“Whatever you do, you never seem inadequate.”

“Well, maybe… not.”

When Adele, silenced by his coercion, looked up at him, Valentine twisted his lips as if to say, “See that?”.

“If you keep looking at me so pitifully, maybe someday I’ll want to throw you away…”

If a man with such a beautiful appearance, strong and elastic body, looked pitiful, one should have shed tears at the sight of the ordinary men scattered along the street.
No one was as good as that man, so anyone would look pitiful in comparison.

Adele suppressed a bitter smile and lowered her head.

“You don’t have to do that. How could I ever abandon Valentine? I don’t have that ability.”

“If you had the ability? Would you abandon me?”

He growled and lifted her cheeks with both hands. A glint of anger flashed in his golden eyes.

“I’ll ask you one thing, Adele. Why do humans, while claiming to love, entertain thoughts of abandonment?”

“…”

“And why do they end up taking their own lives? Saying they love it…”

Adele widened her eyes without understanding the intent of the question.

Valentine, who had been silently looking down at her, raised the corner of his mouth.

“Give me an answer.”

“I don’t understand the meaning. I don’t even know the situation you’re referring to.”

“Just… think about it. Why do they do that?”

Adele met his wounded gaze. She had long felt that he looked at other people through her as if she resembled that woman. Was it because she occasionally had such delusions, seeking answers as if she were that person?

“…”

Adele bit the tender flesh inside her mouth. Whenever such a situation arose, she had always pretended not to know, not to hear, just to pass it by.

She feared that if she directly mentioned it, he might realize that she was nothing more than a substitute.

“Ugh.”

While repeatedly pondering anxiously, Adele suddenly felt something cold on her wrist and snapped back to attention.

Valentine had somehow lifted her wrist and was filling it with the golden bracelet he mentioned a while ago.

Apparently, he had brought it from the cabin a little while ago…

“I wanted to give you this from the beginning. I took it to give it to you.”

Valentine quickly calmed his emotions.

It felt like he understood even without hearing the answers to the questions I poured out. It felt like a kind of resignation.

Adele examined the bracelet with a somewhat confused mind.

At a glance, the bracelet looked valuable and precious. The material was gold, and the craftsmanship was delicate.

In the center, a deep green emerald was embedded.

“This will help suppress magic. Normally, you can wear it all the time… but when you practice magic, you should take it off your body.”

“It suppresses magic?”

“When you go to the Hwanggung, Morrigh’s servants will bother you. If you wear this, it’ll be okay.”

With curious eyes, she turned her wrist in various directions.

It was a welcome item as Adele was already concerned about Joahim and the high priests residing in Pragma.

Adele examined the bracelet on her wrist.

“Is it okay if I use it?”

“It’s okay. After all, I made it myself.”

“Valentine made it himself?”

She looked at Valentine with newfound wonder in her eyes.
Even though he made it and lent it to her, it was an item once used by a person who had long since passed away. It was a lie to say that there was no discomfort.

“But it would have been something the person who peacefully slept valued…”

“If they had slept peacefully.”

“…”

“If that were the case, I would have been peaceful too.”

His voice was overly sharp, and Adele looked at him with surprised eyes.

A brisk wind blew. The wind suddenly swept Adele’s spine and stirred her loosely tied hair.

Adele’s hair fluttered like strands of golden thread in the wind.

She tried desperately to tidy up, but the more she tried, the messier it became.

“Stay still.”

The sound of him approaching was carried by the wind.

“I’ll do it for you.”

Valentine gently gathered her disheveled hair.

The touch on her forehead and ear was unusually affectionate. He tilted his upper body to tuck the hair behind her ear.

His cool scent, the breath pouring down on her forehead, and the moonlight.

“I don’t believe in love. But I believe in sympathy.”

Suddenly, he whispered in a calm voice.

“So I hope you feel sorry for me.”

As they returned to the campsite, a subtle gaze was cast as if pretending not to notice.

It seemed they guessed that the Grand Duke and his wife had spent some passionate time alone.

Margaret scolded Valentine, wrapped Adele’s body with a thick blanket, and brought a pot full of hot herbal tea from Donovan. She brewed a hot herbal tea.

“Come on, drink it all up.”

“I’m really okay, Margaret.”

Adele vehemently protested, but Margaret forcefully pushed the large cup with steam rising from it in front of her nose.

“But you still have to drink it. Drink it all in one gulp. It’s so cold, and you’ve been in the forest for hours…”

Even with the bright moon and being in a space so detached from reality, she didn’t realize time had passed so much.

Margaret, glancing at Valentine, was unusually fierce, not the calm woman she usually was.

She seemed to think that she faithfully followed her desires in the forest, taking her weak mistress with her. “Has it really been such a long time?”