The Duke, standing on his sword and roughly blocking the entrance to the cave, came and sat down next to Shioana. Shioana, snapping back to reality at the low groan he let out, lifted her head.
"Anyway, I owe you a debt."
Running away like this was not his way, but it was true that he had overcome the crisis thanks to it. Shioana shrugged at his polite greeting.
"Because I didn't want to die."
Moreover, it was still too early to feel relieved.
Simona's eyes looked extremely anxious as she surveyed the outside of the cave.
It was really awkward sitting side by side in a secluded place on a pitch-black night.
Shioana drew meaningless pictures on the floor with a twig.
The Duke continued to let out long sighs while only groaning. Shioana turned toward him with a worried look.
"Please show me your wound."
Living in Regbell, where no doctor was stationed, she was able to treat minor injuries.
"This is nothing."
He flatly rejected Shioana's proposal. Yet, it still bothered her. The Duke's white shirt was stained red, and the scent of blood lingering at the tip of her nose was growing stronger.
"What if Your Excellency dies like this?"
Her words were curt, but in truth, she did not want the Duke to die.
"Didn't I say it was okay?"
Sitting pressed together with nowhere else to escape in the cramped space, he firmly refused.
Sighing, Shioana unpacked the luggage she had brought from the horse earlier. It contained some food, a tarp, and a flint. As Shioana spread the tarp out, the Duke went out, gathered some twigs and branches, and started a fire.
“Please eat this.”
Shioana cut a piece of bread and offered it to him, and the two of them silently shared it in front of a bonfire emitting a faint, small fire.
The surroundings were quiet except for the sound of flowing water and the hooting of owls.
'If we're lucky, all the enemies might be dead.'
However, thinking the other way, Viscount Conrad and his allies might have all died due to bad luck. An ominous thought grew stronger.
'If I don't go back today, Martha will be worried...'
At this rate, she’ll be absent from the office without permission tomorrow as well. A sigh escaped her involuntarily at the thought of Raul jumping up in protest. Actually, the bigger problem was that her life was in danger.
"I'm sorry for getting you involved in this."
The Duke, breaking his long silence, handed her an apple.
What awaited Etienne upon his return to his hometown was pain disguised as happiness. He had to face his stepmother, who was preparing to set up a puppet in his place, and many enemies targeting the Duke Bernhard family. There were so many names of his enemies that he could not even remember them all.
'I refuse to die without even putting up a fight.'
To ease the suspicion of the wary Katrina, Etienne voluntarily led a dissolute life. He also secretly gathered troops for her.
'Who is trying to kill me day and night?'
Deep wrinkles formed on Etienne's forehead as he pondered the mastermind behind this incident.
'Anyway, I'm not feeling very well.'
It was too much for him, who often suffered from seizures and was plagued by severe nightmares, to handle assassinations twice a day.
As he let out another groan, Shioana, who was sitting next to him, put down the bread she was eating.
"I really might die if you keep doing that."
He muttered in a low voice as he looked at Shioana's displeased expression.
"It seems like you really want me to die."
"Your Excellency, not everyone in the world is like you."
Despite his refusal, Shioana bent down to find the bleeding. The wound on his arm had burst open and was bleeding, and while there was a light scratch on the other side, it was not very serious.
The heavy bleeding seemed to be on his side, but she couldn't get a clear idea because of his clothes. As Shioana reached for his jacket, the startled Duke grabbed her wrist.
"W-what are you doing?"
"I told you. I need to examine the wound. It would be horrible to wake up in the morning and find Lord's corpse next to me."
"Don't you know shame?"
Undressing a man like this was not something a noble lady would do. At his rebuke, Shioana raised her head and spoke seriously.
"I just don't want anyone to die."
As the Duke remained silent, speechless at her reply, Sina took off both his jacket and vest.
An arrowhead was embedded very lightly in his side. Although she had spoken confidently, she did not know how to treat such a wound.
"Move aside."
As the Duke stretched out his arm and pulled the arrowhead out, blood gushed out.
"No, if you pull that out like that—"
Startled, Shioana fumbled with the chemise beneath her dress and ripped it open. As she rolled it up and held it against his side, the Duke groaned again.
"Hold onto this for a while."
She suggested that the Duke lie down on the tarp.
"I don't sleep anyway, so it's fine."
She was sick and tired of him saying that everything was fine.
'What? Aren't you sleeping?'
It might be different if they had never slept in the same bed, but Shioana had definitely seen him fast asleep.
"Your Excellency is currently a patient."
His lips twisted as he looked at Shioana, who remained calm despite the unfamiliar and perilous situation.
"You seem like someone who experiences this kind of thing often."
"It's not the first time."
Many things happened while she traveled here by ship, passing through the Caspian Empire to escape Count Noah.
Sleeping outdoors was the norm, and there were many nights she slept in caves. Aside from being stabbed by a sword or struck by an arrow, there were often critical moments like this.
It was a bleak situation where she would have simply cried in the past, but now she couldn't even do that. Shioana smiled bitterly at her changed appearance.
"Because the patient needs to rest."
At Shioana's urging, he had no choice but to sit up and lie down. As he positioned his painful side upward, Shioana tore the chemise further and wrapped it around the wound. As she roughly wiped away the blood, the scar on his abdomen, which had not been visible before, came into view.
Shioana could not speak as she looked at the long scar running across his chest and stomach.
The Duke, noticing her gaze belatedly, loosely pulled his shirt open. A strong question formed in Shioana's eyes as she saw his wound.
'No, really, no...'
Duke Bernhard isn't her Etienne, so why does she feel this way?
Is it because he has the handkerchief made by Shioana, resembles Etienne enough for even Martha to mistake him for someone else, and has the exact same scar?
'Probably not.'
Her Etienne had sworn never to be hurt again. On an unforgettable night, his red eyes glared at Shioana as if to devour her.
'Etienne. It's rude to look at me like that.'
As Shioana tried to cover her disheveled dress, he smiled.
'What should I do? I feel like I’m going to do even more rude things.'
Etienne, who had kissed her, had undressed Shioana.
Her cheeks flushed bright red at the sudden flashback of a scene from a passionate night. To have such thoughts right in front of the Duke—she must have been insane.
She looked ahead with jer back turned, but the bonfire collapsed, sending sparks flying to the side. She gathered the dry twigs and tossed them back in, and the Duke was silent.
'He insisted so much that he wasn't sleeping…'
Shioana took his jacket and cloak and carefully covered him with them.
'How can anyone endure a night this cold?'
To Shioana, who was born and raised in Regbell, this level of cold was nothing. After all, it was a place where they had to keep the stove burning all year round, except for the one month of midsummer.
Cough, cough.
The Duke kept coughing while curled up, as if it were cold.
He had lost a lot of blood, and seeing that he was constantly taking medicine, it was obvious that the Duke's condition was not good.
Shioana gathered all the remaining clothes and covered him. The Duke, whose lips had turned blue, shivered all over as if still cold.
"...Ha."
Only one way to deal with the cold came to mind. Shioana got up, put a fairly thick piece of wood into the bonfire, and took off her dress.
"There's nobody here, and well, it's not like it's my first time."
She and the Duke were close enough to even sleep together in bed while wearing chemises. Dressed in a shabby chemise with a torn hem, she ran her hand across her face.
If it hadn't been such an emergency, she would never have done this. Clearing her throat softly, she stepped onto the blister in the room.
Shioana turned toward the campfire, being as careful as possible not to touch his wound. Then, she slowly counted. She had to fall asleep no matter what to forget this uncomfortable feeling.
'One, two, three stars-'
She had been exhausted all day, so she fell asleep in an instant.
As she fell asleep with her arm folded as a pillow, Etienne, who had fainted for a moment, opened his eyes. He felt a burning pain spreading through his entire body, starting from his side. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead, and groans escaped his lips involuntarily.
As he wiped his sweat, what caught his blurry vision was the image of his beloved lover.
"...Smilax.”
The heartless lover who wouldn't even look for him in his dreams was now in his arms.
As he wrapped his arms tightly around Shioana's waist, she opened her eyes from her light sleep.
"Your Excellency, please let go of this."
“...It’s a dream, just a little bit.”
Even this memory resembled those of the past, making Shioana feel dizzy. Just as the Duke said, this might really be a dream. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for the Duke to know about a memory known only to the two of them.
"Right. Because it's a dream."
Shioana slowly turned over and lay down, quietly gazing up at his chin. She reached out her hand toward Etienne's jawline, which she loved so much. Then, the hand that had traced down his neck groped his chest.
His heart was beating fiercely.
Shioana smiled with satisfaction while resting her cheek there.
'He didn't die.'
In her dream, her lover hugged Shioana tightly. As she stretched out her arms and clung to his neck, Etienne hugged Shioana even tighter.
The night wind was turbulent outside the cave, and the bonfire crackled as it burned the dry embers.
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