“It’s over.”

The first to come to her senses was Lina. Suddenly, a profound sense of failure settled on her face.

“You…….”

Was he out for a walk in his sleep? Dressed lightly, Duke Valige furrowed his brow, seeming to have assessed the situation.

“Why are you here?”

“Du, Duke. That is…….”

She had not seen the Duke for a few days, so she must have been too complacent.

She racked her brain for a plausible excuse, but in the end, she couldn’t say anything.

‘It was just supposed to get through today!’

Who would have thought to encounter him here?

Lina, who was going to return to the Count’s castle as soon as the day broke, bit her lip.

“What’s with that appearance?”

Valige looked up and down at Lina with an astonished expression. Clothes smudged with dirt and leaves tangled in her hair.

She looked as though she had been rolling on the ground. Sensing the man’s gaze, Lina quickly removed the leaves from her hair and brushed off the dirt on her clothes.

“Ha.”

Only then did the Duke, watching Lina hurriedly straighten her attire, let out a short breath.

It was absurd that she, who was supposed to be decently in the castle, was in such a beggarly state here.

‘Maybe he doesn’t know I’m gone yet?’

Judging by the Duke’s face, her being here seemed quite bewildering.

It was a relief to run into him before he heard the news. If he had known that she was missing, he might have been angry by now.

Soon, the Duke, checking if anyone else was around, muttered lowly.

“Follow me.”

Lina moved with heavy steps, quietly following Valige.

She looked at the Duke, who did not say a word to her as he led the way, with anxious eyes.

As soon as they entered what appeared to be the Duke’s tent, Valige turned around and snapped at Lina.

“Are you out of your mind?! What on earth were you thinking, coming here?”

“I, I thought…….”

Faltering at the unexpected sharpness of the man’s words, Lina decided to simply tell him why she had come.

“I thought I could help somehow. Actually, I kept recalling the flood that suddenly occurred in the village where I used to live and killed the villagers…. So I couldn’t just wait in the mansion.”

“You should have told me then.”

“But then, Duke, people would have accused you of being infatuated with a woman and dragging her around the disaster area.”

“What?”

Valige’s eyes widened slightly at Lina’s last words.

“I know at least what the Empire says about me and you, Duke. That’s why I didn’t tell you I was coming.”

Lowering her eyes, Lina sincerely conveyed her feelings and scanned the man’s face.

What he was thinking, the man just stood still without any reply. Lina, who had been watching him for a while, cautiously opened her mouth.

“Then…. I’ll go in now.”

And just as she was about to leave the place, Valige grabbed her wrist.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to where I’m staying. I can’t leave right now, so I’ll return to the castle as soon as the day breaks.”

“Where you’re staying?”

The Duke’s expression crumpled as he seemed to think for a moment.

“You’re not talking about those big tents at the edge, are you?”

“……Yes.”

“Ha.”

Valige let out another short breath, astounded.

It made sense, for the tent where Lina was staying was a place where commoners, regardless of age or gender, slept together. There was no consideration for separating men and women in the current emergency.

“So you’ve been staying there all this time?”

He was annoyed at Lina’s matteroffact attempt to return there.

“With other men, people?”

“Eh? What…….”

Could it be a mistake that he emphasized the word ‘men’? As the Duke’s complexion darkened further, she wondered and moved her foot again.

“Wait.”
Lina’s footsteps halted at the sound of his voice.

“Sleep here.”

“……Here? Here……?”

Lina looked at the makeshift bed in the tent at his words. It couldn’t be that he meant to share the bed that could barely fit a grown man.

Valige, reading her expression, spoke.

“I still have work to do, so you sleep there.”

The bed he pointed to was small but covered with a soft blanket, looking cozy.

Indeed, these past few days, sleeping on the cold floor mixed with strangers had been far from comfortable.

Moreover, after working for several days without rest, she was physically at her limit.

‘Should I just sleep here……?’

In the end, Lina, succumbing to the lure of a warm bed, nodded her head. But she couldn’t sleep in her clothes, soiled with dirt.

She had to take off her clothes, but she hesitated in front of the Duke. Noticing her hesitation, Valige began to shuffle papers at his desk.

Finally, feeling relieved, Lina began to undress.

Thump[Dash].

The sound of clothes hitting the floor and the scratch of the pen came irregularly. Soon, Lina, clad only in a thin dress, trembling, climbed into bed.

‘It’s warm.’

As Lina turned her head on the bed, a glass of alcohol on the Duke’s desk caught her eye.

‘I noticed the smell of alcohol.’

A fleeting scent of alcohol from him. But the Duke didn’t usually enjoy drinking.