I spent most of the night wide awake.

I thought I had barely fallen asleep, but due to extreme tension, I couldn’t sleep soundly.

I don’t know how many times I drifted in and out of sleep, repeatedly opening and closing my eyes.

Feeling like fatigue was only accumulating more, I gave up on sleeping and got up to open the curtains, seeing the sun rising over the mountain ridge.

“It’s already morning…”

I let out a deep sigh, roughly smoothed down my messy hair, and changed clothes. I went to the kitchen and found the coffee grounds I had put away in the corner.

It was coffee given to me by the bakery lady when I went down to the village. She had given it to me saying thanks for always ordering, telling me to drink it when tired. At first, she offered whole beans, but when I said I didn’t have a grinder, she kindly ground them for me.

I didn’t know I’d be drinking this on the day I left.

I filled the kettle with water. Soon, along with the bubbling sound of boiling water, Edan’s words echoed in my ears.

‘I’ve decided to have you.’

I thought it was nonsense, but it seems that’s not the case. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have told me to break off the engagement.

Drip. I poured the coffee and put down the kettle. Thud. Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me.

“Master?”

I turned around to see Edan leaning against the kitchen doorframe with his arms crossed, looking at me.

“I thought you’d sleep in, but you’re up early.”

Edan approached me with his usual attitude.

Slightly bending his upper body, he reached out his arm beside me and checked the coffee.

“May I drink?”

A man who doesn’t need my permission asks anyway. I swallowed hard and nodded.

He’s always a man who approaches without warning, but today my heart was pounding especially hard.

Suddenly, last night’s events filled my mind.

With the white shirt almost touching, the distance was too close, so I subtly stepped aside.

Edan, who had poured some of my coffee into a new cup, brought the steaming cup close to his mouth.

Then, leaning his hip against the counter, he turned towards me in a slanted posture.

“You’re not going to pretend you don’t know today, are you?”

“Know what?”

“What I said yesterday. You remember, right?”

“…”

Edan smiled brightly. How sneaky to test me like this.

If I say I don’t know about breaking off the engagement, he looks ready to cancel the trip to the capital too.

Do I look stupid? Turning a crisis into an opportunity is the life of a true runaway.

“Of course I remember. You told me to break off the engagement, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

Edan nodded slightly and raised the corners of his mouth.

And as he took another sip of coffee, sunlight poured through the glass window.

I squinted my eyes from the brightness, but Edan was staring at me with an indifferent gaze.

His blonde hair shimmering brilliantly.

As he stood still without moving, I even had the illusion of looking at a very handsome ball-jointed doll.

“Your lip is cracked.”

Edan’s hand reached out towards me.

I know I can’t refuse or resist if he uses force, but I still quickly shrank back and moved to the side.

It was to avoid touching him as much as possible, not knowing where it might trigger something again.

Then Edan’s eyes, which had seemed relatively calm with a cup of coffee, crinkled.

“Why are you avoiding me?”

Would you not avoid if you were me?

“I’m not avoiding you.”

“You did. I’m kindly worrying about your lip right now.”

Edan set down the cup with a clank. When I didn’t reply, he continued.

“Does it hurt?”

“No. It doesn’t hurt at all. I’m fine.”

It’s true. I didn’t even know my lip was chapped until Edan asked.

That wasn’t what was important to me. However, it seemed important to Edan as he stepped forward again and reached out to grab my chin.

“Don’t move.”

Then stop doing this. It feels like last night is repeating.

“Stay still.”

I was tensed up, ready to smack my swollen head again if he tried anything funny, but Edan seemed to really be worried about my sore lip as he let go of my chin and went out of the kitchen.

And less than a minute later, he returned with a small tube of ointment in his hand.

I naturally tried to take the ointment from him, but Edan quickly raised his long arm to keep me from grabbing it, then lowered it.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

With a smirk and a look of utter disdain, Edan looked down at me and applied the transparent ointment to his thumb.

Holding my chin with his other hand, he gently… rubbed my lip with his ointment-coated thumb.

Hunching his large frame, carefully and slowly as if handling a precious porcelain.

“Is it always like this when you do it?”

After caressing my lips a few more times, Edan removed his hand and asked.

Watching him close the ointment cap, I tilted my head.

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t know what I mean? Ha, look at this.”

What? What do you mean? I really don’t know.

Edan brushed his forehead as if out of habit, slowly closing and opening his eyelids as he met my gaze.

“Don’t tell me this was your first time too?”

Huh?

“That’s completely idiotic. What was so good about getting engaged?”

Edan muttered to himself while looking at me pitifully, as if wanting me to hear everything. And again, he’s grinning like something’s funny.

I finally understood. Edan realized that last night was my first kiss.

Damn it! How would I know if lips crack or not from kissing? I’ve never done it before!

“It wasn’t my first time. I have a lot of experience. Probably more than you, Master.”

“As if.”

Edan snorted. I was genuinely irritated.

“How many times have you done it? Tell me. I’ll win.”

Ten times, a hundred times, just say it. I’ll give you an even bigger number.

But Edan was unnecessarily honest.

“You’re my first.”

…This is awkward. Why is he so confident? Was the person who’s first supposed to win? That’s not it. Anyone can see I won in this situation, right? Why do I feel like I lost? Ah, seriously.

“Don’t be cheeky.”

But is this guy selling drugs? He’s that good at his first kiss?

As I frowned deeply, Edan seemed to read my thoughts again and pressed down on my head with his large hand.

When I glared up at him, he quickly stuck out his tongue to lick the corner of his mouth, then pulled up his smooth lips into an arrogant smile.

“I think I’m just naturally gifted.”

…What am I supposed to do with that?

“Shall we go?”

Ruben stood in front of the portal and nodded at me.

I firmly grasped the bag on my shoulder and nodded.

Although I had checked several times, I racked my brain to see if I had forgotten anything.

Cash to use for the immediate portal fee. A bankbook where I had diligently saved my wages. One thin set of pajamas.

That was all in the bag.

What else is there in life? If I can escape the mummy ending and start a new life, this is enough.

I slowly turned around.

“Then, Master. I’ll be going now.”

“Have a safe trip.”

Edan really let me go without a fuss.

With a suspiciously kind smile, his hand gently pushed my back.

As soon as I entered the portal, Ruben grabbed my arm and moved us out together.

And the place we came out was the square street of the capital.

“Wow.”

Water shot up so high from the very large circular fountain that my mouth fell open.

At the top of the pillar in the center of the fountain was a statue with outstretched arms, holding the sun and moon in its palms.

It symbolized the emperor and empress of the empire.

After briefly staring at the magnificent streams of water, I quickly came to my senses and looked around.

Perhaps because I had been hiding in rural or quiet places all this time, it had been a long time since I’d been somewhere with so many people.

“Thank you, Sir Ruben.”

“It’s nothing.”

Ruben handed me a brown robe.

“Put this on.”

“What?”

“I don’t mean to scare you, but if you look like a naive woman who just came up from the countryside, dangerous things could happen. If you keep looking around like that, you’ll become prey for scammers.”

“Ah. Thank you.”

I quickly took the robe and put it on.

Suddenly, I remembered that Ivy was looking for me. It didn’t seem like she was searching publicly, but just in case.

“Then, goodbye, Sir Ruben.”

I hurried towards Jenald.

The address of Jenald’s house written on the envelope was a small inn on the outskirts of the capital.

When I opened the door and entered, there was a blonde woman who looked to be in her late 20s standing at the counter.

“Excuse me.”

“Welcome. Are you alone?”

“Yes. I am, but…”

“One night?”

“No. Actually, I was wondering if you know someone staying here named Jenald Johan?”

“…Jenald?”

Judging by the tone of her voice, she seemed to know Jenald. I nodded.

The woman with freckles all over her nose bridge looked me up and down with her long eyelashes lowered, chewing gum.

“Why are you looking for Jenald?”

“Ah… well…”

As I hesitated, the woman pulled out a piece of paper, quickly wrote something with a pen, and tossed it onto the counter.

“He should be there. Go check it out.”

“Thank you.”

The capital is complicated.

I, who had been enjoying a leisurely healing lifestyle, truly looked like a country girl as Ruben had said.

To avoid getting caught by strange scammers, I tightly wrapped the robe around me and asked my way to Jenald’s workplace.

“Is this the place…?”

I checked the address on the paper the woman had given me against the address on the building wall several times.

Was it not his workplace?

In his letter, he said he was working hard, and when I first met him, he was at a construction site building log cabins, so I thought he was doing carpentry work.

“It’s a bar…”

Did the woman give me the wrong information? The sun was still high in the sky.

There’s no way Jenald would be in a place like this.

I was about to turn around when…

“Hahaha! How about another round?”

The door burst open, and three men reeking of strong alcohol appeared from the building.

The men had cigars in their mouths and were laughing raucously. As I was trying to quickly pass by them, I stopped in my tracks.

“Jenald?”