“Blair.”

Herdin, who had been anxiously watching her, grabbed her slender arm urgently. Then, startled by his own agitated voice, he bit his lip.

Her captured arm felt so fragile that he worried it might break if he applied even a little too much force.

Herdin composed his heightened emotions and loosened his grip on her arm as he spoke.

“…You’re hallucinating right now. Calm down and stop—”

“No, I don’t want to.”

Blair resisted, pulling her arm free before he could finish speaking. Herdin’s eyes wavered at this.

Blair looked him straight in the eye as she continued.

“If I regain my memories and it turns out to be a false accusation, I’ll clear your name. But if it’s the truth, I’ll resent you for the rest of my life.”

She didn’t want to become a criminal, trapped by a past she couldn’t remember and whose truth she couldn’t know, nor did she want to feel wronged.

“I was sad too.”

“…”

“I was struggling too.”

“…”

“Having to doubt the person who loved me so much and my mother, confirming the truth… it was scary.”

As she began to speak the words she had swallowed in her past life out of fear of confronting him, the pent-up sorrow welled up. Tears she had been holding back rolled down her cheeks.

Blair swallowed her rising sobs and continued speaking, not letting her tears interrupt her words.

“But now, I don’t want to live covering things up without knowing anything just because it’s hard or scary anymore.”

Even if it was a relationship destined to end, she didn’t want to run away and give up in this life like she had in her past one.

Herdin’s fingertips trembled as he looked at Blair’s tear-filled eyes. He clenched his fist tightly, restraining his hand that wanted to move on its own.

Though she had looked at him with eyes on the verge of tears before, this was the first time she had actually shown her tears. Her confronting him first was also an unexpected sight.

Seeing her like this, he no longer wanted to fight with her. He couldn’t, to begin with.

“…I made a mistake.”

His low, husky voice resonated in the quiet room.

“I forgot that our contract is premised on cooperation. And that cooperation requires trust.”

“…”

“From now on, I won’t doubt or interrogate you like I did today.”

Blair stared blankly at him as he calmly apologized to her.

Although she had confronted him head-on, not wanting to repeat the relationship from her past life, she never imagined he would concede and apologize so readily.

While feeling relieved, a thought suddenly occurred to her.

What if, back then, I had confronted you even though I was scared?

Would our ending have been different? Could we have avoided taking such a long detour?

It was a question that couldn’t be answered now.

“Rest now. You must be very tired.”

Blair lay down on the bed as he suggested. She was indeed tired after going out for once, meeting a stranger, even fainting, and on top of that, arguing with Herdin.

After seeing Blair cover herself with the blanket, Herdin stood up and approached the fireplace.

As Blair peeked out from under the blanket with curious eyes, watching his back, his question came.

“Are you afraid if I light the fireplace?”

Caught off guard by his sudden question, Blair couldn’t answer right away.

Although she had become afraid because of the accident, she had never admitted with her own mouth that she was scared of something others found harmless.

She also wanted to hide it as much as possible since Katrina disliked bringing up that incident.

“Just sleep for now.”

Herdin lit a piece of paper with the lighter placed next to the fireplace and threw it inside.

He watched the bed intently, ready to put out the fire immediately if Blair had another fit, but after a while, contrary to his worries, he heard steady breathing. Occasional dry coughs were mixed in.

By the time the flames had stabilized on the firewood, Herdin threw in a few more logs and approached the sleeping Blair’s side to sit down.

Perhaps due to the warmth that had begun to permeate the room, a faint flush of color was returning to Blair’s pale cheeks. Her peacefully sleeping face looked just like a young girl’s.

Exactly like the day he first met her.

Over her face, still retaining the features of her childhood, Esmeralda’s voice he had heard sometime in the past suddenly came to mind.

‘That’s not her fault, is it? Blair is a good child. Regardless of what kind of person her mother is. Don’t you think so too?’

Suddenly, the day he first met Blair came to mind.

* * *

To be precise, it was a week after the day they first met.

A week after the New Year’s festival, Herdin visited the Empress’s palace again. Carrying the rabbit fur earmuffs that Blair had lent him.

Herdin held out the rabbit fur earmuffs to Esmeralda. Esmeralda tilted her head in confusion.

“Oh my, where did you get such a cute thing? Surely you didn’t prepare this tiny thing as a gift for me.”

“The Princess lent it to me. I brought it hoping you could return it to Her Highness.”

“Blair did? When?”

“…You didn’t hear about it?”

“What story? Blair didn’t say anything?”

The Princess was desperately trying to impress her aunt. So naturally, he thought she would have talked about that day to receive praise.

Suddenly, Blair’s words as she walked away from him that day came to mind.

‘I’ll keep today a secret for you.’

She really hadn’t told anyone, not even Esmeralda. Despite it being an opportunity to receive the praise she so desired.

Herdin was dumbfounded by this fact.

“Did something happen between you and Blair?”

Esmeralda asked with a very curious expression.

Herdin briefly explained what had happened that day. How Blair had followed him when he went out to the garden to catch his breath—he lied about this part to avoid worrying Esmeralda—and how she had given him the earmuffs to cover his ears.

Throughout the story, Esmeralda wore a smile that covered her entire face. As if she found the two children unbearably adorable.

After hearing the full account of that day, Esmeralda handed the earmuffs back to Herdin.

“Then you should return these yourself.”

“Pardon…?”

“The person who received the favor should go and express their gratitude properly. Are you trying to pass that task onto me? Your head’s getting bigger, and now you’re trying to use me as your errand girl?”

Although Esmeralda’s voice was full of playfulness, it was clear that her words weren’t entirely a joke.

Even to himself, he knew it wasn’t courteous to the person who had helped him to pass on the thank-you message through his aunt.

But he didn’t want to seek out Blair on his own.

Wasn’t the Princess that woman’s daughter?

His aunt was naturally a compassionate person, so it seemed she could even embrace that daughter, but he couldn’t. If possible, he wanted to avoid encountering her as much as he could. He was afraid that the innocent Princess might come to think of him as familiar.

“By the way, did you really wear these earmuffs? You must have looked cute. Why don’t you put them on once more in front of me?”

While he was seriously pondering, Esmeralda suddenly approached Herdin with the rabbit fur earmuffs. Her face was full of mischief.

Herdin recoiled at this.

“I didn’t wear them! I just held onto them.”

Esmeralda giggled at Herdin’s reaction, then put down the earmuffs with a somewhat disappointed expression. When she looked at Herdin again, her eyes were calmer than before.

“Herdin. Do you dislike Blair?”

Herdin couldn’t answer.

It wasn’t that he disliked the child herself. He disliked her background. So if he had to choose, it would be closer to dislike.

But he wasn’t skilled enough at lying to say he didn’t dislike her, and he didn’t want to say he did because it would make him seem narrow-minded unlike his aunt.

“Blair isn’t noisy like the children you dislike, and she doesn’t blindly hate or curse at you, right? And she helped you, didn’t she?”

Herdin, who had been silently listening to his aunt, opened his mouth.

“…But isn’t she that woman’s daughter?”

“You shouldn’t think like that. That’s not the child’s fault, is it?”

“…”

“Blair is a good child. Regardless of what kind of person her mother is. Don’t you think so too?”

Herdin couldn’t argue with those words. While it was impossible for him to think of Blair and Katrina separately, the Princess was indeed kind, as Esmeralda said.

He had been trying to deny this fact because his position dictated that he should dislike Blair.

“I’m sorry that you children have to be caught up in the narrow-minded relationships of adults.”

Esmeralda smiled bitterly, and Herdin looked at her and closed his mouth.

His aunt was a good person.

The one who had carefully looked after him when he lost his parents early. She was like a mother to him.

So, unable to go against such a person’s words, he eventually took the earmuffs and visited the Princess’s palace himself.

The knights guarding the front of the Princess’s palace were visibly flustered by the unexpected visit of the Duke of Delmark.

“I received a favor from the Princess during the New Year’s festival and have come to express my gratitude.”

As Herdin was explaining to the knights of the Princess’s palace, a small shadow fell from above.

Reflexively looking up, he saw Blair on the balcony, rubbing her still sleepy eyes.

Blair, blinking her half-closed eyes, suddenly slapped her cheeks with both hands. It seemed she was trying to wake herself up. Then their eyes suddenly met.

Her disheveled platinum blonde hair sparkled in the morning sunlight, and her purple eyes widened over her face, red from the cold air.

As a gasp escaped from between her small, gaping lips, her tiny face crumpled into a look of distress.

“Nanny!”

Blair’s voice faintly echoed as she ran back into the room. Words like ‘Oh no! The Duke of Delmark is here! I haven’t even washed my face yet…’ She didn’t seem to realize the balcony door hadn’t closed.

Herdin chuckled as he heard these words.

The widened eyes, the face crumpling into distress.

Just witnessing that made him think he had done well to listen to his aunt, on that winter morning.