When Leandro opened his eyes the next morning, he frowned at the sharp pain in his waist.

‘Did the wound reopen?’

After pushing himself so hard yesterday, perhaps this outcome was inevitable. He knew the almost-healed wound would split open again, but he forced his body to move anyway. The moment he heard voices outside, he rushed to the door, desperate to stop Larne from leaving.

Eavesdropping on someone else’s conversation was shameful enough, but he had gone even further by pleading with her not to go and claiming that he was in pain.

‘…I must have looked pathetic.’

Nevertheless, he had managed to keep her.

Even if it meant relying on her pity, he just wanted to see her one more time. She had always been weak when it came to helping those in need.

Leandro struggled to sit up. The bandages around his waist had been changed while he slept — they were clean and fresh. However, the moment he moved, blood began to seep through them again.

‘They said it was a poison that numbs the nerves… It’s a miracle I’m still alive.’

He had prided himself on building up a resistance to countless toxins while fighting on the battlefield. Yet this poison was unlike anything he had ever encountered before.

His body still throbbed, and his stomach felt heavy and unsettled. He lowered his gaze to his hand.

He still could not properly clench his fist.

It was astonishing that he had managed to move at all when he heard Larne’s voice.

‘…I must have been that desperate.’

Leandro rang the bell to summon the doctor.

The doctor entered with practiced ease, rewrapping the bandages around Leandro’s waist and handing him an antidote. Leandro had expected at least a scolding since the almost-healed wound had torn open again.

Instead, however, the doctor was unusually quiet. In fact, he seemed to be avoiding conversation.

After stepping out briefly, he returned with easily digestible food.

“If you require anything further, please do not hesitate to call.”

A faint unease settled over Leandro, and he finally spoke.

“Would you call for the marchioness—no, Lady Atrice. Unless I am mistaken, she arrived yesterday.”

At his words, the physician’s expression stiffened. He avoided Leandro’s gaze.

And a quiet sense of dread began to rise within him.

“…Forgive my boldness, but there were no visitors. The marquis was injured, so it was not a situation in which guests could be received.”

The physician turned his head away as he spoke. His hands were trembling ever so slightly—like someone telling a lie.

“That can’t be. Yesterday, I clearly—”

There was no reason for such a lie. Larne had not left of her own accord.

“Rene.”

Leandro pushed himself to his feet.

Voices rose behind him, urging him to stop, but he couldn’t hear them. He couldn’t hear the pain in his body, Nor could he hear the blood seeping once more from his reopened wound.

As he staggered down the corridor, the attendants watched him anxiously.

“Rene… Rene, where are you? You said you wouldn’t leave.”

His body barely responded to his will, yet he forced open door after door, shouting her name until his throat was raw and sore.

If she was going to abandon him so cruelly, why had she promised never to leave him? Why had she promised to stay by his side? Why had she looked at him with such tenderness?

No matter how frantically he searched, he could not find a single strand of her hair.

A sharp ache spread through his chest.

Unable to watch any longer, Killean finally spoke in a quiet voice.

“The duke’s daughter has departed.”

Leandro’s movements stopped.

He sank to the floor where he stood.

“…That’s impossible. I told her—I told her I was in pain.”

Drops of blood fell one by one from his waist to the floor. However, the physical pain was nothing compared to the overwhelming shock he was experiencing.

“Fine. Then say I imagined it.”

He would undoubtedly look mad—but he could not think otherwise.

“Say no one came…! Just—just tell me that instead.”

His shout lacked strength.

Pathetic. Miserable.

There he was, wandering through a stranger’s estate, desperately searching for Larne — what a pitiful, laughable sight!

Didn’t he know better than anyone that she would leave at first light?

That was why he had forced himself to keep talking through the night, saying anything and everything that came into his head, fighting against the drowsiness brought on by pain. He wanted to prolong those hours, to make that single night stretch just a little longer.

Her departure had always been inevitable.

And yet now he was behaving as though it had shattered him completely.

‘…D*mn it.’

Pain surged through his waist again.

Leandro’s body swayed.

***

It took nearly two weeks for Leandro’s condition to improve significantly after that. Even then, another two full months passed before the poison was completely purged from his body.

As soon as he was able to move around independently, Leandro threw himself into resolving unfinished matters in the borderlands.

Despite his body still needing time to recover, he forced himself back into duty, dealing with the Imperial who had stabbed him and deciding how the remaining military supplies should be distributed.

—Knock, knock.

“…The imperial man died on the spot.”

Hearing news of someone’s death was never pleasant.

Receiving a report about the man he himself had killed was even less so.

“I see…”

Leandro murmured briefly, then lowered his gaze to another document.

Killian hesitated before continuing the rest of the report.

“It is said that his family… all perished during the rebellion. He has no surviving relatives.”

When the man paused, Leandro let out a long, weary sigh.

“If I had been more careful from the beginning, it would never have come to this. Make sure the body is buried properly. You should return to your own duties as well. There is still much to be done to rebuild the village. And arrange a memorial service.”

He made a small, dismissive gesture to indicate that Killian should back off. However, the man did not move, remaining where he was.

An unfortunate incident had occurred in the neighboring territory. By all rights, the local lord could have been held responsible.

However, Leandro had no intention of placing the blame on anyone else.

‘If I said I was grateful for being stabbed because it let me see Larne… I’d sound insane.’

Officially, it had been a rebel who stabbed him. To argue over responsibility now would be absurd.

“Your Grace, please take it easy. I hear the poison has not yet been fully neutralized.”

“…Do not concern yourself. I simply wish to finish everything as soon as possible and return to my own home.”

Leandro still dreamed of Larne.

Perhaps because this was a territory scarred by rebellion, the dreams were unbearably sorrowful.

‘Or… is it because I was abandoned here again?’

No—abandoned was hardly the right word.

“Then I thank you for your generosity.”

Killian bowed deeply to Leandro.

Two days later, a memorial service was held in the castle square.

Peace had come at a price.

Some accepted that peace, though it was stained with blood. Others could not. Some even threw stones at Leandro or shouted *buse at him.

When Killian stepped forward to restrain them, Leandro stopped him. There was no need for punishment.

At last, he understood the hollow, consuming ache of losing something precious — something he had never truly grasped before.

In the Empire, they would probably describe the village’s sacrifice as the rebels’ final, desperate act of resistance. Leandro’s injury would only serve to make that claim more convincing.

‘If I hadn’t truly been hurt… they probably would have told me to pretend and recuperate for a month.’

This thought drew a bitter smile from him.

Amidst the crowd steeped in grief, he seemed out of place.

There was a hint of listlessness about him, and at times an unmistakable air of boredom. This was not the face one would expect to see on a man who had fought on the battlefield. Yet Leandro was too exhausted to hide his feelings.

It had been over a week since he had slept properly.

The nightmares had started when the pain in his body had become bearable.

‘I want to go back to the estate. I want to see Larne.’

Those thoughts filled his mind. If he didn’t keep himself busy with work, he couldn’t stop thinking about Larne.

Like a man struck down with an unrelenting fever, he continued to suffer.

“…Monster!”

He had been standing there for some time when a child’s sharp accusation rang out.

The adults hurried to restrain the child, but the words had already been spoken. Leandro walked towards the child at a steady pace.

“Please forgive him. He didn’t mean to speak so disrespectfully. He’s young and doesn’t understand…”

“Hey, what are you doing?”

The child broke free from the adult’s grip and charged at Leandro, throwing punches. But the child barely reached his waist, and his blows had no power.

“It’s your fault my parents died! You turned your back on that village! You’re powerful, aren’t you? You could have saved it!”

Leandro lowered himself to the child’s eye level.

The child did not avoid his red gaze. Tears brimmed in his silver eyes, but he did not waver.

Something stirred in Leandro’s chest at the sight.

“Will you come with me?”

The words slipped out before he could stop them.