“Instead of such trash, please think of the many people the Count saved.”

“Martha, do you know me?”

Nerea swallowed hard and asked carefully. Then she put her ear to the door. A somewhat muffled voice continued.

“At least I know that the Count was the first to come rescue us.”

At that moment, Nerea flung open the door. Martha, who had been standing in front of the door holding a large box, looked at Nerea with reddened eyes and smiled.

“In the Kirkly Peninsula, that is, in the current Orlando territory.”

A faint wave hit her chest with a thud. She realized that what she thought was avoidance was actually consideration to not be a burden. As soon as she realized this, she saw the concern for her reflected in Martha’s wrinkled face.

“If you don’t believe me, please look at this together. I deliberately sent the talkative ones to Orlando territory to coincide with the Count’s arrival. In case you were still adjusting and might worry about us too. But the people who went to Orlando are so eager to see the Count again, I have a pile of letters for me.”

Nerea lifted up the letters piled high in the box with trembling hands. It was as Martha said.

– Housekeeper, when can we go back to the Count’s mansion? I really want to express my gratitude to the Count without showing any sign or being a burden at all.

– It seems that all the horrors of the Kirkly Peninsula days have been erased from Orlando territory now. The Count would be pleased if he came to Orlando territory later, right? I remember he still looked sad even after saving us back then.

Her hand holding the letter trembled violently. Her heart felt so full it might burst, and she couldn’t tell if it was joy or sorrow or something else.

She wanted to read more letters, but her hand was shaking so much that even holding one was difficult.

Sensing Nerea’s feelings, Martha read the letters for her instead.

“This is a thank you from Daphne who works in the laundry room. This is a letter from Will who worked in the stables….”

The gratitude piled up. The maids who had been standing huddled in the hallway quietly stood behind Martha. They were all looking up at Nerea with the same eyes as Martha.

As layers of unexpected gratitude accumulated, it washed away the old doubts in Nerea’s heart.

People who had survived in those horrific scenes she thought she had failed to protect were continuing to live their lives. And now they were sharing that light with Nerea.

“And this… is a memento of someone who survived thanks to the Count but was too weak to see him before dying. You may be reluctant to keep a dead person’s belongings, but I kept it because there’s a letter for the Count on the back.”

As Martha read the letters smoothly, a piece of paper slightly different from the letters appeared in her hand.

A marriage certificate…?

“No. All letters are the same.”

The name under the seal she clearly saw seemed somewhat familiar, but as Martha quickly turned it over, only the letter with words of gratitude was visible. Martha firmly said as she handed all those letters to Nerea.

“Even now it’s like that. Everyone in Orlando territory that the master created is indebted to the Count. Reviving Orlando is what the Count wanted. Didn’t you say you would create a place with beautiful flowers, smiles, and where people could live without any worries?”

It was a passing remark made on a battlefield over ten years ago. That it would be nice if pretty flowers bloomed in this ruins later. That it would be nice if bright smiles spread. Alejandro had certainly replied that the knight could make such a place.

And Alejandro was really creating such a place. Her throat hurt from trying to hold back the tears that were welling up.

“So don’t be swayed by that trash knight, if only for our sake. The Count knows better than anyone that those knights are nonsense.”

Tears could be seen on Martha’s wrinkled face, though she must have cried some time ago. But her voice was as clear as ever.

Her hope, which had been withering like a dying candle, grew large once again. It was when the belief that she could do something again was solidifying.

“I’m really sorry about this atmosphere, but… Knight.”

Alejandro, who had approached at some point, said quietly.

“The Count’s proxy is heading to Alphern.”

For a moment, Nerea doubted her ears.

“To Alphern?”

“Yes. They say he left with the proxy’s wife just now.”

“Surely they’re not going to the summer mansion for a vacation now.”

“They say they’re heading to the cabin where you were staying, Knight.”

Ten years.

Ridiculously, Nerea hadn’t seen her father, and Helen, for nearly ten years. But now they come to the cabin. Their purpose was so clear that she couldn’t help but know.

“Having experienced danger once, my very existence must feel troublesome now. So perhaps this time…”

Alejandro didn’t continue his words.

“To dispose of me.”

Alejandro didn’t refute Nerea’s slowly falling words.

Instead, he looked at Nerea with somewhat suppressed, deep eyes and asked.

“Knight, what do you want to do?”

The words coming through his teeth were rough. Alejandro clenched his fist. He put so much force that his knuckles turned white, but he felt no sensation.

“The scale of the departure for Alphern is just one carriage carrying the Count’s proxy and that woman. Shall we catch them right away?”

He could do it if she told him to kidnap and kill the Count’s proxy right now.

If you wish to reclaim the Count’s position immediately, he could even enter the nobles’ council tomorrow and propose an agenda item about the knight reclaiming the Count’s position. With Marvin Moore there too, the results would come quickly.

In addition to that, even if she orders to point that sword at the Emperor…

As a blue-hot killing intent was surging around Alejandro.

“This is a problem. My physical condition is better than ever to appear before those two.”

“…Pardon?”

Alejandro asked again at the unexpected words. It was unfamiliar to see the knight looking down at her body as if presupposing meeting them.

“If I had kept taking that strange medicine, I wouldn’t have strength in my hands. Pinch me. I think I’m too fine right now.”

“Knight. Surely you don’t intend to meet those two?”

Alejandro asked with an incomprehensible face. Nerea nodded slightly. Alejandro, who exhaled a rough breath, barely closed his lips.

He was full of desire to stop her. But her expression was similar to when she had asked him to bring the black armor last time.

Perhaps Alejandro already knew. That Nerea wanted to meet the Count’s proxy and Helen at least once.

“Um. Count…?”

A small voice was heard from behind. It was Heather. Her face was teary-eyed as if she had heard everything, and she spoke carefully.

“I have some medicines I’ve mixed before. Among them, there’s an herb that makes the muscles of the whole body lose strength for a few hours. It’s called Chervaren…”

Heather’s voice trembled slightly as attention focused on her.

“If we use a medicine containing that herb, I think we can achieve the effect the Count is talking about.”

“But why did you make something like that?”

When Nerea asked about the unique use of the medicine, Heather startled and waved her hands.

“It’s absolutely not with bad intentions! Just in case, someone might suddenly come from the Count’s mansion when you’re detoxifying. It was just to use it briefly then.”

It felt deflating. A hollow laugh came out. Alejandro, who had been waiting with such sincere heart, and Heather were here. How could she have been shaken by that malicious newspaper article?

Nerea smiled faintly and looked out the window. There was physically not enough time. From the Count’s mansion to Alphern, it took a day at the shortest, two days at the longest.

“If we leave now, won’t I be a little late?”

“There was a downpour, wasn’t there? The road to Alphern must be in a mess too.”

It was going to happen anyway. Alejandro swallowed his rising worry and spoke calmly. He explained very slowly to the knight who seemed not to understand what he meant.

“To the extent that the merchant caravans that always move busily are all stuck blocking the road.”

“…”

“So much so that the carriage carrying the Count’s proxy has no choice but to go through other territories, taking a full four days for the journey to Alphern.”

That firm expression, as if saying he would make everything happen if she just said it, had not a single doubt or question towards her. So Nerea spoke slowly.

“You asked what punishment I would give them.”

“What punishment will you give them?”

Alejandro’s eyebrows rose elegantly.

“Actually, I’ve been blaming everything on myself. Baron Jenax’s leg, my weakly being holed up in Alphern, maybe even the resentment of the riot against me.”

“…”

“So in resenting myself, I buried how I should have hated them. That’s why I couldn’t answer when you asked about the punishment.”

The easiest way was to blame oneself. That’s why Nerea tried to forget her father and Helen.

She thought it would be resolved if she clawed and resented herself rather than living suppressed by an unstoppable force. She never thought everything would accumulate like poison.

While thinking about their punishment, Nerea recalled Baron Jenax’s leg. She recalled Marvin Moore, her father, and Helen who had treated him ruthlessly, but that too was only half a memory.

A father who neglected his child, swayed by his stepmother. Nerea didn’t know how to punish him.

But.

“I’ll probably know if I meet them.”

Nerea’s aquamarine eyes sank as cold as a midwinter lake. Her eyes, which had found their center, nodded towards Alejandro.

“What punishment I should give.”

***

Four days later. The cabin in Alphern.

“The Count proxy’s carriage will arrive at the cabin in two hours.”

Alejandro said as he drew the curtains on the window. Nerea nodded lightly.

It was two days after she had arrived in Alphern.

Everything had proceeded smoothly, to the point of bewilderment.

As if it had been planned in advance, Johnny blocked the road to Alphern, and Heather made the medicine that made the body limp.

When she tried it on the way to Alphern, it was a medicine that completely relaxed all the muscles in the body as if they had melted away, while the mind remained clear.

Of course, the precaution against Alejandro’s worry was an exception.

“Are you really sure? That venomous woman Helen might bring poison. Wouldn’t it be better to just kill her now…”

“Alejandro.”

Nerea looked at Alejandro with sharp eyes. Oops. Alejandro made a sheepish expression, but it was too late.

His knight terribly disliked him saying ‘bad words’. Whether it was because it went against chivalry, or because she still treated him like a child, he couldn’t tell.

He didn’t care about knightly titles anyway. If it was the latter, it annoyed him even more. He was no longer a child in need of protection, but a man much bigger than the knight.

Not knowing what that passing thought meant, Alejandro reined in the corners of his lips that were about to spread fiercely. And he looked at the knight pretending to be docile.

He didn’t want to be hated. Even for a moment, those fierce eyes hurt his heart. His knight’s red lips exhaled a light sigh.

“What are you so worried about? You’ll be up there just in case, right?”

Nerea gestured towards the ceiling. Alejandro was to hide his body in the empty space made by tearing off the roof and watch everything.

They prepared for tens of thousands of possibilities on the way to Alphern. Among them, the most attention was paid to the poison Helen had, so there was more preparation.

“We also confirmed that Heather’s medicine has a neutralizing effect against poison, so what are you so worried about?”

“…Would it be alright if I pretended to be the Count and lay down instead?”

“Absolutely not.”