It was when an inexplicable anxiety began to creep into Nerea.

“Ah, I got it.”

Heather smiled brightly as she boasted to Nerea.

“Young lady, do you know this? It’s a quiz where you rearrange letters.”

Heather’s excited explanation sounded somehow familiar. As Nerea stared blankly, Heather’s hand holding the pen moved even faster.

“If you just rearrange them like this, it becomes a new word.”

“…I’ve done that before too. The meaning changes a lot. Rose soars…”

It felt like her tongue was freezing as she tried to smile. Nerea stared at the sheet of paper with the letter arrangement without even breathing.

“Or how about ‘soar Nerea’? If you change the letters in Rosa like this. Ta-da! It means to soar. Isn’t that great too?”

She suddenly remembered what Alejandro had said before deciding on the title of knight.

Rosa and soar.

They were words made of the same letters, just rearranged.

Consciously breathing, Nerea turned her back on Heather. The doubts that had once swept over her now whirled uncontrollably.

“Heather.”

“Yes.”

Heather, who she had thought came to her by chance until now.

The loyal maid who wanted to repay her kindness.

“How did you say you came to Alpern, to be my maid?”

“Me? As I told you then, I went to an employment office. I was looking for a maid position, but who would give a good job to a child with no letters of recommendation or experience?”

Heather was right.

For a young girl with no recommendations or experience to become a maid in a noble household was harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

“But really luckily, on the day I went, I heard that the Esteban Count’s mansion was looking for a maid.”

But Heather did it.

Luckily.

“Of course, when I got there, I was a bit perplexed because it wasn’t the Count’s mansion, but for someone in Alpern. But then they said that ‘someone’ was actually the Count.”

And the luck that led her there was where Nerea was.

“I really never forgot for a moment the day you saved our entire village. So I left as quickly as possible to repay the favor. Remember? You told me then that I had been scammed.”

Heather giggled. Of course she remembered. After leaving the summer mansion, she was the first maid to find this cabin.

“You’ve been scammed. This isn’t a place like the Count’s mansion, it’s a place of exile. Go back while there’s still a carriage.”

“No, young lady. I came here voluntarily. Do you perhaps remember me? When you saved our village at the Ospilren border, I said I would definitely repay the favor. Heather Blanche, six years ago.”

Recalling that desperate voice, Nerea slowly parted her lips.

“…Then one last question.”

“There’s one more?”

“I’ve sometimes wondered. How did you know about my herbs?”

“…Well, that…”

“Perhaps.”

Her heart pounded with tension. Nerea couldn’t bear to look at Heather. It was overwhelming just to pretend her voice was okay.

“Did you hear something from someone?”

“Actually…”

Heather began to speak as if confessing.

“At the Count’s mansion, I overheard Lord Jenax talking. They must have thought I wasn’t there, because they asked a maid if the poisonous herbs to be sent to Alpern were ready.”

Ah. Nerea swallowed.

That day five years ago. As soon as Heather greeted her, she asked in a desperate voice.

“…Young lady. I heard something strange during my interview at the Count’s mansion. So please tell me the truth. Are these herbs and the lily bulbs all the medicinal ingredients among the groceries sent from the Count’s mansion?”

Seeing Heather’s pale face as she looked at the food storage, Nerea shook her head.

“That’s right. But I didn’t eat them. I don’t know how to brew medicine.”

“…So I came as the person to brew it for you.”

It was then that Heather, tears streaming down her chubby cheeks, spoke as if she had made up her mind.

“I don’t know how to brew those either. Instead, I’ll brew you better medicine. It’ll probably be much better for your body, young lady.”

And Heather was really right.

Saying she seemed to have seen the poisonous herbs in the storage somewhere before, Heather soon combined herbs from the back mountain to make the medicine that best suited Nerea’s body.

Whenever she marveled at her amazing heart, Heather said it was skill learned from watching her grandfather handle herbs over his shoulder. She said she had learned how to make antidotes for the most dangerous herbs since childhood.

“It wasn’t exactly good news, so I didn’t tell you. The Count spoke so well of Lord Johan Jenax. But why this?”

Heather asked as if sweeping away old memories. Nerea tried to suppress her quickening breath and spoke as if it was nothing.

“Just, curious. How you came here. It’s not just an ordinary coincidence that we’re living like this…”

Suddenly, Nerea recalled the rumor Heather had told her the day Alejandro first came.

Ten years ago, there was a widespread rumor that the second son of the Jenax Baron family had left home and died.

Five years later, by chance. What were the odds that Heather, who owed her a favor, and moreover, Heather who knew about herbs, would luckily come to her?

And after another five years, Alejandro finally came to her.

Exactly in the tenth year when she expected to be pushed out of the Count’s position. Only now when she had somewhat detoxified.

It was obvious where this destination was.

Nerea’s lips trembled. Her fingertips shook. The sound of her heartbeat grew louder and louder.

Heather, who had unconsciously looked up as the young lady’s words trailed off, was startled. The young lady’s body, which had been leaning on the counter, was half collapsed.

“Young lady, young lady!”

The young lady’s already pale face had turned ashen.

“Young lady. Are you alright? To the bed,”

“No. Heather.”

Heather hesitated. Despite her frail face that looked like she might collapse at any moment, her voice was firm.

“Call for a carriage right now.”

Nerea wanted to see this obvious conclusion with her own eyes. What Alejandro wanted, why he came to her.

She hoped, just one thing, just one thing wasn’t true.

.

.

.

“You want to see Le Soir’s reproduction? I’m afraid the reproduction has already been taken away so you can’t see it, but there might be a place where you can see a reproduction of the reproduction. If that’s alright, shall we go there?”

She had hoped it wasn’t true.

At the time when the sunset was cast beautifully. Nerea, who had prayed for it not to be true without even knowing what she was praying for, raised her head and looked at the painting.

A reproduction of a reproduction.

A red-haired knight holding the head of King Gauwe, filled only with glory and joy. All that could be read in that face was overflowing confidence.

The expressions of the people following the knight, filling the paper without a single blank space, were overflowing with joy.

When in an instant the faces of the people following the knight in the painting changed to the face of the Baron, the face of the Baroness, and the face of Johan who had cried out and resented her.

Nerea stared blankly at the painting for a while and then lowered her head.

Le Soir. Her young seed who wanted to gift her a new leap.

To prepare for this…

That child had waited for a time she wouldn’t dare to even consider. The Baron and his wife, and perhaps Johan Jenax who might be at the Count’s mansion.

But if all that child wanted to see was just the figure of ‘Count Esteban’. This was the end for him and her.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have the confidence to rise again.

Holding her numb heart, Nerea held her breath for a long time.

A breath mixed with momentary longing and momentary sorrow and momentary dejection did not match that glory.

It was when the moon was high that Nerea returned to the cabin after checking the painting.

As the carriage stopped, a large shadow pacing in the yard rushed over in one breath.

“Where did you go, knight? It’s night, you should have gone together.”

She had believed she had sorted out all her thoughts while riding in the carriage. But the moment she saw Alejandro’s face, it felt like the composure she had desperately maintained was crumbling.

She had turned a blind eye to his attitude of consistently calling her ‘knight’ because of the memory of when she had allowed that child to use that title.

Instead of answering, Nerea got out of the carriage. Ignoring even the hand stretched out as if to naturally take hers, she spoke to the coachman.

“I saw it well thanks to you. Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. I only showed you a reproduction of a reproduction, not even the reproduction itself.”

“A reproduction…?”

Alejandro’s voice rose at the end. Nerea quietly turned around and looked at his face as she spoke.

“Yes. I went to see the painting. Black Knight.”

The scent of apple blossoms clung to the edge of the wind. Tension mixed with joy rose over the black eyes that weren’t diluted in the dark night.

“Alejandro.”

“Yes.”

“Are you… Le Soir?”

It wasn’t a question of whether he was the one who painted the picture, but whether he was behind the one who painted it.

Alejandro swallowed hard and answered.

“…Yes.”

On a late spring night, the answer spreading through the air was concise.

But its impact was fierce. The questions piled up in her mind collapsed like dominoes. Nerea mumbled after moving her lips several times.

“…Then is it all true.”

“What is?”

“I had some ridiculous thoughts. The whole time I was riding in the carriage.”

“…”

“You, thirteen-year-old you. Spreading rumors that you were dead and leaving home…”

Her eyes were a bit dry. Alejandro’s face, always intense, was blurry. She was curious about what expression he was making, but at the same time, she didn’t want to see it.