“Clara, isn’t Eve coming again?”

“No.”

“That’s troubling.”

Only the sound of cutlery being placed could be heard in the dining room.

The royal family, except for Eve, was sitting at the table waiting for her.

Just now, a maid had brought a message from the Princess to Clara.

That she was sorry, and would eat with them next time.

“Let’s eat. We need to keep up our strength to take care of Eve.”

Queen Clara deliberately tried to eat well.

Following her, King Peter and Count Crow picked up their knives and forks.

“Joan, let’s eat.”

“Yes.”

Monica and Joan did the same.

Kay and Edmond, who were staying as guests at Hessen Castle, also slowly picked up their utensils.

Inside the dining room, there was only the sound of dishes clinking without any conversation.

* * *

After dinner, Monica was walking down the corridor with Edmond to find Eve.

The King and Queen had unavoidably left the castle due to external appointments, and Joan was busy cleaning up after the grand banquet.

Edmond, pushing the wheelchair handle, said:

“I didn’t know you were here and was looking all over.”

“I’m sorry. It couldn’t be helped.”

“No, I understand the circumstances.”

“What about Duke Kay?”

“He seems to have suffered a great mental shock. He said he was going to the ducal residence. He’s bringing back the Royal Family.”

“I see.”

The two arrived in front of the Princess’s bedroom.

“Eve, it’s Mom.”

Instead of a maid, Eve’s pale face appeared in the doorway.

“Mom?”

Seeing Monica, Eve’s face crumpled like a child’s, forgetting that Edmond was there.

The door opened wide, and Edmond pushed the wheelchair in.

The three sat around a table.

Looking at the bed where Victor was lying, Monica asked Eve:

“Are you alright?”

“…No. I’m so scared.”

Monica reached out and held Eve’s thin hand, then let go and said:

“Victor said something.”

“What?”

“I saw him briefly before the grand banquet began.”

“You saw Victor?”

“I’m sorry. The Queen and I were so worried about you that we asked him.”

Monica glanced awkwardly at Edmond sitting beside her and continued:

“We asked if he loved you. Told him not to make things difficult for you.”

“What?”

Eve smiled slightly. Her two mothers were so adorable.

“I thought you would have given him a good scolding.”

“That was the plan. But he said painful memories should be erased with memories of being loved. If he hurt you with bad words and actions, he should heal you with seven times as many beautiful words and actions.”

“He said that?”

“So he said he couldn’t leave. He admitted that he had hurt you and deserved to die. But he said only he could heal those wounds. So he said he would just love you.”

‘Eve, you’re his everything, like a fool.’

‘It hurts.’

Eve didn’t know what to do.

Her heart was breaking, making her ache.

Her violet pupils, trembling painfully, became moist with tears.

“Ah.”

Monica extended her arms to embrace Eve’s shoulders and said softly:

“Our Eve, that’s why you should eat well and keep your strength up. If you want him to wake up.”

Eve, who had been hunching her shoulders and sobbing, raised her chin at those words.

“Mother, you’re right.”

Wiping her tears with the back of her hand, Eve jumped up and pulled the bell cord.

Soon a maid entered.

“I’d like some light refreshments.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Not long after, maids brought in the meal with happy faces.

Eve, having wiped the tears from her face, began eating with determination.

The deep gloom that had been present until just now lifted a little.

Suddenly, Eve swallowed the bread in her mouth and said:

“Edmond, are Carrol and Flower Rain doing well? I haven’t been able to contact them.”

“Yes. Carrol was sad after Your Highness left, but she’s doing well. As for Flower Rain…”

He glanced at Victor for a moment before speaking again:

“Ask him when he wakes up.”

“I understand.”

Edmond watched Eve wiping her mouth with a napkin and said with a smile:

“Your Highness has always been so brave, both as a child and now.”

“As a child?”

Not only Eve but also Monica looked at Edmond with wide eyes.

It was natural, since Eve had met Edmond at the ducal residence.

“When you were little, I treated you, and the next day you got up energetically and ate bread first, didn’t you?”

“What do you mean ‘when I was little,’ Edmond?”

“Monica, have you forgotten?”

Monica thought Edmond might be confused and said kindly:

“Lord Edmond, I met the former Duke Victor Mikhail and you on a mountain path in New Hampshire, but you never met Eve there. Eve was eighteen at that time.”

Since he used to go around the neighborhood giving medical examinations, he might have confused Eve with someone else.

“Hmm. You might not know, Your Highness, but even Monica doesn’t know?”

Edmond asked with a disappointed face. His eyes showed a hint of hurt.

“Pardon?”

“So all this time, you thought the first day we met was that rainy day when I saved you on the mountain path?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that right, Edmond?”

Eve also chimed in.

“Haha.” Edmond laughed hollowly and said:

“Why would Your Highness have specifically gone to New Hampshire where the slums are? There are slums near the ducal residence too. Didn’t you find that strange?”

“No way.”

Edmond nodded.

“Then, the doctor who treated Eve when she collapsed after eating cucumber sandwiches was…”

Monica recited in a trembling voice.

Edmond placed his index finger on his philtrum and said playfully:

“Perhaps it’s because I shaved off my mustache? Still, I’m hurt.”

“Of course. Eve was six years old then. And I came back late from work that day…”

Monica lowered her eyebrows with a troubled expression.

In the past, Bruce often left home for days to go hunting, and Monica also worked at a pig farm in New Hampshire to make ends meet.

When Eve was six, there was a charity event hosted by nobles, and Eve, who was severely allergic to cucumbers, collapsed after eating a cucumber sandwich. That day, by the time Monica returned home, Dr. Edmond had already treated Eve.

She had briefly greeted Dr. Edmond.

“I thought the noble ladies had called for a different doctor at that time.”

“No. His Grace Victor sent me.”

“Ah…”

Eve and Monica exclaimed simultaneously.

“I didn’t recognize you because of the mustache. I’m sorry.”

Monica felt sorry towards him.

Although it was on former Duke Victor’s orders, Edmond was practically her life’s savior.

Edmond looked at Monica with loving eyes and said:

“So why didn’t you stay in one place? I had such a hard time when you weren’t in New Hampshire.”

Not realizing it was a joke, Monica looked at him with a perplexed expression.

“I’m sorry, Lord Edmond. Because Bruce was a hunter, we had to move around frequently-“

The kind middle-aged doctor took Monica’s hand, which was resting on her knee, and said:

“It’s fine. I’m joking, joking.”

“What?”

“How could someone who was beaten by Lady Hampshire and had a headache remember?”

“Mother? What is all this about?”

Eve, who had been listening to the two people’s conversation, called out to Monica.

Monica said “Oh!” and looked at Edmond:

“Didn’t Joan tell you?”

“No.”

“After being beaten nearly to death by the lord’s wife, I was abandoned on a mountain path, barely alive. Joan, who was coming to visit me after a long time, found me dying. It was pouring rain… I had no hope of survival. Then, through the rain, former Duke Victor Mikhail appeared. With a face as white as paper, he took care of Joan and me.”

Eve simultaneously recalled what Joan had said a long time ago:

“My Lady. I’ve worked at the ducal residence for several years because of money, and I know that the master treats me like a stray dog picked up from the street.”

And Eve swallowed dryly and asked Edmond:

“Is it true, Edmond?”

Edmond glanced at Victor lying down, then looked back at Monica and Eve.

“On the day Monica was assaulted by the lord’s wife, I treated her on His Grace’s orders.”

“…Ah.”

It was Victor who had saved her mother.

‘And I didn’t even know that!’

“The story I’m about to tell you is something that even His Grace might not remember well.”

Edmond smiled kindly and began to unfold a very old bundle of stories.

* * *

‘Where am I? Is this heaven?’

‘Eve?’

But the scenery was too familiar to be heaven.

Victor lifted his eyelids.

“Your Grace the Duke, it’s time to go.”

Edmond?

He looked much younger. He appeared to be in his early thirties.

But what’s with that mustache?

Edmond used to have a mustache.

“I told you I don’t want to go? Giving gold coins is better. Isn’t holding a charity event more hypocritical?”

‘Is that me?’

A black-haired boy who looked about eleven years old got up from the office desk, grumbling.

As he stood up, Victor’s viewpoint also rose higher.

‘Am I watching this memory together with this kid, no, myself?’

“You say that, but you always follow me to charity events.”

“Ugh. Those eccentric Harrisons.”

‘I should have sewn my mouth shut even back then.’

It seemed he couldn’t interfere with this memory.

‘Why is this happening? Am I hovering between life and death because of the knife wound? Eve must be worried.’

While thinking this, the scene changed to the inside of a carriage.

“Where is the charity event this time?”

“New Hampshire, Your Grace.”

The black eyebrows of the eleven-year-old little Duke rose.

“The pig village?”

“Yes. It’s known as one of the poorest villages among those on the outskirts of the capital.”

“Hmm.”

Little Victor shuddered.

Victor was surprised within his own memory.

‘I went to New Hampshire?’

As royalty or nobility, one had to periodically attend or host charity events.

The carriage in the memory arrived at New Hampshire.

Nobles who had already arrived were having their servants unpack.

Several tents had been set up, and cucumber sandwiches to be distributed to the villagers were displayed on a long table.

‘They’re dressed quite lavishly.’

Many nobles wore clothes suitable for banquets rather than modest work clothes, despite claiming to be doing charity.

“Did they come to show off their clothes?”

Little Victor, with his elbow on the carriage and his chin in his hand, also muttered.

The precious cucumber sandwiches, which even Aria royalty found hard to eat, were probably made to show off.

Charity was good. But Victor had disliked such displays since childhood.

That’s why he directly donated gold coins to charity events.

He wanted to donate a large amount, but after the death of the former Duke who had tightly managed the family finances, the financial situation was not abundant as they were in the process of rebuilding the family.

He just donated gold coins at an appropriate level so as not to be a blemish.

“Ah, I’m tired. Do they know how busy I am?”

Since making and distributing food was the job of adult nobles, little Victor would sit at the tent table or go to the carriage to rest.

That day was sure to be such a day.

‘Yes, it was boring. But why am I seeing this dream-like memory?’

He wanted to wake up from this dream quickly. He wanted to see Eve.

However, Victor’s consciousness was still captured in the memory that had not yet ended.

At that moment, a cute little girl with platinum blonde hair, about six years old, waddled toward the tent where Victor was.

The child was clean but wore a cheap dress with a simple design.

Victor in the memory, with his arms crossed and eyes narrowed, said to the child:

“Who are you?”

“Huh? Me?”

The platinum-haired child just blinked her eyes, pretending not to hear.

“You can’t play here. Go away.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I said go. The food distribution tent is over there.”

Victor slightly opened one eye and pointed to another tent with his chin.

“Waah, scary.”

‘Oh, that temper of his.’

Fighting with a baby—Victor acknowledged that his disposition had been arrogant since childhood.

The little girl ran like an arrow in that direction.

“Thank you!”

In the distance, the platinum-haired girl from earlier was running away with a cucumber sandwich held in both hands, smiling broadly.

‘Eve?’