“Your Grace—what happened?!”

Dennis stared in horror, unable to finish his sentence. Pailin and the other knights were no different.

The duke was covered from head to toe in torn flesh, shredded entrails, and tufts of unidentifiable fur.

Undried blood dripped steadily from the hem of his garments. It was impossible to tell whether the blood belonged to the beast or the duke.

“Ugh…!”

One of the young pages who had come to assist him was taken aback by what he saw.

This was an offence that deserved punishment.

However, the duke showed no interest.

Aiden walked past them at a steady pace.

“Make preparations within the hour.”

“…Pardon?”

“It is time to search.”

“My lord… could you not rest, if only for a moment?”

Pailin ventured the suggestion carefully.

The look he received in return was as cold as frozen steel.

“And if the delay causes her to be found too late—if she catches a chill—will you take responsibility?”

“….”

No one answered.

Without waiting for a response, he stepped into the outpost.

The strange words he had spoken were forgotten in that moment. The loyal knights of House Strilland remained silent.

From that day forward, the duke’s routine changed.

He hunted alone through the night, slaughtering beasts in the darkness, and only returned at dawn.

Each morning, he returned drenched in blood.

After calmly stating where the corpse of the Ballok wolf lay, he issued his orders in an even, steady voice.

“Split open the belly. Search for traces.”

He went straight to the baths to wash the blood off his body. Without resting for a moment, he led the search party back towards the gorge.

No matter how strong he was, he had his limits. It was only a matter of time before his body gave out.

He should have been stopped.

But no one dared.

He was weeping silently.

He sliced through the air with his blade, cutting clean through a beast’s throat.

With every step, he left behind blood-soaked footprints.

Each movement was a sob. Every strike was a scream.

Whether he was searching for even a fragment of his lover’s bones, or whether it was vengeance alone that drove him, no one could say.

Spring arrived.

Even after he had piled the corpses of Ballok wolves high like mountains, and the snow had melted to reveal the bare earth beneath, he did not stop.

***

Spring came.

Just as the doctor had predicted, Sveta had recovered enough to stand up.

As soon as her splints were removed and she could bend her fingers freely again, she started practicing walking.

“Ah—”

She tightened her grip on the cane.

Seeing her trembling wrist, the physician explained.

“Though your fingers have healed to a degree, you will not regain their former strength immediately.”

“Will it… always be like this?”

she asked anxiously.

“It will take time.”

“…It is all right. As long as I recover.”

“Yes. Now be careful not to lean to the left as you stand.”

She did as she was told.

She managed to stop her body from tilting to one side.

However, the real problem was the pain in her left leg.

Tears sprang to her eyes. The pain surged and became unbearable, causing her to cry out sharply.

“Ah—!”

It felt as though every muscle and nerve in her body was twisting violently out of place. Sweat streamed down her back.

She bit down on her lip.

The physician’s white brows bent deeply, like folds of cloth.

“Move both canes forward slightly first… yes, just like that.”

With his wrinkled hands folded calmly together, he watched her every movement.

“I’ve… moved them.”

“Put more strength into your arms. Lean forward slightly, and begin with your injured left leg—”

“Ahh!”

Before she could finish, her body gave way and she collapsed.

Pain exploded through her body.

Every joint throbbed. It felt as if her calves were being torn apart on both sides. Her head pounded relentlessly. Although the worst of the agony radiated from her leg, even the slightest impact of her forehead hitting the floor burned with a sharp, vivid intensity.

Tears welled at the corners of her eyes.

A sudden wave of fear overwhelmed her.

‘What if I never walk again?’

She had believed that her heart was too hardened to break.

Yet the stone-like weight in her chest began to crack.

She wanted to stay where she had fallen and weep.

When would this relentless pain end?

Her shoulders trembled.

“It is all right. You can do it.”

The physician’s quiet voice settled gently over her tightly bound black hair.

She clenched her fist. Her uneven nails dug sharply into her palm.

‘It’s all right. I can do this.’

She had always whispered those words to herself in private.

Hearing them from someone else felt different.

They were a small encouragement.

It was also something she had never heard before in her life.

That simple sentence carefully gathered the shattered pieces of her heart back together.

Sveta lifted her gaze towards the physician.

Seeing that she was still anxious, he asked gently—

“Try again. Do you think you can?”

“…Yes. As many times as it takes.”

The maid who had been watching from the side stepped forward and carefully supported her.

Rising slowly, Sveta forced her eyes open. She lifted her chin deliberately.

“I’ll try.”

She spoke it like a vow and gripped the cane with all her strength.

***

Summer was approaching in the north. Yet Aiden’s days remained much the same as they had been during the depths of winter.

Every night, he ventured out alone to wander the gorge in search of the Ballok wolves.

At some point, they had become scarce. He did not know if their numbers had decreased or if they had fled to escape sl*ughter.

He roamed the ravine like a madman. Whenever a beast appeared, he swung his blade.

It felt natural now.

He was almost numb.

He had crossed the gorge dozens of times and knew its paths by heart.

After wiping the blood from his sword onto his golden cloak, Aiden stepped once more into the darkness.

His gaze was empty.

Suddenly, certain thoughts rose to the surface.

“It appears Lord Meriner has not been meeting anyone in secret.”

It had been the report delivered by the soldier assigned to watch Henrik that very morning.

“As ordered, we conducted an investigation. It is true that Lady Meriner travelled north to recuperate due to her melancholy. Their relationship does not appear to be particularly close. He visited the villa only once and has not returned.”

“….”

“Moreover, he appears reluctant to be alone. During the searches, he remained surrounded by large guards.”

“And the letters? Were they examined?”

“Yes, Your Grace. He writes once a week to his wife and father-in-law, filled with fervent affection. No other correspondence has been found.”

“….”

Aiden had assigned men to keep watch over Henrik, suspecting that he might have conspired with Sveta.

This continued from late autumn to spring.

After all that time with no suspicious activity, Henrik Meriner seemed innocent.

“So it was not Henrik Meriner who helped her.”

Kicking the wolf’s corpse aside, Aiden continued on his way.

Each time the dry northern wind blew across the cliff face, fragments of crumbled earth and stone tumbled down it.

He walked through them.

“Without help… alone…”

She had fled alone.

She ultimately arrived at a sheer, dizzying cliff.

In that final moment, Sveta’s face twisted with desperation and she gave a faint smile.

Why?

Why had she smiled?

Whenever he considered this question, he came to the same conclusion.

‘…Did she hate me that much? Enough to choose death rather than remain by my side…’

The memory loomed before him like a dark shadow.

Vast.

Desolate.

The memory was unbearable because what had seemed like the end of the world to him might have offered her a glimmer of hope.

Aiden shook his head sharply.

“No. No. Sveta is not dead.”

Yet cruelly, another thought rose at once.

‘If I am searching for her alive, why does this feel like vengeance for the dead?

He searched for her, consciously.

But reason told him that she was gone.

He could no longer distinguish truth from illusion.

His thoughts twisted together into a chaotic knot, as if his mind had decayed into something soft and formless.

He was sick of it.

In an attempt to silence the storm in his mind, he forced himself to scan his surroundings.

Nothing.

There was no sign of Sveta anywhere.

The reality of her absence tore mercilessly through his aching, parched chest.

This place was unbearable.

If he could, he would rip the gorge out of the world itself.

“But would that bring her back alive?”

The muttered lament was swallowed by the wind.

The point of slaughtering beasts like a madman and wandering this ravine suddenly felt utterly meaningless.

Aiden stopped walking and lay down on the bare ground.

He no longer thought of the earth as filthy.

Through the narrow cleft in the cliff, the night sky was visible.

It looked like her hair — rippling and flowing.

Absurdly beautiful.

“Sveta. Was the sky you saw in your final moment as beautiful as this?”

Tears welled and surged like the sea. They pooled in his vacant eyes, then slid along his temples and into his ears.

The sound of the wind grew distant.

“What should I do? I do not think I can hear you calling my name anymore. My ears have closed.”

Sveta. Sveta.

He did not know whether the sound left his lips or remained only inside his mind.

See? I cannot even hear my own voice.

“So even if you call me—‘Aiden’—I will not be able to answer.”

How was he supposed to endure that?

You who no longer call my name.

You, who can no longer call for me.

You, who have gone somewhere my voice can never reach.

The tears would not stop.

He drew in ragged breaths as though he were drowning.

The conclusion he reached during his lonely wanderings was merciless.

The realization was unbearable.

She, who had once said she disliked bright places; my Sveta, who had always lived in the shadows; had closed her eyes for the last time in this darkness.

Pressing his hand tightly over his eyes, Aiden whispered.

“You are dead… You truly are gone.”