It was a half-hearted reply, suggesting she should do as she pleased.

Regardless, Reizen steadfastly moved the items and then stood beside Melissa, staring at her face. After finishing organizing the medications, Melissa was slowly dabbing her beads of sweat with a handkerchief when their eyes met.

Why did he keep looking at her like that?

Was there something on her face?

Melissa’s eyes wavered.

Slightly self-conscious, she stepped back a couple of paces and checked her reflection in a decorative mirror on the wall. It seemed she had gotten covered in dust on her clothes, face, and hair while sorting and moving the old medication boxes.

She tried wiping the soot on her face with the handkerchief, but rubbing only made the marks longer.

“…You could have told me if something was on my face.”

As Melissa, with a bright red face, avoided his gaze out of embarrassment, Reizen approached and tilted his head slightly.

“What’s on your face?”

When Melissa pointed to her flushed cheeks, the man tilted his head, appearing confused about what she meant. Then, with serious eyes, he approached and held her cheek with one hand.

“Ah, here.”

The man rubbed her hot cheek with his thumb and said softly:

“There’s prettiness on it.”

For a moment, Melissa covered her gaping mouth with both hands in astonishment. What on earth had happened to this man while she wasn’t looking? Where did he learn to speak like such a playboy…!

Melissa felt her entire body twisting unbearably. With a red face, worried that someone nearby might have heard, she hastily pushed away Reizen’s hand and left the room.

After retreating to a corner of the hallway, Melissa clutched her pounding heart.

If it had been anyone else, she would have slapped them for such inappropriate words, but when that man, with that face and that voice, openly flirted with her, her body reacted on its own.

Perhaps she had become more sensitive because she hadn’t received her mark treatment for several days…

“Pull yourself together, Melissa Grey!”

She slapped her reddened cheeks with an audible smack and headed outside the mansion.

* * *

By the time she arrived at the clinic, it was evening and the sun had set.

Normally in the evenings, after tending to patients’ medications, everyone except one night ward doctor and a nurse would return to the dormitory building to rest. But today, it bustled with people day and night like a train station in the capital.

“Those looking for family members, please gather again tomorrow by 3 PM! If you enter the clinic now, you’ll interfere with patient treatment!”

Soldiers brought by Reizen were helping with guidance at the front of the clinic.

“We’re short on supplies and can’t accommodate everyone here. If anyone from the capital can provide lodging, please raise your hand!”

As the nurse’s booming voice was heard, several villagers gathered in front of the clinic raised their hands.

Most of the women rescued from the Marquis’s mansion were patients who needed care at the clinic, but the remaining personnel from the capital couldn’t be accommodated in the dormitory building.

As night approached, they needed to create sleeping spaces somehow, and since the front of the clinic was still crowded, they decided to use the village instead.

The nearby military base was mostly under the control of the capital’s special forces due to the border commander’s absence. Though things were being quickly organized with Reizen personally present, they couldn’t house regular medical personnel in a place where disturbances might occur.

As soon as Melissa got out of the car, she asked those around her to move the supplies and entered the clinic. Inside the chaotic space, where patients and medical staff mixed like a marketplace, she saw Emerson running around providing treatment.

“Where’s Lucy?”

When she asked a passing colleague, the colleague, who was hurriedly pushing a cart, smiled brightly.

“She regained consciousness this morning.”

“Ah, thank goodness…”

“It’s thanks to you, Melissa. We’re so glad you returned safely too. Emerson was so worried…”

The colleague in nursing uniform gestured toward Emerson, who was running around sweating in the distance, and smiled faintly. Then, with tired eyes, she asked Melissa to quickly refill the medicine bottles. Melissa became so busy immediately upon returning that she didn’t even have time to catch her breath as she moved medicine bottles and bandages.

She couldn’t tell how time was passing. Focusing only on dealing with the situations before her, she suddenly realized it was deep into the night.

When the patients were asleep and only a few groaning voices echoed through the clinic corridors, Melissa finally stopped moving. Looking at the darkened hallway, it appeared quiet, the earlier bustle seemingly a dream, with only moonlight settling down.

She saw some nurse colleagues and soldiers sitting in the corridor, taking a break and nodding off. A colleague on night duty, opening a patient room door, spotted Melissa and said with a welcoming face:

“Melissa, go in and rest too. You need to take care of your body.”

The colleague said “body” while patting her stomach, meaning not to overexert herself while pregnant.

Everyone must be tired, but this was a place where concern for one another was paramount. Truly.

Melissa opened a patient room door one last time, saw Emerson asleep next to a patient, covered her shoulders with a blanket, and returned to the dormitory building.

The dormitory was a two-story log mansion without many rooms. There was a living room connected to the kitchen, and stairs leading directly to the second floor from the entrance. From the living room to the kitchen, people were packed densely, sleeping.

‘Is the second floor like this too?’

Thinking that perhaps her room had already been occupied, she climbed the stairs to the second floor and opened the door. But contrary to her expectations, in the room with just one bed, one wardrobe, and one wooden desk, there was only one person standing.

“You’re late, Melissa.”

As the blond man turned around, wind blew in through the open window. Melissa hugged herself against the cold air and closed the door.

Looking closely, the man was holding cufflinks in his hand. One was burned with scorch marks, and it had blue jewels embedded—Selheim’s possession…

Melissa quickly approached and almost snatched the cufflinks from Reizen’s hand. Putting them in her nursing uniform pocket, she said with a composed expression:

“I thought you had gone to the military base.”

Still unable to make proper eye contact.

Was he upset that she had Selheim’s belongings? Thinking he might be angry about that, Melissa heard Reizen’s voice become muffled, seemingly choked with emotion.

“How could I go anywhere without you?”

Even though he always had before.

Melissa pouted with a dissatisfied expression, straightened the bedding, and hugged a flat alligator doll that was on the bed.

The bed was a single, difficult for two people to sleep in. But she couldn’t make the esteemed Prime Minister sleep on the floor, so Melissa was thinking of borrowing a sofa from a colleague in the next room.

“Then have a good night.”

Standing by the door, Melissa gave a polite farewell and tried to leave, but a large hand grabbed the hem of her skirt like a net.

He seemed to have rushed over, fearing she might leave, but the lace-trimmed edge tore with a direct sound. She only had two nursing uniforms, and she always worried about keeping them clean and well-maintained.

What kind of monstrous strength was this!

Melissa’s face once again turned as red as autumn leaves.

“You make that expression whenever you see me.”

“What expression do you mean?”

“An expression full of anger.”

The man, who had bitten his red lips and then moistened his lower lip with his tongue, laughed dejectedly. His eyes curved as the wind scattered his bangs, revealing his broad forehead.

His voice, saturated with sadness, was drained of strength. His moist blue eyes intensified the scent of dawn. The sound of an owl could be heard from the quiet countryside forest, and everything was silent, the complex scenery from earlier resembling a dream.

Even their breathing sounded loud, creating a precarious feeling that if emotions were stirred even slightly, they would immediately reveal their true feelings to each other.

Melissa gradually looked up at him, who was still standing there holding the torn edge of her clothes.

When their eyes met, she saw the man in his perfect suit. Thinking that at this hour, he had waited for her return in the room, dressed in an immaculate suit with his hair neatly arranged, made her feel increasingly unsettled.

Melissa covered her mouth with one hand.

It was clearly a ploy to win her over with such charming methods at this point. But what could this man possibly gain from this?

The Emperor who had forced their marriage was no longer in this world.

“Why are you doing this to me? Could it be…”

Melissa moistened her dry lips and swallowed hard. Reizen’s scent, carried on the cold wind, swirled around her.

“Are you doing this out of a sense of responsibility?”