seen before.

My heart fluttered. For a moment, as if my brain had frozen, I didn’t know what action to take.

I ended up stopping in that position.

Our faces were close enough that our breaths could touch if we weren’t careful. Ren met my eyes as if trying to gauge my reaction.

“…”

My mouth clamped shut at his shy gaze.

I should say something, but no words came out, and my cheeks just kept getting hotter like a fool.

But Ren’s face was also reddening just the same.

We stayed frozen like that for a long time, just staring at each other’s faces.

In the silence that felt like eternity, only our increasingly reddening cheeks indicated the passage of time.

Eventually, as if he could no longer bear it, Ren slightly turned his head to avoid my gaze.

Then he glanced at me with a shy expression.

“…Lady Vivian, you’re too close.”

“Oh! Th-that’s right? Haha, sorry!”

I removed my hands from his face with a start.

Feeling embarrassed belatedly, I cleared my throat unnecessarily because it was hard to face him.

Ren also seemed to feel similar emotions, as he was looking at distant mountains for no reason.

After that, we tried to return to a normal atmosphere through conversation, but unfortunately it kept getting cut off abruptly.

It was natural since we would startle and turn our heads away quickly even if our eyes just met while talking.

‘I can understand myself, but why is Ren acting like this too!’

I wanted to treat him naturally like usual, but for some reason Ren was also acting awkward, so it wasn’t easy.

We creaked along like that all day like broken robots.

Around evening, we had visitors after a long time.

“Vivi, we’re here.”

“It’s been a while!”

Feeling glad, I rushed out to greet Ludovica at the front door. Another figure was visible behind her.

“It’s been a while, Dietrich. Has it been about two weeks for everyone?”

“Yeah, that’s right. It’s the first time we’ve seen each other since that day.”

It wasn’t hard to guess what “that day” meant here.

Probably referring to the day I recklessly charged into the demon realm.

Feeling guilty, I shrugged my shoulders and pushed them inside.

“Come in quickly. It’s cold outside.”

Ren, who was standing at the entrance, guided them to the table in the living room.

I sat next to him, and Dietrich and Ludovica sat side by side across from us.

The purpose of their visit today was to check on me and exchange information.

“So Vivi, are you feeling better?”

“Yes. I’m fine now. Sorry for worrying you.”

“You don’t look well… Are you sure you’re okay?”

Dietrich chimed in from the side.

“That’s right. I heard your blood was used to treat the epidemic, could it be because of that? Like too much blood was drawn…”

“No, no. It’s not that. I just couldn’t sleep.”

Some blood was drawn, but it seems not much was actually needed, so it wasn’t enough to be a burden.

‘Was it about one bottle? No, it was definitely less than that.’

Even that was done under the supervision of several doctors to ensure safety. I even received an IV drip.

I was worried if that small amount of blood would be enough, but fortunately Veronica said it probably wouldn’t be needed additionally.

Whether they just fed the blood or extremely diluted my blood and gave it along with separate nutrients, the treatment effect Redanifus showed was similar, or something like that.

To be honest, I did receive an explanation at the time, but I wasn’t in my right mind so I don’t remember exactly.

Dietrich and Ludo looked relieved when I explained this background.

“But why couldn’t you sleep? I heard you were affected by hallucinations or something, was it because of that?”

Dietrich also seemed curious as he waited for my answer.

It seemed the two of them hadn’t heard exactly what state I had been in all this time.

Veronica must have vaguely explained my condition.

‘That’s a relief. If they had heard I wasn’t in my right mind, they both would have worried terribly.’

I was grateful for Veronica’s consideration.

“That’s fine now. It’s not because of the hallucinations…”

I trailed off and glanced at the cause of my sleepless night.

Ren must have been secretly looking at me too, as our gazes became entangled.

I startled and turned my head forward again.

“Just… it was noisy at night so I couldn’t sleep.”

“If it’s nothing serious, that’s good. Is there anything else that’s not good?”

“No. Everything’s fine now. I’m planning to return to duty starting tomorrow.”

Until now, both Ren and I had been temporarily out of the fight against demons due to my mental state.

But now that I’ve recovered a lot, it was time to participate again.

“So, how are the demons’ movements now?”

Having been isolated from news related to demons for the past two weeks, there were gaps in my information.

All I knew was that the disease spread among people had subsided due to the treatment’s effect.

‘The situation is turning unfavorable for the demons, Siegfried wouldn’t just sit still.’

He may have caused some big incident during the time I was out of it.

Trying to hide my anxiety, I waited for Ludovica’s answer.

“The demons…”

Her lips opened slowly. I clenched my fists tightly in uneasiness.