Neither Ashu’s grandfather nor the village chief could speak. Momentarily surprised by the unexpected appearance and aura, they were speechless at the sight of Sharti’s clean face.

So she wasn’t hiding her face because of terrible burn scars after all.

Sharti tightly gripped her hands resting on her thighs under the table. It felt strange and frightening to clearly see others not obscured by a hood.

Do I really have to go this far?

An echoing voice of self-reproach for her foolishness reverberated in her mind.

Thanks to that, the sound of her heart pounding in fear was drowned out.

‘Hoo…’

Sharti slowly loosened her hands that had been clenched so tightly her knuckles turned white.

Her trembling crimson eyes gradually filled with determination.

“Five years ago, there was a survivor who escaped from the Crianet royal palace.”

“…Crianet?”

The old man muttered with furrowed brows.

The village chief also seemed to have heard of it before. They couldn’t be expected to remember all the countless large and small kingdoms and tribe names besides Newiton. Moreover, it wasn’t strange for the residents of the hidden village to be unaware, being cut off from the outside world and stuck in the past.

“The Kingdom of Crianet, which became the starting point of the great war waged by the Newiton Empire, was destroyed along with its palace immediately after being defeated by the Newiton Empire.”

Instead of explaining the history of the Crianet Kingdom in detail, Sharti briefly and concisely announced only its final moments.

Sharti’s expression was calm as she conveyed only the facts without emotion.

It was almost as if a corpse was speaking.

“At the time of defeat, there was an illegitimate child in the Crianet royal family, and that child is me.”

She didn’t reveal that she had actually been a body double for Arisbyan, the Crianet princess.

In any case, the only survivor from the burned palace was Sharti, the illegitimate child.

Though she didn’t reveal the deeper, more complex truth, it was the truth without lies.

“By natural course, I should have perished along with the palace five years ago.”

Her voice grew quieter and trembled as her throat tightened.

Sharti rubbed her neck.

“But the fall of the kingdom damaged my throat rather than taking my life, and left scars on my body. I survived, but became someone who shouldn’t be alive. Holding onto a secret that would bring a fate worse than that day if discovered.”

She had returned from death, but it was so painful and frightening that she wished she had died.

Even in hiding, she always had to be prepared for death.

“But I wanted to live.”

More precisely, there were people who told her it was okay to live, who took her hand and lifted her up.

It was the Bireta family.

“I wanted to live without my secret being discovered, so I found a way not to be discovered, and learned the means to survive desperately until now.”

Her unwavering crimson eyes sparkled.

Her courage blooming amidst fear was unwavering.

“I’m glad I didn’t die back then. I’m glad I’m alive, not giving up while struggling even if it might be meaningless.”

Sharti cleared her trembling throat and smiled faintly.

“If I had been alone, I would have given up and chosen death, but there were people who helped me, and I was able to get up holding their hands.”

“…”

“Do you think someone like me needs a grand reason to save people?”

Because she knew how amazing a life that didn’t give up was.

It was simply because she received help, she could give help in return – a simple and clear reason.

Sharti smiled as if relieved after revealing the heavy secret she had been hiding.

“…”

The two people facing Sharti were silent.

The old man was lost in thought, while the village chief repeatedly opened and closed his mouth.

Sharti calmly waited without rushing their response.

“The doctor is…”

Just as the old man was about to speak with a deeply troubled face,

The door behind the old man opened with a creak as village officials poured in.

“…!”

Sharti stood up in surprise, hurriedly. But she was already surrounded in an instant.

A look of dismay crossed Sharti’s face.

Around the time Sharti was revealing her secret, Ren and Ashu had left the village with their monitor.

With no fog and good weather, they climbed the mountain quickly.

The further they got from the village, Ren wanted to keep looking back, but suppressed the urge by hurrying his steps.

‘Completing the task Sha entrusted me with takes priority.’

If he was too distracted worrying about Sharti to actually be of help to her, it would only prove his incompetence. He had to live up to Sharti’s trust.

Ren hurried. He ran at a pace he couldn’t maintain when with Sharti.

The monitor’s panting breaths eventually faded away. Having never come this far before, the monitor was bound to get lost.

“How careless.”

What use was a monitor who fell behind?

Thanks to that, however, Ren arrived unhindered at the spot where he had hidden the food and livestock stolen from Ashu’s village the night before.

Ren easily shouldered the livestock and sacks of food.

“I should hurry.”

Ren quickly crossed over a peak and arrived early at another village.

While waiting for the monitor, Ren roughly combed his wind-tousled hair.

He didn’t forget to wrap his face with the bandages he brought.

Shortly after, the monitor arrived staggering. Before the monitor could catch his breath, Ren entrusted him with handling the food exchange entirely.

‘He’ll be better at it than me.’

It was too much for Ren to approach strangers, strike up conversations, and negotiate exchanges.

Above all, no village would welcome an outsider with a bandaged face.

“Well… Since you don’t seem to have much eye for this, it’ll be faster if I check.”

The monitor, initially reluctant, cooperated willingly, likely worried Ren might accidentally reveal the hidden village through a slip of the tongue.

Ren crossed his arms and kept track of time.

Suddenly, the village scenery caught his eye.

“…”

While Ashu’s village had a static atmosphere, the village before him was bustling.

It was natural, given the different people living there.

As Ren gazed at the village, he unconsciously glanced to his side.

‘…Sha.’

Though he had been apart from Sharti before, this was the first time he had left her side so far away.

As soon as he realized this, Ren felt lonely.

And at the same time, an unfamiliar anxiety blossomed in his chest.

“I’m not a lost child.”

Ren looked up again to observe the villagers.

People laughing and chatting in a friendly atmosphere. And himself, unable to enter their circle, hovering around the edges.

It felt as if he had become an unwelcome, rejected existence.

“…!”

Ren stepped back instinctively at the visceral aversion.

He clicked his tongue at the fleeting unpleasantness that arose and disappeared.

‘I should stay in a quiet place.’

Fortunately, his mind eased as he came out to the village entrance.

Ren closed his eyes briefly, leaning the back of his head against a tree.

Quietness, solitude, stillness.

While instinctively feeling anxious at Sharti’s absence, Ren relied on the familiarity of silence.

Even with amnesia, could one not forget loneliness and desolation?

‘I didn’t expect this.’

The person he was before losing his memories really was pathetic.

Ren sneered at the hole in his memories that wouldn’t fill no matter how hard he tried.

“Seems I don’t want to go back that badly.”

Whether the reason his memories didn’t return was voluntary or involuntary no longer mattered.

His teal eyes glinted coldly.

“Though I’m not fond of ‘now’ either, it’s better than being pathetic.”

Although living with Sharti had led him to prioritize her over his memories, Ren secretly hoped his memories would return.

‘Because I want to repay Sha’s kindness.’

He wanted to face her proudly with a proper identity, expressing clear gratitude.

He had expectations too. Ren hoped he was someone of status or wealth who could give much to Sharti. And if Sharti allowed, he wanted to make her a safe haven, not in the mountains.

However, he had no intention of becoming pathetic again.

‘A pathetic person might not be able to properly repay kindness.’

Even if his memories returned, ‘Ren’ wouldn’t disappear, so his feelings for Sharti would remain.

But Ren didn’t want to reclaim the life of a ‘pathetic person’.

Even now, he felt sufficiently weak and useless by his own standards. If regaining his memories would only make him ‘less pathetic’, he saw no need to recover them.

“It’s done.”

As the monitor returned, Ren shook off his deepening contemplation filled with endless cynicism and contempt.

Ren shouldered all the exchanged food at once and jerked his chin at the monitor.

It meant to go straight to the next village.

Having gauged Ren’s speed, the monitor followed the instructions without unnecessary argument.

Thus, Ren continued going back and forth between Ashu’s village and other villages, procuring food.

All exchanges were finally completed by late afternoon.

Leaving the exhausted, staggering monitor to return on his own, Ren was on his way back to Ashu’s village.

“Ah! Doctor’s assistant!”

Along the way, he encountered Ashu.

Ashu ran towards Ren, waving his hand enthusiastically with a delighted expression.

“You’ve worked hard!”

“…”

Ren nodded briefly.

“You seem really fast. I heard you made three round trips while I made just one. I tried to speed up thinking I was too leisurely, but it was no use. Haha, actually I took short breaks because I was tired.”

Unlike Ren, who didn’t particularly want to converse, Ashu chattered on, matching Ren’s pace.

“It’s actually my first time being out of the village and wandering the mountains for so long, so I had trouble finding my way. I was also nervous about meeting strangers other than our villagers, so exchanges were almost difficult.”

“…”

Ren didn’t respond.

Ashu’s sudden friendliness felt out of place.

‘Sha isn’t even here.’

Until now, Ashu had never spoken to Ren. It was puzzling why he was suddenly acting friendly.

Then Ren frowned.

‘When Sha was here, he only talked to her.’

Ren stifled the emotion that suddenly welled up with a bitter laugh.

He didn’t want to show his childish displeasure.

“Um, assistant.”

Ashu cautiously opened his mouth while observing Ren’s reaction.

As Ren glanced at him, Ashu scratched his cheek sheepishly.

“If it’s not rude, may I ask how long you’ve known the doctor?”

“…?”

At Ren’s look that seemed to ask why he was curious, Ashu waved his hands.

“Actually, I heard you speaking informally to the doctor. It seemed… very close.”

Ren kept his mouth shut.

He couldn’t deny that the unconscious informal speech wasn’t without childish rivalry towards Ashu.

However, Ashu’s intention in pointing this out sounded strange.

“My master allowed it. Thanks to sharing many things over time.”

Though it was an embarrassing thing to say, Ren felt an odd thrill.

It was a very childish kind of victory.

“I see…!”

However, Ren felt uncomfortable at Ashu’s sparkling-eyed response.

He had a feeling something was wrong. As Ren belatedly tried to add something, Ashu muttered while rubbing his reddened cheeks.

“Then would you allow me too?”

Ren stopped abruptly.

Ashu turned to look at Ren with a hopeful smile.

“If I become closer to the doctor than now, would you treat me comfortably like the assistant?”

Ren’s face hardened.

It wasn’t simply reverence.

“Will you help me do that too? Please!”

Only after hearing another’s honest, pure confession could he accurately recognize his own state.

This was jealousy.