Adeline, leaning in the quiet bedroom, felt her intense emotions gradually subside.

After realizing she had been sensitive, Adeline couldn’t take her eyes off the bedroom door.

She waited for him to return, but until the moment she fell asleep, Casius never came back to the bedroom.

Perhaps due to the exhausting day, Adeline dozed off while waiting for him.

Even after a day, the heavy rain continued to pour without any sign of stopping.

When Adeline opened her eyes in the morning, her body felt heavy like a water-soaked cotton ball.

“Cough. Cough.”

Suddenly feeling thirsty, Adeline struggled to sit up to find water.

As Adeline rose, something fell from her head. It was a wet towel.

It seemed someone had been caring for Adeline all night, as fresh towels and a basin were neatly placed on the bedside table.

Adeline reached for the fallen wet towel but stopped. She noticed a neatly wrapped bandage on her right hand.

She hadn’t thought about changing the messy bandage from last night.

‘He must have come by while I was asleep.’

It seemed he had wrapped it nicely while she was sleeping.

A feeling of guilt spread unnecessarily.

Adeline tried to leave the bedroom to find the duke.

She certainly intended to get up, but Adeline lost her balance due to a sudden dizziness.

Unintentionally, she ended up sitting back down on the bed.

“Am I sick?”

Last night, Adeline had engaged in a chase in the pouring rain.

Her thin dress was inadequate to protect Adeline from the cold rainwater.

There was also the fact that her body, tense from hiding from the knights, had now relaxed.

Perhaps because of this, last night’s pursuit left her with body aches as a gift.

The world seemed to be spinning, but Adeline gathered her senses again and carefully left the bedroom.

She couldn’t find any sign of Casius anywhere on the second floor.

Only the sound of pattering rain could be heard. The second-floor corridor, where the bedroom and study were located, was filled with silence.

Adeline gripped the railing and took one step at a time down the stairs leading to the first floor.

As she got closer to the first floor, a savory smell from somewhere stimulated Adeline’s appetite. Adeline moved her steps following that smell.

At the end of following the smell was the kitchen.

On one side of the kitchen, vegetables that had been cut halfway were placed in disarray. And next to that, the back of a man who was busily making something could be seen.

“Mel?”

Her voice didn’t come out well.

The duke, who was stirring something in a pot, turned around at the rough voice calling him.

“You’re awake?”

He spoke somewhat coldly as he strode over and placed his hand on Adeline’s forehead.

“You should have stayed in bed. Why did you come out?”

Adeline closed her eyes at the cool sensation on her forehead.

“It’s cool.”

Like an oasis found in a desert, Adeline grabbed the duke’s hand.

It was an unconscious action, wanting to feel the coolness a little more.

“It’s not that my hand is cool, you’re burning up right now.”

The duke frowned as if angry.

“I’m making soup, so wait in the room. I’ll bring it to you.”

“I want to stay here.”

Adeline didn’t want to go back up to the quiet second floor alone.

“There’s nowhere to sit here.”

Although there was nowhere to sit, perhaps due to being sick, Adeline stubbornly replied.

“Still.”

At Adeline’s stubbornness, the duke sighed as if giving up on persuading her.

“Alright.”

Suddenly, he began looking around as if searching for something.

The duke looked at the table by the window and cleared away all the ingredients piled on top.

He draped a large tablecloth over the now clean table and strode over to Adeline.

“Hold on.”

The duke swiftly lifted Adeline by the waist.

In an instant, Adeline found herself sitting on the table covered with the tablecloth.

“Sit here.”

Adeline couldn’t tell if the current flush was due to the fever or because of the duke.

The duke, who had lifted Adeline onto the table in one breath, began to focus on cooking again as if nothing had happened.

A sweet aroma was added to the savory smell.

He seemed to have finished the soup as he turned off the heat and scooped some into a small spoon.

“Want to taste?”

Adeline stared blankly at the suddenly offered spoon before nodding. Then she reached out with her left hand.

But he didn’t just let it pass. He raised the spoon high enough that Adeline’s hand couldn’t reach it.

“Say ah.”

The duke grabbed Adeline’s hand that was reaching for the spoon, lowered it, and enclosed it together with the table.

In an instant, her hand was trapped between the table and the duke’s hand.

While it was the duke himself who blocked her hand, he playfully asked again.

“You have no hands?”

The duke came closer and closer, and soon Adeline ate the soup from him.

“Is it good?”

Surprised that it was better than expected, Adeline answered sincerely.

“It’s really delicious.”

Seeing Casius smile candidly at her words of praise, Adeline was reminded of yesterday’s events once again.

Had she spoken too harshly? Adeline voiced the words she had been holding in her heart.

“Um, Mel… I was too sensitive yesterday. I’m sorry.”

With Adeline’s one apology, it seemed all the duke’s pent-up hurt was resolved.

He smiled brightly.

Seeing the duke’s smiling face, Adeline couldn’t look him directly in the face due to embarrassment.

Her cheeks, already red from the fever, spread to her entire face, turning even her earlobes red.

As if finding that sight utterly adorable, the duke leaned his body more and more towards Adeline.

It was too close.

As they leaned closer and closer to each other, just as Adeline’s back was about to touch the window-

Crack, the sound of something breaking was heard, and Adeline’s back tilted further backward.

“Del!”

The duke quickly grabbed Adeline around the waist and lifted her to safety.

Whether it was due to the narrowed distance between them or the surprise of nearly falling backward, Adeline’s heart was pounding.

The duke, looking at the window, pointed.

“Oh my, the window is broken again.”

The hinge of the old window was causing trouble again. All the woodwork forming the window frame was worn without exception.

It seemed the heavy rain had accelerated the corrosion of the window frame as rainwater seeped through the gaps.

The already weakened window frame couldn’t withstand the weight of the two people and detached from its hinges.

As a result, the window was left hanging crookedly.

“The study window too, we need to fix it.”

“Yes, we should fix it.”

Adeline agreed with the statement that it needed to be fixed.

“Other places might end up like this soon. Let’s call a repairman.”

“That… we can’t.”

But she still had to say no to calling a repairman.

“Del. Is there a reason we can’t call a repairman?”

The duke felt strange again.

The lightning-struck tree and the broken window were not things an ordinary person could fix.

Fleeing in the rain as if being chased by something.

Snapping angrily even at him who came out to greet her in the middle of the night.

And again today, saying they couldn’t call a repairman to this house.

Adeline was clearly hiding something.

“Del. You’re being chased by something, aren’t you?”

At the duke’s direct question, Adeline held her breath. Indeed, it was too much to keep insisting unreasonably.

‘Ah, I don’t know.’

Thinking she could no longer hide it, Adeline squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth.

“You’re right, we are hiding.”

The duke’s eyes widened at Adeline’s confession.

“You’re hiding?”

“Yes. We’re being chased.”

“By whom?”

Adeline opened her mouth after a long while.

The duke had come here after being injured by someone, and Adeline had fled here to escape the crown prince.

It wasn’t entirely wrong to say they were being chased. She just explained the reason for being chased differently.

“We ran away because our families opposed us.”

Adeline, having already lied about being lovers, decided to add a bit more to the lie.

Thus, the story of Del and Mel fleeing despite family opposition was completed.

“Our love didn’t cool even with our families’ opposition. So we eloped, but…”

Unable to think of anything more to say, Adeline paused before hastily concluding.

“Anyway. That’s why people from our families are looking for us.”

“You’re being chased?”

Adeline’s words seemed somewhat clumsy, as if hastily put together.

But the duke, with no memories, couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was strange about it.

“Is it a family so well-known that even repairmen would recognize you? We’ve even been to town…”

“I-I’m a commoner! Um… I fell in love with you without knowing you were a noble, and we had to run away because of our different social statuses.”

Not expecting such detailed probing, Adeline continued to fumble with her words.

“To avoid being discovered, we need to live in hiding.”

The duke pointed out a flaw in Adeline’s story.

“Then, why didn’t you tell me from the beginning?”

Adeline was flustered again, but tried to continue speaking calmly.

“I didn’t want you to know about such sad things when you’ve lost your memory.”

“…I see.”

Although a feeling of something not quite right remained in a corner of his mind, the duke decided to let it go for now.

Right now, the sick Adeline was more important.

“But, isn’t it fine as long as we’re not discovered?”

“What?”

“I understand that we’re being chased. But I need to take you to a doctor.”

The duke placed his hand on Adeline’s forehead, which had become even hotter from their argument.

“You’re burning up. Let’s go see a doctor first.”

“We’ll be discovered! Your hair color and red eyes aren’t that common! Ah…”

Adeline shouted with all her might but soon lowered her voice, seemingly dizzy.

“Choose one of two options.”

The duke raised his fingers, seemingly no longer willing to indulge Adeline’s stubbornness.

“One. We disguise ourselves and go out to see a doctor.”

“Two. Or you give me your cold.”

As he said the second option, Casius’s lips came close to Adeline’s, barely a handspan apart.

Adeline’s face, already flushed from the fever, turned red up to the tips of her ears.

“I think I should pass it on right away.”

As Casius came even closer when there was no more distance left, Adeline couldn’t hide her embarrassment.

“F-First option!”

Adeline stretched out her hand and blocked Casius’s lips.

“You’ve thought well.”

With his mouth blocked by Adeline’s hand, Casius showed a grin.

The sound of a kiss on Adeline’s palm was clearly felt along with Casius’s lips. The tingling sensation that started from her palm traveled to her heart and tickled a corner of her chest.