The thought of how deeply Gray must have been hurt by Henrietta’s cruel words crossed Debbie’s mind. She hoped he would soon stop suffering over that terrible woman. Though Gray had tricked her into signing a contract, back then he had been such a confident figure. Seeing him grow quieter and visibly thinner with each passing day filled her with sympathy, especially after witnessing firsthand how unaffected Henrietta remained.

* * *

It was that night of boisterous eating and drinking. By the end, everyone sat in a circle around the bonfire, chatting away.

“You know what Glory Newspaper was going to publish?” Benjamin pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his back pocket. “I asked an employee there to sneak me a copy. This is the master copy they were planning to print.”

The employees around Benjamin gathered with excited exclamations.

“Looks like it was an exposé about the Terium Province rebellion incident.”

The moment she heard those words, Debbie’s heart sank. The Terium Province rebellion was directly connected to her parents.

Morgan, who was the lord of Terium at that time, had been caught planning a rebellion against the central government. Everyone involved in preparing the rebellion was executed, including Debbie’s parents. After the rebellion was suppressed, Blake became the new lord of Terium Province.

Though desperately curious about this discussion touching on her most painful memories, she didn’t want to reveal her past to these people, so she quietly waited her turn.

Finally, as everyone passed the paper around, she got her chance to read it fully.

“A Staged Rebellion.”

Debbie’s eyes widened. She wanted to know more details, but the article only contained facts she already knew. It merely presented questions about the process, which disappointed her somewhat, though she was grateful the matter was being mentioned again.

“We request that Count Barnabas be summoned for reinvestigation to thoroughly examine the overall circumstances of the rebellion.”

That was all the article demanded. Moreover, since it was just the master copy, the evidence photos the article claimed to present weren’t included.

Nevertheless, Debbie swallowed hard. The article had touched her most painful memory.

She had already let go of much when her parents died. Their only crime had been doing their jobs. She was born to them and raised on the money they earned. When her young parents were suddenly taken away and killed, little Debbie had screamed in anguish, but people told her:

“When parents involved in treason are erased from this world, their children should rightfully die with them. But special mercy was granted to let you live, so don’t complain or speak of it.”

Adults had told her that not mentioning parents who died in the rebellion was the way to avoid inheriting their crimes.

The mere fact that this man had provided an article suggesting the case needed to be reexamined hit her like a blow to the head, making her eyes snap wide open. Her heart pounded harder.

She liked the phantom thief more and more. There were so many things she wanted to ask him if they met again. Suddenly, her first experience with him came flooding back to her mind. Though her most painful wound resurfaced alongside these memories, she felt grateful—grateful that he was her first and even more delighted to learn he was working to bring this matter to light.

The area around her heart throbbed.

Sigh.

The more she thought about him, the more intensely her heart pounded. Every moment, every breath felt refreshing.

Ah.

Debbie decided she needed to capture this feeling in a poem. She quickly took out her notebook and wrote in a flowing script, almost like writing with her feet while intoxicated by this dreamy feeling. Still, it felt good.

The moment when a persistent stain that couldn’t be erased flowed thickly, sullying her heart, finally became poetry. She could breathe again.

Crackle, crackle.

After staying by the bonfire until midnight, she fell asleep and woke to find it was dawn.

Achoo!

Everyone had fallen asleep tangled together, and the bonfire had nearly burned out.

Waking from the cold, Debbie rubbed her arms. It seemed everyone had eaten, drunk, and talked boisterously until they collapsed one by one and fell asleep right where they were.

“Their faces will be crooked if they sleep like that.”

Debbie looked toward the villa.

‘Hmm. The supply room might have blankets.’

Rather than shivering from the cold, she thought she should go look.

Achoo!

Sneezing again, she rubbed her hands over her body to generate warmth.

Planning to get blankets to cover the others as well, she entered the villa.

Swoosh.

As she walked toward where she thought the supply room might be, a shadow flitted past her eyes. Somehow, she felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

Entranced, she opened the door where the shadow had passed.

Bang.

A masked man, in the middle of changing clothes, turned around in surprise.

“Gasp!”

He twisted his body to look at Debbie and let out a shrill sound. He was so startled that he nearly dropped his mask but managed to catch it just in time.

“We meet again.”

Debbie’s heart pounded furiously. He was definitely connected to the publishing house. Otherwise, they couldn’t have met again so coincidentally.

“How did you get in here…?”

He stammered, barely managing to speak.

“The door was open, wasn’t it?”

Though it had been closed, it wasn’t locked, so it was practically open.

“That’s impossible…”

His gaze shifted, and her eyes followed.

“You must possess superhuman strength.”

Debbie was shocked to see the door she had opened. The bolt and latch were dangling loosely.

“No! I really just pushed the handle!”

She examined the door back and forth in confusion.

“You pushed a locked door… Never mind. Please close the door. I don’t want others to see me.”

Debbie closed the door in alarm, but suddenly the doorknob came off in her hand.

He quickly approached, reattached the doorknob, and closed the door. Then, seemingly overcome with anger, he lightly punched the wall.

“I can’t believe I’ve been discovered so easily again.”

Debbie carefully spoke to him.

“I wanted to see you.”

He seemed dumbfounded and was about to say something but swallowed his words. After taking several breaths to calm his emotions, he spoke.

“Is that what you say in this situation?”

Debbie tilted her head, unable to guess what he meant.

“Since you’ve witnessed me, I could harm you right now to eliminate the evidence. Do you have no sense of caution at all?”

He muttered quietly, suppressing his anger.

“Are you worried I’ll report you? I won’t. I absolutely won’t report you.”

She looked at him with a serious expression.

“From what I can tell, you seem to be a senior colleague at the same publishing house. If you get caught, it would be a major blow to the company. If this publishing house is your base, there must be other accomplices besides me. If you get in trouble, they’ll all be caught too.”

His eyebrows twitched at her words.

“We’re practically in the same boat, so why would I? I need to succeed here, you know? Won’t you consider me an accomplice too?”

But the masked man didn’t lower his guard at all.

“What kind of person do you think I am to trust me like that? I’m just a thief.”

“While drinking, an employee showed us the master copy of Glory Newspaper that was supposed to be published yesterday. I know you’re the one who provided the material for that exposé article. I truly regret that it wasn’t published.”

He frowned with a suspicious expression at her words.

“What does that have to do with you?”

“Because I’m also interested in that article.”

Debbie continued, hoping he would believe her sincerity.

“I’m from Terium Province. My parents were falsely accused of being accomplices when Terium’s lord was punished for treason, and they were unjustly punished too. That’s why I grew up as an orphan. The article you were trying to publish raised suspicions about how the lord of Terium Province was suddenly replaced. Of course I’m interested.”

He let out a hollow laugh at her words.

“Let me be your accomplice too. Please?”

Despite his mockery, Debbie remained earnest.

“Look. You seem to be a rookie who doesn’t understand much, but this won’t end as a simple matter.”

He said sternly.

“I don’t need your help. And I don’t believe in altruistic relationships without expecting something in return.”

“No. Surprisingly, I might be useful someday.”

“Those who get entangled with me don’t die peacefully. I can guarantee that much.”

His voice sounded particularly cold.

“If you become involved with me, you’ll die whether you reveal my existence or not. But I’ll survive. I always have. So don’t harbor false hopes and just pretend you don’t know me.”

Debbie extended her hand.

“Then give me something in return for pretending not to know you.”

“What?”

She didn’t want to lose her connection with him. As he said, if she closed the door and left now, she might never see him again.

Even someone thoughtless would avoid creating another opportunity to meet after encountering someone twice like this.

He seemed to have some reason to frequent the publishing house, but now that Debbie had spotted him, he might sever his connection with the company. If that happened, she would never see him again. It was obvious he would hide his identity more thoroughly, and she couldn’t let him slip away.

She wasn’t sure exactly why she wanted to meet him again and be close to him.

She only knew he was her incredible first experience, and she wanted to know what secrets he was uncovering and what kind of world he lived in.

“Exactly one year. No, I have 11 months left now. Whether I like it or not, I have to write eleven more columns here.”

“So?”

He tilted his head.

“Help me write my columns.”

Debbie’s face turned bright red.

“I told you I don’t want to be associated with you.”

He flatly refused.

“If you’re going to attach meaning to your first partner, you should have chosen someone else. I’m a bastard who knows nothing about fidelity. I’m just someone who happened to be born and is living, and everyone around me has disappeared like kindling in a fire. So look elsewhere.”

Debbie felt her face burning with intense humiliation. She should have run away crying.

Yet strangely, her pounding heart actually calmed her.

When people at the bonfire mentioned the “Terium Province” incident as a topic of conversation, she had sensed destiny.