“How can you say that……”

“I’m holding you anyway.”

While they lay like that, the sound of clearing debris continued outside. Nelie held onto the Duke while grasping her increasingly fading consciousness. The Duke slowly touched her back and whispered.

“So… will you start over with me from the beginning?”

“……”

“First we’ll get married when we get out.”

“I said from the beginning, but you start with marriage.”

“First we’ll marry, and start over from the beginning… Duke and Duchess. Like people who met through arranged marriage, like that.”

“……”

“And you’ll enroll in the Academy again, or take art lessons… become a proper illustrator or artist.”

“…I want to go to an Academy abroad.”

“Abroad?”

“I hate hearing that the duchess got in through corruption.”

“…Alright.”

“Somewhere the Tevant name has no power, with my own skills, earning money myself.”

Speaking about it made it feel like a dream they could really achieve. A dream they could achieve right after getting out of here. To overcome her fear, Nelie chattered endlessly.

“I’ll earn money selling illustrations.”

“However much.”

“And go abroad……”

“Are you taking me too?”

“…Yes. I’ll take Your Grace too, then come back after graduating.”

“And after coming back?”

“After coming back……”

“Have children with me too?”

Nelie let out a long sigh at those words. Unlike past days when she had worried about being pregnant with the Duke’s child, now she missed the child not yet born. To safely get out of here and continue living. And then meet the little angel that would come along.

The Duke stroked Nelie’s back for a while then whispered. His voice had grown smaller than before.

“When the child is born… let’s build a gallery in their name.”

Tears welled up in Nelie’s eyes again when she noticed the weakness in the Duke’s voice saying that. The fishy, hot liquid she had felt on her shoulder since earlier encouraged those tears more.

She had noticed since earlier that this wasn’t just water. That the Duke’s voice kept getting smaller. She just desperately pretended not to know.

“What if more children are born?”

“…We’ll build one for each child.”

“What if I can’t become a famous artist? If I achieve nothing?”

“That’s not important, Annelie.”

“……”

“If you want to do it, you do it.”

“If I want to……”

“And I hope being a duchess is among what you want.”

She felt the hot liquid finally overflow to her chest. Nelie held back tears and whispered.

“I want to.”

Though she put all her strength into the arms holding the Duke’s body, the Duke’s arms holding her were losing strength.

“I want to. I’ll become your duchess.”

“…You swear?”

“Yes. I swear on my family’s printing house.”

“That’s already been sold though.”

“Then… if I break my promise, you can report me.”

“…Next time I really will report you.”

“Yes. Please do that. So……”

Nelie held back the sobs that kept rising. When the Duke’s breathing finally settled down, the ceiling opened and light leaked in. Nelie started shouting, not caring about dust and dirt entering her mouth.

“Here! Please! Here!”

The sun had risen without her noticing, and things became visible under the filtering sunlight once her eyes adjusted. Like the red staining the Duke’s chest that entered her view.

“Help! The Duke is here too!”

“Heich, your daughter is alive!”

“Hey! Just wait a little!”

While people hurried to clear away debris, Nelie kept whispering in the Duke’s ear. Alright. If I break my promise, report me this time. So.

Though sunlight was streaming in, her vision blurred hazily. She couldn’t see properly through tears she couldn’t wipe away. But when she could finally lift her head, she saw with shocking clarity some debris crushing the Duke’s head and the red flowing from there.

“Your Grace.”

“……”

“…Elroy, Duke Elroy Tevant.”

Though she called his name, she felt no movement. She grabbed him with trembling hands, but soon strong men who dug through the debris lifted her up and pulled her out.

“Heich! Your daughter seems alright!”

“Annelie! Are you conscious? Annelie!”

“Wait. Her legs look strange. Check if they’re broken……”

Even as her whole body shivered and her fever rose, Nelie reached out toward the Duke as he grew distant. The cold, chilling air from outside suddenly enveloped her. Even as the smell of reality returned, she still couldn’t see the Duke.

‘Don’t go.’

But her whisper didn’t reach him.

“We’ll need to go to the city for this……”

“Quick, call the fastest carriage!”

“No, not a carriage, is there anyone around here with a steam car……”

Among the scattering voices, Nelie strained her eyes. She saw someone being moved far away.

“Everyone hurry! Move quickly!”

“Transport the patients!”

“The corpse goes over there……”

Corpse.

That cold word heavily pressed on Nelie’s chest. She felt afraid to even ask whose corpse it was. Only groans that couldn’t become words flowed between her gaping lips. She felt someone urgently grab her hand.

“It’s alright. It will be alright, Annelie.”

It was her father’s voice full of tears. The thread of tension she had been holding onto felt like it snapped helplessly the moment she heard her father’s voice.

‘I can’t.’

Who died? What happened to the Duke? She needed to ask that. She needed to know that before falling asleep.

But her body, severely injured and strained for hours trapped in a narrow space, couldn’t hold out long.

In the rising desperate heat, Nelie’s consciousness also faded to black.

* * *

“Waaah! Waaaah!”

The newborn’s loud cries echoed over the walls.

In the neat and tidy new house’s yard, a starling startled by the baby’s cries fluttered away. The branch of the flowering tree where the bird had perched shook, and lush white flowers bloomed like falling snow following the bird’s trail.

Past the cold winter, it was fully spring.

Nelie put down the knife she had been grinding pigments with and walked toward the crib. Though her pace was still slow, she focused on taking each step steadily.

“Whew.”

She broke into a light sweat. But she really needed to practice walking again now. When she was first trapped under debris, her legs had broken completely from thigh to shin, so she had to wear splints for an entire season through fall and winter.

Thanks to the splints and bandages wrapping everything from her feet to thighs, she couldn’t even bend her legs for a while. It had been a long time since she had properly walked on two legs.

But now, finally.

Only when spring came with budding plants and the seasons changed could she finally remove the splints. She could finally put strength in her legs. She worried she might limp while walking, but fortunately that wasn’t the case. She just couldn’t walk quickly yet.

Nelie reached the crib at her slow pace but giving her best effort. The baby was still crying with its small forehead furrowed.

“Waaah!”

“It’s alright, Ailee.”

“Waaaah.”

“What’s so sad? Are you hungry?”

Nelie gently lifted the crying baby into her arms. While soothing the child, she gazed entranced at the baby’s light golden hair that sparkled, blowing on it and lightly kissing the child’s rosy cheeks. The baby who had been crying hysterically soon stopped and smiled.

“You really like your aunt more than your mother.”

“Tina.”

Tina, who had briefly left to cook in the kitchen, rushed over at the baby’s cries but waved her hands and laughed. The baby innocently reached toward her mother. Tina grumbled while taking the baby.

“She already knows how to spot a beauty. Sorry.”

“Not at all. She’s your child, Tina.”

“I worry she’ll end up following Aunt Nelie around later.”

“Other children will chase after Ailee. Ailee is the pretty one.”

“She probably only looks pretty to my eyes.”

Though she complained, Tina’s eyes were full of love looking at her baby. Nelie watched Tina and continued.

“Then would you want her to be a model for paintings?”

“That’s because you’re my friend……”

“I’m not the only one using Ailee as a model.”

Nelie smiled gently, thinking of Ailee’s portrait hanging in Tina’s house.

It was a lovely portrait Jerome had kindly painted during his brief visit last winter. On the easel over there, a painting of Ailee lying in bed among flower-scented winds was in progress. Tina smiled shyly while soothing the baby and carefully examined Nelie’s legs.

“But… are you moving better now? You didn’t force yourself to walk?”

“Yes. The bones seem fully healed.”

“Still be careful for now. It would be terrible if there were aftereffects. You were injured so badly.”

Tina then sighed deeply.

“They really have some nerve. Injuring someone like that. Trying to settle with just a bit of compensation.”

“……”

“That damn young Benson. His death was lucky for our village, no, all the nearby villages.”

“Tina.”

Benson who had threatened Nelie died instantly when debris directly struck his head that day. The Viscount quietly and quickly held his son’s funeral and buried the matter.

“We should acknowledge what should be acknowledged honestly. Even before going to Tevant saying he’d attend the Academy, that punk was the worst scoundrel……. Ah.”

The moment Tevant came out, Tina shut her mouth and watched Nelie. She looked worried Nelie might suffer internally from the name that had suddenly emerged. Tina had learned after the accident that the blonde man who had chased after Nelie was the Duke of Tevant.

Nelie smiled again at Tina’s concern. It was a composed, gentle smile suggesting that name was fine to hear.