“……What…….”

My body swayed with the gentle touch.

A large hand supporting my back, fingers touching the inside of my wrist, a pleasantly cool and refreshing scent. These were things that wouldn’t have bothered me much under normal circumstances, but in an instant, my face flushed hot.

“You know, right, Noona?”

A whisper tickled my ear.

“How much I yearned for you. How absolute you were to me.”

The hand around my waist exerted a bit more pressure. I couldn’t move at all, stuck in place.

Kilian’s voice seemed to echo vividly in my ears and, at the same time, reverberated as if underwater.

I couldn’t think straight. I didn’t know if I really understood or not. I didn’t know why I was struggling to breathe like this.

“How much I wanted you, Noona.”

I trembled in his firm embrace. Whether it was because of surprise or for some other reason, my heart suddenly started beating violently.

“I…”

I tried to speak, but my dried-up lips wouldn’t easily part. In the end, I stopped talking and just bit my lips, chewing on them. Soon, a bitter taste of blood lingered in my mouth.

“As expected.”

Kilian let go of me lightly.

“You hate it.”

With a click, the door opened again. As the light seeped in from outside, Kilian, with a vague smile, appeared.

“I’m sorry for bothering you. It must be tough for you to come back here.”

Kilian hesitated for a moment and then ruffled my hair.

“I won’t appear in front of Noona again.”

A faint breath flowed out, and I was left alone.

I reached out my hand, but it was already too late.

I spent the night with wide-open eyes.

The splitting headache and sharp ringing no longer tormented me, but my heart still raced madly.

For some reason, feeling uncomfortable, I tossed and turned several times. The warmth seemed to linger where Kilian had touched.

Through the slightly open window, the scent of peppermint seemed to waft in, and even though the annoying ringing no longer plagued me, the sound lingering in my ears was not the ringing but Kilian’s low whisper.

“How much I yearned for you. How absolute you were to me.”

If he truly didn’t know, it would be a lie. Kilian had always followed me since we were young.

But…

“Sister was never a sister to me. Different for a woman.”

As I recalled those words, I shivered again. I couldn’t define the strange sensation. My chest swelled to the point of suffocation, and my heart pounded painfully.

I turned to lie on my side. For some reason, I couldn’t stay still.

Whether it was because of surprise or for some other reason…

Even I didn’t know the identity of this strange feeling.

“As expected, you hate it.”

Kilian’s low voice echoed again.

Do I really hate it?

I turned to lie down again.
I couldn’t provide a proper answer. But one thing was certain.

The last image of Kilian’s face came to mind. A smile that barely lifted on one side, eyebrows that couldn’t quite hide a slight grimace, and eyes that seemed both sad and resigned.

“I won’t appear in front of Noona again.”

I hated that.

The letter that was in Marquis Magné’s hands was crumpled. It was a letter from Hiss.

It contained news that external pressure from the king was coming, urging the release of Madeleine Pâle. Hiss’s excuse was that Madeleine Pâle couldn’t be killed rashly as long as the king was watching.

“She seemed nothing special, that common girl, and… How did she end up catching the king’s attention?”

Marquis Magné twisted his temple. Despite setting up a 3-way surveillance with magical stones to monitor Reyna, neither the marquis nor Madeleine Pâle’s name had come up during that time.

The duke and duchess firmly believed that she had lost her memory for two years and had suffered an undisclosed accident.

The king personally scrutinizing a common organization with no prominent background? It was already too late when they realized that some information had leaked through that common girl.

“We have to accelerate the plan.”

Marquis Magné, biting his fingernails, quickly wrote a letter urging the export of Cressia magical stones.

At that moment, a servant burst into the room without knocking.

“What is it?!”

As Marquis Magné shouted, the servant promptly extended a magical stone.

“Right now, Sir Kilian.”

Without needing to hear more, Marquis Magné snatched the magical stone.

Despite instructing the servant to keep an eye on the common girl, she had not stepped out of her room since arriving at the duke’s residence. Except for a doctor or a maid, no one entered.

But today was different.

As the servant described, Kilian’s figure appeared inside the magical stone.

Marquis Magné began to eavesdrop on their conversation.

After a while, he put down the magical stone. Once Kilian disappeared, the common girl immediately headed for the bed, and it seemed she wouldn’t be coming out for a while.

“Indeed, he could be useful.”

It was undoubtedly an extraordinary existence to Kilian. Even if betrayed, he would rampage according to his nature unless he was released.