Even after having her wounds treated, Roel, who had been silently shedding tears, only went to bed when she was exhausted.

As Reus gazed at her reddened, swollen eyes, he recalled the sight of the woman who had wept so sorrowfully while looking at him.

The tears that wouldn’t stop flowing. They undoubtedly stemmed from sincere concern.

‘……She’s soft to the point of being foolish.’

Reus knew better than anyone that his attitude toward Roel thus far had been far from ideal.

Yet, despite knowing this, he deliberately treated her even more cruelly.

He had no intention of leaving behind even the slightest trace of Ebelre that had existed on this land for a very long time, no matter what it was.

So, what did it matter what the woman with the damned blood of Count Ebelre running through her veins thought, what emotions she felt, or even if she suffered from his words and actions?

He had decided to spare Roel Ebelre’s life in exchange for saving his own, and wasn’t that enough to fulfill his duty to the daughter of his enemy and his savior?

This was the extent of his feelings for the savior who had risked her life to save him.

‘And yet, not knowing that…….’

She wept so sorrowfully.

Reus’s hand moved towards Roel’s eyes. Without realizing it, his hand had moved on its own, wiping Roel’s still damp eyes.

The moment the moisture seeped into his skin upon contact, the sensation focused on his index finger. Only then did Reus realize what he was doing and pulled his hand away.

All that had seeped in were mere tears.

Yet strangely, the tingling sensation that spread from his fingertips lingered for a long time.

* * *

It was from that moment on. Reus’s gaze began to linger on Roel more frequently and for longer periods than before.

Naturally, it wasn’t his intention.

It was just that from a certain point onward, his gaze would often be caught, and he would find himself thinking of Roel for no particular reason, without being aware of it himself.

Anyway, currently unaware of his own changes, Roel was still classified as a utterly useless existence to Reus.

It was clearly so, yet why did thoughts of Roel keep squeezing their way into his mind?

From the moment he learned the hidden secret behind his parents’ deaths, Reus had only one goal in life.

It was to ensure that those responsible for driving his father to his death paid the appropriate price. Since then, Reus’s life had consisted solely of failure or success, potential gains or acceptable losses.

But then, one day, a woman named Roel Ebelre suddenly appeared in Reus’s barren life.

She was nothing more than the offspring of his enemy.

Yet at some point, the woman stood on the boundary between a shred of conscience and a blind sacrifice for revenge, not leaning towards either extreme.

Was it because he had yet to define her?

For some time now, she stubbornly refused to leave his mind.

Of course, at first, he tried to somehow push Roel out of his mind.

But the more he did so, the more distinct Roel’s presence became. And at some point, even his mind seemed to have gained its own realization and stopped trying to shake off Roel.

Thus, today, Reus Rochester sat leaning back in his chair, gazing blankly into the air with eyes that were different from usual.

Reus was in the midst of pondering Roel’s actions in saving him recklessly in the Forest of Silence some time ago.

To intervene in an attempt to save someone she knew nothing about, and someone who was caught up in a dangerous situation at that.

‘She’s such a timid woman.’

No matter how he thought about it, it was far from a rational choice.

Yet, Roel chose to readily offer kindness even though she knew there would be no benefit to her, and on top of that, she even used up all her escape funds.

It was due to Roel’s choice, foolishly altruistic, that he was alive, but strangely, he only found it displeasing.

To be precise, it was Roel Ebelre’s attitude of seemingly having no intention of leveraging her position as his savior, despite risking her life to save him.

Reus began tapping the pen he was holding.

Why wasn’t she taking advantage of the opportunity?

If it were him, he would have certainly used the position of being a savior to gain something beneficial for himself. If that didn’t work, he would have even turned that day’s events into a weakness to forcibly extract at least one thing.

But Roel Ebelre…… was simply nonchalant.

She made no demands, had no particular desires, and simply accepted the compensation he had offered, and that was the end of it.

Instead of that, she should have sought more than what he had offered to give.

This was something Reus had been prepared for even before proposing the contract to Roel.

But how had Roel Ebelre acted when he proposed the contract?

The other party not only felt no gratitude for the favor received but was only thinking of taking advantage of it, yet the naive woman couldn’t hide her bewilderment and even showed signs of appreciation.

‘How can you make it so obvious?’

Reus felt displeased once again.

The thought of demanding something material…… Yes, that might not be the case.

Then at the very least, she could demand unconditional kindness or a subservient attitude.

‘Shouldn’t she demand such things?’

Yet contradictorily, the one who always catered to him was Roel.

How did she intend to survive in a world where even family members who shared blood would stab each other in the back by being so soft?

Before he knew it, Reus’s thoughts had extended to Roel, who would be in Beliata in about a year.

Would she attract strange fellows again?

Wasn’t the son of Marquis Ersian, who was said to be her fiancé, just like that? There was no guarantee that such a thing wouldn’t happen again.

‘With her naivety…….’

It was quite worrisome. It was at that very moment when Reus put down the pen he was holding, almost throwing it.

“I’ve gone crazy.”

At the dull sound of the pen rolling on the desk, Dewin, who was in the office, flinched and lifted his head.

What had once again offended His Highness’s mood?

Most of the documents had been reviewed and passed on by Dewin himself, so he already knew there were no issues with them.

Then was it Count Ebelre? Or…… the Emperor?

Whichever it was, today’s luck was terribly bad.

Why did today have to be the day he worked with Grand Duke, not Vice Prince!

Regardless of whether his assistant was trembling and bowing his head almost to the point of touching the desk, Reus stood up from his seat.

He felt that if he didn’t divert his attention somewhere, he wouldn’t be able to break this absurd train of thought.

Reus approached the window and attempted a change of pace he had never done before in his life.

But was the god of fate playing a trick on him? This time, it wasn’t his mind but his eyes that caught sight of Roel.

As if to mock his intention of shaking off thoughts of the woman by getting up from his seat, his gaze, once fixed, diligently followed Roel’s movements.

But why did she keep stopping after taking just a few steps?

The reason was obvious. She must be stopping and doing that because she was listening to every little nonsensical story, even interrupting her intended path.

As expected, Roel conversed and exchanged greetings with people without a hint of annoyance. She laughed loudly as if enjoying something, and suddenly widened her eyes like a rabbit.

Watching that sight, he felt something stirring in the vicinity of his heart. And his consciousness naturally called out to Roel once again.

Come to think of it, wasn’t she a woman who had spent her childhood in darkness, albeit to a different degree than himself?

He still remembered her cheeks, which were so pitifully swollen when he abruptly visited Count Ebelre’s residence.

Annoyingly, on that day, Roel’s demeanor was evident beyond familiarity, as if she considered it a given.

Back then, he didn’t feel any particular emotion, but why did he feel so unpleasantly now for some unknown reason? Just looking at that, her life could be roughly sketched out.

With so many tears, there must have been countless nights she spent crying.

And yet, she could still smile so brightly.

Reus found that fact striking anew.

People who had been continuously abused, people who had lost their parents overnight, people who had been driven to the battlefield at a young age due to family circumstances.

He had encountered countless people with similarly unfortunate but diverse stories.

To put it simply, most of them continued to struggle in the darkness they had created for themselves. No, it was closer to a waste than a continuation.

And among most of those people, Reus himself was included.

Usually, as if addicted to the ugly memories imprinted from a young age, they often become engulfed in gloomy emotions at the slightest provocation. But strangely, Roel alone remained completely untainted by darkness.

At this point, Reus had no choice but to acknowledge that Roel Ebelre was a person with a frighteningly upright disposition.

Misfortune does not discriminate when it strikes, and the more righteous and upright one is, the greater the damage they often suffer. They may feel it is unjust, but that is the way of the world.

Yet, maintaining such a foolishly righteous disposition in this world meant that Roel was a strong person to that extent.

Perhaps the reason he couldn’t take his eyes off the woman was because she possessed an inner strength that he himself lacked.

It was when Reus was quietly observing Roel.

In his dazed mind, the image of Roel shedding tears sorrowfully on the bed a few days ago suddenly surfaced.

The moisture that obscured her eyes, so blue that they dazzled. The tears that pooled abundantly eventually formed large droplets, drawing a transparent path on her pure white, rose-like skin. The tears that slid along the delicate lines finally gathered at the tip of her chin, and with a soft plop, they fell onto the thin, soft slip, creating a dark stain.

And soon, Roel lifted her tear-filled eyes to look at him.

Perhaps it was because her eyes were entirely reddened, but the droplets clinging to her lashes seemed not like tears, but like dewdrops on flower petals……

“Damn it−.”

He got up from his seat to stop thinking about such nonsense, and yet he was still thinking about Roel Ebelre?

Crazy bastard. Reus, who didn’t hesitate to curse at himself, stormed out of the office.