All manner of appetizing dishes were laid out on the table before me, and with Uncle Oswald at the center, the atmosphere was warm and lively.

But guilt kept me from smiling freely. The reason was that Aiden’s face looked even more drawn than before. After that, I couldn’t find the courage to look at him directly.

On top of that, my prediction that Uncle Oswald wouldn’t leave Aiden alone turned out to be exactly right.

“Even as that monster’s jaws were taking half my leg off in a single bite, I did not make a sound! How could I cry out when the soldiers were counting on me! While it was chewing at my leg, I drove my sword straight into its eye, and the thing let out a shriek and crumpled. If I hadn’t had the presence of mind to act then, every last one of those soldiers would certainly have been sent to the next world! Isn’t that right? Dusik.”

“Remarkable, Your Grace, Duke Garten.”

Uncle Oswald had returned last year having lost one leg to a monster, but watching him carry on about it as though he had received a medal of honor made the tears that had been welling up retreat right back inside.

‘It would be nice if he’d just come back in one piece.’

Uncle Oswald, who had been watching me let out a long, worried sigh, gave a sly smile and spoke.

“Come to think of it, this sneaky niece of mine was pretending not to look, but she was watching the whole time, wasn’t she? That husband of hers is quite the fine-looking man.”

I scrunched up my face and narrowed my eyes like a cat.

“……I can smell the alcohol.”

Getting no real reaction from me, Uncle Oswald seemed to lose interest and turned his gaze to Dusik. Then he shoved the plate of oysters in front of him toward Aiden and said gruffly,

“Hey, if a man wants to perform his duties properly, he needs strong legs. Eat these, Dusik! This is the food for stamina! Eat up, eat up.”

‘Aaaah……! Oysters, what is Uncle doing right now? Do you know what kind of guilt I’m drowning in right now!’

My face went red and then burning hot.

“Un, Uncle!”

“What! You. This is all for your sake. Don’t go thanking me later! It’ll be embarrassing.”

Uncle Oswald knocked back his beer one cup after another, his face as red as a volcano about to erupt.

“What, did you get possessed by a ghost that died from not drinking enough?”

I glared at Uncle, who wasn’t even bothering to respond to me, and snapped the large crab leg on my plate in two with a crack.

“Uncle is a real eccentric. Don’t go around telling people you’re royalty.”

“Eccentric my foot, Riel, you’re the bigger eccentric! Dusik? His name is Dusik! Did you name your husband?”

Bang! At his mocking tone, I slapped both hands on the table and stood up.

“Un, Uncle!”

Oh please, stop teasing him about that name! I already feel guilty enough about it!

At that moment, Aiden’s deep voice cut through the commotion.

“I like it.”

At his words, both my and Uncle’s eyes turned to Aiden at the same time. Aiden held Uncle Oswald’s gaze with steady, unwavering eyes.

“Nonsense.”

But a moment later, Uncle Oswald snorted as though he didn’t believe a word of it and knocked back his beer in big gulps.

Undeterred by the snort, Aiden drove the point home.

“The name Dusik. Isn’t it wonderful?”

Pfft! The tone and expression were far too serious to be a joke, and Uncle Oswald sprayed beer into the air.

Even I had never seen the easygoing Uncle Oswald caught so completely off guard.

“I am always grateful to my wife for giving me that name.”

Uncle Oswald narrowed his eyes to slits, propped one arm on the table, and asked Aiden,

“You two, do you go on dates?”

“……Not lately.”

Dusik answered with a subdued expression, like a puppy left out in the rain. Whether from avoiding me, he seemed at least a little sorry about it.

Uncle Oswald then said in a voice edged with irritation,

“What! The ink on the marriage certificate isn’t even dry yet, and you can’t manage a date?”

“It is my fault. Please don’t say anything to my wife……”

‘Please don’t say anything’…… the phrasing was unlike Aiden, and I looked across the table at his face with a worried expression.

Uncle Oswald’s mouth curved up on one side, as though he had expected exactly this. The smile of a winner.

“Well, well. Look at that tongue of yours tripping over itself. Properly drunk, aren’t you.”

“I, I’m not drunk. I hold my liquor well.”

“And yet you’re stumbling over your words?”

Aiden pressed his lips into a flat line. He seemed to decide that saying anything more would only lead to another slip of the tongue.

I snapped at Uncle.

“So stop feeding him! Does he look like a lush like you?”

At my words, Uncle Oswald said “Alright!” and abruptly stood up. Limping on his prosthetic leg, he came over to me and grabbed my arm.

“Wh, what?”

“I’ll stop feeding him, so hurry up and take your husband out for some fresh air!”

“Pardon?”

“Go on, out~! Go out and have a date! My niece has no sense of the situation!”

Glancing over at Aiden, I met his gaze, and he had apparently been looking at me for some time already.

***

Beneath a sky dark and deep as black-violet. Aiden sat on a bench with slightly unfocused eyes.

Between us, the gap was wide enough for two people to sit. Noticing that, a hollow laugh escaped on its own.

‘Right, if we drift apart slowly like this, that’s fine by me. I can send him off to the female lead with a clear conscience……’

Thinking that, I was absently kicking at a pebble on the ground when Aiden’s voice broke through the awkward silence between us.

“My dear.”

“Hm?”

Called by Aiden, I turned my head without thinking. But he was staring at the fountain, not at me.

“Riel.”

“Yes.”

This time he called my name. What was he trying to say? Then, without warning, a question came out of him that caught me off guard.

“Do you want me to recover my memories?”

“……Hmm.”

Honestly, I had wanted to say it, even if it took the courage of alcohol. That I hoped he wouldn’t. That I just wanted him to stay by my side. But my lips wouldn’t move.

And then, the opposite of what I felt came spilling out on its own.

“Wouldn’t it be better for you if you did?”

Forcing a bright smile as I said it, Aiden stared at me for a moment, then lowered his head.

“I’m afraid. Of who I am, of what kind of person I was in the past, of whether I might be someone who would bring harm to you……”

He furrowed his brow and continued.

“Because I can’t promise that once I know everything, I’ll still be able to face you the way I do now.”

I was genuinely surprised. I hadn’t known Aiden had been thinking this deeply.

Come to think of it, Aiden had never once spoken about his own thoughts or feelings. Was it the alcohol? That he had opened up like this.

Watching Aiden rub his face in confusion, I spoke in a quiet but firm voice.

“No. You’re not that kind of person.”

“……How can you be certain, when you don’t know what kind of man I was before I lost my memories.”

Aiden said it to me with a slightly blunt expression and a sharp voice, but strangely, my mind went calm and still.

I knew perfectly well that Aiden was not a bad person. And hearing that he had been doubting himself made me a little angry, actually.

“I know. When you had your hands around my throat, I could have had you expelled. Why do you think I didn’t?”

Aiden let out a hollow laugh. The expression looked suddenly unfamiliar.

“That’s exactly what I mean. Even now, when I think about what I dared to do to you, I want to cut off these two hands on the spot. Why on earth did you take me in?”

“Dusik.”

“The truth is, I knew it from that moment. That I couldn’t have been a good person in my past…… whatever I was, slave or otherwise.”

Aiden still seemed to believe that I had taken him in out of charity.

‘See. How could this be called a conversation between husband and wife?’

Despite all the times I had told him I loved him, clearly none of it had reached him. Even if it had been for the sake of survival, in my past life and even now, I was still rooting for him……

A bitter taste lingered on the tip of my tongue. I stood up and moved two steps closer to him, sitting down beside him.

I wanted to take hold of his clenched fist, but I forced myself to hold back. If I touched him, I might absorb Aiden’s power again.

I looked quietly at his face. Up close, the flushed cheeks and unfocused eyes told me he was not entirely in his right mind.