Relieved by Len’s following words, Sharletti’s shoulders slumped.

Looking down, Len stared intently at the long robe Sharletti wore without trying to lift it.

“You must have been busy, especially since there were many injured soldiers, and you would have used various herbs for treatment, just like you did for me.”

“…….”

“It’s also likely that your fatigue worsened because you didn’t properly rest after running away with me last night.”

His voice wasn’t reproachful; instead, Sharletti just fidgeted with her fingers.

It was embarrassing that everything he said seemed like a concern for her.

“If you have to keep going to the village, it’s better to relieve the fatigue in your legs.”

He looked up at Sharletti.

“If you allow me, I can help you relax them. No… I want to.”

Sharletti blinked.

Then she rolled her eyes.

‘So… um, he wants to give me a massage right now?’

It seemed he was planning to massage her legs, considering he was supporting her feet.

Sharletti made a troubled face.

Even if wrapped in a towel, it was uncomfortable to have physical contact with someone other than through her palms.

“If you don’t want it, I won’t do it.”

His straightforward words contrasted with his sincere expression.

He was begging her with his eyes to let him do this.

Len, noticing Sharletti’s hesitation, calmly lowered his eyelids.

The mist was rising in his eyes.

“Just try it, and if you don’t like it, you can kick me away immediately.”

Len offered a compromise.

He agreed to massage only her calves and to do it over a towel. Only then did Sharletti give her consent.

Sharletti watched warily, not fully lowering her guard, as Len began.

“I won’t do it too hard. But if it hurts, just bear it a little.”

Then he handed her a broomstick.

It meant that if it hurt, she should hit him with the broomstick to signal him. Realizing this, Sharletti let out a small laugh.

Then she quickly gathered her smile.

‘I can’t tell who’s the patient and who’s the doctor.’

Sharletti only wanted the distance between a patient and a doctor.

But now, she, the doctor, was being cared for by the patient.

‘I should have refused.’

But she understood Len’s intention.

Eventually, Sharletti let him proceed as he wished.

After wrapping Sharletti’s legs in a towel, Len started the massage.
When Sharletti flinched, worried that her burn scars might be seen, Len immediately stopped his hand.

“I will do it.”

Len observed Sharletti’s reaction for a moment before continuing the massage more cautiously.

Gradually, Sharletti’s body, which had been tense, began to relax.

‘Hmm…?’

It hurt. But it didn’t hurt.

It was an honest massage, focusing solely on loosening the muscles without unnecessary force.

Sharletti slowly closed and opened her eyes while watching Len, who was concentrating on the massage.

‘Strange man.’

And unexpectedly, a good person.

Bear. Patient. Scary person. Patient. Amnesiac. Mysterious. Strange man.

A faint smile appeared on Sharletti’s face as she thought of words to describe Len.

‘A person who… worried about me…’

Sharletti’s eyes slowly closed.

Her consciousness drifted away.

Steady breathing could be heard.

Len, who had been focused on the massage, raised his head to look at Sharletti.

Her shoulders were rhythmically rising and falling.

‘Seems I did it right.’

Len, who had been nervous about his first massage, relaxed his hands.

Carefully, he lowered her legs and stood up.

He brought a blanket and covered Sharletti with it.

He wanted to move her to the bed but didn’t want to wake her from her deep sleep.

‘I can’t overstep and push her away again.’

Watching Sharletti sleep soundly, the man tilted his head.

“…….”

Her wheat-colored hair spilled out from under the hoodie as she lay nestled in the sofa.

He waited a bit to see if her hoodie would come off, but it didn’t.

“She sleeps so peacefully.”

A hint of unfulfilled expectation showed in his voice.

He suppressed his curiosity.

‘Will I get to see her again?’

He wanted to see Sharletti’s face again.

He couldn’t remember it from when their eyes met in the cave, as his mind went blank in that moment.

Not by chance, not vaguely, not momentarily, not dimly, but properly, he wanted to see her.

Len sat down again in front of the sofa.

“Will she eventually allow me to look her in the eyes and have a conversation?”

It was a hope without a promise. But strangely, he wasn’t in a hurry.

It was like the faith he had held all day while waiting for Sharletti to return, a baseless belief that she would come back and not abandon him.

Len frowned in self-deprecation.

“Such a foolish thought.”

Logically, it would be more efficient and quicker for him to regain his memory than to receive Sharletti’s permission.

Len’s eyes turned cold as he roughly scratched his head.

‘Will my memory ever come back? And if it does, and it’s not something hopeful, what then?’

He needed to be patient.

But alone in the empty house, worst-case scenarios, such as being a real criminal, a runaway slave, or a fugitive, kept unfolding in his mind.

Without medical knowledge, he needed to prepare himself for the worst.

“But no matter how much I think about it, it’s strange.”

He remembered time, could read letters, knew the word ‘criminal,’ and understood that a runaway slave committing a grave crime, yet key information was missing.

Like knowing the name of the Newiton Empire but not the details.

‘It’s unnatural.’

It seemed too incongruent to be a post-accident condition.

However, Len stopped thinking.

Digging deeper into his memory only made his head feel overloaded, preventing further exploration.

“Phew…….”

Len leaned his head back and stared into the void.

‘I can’t keep living like this forever.’

He increasingly disliked leeching off this small, innocent doctor.

Of course, at first, he aimed for the treatment and protection, including food and shelter.
So, he had been acting pitiful and seeking sympathy to break down Sharletti’s ironclad defenses.

However, his intention was not to rely passively on her for everything, merely hoping that Sharletti wouldn’t abandon him.

‘Frustrating, isn’t it? I’m full.’

When he heard Sharletti’s faint breathing, Len immediately ceased his complex thoughts.

He should have gone back to his room, leaving the sleeping Sharletti, but found himself unable to move away.

Instead, he sat at a distance from Sharletti, leaning against the wall.

“Do you know what it means to name someone, Shar?”

I know.

Len whispered softly, smiling to himself.

By naming him ‘Ren,’ Sharletti acknowledged him as a person.

Unaware of what it meant to him, Sharletti had given a name to Ren, who had been floundering without a grasp on his identity since he opened his eyes.

Leaning against the wall, Ren quietly closed his eyes.

Early in the morning, Sharletti, like a stealthy cat, quietly left the house after preparing to go out.

Continuously looking back, she hurried down the mountain trail.

It was only after descending a fair distance that Sharletti’s pace slowed.

‘Haah…’

She breathed a deep sigh of relief and tightly closed her eyes.

‘When did I fall asleep?’

She had been startled upon waking up at dawn to see Ren’s figure.

There was no time to rub her tired eyes.

She had to hastily escape the sofa and hide in her bedroom, muffling her mouth.

‘Even if I was tired, how could I fall asleep like that?’

Sharletti scolded herself for falling asleep in such a vulnerable state in front of Ren.

Moreover, she remembered falling asleep during the massage he gave her, but couldn’t understand why Ren was curled up on the living room floor, sleeping.

‘And without even covering himself with a blanket.’

Unlike her, who was enveloped in the warm comfort of a blanket, Ren had fallen asleep leaning against the wall, uncovered.

Receiving such one-sided consideration made her feel uneasy.