“If we meet again, I hope I can help you.”

Lina did not think that she would meet the woman again until she heard her last words.

And.

That she would really receive help from her.

(This is a time delimiter.)

“Are you all right?”

Since discovering the bracelet Lina had at the auction house, Valige began to noticeably become morose.

From then on, he had not slept a wink, his eyes gradually darkened, and he had not eaten properly, busy trying to forget something and chasing after the bracelet’s whereabouts.

“Your Grace, I think it would be best for you to have a proper night’s sleep today. Leave the origin of the bracelet to me and Philip, and rest today. In Hardenber, there are scented candles that help with sleep. I’ve told the owner, so he’ll probably bring it to the room in a little while.”

“……Okay. I understand. Go now.”

Lawrence felt uneasy about leaving the Duke, who somehow looked fragile, but he knew that there was nothing more he could do and returned to his room.

Thump.

“Ugh.”

Immediately after Lawrence left, Valige, who was clutching his head, picked up the Alkinto that was placed beside him.

It had hallucinogenic ingredients, so he was told to take only a prescribed amount, but he had no energy to care about it now.

For days, his mind and body were becoming unstable due to the increasing headache, like a sandcastle piled up on the beach.

Valige, who had swallowed the alcohol and medicine he could grab, loosened the shirt that was choking his neck and slumped in his chair.

A corpse he had seen at the security office, so decayed that its identity could not be confirmed.

A cliff that seemed almost impossible for anyone to survive, and the wooden fragments of a carriage found shattered to pieces.

As he pieced together the scattered puzzle pieces, a hypothesis that he had desperately denied would not leave his mind. But.

“……No.”

Valige shook his head as if to ask what he was thinking, and gave a hollow laugh.

“What am I thinking?”

He fell from such a high place that the bracelet must have broken.

The carriage was destroyed, so it was only natural that a bracelet would be damaged.

Then, the Duke, who had been muttering to himself as if to comfort himself, suddenly stiffened.

“But.”

With every word he uttered, his throat felt painfully dry.

“Was the bracelet broken?”

He tried to recall, but there was no sign of the bracelet’s string being broken. He would have noticed right away if it had been.

Since he had already handed the bracelet over to Philip and ordered an investigation, it was something he couldn’t check right away.

“Sigh.”

The heavy sigh of the man, like a downpour, was followed by cold sweat dripping down his forehead one by one.
As his unease grew, so did his pain, and he seemed unable to bear it any longer, pouring a bottle of liquor that had been lying next to him into his mouth.

But no matter how many drugs he took, or how much strong alcohol he drank, his hollow heart could not be filled.

The pain just slightly numbed.

He barely raised his body to lie down on the bed.

But then.

Thud[dash].

Was it because he had taken too many drugs at once? Or because of the awful alcohol? He fell onto the cold wooden floor before he could reach the bed.

Gradually harshening breath. A body soaked with sweat as if drenched in rain. And an abnormally pounding heart.

“Lina…….”

With his mind gradually becoming cloudy and his vision blurring, Duke Valige’s eyes slowly closed.

Valige’s vision just continued to blur.

(This is a time separator.)

“Why do they keep sending me to room 302?”

Lina, who had to work nonstop as soon as she returned to the inn, was on her way to the room where the Duke would be, grumbling at the innkeeper’s instruction to go to room 302 again, just as she was about to head to her room.

“This time it’s candles.”

At least it wasn’t alcohol. Lina smelled the fragrance of the candles she was holding.

“Chamomile?”

Chamomile was a special product of Hadenber and a flower that helped sleep.

“Better than sleeping pills, chamomile candles are much better.”

Lina briefly recalled the sleeping and pain pills strewn about the room but shook her head.

“Never mind, let’s not worry about it.”

Before she knew it, Lina stood in front of the Duke’s door, catching her breath. Then she took a sip of the potion she had prepared.

“Ah. Ah.”

After clearing her throat a few times, Lina’s voice began to sound rough like a boy entering puberty.

‘This should be enough, I won’t be found out. But I should speak as little as possible.’

With that thought, Lina carefully knocked on the door.

Knock[dash].

But just like when she first knocked, there was no response from inside.

‘Is he taking a shower again?’

Afraid that she might be shocked like last time if she entered without thinking, Lina was about to turn away when,

Thump[dash]!

A thump, thump sound came from inside the door.

‘What’s that noise? Sounds like something falling on the floor…….’

With a frown, Lina pressed her ear to the door, listening to the sound inside.

But after the loud ‘thump’ of something falling, there was no sign of life.

‘Something’s wrong.’

Suddenly, an ominous feeling brushed past Lina’s back. Without realizing it, she reached for the door handle and hesitated for a moment.

‘If I go in like this, I might find myself in an awkward situation again. But…….’

Biting her lip, Lina swung the door open. There lay the Duke, fallen to the ground, gasping, his eyes wide.

“Duke[dash]!”

Lina was so shocked that she didn’t even realize she had called him Duke, and rushed to Valige. The man, breathing raggedly, soaked in sweat.

Seeing his limp body, as if he had lost consciousness, her heart seemed to plunge into an abyss.

“Duke, please……!”

Hugging the man’s face with tears in her eyes, Lina, who had been sobbing pitifully, soon came to her senses.

“I, I need to call a doctor right now…….”

But as she hurriedly got up to call a doctor,

“……Lina?”

A cracked voice stopped her.