There was no Delmark villa in this village.

More precisely, it was a small village near Ikar, and the nobility governing the domain also lived in Ikar.

So the only place Herdin could go after leaving Blair’s house was the inn at the entrance of the village where he had tied his horse.

Herdin collapsed onto the bed as soon as he entered the inn room.

Although Blair had threatened not to let him into the house again, her well-being was more important to him.

He hadn’t been able to do anything properly for her throughout the pregnancy, and he couldn’t risk giving her a cold on top of that.

‘I’ll feel better after some sleep.’

He closed his eyes, exhaling hot breath.

He fell into and out of fitful sleep several times as his fever rose. Suddenly, he opened his eyes to a cool sensation brushing against his face. Beyond his blurry vision, he saw a familiar figure.

“…Blair?”

The hand wiping his face with a wet towel paused. At the same time, her eyes that met his trembled slightly.

Herdin raised his heavy body. His brow furrowed as he looked at her swollen belly.

“Why did you come? I told you you might catch a cold.”

Blair’s expression twisted with resentment at his attempt to push her away as soon as he saw her.

“You said you wanted to see me.”

“That’s—”

“You said you wanted a chance.”

“…”

“Are you going to push me away again under the pretext of protecting me, like you did in the past?”

Seeing him trying to push her away overlapped with his actions in her past life, and it made her angry. Unlike yesterday when she could speak calmly, emotions welled up.

Feeling this, Herdin hesitated. Blair steadied her choked voice and continued.

“You’re always like this. Acting unilaterally for my sake.”

“…”

“Without proper explanation, I always find out the reason much later. And it makes me the bad person for resenting you for making choices for my sake.”

I thought that his love and my love were just different.

Although his love hurt me, it wasn’t wrong. Just different. He clearly loved me, and those feelings were sincere.

That’s why I chose to part ways with him.

Because it wasn’t wrong, just different, I shouldn’t condemn him as bad.

I thought somewhere in this world, there would be someone who would be happy with his love…

But he came back to me. And seeing him repeat the same behavior after coming back, I realized.

His unilateral love was wrong.

I, who loved him so much, only now realize that I had masked even that love of his with the word ‘different’.

And also the fact that my leaving his side wasn’t for his sake, but because I lacked the courage to be loved and hurt again.

“Do you know how… lonely and miserable that side of you makes me feel?”

The tears and sorrow I had been trying to hold back burst forth.

Herdin, who had hesitated momentarily at Blair’s tears, reached out his arms as if to embrace her but then lowered them. Instead, his hand touched her wet cheek.

“I’m sorry. It’s… it’s all my fault.”

“…”

“I’ll fix everything. I’ll listen to you. So please don’t cry.”

Herdin’s fingertips wiping away her tears, his eyes looking at Blair, were trembling slightly.

Blair cried even more at the sight of him like this.

The man who feared nothing in the world feared everything in front of her.

In his fingertips, in his voice, in his eyes… The emotion felt in everything of his directed at her was clearly love.

Blair, having barely composed herself, grasped his hand.

Looking into his eyes, Blair said,

“Herdin. I don’t want you to unconditionally obey me.”

“…Then?”

“What I want is for us to adjust to each other on equal footing for any problem. Talk together, worry together, solve together.”

“…”

“That’s what being a married couple means.”

Herdin stared blankly at Blair speaking those words for a moment.

Married couple.

That word binding her and him was absolute to him more than anything else.

“Alright, I will. I’ll definitely do that.”

Herdin readily agreed, grasping her hand with his fever-hot hand. His hand, no longer running away, held sincerity.

Feeling this, Blair gradually stopped crying. Belatedly embarrassed by her tears, she pulled her hand away and said,

“…Sleep a bit more. Your fever hasn’t gone down yet.”

But Herdin didn’t lie down immediately and kept staring at her. He seemed to have something to say.

As Blair looked at him questioningly, Herdin opened his mouth.

“If I fall asleep, will you leave?”

Blair blinked at that question.

He had been pushing her away earlier, trying to escape from her however he could. Now he seemed anxious that she might leave.

“Do you want me to stay?”

After pondering for a moment, Herdin answered.

“For now, you should go back, and let me come find you. …Of course, not right away.”

Only then did she remember that she had threatened not to let him back into the house.

Herdin pressed for her answer.

“Will you allow it?”

I loved him, and still love him.

And just as much, I hated him for making me lonely in my past life.

I remember that despair when the only person I could rely on, the world I trusted, crumbled.

But seeing him lying sick in an empty inn, afraid of giving me a cold, his past self overlapped, and suddenly I thought,

‘You must have been hurting as much as I was in your past life.’

In places I didn’t know, hurting me for my own sake… you must have been struggling too.

When I faced his true feelings of wanting to be with me even as he pushed me away, the loneliness he must have endured alone suddenly hit me.

All resentment became futile in the face of his sincerity.

Because you love me, and I love you too.

All the things that made us drift apart in the past have been resolved, and only loving each other remains. So I decided to let go of past emotions now.

After carefully sorting out her feelings, Blair looked into his eyes and slowly opened her mouth.

“If you obediently get examined and recover.”

Blair stayed by his side for quite a while after that. Until the doctor came to examine him, and he took his medicine and fell asleep.

* * *

“Mmm…”

The next day, Lina greeted a refreshing morning as usual. At least until she remembered the snow that had been falling all night.

When she was young, snow was purely enjoyable, but now that she was in charge of clearing it… Well. Just thinking about it made her arms ache from shoveling snow so diligently yesterday.

“…I’d better eat breakfast first before clearing it.”

Because our precious madam and baby mustn’t get hurt.

Thinking this, Lina was about to open the window for ventilation when she paused.

“Huh?”

Someone had already taken care of it, as the snow was piled up on one side of the yard.

She suspected Melly based on the empty bed next to her, but Melly was too small and weak to clear all that snow. Nilda was quite strong, but even she couldn’t have managed it all alone.

‘Well, who cares who cleared it.’

The important thing is that I don’t have to do it!

Stretching with a big yawn, she came down to the first floor to find Nilda and Melly preparing breakfast as usual.

And in front of the fireplace sat Blair, dressed for going out.

“Madam, good—”

Lina, about to casually greet Blair, swallowed her words as she heard Herdin’s voice from beside her.

The troublemaker who had come late the night before yesterday and disappeared with a sick body, making Blair worry, was now tying the laces of her shoes that had become tight due to her swollen belly.

He had seemed very ill, but now he looked perfectly fine after just one night. So much so that it seemed like it might have all been a ploy to stay by Blair’s side.

“All done now.”

Herdin stood up and helped Blair rise. Leaning on him to lift her heavy body, Blair turned to Lina.

“We’re going out for a bit.”

Lina nodded reflexively.

Herdin supported Blair, almost embracing her, as they headed out the front door.

Through the closing door came Blair’s soft voice and Herdin’s low chuckle.

Lina quietly watched the two through the window.

Herdin couldn’t leave Blair’s side, afraid she might fall, and Blair leaned her whole body against him as they walked. They talked, occasionally making eye contact.

As Lina watched the two, Melly approached her side and offered her a warm cup of tea, breaking the silence.

“Madam looks happy now, doesn’t she?”

Blair had been managing well on her own without Herdin, but as Melly said, she now looked more settled with him by her side.

Lina smiled, as if conceding.

“Yes, she does.”

Although she still disliked the man who had made Blair sad, she thought that if Blair was happy, that was what mattered.

Lina and Melly watched Blair and Herdin’s retreating figures as they warmed themselves with the hot tea.

They had a happy premonition that the days to come would be filled with similar scenes.