A round candy rolled along the inside of Eve’s dumpling-like cheek.

Sitting snugly in the large armchair, she hummed a tune and swung her feet.

“Does it still hurt?”

“It’sh okay.”

Eve answered blithely, the candy tucked in her mouth.

Shed’s eyes lingered on the tiny wound at her pale fingertip.

Even after some time, it remained unhealed.

The result of practice stretched over several days whenever there was a chance.

‘At least she’s picked it up quickly.’

He had thought it would take months or even years, but it ended much sooner than expected. A large wound might be another matter, but at this level, she could probably stop ordinary scratches from being seen.

‘And it’s not something I can keep doing—scarring a child’s body.’

Beside the chair where Eve sat was a small dish of candies. Out of guilt, he had taken to bringing her a treat each time he came.

“Bad man.”

“….”

After spending a few days together, he realized that Eve was extremely talkative. She chattered endlessly, and when she ran out of words, she seemed compelled to sing instead.

Perhaps that was why she spoke so well for her age. Nevertheless, she was still a daunting conversational partner for Shed. Every time she called him ‘bad man’, he braced himself, wondering what she would say next.

“But hey, Mister, you know my daddy, right?”

Eve fiddled with a loose thread on the armchair and asked whether she knew what was on his mind.

She must have been led there by some train of thought, because she suddenly recalled the time in the Golden Castle when he and Eclace had spoken together.

“I do.”

“Did you buy things from my daddy too?”

“Buy things?”

“My daddy’s got sooo many amazing things!”

From the sound of it, Eve thought of Eclace as little more than a wandering peddler who sold strange goods.

Well, she wasn’t entirely wrong. He did sell unusual items. If one were to call that busy man a wanderer, then yes, he was one. After all, a merchant is a merchant. Only, the scale was far greater than Eve had imagined. Much greater.

“There are probably very few people in this Empire who haven’t bought something from your father.”

“Really? Even that scary knight man? Even the big sister who dresses me?”

“Yes.”

When it came to Eclace, Shed responded absentmindedly.

“Hehe, my daddy’s amazing, right?”

“…No.”

“Mister always says no!”

Eve pouted, though it didn’t seem she took his words to heart. Because she went right on chattering about her father. Every time she spoke, the scent of lemon candy drifted from her lips.

Shed watched her quietly as she babbled on about her father.

“Brat.”

At the short call, Eve turned, cheek bulging with candy.

“…Do your mother and father seem… happy together?”

The instant the words left him, Shed regretted them.

What was he doing, asking such a thing of a child?

But Eve, unaffected, nodded brightly.

“Uh-huh! Super happy! Even if Daddy doesn’t come often…”

Super… happy?

Shed’s brow creased deeply.

“Mommy said Daddy’s the best.”

“Hah.”

So they were a blissful married couple, then?

Shed dragged out a chair with a rough scrape, sat, and crossed his legs.

He recalled Eclace’s sly, handsome face.

When he first brought Liana, Eclace was quick to strike up a conversation with her.

His gift for smooth talk was one of his greatest strengths. With his easy, friendly appearance, he had a talent for discerning what others wanted.

If they wanted apples, he gave them apples. If grapes, then grapes—always coaxing, always obliging.

‘He must have been the same with Luise.’

He gently soothed her festering wounds and offered her warm words that drew her to him.

Talents he himself did not possess.

He was no silver-tongued speaker. He had no talent for soft, tender words. Perhaps what Luise needed was not his bluntness, but Eclace.

Lost in such thoughts, he barely noticed Eve cheerfully prattling on, as always, about her father.

Eclace, she said, was so busy that visiting once a month was considered often. Even so, unless something dire intervened, he came once every two or three months, never empty-handed, arms laden with gifts.

‘He certainly knew how to make time, even in a crowded life.’

Shed propped his chin on his hand, displeasure tightening his jaw. While he wasted days wandering the fields of Blancas, Eclace had spent his time with Luise in his arms.

Anger seethed at the thought.

“Oh! And Daddy’s the strongest in the whole world! Mommy says Daddy’s the best!”

Eve raised both arms high as she bragged.

Eclace Vitel—the strongest in the world?

Where did she even…

“That’s wrong.”

Shed decided that it was wrong to allow the child to live with such foolish illusions.

Of course, Eclace wasn’t completely incapable of fighting. When dealing with vast sums of money and high-stakes situations, one’s safety could never be guaranteed. However, he had learned enough to protect himself.

Perhaps even better than some half-trained squires. As a merchant, he could certainly hold his own. But strong? No.

“No! Mommy said so!”

“You treat every word your mother says as though it were divine revelation.”

“Bad man, you’re stupid!”

“Wrong is wrong, no matter how you insist.”

“My daddy’s super brave and amazing!”

Eve, unwilling to lose, piled on more praise for her father.

Shed, hearing Eclace lauded through the child’s lips, felt irritation prickle in him.

“Mommy had a scary dream, and Daddy protected her. I had a scary dream too, and Mommy did it for me, just like Daddy!”

At that, Shed straightened from his slouch, lifting his chin from his hand.

“…Your mother still has nightmares?”

He recalled how, as a child, she had always suffered when dreams plagued her.

Eve hesitated a moment, then nodded.

“Mommy cried at night, so I patted her. Like Daddy.”

Once, Eve had woken in the night to find her mother crying. Silent, face buried in the darkness, yet the sight of her tears had made Eve’s heart plummet.

She had run to her, hugging her tight and patting her back.

Then Mommy would startle, wipe her eyes, and say she was fine—lying back down with Eve at her side.

Lying there together, Eve could just barely make out her mother’s face in the dark.

She hadn’t spoken, but she still looked so very sad.

Even when she smiled, Eve had felt heavy with sorrow, hugging her tighter still. As if she herself might burst into tears.

“Mommy likes it when I hug her.”

At those words, Shed lowered his eyes.

“Oh, and my daddy swims really well!”

As children do, Eve leapt easily to another topic, unfortunately, still stuck on Eclace.

“So Daddy saved Mommy?”

She told the story she had heard from her mother: that before Eve was born, Mommy had fallen into the water, and Daddy had saved her. That thanks to him, Mommy had lived.

“…Is that so?”

Well, for one so used to ships, being a strong swimmer was only natural.

‘So Eclace had that talent as well.’

That he had saved Luise—that, at least, was something Shed could grudgingly praise. After all, Luise feared the water.

Shed remembered long ago, when she had fallen into the lake.

Back then too, Luise had nearly drowned.

‘Come to think of it, that day…’

As the thought brushed him, his face hardened.

Fragments of memory from the day she had fallen into the lake rose unbidden.

He had been so frantic about saving Luise that day that he had overlooked things.

Suddenly, the rowboat overturned. Although Luise had fallen in, the knight made no move to rescue her; he simply drifted there. The servants were so preoccupied with other matters that they did not even notice their lady had fallen in.

No — that wasn’t it. They had turned a blind eye. There was no way they could not have heard the splashing and cries as Luise thrashed around. Among so many people, there was no way that not a single one of them had seen it.

Even then, as his lady neared death, he found the eerie calm strange.

‘No… could it be…’

He rubbed his lips with his fingertips as he retraced the memory.

Had her fall into the water really been an accident? Had they all known that Luise wouldn’t die? A throb pulsed at his temple and he pressed hard against it.

‘The knight who put her in the boat that day…’

Despite almost sending her to her death, he showed no remorse or guilt.

Usually, a knight who failed to protect his lady would beg for death as an act of atonement.

Yes. Everything about that day had been strange.

‘If I hadn’t saved her then… what would have happened?’

The thought chilled his heart.

Luise had fought with all her might to survive that day. He remembered her pale face beneath the water and her body sinking lifelessly into the blue depths. He remembered breathing life back into her and seeing the terror burn clear in her eyes as she opened them.

Luise had known nothing. She was shaking with pure fear of death, despairing and pleading for salvation. She was unaware of what had happened to her, or what was still happening.

‘She was a heretic. But then why… she…’