“Tomorrow morning, that man will pass by here. He has platinum blonde hair and purple eyes. Since it’s a place where cars can’t pass, he’ll probably be walking. Go there. It might be… the only chance to rescue Laine.”

There was no need to hesitate any longer.

Geris headed here today as if bewitched.

This was the only way to save that woman, Laine Arel. He had killed people a few times before anyway. It wasn’t difficult.

And when the morning light brightened.

Indeed, that man was walking over.

Geris, standing behind a tree, quietly raised his gun.

The familiar forest scene appeared. Ansi urged her horse to go even faster. Even though the horse was already tired from running at full speed to get this far, she couldn’t delay.

It hurt as if her heart was being rubbed with rough sandpaper.

Her heart wouldn’t listen the entire time she chased after Damion. An eerie feeling as if someone was gripping her heart enveloped her entire body. It was a warning sent by Amor.

Still, she couldn’t stop.

That’s when it happened.

Bang!

A loud gunshot echoed through the forest.

Ansi bit her lower lip hard. Damion’s figure was not yet visible. She felt like she would die from anxiety. But if it was like in her dream, Damion would have dodged this bullet.

He had to have.

Before the gunshot rang out, Damion pressed his body to the ground. It was a habit ingrained over years. However, habit couldn’t cover up his issues.

Bang!

The loud gunshot momentarily dazed Damion’s head. His ear hurt as if the bullet had been stuffed into his ear canal. A sharp sound like scratching a chalkboard reverberated throughout his head. He couldn’t hear any other sounds.

Damion was on some battlefield from the past.

It was when a trusted subordinate shot at him.

“Stop it, Leo…”

The spot where the bullet grazed his side hurt. His face contorted in pain.

He couldn’t understand why the subordinate who had told him to trust him just days ago had shot at him.

Terrible feelings of betrayal and despair enveloped him. A sense of helplessness that this place wasn’t his world either dominated his mind.

The whole world felt dark.

What woke him from the darkness was a woman’s voice.

“Damion!”

A voice calling him cut through the sharp bursting sounds. It was a voice that shouldn’t be heard on this battlefield. Damion grasped onto that voice as if it were a lifeline. He raised his head, following the voice he had seized.

“…”

Damion’s eyes, which had been tinged with ash, regained focus. New sights filled his vision.

This wasn’t a battlefield. It was a lush green forest. The woman jumped off her horse as if about to fall and ran towards Damion. And she tightly embraced his head.

“Thank goodness…”

Ansi, wearing a sky-blue jacket like back then, was looking at him.

“Grab this!”

Just like when she had saved him from the lake in this forest when they were young. Just like when she had brought his life to this point.

“Ansi…?”

The moment he recognized her presence, the ringing in his ears stopped as if by magic. The pain disappeared instantly.

“Hurry and get away!”

Ansi had an uncharacteristically agitated expression. It wasn’t difficult to grasp the cause. The gunshot from earlier was real, not an illusion. That meant the shooter was nearby.

“Laine!”

Ansi suddenly turned around. She spread her arms wide to block in front of Damion. Even though her body couldn’t completely cover him.

“Laine, are you crazy? Why are you protecting that bastard…”

“The crazy one is you, Geris.”

Ansi firmly cut off his words. Geris took a step towards them. At the same time, Damion pulled her behind him.

Seeing this, Geris gripped his gun tightly and strode over. He looked half-crazed.

“Come to me. Leave that lecherous bastard!”

Bang!

A second gunshot rang out.

No! Ansi’s scream echoed. Ansi, who had reflexively covered her ears, looked at Damion with trembling eyes. The gun barrel was pointing towards the sky. Damion had grabbed Geris’s hand and changed the direction the gun was pointing.

“Step back.”

Damion spoke to Ansi standing behind him.

As he struck Geris’s wrist, the strength left Geris’s hand. In that moment, Damion snatched away the gun while twisting Geris’s arm behind his back.

“He has a knife!”

Ansi shouted. Damion immediately twisted Geris’s other arm behind his back as well. Geris struggled to shake him off, but he was no match for the strength of Damion, who had lived as a soldier for years.

Damion fixed Geris’s two arms at the elbow and pulled at his own necktie with one hand.

With deft movements, he quickly untied his necktie and bound Geris’s two wrists. Soon, Geris was face down with his head planted on the ground.

“Who are you?”

A chilling tone descended upon Geris. He was pressing an equally cold gun barrel to the back of Geris’s head. Geris’s entire body stiffened. Cold sweat trickled down.

“Sp-spare me.”

“Why should I?”

An innocent question came back chillingly. It didn’t seem like words would get through at all. Geris changed targets and shouted at Ansi.

“Laine! Help me. You have a gun, the one you took from me! Shoot with that. Now!”

If she liked him, she would surely shoot that man in this situation. She had to…

“You want me to help you die comfortably?”

She asked with her body curled up, but her eyes wide open. As if she could really do that if he wanted.

“That’s not it, shoot this man!”

“Are you in your right mind?”

Ansi’s eyes blazed like blue flames. Geris couldn’t answer in the face of that gaze that bordered on madness. But one thing was clear.

The one Laine Arel liked was not him.

“No. Laine, don’t do this.”

“Who are you looking for? I’m not Laine.”

A deep sense of dismay enveloped his entire body. He had come all this way to save that woman, only to be betrayed at the end. It felt like falling into an inescapable swamp.

Unexpectedly, it was the man who saved him from this.

“I’ll hand you over to the police. So you can be dealt with according to the law.”

Geris glimpsed hope. No one had seen him try to kill that man anyway. If he played his cards right, he could even turn it around and claim those two had tried to kill him.

“But Damion, there are no witnesses.”

It seemed Laine knew that fact too. It was a natural result of learning, since she had once reported Geris only to face retaliation.

“If he’s released due to insufficient evidence…”

“Fortunately, there are witnesses.”

Damion narrowed his eyes as he looked to the side. There was a startled rustling sound, and then four people who had been hiding behind trees revealed themselves. They were coming from the direction of the lake.

“I’m Damion de Orp. I didn’t expect to greet you like this.”

“Ahem, are you alright?”

It was the two people Damion was scheduled to meet at Drake Forest’s lakeside today, along with two servants who had come to attend them. Startled by the sudden gunshot, they had rushed here.

“I’m not alright. You’ve been watching all along, haven’t you? This man trying to kill me with a gun, and urging my wife to commit murder. Mistaking her for someone else, no less.”

Damion’s voice was too calm to be that of someone who wasn’t alright. But there was no lie in his words. The people nodded.

“Ah, yes, we saw…”

“How frightening. To think such a person is wandering around the capital. Viscount Bellin, Duke Ron was almost in danger too.”

Damion furrowed his brows as if worried. Only then did Viscount Bellin realize that they too could have been hit by a bullet not far from here, and opened his mouth gravely.

“It’s really fortunate you subdued him like this, fortunate indeed. I will certainly give a proper statement about what I saw today. You all will do the same, right?”

“Of course.”

“I’m relieved to hear you’ll do that. Attempted murder of a noble is… punishable by death at most, I hear.”

Damion lowered his eyes to look at Geris. Geris flinched. He had a premonition that it wouldn’t just be at most, but would really end up that way.

Geris twisted his body wildly trying to escape. But he stopped moving when he felt the cold gun barrel against his neck.

“Be careful. What if you accidentally pull the trigger while struggling like that? I have a duty to hand you over to the police, you know.”

Damion whispered kindly. Geris gritted his teeth. There was no way out anymore.

Geris was arrested on the spot by the police called by the servant.

Damion put Ansi in the car and headed for the mansion. Now was not the time for business meetings.

Damion looked at Ansi sitting in the passenger seat. She looked very shocked and tired. Why did she come here? Damion opened his mouth, suppressing the hot emotions stirring inside him.

“That was dangerous. How did you know to come?”

“Just… I had a bad feeling somehow.”

A lie.

Ansi was wearing only a chemise under her long jacket. She must have rushed here right after waking up.

Moreover, she confidently said that man had a knife.

‘She saw it, the future.’

There was no other reason for her to rush here so desperately. She had saved him again. Risking her own life.

Damion gripped the steering wheel with all his might. He was furious beyond reason. He himself didn’t know why he was so angry.