He had planned to request an official audience this afternoon, but he hadn’t expected such an opportunity to come. Though he was bewildered by the sudden fortune, Ethan Erentis hurriedly sat up.

Before dawn. The garden, bathed in the early morning light, was serene and peaceful. Regardless, wasn’t it too early for a woman to come out alone? Worried, Ethan reminded himself that this was Tyche. There couldn’t be anyone bold enough to touch the king’s cherished niece.

He lightly brushed his hair back and pressed his eyes. His eyeballs and the surrounding muscles were stiff and sore. When he finally removed his hands from his face, he saw someone standing three steps away.

Even in the darkness, the woman’s light green eyes were vivid. They shone brightly with annoyance. Hyacinth Hener, wrapped in layers of shawls, crossed her arms and looked at him sharply.

Her tightly closed lips. The look of someone with much to say but holding back.

Her displeasure towards him was evident.

Ethan was slightly taken aback. The woman, wrapped in shawls like a ripe fruit, looked even more so. In his memory, Hyacinth Hener had always cared about her appearance and had never dressed so clumsily.

What should he say? While Ethan was pondering, Hyacinth turned around sharply. It was such a fierce movement that he almost imagined hearing the sound of the wind.

At the same time, Ethan’s heart shattered loudly.

“Lady Hener.”

He hurriedly chased after her and grabbed the end of her shawl, causing Hyacinth to turn around with an angry face.

“This is the royal garden.”

“…”

“Duke. Did you get permission to be here?”

“…I apologize for my rudeness. I did not intend to be disrespectful.”

“Of course, you didn’t.”

Hyacinth sarcastically replied, trying to pull her shawl out of his grip. Ethan let go obediently while carefully observing the woman.

“Are you very cold?”

“More like hot.”

“Then why don’t you take off some of those shawls?”

“Better hot than cold.”

A clean rejection. Even Hyacinth, who said it, looked a bit uneasy. She seemed aware of the peculiarity of her behavior, looking down at her shawls with hesitant eyes. But she didn’t take them off.

Instead, she wrapped herself tighter in the shawls.

“So. What brings Your Highness the Duke to the garden so early in the morning?”

He had a lot to say when he met her.

For instance, to ask for forgiveness for his rudeness at their first meeting, or to inquire about her personal experiences with silver hair. At the very least, he could confess that he had committed a great sin against her in the lost time.

But had he become a complete idiot? All the words in his head vanished cleanly. It was an excruciating blank, and Ethan was at a loss. He opened his mouth in a daze.

“Duke?”

“So… lady.”

“I’m listening.”

“Why did you come to the garden so early in the morning?”

Only after blurting it out did Ethan realize he had made a mistake. Did it sound like he was interrogating her? That wasn’t his intention. He could feel his ears turning bright red and his face paling without needing a mirror.

Desperately trying to recover from his mistake, Ethan asked,

“Do you often take morning walks?”

“I like ‘walking alone.'”

The emphasis on her words was clear. Ethan obediently apologized.

“Sorry for disturbing your time.”

“Not at all. I don’t know why Your Highness the Duke is here, but just for today, I’ll assume you got lost.”

Her green eyes glanced towards the door.

Are you leaving, or should I leave? The unspoken question stabbed Ethan’s heart, but he couldn’t back down. He had to continue the conversation somehow. He needed to ask what her personal experiences were, and if she really had forgotten the time that had disappeared.

So, with his whole body burning, he pleaded.

“May I… escort you?”

“I’ve thought since yesterday that you have an excessive sense of chivalry.”

“…”

“Fine. Go ahead.”

Hyacinth sighed lightly and extended her hand.

It was a perfectly natural gesture to accept a man’s escort. When she gently linked her arm with his, Ethan froze for a moment.

It was as if the northern cold that had frozen and killed his wife had returned for a moment. A harsh chill rose from the bottom of his lungs. It was a piercing sensation that made his hair stand on end.

Remember your sins.

The winter wind mocked him. Remember what you did. Never forget.

Ethan adjusted his posture to make Hyacinth more comfortable. Her red head tilted slightly. That lively gesture painfully scratched his vision.

…I haven’t forgotten.

He repeated an excuse to himself, unsure to whom he was speaking. All this was just, for ‘her.’

Hyacinth’s steps were moderately quick. It was the maximum speed allowed within the bounds of etiquette. Despite wearing so many clothes, it was amazing how she could move so nimbly.

It must be because she found spending time with him uncomfortable.

Ethan acknowledged it calmly.

At the same time, an intense feeling of disgust tapped at his throat. It was revulsion towards his selfish behavior of clinging to a woman who found him unpleasant.

Hyacinth paused briefly to look at a flower bud.

“The roses will bloom soon. They should be in full bloom by next week or the week after.”

“It will be a splendid sight.”

“Indeed. There’s a reason why Tyche’s garden is famous. It’s that beautiful.”

“Yes.”

Ethan glanced at the flowers and then refocused on Hyacinth.

“Spring must have come to Bremlin too.”

“It’s much cooler compared to Tyche’s spring. It’s a harsh environment where flowers can’t bloom well.”

“Do flowers bloom there too?”

“…Yes.”

You used to enjoy looking at the erentis flowers.

Recalling her innocent face as she picked two flowers and gave him one, he felt like smashing his head with a rock. Ethan rolled his eyes and glared at the innocent roses.

“They don’t bloom completely. ‘Snow lilies’ bloom, and so do snowdrops…”

“Oh, I’m curious.”

“Erentis flowers bloom too.”

“The small yellow flowers?”

His heart pounded at that question. Whether from joy or fear, he wasn’t sure.

His body trembled uncontrollably, and Ethan whispered with some difficulty.

“How did you know?”

“Why. Isn’t it the emblem of the Duke of Trisel?”

…Ah. So she inferred it that way.

His burning heart instantly cooled into a lump of charcoal. Ethan forced a smile.

“That’s correct.”

“One can’t not know the emblem of the Ducal House…”

Hyacinth’s words abruptly stopped. Ethan hurriedly looked at her and realized a beat late why she had stalled.

A sharp cry of an animal tore through the silence.

A scream writhing in pain. The desperate, shrill cry for help was so clear that Ethan couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed it until now. Even more so, he realized it later than Hyacinth.

The delicate hand that was linked with his tensed up.

“It’s alright.”

Ethan whispered soothingly as he hid her behind him.

Hyacinth obediently hid in his shadow, peeking out to look around.

“Would you stay here for a moment?”

“I want to go with you.”

“It might be a scene unsuitable for a noble lady.”

She hesitated, then took a step back with a tense face. It was a relief that she didn’t insist on being stubborn in matters like this.

Ethan glanced worriedly at Hyacinth and then pushed through the bushes to find the source of the sound. At the end of a quick and concise search, he found his target.

“Oh.”

Ethan let out a short sigh.

A gray stray cat with a tattered tail was crying pitifully. Grabbing the scruff of the struggling cat, he returned to Hyacinth, who widened her eyes and screamed.

“Doctor!”

Thus, the stray cat, blessed with extraordinary luck, received treatment far beyond its means. It received royal medical treatment that even ordinary citizens of Tyche couldn’t get, which was more than it deserved.

Ethan coldly assessed the cat, which was still sniffling. Its pitiful appearance didn’t particularly move him. His life had been too exhausting and tedious to feel sympathy for every passing wild animal.

“This cat is a baby.”

“Really?”

“Yes, my Lady. It doesn’t seem to be even 12 months old.”

“But what about its severed tail…?”

Hyacinth worried, on the verge of tears.

This was one of the reasons Ethan felt particularly hostile towards the kitten. It was making an innocent person cry.

Of course, he wasn’t exactly in a position to talk…

Ethan almost let out a bitter laugh but managed to control his expression. If he laughed while she was worried and nearly crying, he would be seen as a madman.

The doctor rubbed his forehead with a troubled look.

“My lady, as I’ve said before, we had no choice but to amputate.”

“I understand. The doctor knows best.”

When Ethan found it, the cat’s tail was already more than half severed. The doctor had decisively cut it off, saying it was better than letting it necrotize.

It was an irreparable wound.

The cat would have to live its entire life disabled. Ethan pondered this harsh reality as he watched the doctor continue to treat other parts of the cat.

“It might have been better to let it die…”

The wild is cruel. Animals that become disabled rarely survive more than a season.

If a rabbit injures its leg or ear, a fox will keep watching. When the rabbit finally gives up on life, the fox will appear and feast without hesitation.

There are wounds that cannot heal. It’s the law of nature.

“It might have been better to let it die.”

“Barbarian!”

Hyacinth gasped.

The doctor coughed awkwardly, surprised by the blunt choice of words from the lady. Ethan didn’t mind. To Hyacinth Hener, he was already an irredeemable scoundrel, a hopeless villain.

“How could you say such a thing to a baby?”

“That’s how it is.”

Ethan shrugged quietly.

“Mercy isn’t shown to wounded animals. As a kitten, it’s not skilled at hunting, and now it’s lost its tail. Starvation is a more likely outcome. Realistically.”