After Zephion’s birthday passed, Reina avoided him as much as she could. Whenever he found the chance, the man tried to persuade her to leave with him.

‘After tonight, I’ll tell him the truth. After dinner… after lunch… I can’t ruin breakfast.’

Time slipped away like that.

Zephion still lived on, knowing nothing, while Reina went about her days as if nothing had changed. When Kaelid came, she shared a bed with him. She never kissed Zephion again.

In the darkness, her eyes fluttered open. She carefully moved the arm wrapped around her body.
Just as she slipped free of the man’s embrace, Kaelid’s hand closed firmly around her arm, though she had thought he was asleep.

Startled, she turned to look at him, but his eyes remained shut.

“I was just… going to close the window.”

She whispered the excuse softly. Only then did his blue eyes slowly open. His hand, gripping her arm, slipped away as if loosening reluctantly.

Reina draped on her robe, took up her cane, and slowly closed the window. Her gaze lingered outside. The endless plain stretched before her, shrouded in darkness.

‘Mother, too, once told me to leave.’

With Zephion urging her every day to escape this place, it was only natural that her heart would waver. The truth was, she wanted to leave. She was tired of the revenge that had tormented her all her life, weary of the chains that bound her. Yeria had been dead for years now.

Zephion was grown, a man so exceptional that he could stand proud anywhere. She no longer had any reason to hesitate—yet still, Reina couldn’t bring herself to take his hand.

Because Kaelid would pursue them to the ends of the earth.

She had even thought of killing him, but even that was no easy task.

When she glanced back, she caught a faint glimpse of the man lying motionless in sleep. She couldn’t be sure if he was truly asleep. Even with his eyes closed, whenever she tried to slip away, he would seize her arm in silence, just as he had earlier.

‘I suppose killing him is impossible.’

He wasn’t on Zephion’s level, perhaps, but ten years ago, he had swept through the battlefield. If he were the sort of man Reina could kill with a clumsy strike, he never would have survived this long.

And she could not possibly tell the boy to kill Kaelid.

‘Could he really kill someone?’

Wielding a sword and taking a life were two very different things.

Since the day Zephion had struck her, he had never again wounded another soul. Even when his own life had been in danger, the most he had done was turn his blade aside.

Of course, if Reina were to tell him to kill Kaelid, Zephion would find a way to do it.
But she hated the thought.

If they left like this, she wanted him to remain untouched, knowing nothing. A small wish—that he might live with clean hands, untainted by revenge or hatred.

Because taking a life changed a person more than anything else. She had seen too many on the battlefield lose themselves after killing, their minds corroded by the weight of it.

‘He’s the Iron-Blooded Baltgar. He would endure it well enough.’

Even so, she hated it. And the thought of his first kill being at her bidding—was that not horrifying?

Reina tightened her grip on the cane. She didn’t know how long she had been standing at the window when a low voice came from the bed.

“Lie down again.”

She pressed her lips together and quietly returned to the bed, the sound of her cane echoing in the still room.

The moment she lay down, his hand slipped beneath her robe, its heat stark against her skin chilled by the night air.

Lowering his head, Kaelid pressed his lips against the nape of her neck.

Something hard brushed against her hips.

“Uhh…”

The hand that had been caressing her soft stomach slid down, parting her legs.

Finding the entrance still damp with the traces of their joining, he entered her without hesitation, his p*nis taut and unyielding.

“Ah—hnngh!”

Reina’s body shook violently.

The man lifted his leg and shifted his hips. The cool air of the room grew thick and stifling. The bed creaked and rocked beneath them for a long time.

***

“Pipi.”

Through the mirror, Reina looked at Zephion. While Rose dried her hair, he had slipped in unnoticed and now leaned against the door, his face dark and heavy.

It had been only a few weeks since he’d crossed from boy to man. Unlike Reina, who passed her days in dull routine, Zephion had changed greatly.

The child who used to throw himself into her arms without hesitation was gone. The bright smile he once wore now seemed false, replaced by a hardened expression whenever he looked at her.

The chatter that had once filled the air had vanished. Now, his face carried the sure awareness that he was no longer a boy, but a man.

‘Strangely enough, after becoming an adult, he hasn’t told me to stop calling him Pipi.’

Even that—seeing how much more he had grown into an adult—felt unfamiliar.

Rose had finished drying and loosely braiding her hair. Zephion, who had been standing silently by the door for what felt like a long time, finally spoke up.

“Reina.”

His low voice carried a heavy tone. With his arms crossed, he clenched his teeth before speaking slowly.

“Would you like to go on a picnic? It’s been a while.”

“A picnic?”

Startled by the sudden suggestion, she turned around. The golden gaze fixed on her was weighted and solemn.

“Yes. A picnic. Just the two of us.”

“…”

“We used to go sometimes, didn’t we?”

When Reina hesitated without giving an answer, Rose glanced between them, then gently added her support.

“The weather’s been nice lately. A picnic sounds lovely. Shall I prepare something?”

“…Maybe.”

Though she gave her assent, a faint sigh slipped out. Lately, things had been awkward between her and Zephion. If they went, what could she possibly say to him?

‘He’ll only ask me to leave again anyway.’

Refusing him every time was exhausting. If she truly felt nothing, saying no would have been simple. But because she, too, longed to leave, pushing Zephion away was all the more painful.

“Then I’ll prepare something simple.”

“Rose, Reina and I will go alone.”

“All right, all right. I understand.”

Lowering her head in quick agreement, Rose leaned close to whisper in Reina’s ear.

“If something happened between you and Zephion, maybe you should make peace.”

“Nothing happened.”

“Then why does he look so troubled?”

At that, Reina let out a bitter smile.

Because that boy had recklessly given his heart to the wrong person. Because she had let herself be swept up in his pure, unguarded feelings, kissing him and making him believe in something that wasn’t real.

Reina swallowed her words. After Rose left, he only stood there in silence, watching her.

“Reina… is there something precious to you?”

She blinked at the question, then lowered her gaze. With her mother gone, the only weight on her heart was Zephion.

“Why are you asking that?”

“I just wondered what you cherish.”

‘If I say, ‘I cherish you,’ would that wound his heart all over again?’

She quietly met his golden eyes. The man pressed his lips together and lowered his head slightly.

“If there isn’t, then that’s fine.”

“Pipi.”

“Get ready. We’re going far.”

With that, Zephion turned and left the room.

Reina watched his retreating back in silence before letting out a long sigh.

Preparing for the picnic took little time. She packed a simple meal, some snacks, a blanket, and a thick cloth to lay beneath it.

Yuta offered to come along, but Zephion firmly refused.

“Anyone I can’t stop… Yuta wouldn’t be able to stop either.”

No one could argue with that.

Zephion climbed easily into the driver’s seat. Through the small window, Reina watched as Rose waved, her figure growing smaller and smaller in the distance.

The carriage rattled softly as it rolled on. Neither of them spoke. The estate gradually fell away, until it was lost from sight.

“Pipi.”

She called his name, but no answer came.

“Where are we going?”