“Alright, I’ll trust you this time.”

“No excuses if you lose!”

“You neither.”

“Of course!”

With swords in hand, Christine, Jade, and Pollin, who came to officiate, went to the garden.

Then the children who had been lying in the clinic one by one looked out of the window.

“I’ll attack first since you’re an adult.”

“Okay. I accept that much of a handicap.”

Christine took a duel stance with one hand, his left arm akimbo.

“Yaaaaah!”

Soon Jade charged, her face turning red, screaming.

Christine lightly dodged the attack and slapped the child’s plump behind.

“Ouch!”

Angry, Jade flailed her wooden sword around.

“You yap! Yap! Yap!”

Although he could have been hit once, Christine annoyingly dodged all and kept slapping Jade’s behind.

Thwack! Thwack!

Jade, who was attacking, had almost a crying face.

Even Adel, who had come into the clinic to check on a patient, looked out of the window and clucked her tongue.

“You’re taking it too seriously.”

Lying in bed and looking outside, Adel smiled faintly.

“It looks more like he’s having fun rather than being serious…”

“Is that so?”

Christine, who was dueling with Jade, was faintly smiling. Above all, his eyes sparkled warmly in the sunlight. His silver hair, fluttering lightly as he moved, was dazzling.

I had forgotten. He was originally a boy who smiled well and was playful.

Soon, the children who had been watching forgot their pain and flocked outside. Even though Mark and Judy told them to go back in, it was no use.

Thump!

At that moment, Jade’s wooden sword hit Christine’s waist. As he staggered, the child seemed to think it was her chance and attacked his back again.

Christine still fell to the ground with a serious face.

“Don’t move. You are now a dead man! Surrender, and I’ll spare you!”

“I choose an honorable death.”

But Jade didn’t attack Christine any further.

“I’ll just spare you this once.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I want to spare a knight who chose honor.”

Brushing off the dirt, Christine got up and messed up Jade’s hair.

“Thanks, squirt.”

“You sss, duel again!”

“That’s enough for today.”

Christine, exasperated, lifted the child up and slung her over his shoulder.

The sight of him with the child looked quite natural.

“You managed to come back alive even after losing the duel.”

Adel joked as Christine entered the treatment room.

She, who had looked pale until dawn, was now sitting on the bed. The color had somewhat returned to her face, and her combed hair calmly covered her shoulders.

She certainly seemed to have improved a lot.

“How’s your body?”

He naturally asked, touching her forehead.

“It’s still hard to move, but it’s much better.”

“Don’t think about anything and rest for a few days.”

“Thank you. I survived thanks to you.”

“Your friend found you collapsed. And it was lucky that the vet wasn’t a total quack.”

He acknowledged Mark but his evaluation was still low.

“Yeah, I should thank them too.”

“You were really weak. What happened?”

“I guess I overworked myself these past few days.”

Certainly, here’s the translation:

Christine’s expression darkened as he guessed why she had done so. Ever since she was young, Adel would immerse herself in work to the point of punishing her body whenever she felt depressed.

“I’m sorry, Chris……”

He looked up at the sudden sound of her voice.

“What for?”

“……for not believing you just by hearing rumors.”

“If it’s about that, let’s drop it. I also misunderstood you just by believing the rumors.”

“Then is it something we exchanged with each other?”

Christine nodded his head.

Adel felt much lighter in spirit. After a series of terrible events yesterday, this morning was peaceful.

No, it seemed like a peaceful morning.

In fact, both of them had something they wanted to talk about but couldn’t bring up.

For they knew that the moment they spoke of it, this fleeting peace might shatter.

“Here, take this.”

Christine seemed to remember and pulled something out of his pants pocket.

It was the green ribbon headband he had given her, which Adel had been upset about losing just half a day later. It was now in a cleanly washed state.

“Where did you find this?”

“Jimmer found it in the royal garden.”

“Will you tie my hair?”

Adel turned her head to show her back hair to him.

“Again?”

Adel smiled as if to soothe him.

“You’ll do well this time since you’ve done it before.”

“There are things that don’t improve no matter how much you try.”

Christine grumbled but combed through her hair with his fingers and tied it up.

It was still a peaceful morning.

As if nothing had ever happened between them.

The one who first broke that fragile peace was Christine.

Having tied her hair more neatly than before, he pulled up a chair to sit next to her. Then, he opened his mouth with difficulty.

“Can I hear more about the silver wolf? The reason you think it’s connected to your mother’s death.”

In fact, Christine wanted to avoid talking about the silver wolf. However, it wasn’t something he could avoid forever.

Right now, he needed the assurance that he didn’t kill her mother.

But if that turned out to be true……

‘I won’t be able to forgive myself more than you. Adel.’

So Adel’s words were more important than anything else.

“Ah, that story……”

Adel trembled her cracked and dry lips as she took a deep breath.

For her, speaking of it was a painful thing as well.

“To talk about that, I have to start with why I left you 10 years ago.”

Christine’s face hardened.

“Yes, tell me. I’ve been curious all along. The reason you went back to your biological father. The reason you married the old Count Oswald. You said it was because you wanted to become a noble, but that’s not it, is it?”

After taking a moment to breathe, Adel spoke in a strained, muted voice.

“I wanted…… revenge.”