How long had it been like that?

“What are you doing here alone?”

Kasha’s still unfamiliar voice was heard above her head. Riena looked up at him. Unlike her, who was wearing indoor clothes, he seemed to have just returned home and was dressed in outdoor attire.

“The night air is cold.”

Kasha, who was taking off his outer garment to drape over Riena’s shoulders, suddenly flinched. His gaze was directed at Riena’s cheeks, which were still wet with tears.

“Why… are you crying like that?”

“Ah…”

Riena couldn’t take her eyes off Kasha, who was asking with a confused face. He was frowning as if he was about to cry at any moment. Just like the man she had seen in her recurring dreams.

So Riena couldn’t properly grasp whether this moment was a dream or reality.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

“That…”

Riena hesitated, unable to answer immediately.

If he asked if it was a nightmare, it wasn’t. After having the recurring dream, her chest felt stuffy and tears fell, but there was nothing in the dream itself that could be called a nightmare.

‘The content is quite meaningful though…’

But she was curious. Why this man kept appearing in her recurring dreams. Why he looked at her with such a desperate face.

However, she couldn’t ask. The man in the dream was not Kasha.

Even if it was Kasha, there was no way he would know about her dream.

So Riena suppressed the words she wanted to ask and tried to smile brightly.

“No. It’s not like that. I just feel a bit unsettled, maybe because the sleeping place has changed.”

“I should have paid more attention. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. You took enough care of me. You even assigned Amy to me… I heard that you cherish Amy quite a lot, Duke.”

“Yes. She’s a child I’ve taken care of like a younger sister since I was young.”

“Anyway, it’s really okay. I’ll feel better after getting some fresh air. You seem to have just returned home, so please get some rest. I’ll come in a bit later.”

“…”

Even with Riena’s suggestion, Kasha didn’t move. He was just looking down at the floor with a somewhat dissatisfied face.

“Duke?”

“Just a moment.”

Kasha knelt on one knee in front of her. Then he carefully took off the indoor slippers Riena was wearing.

“…Duke?”

Ignoring Riena’s question, he continued to move. He took off his own shoes and put them on Riena’s white feet.

“You might get hurt if you come out wearing indoor slippers.”

He gently wiped Riena’s ankle with his thumb.

It was strange. Just a little while ago, in the dream Riena had, Kasha, no, the man who resembled Kasha, also knelt in front of her like this and examined her ankle.

The only difference from that dream was that the place they were sitting now was the Winkler mansion and Riena’s ankle was clean.

Kasha even placed Riena’s foot on his knee and examined it carefully. Calloused fingers touched the ankle bone and rubbed the hollow spot below it.

“…!”

Was the ankle such a sensitive spot? Riena trembled every time his fingers moved.

Perhaps sensing her reaction, Kasha asked with a serious face.

“Does it hurt?”

“N…no.”

The answering voice was strange. Whether he knew it or not, Kasha’s actions became bolder.

No, not bolder, but maybe he wasn’t aware of it at all. His hand slowly moved up from her ankle.

Riena’s white sleepwear gradually rolled up by his hand, revealing her white calf.

Kasha looked down at her half-exposed calf with an unreadable expression.

He was slightly frowning, as if checking if she was injured like in the dream, but to Riena, this situation was just embarrassing and shameful.

A modest woman does not show her legs to others, especially to the opposite sex. No matter how close they were in childhood and even if they were promised to be married, the two people who recently reunited were essentially strangers.

When Kasha’s hand boldly moved further up and reached her knee, Riena exclaimed with a slightly reddened face.

“It’s okay…! I’m not hurt anywhere.”

As she slightly pulled her leg towards her body, Kasha seemed to realize his actions and hurriedly pulled down her skirt.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. You didn’t do it on purpose…”

“But fortunately, it seems you’re not injured anywhere.”

As soon as he let go of her foot, Riena quickly covered her ankle with her skirt and replied.

“Yes, there was no chance of getting hurt. I didn’t come out barefoot or walk through the grass.”

The gaze that had been lingering on her ankle moved to Riena’s face.

Kasha, who had taken a seat next to her at some point, gently caressed her cheek. His fingers touching her face were rough due to calluses, but his touch was gentle.

Moreover, his body temperature was hot, so the cheek that had been cooled by the cold wind quickly became warm.

“Uh, um… So…”

Riena mumbled anything while avoiding his gaze.

“It feels like it’s been a long time since we’ve talked like this, just the two of us. It was hectic after we got the horses from the village, right?”

On the way to the capital, Kasha rode a horse halfway through, so there was no opportunity to talk, and after arriving at the Winkler mansion, he went out, so they couldn’t talk.

“Of course, strictly speaking, it’s not been that long.”

And the two had met when they were young. Did they just meet? They cherished each other no less than any other friend.

But maybe it was because the personality of the ‘Cas’ in her memory was so different from Kasha Winkler.

Even though it wasn’t their first meeting, Riena still found Kasha unfamiliar.

What on earth had happened in the past 10 years that the child who used to smile a lot had changed into a person who seemed to have no emotions?

Riena wiggled her feet that Kasha had put shoes on and chose her words.

There were many things she wanted to say if she met Cas again. However, she couldn’t meet him for 10 years, even though she thought she could meet him again soon. She forgot all the things she wanted to say and gradually forgot her memories of Cas.

Still, if they met again…

“Have you been well all this time?”

She seemed to have wanted to ask something like this.

“I should have asked earlier, but I was so distracted that I couldn’t even ask.”

In the past, they seemed to have spoken casually as friends, but she couldn’t carelessly speak informally now.

“As for me, I think I’ve been doing well. I don’t have any particularly happy memories, but I don’t think I have any bad memories either. You know, there are days like that. Living a peaceful daily life. Even if you haven’t done anything special, when you look back on the day before going to bed, you think today was enjoyable too.”

“…”

Riena looked into Kasha’s eyes, who remained silent, and smiled.

“Am I the only one who feels that way?”

“No, I think I understand what you mean.”

“Then that’s a relief.”

Riena kept wiggling her feet and asked.

“So how have you been, Duke?”

“I…”

Kasha closed his mouth. He didn’t seem to want to talk about it, so Riena shook her head.

“You don’t have to say it if it’s difficult.”

“It’s not that it’s difficult, but…”

“Then later, when you feel like it, please tell me. Friends can do that much, right?”

“Friends…”

He mumbled that word softly following Riena, and his expression looked somewhat complicated.

“Is it a bit too much to say friends? After all, you’re a duke now. We can’t be as casual as before.”

“Rather than that…”

“Rather than that?”

“No, it’s nothing. We can say we’re friends.”

It seemed like he wanted to say something else, but he eventually held back his words. Riena didn’t pry either.

“I was very surprised when you said you were the Cas I knew when I was young. Actually, I still can’t quite believe it.”

“What is the reason?”

“How should I put it, you’re a bit different from how I remember you as a child. Anyway, that’s how it is. Of course, it’s natural for you to change after 10 years.”

Riena laughed playfully.

“The cowardly Cas who trembled in fear of thunder and lightning has grown up like this, so it feels refreshing. Even though I didn’t raise you, I feel strangely proud. I heard your sword skills have improved a lot too, right?”

Amy said that Kasha’s swordsmanship was one of the best in the empire. In fact, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he was the best in the empire.

“What about me? Have I changed a lot?”

“You’re the same, Lady.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Yes.”

Riena was about to ask what aspects of her were the same as before but stopped. She could ask her childhood friend ‘Cas’, but those questions didn’t readily come out to the ‘Duke of Winkler’.

With that, their exchange of greetings, or rather Riena’s one-sided story if strictly speaking, ended, and silence lingered between the two.

Riena wanted to immerse herself in memories, but it was difficult to associate Kasha with ‘Cas’, so she had nothing to say, and Kasha also kept his mouth shut, wondering what he was thinking.