As Chase asked, Kate raised her eyebrows as if asking what he meant.

“That man. Did you give up?”

“It’s not that I gave up; he made me give up.”

“Ah.”

“I wonder if he even remembers my name properly. It seems like he knows that I’m the daughter of Viscount O’Brien.”

“I see.”

Kate frowned at Chase’s sigh.

“What’s that supposed to mean? It’s unpleasant to receive insincere sympathy. Moreover, it’s not a situation to console someone else.”

“Ah, it wasn’t sympathy; it was empathy.”

“Whether it’s this or that.”

As Kate shrugged, Chase chuckled.

“What do you mean by making you give up?”

“He became a completely different person in front of that woman. The guy who used to be indifferent turned into a fool. So how could I not give up?”

“Alicia is also a completely different person in front of that man. The cold girl melted, and she seems to have completely lost her mind. But I can’t give up.”

Kate looked at Chase with an ambiguous expression.

This man was in a situation similar to hers, but Kate couldn’t understand why he was telling her these things when they had just met.

Curious, Kate asked with a furrowed brow.

“Are you asking me to comfort you now?”

Even if that’s the case, it’s quite repulsive.

What a pitiful picture it is.

However, Chase just smiled and tilted his head.

“If we separate those two[—].”

Yeah, this picture is better after all.

Kate genuinely thought so.

But.

“Do you think it will work?”

“······I’m not sure.”

“No, don’t do such things.”

When Kate firmly refused, Chase, looking rather puzzled, asked.

“Why?”

“Because it’s disgusting.”

“Well.”

Chase also agreed and nodded.

There was silence for a while.

The silence wasn’t awkward, but strangely, both of them felt relieved about it.

In a situation where they didn’t want to console each other and didn’t want to tear down each other’s unrequited loves, silence was better than talking.

After a while, as the tea was almost gone, Chase spoke first.

“Kate O’Brien. Let’s consider this meeting as an unexpected event.”

“Yes, Chase Spencer. Connecting like this among those involved in the carriages is······.”

“Because it’s disgusting?”

Earlier, when Chase asked this question with a single tone, Kate wrinkled her face.

“No. It’s pitiful.”

“Ah.”

Chase awkwardly smiled with a complicated expression.

But Kate spoke with a much more nonchalant expression than Chase.

“Well, there are stories that understanding each other’s wounds while comforting them can bring hearts together.”

“?

“In my opinion, whether it’s you or me, we’re not the type to comfort someone by tearing down their wounds. So, it’s better to stay silent unless we want to mock each other’s unrequited love.”

“Is that so?”

“······I don’t know.”

Chase chuckled vaguely.

Rather than tearing down their wounds, he was more on the side of using them, but there was no need to tell Kate that.

Since there would be no occasion to talk about this again.

“Now, I’ll take my leave.”

“Sure.”

Chase and Kate stood up from their seats without any lingering feelings.

It was a truly neat conclusion.

Alicia, who was returning to Viscount O’Brien’s mansion, stared blankly out the window, lost in thought.

As Kate said, she had the skills to deal with monsters, but something was lacking.

With recent events, it was indeed becoming more uneasy.

Moreover, how long could she rely on Eric?

“Since I can’t carry a sword everywhere, should I learn dagger skills or self-defense techniques?”

Alicia mumbled to herself and leaned her forehead against the glass.

It felt like her mind cleared as it touched the cold glass.

“However, it feels like I’m constantly forgetting something important.”
Lately, I’ve been having a lot of dreams that I can’t remember. When I wake up in the morning, my head feels tired as if I had dreamed, but it’s like the memories are wrapped in an opaque film, and I can’t recall them clearly. And whenever I try to think, it feels like I’m stuck in a box with no way out, making my chest feel stifled.

“Sigh.”

Even now, as Alicia tried to recall, she felt frustrated, so she took a deep breath.

“I should go to the training ground.”

Thinking that moving her body might make things better, Alicia decided to spend her afternoon training at the training ground.

“Hello.”

“Oh, sister-in-law. What brings you here without notice?”

Thinking that Eric’s subordinates had been on standby recently due to an emergency, Alicia expected the personal training ground to be empty. However, Allen warmly welcomed Alicia.

“Allen, isn’t this supposed to be a knight training ground rather than here?”

“Oh, these days, with the emergency situation, there are too many people over there. It’s quieter here, so it’s more comfortable to train.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Is Edward doing well?”

“It’s a shame that he can’t train with the knights, but he’s doing well with the new instructor.”

“That’s fortunate. I’d like to see him after a while. Please give my regards.”

“I will.”