It was none other than the royal physician who stepped into the bedroom with a warm smile. The very same physician who had treated Sinclair’s shoulder just a few days ago.

“Judging by your complexion, it seems you have recovered quite well, Sir Sinclair.”

“I tend to have a pretty good recovery rate. Didn’t you know that?”

“Oh my, of course. I know that better than anyone else. It was so amazing during the last war, I must say.”

…… If you were going to call the physician like this, why did you ask me to wrap the bandages? Surely the physician’s skills would have been much better anyway.

He could have also checked the condition while disinfecting the wound. Elaina looked at Sinclair with a puzzled expression.

“Were these bandages changed directly by the Crown Princess?”

“Yes.”

“I was wondering if Sir Sinclair had finally gained a recovery ability beyond human limits, but it seems there was someone meticulously taking care of you.”

The physician chuckled.

“I’ve been taking the medicine well, and I just finished disinfecting and wrapping new bandages, so there’s no need to check my condition.”

“Then why call the physician in the first place…?”

The physician looked at Elaina, who was muttering to herself with a perplexed face, then slowly approached her.

He bent down and asked Elaina very carefully, looking up at her.

“Your Highness the Crown Princess, may I examine your leg for a moment?”

At the physician’s sudden words, Elaina hesitated for a moment. Watching her, Sinclair quietly parted his lips.

“I personally requested it.”

“…… Sinclair?”

“I asked him to check your current condition.”

It was early in the morning when Sinclair and Elaina were heading to the former empress’s villa that he brought up the topic of her leg to the physician.

Even while aware that what he was saying sounded foolish, Sinclair kept pleading with the physician.

“Of course, you can refuse if it makes you uncomfortable.”

“……”

“But I…… want you to get examined.”

He hoped that Elaina’s leg could be healed, even now. He wanted it to be fixable.

But deep down in his heart. At the very bottom of the bottom, Sinclair was not unaware of his true intentions.

Show the physician your damaged leg. And if you can grasp even a glimmer of hope that it can be fixed.

Then…… maybe we can start over again.

How pitiful and cowardly this thought was……

“……”

At Sinclair’s words, Elaina did not answer for a while. She just looked down at her damaged leg with a slightly chilled expression.

It would be a blatant lie to say that she had never held out hope that her leg could be healed since that day.

There were days when she fell asleep endlessly praying, not knowing if it would reach anyone.

If she could wake up. Open her eyes and walk as easily as before, just like that.

Begging as if she could do anything if only that wish was granted.

But her wish had never come true. The dreamlike hope she had held, however faintly, scattered like smoke over time, and before she knew it, it had disappeared without a trace as if she had never harbored such a thing.

This time would probably be no different.

Elaina thought to herself as she looked down at her subtly atrophied muscles and subtly twisted ankle.

But still, if that was what Sinclair wanted.

If she could respond to his consideration and concern, she could do that much.

Even if it was an examination with a predetermined outcome.

“Alright.”

So Elaina nodded and answered in a small voice.

“Please examine me.”

“……”

“But I’m not holding out much hope, so you can be honest…… and tell me without reservation.”

The physician nodded as if he understood what she meant, and Sinclair carefully sat next to Elaina.

Then he looked down at the physician, who was touching Elaina’s ankle this way and that.

“Hmm……”

The physician’s blunt and firm hands kept examining every nook and cranny of the damaged ankle. He occasionally frowned briefly and tilted his head as if puzzled.

He also slightly twisted the ankle and asked Elaina if she felt any pain, and threw questions about how she had lived since her leg was damaged.

After a considerable amount of time had passed.

The physician parted his lips with a slightly heavy expression.

“Sir Sinclair, Your Highness the Crown Princess……”

The physician’s flat voice settled quietly in the bedroom. As if it were a dirge.

Throughout his words, Sinclair did not reply or make any simple gestures like nodding.

He just sat there silently, biting his lip slightly……

And that was the entirety of Sinclair’s reaction.

Even though it was already night, Sinclair remained silent.

“……”

Elaina just quietly looked at Sinclair, who was sitting silently by the window.

Then she recalled what the physician had said earlier.

The physician glanced at Sinclair’s face and continued his words as if to comfort him.

It was an expected result. Of course, it wasn’t that she had no expectations at all, but Elaina listened to the physician’s words with her usual expression.

But Sinclair was different.

The person who actually received the definite verdict that this leg could never be healed was Elaina, but the one in a gloomy mood was Sinclair.

Was it last time when Schuler and Glen brought the bloodstained clothes? Or was it when he humiliated Melvin at the Aswald estate?

Sinclair’s appearance on those days was no exaggeration to say it was terrifying.

But now, he seemed to be in a much worse mood than on those days.

As if he was angry at someone.

“……”

Sinclair was sitting by the window, glaring at the dark night sky. To be precise, he was glaring at the past that kept coming to mind.

‘After returning to the imperial palace, if only I had sent someone.’

It wasn’t that the present Sinclair couldn’t have had the same thought as back then.

But at that time, it was when Yuria’s surveillance was at its peak. Yuria, who was worried that Sinclair, who had managed to return alive, might open his mouth, began receiving daily reports on his every move. In addition, even the people around Sinclair.

In such a situation, if he had sent a physician to Elaina, it would have been clear that Elaina would have been in danger as well.

It was an unavoidable situation, but Sinclair kept tormenting himself.

‘…… If I hadn’t let it slip then.’

If I had held your hand.

If I hadn’t run away alone.

Even if it meant I would die.

“Sinclair.”

No, if we hadn’t met in the first place.

If I hadn’t made you my salvation.

Then your leg wouldn’t have been damaged.

…… No, maybe the reason my heart aches so much right now is because of that wretchedness.

If there was hope that your leg could be healed even now, maybe we could go back to how we were before, I thought with that petty mindset.

Or maybe, I was afraid to hear it directly from the physician.

Even after hearing from you that your leg was hopeless……

“…… Sinclair.”

Lost in thought, Sinclair did not hear Elaina’s carefully spoken voice and continued to sink into the quagmire.

Elaina, who had been sitting on the bed, slowly got up. Then she began to approach Sinclair, who still did not even hear her presence.

It’s really strange.

Why do I always find you so pitiful? So sad-looking? So lonely-looking?

When you have never even honestly shared those feelings with me.

If you knew how I felt, would you mock me?

Or would you try to distance yourself like before, pretending not to notice?

Even though she knew well that it might be a foolish thing to do, Elaina reached out as if possessed by something.

And, without realizing it, she very carefully embraced his back, which felt lonely again today.

“……”