“If you would just hold onto me once, I could truly do anything for you.”

The man behind the iron bars said with a faint smile.

“Use me, Mel.”

It sounded like he willingly offered to be her tool.

Melissa did not avoid his connected gaze.

The longing in those blue eyes appeared desperately greedy, yet the words from his mouth were cruelly beautiful, resembling a flower enticing a passing butterfly.

Someone who harbored desires in his heart but couldn’t speak his true thoughts, struggling to prove himself.

Reizen Kalphenster.

For a moment, she recalled their wedding under falling cherry blossoms in deep spring. Melissa too, back then… had been anxious about being discarded if she couldn’t prove her usefulness.

She had wanted to get closer to him but couldn’t, so she worried and suffered. And yet…

Melissa overlaid her past self with the current Reizen.

‘The hand I longed for back then is right in front of me now.’

And now the choice was hers.

Soon, knights arrived with the cell keys and opened the doors one by one. Melissa’s door was opened too. With a creak, the old iron door swung open, and the barrier between them disappeared.

“The, the door is open!”

“Yaaay!”

Cheers erupted from all around. Women who had only been able to chat daily now grabbed each other’s faces to make eye contact or embraced while jumping up and down.

Melissa also tried to lift her heavy body from inside the cell, but she had no strength. Whether from exhaustion or her already heavy body, she struggled to move, and Reizen approached from inside.

The shadow quickly drew closer with heavy footsteps, and Melissa looked up.

When Reizen silently lowered himself beside her, Melissa’s throat tightened. Looking at the man just a span away, she saw tears pooling in his blue eyes. He said nothing, but she could tell from his eyes.

We were all just clumsy people.

Because we had never loved before.

Because we had never properly received love either…

Realizing this, Melissa cleared her throat and said softly:

“Would you carry me out of here?”

“Gladly, my lady.”

Large hands and strong arms lifted Melissa with the care reserved for a treasure.

Though her hair must have been disheveled and a mess, his gaze never left her. His stare held an intensity that bordered on threatening.

Melissa, uncomfortable with that gaze, deliberately turned her head away. Reizen climbed the stairs while staring at her sulky face.

“I’m playing the carrier role, but what should I do after that?”

As they ascended step by step, a study with an elaborate chandelier came into view. It seemed they had built an underground prison through a secret passage in the study.

“You can put me down now.”

“I don’t want to.”

At this blunt refusal, Melissa’s eyebrows shot up in anger.

“Didn’t you say you could do anything for me?”

“You didn’t answer, so I thought you didn’t want it. Wasn’t the deal off?”

It was an infuriating response, even after all this time.

“Then why did you grant my request? To carry me out, I mean.”

“I thought the contract was in effect.”

“Are you trying to negotiate with me now? I’m not in the mood for games.”

“I know this isn’t a time for games. I’m just saying, I’ve never been joking about you.”

“Then why would someone like you…!”

Melissa almost lost her temper. But realizing that getting angry at the man carrying her would only diminish her dignity, she calmed her boiling insides while her face and neck flushed red.

After closing her eyes momentarily, taking a deep breath, and opening them again, she spoke in a composed voice:

“I haven’t decided yet. Honestly, I don’t know if we can get along well in the future…”

But while she continued speaking softly, the man weakly smiled and rubbed his cheek against Melissa’s.

“Are you listening to me?”

Startled, she tried to pull back, but trapped in Reizen’s arms, she could only grab his shoulders and straighten her back.

“What are you doing?”

Seeing Melissa’s surprised eyes, Reizen adjusted his hold on her and buried his face in her neck.

“W-what are you doing, I said!”

Watching him bury his nose in her delicate neck and inhale deeply like an animal, the knights nearby shook their heads and walked past. Though everyone was too busy cleaning up the situation to openly stare, they thought it improper to behave this way at the scene.

“People are watching!”

With a bright red face, she struggled and pounded on Reizen’s chest. Despite her continued resistance, he held her tightly with both arms, seemingly afraid to lose her, and whispered quietly like a secret over her shoulder:

“…I’m sorry.”

Though it seemed his voice would be drowned out by the bustling crowd, it resonated loudly, making Melissa’s entire body vibrate.

“I’m sorry for hurting you.”

The man’s voice penetrated deeply into the most hidden, intimate part of her that she had never shown anyone.

“I liked you so much that I was afraid you would leave me. I didn’t want you to get hurt because of me… I didn’t want you to cry.”

Melissa.

The tender voice echoed right by her ear, and Melissa couldn’t move. The fortress of sorrow she had built so solidly with mud crumbled, shaking her inner self. Her eyelids, already red from crying, were swollen.

As she tried to wipe her tears with her sleeve again, the man who had placed her gently on a soft sofa found a handkerchief and offered it to her.

“Thank you.”

After habitually thanking him, she wiped her tears with the handkerchief, when she suddenly noticed crooked embroidery on it.

[M. G.]

It was a handkerchief Melissa had embroidered when she was young.

This belongs to Mrs. Miellin.

Her questioning gaze looked up, silently asking why he had it.

“Ah, excuse me.”

Reizen then pulled out another handkerchief from his pocket and replaced it with a softer one.

The new handkerchief smelled of his cologne. It had a base scent of wet wood, with a slightly tangy citrus note and a subtle, clean musk that harmonized to create a calming fragrance.

Melissa gently stroked the soft fabric of the handkerchief and said:

“I have a request.”

Reizen responded to her notably softer voice with a gentle smile.

* * *

“Let, let me go!”

Marquis Allonde, who had regained consciousness, struggled in the knights’ grip. The knights Reizen had brought immediately took control of Bayern’s command center and thoroughly investigated everything that had happened in the border region.

Reizen and Melissa stayed at the mansion for a long time to help with the aftermath. As he was being dragged away by knights, the Marquis spotted Melissa and shouted:

“You deceitful woman! Thanks to your revolutionary husband, only you get to keep your life! Khaak, ptui!”

Rather than acknowledging his wrongdoing, he remained rough and uncouth, cursing her for not pitying a fellow noble. Who would consider such a person human?

The words of this beast had no impact on her.

Melissa ignored what the Marquis was saying, as her purpose was to take the women to the clinic for treatment.

“This one doesn’t have a label. We need to sort them carefully so they don’t get mixed up and discarded unnecessarily.”

She was busy checking and separating medications with a servant who had brought a medicine trolley.

The Marquis, temporarily tied to a distant pillar, continued spewing vulgar insults, but she focused so intently on reading and sorting the complex medications that she didn’t even hear him. However, Reizen, who had just entered the room after directing people from the clinic and soldiers, heard the noise and covered her ears with his hands.

“Don’t listen. It’s bad for the baby.”

“Stop it. You’re interfering with my work.”

Melissa pulled his hands away.

“Then I’ll go quiet him down and come back.”

Instead of telling him not to come back, Melissa pretended not to hear and walked past Reizen. As she tried to move a paper box filled with sorted medications, Reizen took her load.

“Wait, you shouldn’t lift heavy things.”

It was a box of medication in bottles smaller than fingers. It was actually so light that she could carry it with one hand.

Melissa frowned with an incredulous expression and picked up a couple more boxes stacked together.

Reizen promptly took those away too and moved them. Unable to stand it anymore, Melissa put her hands on her hips and said:

“I can carry that with one hand.”

“I can carry it with one finger.”

“I can carry it with one finger too.”

“I can carry it with my pinky.”

“Yes, I’m sure you can…”