Maris General Hospital was bustling with the sudden visit of an honored guest. In contrast, the hospital room where the guest was staying was quiet with a suffocating tension.

“It seems you fainted due to lack of oxygen. You’re also in a state of dehydration and malnutrition, possibly from not eating properly during that time.”

The hospital director, who was explaining his findings, took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat running down his forehead. Throughout the examination, he had to concentrate all his nerves as if performing surgery. It was because of the Grand Duke watching with a stern gaze beside him.

“Fortunately, there’s no major threat to your life. You just need to rest and recover your strength.”

“You’ve done well. You may leave now.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

At Caeron’s words, the hospital director bowed deeply with a reverent expression. The director had also been rushed to examine the Grand Duchess due to her unexpected hospitalization. Having safely completed the examination, the director left the room with a relieved face.

Gregory, who had been watching from the side, also relaxed his tense expression. After rescuing the kidnapped Grand Duchess, they had urgently brought her to a nearby hospital when she lost consciousness.

Now that he confirmed the Grand Duchess was safe, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief. However, Gregory’s concerned gaze soon turned to the Grand Duke, who was looking solely at the Grand Duchess.

“Your Highness, since the Duchess seems to be safe, perhaps you should rest for a moment. I’ll call for a maid to guard the room.”

“No. I’ll stay. Everyone else, leave.”

Gregory suggested rest to the Grand Duke, who hadn’t slept properly since the Grand Duchess’s disappearance, but he shook his head as if to say it wasn’t necessary.

“Understood. I’ll be waiting outside the room.”

Finally, at the Grand Duke’s order, Gregory left the room with a heavy expression. Left alone in the room, Caeron approached the bedside and sat in the chair placed nearby.

His gaze, filled with affection, settled on the face of the woman lying with her eyes tightly closed. Her appearance, with pale skin lacking color and delicate features, was like a porcelain doll.

“Aidel…”

Caeron called her name in a low, husky voice, carefully placing his hand on the woman’s pale cheek. He could feel a faint warmth and pulse beneath his palm.

She was clearly alive. Even though he had confirmed this directly and heard from the hospital director that there was no major threat to her life… somehow his heart wouldn’t ease easily.

Was it because of the shock he felt when he found her collapsed motionlessly in the hidden room on the ship? It seemed this anxiety could only be resolved when she opened her eyes.

He moved his hand from Aidel’s face and grasped her left hand resting on the sheet. He took out the Grand Duchess’s engagement ring he had been keeping in his pocket and slipped it onto her ring finger.

As he looked at it back in its rightful place, Caeron’s eyes suddenly contorted. It was because of the bandage wrapped around her slender wrist below her fingers. Beneath that bandage would be red marks left from being tied with ropes for days.

‘How dare they…!’

Rage towards those who had kidnapped and threatened her began to rise again. Along with it, his eyelids twitched painfully. As if he too had a wound similar to the one left on her wrist.

Even in the kidnapping situation, Aidel had done her best to request rescue and act composedly as much as she could. But surely, the time she endured alone must have been frightening and difficult.

‘The reason she was put in danger…’

The reason was clear. Because Aidel was by his side as the Grand Duchess. The blade of Douglas’s revenge aimed at him had been directed at her instead.

Douglas’s move to target the Grand Duchess rather than attack him directly was very effective. From the moment she was kidnapped, he felt for the first time as if his blood was draining every minute and second.

Anxiety, impatience, anger, despair, fear… As he recalled the emotions he felt for the first time during the time she was gone, he lowered his head and clenched his jaw.

Although he had safely recovered her, at the same time he was gripped by a different kind of threat. It stemmed from the weight of existence he realized due to her absence.

‘The reason I kept her by my side…’

That reason was also clear. To freely indulge in her scent that shook his reason and aroused blind desire.

He had thought that if he kept her by his side, her presence would soon become familiar and eventually fade. If that happened, he believed there would no longer be anything to shake him.

‘But… it wasn’t so.’

He realized that her presence that had penetrated him had only grown stronger. When she left his embrace even for a moment during this kidnapping, paradoxically, the sense of loss hit him too intensely.

In the end, he had to admit it. Her existence was… his only weakness now.

‘There’s no guarantee this won’t happen again in the future.’

He still had things left to do. It was what he had resolved to do and had been preparing for since he voluntarily relinquished his position as Crown Prince.

For that task, there were still enemies to fight, and in that process, their blades would be aimed at him. And if they couldn’t stab him, as in this incident, they would try to harm the Grand Duchess beside him.

‘What should I do…’

The unquenched thirst for her was still there. The desire to keep her by his side and the conflicting emotion that he should distance her, who could become his weakness and be attacked in his stead, clashed simultaneously.

It was then.

“…ron…”

“…!”

A faint voice penetrated his ears as he was caught in a whirlpool of intense emotions that bound his entire body.

“…Caeron…”

The small voice, exhaled like a labored breath, was clearly calling his name. As soon as he heard that voice, he raised his buried head to look at Aidel’s face.

“Aidel!”

Aidel, with her eyes slightly open, was looking at him. She blinked slowly, perhaps due to her flickering vision.

“Is it… really you…?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“Is… Joie safe?”

“That child is safe.”

“And the others… kidnapped with me?”

“They’ve been rescued too.”

“That’s a relief…”

Even though she hadn’t recovered her strength and even speaking seemed difficult, it was just like her to ask about others’ well-being as soon as she opened her eyes.

“Everything’s alright now, so rest easy and get plenty of sleep.”

Caeron gently stroked her left hand that he was holding, comforting her in a low voice. Finally, a smile spread across Aidel’s lips as she confirmed that everyone was safe.

As her anxious heart settled, she could fully feel his presence beside her at last.

‘He came for me. And he stayed by my side…’

As his warmth enveloping her hand seeped in, her eyes began to burn. Her throat tightened with emotion welling up from deep within her chest.

“…There’s something… I want to say.”

From the moment she chose the cravat to gift him, until the moment she was trapped in the suffocating darkness… Aidel’s eyes, looking at Caeron, the one person she had longed for so desperately, flickered softly.

Like the light encountered after being plunged into long darkness, his existence that had saved her was engraved even more deeply within her.

Although the gift she had prepared wasn’t with her, she wanted to convey it right away. Her feelings for him…

Caeron’s eyes, meeting Aidel’s gaze, suddenly hardened with a distant light. As if overwhelmed by her gaze, he couldn’t move his body.

What emotion was contained in those pure and upright eyes without a trace of falsehood, what words she wanted to convey to him with that gaze full of emotional density…

He seemed to already know, even without her saying it.

He had clearly been waiting for her to express her inner desire for him, but…

“I…”

“Aidel.”

In that moment, he cut off her words.

“Let’s talk later and rest for now. You look too exhausted to even speak.”

His voice was gentle but firm. At this polite refusal to continue the conversation, Aidel’s eyes wavered. He raised one hand to cover her eyes as if shielding them.

“Close your eyes and sleep a while. We’ll talk again after you’ve recovered your strength.”

“…Alright.”

It was strange. The warmth of his body touching her eyelids was still hot, but somehow the temperature seeping into her heart felt different from before.

‘It’s okay. I can tell him again.’

The feelings she wanted to express to him weren’t disappearing. As he said, it would be better to convey them properly after recovering her body.

Comforting herself like that, Aidel slowly closed her tired eyelids. However, her heart sank into confusion like her consciousness, unable to shake off the subtle emotion.

Caeron removed his hand that had been covering her eyes as he felt the fluttering of her eyelashes cease.

His face, looking at the woman who had fallen back into deep sleep, was still immersed in complex thoughts.

He instinctively knew.

‘If I had heard her words…’

The anguish clashing within him would only deepen.

Her existence was still in an unsettled state for him. This contradictory emotion he felt towards her was also still in an undefined state.

A long time passed as he gazed at the sleeping Aidel. Caeron, who had been deeply lost in thought, rose from his seat.

“Your Highness…!”

As he came out of the hospital room, Gregory and the attendants waiting outside straightened their postures. Caeron opened his mouth towards Gregory.

“The Grand Duchess woke up briefly and fell asleep again.”

“That’s such a relief!”

“As soon as she recovers her strength somewhat, take the Grand Duchess to the Grand Ducal castle. Make arrangements for her to recuperate there for a while.”

“Yes, understood.”

The Ellios Grand Ducal castle, which contained a recuperation forest, was not far from Maris.

Gregory also thought it would be more appropriate for the Grand Duchess to recover at the nearby Grand Ducal castle rather than returning to the Grand Ducal residence in the capital, which would take a day’s train ride.

However…

“But, Your Highness…”

Gregory, who had received the Grand Duke’s order, questioned with a puzzled expression. It was because he sensed something off about Caeron’s words. Somehow, the Grand Duke’s tone seemed to imply that he would not be going to the Grand Ducal castle together.

“I will not be accompanying.”

“What? Why…”

“Because I have somewhere I need to go.”

“Where are you going… Your, Your Highness…!”

Having finished speaking, Caeron immediately turned his back and walked out of the hospital. Unable to leave his post after receiving orders to attend to the Grand Duchess, Gregory stomped his feet as he watched his retreating figure.

Despite Gregory’s desperate calls, Caeron’s footsteps showed no hesitation. Just like his eyes, which had been gleaming with determination since leaving Aidel’s hospital room.