“Actually, I expected this.”

……What?

Herman couldn’t help but stare at the weakly smiling woman as if she were insane. Was it because she loved that crazy man? Was this what they meant by birds of a feather flock together? That’s how bewildered he felt.

Seeing his dumbfounded face, Chloe offered him a seat and said,

“You know that Walter and I are from the same orphanage, right?”

“Yes….”

“It wasn’t a good place…… That’s why he grew up that way. We can’t ignore innate nature, but the environment was quite bad.”

The woman defending Walter didn’t seem to realize the inconsistency in her words. She had grown up in that orphanage too….

Her meaning must have been plainly visible on Herman’s face, as she added with a bitter smile,

“I was protected by Walter. What I mean is that at least my environment wasn’t bad.”

“……”

Looking at the speechless Herman, the woman spoke again,

“A long time ago, a sponsor once visited the orphanage with journalists, and the older children conspired together. They said we should expose the director’s misconduct to the sponsor. That we should reveal that most of the money he donated was being used for the director’s gambling.”

He couldn’t understand why she suddenly brought up this old story. When Herman frowned, she continued in a bitter tone,

“But their plan failed before they could even try it. Walter reported those children to the director.”

“Why……”

“Because of my medicine. He judged that selling out the children to the director for a silver coin right away was better than waiting for the environment to improve by exposing the director to the sponsor.”

“……”

“I’m not trying to defend that action. The sponsor wasn’t exactly a good person either. The reason he came with journalists in the first place was for political show…… something like that. Even if they had spoken up, nothing would have changed. He might have even been angry at the children for ruining his plans. Walter knew that.”

“Even so, it’s a condemnable action.”

It might be ignorant hypocrisy coming from someone who grew up as a noble with an abundant life. But Herman couldn’t bring himself to think that Walter’s action, which deviated far from justice, was right.

“Yes, I think so too. The fact that the sponsor was a bad person, or that he needed to buy my medicine…… that doesn’t justify Walter reporting those children and crushing their hope. That’s why I couldn’t take the medicine Walter offered while watching the children who were locked in their rooms after severe punishment.”

“……”

“What I want to say is…… Walter is that kind of person. If he judges something to be the better choice, he can do bad things without hesitation.”

“Honestly, I can’t understand. That’s why I’m on my way back from beating him up.”

“You look like you regret not hitting him more.”

Herman’s face contorted at her joking words.

“Yes, I do regret it. If I had known you would react this way, Miss Chloe, I would have hit him more. Even if you oppose it.”

After glaring at her for a moment, he cautiously asked,

“Miss Chloe…… aren’t you upset?”

“It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t.”

The woman who answered thus looked down at an old compass she had been holding since who knows when, and said,

“But since I’m the only one who can understand Walter, I have no choice.”

“It’s merely a union based on mutual interests. Chloe will understand too.”

‘So that’s what he meant.’

Herman let out a deep sigh.

“Colonel, please don’t tell him that I know about this. It seems he doesn’t plan to tell me right away. ……And, though it might be presumptuous, please don’t scold him too much. I’m really fine.”

“……”

He couldn’t say anything more to the woman who seemed only foolish to him.

* * *

“G-grandmother already had my mother at that time…?”

“Yes. As you would have read in the letters, she would have been pregnant with Emily at that time.”

Even though she was confirming what she had read in the letters, her heart began to race as she learned the detailed circumstances. Reading a few lines of text saying ‘he left grandmother for another woman’ felt very different from hearing the story of how her grandfather had destroyed a deep bond himself. Even though it was the same story.

“Mr. Prieto didn’t know about the child.”

“Even so….”

It doesn’t change the fact that he broke his bond with his partner. And perhaps that’s why she didn’t tell him about the pregnancy. Though Chloe said she understood him, she might not have been able to bear it.

She might have collapsed after turning away from Herman and saying she was fine. After all, no one can comfortably imagine a future where someone else stands beside the person they love.

‘Who would ask for understanding in such a situation, and who would understand…. It’s foolish.’

Dominic looked at May’s gloomy face and continued,

“And shortly after the engagement was officially announced, Chloe disappeared. My father said she vanished as if she had evaporated.”

For a sickly woman who collapsed regularly to disappear while pregnant was certainly no easy feat. But Chloe hid herself completely without a trace.

“……The reunion took place much later.”

“……”

May unconsciously turned her gaze toward the garden. The elderly ghost, whose profile was barely visible through the window, was still digging meaninglessly. Though his face wasn’t clearly visible, his sunken eyes filled her mind.

The deep blue eyes she had seen up close seemed like a piece of the dark sea had been transplanted. Their depth was unfathomable.

Was regret what lay sunken at their base? May unconsciously sighed. She couldn’t take her eyes off the opaque body moving steadily. She was following with her eyes the shadow of lingering attachment left by the dead man.

The sunlight pouring down penetrated that shadow-like body and drenched the garden. In the Empire, sunlight is considered God’s blessing. And her grandfather had been pushed into a realm where he could not receive such blessing. It was a newfound realization.

She had the ridiculous thought that she should have heard this on a rainy day. Never had that sunlight felt so painful as it did today.

“It was a reunion for parting, then……”

“Yes, probably. ……And I understand that Chloe passed away early. When Emily was young.”

“Ah……”

She had expected it, but….

‘It seems she passed away earlier than I thought.’

Her heart ached for the death of a woman whose face she had never seen. She was also saddened that their ending had been bad. A conclusion where they never reconciled, never reconnected their severed bond.

She wondered what conversation the reunited couple had as they let each other go. One thing she could guess was that her grandfather tried to hold onto the other person until the end.

This was evident from how ‘Chloe’ was a strong stimulus that agitated the ghost. The ghost’s circle had instantly expanded and contracted at her story. The black tears he had shed remained deeply imprinted in her memory. The sticky black liquid that had instantly pooled on the floor seemed like materialized sorrow.

‘I can’t defend grandfather’s mistakes. But….’

“……It would have been better if he had just forgotten and lived on.”

Even if it was selfish. If he was going to grieve and regret for decades, even beyond death for an indefinite time, she thought it would have been better if he had at least forgotten his own mistakes.

And Dominic, looking at May who had muttered to herself, said,

“Memories aren’t forgotten just because you want to forget them.”

“But……”

Perhaps because she knew of the ghost’s existence, her sense of pity wouldn’t disappear. She only wanted to resolve her grandfather’s lingering attachment, and that’s why she sought its root…. But now that she knew the inside story, the task of liberating him seemed more remote.

‘Unless he speaks with grandmother again, his lingering attachment probably won’t be resolved?’

But she had long since been embraced by the Sun God.

Seeing May’s face still clouded with gloom, Dominic added with a small sigh,

“……Someone once said that if humans cannot forget, the next thing they can do is avoid.”