“You’re all wet.”

Heavy raindrops fell from Hael’s wet hair, dripping down his face.

The gentle gesture of holding an umbrella over her shoulder, unaware it was getting wet, was quite affectionate.

Hael’s gaze lowered as he looked at what was likely her pale face.

Yuriel forced a faint smile and squeezed out the words.

“How did you get here?”

A momentary bewilderment crossed Hael’s face.

In truth, he habitually followed behind her whenever she returned from work at the magic tower.

Yuriel would never know. No, she shouldn’t know.

“The rain suddenly got heavier… I came because you didn’t seem to have an umbrella.”

It seemed quite some time had passed since leaving the magic tower, but perhaps not that long.

Yuriel simply ended her puzzlement with a slight nod.

In fact, she didn’t have the energy left to properly analyze Hael’s words.

Her miserable appearance was reflected in the splashing puddles.

Looking at her pale face blurring in the gray waves, Yuriel scoffed.

One might think she’d just heard news of her lover’s engagement.

It was laughable. He would mock her quite openly if he saw.

Hael gazed with sunken eyes at Yuriel, whose face had unknowingly turned bitter.

The stories he’d heard at the magic tower headquarters flashed through his mind.

That the Blanchet heir was to be engaged to the Perriot marquis’s daughter.

Yuriel must have heard that story too.

Then is this why you’re like this?

A bitter smile was painfully swallowed in Hael’s throat.

Though he hadn’t asked any of the numerous questions that had risen to his throat, it felt as if he’d heard the answer.

And that answer was identical to the nightmare he’d considered the worst.

Hael didn’t show it at all.

Knowing that the moment he said he knew, everything would end.

All he could do was pretend not to know and linger around.

Fortunately, having practiced endlessly in preparation for such a moment was a great help.

Hael spoke in a gentle voice while feigning an expression no different from usual.

“You’ll catch a cold. Let’s go quickly.”

Hael placed his hand over Yuriel’s shoulder as he always did.

Yuriel moved towards the dormitory building along the path, being pulled along in a half-dazed state.

Only after entering the dome-shaped structure could Yuriel emerge from Hael’s embrace.

Only then did Yuriel’s eyes take in Hael, half-soaked.

“Your clothes are all wet. Hurry inside.”

Hael bitterly soothed his heart, left empty as Yuriel slipped away, and managed a smile.

Like some time in the past.

There was not a hint of color in Yuriel’s still-pale face.

Hael’s eyes furrowed at her appearance, which wouldn’t be strange if she collapsed at any moment.

“I’ll watch you go in.”

Though Hael insisted on staying just a bit longer to see her in, he couldn’t overcome Yuriel’s repeated refusals.

Yuriel, who had been constantly pushing Hael to leave, suddenly stopped speaking.

Hael stared blankly at Yuriel before realizing her gaze was not on him.

Naturally turning his gaze behind him, a long shadow fell over Hael.

The approaching figure gradually became clearer as it drew near.

Cassian di Blanchet.

The man who had been the talk of everyone stood before the two of them.

Hael unknowingly furrowed his brow, and Yuriel held her breath.

Cassian looked down at the two with an inscrutable expression.

His dry expression seemed somewhat displeased, or perhaps it was the dignified heir of Blanchet as always.

It was only a moment before his low voice resonated through the space.

“Let’s talk for a moment.”

Cassian’s gaze was focused solely on Yuriel.

As if Hael didn’t exist in this space.

It was as good as a forceful dismissal.

Hael had no choice but to turn and move his reluctant steps.

Afterwards, silence flowed between the two left in the space.

A persistent gaze, impossible to avoid, filled Yuriel completely.

The red undulation covering her pale, slender neck closed satisfyingly in his eyes.

Raindrops dripped down beneath her flowing hair.

She was no different from a drowned rat.

Yet those uniquely shadowed green eyes were glaring sharply at him.

“How did you come here?”

Words as sharp as glass, matching her well-honed gaze, stabbed at Cassian.

Separate from that, her trembling, delicate body was no different from a certain day three years ago.

Ridiculously, on this day alone, Cassian quite liked that pale appearance, that trembling delicate body.

Cassian bent down and reached his hand towards Yuriel’s wet hair.

“That’s not what you’re curious about.”

A cool sensation spread over Yuriel’s face as she flinched, and her water-soaked hair was brushed aside.

The large hand that had trailed along her hair paused dizzily at the hollow of her collarbone.

At that movement, Yuriel held her breath.

Red eyes standing less than a step away pierced through her.

“Say it properly.”

“……”

“Whether you offer congratulations or curses.”

A languid whisper spread to Yuriel’s ear, adding to the heat.

“Only then can I answer, me.”

Meeting eyes again, Cassian’s red eyes narrowed languidly.

With those final words, Cassian stepped back from Yuriel.

Only then did his breathtakingly beautiful figure fully enter Yuriel’s view.

His water-soaked shirt and blonde hair exuded a decadent atmosphere.

Now it no longer mattered how he had come here to stand before her eyes.

He said to offer congratulations or curses?

How could she do such a thing? Who was she to do so?

Yes. That was the starting point of everything.

Because she was nothing.

Yet because there was something she had to hope for from him.

When she heard he might get engaged, her collapsing heart was disgustingly because of that.

Fearing she could no longer receive medicine from him.

Since she could no longer even say the words “I like you” that she had once repeated like a lie.

Then she would no longer remain even as an object of this man’s interest.

Unable to avoid the gaze she faced, Yuriel grew pale.

Only the sound of raindrops filled the momentary silence.

As that sound grew thicker, Cassian felt a burning thirst.

Did the woman before him know?

That now even just the sound of rain made him recall that day.

That his lips were tingling.

That it was dangerous for her to stand before him with such an expression on a rainy day.

That he was panting like a beast in heat.

She wouldn’t know. Not knowing, she must be standing before him with a face that didn’t remember such things at all.

What would this woman, hiding a pitch-black heart behind an innocent face, answer today?

He was quite curious.

What kind of face would this woman make when she heard news of his engagement?

How would it distort?

No, would it even distort?

The reason he deliberately came here was in hopes of catching her like that.

And as expected, the woman unfailingly fell into his eyes.

That she was with that silver-haired man was outside his expectations.

Even so, the woman’s pale appearance was quite to his liking.

Enough to offset everything else with that alone.

Would this woman still impudently say she liked him even knowing he had a fiancée?

Cassian curled one corner of his mouth as if intrigued and met Yuriel’s gaze.

The lips that had been demurely closed beneath her slightly lowered gaze slowly opened.

“I heard… you’re getting engaged.”

“……”

“Congratulations.”

Cassian’s face twisted subtly.

The change was very small, but the fact that he was its owner made it feel quite significant.

Yuriel pressed down on her crumpling heart and met his gaze.

“I won’t forget the grace of saving my mother.”

Cassian’s eyes slowly took in Yuriel’s appearance, as if she was about to leave.

“And though it’s shameless… may I make one last request?”

Cassian merely scrutinized her silently, as if telling her to speak.

Yuriel squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them and let out a long breath.

As if trying to shake herself off with that breath.

“I’d like to receive my mother’s medicine a little earlier.”

Cassian’s gaze, which seemed to be testing her, had somehow sunk lower than before.

Looking into his eyes, whose inner thoughts were impossible to guess, Yuriel continued speaking slowly, trying her best to appear calm.

“If you’ll just do that for me, I’ll repay that grace for a long time to come.”

There was not a speck of light in Yuriel’s gaze.

Just like a lifeless doll manipulated by a puppeteer, barely moving its lips – that’s exactly how she looked.

Indeed, her lips were barely moving mechanically, as if reciting prepared lines.

But… she had no choice.

Because she was that desperate.

Just one year.

The words that her mother could live if she took the medicine for just one more year echoed in Yuriel’s mind.

Even the warning that stopping the medicine could endanger her life.

How naive she had been to think she could get the medicine just by sitting and writing a few lines for a year.

Asking for something from an engaged young master would be a sin in itself.

Even more so in her position of having to beg for interest directed at her.

Her heart trembled with each word she squeezed out with all her might.

Yet he showed no reaction as he watched her.

As if watching some cheap third-rate play.