“What kind of relationship do we have?”

“Huh.”

As Adeline swept her hair back, her reddened ears were fully exposed.

At the hot breath, Adeline’s shoulders hunched even more.

“What? That… that’s…”

“You said we’re in a respectful relationship. Go ahead and say it… please.”

Adeline’s dazed mind gradually cleared.

The man pressed against her now was no longer the threatening Duke. He was just a man who had lost his memories.

Adeline didn’t know how to describe their relationship, so she decided to deflect the responsibility.

“You should remember.”

‘Our relationship? Heirs of rival families, I suppose.’

Adeline muttered her true thoughts inwardly, unable to voice them aloud.

Outwardly, she put on a sad face like an ill-fated heroine.

“If I have to tell you directly when you’ve forgotten me… that would be too pitiful, wouldn’t it?”

‘How can I tell you that I almost met a miserable death by your hands?’

Adeline’s inner thoughts and actual words did not match.

Her soft voice and downcast eyes created a pitiable atmosphere. Just as Adeline had intended.

She knew she was being too brazen, but what could she do? This was all for survival.

‘Still, I saved your life, didn’t I?’

If it weren’t for the reader’s comment Adeline had seen in her previous life, the Duke would have died a lonely, violent death here.

Of course, Adeline had saved the Duke to survive herself. But regardless, the Duke owed his life to her, didn’t he?

But unaware of Adeline’s dark intentions, the Duke’s eyes filled with bewilderment.

As if things weren’t going as he wished.

“Still… it might help my memory return if you tell me something.”

The Duke openly displayed his confusion at Adeline’s statement.

“Do you need words? You and I are inseparable.”

She meant it sincerely.

Before he lost his memories, they were from rival families. And after he lost his memories, they were deeply entangled in saving each other’s lives.

Moreover.

‘For me, it’s more helpful if those memories don’t return.’

But unable to say that outright, Adeline just smiled faintly while making ambiguous statements.

In truth, prolonging this battle of nerves would be troublesome for her.

So she quickly changed the subject.

“Oh my, there’s blood on your shoulder…”

Perhaps because the unhealed wound had been in the water too long.

Bright red bloodstains were slowly spreading from his shoulder, across his chest, and down to his abs.

As it flowed down, the blood diluted in the water, turning pink and highlighting the scars etched on his abs.

‘This looks like a burn scar…’

Without realizing it, Adeline placed her hand on the marks carved into his sculpted abs.

Seeing how he had been threatened by someone, she thought his life must not have been easy…

‘You’ve lived as tumultuous a life as I have.’

Her life on the brink of death at her fiancé’s hands, and the Duke who nearly died from a poisoned arrow – they were not so different.

Whether it was pity or some other indescribable emotion, it suddenly welled up inside her.

As her hand moved bit by bit, the Duke’s face grew redder at Adeline’s unceasing touch.

Unable to bear the embarrassment any longer, he cleared his throat.

“Ahem…”

At the sound of his throat clearing, Adeline’s gaze, which had been traveling downward, snapped back up.

“Ah!”

Coming to her senses, Adeline quickly escaped from the Duke’s embrace.

“We need to stop the bleeding. Hurry up and finish washing!”

Adeline shouted into the air as she vanished from the bathroom in an instant.

And the bathroom she had dashed out of fell into silence as if nothing had happened.

“Haah… that woman.”

The Duke sighed, tossing aside the large towel wrapped around his head as if it felt stifling.

What kind of relationship could they possibly have for her to stare so openly at his naked body?

The Duke looked down at his own unclothed form.

The places where the woman’s hands had touched seemed to burn hotly.

Feeling a strange tightness somewhere, the Duke shook his head.

At this rate, he felt he would be completely entangled with that small woman.

To cool his rising heat, he poured cold water over his head.

* * *

The Duke had managed to finish showering, but his right arm couldn’t move freely due to the injury on his shoulder.

There was a limit to how thoroughly he could dry himself alone.

He wasn’t sure how familiar Adeline was with his naked body. But without his memories, he couldn’t bring himself to step outside the bathroom while still wet.

So he had struggled to put on pants and was just coming out.

Drip, drip, water droplets he hadn’t been able to wipe away fell from his body, leaving a trail.

Thinking he would soak the carpet at this rate, Adeline grabbed a towel and rushed over to him.

“You should have asked me to help dry you. Your pants are all wet now.”

Adeline raised the towel to pat dry the Duke’s hair.

His build was so large that Adeline had to stand on tiptoe to barely reach his head.

“There. Now change out of those wet pants.”

Having finished drying his hair, Adeline lowered her gaze to his pants.

“It’s fine! I wore them like this on purpose because it’s cool!… um.”

Thinking this woman might naturally try to remove his pants too, the Duke waved his hands in protest.

Seeing his flustered reaction, a mischievous smile spread across Adeline’s lips.

“I wasn’t planning to change your pants for you.”

Adeline took the hand of the dazed Duke staring blankly into space and led him to the sofa.

“Come sit here. I’ll rewrap your bandages.”

Adeline patted the seat next to her on the sofa, gesturing for him to sit.

The Duke, watching Adeline wrap the bandages with now-familiar movements, asked casually.

“Are you really not going to tell me?”

“You should remember on your own.”

It seemed to be weighing on his mind that much.

The Duke appeared to still be guessing at the nature of their relationship.

“I can’t remember anything at all. Are we really such a special relationship?”

To the Duke’s question, Adeline answered as if it were obvious.

She seemed to have become even more brazen, no longer feeling any pangs of conscience.

“Of course. We have quite a deep relationship.”

Adeline continued speaking, fully aware that the Duke was misunderstanding.

“We’ve known each other well for a long time.”

The bitter enmity between their families that began even before Adeline and Casius were born.

“We’ve watched each other. And we have deep feelings for each other, enough to be together like this.”

Adeline had been watching the Duke ever since she learned she was the young lady of House Credion, destined to die at her fiancé’s hands.

She believed he would someday become her savior.

“It must be fate. We’re too important to each other.”

A fate where they must save each other.

And.

‘I’ve already saved you.’

“I truly have no one but you, Mel.”

Adeline emphasized her words deliberately. Hoping her sincerity would come across.

‘So you have to save me too, don’t forget.’

Adeline wasn’t lying, but she also wasn’t stating clear facts.

She was only speaking vaguely and ambiguously, yet the man’s misunderstanding deepened further.

“There. All done.”

Having perfectly wrapped the bandages, Adeline picked up the shirt she had taken out.

“I’ll do that myself.”

If he asked for help changing clothes twice, he’d have to take another cold bath.

The Duke snatched the shirt from Adeline’s hands and began putting it on himself, but he was puzzled.

“Why is this clothes so…”

The clothes Adeline had prepared were far too small.

In her haste, she had pulled out an old shirt that had been sitting in a dusty wardrobe in this villa.

‘Why doesn’t it fit him?’

She had thought it would naturally be the Duke’s clothes since this villa belonged to House Torpeo.

But it seemed the Duke hadn’t visited this villa for much longer than Adeline had assumed.

He had grown so much that even the clothes she thought would fit were far too small for the Duke’s now much more robust build.

“Well… the clothes all shrank when I washed them.”

How could there be no clothes to fit the Duke in what was supposed to be his own home?

Adeline quickly fabricated an excuse.

“Ahaha, let’s go buy new clothes tomorrow!”

“You did the laundry yourself? How could clothes shrink this much…”

Adeline needed to divert the Duke’s gaze as he lowered his head to examine the shirt closely.

Thinking her lie might be exposed if he looked too carefully, Adeline hastily grabbed the Duke’s cheeks, making him look at her.

“Not ‘you’, but ‘Del’! How long are you going to keep hurting me?”

“Ah. Right. Del…”

The Duke blinked, startled by his face being suddenly grabbed. Adeline put on an expression of being deeply hurt.

“Let’s go to sleep now.”

Seeing Adeline’s gloomy expression, the Duke obediently nodded.

“Alright… Del.”

Adeline snatched the shirt away. Then she promptly laid the Duke down on the bed and left the bedroom.

That was close.

After leaving the bedroom, Adeline looked at the crumpled shirt in her hands.

‘Good acting.’

Adeline was proud of herself.

She hid all the remaining clothes from the wardrobe in an inconspicuous place.

* * *

Adeline was pacing the hallway near the bedroom.

In her haste to leave, she had left him in the bedroom, but an unforeseen problem had arisen.

The house had been empty for so long that there was only one bedroom that had been tidied up.

In this sweltering summer.

The only room with cool air circulating was that bedroom where the Duke was now.

While staying with the Duke, Adeline had been taking short naps on the edge of the bed or using the sofa as a makeshift bed.

And today was no different. Unable to bear the heat any longer, Adeline quietly opened the door to peek inside the bedroom.

True to his title, the Duke had no sleeping habits, so the bedroom was always quiet.

As she quietly stepped inside, a small groan was heard.

“Mel, are you still awake?”

There was no answer from the Duke to her question.

As she drew closer and the groans became clearer, Adeline rushed over to him urgently.

“Hnngh…”

The Duke was covered in cold sweat as she approached.

“Are you in pain? Wake up.”

Adeline tried to shake awake the Duke, who was frowning in agony.

“Why are you sweating so much again… I’ll go get a wet cloth.”

She was about to run off to wipe down Adeline, who was once again drenched in sweat.

As she turned to leave, the hem of her skirt was grabbed.

“No… Don’t go. Please… Please don’t leave.”

At the pleading voice barely managing to speak, Adeline couldn’t leave.

She sat back down on the edge of the bed where the Duke was lying.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

As she hurriedly tried to wipe the sweat from his forehead with her hand, the Duke spoke again.

“Don’t leave me alone. Mother.”

As he spoke once more, the Duke tightly grasped Adeline’s wrist that had been wiping his sweat.

Held by him, Adeline couldn’t move.

In the end, Adeline gave up and lay down diagonally next to the Duke.