“It just stung a little. So……”

Kalintz took the cloak back from Blair’s hands and draped it over her shoulders as he continued.

“Take off the wet clothes and keep this on. It’s a bit worn, but it’ll be warm.”

The cloak was made from specially treated cloth, and the moisture had already nearly dried from it.

“……What about you.”

Blair glanced sideways at his bare torso as she asked. The cloth that had been loosely wrapped around the wound had been neatly retied at some point.

“I’m fine. I handle the cold well, and I’m used to camping out.”

Kalintz spread the saddle blanket on the ground beside the fire to make a place to sit as he spoke.

“I’ll take another look around inside.”

He stepped away to give her privacy to undress, and Blair carefully untied the laces of the leather outer garment.

A short while later, Kalintz came back carrying more dry moss and vines.

“You were managing fine without me saying anything.”

He looked at the clothes Blair had spread out one by one near the fire.

“Did you think I was an idiot?”

Blair had stripped down to her undergarments and was feeling self-conscious enough to grumble more than necessary. She was wearing Kalintz’s cloak, so she wasn’t actually bare in front of him, but the strange feeling kept creeping in regardless.

“Coming all the way out to this dangerous place to save me and ending up like this, it does make me wonder.”

“Exactly. You could have easily handled a monster like that on your own. I came all the way out here with an antidote for nothing.”

She fired back without giving an inch at the teasing remark, and Kalintz laughed again, warm and easy. It was the open smile she had thought she might never see again.

Her nose stung for no particular reason, and Blair curled up beside the fire with her face half-buried in her knees.

Kalintz sat down beside her.

Thump, thump—

They weren’t even that close, and nothing was touching, yet her heart was pounding like it might burst.

Perhaps hearing that racket, Kalintz turned and looked at her without a word.

Blair was only moving her eyes, not daring to make a sound, when Kalintz finally spoke after a long pause.

“So. What was it you wanted so badly to tell me.”

“……Pardon?”

The question caught her off guard and she asked back a beat too late.

“You said it earlier. That you should have told me everything. That you had so much to say.”

It was the last thing she had expected him to ask. Had he really heard all of that while she was crying.

“How long were you listening?”

“It just came to me. You kept talking, on and off.”

“I thought if I kept talking, you’d wake up faster.”

She heard Kalintz give a quiet laugh.

“It worked, actually. I was curious what you were trying to say.”

Blair knew exactly what he meant.

“I only heard up to ‘I think I might’ and missed the rest.”

He looked at her steadily, as though pressing her for an answer.

Blair held his gaze for a moment, took a breath, and opened her mouth.

“First, I want to clear something up.”

“Clear something up?”

“About the conversation I had with the young duke of the Armos Islands at the masquerade.”

Kalintz’s expression went rigid immediately.

“You heard that conversation while you were looking for me after I went after the suspicious figure, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“How much did you hear?”

Kalintz frowned, not sure what she was getting at.

“Does that matter.”

“It matters. You didn’t hear it to the end, which is why you’re saying something as absurd as me going to the Armos Islands.”

Kalintz still looked as though he didn’t follow, and Blair let out a long sigh before continuing.

“I turned him down that day.”

His eyes, which had been low and guarded the whole time, widened slightly.

“Did you really think I would just carelessly go along with something like that?”

“But at that point you clearly……”

“I thanked His Grace Remarque for his kindness. You probably heard that and misunderstood, but I turned him down clearly afterward. I didn’t leave any room for it either.”

Kalintz was silent for a moment, visibly shaken.

“You got angry and left in the middle, didn’t you. Without hearing the rest.”

He had been sitting with his head slightly bowed in silence, but he rubbed his face and muttered,

“……Ha. What an idiot.”

“And after all that, you had the nerve to talk about the contract.”

Blair gave him a look, and Kalintz answered with a sigh in his voice.

“I genuinely thought you were going to leave for the Armos Islands. You seemed like you only felt confusion about what was between us. Because I hadn’t given you any certainty.”

“So you decided to break the contract without even hearing what I had to say? After telling me you’d wait for my answer?”

“Someone told me I was putting my own feelings too far ahead.”

He spoke in a self-deprecating tone, his gaze dropped low.

“And then on top of that, hearing you say those things to him…… haah. Anything I say is just an excuse.”

Kalintz sighed and ran a rough hand through his hair. Then he met Blair’s eyes.

“I’m sorry. I misunderstood you.”

The unwavering gaze held hers, and Blair’s heart began to pound again.

“I judged you on my own. Without even talking to you properly.”

The eyes that were always sharp had softened slightly at the corners. He really did seem sorry.

“I have something to ask you too.”

“Anything.”

“When you said it was nothing but fleeting feelings, did you mean it?”

“That’s—!”

Kalintz flinched, startled, then let out a short breath and continued.

“There’s no way I meant that.”

He looked away, which was unlike him. But he quickly met her eyes again and said quietly,

“Blair. Not for a single moment have you ever been just fleeting feelings to me.”

Thump, thump—

Her heart was beating so fast now there was nothing she could do about it.

“Not for one single moment.”

She could feel her face burning, but there was no hiding it anymore. She didn’t want to.

“……Same for me.”

The feeling that had grown too large to contain trembled finely.

“I realized it that day, talking with His Grace Remarque.”

Blair slowly brought out the words she had wanted to give him.

“I can’t imagine you not being beside me.”

Even in the middle of a storm of emotion, that one thing was certain.

“I don’t know what the right choice is. I don’t know what will become of us later. But I want to be by your side.”

Blair gathered her courage and looked at his face.

Watching Kalintz’s eyes waver, little by little, she said the words she had not been able to get out earlier.

“Kalintz. I think I…… really like you.”

In that moment, Kalintz’s gold eyes shook deeply. And before she could say another word, those eyes drew close.

“Hff……!”

Hot breath poured against her lips. He kissed her with an urgency that felt like releasing everything he had held back.

In that burning breath, Blair let go of everything she had been holding down.

“Blair.”

A low, warm voice sounded between breaths.

“Say it again. What you just said.”

Looking into eyes that held only her, Blair raised her trembling hands and cupped his face.

“I like you. Kalintz.”

A rush of emotions crossed Kalintz’s eyes. His longing lips met hers again, deeply, and then drew back.

“I like you more.”

The confession rang through her head with an ache. Blair closed her eyes the rest of the way and pressed her lips to his.

They lost themselves in each other’s breath. Far deeper and more intense than any of the kisses before.

In the hot exchange of breath, whenever his name slipped from her lips, Kalintz pressed closer still.

Any other time she might have been flustered by the intensity of it, but not now.

“Hah, ah…… Kalintz.”

Blair pulled him closer by the neck.

I want to be closer to him.

They were already pressed together without a gap between them, yet somehow it felt endlessly not enough.

“……Blair.”

His voice, low and rough, murmured her name against his throat. The sound of it sent a tremor through her entire body. The knowledge that he wanted her wiped out every coherent thought.

Blair moved her hand and traced it down the line of his back. She felt the muscles beneath her fingertips tense and rise.

“Haah.”

Kalintz went rigid at her touch and pulled away from her lips. He moved to the soft skin near her collarbone and drew it between his lips. A red mark bloomed with a damp, quiet sound.

He parted the front of Blair’s tightly wrapped cloak. Before the cold air could reach the pale skin beneath, his warm lips were already there.