“Have you become happy?”

“Not yet.”

A faint trace of loneliness showed on Enoch’s face. Perhaps he was thinking of the one he loved.

“Sir Enoch, I actually see the future.”

Well, since everything I saw in the book is the future, it is not entirely wrong. So perhaps it will ring true to Enoch as well.

“You will become happy.”

Enoch smiled upon hearing my words.

“Ha, is that also something you saw in the future?”

I moved my lips without hesitation at his question.

“Yes.”

Because I will be wishing for it.

“Sir Enoch, if it is not too presumptuous, may I ask a favor of you?”

“What is it?”

I had no way of knowing how much of the real Eloa’s words to believe, or whether the diary she had written was the truth.

“All I need is for you to tell me whether what I say is true or false.”

“That is simple enough.”

After a long hesitation, my lips parted with great difficulty.

“…It was I who first proposed marriage to Marquis Ter Giuo.”

Even after my question was finished, Enoch’s answer did not come.

Ah, I knew I should not have said that…

“…I feel nothing. I cannot tell whether that is a lie or the truth. I feel nothing at all.”

“Pardon?”

It was the same when I asked other things as well.

Why is that? Is it because the body is Eloa’s but the mind is Jang Hye-a’s? I had wanted to obtain even the smallest clue with Enoch’s help, but that was not possible.

“I am sorry to have been of no help.”

A brief silence fell over the drawing room.

It was thanks to Enoch, who waited for me while I had not yet finished sorting out my thoughts.

“It was I who asked for something unreasonable. It is not Sir Enoch’s fault at all.”

“I am glad to hear that. How did you come to meet Duke Hylus?”

“Hmm… it is a bit of a long story to explain.”

How could I possibly say that after transmigrating into a book, I got engaged because I wanted to marry my favorite character?

I smiled faintly and glossed over it, and as though the question had not been important to begin with, Enoch added,

“The Duke seems to be very fond of you, my lady.”

It had been a question I could have answered without difficulty, but this time was different. It was not that I did not know how Eden thought of me or how he looked at me, which was precisely why I could not answer easily.

Whether he saw my eyes trembling faintly or noticed that my lips did not open readily, I could not say, but Enoch did not wait for my answer.

“I cannot guarantee your happiness, my lady, but…”

“……”

“I will sincerely wish for it.”

After the brief meeting with Enoch came to an end and I stepped outside, I saw Eden standing at a short distance from the drawing room.

Watching him approach me without hesitation as I emerged from the drawing room, I could not fathom when he had been standing there, or why.

“Did the conversation go well?”

“Yes.”

“Nothing else was discussed?”

Eden, who had drawn close to me, kept throwing questions as though there was a particular answer he wanted to hear. I felt I knew what it was, but for some reason, the sight of Eden like this was endearing, and I did not feel like giving him an easy answer.

“Hmm… no. Nothing in particular was discussed.”

“Loa.”

“Let me think. Is there something specific you want to hear?”

Eden followed after my steps as I walked down the corridor without hesitation. In the midday sunlight, the black hair and platinum hair shimmered brilliantly.

Only after pretending not to hear him a few more times did I give him the answer he wanted to hear.

“Sir Enoch proposed to me.”

To be precise, it had been a lighthearted suggestion to emigrate, but still.

“And you.”

“……”

“Your answer.”

I looked at him without hesitation at Eden’s question.

“I like it here.”

***

The dress rustled softly with each step she took. The breeze that drifted in gently swayed her long hair without resistance, and her cheeks, flushed a faint pink from the warmth of the sunlight, lifted slightly. Then her eyes, dark as a deep night sky, curved prettily.

“I like it here.”

He followed her every small movement, every small change, busily, afraid of missing even one. The steps that had been strolling down the corridor came to a stop before one window.

“Eden, there is a bluebird here!”

He moved as though drawn by her gesture, smiling brightly and beckoning him to come quickly. It was easy to keep moving in the same direction as a heart that had already moved. Thoughts already stirred overcame rational ones.

He wanted to hold her slender waist tightly and press his lips to her pale nape.

Afraid that she might flee if she ever came to know of this desire, he only gently touched the black hair that swayed in the breeze.

***

“Eden, what are you thinking about?”

“…Nothing.”

“About going to the Count’s estate you mentioned before.”

“……”

“Would you like to come with me, Eden?”

I had not originally planned to bring him along, but seeing Eden’s expression just now, I felt for some reason that I should take him with me. I wondered whether he knew what kind of look he had when he looked at me. Was that what Enoch had seen and thought the same?

“May I come along?”

“There is no reason you cannot.”

My parents will be a little surprised, but.

“Very well.”

“I will let them know we are coming.”

“Allow me to do that. You should rest a little.”

“When will Dame Dias return?”

“That depends. When her business is finished.”

“May I ask what she went to do?”

“……”

“Ah, if it is something difficult to say, never mind…”

“She went to find the poison you drank.”

The poison?

How would Dias manage to find a poison that even the Emperor’s investigation could not identify?

“It seems to be a poison that was used within her family.”

“Dame Dias, what do you mean…!”

Dias’s surname is Shaga. How had I not realized it sooner?

“She is a capable knight, so she will return soon.”

We had dinner together inside the ducal estate for the first time in a while. It was not as though we had not sat across from each other to eat many times before, yet today felt different. Eden, who noticed that I had eaten less than usual, did not let it pass and spoke up.

“Is something bothering you?”

“Ah… no, my stomach is just unsettled.”

No sooner had I finished speaking than Alb, who had been attending to the evening meal, drew close.

“I will bring out a gentle porridge. For a moment, the plate…”

The steak that had been in front of me was replaced with white porridge by Alb’s swift hands.

“Thank you, Alb.”

“Please let me know if you need anything more.”

Even porridge did not go down easily. I only managed a few spoonfuls out of consideration for Alb’s thoughtfulness in switching it out for me and for the effort of those who had worked in the kitchen.

Looking at Eden, who was watching me with a somewhat worried expression, I suddenly found myself curious about his birth mother.

“Eden, there is something I am curious about.”

“Anything.”

“I am curious about the Duchess.”

His hand paused briefly at my words, but soon moved again.

“When dinner is finished, let us go to the garden.”

The place the two of us headed to after dinner was a garden full of red and deep orange nasturtiums. It was the first time since the acacia garden, which Alb had guided me to not long after I had arrived at the ducal estate.

No sooner had I stepped into the garden than I felt a chill. Nasturtiums are summer plants that bloom in warm places, yet there was no warmth to be found here.

Whether he had known I would feel cold, Eden draped a warm blanket over my shoulders.

“It will be cold.”

Following his steps as he moved ahead, a large swing came into view. Eden went to the swing with familiar ease and retrieved a small frame that had been kept nearby.

Inside the frame was a woman different from the portrait I had seen in the corridor.

“This is my birth mother.”

“The portrait in the corridor…”

“That is the mother who raised me.”

“My mother did not love my father. She had to part from the person she loved because of an arranged marriage that had been decided for her.”

“……”

“Contrary to my father’s belief that things would be all right once a child came, my mother grew thinner and thinner. From the earliest point I can remember, I often saw her unable to breathe, just as you were the other day.”

Eden continued speaking in a flat tone, as though recounting someone else’s story.

“My father eventually divorced my mother and, deciding he could not raise me alone, remarried. That person is the owner of the portrait hanging in the corridor.”

“……”

“He did not cast out my birth mother, who had nowhere to go after the divorce, and allowed her to live in the ducal estate. The place she loved most was here, this nasturtium garden.”

I could not even begin to imagine how long it had taken him to speak of it so calmly, or how much pain he had carried.

“Of all the things that belonged to my mother, this is the only one that remains.”

“And the rest?”

“They were all burned on the day she passed. Even this portrait was one that Alb passed on to me.”

It was a pain I had never experienced myself, so I could not easily empathize with it. I was afraid that clumsy empathy might only wound him further.

“The paint used in the portrait is the kind that bleeds if kept somewhere warm. I wanted to leave it in the garden she loved most. That is why it is cold here.”

You must have been just as cold as this place.

“I asked something I should not have. I am sorry.”

“Loa.”