Adele couldn’t take her eyes off Valentin’s broad back, thick waist with well-defined muscles, and the agile curve leading down to his waistline.

His body, trained as a knight for over a decade, felt like a kind of weapon every time she looked at it.

No matter how much might have changed inside, it was strange that there was no hint of discomfort on the surface.

“What are you thinking so deeply about?”

When their eyes met as Adele gazed at him in confusion, Valentin’s eyes narrowed with a hint of a smile.

Adele impulsively opened her mouth.

“I saw a name written in the book you gave me.”

“Really?”

He answered as if it was nothing, then turned a clean new shirt inside out from head to toe.

Even under the dim light, his imposing figure was hidden, and a strange silence settled down. No affirmation, no denial.

Adele, gripping her cold fingertips, pressed further.

“The name written in the book was ‘Adelheid.’ ‘Adelheid Dejere Batildis Nurenberkian.'”

“…”

“Who it is, why it has the same name as me, and why Valentin had a book with that name specifically – will you not answer this either?”

Valentin finally raised his gaze to Adele.

Although his lips smoothly formed a smile as usual, Adele could sense that his mood had become somewhat subdued.

“Ask something else, Adele.”

“…”

“Something other than what you already know the answer to.”

It was a rather affectionate tone. It was only then that Adele realized Valentin deliberately handed her a book with ‘that name.’

Internally, she had denied and drawn a subtle line, claiming her past life or soul was different.

“At least, I am… at least as far as the name you call me…”

Caught in a pang of bitter jealousy, she murmured.

No matter who he overlapped with in his mind, it didn’t matter, as long as he called her by her name so affectionately.

What she had confidently believed seemed like a very distant past.

When the signature of ‘Adelheid’ came to her mind again, Adele gathered the remaining defiance in her hands.

“I thought it was a kindness only for me.”

“Why do you think it’s different for the two?”

He approached, step by step. A long and massive shadow loomed over her head.

Valentin lifted Adele’s pale chin with his long fingers.

“I’ve told you before. Why isn’t someone with the same body, soul, and memories your husband? It’s always been you for me.”

“…”

“Is it hard to understand in human terms? I don’t know. To my eyes, it’s no different.”

“… I don’t have the memories of that person.”

“You just forgot. And only for a very brief moment.”

“To say that our bodies are the same is truly unreasonable…”

“If there were even a portrait, it would have been great. Then you wouldn’t dare say you’re not that person.”
Adele stared at Valentin’s face with a bewildered look.

His lips, which used to meet hers while speaking of eternity, and the eyes that sweetly curved as if affectionate, felt unusually distant today.

Valentin, who had been silently gazing down at Adele, suddenly smiled.

“How can I make you believe me?”

His eyes and lips exuded falsehood, concealment, and a scent of deception.

Now, added to that, there was an unfathomable anxiety.

Perhaps he was in such a state since entering the palace.

Without any leisure, always on the verge, hiding even the slightest things from her.

“…”

If they didn’t talk, misunderstandings would accumulate.

But if he continued this vague attitude, constantly using ‘protection’ as an excuse, their relationship would not progress. It would eventually decay like that.

She was not a child who needed protection.

Now, lacking either the ability or the heart, she wanted to stand side by side with him someday.

Someday, she wanted to become the one he could rely on entirely. She had that level of determination.

However, it was impossible to build eternity on a sandcastle that could collapse at any moment.

‘Why doesn’t Valentin know that?’

She tightly grasped the edge of the blanket. Tears seemed to drop, but she managed to hold them back.

Suppressing the surging emotions, she opened her mouth.

“I’ll believe you.”

“…”

“Even if Valentin alone holds memories, and even if you hide some terrible secret from me, as long as you promise to tell me honestly someday.”

This compromise was all she could find.

Even if he couldn’t be honest right now, as long as there was a promise to be honest in their relationship someday.

Then, at a very distant future, they might be able to look at each other from the same position.

“Do you still remember the promise we made back then? If I’m ready, you said you would tell me everything.”

“…I haven’t forgotten.”

Adele nodded as if to say that was enough. Valentin looked at her with eyes that conveyed an incomprehensible depth.

She pushed away his hand, as if changing the heavy atmosphere, and continued.

“I’m thinking of going out today, not just staying in the tent.”

“…Going out?”

He almost reflexively responded. More than the shock of the conversation with her, he seemed to hate this proposal even more.