He felt that was the only way to create even small changes in their relationship. Though he still lacked confidence, he was challenging himself one step at a time because his partner was Olivia. Trying to trust her—waiting, even while imagining he might get hurt again.

“I can’t let Olivia get tired of me first.”

Above all, it kept pricking his conscience when Olivia looked to him anxiously whenever these conversations came up. It left a bitter taste in his mouth since he had brought it upon himself. So he had to resolve it himself.

Just as Olivia had willingly thrown herself into the heat fever to show her trust in him despite his anxiety, he felt he needed to do the same this time. Of course, he was still far from matching her level.

He returned resolutely to the study, saying he had work to do, but as soon as he arrived, Alois checked the clock. Feeling time was moving too slowly, he checked both the wall clock and his pocket watch, but they all showed the correct time.

“Time passes so slowly.”

It had been barely an hour since she left the forest, but he already felt anxious and everything else seemed trivial. Increasingly, thoughts like “Could I live without her?” and “Wouldn’t it have been better to keep her by my side by any means necessary?” kept surfacing, but Alois remembered Olivia’s pinky finger promising to wait and tried to calm his troubled heart.

* * *

When Olivia, who had been reported missing, emerged from the forest and arrived at the village, chaos erupted. Villagers who had worried about her despite the disturbing rumors rushed out to welcome her. Especially Kale, who hugged Olivia and burst into tears as soon as he appeared. Not having realized so many people were concerned about her, Olivia felt touched that she must have lived a reasonably kind life until now. She even felt apologetic for having lived so comfortably while so many people worried about her.

After returning to the cottage, the two walked around the house like new residents, feeling renewed emotions about the home they hadn’t seen in a long time.

“So this is the first time in four years that both of us have been in this cottage together?”

It was indeed true when they thought about it. For four years, Olivia had guarded this house alone, and when Lime returned, Olivia was gone, leaving him to watch over the house for several days. They cleaned the dusty house and cooked food that their mother used to make for them.

“This really makes everything feel like a dream.”

Lime murmured nostalgically as he ate stew, reminded of their childhood when everyone lived together. Yes, Olivia quietly answered, looking around the cottage several times for no particular reason. It was definitely her home, familiar and intimate, yet somehow it felt different from before. Unlike the excited Lime, Olivia spent her first day back in the village feeling an inexplicable awkwardness and emptiness.

D-6.

The villagers were curious about Olivia’s story, having been missing for several months. To avoid suspicion from returning too normally, she deliberately tattered her clothes in places to make it look like she had wandered through the forest before coming to the village. The plausible excuse Lime and Olivia came up with after putting their heads together was that ‘Olivia went out to gather herbs, slipped and fell down a cliff, suffered from short-term memory loss, and fortunately regained her memories when Lime came looking for her, allowing her to safely return to the village’—a common excuse often found in third-rate novels.

Alois would have been incredulous that anyone would believe such a ridiculous story, but surprisingly, as the two had expected, people easily believed their words. Clichés are eternal, and the more common and widespread a story is, the easier it is to gloss over with “that could happen.” Plus, having laid the groundwork about a head injury, if something didn’t add up or seemed strange…

“Ah, I’m sorry. My head suddenly hurts……”

They could resolve any awkward situation with just one sentence.

Kale, who knew the whole truth, was bewildered but agreed to participate in their secret after being told they had promised the beast to say this.

They deliberately made a show of returning to the village. If the administrator had planted someone in the village, news of Olivia’s appearance would likely reach him, so they waited to see what reaction would come from the village.

Olivia returned to her daily routine as if nothing had happened, opening her shop, treating injured animals, and making medicine just as before. She slipped back into everyday life so naturally and matter-of-factly, as if everything that had happened was just a mirage.

Because of this, she occasionally felt the urge to run to the thorn bushes to check if the mansion was still safely there. But fearing she might get caught, Olivia endured and vigorously got through each day, waiting for the day she could return.

Without realizing it, Olivia’s “place to return to” had become Alois’s mansion, not the cottage.

D-5.

The footsteps of humans investigating the thorn bushes suddenly stopped.

“It seems Olivia arrived safely at the village.”

Finding traces of Olivia in small changes, Alois came to the thorn bushes where she had departed again today. He sat on a stump, endlessly staring at the wall of bushes before checking his watch, only to find that though it felt like hours had passed, the minute hand had moved just one mark. Passing animals watched and shook their heads as Alois violently shook his watch, wondering if it was broken.

During her absence, he planned to learn more about methods to break the curse, but each day he only opened the same page of the ancient book and couldn’t read anything.

“I understand why lovesickness exists now.”

Is it only the third day? Alois felt that these three days seemed longer than the decades he had endured in this mansion.

D-4.

After three quiet days, they thought the administrator might not be that interested after all, but true to expectations, he appeared in the village. It was deeply moving that the man who had always claimed he couldn’t travel but insisted on summoning her to his mansion now came to the village himself.

“Well, for someone I haven’t seen in months, you look so healthy that I’m delighted.”

Though he must have seen her in that fiery hell, the administrator greeted her warmly, as though he’s meeting her after several months, just like the villagers. Although Olivia and the administrator had absolutely no good feelings toward each other, thinking of the wolf-dogs, they observed each other cautiously without mentioning the incident from that day.

“So you got lost in the forest?”

“I think I slipped at a cliff. I must have been unconscious for quite a while, and when I woke up, I was disoriented and couldn’t remember anything, so I struggled a bit. But somehow, perhaps due to ingrained habits, I managed to survive by eating tree fruits.”

The administrator questioned her like an interviewer, but Olivia defended herself with bland answers. She was tense about the duke or the inside of the thorn bushes coming up, but strangely, no questions led in that direction.

“I was actually considering increasing security in the forest because I heard someone from the village had gone missing, but I’m pleased that you’ve returned safely. Hahaha.”

His face pretending to laugh heartily was disgusting. Olivia had to force herself to lift the corners of her mouth.

“There have been too many strange false rumors about me while I was gone, so I was wondering if there’s a way to report this under imperial law if the rumors don’t disappear?”

There’s a strange rumor that I ran away with a man, Olivia probed about the rumors.

“False rumors should be dismissed as false rumors; there’s nothing you can do even if you feel wronged. If you stir things up trying to find who spread the rumors, wouldn’t it just create more strange rumors?”

It was practically a threat to keep quiet. If we’re burying things, we should bury them together. The two glared at each other in the air. For now, the administrator’s burdensome welcome back seemed to flow along smoothly.

D-3.

The awaited letter arrived. Seron said he had indeed taken a short trip during that time. The letter was filled with sentimental remarks about how meeting Alois had sparked his enthusiasm to break the curse, making him feel more energetic than in his youth.

And as Alois had requested, there was an enclosed list of people who might take the duke’s side. The knights who had directly shared hardships with him were too old to be actively involved, but their years of experience and positions could help in other ways. As Alois was sorting through people he might visit to talk with later, he glanced at the clock again and touched his forehead.

“Time moves too slowly.”

Strangely, as the day for Olivia’s return approached, time seemed to pass more and more slowly. Even after finishing all his tasks, the sun was still high, so he visited the same place again today. He settled on the stump where he had sat yesterday and the day before, staring blankly at the thorn bushes where no one appeared.