Chapter 60
The day had broken, but the sky was cloudy.
Eslyn steadied her breath as she walked up the forest path. Tebet’s back was visible in the distance. To catch up, she had to walk almost at a jog.
“Haa…”
A tired breath escaped.
The stride of a trained knight was fast. Even slowing a little would leave her behind.
His determined back felt a bit cold.
“It’s chilly today,” Eslyn murmured, glancing up at the gray sky.
Was it morning? Afternoon?
Without sunlight, it was hard to tell the time. The only thing certain was that they had been walking for so long that her whole body was exhausted.
The wind made her shiver. The air was sharp and cold, perhaps because of the gloomy weather.
“Te—Lord Ripherius.”
Eslyn carefully called out to the man in front.
“Is your wound okay?”
She looked at his shoulder as she asked.
Tebet glanced back and answered coldly.
“Keep your mouth shut and just walk.”
Eslyn let out a small laugh at that. A raindrop splashed onto her sweat-damp forehead.
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
“What…”
“Because I’m going to remember everything,” she said lightly.
Tebet’s pace slowed a little.
“By the way, can we rest for a bit?”
Eslyn leaned against a tree as she asked. Tebet ignored her.
“I don’t know who said we should hurry in the first place.”
“You’re so mean…” she muttered, pouting.
He glanced at her.
Her small, thin body, pale face, and exhausted breaths…
She looked completely unsuited for this rough forest path.
He stopped walking.
“Why is a maid of the duchy in a place like this?”
“Well, it’s just… by chance—”
“Cut the clumsy lie.”
Tebet’s voice was icy. Eslyn stared quietly at him.
“What about you, Lord Ripherius?”
“What?”
“Do you even remember why you’re here?”
It was a probing question. Their eyes met—her deep blue gaze was like a lake.
Tebet subconsciously reached for his memories.
“On my way back to the palace, the cliff collapsed and I was swept away. I treated my injuries and, on my way back, heard that magical creatures appeared at the mountain’s base, so I rushed back…”
Rushed? He frowned. It was true the magical creatures were urgent, but…
He sighed. Somehow, he realized he was falling into her rhythm.
“…I was the one who asked the question. Answer me.”
Eslyn smiled softly. Her eyes lowered to the ground.
“I was waiting here for someone important.”
“What?”
Tebet’s brow twitched. Eslyn spoke slowly.
“I promised to meet someone again here. But then magical creatures appeared, and you happened to save me, Lord Ripherius.”
A shadow fell at her feet. She looked up and saw Tebet had stepped closer, staring down at her. His expression was strangely stiff.
“A lover?”
“Huh?”
“Did you mean you were going to meet a lover here?”
“Well…”
Were we lovers?
That “secret lover” story was just a temporary excuse Tebet had made to keep her in the duchy.
But when she was a princess?
Yes, he confessed his feelings at the end, but lovers? She wasn’t sure.
Eslyn thought carefully. The silence grew long, and Tebet’s face darkened further, though she didn’t notice.
“Um… not a lover. But…”
His expression softened slightly.
“…it was someone I liked,” she finished.
His face hardened again.
“This is ridiculous,” Tebet muttered, unaware of his own expression changing.
His mood worsened sharply. He didn’t know why. He turned away harshly.
“You’re leaving already? Why don’t we talk more? If you’re curious about anything, I can tell you.”
“I don’t need it. If you don’t want to come, then stay here and wait for your lover.”
He tilted his head slightly, wearing a cold, mocking smirk.
“Oh, wait—you said it was just someone you liked, didn’t you? One-sided.”
Eslyn was left speechless. She let out a hollow laugh as she watched his back grow distant.
“You really do know how to make people angry…”
How many times had they argued like this before?
But Tebet was always the one who couldn’t stand it and came back to apologize first.
Eslyn smiled faintly and dragged her heavy body forward. She quickly caught up to him.
“You’re going to regret this later,” she said, brushing past him in a deliberately light tone.
“…”
Tebet stared at the small back that suddenly passed him.
What exactly would he regret?
He scoffed and walked again.
Her pale violet hair fluttered in front of him.
But…
What was that maid’s name?
He realized he was curious now.
But the question was quickly answered.
Eslyn.
He didn’t even need to ask. Somehow, he just knew.
“But the only Eslyn I know… was the princess. Eslyn Bertania.”
The princess he had handed the poisoned cup to… the princess he had killed.
“Now that I think about it…”
Tebet frowned.
“Why did I, who had no connection to her, personally deliver the poison?”
That day’s memory was strangely hazy. He could only faintly recall himself handing over the poison.
“Why?”
The Ripherius family was a neutral house, and Tebet had always lived without taking sides politically. He had planned to continue that way, bearing the Ripherius name.
To live as a war tool without feelings, in this accursed Shulden Continent, for life.
As his father, grandfather, and distant ancestors had.
So delivering the poison to the princess was an action he couldn’t understand.
“It’s almost as if… I was siding with the First Prince.”
His expression grew complicated as he walked.
His sharp gaze fell on the small back walking ahead.
“…Eslyn.”
Her unsteady steps looked dangerously weak.
This woman was as incomprehensible as well.
This suspicious maid.
“Someone she likes?”
He scoffed internally.
It was a lie. She was using such flimsy words to hide something else.
“What is she hiding from me?”
If he could figure that out… he would deal with her.
His hand gripped the sword at his waist. He had never once hesitated to draw it before.
But why now?
An unknown unease dug deeper and deeper into him.
Shhh—
The drizzle suddenly turned into heavy rain.
His vision blurred, making it harder to see the woman walking ahead. As her figure faded, anxiety rose in him.
“She’s not trying to run away, is she?”
Tebet unconsciously quickened his pace.
Then, the figure that had been walking slowly stopped. She leaned against a nearby tree, staring silently down at the ground.
He tilted his chin. What was she doing?
Suddenly, the small back that had been swaying precariously collapsed.
“…!”
Tebet rushed forward instantly.
The woman in his arms was burning with fever. Her white wrist peeked out from her loose sleeve, swollen and red.
Since when…?
“Why…”
He lifted her in his arms, muttering in a shaken voice.
“Why didn’t you say anything until your body got like this?!”
Why?
The cold question echoed in his head.
“Do you really not know?”
He felt like all the blood in his body had drained away.
“Stay with me. Please, stay with me!”
That was his own voice.
Tebet eventually found an abandoned cabin.
It seemed to have been used long ago by a mountain caretaker. It was more of a rickety, broken-down shed than a cabin, long neglected for years.
But it had a roof to keep out the rain. Tebet was grateful for that much.
“Your fever is severe,” he muttered.
Eslyn lay on the bed, her forehead burning.
There were no blankets or supplies in this desolate place. The fireplace was too damp to light.
He let out a long breath.
“How did your body get this bad…”
Her ragged breathing blended with the sound of the rain.
Eslyn was the type to develop fevers easily, even with a little strain. That hadn’t changed now, and he used to always be mindful of her condition.
“…Wait.”
Tebet frowned.
“Now, and before?”
The hand removing Eslyn’s wet robe froze.
He stared at her pale face as if hypnotized.
He suddenly had the terrifying illusion that her tightly shut eyes would never open again.
Could she already be dead?
Despite her labored breathing, Tebet hurriedly checked for her breath.
“…Hah.”
He felt her warm breath on his fingertips. Only then could he finally release the tension coiling in him.
His legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the floor.
“Why am I so anxious?”
That woman lying there with her eyes closed like a corpse…
“It’s like I’ve seen her dead before.”
Tebet shook his head.
The heavy rain beat hard on the cabin’s broken windows. He reinforced the windows with boards to keep the rain from reaching where she lay.
“At least there’s a dry cloth.”
Searching the place, he found an old blanket-like rag.
He carefully wiped down Eslyn’s body.
“Her wrist injury looks old.”
As he firmly bandaged her wrist, he thought about something.
He suddenly remembered how he had slapped her hand away earlier.
“Was it her right hand… or her left?”
He couldn’t remember.
A cold chill gripped his stomach.
“What am I forgetting right now?”
Flash!
A bolt of lightning illuminated his bewildered face.
