Still, today she woke up from sleep faster than last night. Thanks to regaining her senses inside the room, Izer didn’t have to worry about her tumbling down the stairs.

‘Can she really get completely better……’

Celian seemed unaware that her sleepwalking symptoms only appeared on rainy days. While it was fortunate that she was fine on clear days, knowing the reason why she specifically broke down on rainy days made him furious.

‘That bastard.’

Celian had nightmares whenever it rained. One day, had it been thirty minutes since he barely managed to bring her, who had been wandering around the house, back to bed? Izer’s eyes snapped open at the sound of Celian sobbing.

Tears flowed ceaselessly beside her twitching eyelids. While concentrating on her incomprehensible mumbling and wondering whether he should wake her, one sentence flew clearly into his ear and stuck.

‘Izer, don’t die……’

The moment he heard those words, Izer lost his reason and woke Celian. He kissed her face full of despair and diligently rubbed his groin to make his presence known. I’m here, I’m alive and well by your side, no one can harm us — only after whispering endlessly did Celian fall back asleep with him inside her.

That day, Izer got drunk for the first time since her return. Sitting beside the sleeping Celian, ready to respond the moment she called, he finished off half a bottle of whiskey.

Just as Celian had died countless times in his dreams, he was dying in her dreams. Since the years Celian had been separated from Izer were much longer than the few months he had lost Celian, it meant she had been bound to the specter of that barn for all that long time. Carrying unspeakable anguish, crying convulsively every rainy night.

The sinner was dead, but the scars remained.

It was lamentable that the victim happened to be his beloved wife.

***

Izer, who had been walking perfectly equipped with hat and cane, stopped in place. A clear voice came from behind him as he was wondering whether to go buy the jewelry he couldn’t get yesterday.

“Your Grace?”

“Wendy, you came out for a walk. Where’s Jade?”

“He left early in the morning saying he was going to look around the training ground. He seems worried that the storm might have broken the targets. Well, targets are much more fragile than wives.”

The sharp words mocking her husband who made all sorts of excuses to extend his training time even a little were cutting. The minor nerve war between his friend who tried to be faithful to both home and profession, and his friend’s wife who didn’t care about work but wanted him to focus on home, was one of Izer’s sources of entertainment.

Wendy made a face that said ‘then why are you here alone?’

“Why did Your Grace come out alone?”

“I told my wife to rest a bit.”

Wendy showed an understanding expression.

“It has been raining continuously lately. Is it still the same?”

“……”

“Never mind, you don’t have to answer. Anyone can see there’s trouble in Your Grace’s household. I also understand very well that you came out at dawn because you couldn’t show that face to Celian.”

Izer playfully raised both hands in surrender. His cane dangled from his hand.

“I had no intention of hiding it, but now that I’m caught, it’s embarrassing.”

“If Your Grace has nowhere urgent to go anyway, would you like to have some tea? Let’s talk as people who can’t be with their spouses for various reasons.”

“I have to see His Highness the Prince in two hours. It’s difficult……”

“The royal palace is thirty minutes from here. I hope Your Grace isn’t being mindful of Lian just for having coffee with me. How many times have I said Your Grace’s face isn’t my type?”

It seemed Mrs. Schwenn’s nerves were on edge from her husband leaving her behind this morning. Izer didn’t refuse further and accepted.

Wendy walked in step with him while pouring out her anger about Jade.

“Do you know what that person’s goal is? To get promoted to major within two years. Does a major just sit still? He has to fight operations and battles to achieve merit.”

“……”

“If he hadn’t married, he could have dreamed such dreams. But now he’s married and business is going well too. There would be no problem with our livelihood even if Jade quit being a soldier. Rather, it might be better if he quit being a soldier and was faithful to his family!”

Seating the excited Wendy in a chair, Izer calmly called the waiter.

“Please put plenty of milk in the tea. What about Wendy?”

“I’ll have coffee. No sugar. Just seeing sugar makes me angry thinking of my husband. He thinks he’ll be young forever……!”

“In that sense, training is good exercise. It’s also Jade’s secret to maintaining his health……”

“Your Grace.”

“I’m sorry.”

Izer, who had tried to subtly take his friend’s side, immediately backed down. Actually, even he thought Jade wasn’t behaving very admirably as a husband.

The moment a man married, all his decision-making rights were granted to his wife. That was the first rule and unwritten law for a peaceful home.

‘……I wasn’t though.’

Thus his home was not peaceful. Izer sipped his tea. It was exactly the style Celian would like — appropriately bitter and smooth with milk. He was thinking he should bring her sometime when he put down his cup, and Wendy sighed loudly and scooped a large spoonful of sugar into her coffee.

“I envy Your Grace. You don’t fight with Lian, do you?”

“Hmm, we have our battles over other things.”

“For example?”

“We go to the department store but Lian insists she doesn’t want anything so I get upset, or she has tea time alone with her sister without me and I get upset when I find out, or she goes to the villa without telling me and I get upset again……”

Wendy covered her ears.

“I’ll only listen up to there. I don’t want to hear more newlywed stories from you two sugar bowls.”

“There’s more.”

“I’m not curious. But what are you doing out here alone this morning when you’re so devoted to your wife?”

“That’s a different kind of worry.”

Darkness instantly covered the pale face that had worn a boyish smile when talking about Celian. Wendy, who had been quietly watching that expression change, moistened her lips with her sugared coffee.

“What did Doctor Owen say?”

“Only that time is needed. I understand with my head too. I understand, but…… watching it from the side is another matter.”

His eyes looking only down at his teacup were gloomy. Wendy knew everything anyway. Izer expressed his frustrated feelings.

“I don’t know what more I should do. She hates moving, says sleeping pills are useless, and I’m not God so I can’t control the weather.”

All traces that might remind her of that rainy day had disappeared. He threw out all the chains, shackles, and objects that might remind one of confinement, and even replaced all the iron decorations that caught the eye with wood or cloth materials.

A royal orphanage was built on the site of Winston’s house that Prince Edmond had torn down. Finally, Izer burned down the old barn where their nightmare began and planted a large tree.

Despite all those efforts, the demon still dominated Celian. Wendy carefully suggested.

“What do you think about having another baby?”

“I hate it.”

Izer refused flatly.

He acknowledged that miscarriage played a large part in her sleepwalking. If a new baby comforted her heart, Celian’s wandering at night might also disappear.

Perhaps Celian had similar thoughts, as she subtly refused contraception. Just a few days ago, she had sat on top of him and tried to endure until the end. If Izer hadn’t forcibly pulled her down, his seed might have taken root in her womb.

Absolutely unacceptable. Izer shook his head.

“Pregnancy is too dangerous for her body. Of course it would be good if the baby was born safely, but we can’t ignore the possibility of something similar happening again. Then again……”

He didn’t even want to think about it. To repeat once more that day when the woman he had barely regained had hovered at death’s door — absolutely not.

“If Your Grace thinks that way, there’s nothing to be done. I understand.”

“If my wife really wants to have a baby, I’m also considering adoption. It happens sometimes in this society.”

“Either way, it’s not something that can be decided right away.”

Wendy only said that much. Even knowing the whispers that adoption or formal adoption would bring, the determination to endure it was beyond the scope of understanding.

Izer also answered in a subdued tone.

“Right now there’s nothing I can do. I’m just powerless.”

“You can’t force time to pass. Even God doesn’t meddle with time.”

The pain repeated in Celian’s unconscious during the long time she had lived through couldn’t be covered by Izer’s efforts. Wendy, who had been quietly staring at him, got up from her seat.

“Celian will get better soon. She’s just too happy now to be buried in bad memories.”

***

After finishing dinner at the royal palace, people passed by the man returning home. Izer pushed through the crowd clamoring to get home and got into his carriage.

Due to the aftermath of the storm, the carriage moved slower than usual. Through the window, he could see strong men carrying broken trees on their shoulders and walking vigorously. Despite it being quite hard work, their faces were bright.

‘They must have agreed to receive good wages in exchange for clearing the roads.’

He doubted it would even be 10 pence per day, but for them it would be an amount that meant not having to work for a week. He envied those who could smile so brightly over just a few silver coins.