Ren’s straight and firm gaze held no trace of deceit.

Sharti bit her lip as her nose stung once again.

Who wouldn’t be moved by words prioritizing her over himself?

‘But……’

Sharti couldn’t fully rejoice.

That’s how the human heart was.

She felt empty at the thought of him leaving, and a strange sense of deprivation at being lonely again, but when the grace period was extended, she became frightened.

‘In case my vain hopes turn into greed.’

In case she ends up holding Ren back.

In case she troubles Ren with unworthy desires.

She was afraid of becoming such a person.

“I didn’t mean to burden you, but.”

When Sharti remained silent for a long time, Ren added a word with an embarrassed face.

Sharti wrinkled her nose, putting strength into her wavering eyes.

‘It’s not you, but me, I’m afraid I’ll be a burden to you.’

My secrets, my existence, even my future feelings.

Sharti calmly collected her emotions, taking slow breaths.

The answer was already decided.

‘It’s better to part ways now with someone who will leave anyway.’

Sharti moved her lips.

But the moment she put strength in her throat, Sharti coughed roughly.

“Ke, kehek, kek……!”

As she kept straining her dry throat, a sudden tearing pain came over her.

Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.

As Sharti kept coughing with her mouth covered, Ren hurriedly brought water.

“Drink slowly.”

Naturally, he seated Sharti on the sofa.

Not noticing Ren sitting on the floor, Sharti carefully drank the water gulp by gulp, trying to stop her unceasing cough.

She felt like she would live.

‘Using a voice I haven’t used in a while strained it.’

Since the terribleness of her voice hadn’t changed, she was late in noticing the signals her throat was sending.

‘Since Ren doesn’t react to my voice, I unconsciously let it out.’

It was a problem that words came out without going through thought.

Sharti rubbed her throat.

The pain in her throat was familiar, but this kind of worry was a bit unfamiliar.

“Are you alright?”

Only then noticing Ren sitting on the floor, Sharti nodded while avoiding his gaze. Silently looking up at her, Ren vaguely guessed her answer.

It wasn’t unexpected. It was something he had prepared for.

He knew well how many complex and serious worries and anxieties that small head held.

And Ren was accustomed to her rejection. His response to it was set.

“See, your body is refusing.”

“……?”

Ren grinned.

As it was his last chance, Ren became shameless.

He raised his body and leaned on the sofa’s armrest.

‘……Huh, huh?’

Trapped between his two arms, she found herself in a situation where she couldn’t move.

At Ren’s intimidating action, Sharti curled up, burying her back deep into the sofa.

Meanwhile, with Ren’s chest filling her vision, Sharti, not knowing where to look, tightly closed her eyes.

Her eyelids trembled in sync with her thumping heartbeat.

“Isn’t it that your body is preventing you from telling lies because you’re not being honest?”

For Sharti, it was an absurd situation.

Wasn’t it Ren who was blocking her with his body?

It was Ren who was blocking her like a cage with his large body, preventing her from escaping.

“I’m the one who received that offer, and I made the decision to stay. Of course, if you, Sha, drive me away, I have nothing to say, but if you think about it, there’s also a promise you made before that offer.”

Sharti recalled the promise she made to Ren in the cave.

She remembered the written conversation where she agreed to take care of him for the time being as their interests aligned.

There was some truth in Ren’s words, pointing out the facts.

‘But it was only for the time being, wasn’t it?’

Sharti swallowed the rebuttal she momentarily thought of.

It sounded like nitpicking no matter how she heard it. Instead, Sharti opened her mouth while fiddling with her throat where the pain had subsided a bit.

“Have you found any memories while staying with me? Did you have any memories come back?”

Her voice, muttered within the limits of not straining her throat, sounded eerie like a ghost’s.

With her hood on, it even sounded like the voice of a dead person.

Of course, Ren was only worried about her throat, not caring about her voice at all.

“I think I’ve been doing too well to recover memories lost due to shock.”

“In other words, as long as you stay here, Ren’s memories might not return.”

“……”

It wasn’t an assumption Ren hadn’t thought of either.

He had felt frustration and pessimistic depression as his lost memories showed no signs of returning.

So at first, Ren thought Bireta’s offer was beneficial.

“Do I, have to find my memories?”

“……Ren?”

Ren slowly moved his body back.

As Sharti slightly raised her gaze, she saw an expressionless face with no trace of a smile.

“What if my subconscious is refusing to find my memories? Can I even find them?”

“……!”

Sharti looked at him with surprised eyes.

After blurting it out, Ren tilted his head slightly, as if lost in thought.

“They say I was injured to the point of near death, why was I found hiding in a cave with such an injured body?”

Sharti unknowingly held her breath.

She recalled him pointing a sword with a fierce gaze during their first meeting.

Ren’s condition had been too severe, with his skin torn and stabbed and cut all over, leading to all sorts of speculations about his identity.

“So I became curious. Whether I lost my memories, or erased them.”

Ren looked at his palm.

His large hand, calloused, was rough and covered with small scars.

His entire body was like that.

“So I thought. Maybe I exchanged death for memories.”

In other words, his subconscious, facing imminent death, erased his memories to survive.

It was nonsense.

When Ren was found, he had injuries from physical impact to his head and was in a state of poisoning.

If one were to look for the cause of his memory loss, a medical approach would be correct.

“I almost died, so I think not recalling memories so far might be a kind of self-defense. I wouldn’t want to break this peace.”

It was an emotional inference.

However, Sharti, as a doctor, couldn’t deny Ren’s far-fetched imagination.

Rather, it sounded plausible, which was troubling.

‘No. I need to get a grip.’

Sharti, who had almost been swayed by Ren’s words for a moment, clenched her fist.

Despite losing his memories, Ren’s rhetoric was becoming increasingly subtle and skillful.

“Then you’re saying you won’t try to find your memories?”

“I just said that because it seems like you keep trying to send me away using my memories as an excuse.”

“It’s a fake name, a fake environment, a fake daily life. You should find the real thing.”

Ren’s eyebrows twitched.

It was a face of hurt feelings.

“Are you saying that I, who lost my memories, am fake?”

Realizing her mistake, Sharti quickly shook her head.

As Sharti was about to rise and open her mouth to correct her words, he stepped closer.

At the narrowed distance, Sharti sat back down on the sofa awkwardly.

“You speak as if ‘Ren’ would disappear if I find my memories.”

Struck at her core by Ren’s sarcasm, Sharti couldn’t say anything.

It felt like a stone was sitting on her chest, making her feel bloated.

“The me who finds my memories might not be ‘Ren’. But that doesn’t mean the current me will disappear. At least, I won’t disappear silently in front of you, Sha.”

Strength entered his voice that had been flat.

“I promise you. I swear on the name you gave me, I promise.”

“……”

“……Should I kneel for something like this?”

Sharti’s face softened at Ren’s words, which he added while mumbling seriously.

She couldn’t help but laugh, making her efforts to steel her heart and send him away seem foolish.

Sharti took a deep breath and exhaled.

Strangely, her heart felt lighter.

“But Ren doesn’t keep promises well. You keep using informal speech. You also lied.”

“That’s……”

Sharti crossed her arms.

“You used informal speech in front of the general store uncle too. You call Bireta grandmother ‘old hag’. You never intended to practice from the start, did you?”

“……”

As the atmosphere that had been flowing well suddenly went awry, Ren desperately racked his brains.

Sharti chuckled and uncrossed her arms.

“Still, make sure to keep the promise you just made.”

“……”

“Because it’s a promise you made on the name I gave you.”

“That means……”

Sharti frowned.

Ren had seen through the anxiety she had been hiding and declared it, so now Sharti had no excuses left.

So maybe she could trust Ren a little bit.

Maybe she could be honest, using him as an excuse.

“After we meet Bireta grandmother tomorrow, let’s go outside together. We’re out of water, so we need to fetch some. And I’ll teach you how to identify medicinal herbs. If we go back and forth a few times, you’ll quickly memorize the way home.”

“……”

“It’s best not to apply poisonous plants to your face as much as possible, so let’s find another method starting tomorrow. After that, I’ll show you paths with few people. So you can go out for fresh air whenever you feel stuffy.”

Throughout Sharti’s shy mumbling, Ren had a dumbfounded expression on his face.

Yet he engraved every word Sharti said in his mind without missing a single one.

“Ren?”

Ren, who had been watching the swaying hood following Sharti’s gaze, swallowed dryly.

Suddenly, the dull pain he had been feeling in his solar plexus spread throughout his entire body.

Relief? Or joy? At the indescribable tingling sensation, Ren let out a small exclamation, “Ha.”

“I told you, Sha.”

Ren grinned.

It was a comfortable and honest smile that naturally emerged.

“I’ll serve you with my body without lacking, my master.”

[This is the timeline separator]

Three days had ended.

Ren opened his mouth with an indifferent face.

“I will continue to stay here.”

“……”

Without adding any detailed reasons, Ren briefly announced his decision.

“Thank you for the offer.”

Ren bowed deeply at the waist in greeting.

Bireta glanced at Ren with a sour expression.

It was an obviously displeased look, but Bireta didn’t add any words to Ren’s decision.

“……”

However, Bireta’s gaze was too intense to just let it pass.

Ren reluctantly opened his mouth.

“Do you have something to say?”

“Nevermind.”

Clicking her tongue, Bireta turned her head away sharply.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t expected Ren’s decision.

But that didn’t mean she was comfortable leaving this dark beast by Sharti’s side.

Suppressing her complicated feelings, Bireta gestured to Tein in the living room.

“Go out for a bit and play with my grandson.”

Bireta went out to the balcony without waiting for Ren’s reply.

Then she headed towards Sharti, who was waiting for her with an anxious look.

“Sha, let’s talk for a moment, dear.”

Bireta called Sharti in a deliberately gentle tone.

With an expression that said ‘the inevitable has come’, Sharti solemnly followed her.

“Sha.”

Meanwhile, Ren called her as if he was about to follow along.

Before Bireta’s anger could pour out, Sharti waved her hand at him.

“The doctor is busy. The not-busy patient mister should play with me.”

“……I understand.”

Ren glanced at Bireta and went outside with Tein.

Heigu. Bireta shook her head with a sour expression.

Leaving the quiet living room behind, Bireta and Sharti headed to the bedroom.

“So. You decided to take in that mutt as a slave?”

Sharti laughed awkwardly.

There was a reason Ren called Bireta ‘old hag’.

Bireta snorted after reading the note.

“You even gave him a name.”

Sharti asked carefully.

Sharti hoped that Bireta would view Ren favorably.

As Sharti, caught in the middle, watched nervously, Bireta softened her expression.

“It seems that mutt didn’t blackmail you with your secret to stay.”

“……”

“You opened your heart to keep him. Right?”

Bireta’s wrinkled hand enveloped Sharti’s.

She had already noticed that Sharti’s secret had been discovered by Ren.

And Bireta’s offer to Ren was actually leaving the choice to Sharti.

“Then what’s there not to like?”

If Ren had said he wouldn’t stay by Sharti’s side, that he would leave, Bireta would have cut him down without hesitation.

Sharti’s secret must not leak outside this old log cabin.

It was the role of a guardian she had taken on from the moment she rescued the dying girl from the fire pit 5 years ago.

“That ill-mannered mutt even shows manners, afraid he might be driven away by you.”

Sharti chuckled.

It was the power of a promise, recalling the experience of almost being driven away once.

Sharti carefully revealed part of her inner thoughts only to Bireta.

“Yet you took him in.”

Bireta laughed softly and removed Sharti’s hood.

A white, pure face with clear red eyes was revealed.

She had only grown physically, but in Bireta’s eyes, she was still a young girl.

A girl living with fear tends to grow slowly.

“If you don’t understand, keep doubting, keep wondering, keep trying to know. That’s how everyone lives originally. And someday you’ll realize.”

Bireta swallowed a bitter smile secretly from Sharti.

5 years ago, Sharti, rescued by Bireta and cared for by Birena and Tein, was having the same worries as now.

“That you’ve been trusting him for a long time already.”

Why doubt someone you don’t trust? Just ignore them.

It’s because you want to trust that you doubt.

And because you don’t want to admit that fact, you stubbornly deny your feelings and wander like this.

“Sha, child. Rather than that, pay attention to something else.”

“……?”

“You now have someone you don’t need to use written conversation with, or wear a hood in front of.”

Meanwhile, Ren, who had gone outside, was belatedly introducing himself to Tein.

“My name is Ren. Your teacher gave me the name.”

“It’s a cool name!”

When Tein even clapped his hands, Ren nodded with satisfaction.

“Then will the patient mister continue to stay here?”

“We’ll probably see each other often, so call me Ren.”

“Understood!”

Tein enthusiastically nodded his small head up and down.

Ren patted the small head that was just the right size to grab.

Tein checked Ren’s condition, which he hadn’t been able to verify until now, and showed a surprised expression.

“You’ve almost fully recovered. The doctor’s medicine is the best, but Ren’s body is also the best.”

At the praise, the corners of Ren’s mouth fluttered.

That was only for a moment, as Tein blinked his bright eyes and asked an innocent question.

“But Ren, even though your body has fully recovered, do you continue to guard the house?”

“What?”

“People must work. The doctor also works hard to earn money. Doesn’t Ren help?”

Then, remembering how Ren had mistaken weeds for medicinal herbs and picked them, Tein made a pitying expression.

His small palm patted Ren’s forearm.

“Ren must make an effort. Otherwise, you’ll be driven out.”