“……I’m sorry.”

Those were the words that came out of the doctor’s mouth as he hesitantly looked over Yuriel’s appearance.

At the same time, Yuriel’s arms fell limply to her sides.

The doctor’s lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but he soon stopped.

While this scene was not visible to Yuriel whose vision had blurred, it was perfectly captured in Hael’s eyes.

Hael was lost in thought for a moment, but soon shook it off and turned his body towards Yuriel.

He could ask that doctor about the hidden words again tomorrow.

After the doctor disappeared outside, a heavy silence settled over the space.

Yuriel came into Hael’s view.

Her dry, brittle expression seemed devoid of tears, making her appear even more precarious.

Even in this situation, Yuriel tried not to show it to him, repeating words of gratitude like a mantra.

‘Am I still only that much to you?’

To be concerned about such things in this situation.

Hael quietly stared at Yuriel while clenching his fist tightly.

Meanwhile, Jane smiled brightly at him, joking as if it were nothing.

Saying it was all as expected, wasn’t it?

Then she grasped Hael’s hand.

“It’s reassuring to have you here.”

“Aunt.”

Jane expressed her gratitude to Hael, who had lowered his head, several times.

“It’s shameless of me, but please take good care of our El.”

Yuriel shouted as if to say how could she say such a thing.

“Mother!”

Despite shouting at the top of her lungs, Yuriel seemed startled by her own voice and let out a long sigh.

She’s probably regretting shouting again. Yuriel was always like that.

Hael understood well what Aunt Jane meant.

Jane had already resigned herself to her fate.

She was always worried about Yuriel living in a world without her.

Hael vowed, as always, to protect Yuriel better than anyone else.

A genial expression quickly rose to Hael’s face.

He thought it would be much better than making a crying face.

“Don’t worry.”

A faint smile spread across Jane’s pale lips at the short but thick response.

A gentle pat tapped the back of her hand.

Yuriel, sitting beside her, was now unable to even sigh, her eyes vacant as she lowered her gaze.

Seeing this, Jane immediately said to Yuriel.

“It’s late. Yuriel, you should send Hael home quickly.”

Hael insisted several times that he would go alone, but Jane finally sent her daughter out to the yard.

Driven out by her mother’s nagging, Yuriel stepped outside, feeling the still slightly chilly night breeze on the tip of her nose. Hael was by her side.

“El……”

“Go quickly. I won’t cry.”

Hael turned to leave but came back again and pressed a dried four-leaf clover into Yuriel’s hand.

It was something Hael always carried with him.

Saying it was a symbol of luck.

“If you give this to me, then you…”

“Who are you worrying about now? Worry about yourself.”

Yuriel once again showed that faint smile peculiar to her, resembling her mother’s.

That pained Hael’s heart.

He wanted to say he’d stay a bit longer, but Yuriel wouldn’t allow it.

“Can’t I stay a little longer?”

“No. You’ve been kind enough.”

Hael nodded bitterly, but didn’t forget to smile brightly.

“What’s there to be grateful for between us?”

“I am grateful. You always help like this, and even called the doctor today.”

“……”

“I’m always sorry and thankful.”

Those weren’t the words Hael wanted to hear from Yuriel, but he thought there was still plenty of time.

Someday, Yuriel would lean on him too.

“Just think about yourself, I say.”

“Alright. I’ll do that.”

Of course, Hael knew well that it was just words for now.

Yuriel is a child who can never think only of herself.

Since childhood, adults said this child had no sense, but she instinctively thought of others first.

A child who works until her hands blister to protect her mother, who doesn’t frown even when hearing unpleasant words, and yet stubbornly moves forward.

It was hard to imagine how such strength could come from such a small and slender frame that looked like it might break at any moment.

Even in such a harsh world, Yuriel rarely cried.

Especially not in front of others.

Perhaps that uprightness stemmed from a strong sense of pride.

So El would only be able to cry after he turned away. Hael knew this all too well.

‘She hasn’t cried much since leaving that young master’s mansion……’

Ah. Come to think of it, Yuriel only cried freely in front of that young master.

At first, he thought she was crying in unseen places after meeting that person, just like she did with him.

But Yuriel, whom he often encountered on the flat ground of the mansion, had already finished crying.

Her reddened nose bridge and bloodshot eyes proved it.

If she had come out and cried right after getting off work, she should still have been shedding tears. There was no way everything could have turned so red.

The noble Blanchet had even broken down the upright Yuriel.

That fact bothered Hael endlessly.

Nevertheless, the emotions he tried hard to ignore kept popping up at times like this.

Well, even if they were just friends, he would be concerned if she was crying like that, but Yuriel had never been placed above that for Hael.

Because he had never once seen Yuriel as just a friend.

After leaving for the academy, he realized even more acutely what Yuriel meant to him.

People tend to realize the meaning better when someone is not by their side.

So Yuriel crying in front of that young master must have been because that person was that strange.

Those high-ranking people often behave in ways that deviate from his thought patterns.

That’s what Hael firmly decided to believe.

Hael’s mother, who was watching her son return home with a gentle smile, spotted blood stains on his white shirt and asked fussily.

“Son, don’t tell me you’re on your way back from that child’s house again?”

“It’s Yuriel, Mother.”

“That’s who I mean.”

Hael’s birth mother, who spoke with a hint of dismissal as if to say why should she know the name of such a child, frowned deeply.

Sighing at this sight, Hael said it was nothing to worry about and told her to go to sleep, then entered his room and wrote a letter.

Surely, that doctor today had a diagnosis he didn’t share.

As Hael had expected, Yuriel’s tears belatedly flowed down her cheeks.

Even at this moment, the fully bloomed coral-colored petals were still resentful.

The flowers emitting their pretty light even in the dead of night would always decorate Alphonse’s land like this.

Regardless of what happens to her mother.

Or even if some noble terminally ill patient meets their end, it won’t change.

Because nature at least is equal to all.

Yuriel, who had been crying silently in front of the unchanging nature, indifferent to a fault, soon rose to her feet.

She wasn’t even allowed the time to be immersed in sorrow for this long.

Thinking that her mother was still alone inside, Yuriel was once again overcome with fear.

After barely stopping her tears while gasping for breath, she wiped her face as if nothing had happened and stepped back inside.

There, her pale mother was seated.

Even though she had received such a verdict from the doctor once again, her mother showed no sign of sadness, perhaps already accustomed to such things or having already resigned herself to life.

Only talk of Hael and herself flowed from her lips.

As always.

Suddenly, her mother caught her breath for a moment and pulled something out from her bosom.

“El, this.”

In her mother’s hand was a ring hanging on a necklace.

It was the pretty jewel that always dangled from her mother’s neck, sparkling, looking just like her eyes.

After carefully fastening it around her neck, she quietly gazed at Yuriel as if finally satisfied.

“I was going to give this to you when you got married, but I don’t think I can wait until then.”

“Why are you suddenly saying such things!”

Yuriel was afraid when her mother spoke like this.

It felt as if her mother would soon leave her side. So she would get angry every time, and then regret it, in a repeated cycle.

Today especially, her mother trailed off and grasped Yuriel’s hand, not letting go for a while.

As if hesitating, her mother’s lips moved slightly, and after a moment, she shared the words she had been hesitating to say.

“I heard the young master of Blanchet took you away.”

Ah, so it had reached her mother’s ears after all.

She had tried her best to hide it, even asking the townspeople, but she knew it wouldn’t stay hidden just by sealing the shopkeepers’ lips.

There wasn’t a single resident in this Alphonse who didn’t know about it, and she couldn’t possibly seal all their mouths.

Yuriel put on a deliberately calm expression.

“It’s nothing. I was just hired a few times for some serving work.”

Just hearing the words ‘young master’ made Yuriel’s body feel numb.

It felt like she was getting chills.

She thought she had forgotten about it well for a while, but just recalling it like this affected her so much.

Feeling pathetic at herself, she inwardly sighed.

Jane didn’t miss that momentary change.

“I wish you wouldn’t get involved with high nobility.”

Yuriel quietly looked into her mother’s eyes as she specifically mentioned high nobility.

The speculation that her father might have been a high noble was, at this moment, tinged with certainty.

“Don’t worry. I won’t be involved with the Blanchet Viscount anymore.”

“……”

“I was fired, you see.”

She would never see that young master again from now on.

And that’s how it should be.

Her mother, relieved at hearing about the dismissal, fell asleep while chatting softly about Hael.

Yuriel, watching this scene, finally closed her eyes too.

The night was deep and long as she tried to find sleep that wouldn’t come.