The guards split up to carry out their assigned tasks.

Rick’s responsibility was to watch over the unconscious woman’s daughter.

The six-year-old girl looked as though she had cried herself dry.

“I just… want to stay with m-my mom…”

“Your mother has something she needs to handle right now. If you stay with me, she’ll come back later.”

The child looked at him with eyes full of fear and distrust.

Part of it was because Rick himself was so tall and broad that he naturally seemed intimidating.

Trying to appear less frightening, Rick sat down on the floor beside the bed where the child was sitting.

Then he pulled out a small pouch of snacks.

“Want one of these?”

They were dried sweet potatoes.

Steamed until soft and then dried, they were a common winter snack.

If you rolled them around in your mouth, they tasted wonderfully sweet.

“It’s a gift. You can have it.”

Like a wary stray cat, the girl snatched the sweet potato before quickly retreating again.

A moment later, she began nibbling on it cautiously.

Rick took out a piece for himself and started chewing as well.

Sharing the same food naturally lowered people’s guard.

And with young children, that worked even more quickly.

Without hesitation, Rick overturned the snack pouch onto the bed.

Food shared together tasted better somehow, and the atmosphere relaxed almost immediately.

The two of them took turns picking through the snacks.

Before long, the child had scooted close enough to cling tightly against Rick’s shoulder.

“Mister, are you only here today? We can’t play again after this?”

“You should play with kids your own age.”

At that answer, the girl puffed out her cheeks unhappily.

“They won’t play with me anymore. They said our family has to leave next year. So I only played with my big brother.”

“Your brother sounds kind.”

“Yeah. I like my brother. Even if I get lost, he always comes looking for me.”

The girl’s face brightened with excitement as she spoke.

Suppressing the ache in his chest, Rick smiled and agreed warmly.

“That really is impressive.”

The child nodded enthusiastically before folding down her fingers one by one.

“One, two, three, four…”

Then finally—

“Seven!”

After counting them all, she grinned brightly.

“He came looking for me seven times! Seven whole times!”

“Oh dear, you got lost quite a lot. You must’ve wandered all over the village.”

“No. I went out with Mom. Whenever Mom and I went into the forest, my big brother always came to find us.”

The child answered with innocent cheerfulness.

Rick’s expression instantly hardened.

***

Richel eventually cried herself to sleep.

Edwin carried her carefully to the bed and laid her down.

Her body, exhausted from sobbing so violently, did not even stir awake.

He pulled the blanket over her before sitting quietly beside the bed.

Since returning here, this was the first time he had seen Richel collapse like this.

‘If I had cared about the territory as deeply as you do… would I have been able to comfort you properly?’

While Richel broke down in guilt and grief, all Edwin had been able to offer were painfully ordinary words.

‘This isn’t your fault.’

‘The village representative’s claims aren’t proven.’

‘The child will be alright.’

Things like that.

Because Edwin could not truly understand the depth of her anguish, could not understand how she could blame herself so fiercely or grieve so painfully over the child.

The boy’s situation was tragic, certainly.

But beyond pity, Edwin felt nothing stronger.

Comfort without genuine understanding was nothing more than a string of hollow words.

And hollow words could never truly reach another person’s heart.

“Even now… I guess I’m still someone who can’t really help you.”

Wouldn’t someone more similar to her have been better?

Someone who could grieve alongside her, comfort her properly, and truly share in her pain.

Edwin thought back on their marriage.

Within their twisted relationship, the two of them had never truly supported each other or shared burdens together.

And even now, nothing had changed.

Unlike before, they were both making an effort now, and yet the distance between them remained unchanged.

A relationship where they could not even properly comfort one another.

Just as tears threatened to rise in his throat, a knock sounded at the door.

“It’s Rick. I have something to report.”

Edwin stepped outside alone.

After settling into the sitting room beyond the bedroom, he noticed Rick glance subtly behind him.

Apparently, he found it strange that Richel had not come out as well.

“Richel is resting right now. I’ll hear the report alone, so just speak freely.”

Inwardly, Rick felt relieved.

What he was about to say would only cause the Countess more pain if she heard it herself.

He cleared his throat quietly before beginning his explanation.

“…I think the child they intended to abandon was actually the younger sister. According to the girl, her mother had taken her into the forest and left her there several times. She said she got lost in the woods with her mother around seven times.”

Seven times.

That was far too deliberate to be dismissed as an accident.

If the child had been a little older, she likely would have realized her mother’s intentions immediately.

But the girl still did not understand that she had been abandoned.

‘Because every single time… her brother came to find her.’

Each time, the boy had searched for his little sister and brought her safely home.

Eventually, it seemed he had started following them whenever he sensed his mother preparing to leave with the child.

As Rick explained, he pieced together the clues he had gathered from speaking with the girl.

The conclusion he reached was painfully bitter.

Edwin frowned deeply.

“So they were trying to reduce the number of mouths to feed and preserve what little food they had left. Is that it?”

“Yes. All of those families are scheduled to be expelled in the spring, and because of the incident last time, they were also forced to give up part of their food supplies.”

The amount of food they had left was only barely enough to survive the winter.

And being cast out with nothing was a suffering almost impossible to imagine.

The only option remaining to them was to somehow reduce how much food was consumed and save whatever they could.

After listening quietly, Edwin asked.

“There were other young children in the families being expelled too, weren’t there? Did any of those families also have children go missing or freeze to death?”

“No, not exactly…”

Rick hesitated briefly before continuing.

“…The little girl limps slightly.”

That single sentence caused silence to settle heavily over the room.

A young child with a crippled leg.

If they were forced to wander after being expelled, the chances of that child surviving were painfully low.

And her family had likely known that too.

That was probably why they had tried to abandon her.

If the child was going to die eventually anyway, then abandoning her early and preserving even a little more food for after the expulsion must have seemed like the better option.

Feeling deeply unsettled, Rick lowered his head.

He kept thinking of the little girl quietly chewing on dried sweet potatoes earlier.

The memory made his chest ache.

Edwin finally spoke.

“It’s fortunate Richel isn’t here to hear this.”

What Rick had just said was far colder and crueler than anything the village representative had claimed.

That six-year-old child had been abandoned in the forest seven separate times.

It had not been done to provoke Richel’s sympathy but it had happened because of the expulsion order and grain confiscation she herself had commanded.

‘If she learns this, it’ll destroy her all over again. She specifically ordered the expulsion to happen in spring because she was afraid children would freeze to death otherwise.’

Edwin felt a helpless heaviness settle inside him.

He wanted to ease her pain somehow yet he could not even comfort her properly.

Rick spoke carefully.

“Still… I think it’s fortunate. Back when the Countess handled things alone, she probably had to hear stories like this directly herself. But now his lordship is here too. I think it’s really good that the two of you are working together.”

“…I only listened to it. Eventually, Richel will find out too.”

“E-even so, hearing about something after it’s over and personally carrying the burden of it are completely different things.”

Rick naturally assumed Edwin intended to take responsibility for handling this matter himself.

After all, this situation was far too cruel and painful for the Countess to deal with directly.

And he believed Edwin had deliberately come out alone to hear the report because he understood that.

Rick’s face flushed faintly.

“I’ve only been married for two years myself, but… having someone beside you really is wonderful. You can support each other where the other struggles, and take care of one another. I also… um… want to live like the two of you someday.”

The words were born entirely from misunderstanding and false assumptions yet Rick spoke them with complete sincerity.

Ever since being moved by Edwin’s kindness earlier, his admiration for the Count and Countess had practically reached the heavens.

For a long moment, Edwin could not say anything at all.

Then, at last, he quietly replied.

“You should live even better than we do.”

“Pardon? Ah—yes! Thank you very much!”

Deeply touched, Rick nodded vigorously.

After sending Rick away, Edwin sat back down alone.

‘Supporting each other where the other struggles…’

It was a way of thinking he had never once considered before.

He had always believed that because he and Richel were too different, he could not even comfort her properly.

That was why he thought himself useless.

But—

‘That wasn’t it at all.’

It was precisely because he was different from Richel that he could help her.

For him, hearing about the suffering of the villagers or delivering cold punishments was not particularly difficult.

‘So this is what it means to work together.’

Until now, Edwin had misunderstood what working together truly meant.

He had thought it meant people of similar ability dividing the same tasks between them.

That was why he always grew tense, afraid of being compared to others.

Why he became so sensitive whenever his incompetence might be exposed.

Whenever Richel suggested they “work together,” the words had always made him feel cornered and sharp with anxiety.

Thinking back on the past, Edwin bit down hard on his lip.

Regret always came too late.

What mattered was the present.

Rising from his seat, he spoke.

“Go prepare the carriage outside. And leave one guard standing by. Richel will need an escort when she returns to the estate.”

“Understood.”

“I’ll remain here and continue receiving reports. Make sure everyone knows that.”

‘Richel might end up disappointed by the decisions I make…’

But at the very least, she would not have to become further entangled in this matter and suffer because of it.

Anything handled solely by him would remain entirely his responsibility.

And if that left him with a reputation for being incompetent—somehow, he found that he no longer minded very much.