Two days later, Montobite Station.

Charlotte, pulling an old travel bag with one hand and holding a basket in the other, looked around the station square with a confused expression.

For a moment, she thought she had come to the wrong place, or had suddenly dropped into a strange location.

There were no street vendors, porters, or horse-drawn carriages and cars lined up to pick up travelers disembarking from the train.

The large fountain in the center of the square was vigorously spraying blue water, but there were no children playing around it, nor people waiting for passengers.

‘What’s going on here…?’

Bewildered and hesitant to enter the station, she spotted a man rolling a cigarette in a corner.

Judging by his attire, he seemed to be a porter, but even when he made eye contact with Charlotte, he made no move to offer to carry her luggage.

He probably judged that it wouldn’t be worth his while, given how little luggage she had.

The man, who had been focused on rolling his cigarette with his head down, lit it and then glanced back at Charlotte.

“Did something happen at the station?”

When Charlotte asked, the man shrugged his shoulders while rolling the cigarette between his thin lips.

“How should I know? They say all the trains departing from Montobite today have been canceled because of some important person.”

Charlotte blinked a couple of times.

Unable to say that she was that important person, she just nodded vaguely as if she hadn’t understood the man’s words, and headed into the station pulling her travel bag.

The man called out:

“Miss! There are no trains today!”

He clearly had no idea that Charlotte might be the ‘important person’ he mentioned.

Of course he wouldn’t. She was wearing her usual clothes and even had on a plain, flat hat.

Who would think she was the reason for canceling an entire day’s worth of train schedules?

The inside of the station was just as empty as the square. There were no station staff, no security guards controlling people in front of the ticket office.

No one was walking around selling lemonade, candy, caramel, newspapers, or magazines.

Feeling like she had come to a post-apocalyptic world, Charlotte went out to the platform.

There was one train on the tracks with a total of six cars, including the locomotive and freight car.

The exterior, gleaming in the sunlight, looked brand new as if it had never been operated before, and the clear golden pipes that emitted steam with each clanking sound showed not a single scratch.

“Welcome, Lady Berrett. We’ve been waiting for you.”

An employee in a neatly pressed red uniform bowed politely to Charlotte.

Although it was the same uniform worn by station staff, Charlotte thought he must be someone who worked at the royal palace.

“Has the Duke of Elinak, I mean, His Grace arrived?”

“Yes. He has boarded first and is waiting. Please, let me take your basket as well.”

“No, this is fine.”

The employee stepped back neatly and picked up Charlotte’s travel bag with one hand.

Guided by him into the carriage, Charlotte saw Matiel, who had been looking down, raise his eyes to her.

Charlotte sat down across from him without much thought.

There was a narrow, oblong table between them, under which she was able to place the basket she had brought.

Matiel took out a metal bookmark from his jacket’s front pocket and inserted it between the pages he had been reading.

Then he stared at her face intently and slightly furrowed his brow.

“It’s still swollen.”

“What?”

When Charlotte asked in confusion, Matiel gestured to her cheek and said:

“Your face, I mean.”

“Oh, this? This is almost completely gone now, you know.”

“The wound is still there too.”

“I’ve been busy for two days straight. Receiving my title, packing my things. And in the midst of all that, I had to make medicine for sick people who came. I’m not like those real nobles who need someone else’s help even to untie a ribbon.”

Matiel, who had let the slight jab go in one ear and out the other, crossed his arms with a displeased expression.

“Did you bring something to apply to it?”

“You mean ointment for my cheek? No, I didn’t bring any. I was sure there’d be something to give me a headache, so I packed a bottle of tincture that’s good for that.”

After saying this, Charlotte tapped the noticeably bulging pocket. Matiel, frowning even more, let out a short sigh.

“And you call yourself an apothecary?”

“Why couldn’t I? You’re a funny man.”

Once again, Matiel let Charlotte’s words go in one ear and out the other.

He started rummaging through his pocket with an indifferent expression, and Charlotte thought he might be about to take out a cigarette.

Though she had never seen him smoke, maybe the impression of the man she had encountered in the square was still lingering in her mind.

“Come closer.”

However, what came out of Matiel’s pocket was neither a silk pouch of tobacco nor a pipe, but a round, flat silver case.

Charlotte’s eyes widened at the sight of the clematis and vine engraved on the top, along with the initial ‘C’.

“Wait a minute, isn’t this the ointment I made?”

Matiel replied:

“I didn’t know, but many of my household staff use it too. Come closer this way.”

When he opened the lid, a fragrant, sharp herbal scent wafted out.

Charlotte leaned her upper body slightly towards Matiel with a somewhat suspicious expression.

As Matiel, who had scooped a little ointment with his fingertip, moved closer to her, the train suddenly lurched with a long whistle.

Charlotte instinctively grabbed the edge of the table, but her body swayed with the heavy movement.

She felt a very small tickle on her eyelid.

Charlotte’s eyes blinked slowly. She saw her own face reflected in two orange eyes that were like burning suns.

Matiel’s long, delicate eyelashes were tickling Charlotte’s eyelids.

Their foreheads were so close that even a sheet of paper would have been too thick to fit between them.

Sunlight swirled over Matiel’s pupils.

At that moment, Charlotte let go of the table she had been gripping and sat back.

“Ah, sorry.”

Charlotte said. It was a nonchalant voice, but that made it sound even more awkward.

The thought flashed through her mind like lightning that if she hadn’t grabbed the table instinctively, it might not have been just their foreheads that touched.

“It’s nothing to fuss about.”

Matiel retorted. He reached out and applied the ointment around Charlotte’s wound.

Every time his soft fingers grazed Charlotte’s cheek as if caressing it, he tilted his head at the strange discomfort he had never experienced before in his life.

‘Was the coffee I had this morning too strong?’

Attributing the vague queasiness to caffeine, Matiel checked that the ointment was evenly applied without any clumps and closed the lid of the case.

“I’ve heard people say that applying this makes your face smaller. Do you sell it for that purpose too?”

Charlotte, who had been turning her face towards the window the entire time Matiel was applying the ointment, gaped in shock.

“What? Absolutely not! Who on earth said such a thing?”

Matiel, looking down at the ointment case once more, replied:

“An employee who had this ointment told me. She said all women use it that way?”

Charlotte slapped her forehead with her palm and let out a groan.

It was true that the ointment was effective in reducing swelling and preventing scars, but to use it in such a way…

“Give me the ointment. And do you have paper and a pen?”

Matiel gave her a look that seemed to ask what she was up to, but still took out a small notebook and pen from his inside pocket.

Charlotte, holding the pen cap in her mouth to open it, scribbled on a blank page of the notebook.

Strictly prohibit misuse and abuse! Charlotte Berrett.

She tore out the page, then slightly opened the ointment case and tucked it between the lid.

As she was about to close the pen cap, she looked at Matiel with a sudden realization.

‘Oh no, someone else’s belongings…’

Charlotte rolled her eyes and made a show of wiping the pen cap with her sleeve, to which Matiel let out an expressionless chuckle.

“I’m sorry. It’s a habit, so I just… If it bothers you, I’ll keep this and buy you a new one. The same kind.”

“It’s fine.”

Matiel nonchalantly put the pen and notebook back in his jacket’s inner pocket.

He seemed like someone who would be particular about everything, especially things like this—at least that’s what Charlotte thought—so it was unexpected.

Unfamiliar scenery whizzed by outside the window of the train that had started to run in earnest.

Charlotte, who had been staring blankly at a factory building with several huge brass chimneys that looked like tubas, asked:

“How long does it take to get to Eliki?”

“Usually about two days, but this is an express train, so we should arrive by dawn tomorrow. We won’t stop in between since there are no trains ahead or behind us.”

So that’s why they canceled all the trains on this line. Charlotte thought.

“Then we’ll have to sleep here. It’s fortunate there are multiple seats. At least we won’t have to take cat naps facing each other.”

Matiel slightly raised one eyebrow at her words.

“Didn’t you see the sleeping car?”

“There’s a sleeping car on such a small train?”

“If it were as you say, one passenger car would be enough.”

Charlotte finally recalled the train she had seen on the platform and looked back.

The passenger car where she and Matiel were sitting now was right behind the locomotive, so there were three more passenger cars behind it.

“Then one is a sleeping car, and the other two?”

“A dining car. The last one would be for the crew.”

“There’s a dining car? Goodness!”