Max got out of the driver’s seat after seeing the raindrops falling steadily outside the car window.

“Miss Carroll, I’ll get you an umbrella. Please wait a moment.”

“What? It’s only a short distance. I can just run through the rain…”

Before Jacqueline could finish speaking, Max had already opened the car door and bought two oiled paper umbrellas from a street vendor. 

He opened the back door and handed an umbrella to Jacqueline.

“You should be careful even with light rain when you’re not feeling well.”

“Thank you.”

Jacqueline carefully opened the umbrella she received from Max. Paper umbrellas quickly deteriorated in heavy rain like this. 

The oiled paper was already becoming soggy from the water. In a few minutes, only the wooden skeleton of the umbrella would be rolling on the ground.

This was how disposable items were treated. Urgently needed but thrown into the trash once their purpose was served.

Was Oscar trying to use her in the same way by preventing her from quitting?

Jacqueline tightly closed her collar with the hand not holding the umbrella.

“Well, I’ll be going now.”

“Miss Carroll, you should go straight home.”

Max ended up nagging her like he would his younger sister. Jacqueline smiled faintly. She bowed her head in greeting and disappeared into the alley.

‘To think Miss Carroll was Friedman Captain’s caregiver. What a terribly tangled connection.’

Max had once lived resenting Pers Friedman. But time heals wounds, and while caring for his friend’s family and gradually healing from the war’s scars, he began to think more objectively about Pers Friedman.

‘Was it solely Captain Friedman’s fault?’

In fact, it was common for enemy nations to use children to attack allied forces. So they hadn’t experienced anything particularly unusual. 

Of course, it was unfortunate that such an incident occurred at the end of a war they had practically won.

Still, Pers Friedman shouldn’t bear all the blame. When he brought the child to the barracks, none of the squad members actively tried to stop him. That was because everyone was confident they had won the war.

‘Who would have thought there was a small grenade hidden inside a wooden doll?’

Unfortunately, the two soldiers on duty managing the ammunition depot had severe stomach pains and were absent. During that time, the child entered the depot and pulled the pin from the grenade…

So it wasn’t solely Pers Friedman’s fault.

On the other hand, Max understood the feelings of comrades who couldn’t forgive Pers Friedman. 

For someone determined to live on the power of hatred, preaching about principles or etiquette in front of them would be nothing more than empty words. If it weren’t for Anne, Max would have taken his own life long ago.

‘Who am I to judge?’

Max had already decided to serve Oscar for life, grateful for his help during difficult times. Having sworn to follow Oscar willingly even if he became a great criminal, Max couldn’t help Jacqueline.

The best he could do was buy a cheap umbrella like earlier so she could barely avoid the rain.

Max knew Pers Friedman well, having carried out missions under him. Pers Friedman wasn’t the type to leave a large sum of money to a woman without reason.

‘Perhaps Miss Carroll was the only person worth giving everything to for the Captain.’

Who else could be a saint but her, who took in a flea-bitten dog abandoned by everyone and let him die with dignity?

To condemn Jacqueline simply because of her connection to Pers Friedman… Max suddenly felt an urge to disobey his superior, Oscar.

‘I can’t do that. How could I say such things to my benefactor…’

If he upset Oscar and lost his job, he wouldn’t be able to support Anne. So he had no choice but to remain silent. 

With a face gripped by guilt, Max stared at the sky for a while. Judging by the heavy clouds, it didn’t look like the rain would stop soon.

“Oh no, I almost forgot what Anne asked for.”

The doll his friend’s daughter wanted was popular and would sell out quickly if he didn’t hurry. Like any father who loved his daughter, Max hurried toward the store.

* * *

Jacqueline downed a glass of water mixed with cough syrup and honey in one gulp. The pain in her lower back had improved significantly, but her private parts still stung.

Yesterday, until she arrived home, undressed, and washed herself, Jacqueline hadn’t realized the state of her body. She was startled when she saw her underwear stained with blood and s*men. 

Only then did Jacqueline truly grasp that she had experienced her first time with Oscar. Belatedly remembering contraception, she hurriedly ran to the pharmacy and bought spermicidal cream.

The pharmacist had already taken out the spermicidal cream before Jacqueline could even speak. 

He had a matter-of-fact expression, seemingly assuming that a woman rushing in with an urgent look just before closing time could only be looking for one thing.

After returning home, Jacqueline read the instructions on the medicine bottle and tilted her head.

“Did I use it correctly?”

The instructions said to scoop up plenty of cream with fingers and apply it deep inside the private parts before intercourse.

“Sigh… Will this work for contraception?”

Since Muriel had used it too, it probably worked. Jacqueline wanted to believe that.

Fortunately, calculating her menstrual cycle showed it was a safe day. She never imagined that learning how to calculate menstrual cycles and simple contraceptive methods during caregiver training would be so helpful. 

Without that education, Jacqueline would have been too anxious to function normally until her next period arrived.

‘Guns and knives aren’t the only means to protect your body. Knowledge is the most powerful weapon.’

Mrs. Medwin had prefaced her lecture with the disclaimer “although such things shouldn’t happen…” It was almost like she had anticipated such incidents.

Even then, some caregivers questioned the intent of the lecture. Only after Mrs. Medwin persuaded them that they were learning this to prevent unfortunate incidents and not to worry too much did they reluctantly accept it.

Jacqueline steadied her wavering heart.

“She wouldn’t have taught us with bad intentions.”

Mrs. Medwin was an admirable person who educated poor women about contraception and provided gynecological care.

But even Mrs. Medwin had made human choices rather than idealistic ones. She must have known that designating Jacqueline as Oscar von Oestenberg’s caregiver was an enormous benefit.

Just as caregivers had no right to choose patients, patients had no right to choose caregivers. This had been an unwritten rule observed since the founding of the Caregivers Association.

Yet Mrs. Medwin was the first to directly designate a caregiver, even at the risk of facing disadvantages. Even that rational Mrs. Medwin had willingly become selfish for her nephew’s sake.

That’s why Jacqueline couldn’t tell Mrs. Medwin what had happened with Oscar. She might believe in Jacqueline’s innocence, but ultimately, for her nephew’s sake, she would have to say things that would hurt Jacqueline.

Jacqueline didn’t want to see the flaws in the mentor she respected. Though she rationalized it this way, the truth was that she didn’t want to be hurt by Mrs. Medwin’s reaction.

“There was never going to be anything magical about my first experience anyway.”

Even so, what happened yesterday was shocking.

Because of the malicious rumors spread by Julia Basset, Jacqueline had done something she shouldn’t have done with a patient. 

But despite going that far, Oscar’s attitude hadn’t changed. Only then did Jacqueline realize she had been greatly mistaken.

“Evidence wasn’t important to him. He just needed an excuse to take me.”

Now that she understood Oscar’s intentions, there was nothing Jacqueline could do. She could only wait for the contract period to end or hope that time would naturally untangle their complicated relationship.

Jacqueline opened the window and looked outside. Despite the weather turning cold enough to see her breath, people were moving busily. 

Looking at the building across the street, national flags hung on every balcony railing, and the bakery downstairs was busy baking ordered bread. 

Not just the bakery, but merchants in the alley market were also preoccupied preparing for the peak season.

Just then, the sound of oboe and piano melodies flowed from Anette’s house. The dark, majestic piece was a requiem honoring the souls of fallen warriors.

“Foundation Day is approaching.”

This year’s Foundation Day was planned to be the grandest and most splendid since the proclamation of the Lungen Republic. 

When the current Prime Minister, Alain de Lebutin, announced that Foundation Day would be celebrated grandly for national unity, some criticized it as a strategy to regain political power lost due to soaring coal prices.

Jacqueline wasn’t interested in politics, but she often looked up educational policies and related articles announced by the government each year.

Children in the capital had started receiving compulsory education, but those in rural areas struggled just to meet attendance requirements, let alone receive mandatory education. 

The conditions were so poor that avoiding grade retention was considered fortunate. The situation was even worse for children living in remote areas.

Jacqueline wanted to think about something worthwhile rather than dwelling on her lost first experience. So she pondered which region she would go to when she became a formal teacher. 

She had two candidates in mind: San Moria with its mountains and Carab Port by the sea.

She looked forward to meeting the children. Of course, it was still a distant future.

If Jacqueline became a teacher, she wanted to be a guide for children without dreams. 

Like the Shepherd constellation that only shines from dark night until dawn, she would be a teacher who appears briefly in children’s lives and then disappears. She realized this was her destiny.

“I really should become a teacher.”

Jacqueline imagined herself two years from now while looking at a black-and-white photograph of San Moria’s snow-capped mountain that she had cut out from a newspaper long ago.

Her eyes sparkled brightly, like someone who had discovered their most precious treasure buried in a drawer.