That day, Idren said he wanted to rest and put her to bed early. Ophelia just went along with the man who tried to take care of her with such a flimsy excuse.

Even though the sun had set early, it was still too early in the evening to sleep, but Idren laid her down on the bed and lay down beside her. Ophelia turned her body to meet the gaze of the man who was lying face down slightly below her, looking at her.

Idren blinked his uniquely colored eyes for a moment and muttered.

“You’re so gentle… why am I anxious?”

And the man answered himself before she could find an appropriate response.

“I must be full.”

He grinned and turned his gaze to the side. His golden eyes slowly scanned her waist. Though her clothes were thin, revealing the contours of her body, Ophelia didn’t bother to cover herself.

“You should eat well. You’ve gotten thin.”

“Do you find it unpleasant?”

“That’s not what I meant, I just… wanted you to be doing well.”

And Idren turned his body sideways. Curled up like a child facing her side, the man didn’t look that small due to his height.

About to brush the slightly disheveled black hair near her chest, Ophelia withdrew her hand. It didn’t seem right to treat him like a child when he really wasn’t one.

“I’m doing well.”

It was sincere. There would be nothing more comfortable in her life than this.

If Idren had known how she had lived in Reden, he would have agreed.

But Idren had never witnessed her past, so he added:

“…I want you to be happy.”

And are you happy?

Ophelia swallowed the words that seemed somewhat sorry to ask the other person. To take her eyes off his head, she looked up at the ceiling and thought. Where are we going?

There was a time when she struggled, wanting to escape the swamp. Back then, Ophelia thought she could sell her soul if only she could escape her immediate surroundings.

But now she could do nothing but watch, even though there was a hand trying to pull her up.

The feeling of looking at an unattainable goal. No, it felt like not even having that goal.

It seemed best to fall asleep before thoughts deepened. Ophelia raised her body to pick up the glass on the bedside table. That’s when Idren wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Don’t drink today.”

It was just strong enough to feel his opinion, not painful. Ophelia looked down at him for a moment, at a loss for words. As if thinking her gaze meant something, Idren made an excuse.

“It’s not too late to decide after trying once.”

And Idren looked up at the woman. Blue eyes were staring down at him. The deep pool-like eyes sent a chill down his spine. Idren forced a smile. He knew it wasn’t a situation to smile about, but he didn’t know what expression to make.

Ophelia didn’t smile back. Instead, she asked in an unfathomable tone.

“What if nothing changes even if I try?”

Though the tone was calm, it was strangely chilling. While Idren searched for a reason she could accept, Ophelia added.

“You know. That things don’t necessarily change just because you try.”

That was probably what this man knew best.

Because despite trying and trying again, nothing had changed.

It was then that Idren sat up. The man sitting across from her looked down at her blankly. Ophelia turned her head slightly, avoiding his gaze. She disliked herself for only being able to show him this side, and she couldn’t understand the man who kept trying to see even the part of her that she herself disliked.

That’s when he said something out of the blue.

“May I kiss you?”

“…What?”

“You allowed it before I left.”

And the man lowered his head before she could give any answer. Because she had unknowingly been looking up at him, Ophelia was subjected to the act he spoke of.

Before the warmth on her forehead could disappear, his lips touched her cheek once more. The firm tip of his thumb gently stroked the curve from her eye to below her ear.

The unfamiliar tickle couldn’t be read for its meaning. But somehow feeling like she should close her eyes, Ophelia closed them.

Suddenly, she recalled the words she heard during their wedding vows.

“I didn’t think you’d be the type to close your eyes when kissed.”

When his lips settled on hers in the darkness she had intentionally created, Ophelia agreed with those words. She too hadn’t known she’d be the type to close her eyes when kissed.

It wasn’t their first time sharing breaths, but it felt strange. The tip of her tongue tickled, and her stomach churned.

If it felt so strange, she should have stopped immediately and pushed him away, but Ophelia couldn’t. Instead, she did something incomprehensible even to herself. She lifted her head to make it more comfortable for him.

She couldn’t understand why she did it. Like when she closed her eyes, she just felt she should. Perhaps there was more than one side of herself that she didn’t know.

And Ophelia realized that her actions might have been perceived as some kind of permission. Just because she didn’t love didn’t mean she didn’t know how affection ignites. Her behavior was likely to have been seen by him as meaning he could touch her clothes.

It was clearly something she had allowed in the past, but in that moment, Ophelia was flustered. It felt like trying to accomplish something unprepared all at once.

She was an impulsive person, but not in areas she couldn’t handle. And moving to the next level with the man before her was something she couldn’t handle. Her instincts were telling her so.

Before the surprised Ophelia could push him away, Idren withdrew. He separated his lips and pressed his forehead against hers. Suddenly opening her eyes, Ophelia directly faced the glittering gold. And in that moment she realized. This man must know how uniquely his eyes are shaped.

Before she could firmly establish in her mind the claim she had made some time ago, his rough fingertips touched her lips. As he slowly wiped her slightly wet lips, he asked.

“Was it unpleasant?”

Unpleasant? Ophelia blinked.

Ophelia knew unpleasantness well. The dirty sensation of insects crawling under the skin was something one would never forget even if experienced only once in a lifetime.

But what he had just done, though startling, was not unpleasant.

When she couldn’t answer, the man closed his eyes. His black eyelashes curved gently and he smiled slightly. Ophelia couldn’t smile along with the man who was grinning like a boy for no apparent reason. At that moment, she couldn’t do anything. It was an inexplicable stiffness.

While she held her breath and only blinked, Idren seemed to have reached his own conclusion. When he separated their lightly touching foreheads and embraced her, Ophelia realized what the man’s conclusion was.

“See, it’s different now, isn’t it?”

He was relieved.

Ah, only then did Ophelia understand why he kept trying.

And that she couldn’t help but be persuaded by him.

She turned her head slightly, avoiding the glass on the bedside table. Somehow, she felt like crying.

After that day, Idren was not given permission to kiss. Though he always asked if he could hold hands or embrace, he seemed to have set his own standards regarding kisses.

This seemingly quite arbitrary act was, in fact, his own form of consideration.

The man, who had a knack for being perceptive in strange ways, now seemed to know that Ophelia could no longer refuse his words. He seemed to have realized that it had become so, regardless of her likes or dislikes.

That must be why he didn’t ask for permission. To allow her the opportunity to be as displeased as she wanted about the thing he had done on his own. So that if a situation arose where their opinions differed, everything would be his fault for acting unilaterally.

For someone who supposedly did as he pleased, Idren was quite mindful of her reactions.

So whenever he lowered his head to match her, Ophelia never avoided it. Because she knew that if she avoided it once, it would never happen again. It was an unfamiliar consideration to her, but there was nothing she couldn’t do. Contrary to his concerns, she wasn’t uncomfortable.

Idren’s words about things being different were not wrong. It had been quite a while since she stopped taking the medicine after that day, but Ophelia didn’t dream of Reden’s execution ground. Instead, as usual when she shared a bed with Idren, she had no dreams at all.

Maybe you’re right. Sometimes Ophelia would think like this when they lay down side by side at night. She thought Idren was doing foolish things, but maybe she was the real fool. Though she didn’t want to admit it yet, it was a thought she could entertain as a hypothesis.

Is this change? Around the time such thoughts occurred to her, a reply came from Netepel.