“Your Excellency, we have arrived.”

Anthony said as they reached their destination.

However, there was no response from the backseat.

‘It has been oddly quiet for the past few hours.’

Anthony raised his voice a bit more to wake up the sleeping man.

“Your Excellency, we have arr…”

“I know.”

A deep voice cut off the driver’s words.

He wasn’t asleep as Anthony had thought. Despite taking medicine, his mind was clear and alert.

Fortunately, he hadn’t gone mad either. It was because he thought Melly might be afraid.

“I… I’m sorry, Your Excellency.”

Anthony, thinking he had disturbed his master’s mood by raising his voice unnecessarily, hurriedly got out to open the car door for him as an act of atonement.

Edric stepped out of the car.

Melly’s store stood alone like a rock before his eyes. Even without checking inside, it somehow felt empty.

As if declaring with its whole being that the owner was not there.

“Your Excellency, this way…”

The subordinates he had sent ahead guided him into the store.

The door had already been opened by a locksmith.

‘I told you it was easy, Melly.’

Edric wanted to tell Melly, who carefully locked the door every day.

He had planned to tell her how inadequate this lock was as a security measure when she took his hand, and then remove it altogether.

Because as long as he was there, she wouldn’t need such security measures anymore.

Now that possibility seemed to have vanished forever…

“…”

He composed himself to avoid collapsing and went inside.

The interior, with evening twilight settling in, looked desolate to the point of gloominess.

The tables were empty, and the overturned teacups had lost their luster like antiques. Dust had already begun to accumulate on the counter.

Was this really the lively place he knew?

Edric moved with a bewildered feeling.

He headed towards the small room at the end of the store. The door was already open, either done by his subordinates or left open by Melly when she left.

Edric carefully opened the old door, fearing it might collapse.

The room was not much different from when he had entered it the other day.

A small cot was tightly pressed against the wall in one corner of the tiny room. There was no trace of her having lain on the neatly spread blanket without a single wrinkle.

The apron Melly had taken off was still sprawled on the bed.

‘She seems to have left sometime between 8 and 9 PM.’

Wilson’s analysis was probably correct.

But what could she have gone out for during that time?

Edric pondered with a miserable feeling.

Melly was a woman of routine.

Throwing out water and taking out trash ended at seven. Closing windows and rechecking doors ended before eight. After that, she never went out. So the possibility of her being abducted after carelessly going out was non-existent.

She left of her own accord.

Sometime between eight and nine. After finishing her daily routine, she was led by something that suddenly occurred to her and left home. She had simply slipped out of Edric’s grasp. Just like three years ago, once again…

“…”

Suddenly, his vision was filled with tiny whirlpools like a nighttime stream. It seemed the sleeping pills were finally taking effect.

Edric reached out to steady himself against the wall, but it was a span farther than he had estimated.

Losing his balance, Edric collapsed onto Melly’s bed.

The cheap springs shook violently.

‘So this is where you slept every night. Leaving behind that large, soft bed in the ducal residence.’

Yet you looked brighter and more energetic. Much more than when you slept in that large, soft bed in the ducal residence.

Melly’s scent permeating the bed continued to guide him into the world of sleep.

‘Melly.’

When you want to, you can be so elusive, even sleep is like that.

Edric smiled faintly. It was becoming increasingly difficult to lift his eyelids.

Between his hazy consciousness, he seemed to catch a glimpse of Melly.

She was waiting for him at the boundary between reality and unreality.

‘Melly.’

He told her.

‘You saw the doorknob? The one you tried so hard to lock, it could actually be opened this easily. But I didn’t do that. I didn’t want you to be scared and shrink away.’

But if I had known it would come to this, I should have just broken in.

‘You really are the worst, Edric Pelton.’

If I had known it would come to this, instead of backing off when you yelled at me with contempt that day, I should have reached out to you more deeply.

For forgiveness or reconciliation, there needs to be someone to do it with.

When Lucius suggested bringing in another partner to have a child, I scoffed.

It wasn’t to have a child, but to have you that I thought of having a child.

But now I can’t laugh at him. The soft-hearted Lucius seems far better than someone like me.

‘Melly…’

The interval between closing and opening his eyelids grew longer. Darkness deepened moment by moment.

The sound of rain could be faintly heard. The sound hitting the ground was unusual.

Just like that day when he was rejected before he could even propose to Melly.

‘That day I went hunting intending to make you pine for me.’

If it hadn’t been for that useless calculation, what kind of life would we be living now?

Without needing to think, Edric knew the answer.

Now his eyelids covered more than half of his azure eyes. He had one foot deep in the world of sleep. The other foot would follow soon.

That’s when it happened.

Lightning split the sky, illuminating the interior brightly. A cracking sound like a whip being cracked followed.

‘I’m scared, Edric.’

It was the moment Melly feared most.

The downpour continued, and the withering weeds were submerged in puddles as if drowning.

Under the eaves of the traveler’s inn, there were many people stranded by the sudden downpour.

Melly was one of them.

‘This is bad.’

She paced back and forth, looking at the rain that showed no signs of stopping.

She had already left the store unattended for four days due to unexpected circumstances, and at this rate, tomorrow was uncertain as well.

“At this rate, the village will be flooded.”

“It’s safe here. Maybe down in Planer village, but not here.”

“Well, I guess if it floods, it would start there.”

Listening to the people sheltering from the rain with her, Melly felt her heart sink.

It was because of Planer village located in the lowlands, and her tea shop situated even lower.

The narrow waterway around her tea shop, located at the downward intersection between two hills, would not be able to handle the swollen rainwater.

‘This won’t do.’

Melly couldn’t stand by and watch the shop she had carefully nurtured be submerged. She had to at least salvage the tea leaves she had recently stocked.

“Excuse me.”

Melly ran to the carriage storage and asked for help from a worker who was just returning after feeding the horses.

“I need to go somewhere urgently, could I possibly rent a carriage?”

“Are you crazy?”

The man with a bushy beard said, as if it wasn’t even worth considering.

“You want to operate a carriage in this downpour? If the wheels get stuck in a puddle, are you going to get out and push?”

“I’ll push.”

Melly said without hesitation.

“I’ll push. So please, let me ride.”

The man momentarily looked touched by Melly’s admirable courage, but that was all.

“Forget it. What strength do you have? It’s obvious I’ll be the only one suffering.”

“…”

“A carriage is too risky in this weather. Maybe if it was a car.”

He dumped the feed he was holding into the horse’s feed trough and turned away. Melly called out to his back.

“Then I’ll rent a horse. That’s okay, right?”

The stable owner turned around at the rather firm voice. He looked Melly up and down.

“Do you know how to ride a horse?”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever ridden in rain like this?”

“Yes, of course…”

Her voice trailed off as she remembered an incident from long ago.

The day she urgently mounted a horse after hearing that Edric was injured.

The thick rain, the seemingly angry night sky, and the situation requiring her to ride a horse were all similar to that day.

“It’ll be expensive.”

“How much do you want?”

“Forty silver.”

“…”

Melly hesitated for a moment at the not insignificant amount. But she chose to go anyway. She wanted to salvage at least one thing before all her efforts were submerged.

“Please saddle up the horse.”

She said resolutely.

There was no danger except for the moments when she had to let go of the reins occasionally to brush away her hair getting wet from the rain.

Things she could do of her own will didn’t trouble her.

What troubled her were things she couldn’t do by will alone. For instance.

Boom-.

The tyranny of nature.

Melly closed her eyes tightly countless times at the flashing lightning and following thunder.

Although many years had passed, the sound of thunder still reminded her of her parents’ shouting voices from long ago.

Melly tried to calm her trembling body as she rode the horse.

Finally, the forest came into view.

Past this forest was the quiet house where Oz used to greet her, and not far from there was her shop. It wasn’t much further now.

But Melly hesitated at the edge of the forest.

It was because of the memory of nearly being crushed by a lightning-struck tree on a thunderous day three years ago. If someone hadn’t helped her then, she wouldn’t be alive now. Moreover, the one she loved most…

“Just a little more.”

Melly brushed away her thoughts and stroked the horse’s mane. The horse seemed to understand and stepped onto the gentle flatland.

It was truly a gentle horse.

As she took the long way around, the rain gradually subsided, and by the time the shop was in sight, it had stopped completely.

Melly’s heart swelled as she saw the small single-story building.

Fortunately, the tea shop wasn’t flooded at all.

The place standing alone in the darkness was her own sanctuary that she had built with her own strength.

It was the culmination of all her efforts and the source of her self-esteem.

She dismounted from the horse.

She wanted to quickly enter, change into dry clothes, and wipe away the dust that had surely settled in her absence.

She wanted to clean up thoroughly, even if it took all night, to serve the villagers who must have been disappointed by her disappearance without notice.

She held the horse’s reins and slowly walked.

It was when she had taken about five steps that she saw a dim figure in front of the shop door.

‘What… what is it?’

At first, she was scared, thinking it might be a vagrant. But as she slowly approached, Melly could see that the person was too neat and tidy to be a vagrant.

He slowly raised his head at the sound of her approach.

“You…”

Melly’s eyes widened in the darkness.

“Why are you… here…”

“I was worried about you.”

Edric said as he slowly rose from where he was sitting.

“I couldn’t sleep because I was worried about you, Melly.”

Then, without giving her a chance to retreat, he embraced her as if to hide her.

Heat could be felt from their damp bodies pressing together.

He seemed to have a fever.