“Ah, His Excellency has awakened!”

Nathan shouted as he ran down the corridor. His voice was so loud that it reached Jane’s office.

She dropped the pen she was holding and jumped up, running.

She didn’t even notice her loosely tied hair coming undone and fluttering behind her.

Then she arrived at Cain’s bedroom before anyone else.

Nathan, who had been running back and forth in the corridor, saw Jane and smiled brightly.

“His Excellency has awakened. Please go in.”

Nathan opened the door wide for Jane, who stood frozen.

It was a time when sunlight was pouring into the room. For a moment, her eyes narrowed at the sudden brightness, then widened.

In front of her, Cain was sitting on the bed with his back to the sun.

Unable to go inside, she watched Cain for a moment.

A whirlwind of emotions rose up. Not knowing what to say, she kept her mouth shut, and wanting to hug him tightly, she couldn’t step inside readily.

While she stood like a statue looking at Cain, others who arrived a step behind Jane lined up in the corridor.

“Is it true that the master has awakened?”

“Shh, just a moment.”

Nathan pushed the people murmuring to see the awakened Cain to the end of the corridor.

In Nathan’s opinion, Cain and Jane needed time alone.

His judgment was correct.

“Are you going to keep standing there?”

Cain spoke. His low voice carried an urging to come in quickly.

“…You’re awake.”

Jane managed to utter a word. Her voice was moist with emotion.

“Yes. I had to wake up.”

‘I couldn’t leave you alone.’

Cain swallowed the latter part.

“Is it really you? Cain…”

“Cain Hastings. Your husband, Joseph’s father. It’s me.”

At his answer, Jane staggered. Cain rushed to grab her waist. It was a speed unbelievable for a patient who had just woken up, but Jane had no leisure to consider such things.

He closed the door while tightly embracing Jane’s waist.

Then no sound disturbing the reunion of the two could cross the doorway.

“Cain… I’m not dreaming, am I?”

Jane whimpered.

“If you can’t believe it, touch me.”

Cain pulled Jane’s hand and placed it on his cheek. Normally she would have pulled her hand away immediately, but she followed his lead and caressed his handsome face.

Her hand passed over his forehead, which curved like a gentle hill, past his protruding brow bone, and touched his long eyelashes.

Cain closed his eyes to make it easier for Jane to touch.

Her touch didn’t stop. It cupped Cain’s gaunt cheeks, stroked his soft earlobe, and brushed his chapped lips.

“Jane, can you believe it now?”

The warmth was transmitted, but Jane still couldn’t relax.

She couldn’t easily believe he had awakened because it was too joyful. It was like a gift from God.

“Not yet.”

Jane wanted to feel more that Cain was fully awake. She wanted to confirm it properly.

Her hand slowly moved downward. Where it stopped was over Cain’s heart.

Jane pressed there with both hands and swallowed.

Thump-thump.

Feeling the pulsating heart with her palm, she closed her eyes. Only after feeling the heart beating fast and strong did Jane’s tense shoulders drop.

Cain has awakened. It’s not a dream but reality.

Seeing her relieved expression, Cain reached out and fiddled with Jane’s hair.

Seeing her hair, which was always neatly tied, now disheveled, he could naturally imagine how urgently she must have run.

It was fine even if Jane’s feelings for him were just sympathy.

Cain stroked her messy hair. Feeling the hair tickling between his fingers, the distance between the two gradually decreased.

“Cain…”

Cain opened his eyes and made a vow. That he would no longer live cowardly.

So he decided to be cowardly just until now, just until this moment when Jane was confused whether this was a dream or reality.

“It feels like a dream to me too, Jane.”

Cain pressed his forehead against hers. Their breaths mingled at a distance where their noses barely touched.

“I want to confirm it too. Whether this is a dream or not.”

Jane, her face held by Cain, looked at him with just her eyes. His eyes were filled with her.

“May I?”

Jane couldn’t push away Cain as he asked for permission. She raised her hand and lightly pulled his back.

He embraced her tightly as if someone had pushed his back forcefully.

His lips and Jane’s lips locked without a hint of gap. A thrill ran through their entire bodies.

This was a sensation only the living could feel, and Cain and Jane were grateful that they were both alive.

* * *

“He’s perfectly fine.”

After the doctor finished examining Cain and left, the Hastings household was turned upside down.

“F-Father…”

As soon as Joseph saw Cain, he ran up in one breath and hugged him. When Cain picked Joseph up, the child burrowed deeper into his embrace.

“F-Father, I w-was so w-worried.”

Joseph burst into tears. Cain patted the child’s back.

Although he usually disliked children crying, remembering how Joseph had been grieving while he was lying down, it was difficult to tell him to let go.

His selfishness had hurt the child. That was something he would have to make up for throughout his life.

“I’m sorry, Joseph. I showed you an incompetent side of me.”

“Sniff, no. F-Father is always cool and amazing. Y-You woke up like this, didn’t you?”

For Joseph, who had already lost a father once, Cain regaining consciousness was a great joy and healing.

Joseph cried until Cain’s shirt was soaked. When the child calmed down a bit, Mary stepped forward.

Mary glared at Cain with teary eyes.

“Because of you, young master, I’ve aged so much!”

“You’re still beautiful, Mary. You still look younger than your age. To age properly for your age, I should get shot a few more times, ow.”

Jane pinched Cain’s side, who was making sounds like his intestines were bursting, and gave him a look.

Cain was someone who couldn’t stand situations where others worried about him. Cain was usually in the position of worrying rather than being worried about, so it was awkward and embarrassing.

But sometimes he needed to endure those embarrassing situations. It was also his role to listen to their words and reassure those who had become anxious because of him.

“Try losing consciousness and being carried in one more time! That day will be the day this Mary leaves Hastings!”

“I’m sorry.”

Cain apologized cleanly. That one apology couldn’t completely soothe Mary’s upset feelings, but it was effective in stopping her nagging.

But the procession celebrating Cain’s awakening didn’t stop. Next was Norbert.

“This time I really thought something terrible would happen. Please don’t act recklessly in the future.”

He spoke calmly without changing his expression. Perhaps because of this, the weight carried by each word felt especially heavy.

“I understand. You must have had a hard time.”

Norbert withdrew without even giving a courteous reply. He seemed to have a lot built up as well.

After such a commotion, most of the people who had rushed in like a tide left. Only Cain, Jane, Nathan, and Mary remained in the room.

Mary, who had been secretly sniffling in the back, wiped her tears with the back of her hand and looked at Nathan.

“But Mr. Secretary, you don’t seem happy even though the young master has woken up? Like someone who knew beforehand.”

Sometimes Mary showed a frighteningly sharp side.

“What? Me? I’m so happy. I’m so happy I could dance.”

Nathan flailed his hands, pretending to dance.

Mary shook her head as if she had seen something terrible.

Jane chuckled.

Cain’s eyes lit up. It had been so long since he had seen Jane’s smile, his heart completely melted.

Throughout his sleep, he had worried he might never see her smile again. Of course, that smile would never be directed at him, but he wished for Jane to live smiling.

If she could smile, Cain could now do anything.

Even if it meant his own death.

His gaze lingered for a very long time on Jane’s smiling face.

* * *

Hastings’ daily life quickly found its place. Which means, Cain started receiving reports on the duchy’s affairs.

“Jane has done a lot of work.”

Four businesses initiated by her ideas were already underway. And this was in less than two weeks he had been bedridden.

“Yes, and all of them are well-received. Everyone is pleased that an excellent duchess has come in.”

Cain felt good as if he had been praised himself.

“So, speaking of which, how about entrusting the Jungfran development project to the mistress?”

For a moment, Cain hesitated.

“Leave it be.”

“Why? I think she’d do well.”

Cain also believed Jane would do well. But it was difficult to entrust her with work.

The Jungfran tourism complex development project was a long-term project that would take at least a year, even at the shortest estimate. He couldn’t assign such a task.

“Let’s try assigning it to her.”

Nathan didn’t give up. But Cain clearly expressed his refusal by turning over the report.

“You’re really strange. I think she’d do very well. Should I quietly mention it to her separately?”

“It’s no use even if you mention it. Jane will refuse.”

“How can you be so sure? This business idea was also proposed by the mistress.”

“I know.”

He had to know. But it was difficult to reveal the details to Nathan.

Suddenly, fatigue washed over him. Cain pressed his fingertips against his temples.

A certain night came to mind.

That night when Jane, thinking he was asleep, had poured out her true feelings.