“Kuh-heuk-!”

Jenald, who exhaled as if spitting out his breath, flew mercilessly like a rag doll. At a speed strong enough to raise dusty clouds on the ground.

If there hadn’t been a building wall nearby, he might have flown even further.

With a thud loud enough to make a sound, Jenald collided with the wall with his whole body and collapsed to the ground.

When the sudden event occurred, Jenald’s wife seemed too shocked to speak, her mouth moving silently as she looked at Edan.

Whether she couldn’t grasp the situation or was too startled to choose what to say.

She covered her mouth, blinked rapidly, and took a step back.

That’s right. It can’t be helped.

It’s normal to retreat a bit for any reason in front of this man.

“Ugh……”

It was Jenald’s painful voice that broke the quiet and heavy atmosphere that briefly filled the surroundings. Jenald’s wife quickly closed her gaping mouth, turned around, and hurriedly ran towards Jenald.

“Kyaak! Da-darling!”

I wiped away the remaining tears from the corners of my eyes with the back of my hand and looked at the two with a cold gaze.

Then, feeling Edan’s gaze looking down at me intently, I lowered my head and covered my face with both hands.

Ah, no. It’s all ruined now. Edan has come.

I missed my last chance while arguing with that fool Jenald, that con artist.

“Take your hands off.”

I felt today had been extremely long, but Edan’s voice addressing me sounded calm as if nothing had happened. I shook my head.

“…I don’t want to.”

“I won’t tease you even if you have snot on your face, so take them off for now.”

What are you saying in this situation? There’s no snot! Not everyone gets a runny nose when they cry!

“Lati, I said take your hands off.”

Edan spoke to me again. His tone was far too gentle to be considered a command.

It’s ironic. That in this situation, the person taking care of me is Edan.

Somehow, a sorrowful feeling made one side of my chest ache.

No matter how kindly Edan treats me, this man is absolutely someone I shouldn’t rely on.

I shook my head again, saying I didn’t want to, and eventually Edan moved his large hand.

I thought he would roughly pull me when he clicked his tongue lightly as if his patience had run out, but Edan carefully removed my hands from my face.

Unlike Jenald, being cautious not to touch my wrist that had hurt when Hillstain grabbed it.

“Look at me.”

Edan bent down to match my eye level and tilted his head sideways to meet my eyes.

His golden hair, dyed by the sunset, swayed gently.

Although my eyes were still red, I had wiped them hard just a moment ago, so they weren’t brimming with tears, but Edan’s thumb lightly brushed the corner of my eye. His touch was a little hot.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“…No.”

“Then why are you crying.”

“……”

What should I say? Should I say I cried because it was too painful to see you again when I thought I’d never see you again?

Or should I say I cried because I felt cheated and angry at being conned by Jenald?

No matter how I explain it, Edan won’t understand.

I don’t even know myself well right now because of the rapidly changing situation. I don’t know how to express this feeling mixed with various uncomfortable emotions.

In the end, I kept my mouth shut and couldn’t say anything.

As Edan slightly furrowed his brow and was about to open his mouth again, it was then.

“Hey!”

Jenald’s wife, who had been checking on the fallen Jenald, suddenly shouted.

“What is this! Who are you!”

Edan’s relaxed gaze instantly sharpened.

He slowly turned around.

Jenald’s wife, who had been approaching us quickly after getting up from Jenald’s side, hastily stopped in her tracks.

It seems the courage she had mustered from being at a distance was returning.

Edan’s build, which felt overwhelmingly huge just by standing there, must have seemed even more so now that he was closer.

Edan, dressed in his usual comfortable tunic shirt and black pants, might look like a very handsome young man at first glance, but when he deliberately hardens his face like this, his eyes become as fierce as a predator before hunting.

“You’re noisy.”

Hiccup. The woman who had been tensing up jolted with a hiccup. In the cold atmosphere emanating from Edan, the woman looked around nervously, and finally, her lost gaze turned towards me. Our eyes met.

“Y-you! What are you going to do about this! What about my husband!”

Just picking on me because I look weak, huh. Sigh.

“Husband?”

Edan looked down at me with curious eyes.

Ignoring his gaze, I opened my bag, took out the engagement certificate, and approached Jenald’s wife.

“W-what is this?”

“I’m not acquainted with you, so don’t speak informally to me. And read this and give it back. I need to report it.”

“……”

The woman seemed a bit taken aback by my confident attitude.

More accurately, she was watching Edan’s reaction rather than mine.

Anyway, Jenald’s wife looked at the engagement proof I handed her, and stared at me with an incredulous expression, as if she had received quite a shock.

“You… expect me to believe this?”

“You have to believe it even if you don’t want to. Jenald Johan wrote it for me.”

The fingertips of Jenald’s wife, now colored with anger, twitched. I quickly snatched back the engagement certificate. I couldn’t let her tear it up and destroy the evidence for the lawsuit, just in case.

“Y-you’re a stalker! Even if my husband is unfaithful and an incompetent unemployed man, he’s never committed such a fraud as an engagement…”

“Then he’s made his first record now. Because he did it to me.”

I continued speaking as I folded the engagement certificate and put it in my bag.

“I’ll apologize first. I didn’t know he was married. And to add, although I was deceived into a fake engagement with Jenald, nothing happened between us.”

“You expect me to believe that now?”

“If you can’t believe it, you can go to the log cabin site where Jenald worked a few months ago and check. I stayed there because I was injured, and the inn owner is a witness. We’re not close, but if you go and ask, she’ll be able to explain how Jenald treated me there.”

“Ha!”

The woman pressed her forehead at my words, which I spoke without hesitation.

She seemed to be slowly believing my words, which I was uttering without any pauses. Of course. There was no lie in anything I just said.

After mulling over what the woman had said, I delivered a final blow.

“It seems Jenald has been unfaithful with other women besides me, right?”

“…!”

He might not have committed fraud, but he seems to have been a womanizer.

Jenald’s wife’s attitude also seemed familiar, as if she had gone through this many times before.

It’s admirable that she maintained her marriage despite that.

But that doesn’t mean I feel like sympathizing with her. She immediately accused me of being a stalker without knowing what her husband was trying to do to me.

Without even knowing what Jenald was trying to do to me.

“Jenald! Get up! Honey! Honey!”

Unable to find words, Jenald’s wife, her face reddening, ran to him and sat down on the ground.

Then she shook him frantically as he lay there.

Jenald, regaining consciousness, raised his head with a distorted expression.

“What is that! What’s this about an engagement certificate!”

“…What?”

Jenald looked at me with shaking pupils. For a moment, I saw a resentful look in his eyes.

“Ah, no. I mean, that’s because she’s my stalker……”

“If you don’t want to divorce right now, tell me the truth! Your name and signature were there!”

“Th-that’s……”

Seeing Jenald unable to answer easily, his wife let go of his shoulders she had been shaking frantically and stood up abruptly.

“You bastard. Not content with just being unfaithful, an engagement?”

Her cold gaze, now hardened, fell on Jenald’s face. Flustered, Jenald got up and grabbed her arm.

“No. No, honey, it’s a misunderstanding! That’s fake! Please listen to me……”

“Fake or not, your name is on it! I’ve put up with you cheating and apologizing and begging every time, but fraud? You’re committing marriage fraud behind my back?”

“No! It’s not like that!”

“Shut up!”

Jenald’s wife turned around and disappeared. Her anger was palpable even from her retreating figure.

“What’s this? That worm was married?”

Edan muttered as if dumbfounded, then looked at me.

“Lati, explain.”

Just as I was debating whether to open my mouth, Jenald, who had been staring blankly at the shadow of his departed wife, seemed to come to his senses and turned to look at me, our eyes meeting simultaneously.

“You damned… Latieana… I’m going to sue you right now! I’ll never forgive you!”

Jenald’s cracked voice, his breath rough with anger. At that moment, something snapped in my mind.

Those were my words. If anyone was going to sue, it should be me, and if anyone was going to forgive, it should be my decision.

Jenald’s complete lack of conscience made even the tiny bit of gratitude I had for him saving me disappear.

By now, Jenald seemed to have forgotten that Edan was standing next to me.

I clenched my trembling hands, shaking with anger, and told Edan accusingly.

“He conned me. When he got caught, he threatened to hit me, demanded money, and even said nasty things about me being an orphan with no one to take my side! And also!”

I paused briefly, my throat too choked up to continue.

“Also, what? Go on.”

Edan’s voice was very low and calm.

“And……”

I could see Jenald’s expression behind me changing to one of disbelief as he listened to my words. It was a face that seemed to say, “Are you really tattling like a child?”

Jenald. You said I was a pitiful orphan who didn’t know anyone in the world, but you’re wrong. You idiot.

“And he said he was planning to play with me and then throw me away, and then he said he was going to sell me to an old man in another country for money.”

“And, what else.”

“……”

“Is that all?”

“And……”

I slowly moved my gaze from Jenald to look into Edan’s eyes.

His beautiful red eyes, like jewels, were calmly waiting for my words.

“I… was hurt.”