Seeing the two of them together made her chest ache. Despite telling herself that she shouldn’t feel this way anymore, she pushed the numbness aside and greeted them.

“It’s been a while.”

“Madam, we heard what happened. Are you feeling all right?”

Karen asked about her with obvious concern, but the first thing that caught Selina’s eye was how close Calix was standing to her.

They had been close since childhood — so close that they had promised each other marriage. No one knew if they still harbored feelings for each other. If it weren’t for the complication of Selina’s political marriage, perhaps they would have ended up together.

The more Selina thought about their relationship, the more she felt like an uninvited intruder between them.

“I’m fine. Thank you for worrying about me.”

She answered with a practiced smile, doing her best not to reveal her emotions.

Unlike Karen, who had greeted her so warmly, Calix didn’t acknowledge Selina’s presence at all. He didn’t greet her. He didn’t look at her.

‘Is it because Karen is here?’

Her chest began to throb again. Since her condition had worsened, she had often experienced pain in that area, but today it was particularly severe.

The doctor had said that chest pain could occur whenever she was stressed. This must be one of those moments.

Calix walked past Selina as though she were nothing more than an obstacle in his way.

“Ah—then we’ll be going now! We have something to attend to with His Grace.”

Karen looked flustered, as though she hadn’t expected him to leave without even a word, and hurried after him.

‘Maybe… this is my chance.’

Selina hesitated, clenching her hands. She realized that this was the moment when she had to voice the words she had kept buried for so long, too afraid to speak them out loud.

She couldn’t continue to be an intruder or an obstacle to Calix.

“Your Grace.”

She reached out urgently and grabbed the hem of Calix’s clothes.

Perhaps he hadn’t meant to ignore that, either, because he finally turned to face her.

His indifferent posture and tilted head, as though inviting her to speak, made her shrink back slightly.

Nevertheless, Selina gathered her courage and asked him a question.

“Could you spare me a moment? There’s something I need to tell you.”

Her voice trembled with tension. The tremor must have been audible because both Rocheste and Karen looked confused.

‘I can’t propose a divorce in front of everyone.’

Selina had decided to tell Calix that it was time for them to start preparing for their separation.

Having researched Imperial law, she knew that divorce was possible if both parties agreed and their respective interests were clearly settled. As she would be the one requesting the divorce, Selina planned to repay Thalia for the wedding expenses over the course of her lifetime, if necessary. Of course, she did not know if such a sum could truly be repaid through effort alone.

Nevertheless, that was why she had asked Calix to speak with her.

“I’m sorry, but I’m busy right now.”

Calix rejected her request outright.

The way he shook his head without hesitation made it seem as though he had no intention of finding time for her, even if he weren’t busy.

“Th-then…”

Having finished replying, he turned away as if there were nothing more to discuss. However, Selina tightened her grip on his collar.

“I’ll wait until you’re finished.”

Her hand was so fragile that he could have brushed it off easily. He looked down at her hand for a moment before speaking.

“I don’t know when that will be.”

“That’s fine.”

It could have been taken as a roundabout refusal to make time for her, but Selina didn’t mind.

“I’ll wait.”

She felt that if she didn’t say it now, when she had steeled herself, she would never find the courage to bring it up again.

Calix watched her in silence for a moment longer, then nodded briefly.

“Very well.”

“When you’re done, please come back. I’ll be here.”

Calix’s expression hardened at her insistence on waiting in the blazing sun, as though he disapproved. However, he quickly smoothed his face back into an impassive expression and said curtly, “Do as you like,” before turning away.

Karen followed him.

Rocheste did not leave right away. Instead, he approached Selina and said quietly,

“Whatever it is His Grace needs to deal with will take quite a long time. You shouldn’t wait, Madam.”

“It’s all right. I don’t have anything else to do anyway.”

Selina smiled faintly and thanked Rocheste for his concern.

He couldn’t help but worry when he saw how haggard she looked; perhaps it was because of everything she had been through, but it was far worse than usual.

However, he was too overwhelmed by the guilt he felt about that day to talk about it.

“Then…”

He opened the parasol Yuri had left behind and carefully held it over Selina’s shoulders.

“Staying out here like this when your health is weakened is dangerous. At the very least, please use the parasol.”

“Ah… thank you.”

The sunlight stung her eyes, so she was grateful for Rocheste’s kindness in offering her the parasol.

He gently placed the parasol in her hand, turned, and followed Calix and Karen.

As she watched him go, Selina began to arrange her thoughts, carefully preparing what she needed to say to Calix. She sincerely hoped it would help clear the path ahead of him.

***

“It doesn’t seem like you’re concentrating at all.”

Rocheste’s sharp remark was directed at Calix, who was in the midst of identifying the whereabouts of absent knights.

“We came here to root out the insiders who took part in Libero’s plan, but Your Grace’s gaze keeps drifting toward that side path.”

Karen chimed in with a playful tone.

“Why not leave it to us and go check on Madam instead?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. It hasn’t even been an hour.”

Calix snapped back at Rocheste’s concerned question, dismissing it as nonsense.

In truth, however, he had been watching the spot where Selina stood ever since.

Although he was acting as though nothing was wrong, the fact that she had remained in the same place for over thirty minutes was driving him to the brink.

‘Why is someone who hasn’t even fully recovered standing there like that?’

He felt a flicker of relief when he saw the maid he had personally assigned to Selina approach her. He thought she would go back inside at last. Instead, Selina sent the maid away.

Had he followed his instinct, he would have strode over, grabbed her and demanded to know what she wanted to say — what could be so important as to make her act this way?

But it couldn’t be anything important.

Clearly, she was going to ask him to lift the restriction on going out. Calliope had always been stubborn in much the same way.

As the Marquis’s daughter, Selina would be even more willing to harm her own body to get what she wanted.

“Honestly, I am a little curious.”

Karen asked Calix in a probing tone.

“I understand that the matter is serious, but it’s rare for Your Grace to personally conduct an investigation like this. The knights already seem terrified. Is there another reason?”

“Yes.”

Calix replied flatly.

“When the Empire learned that Selina had been kidnapped, they sent a letter directly. The Marquis was said to be furious. He demanded that every single person involved be rooted out.”

“Oh? So one threat from the Marquis is enough to make Your Grace step in personally?”

“That doesn’t quite add up, considering the way you’ve acted until now.”

Rocheste, who had been listening quietly, added his comment.

“I told you to work, not to flap your mouths. If you’re bored, why don’t you at least move a little more?”

Calix made no effort to hide his irritation as he pushed the two of them aside.

They eventually moved away, albeit reluctantly. Once the noise beside him had faded, his mind finally cleared.

This enabled him to focus and complete a task that would usually have taken several hours in a short amount of time.

However, it wasn’t specifically for Selina’s sake.

He simply thought it would be easier to get it over with quickly.

And yet.

Calix turned his gaze back towards where Selina had been standing.

The woman who had been watching the training grounds from beneath a parasol, hidden among the shrubs, had disappeared.

‘So she didn’t wait after all.’

Although he had expected as much from the outset, seeing the empty space left a bitter taste in his mouth nonetheless.

It probably wasn’t important, though.

With that thought filed away, Calix turned to follow Rocheste and Karen as they began questioning the knights.

“Madam!!”

A maid screamed, sounding as though she were about to faint. Calix immediately recognized the voice as belonging to the maid assigned to Selina.

Spinning around towards the source of the scream, he saw the maid running towards the spot where Selina had been standing moments earlier.

Selina had disappeared — but what on earth had happened?

“P-please help! Madam has collapsed!”

Selina’s limp body came into view, emerging from behind the bushes.

In that instant, Calix’s vision warped violently.

Selina had been waiting for Calix the whole time, standing in the same place.

Then, all at once, her consciousness seemed to slip away.

***

When she opened her eyes, she was standing on the island where the monastery had once stood.

It felt like a dream, but she knew it wasn’t a nightmare.

Just then—

“Selina.”

A voice so gentle it nearly brought her to tears called out to her.

When she turned around, Calix stood there, just as he had been in his boyhood.

“Have you ever seen something like this?”

He held out a flower made from a crisp leaf, carefully folded by his own hands.

“I’ve never seen a flower like this before. It’s beautiful.”

The moment Selina accepted it, she burst into tears.

‘It is a nightmare.’

This, too, was just another kind of nightmare.

On the days when she had beautiful dreams, the pain afterwards was always far worse than usual.