“Both of you, get away from me.”

No one heard Tael’s stern voice.

“Jeffrey, do you have to go today? We caught a wild boar, would you like to stay and eat?”

“!”

Tael turned his head sharply to look at Aila, shocked.

“What are you saying? You only give me rotten potatoes, but you’re taking care of someone else.”

Aila completely ignored him and blushed shyly at Jeffrey.

“Since you brought the ingredients, I’ll cook you a delicious wild boar dish.”

Tael cut in, trembling with indignation.

“I have never eaten ‘delicious wild boar dishes.'”

No one listened to his aggrieved voice.

“I’m sorry, Aila. My mother is waiting for me at home, so I need to go quickly. If she finds out I came to your house, she’ll be very angry.”

Jeffrey wore an extremely sad expression.

“But you know I want to be by your side, right?”

“Then…”

“Get off!”

Tael shook off the two people clinging to his front and back. Aila, who had fallen to the ground with a thud, immediately got up and checked on Jeffrey.

“Hey! Horse dung!”

“What a vicious master. You won’t see anything good from now on.”

Understanding the meaning of his words, Aila quickly covered Jeffrey’s ears.

“Horse dung, you really…!”

Tael glared at Aila with narrowed eyes, as if she were detestable.

“Perfect acting. Anyone watching would think you really dislike me. When you like me more than anyone else.”

“?!”

Aila protested with a bright red face, but Tael left the storage room with contempt.

–

Tael went to the lake to calm his mind, but his mood didn’t improve at all.

“So that was my purpose.”

Tael was serious. He looked down at his body. It was very good. He also looked at his reflection in the water. He was very handsome.

“Now I understand why they keep me in this collapsing house.”

He was lost in thought for a moment, then clenched his fist.

“To think that was my purpose.”

He remembered Jeffrey and Aila peeking out as if playing a love game, using him in between.

“They keep me confined in this house, take me to the forest, and use me as a wall?”

The more he thought about it, the more wronged he felt.

“They’ve been treating me worse than an animal all this time.”

He looked down at his body. He couldn’t remember what had been done to him.

“I need to recover my memory.”

He needed to find out how much he had suffered at Aila’s hands in secret.

Where, what, how, and how much he had endured.

She was so kind and gentle to that man Jeffrey, but what had she done to Tael? The more he imagined, the firmer his resolve became.

“I must.”

He returned home but didn’t go straight in, instead slowly circling around. Since he had probably lived here continuously, walking around might trigger some memories.

“Nothing is coming back.”

Everything truly felt new.

“It’s as if I’ve come here for the first time.”

As Tael muttered this, something familiar caught his eye. Melia was again scattering food on the ground and picking it up piece by piece to eat.

“Tsk.”

Tael approached Melia and said:

“Are you doing this again?”

Brown mud was smeared on Melia’s pink cheeks.

“Big brother!”

Melia greeted him happily and dangled from Tael’s leg.

Tael glanced down at the dirty Melia and furrowed his brow, but he didn’t push her away.

“Don’t people make fun of you for picking up food like this all the time?”

Melia answered brightly:

“No, they don’t. But there are people who call me a beggar!”

“…?”

“They say I’m a fool who has no parents and carries around a trash doll!”

Melia giggled.

“How did they know? Everyone is so smart!”

Melia handed Tael a piece of pie covered in mud. Tael bent down, intending to take it away.

“Don’t eat food that has fallen on the ground. You shouldn’t eat it eith—”

Before Tael could finish speaking, Melia stuffed the pie into his mouth. Melia asked excitedly:

“Isn’t it delicious?!”

“…I said I wouldn’t eat it.”

As he tried to spit it out, Melia’s face grew sad.

“It doesn’t taste good…?”

Melia hung her head low.

“I saved it for us to eat together.”

Tael frowned deeply.

“To think you’d save this kind of thing for me.”

Though he gritted his teeth, he didn’t spit out the pie.

“Don’t save anything for me again.”

He chewed quickly and swallowed it all at once.

“No matter how low my status, I still have food prefer—”

Melia stuffed in another pie that she had been kneading with her hands.

“Hehe.”

It seemed to have been a strawberry jam pie, but strangely it tasted salty. Tael’s pupils trembled severely. The taste on his tongue was shocking.

“…To think I’d eat a salty pie.”

The moment short arms embraced his neck, Tael unconsciously swallowed the pie.

“What is this…!”

“I like you, big brother!”

“?”

“Big brother is strong and chases away bad men and catches wild boars! I want you to keep living with us!”

“!”

“I wish you would marry our sister!”

Strangely, Tael’s heart felt ticklish. He felt like he had become a wonderful person.

Despite having to eat potato soup every day in this cramped house, it didn’t seem so bad to keep living here.

He had nowhere else to go anyway. Just as he was considering asking Aila to take responsibility for whatever she had done to him, Melia put another pie that had been rolling on the ground into Tael’s mouth.

“Delicious, right?!”

It tasted both salty and earthy. The taste of humiliation. Tael clenched his fist.

He could not marry Aila.

He absolutely could not live eating this.

Tael sat beside Melia and began to seriously contemplate. Melia kept stuffing dirty food covered in handprints and mud into his mouth, but he was too lost in thought to notice.

Even when Melia hung from his neck and stuck grass between strands of his hair, he remained still, then muttered absently:

“To think I’ve been living like this, being taken advantage of by a woman who has a man, eating mud…”

His stomach growled. He was hungry after carrying Aila and the wild boar on his shoulders since morning. As his hunger intensified, he felt even more pitiful.

Just then, a delicious smell wafted from somewhere. Carrying the clinging Melia, he stood up abruptly and looked over the wall to see Aila grilling the wild boar in the yard.

“!”

“Wow! Such big meat!”

Melia gathered the mud on her fingers into her small palm.

“I’ll spread this on and eat it!”

As Tael entered the yard, entranced by the meat, Aila noticed him and said:

“Horse dung, good timing. I’m going to wash some vegetables, so keep an eye on the meat.”

Tael approached Aila cautiously, looking around.

“Where did the thief go?”

“Jeffrey? He left. By the way, is this fully cooked?”

Aila put a piece of meat into Tael’s mouth, and his face brightened momentarily before quickly returning to a solemn expression.

“If you get rid of that ‘mask,’ I might consider accepting you.”

“?”

“Don’t be too happy. I said I’ll consider it, not that I’m willing to accept you.”

At those words, Aila smiled weakly.

“What is there to get rid of? Jeffrey and I aren’t the kind of relationship you think.”

–

Jeffrey was sharing drinks with friends in the village. One friend turned to Jeffrey and said:

“So, when are you getting married?”

“Soon, I suppose.”

“Won’t Aila cry? She’s liked you since you were kids.”

Jeffrey smiled awkwardly, seeming both embarrassed and sorry.

“Does Aila know you’re getting married?”

“I haven’t told her yet.”

“She might collapse when she hears it. That’s why I told you, right? Don’t help her in ways that make her think you have feelings for her.”

He snickered.

“How much have you helped her that such a tough girl becomes a gentle lamb in front of you?”

“She’s a pitiful girl. I want to help her.”

“You’re too soft-hearted, that’s your problem. I hear you still keep bringing food to Aila? She may be pretty, but not enough to help for so long.”

“She liked me a lot. I’m grateful, so I should repay her.”

“Our young master is such a gentleman! Isn’t Aila seriously misunderstanding and preparing for marriage?”

Everyone around Jeffrey laughed at once. Jeffrey smiled and took a sip of his drink.

“If she does, I’d be grateful for that too.”

No one heard what he muttered. No one noticed his expression darkening. Jeffrey quietly put down his glass.

“I should go now. Mother will be waiting.”

Leaving his disappointed friends behind, he headed home.

Jeffrey’s house belonged to the wealthiest family in the village. They had almost lost everything when Arniel invaded, but with the emperor’s disappearance, they had managed to maintain their position.

“…I really was planning to run away with just Aila if war broke out.”