“If she returns early and I don’t open the door, it would be troublesome.”

Unlike before, now, Olivia couldn’t enter without Alois opening the way for her. So Alois paced in front of the thorn bushes almost every day, hoping to meet her if she returned early.

Waiting for someone was much more painful and difficult than he had expected. Especially if there was no certainty they would return. Dozens of times a day, he would rationalize that it would be fine if she didn’t return, then immediately want to go find her. Though it was his own heart, it wouldn’t move according to his will.

“How could she say she would wait even longer?”

Olivia, who said she would wait as long as it took to find an answer, seemed impressive again. Her being remarkable was no longer surprising. It’s difficult enough to protect and endure oneself, but changing others is much harder, and Olivia was someone who accomplished that.

“This is why I wanted to be alone……”

After waiting endlessly for her, he suddenly found this version of himself frightening. Because all his life’s standards were centered around wanting Olivia, he feared he might truly lose the will to live if he were betrayed again. Whenever such thoughts surfaced, as if foreseeing all this, Olivia’s lovely nagging that she had already laid out would come to mind.

‘Don’t misunderstand, decide, and get hurt all on your own!’

‘Stop worrying unnecessarily and think about the answer!’

Her voice was so vivid, as if she were speaking directly beside him, that he laughed without realizing it. He felt like he was beginning to understand what kind of answer he needed to find.

D-2.

Olivia took out all the materials stored in the cottage. She classified those with short shelf lives and made them into new medicines. Making them into medicine made them easier to store and extended their shelf life.

She prioritized making medicines needed by the animals living in the village. Joint medicine for older animals, preventive medicine against dangerous insect bites, emergency medicine for inflammation or wounds. These weren’t potions aimed at specific targets but general-purpose ones, and she didn’t forget to attach detailed labels to each medicine, specifying the species and symptoms, so anyone who needed them could easily find and use them.

“You’ll return to the mansion anyway, so do you need to empty it out so thoroughly?”

Lime looked at the empty warehouse with regret, but Olivia just smiled and shook her head. Since medicine and the clinic were entirely Olivia’s domain, Lime accepted it and focused on tending to the olive and lime trees planted abundantly in the yard.

She spent all day making medicine and filling the storage cabinets. Though the herb warehouse was empty, the large shelf most visible in the clinic was packed with various medicines. She collected the herbal dictionary her mother had made and emergency treatment methods by symptom, labeling each one to make them easy for people to find.

As she quietly counted the days until her return on her fingers, her heart raced at the thought that only a few days remained. Just as she was preparing a surprise gift for Alois, she had a feeling that when she returned, he would also give her the answer he had been contemplating.

Like someone waiting for their first date, Olivia rummaged through her closet, trying on different outfits to see what would look good, before finally stuffing all her clothes into a large bag. Come to think of it, when she was at the mansion, she had lived wearing clothes he had given her in a hurry.

“Why did he even have women’s clothes there?”

With hands on her hips, Olivia glared at the empty space as if Alois were standing right in front of her. It had seemed so natural at the time that she hadn’t noticed, but while packing, it suddenly seemed suspicious. She decided that as soon as she returned, she would ask about the origin of those clothes, stuffing her own clothes into the bag with a sulky face.

D-1.

Leaving the village early in the morning, Olivia took a carriage to the city for administrative procedures. Though she prayed to finish her business without seeing the administrator’s face, somehow he noticed she had submitted documents and immediately called her in, saying important documents required a face-to-face examination. Since it had to be one-on-one, Lime agreed to wait right outside the office.

“Suddenly transferring out? You’re leaving for another territory? This is quite sensitive……”

After setting the stage with talk about how criminals might flee to other territories and how the outflow of territory residents was closely related to taxes and therefore a sensitive issue, the administrator wondered where exactly Olivia was planning to go.

“I haven’t decided where to settle yet. But I feel that I haven’t learned enough yet, so I want to travel around studying more about animals and treatment methods.”

“Hmm……”

After examining the documents for a long time, lost in thought, the administrator threw them down and glanced at the door. Then he lowered his voice.

“Let’s drop this unfunny charade and tell me where you really were and what you were doing while you were gone.”

“I already told you. I slipped at a cliff.”

“You expect me to believe that? You weren’t missing for just a day or two, but for months.”

The administrator slammed his desk. At the sound, Lime, who was waiting outside the door, knocked.

“No, I’m fine.”

Olivia signaled to Lime that she was safe, then lowered her voice to match the administrator, who was irritably conscious of Lime outside the door.

“Whether you believe me or not, what can you do? You have to believe me. I once saw someone synthesizing animals in horrific ways to line their pockets, but it was so unbelievable that I decided to think it was a dream.”

Olivia tried to speak as calmly as possible while barely suppressing the emotions welling up inside her. Don’t show that you’re excited. Appear as cold and rational as possible. The administrator visibly flinched at what she said, realizing that Olivia was implying that if he pressed her about where she’d been and what she’d done inside the thorn bushes, she would question him about the chimera incident.

The administrator relaxed his expression and fidgeted with his clasped hands, smirking. If not for the chimera incident, a commoner girl like Olivia would be nothing to him.

“Still, it seems you’ve finally shaken that stubborn habit of not listening after nearly dying.”

“Are you going to process the paperwork or not?”

“Let’s agree to ask each other what we want to know…… But why are you applying for a transfer in the first place?”

“Because I hate being in a territory under your administration.”

“That’s a shame, truly a shame. If you had appeared just three days later, I could have examined the forest here and there under the pretext of rescuing a territory resident.”

“Consider yourself fortunate. Because I returned early, you didn’t waste any labor, and you probably saved your life too.”

“W-what?”

Olivia practically snatched the document the administrator had stamped. After checking that it had been processed correctly, she bowed curtly and left the office to submit the document. Lime stuck close to her.

“Nothing happened in there?”

“No. He just got excited and pounded on the desk a bit.”

She nudged Lime’s arm, telling him not to worry. But his hardened expression wouldn’t soften.

“But what’s this about? A transfer?”

“Ah, this. Yes. I just wanted to get the paperwork in order.”

As she spoke nonchalantly, trying to submit the documents, Lime urgently stopped her, not hiding his confused expression.

“I don’t understand—what about the cottage?”

“I’ve already prepared all the necessary medicines and treatments for the villagers. Since I won’t be able to leave the mansion for a while, I thought that might help.”

“But do you really need to submit paperwork? Are you going to dispose of the cottage too? We have memories there with Mother!”

“Lime, calm down.”

Seeing his shocked, teary eyes, Olivia embraced him with one arm. Lime buried his face in Olivia’s shoulder and whined. Don’t goooo. Olivia felt oddly pleased by this childish whining she hadn’t heard in a long time. Though she thought he had grown up, he still had traces of his old self.

“Even if I file for a transfer, disposing of property is another matter. We still own the cottage. I just won’t be doing business there anymore.”

“But still……”

“I don’t want to remain a territory resident and give the administrator another excuse to use if I disappear again. I don’t want to provide any unnecessary pretexts.”

Hadn’t he just been about to turn the forest upside down because Olivia was missing? Even if he glossed over it now, if he learned that Olivia couldn’t be seen in the village again, he was the type of person who would commit similar acts.

Since Olivia’s actions made some sense, Lime eventually moved to her side. Having processed her transfer notice and freed herself from the status of a territory resident under the administrator’s management, Olivia felt much lighter. She decided that if the day ever came when Alois ruled the territory again, she would file for a transfer back then.