‘Should I really do what Xenon suggested?’

She had thought it would be okay, that things would get better soon, but the situation wasn’t easy. To the point where she wondered if she really should cause a scandal to turn things around.

She had felt it during the Sparkler incident too, but Xenon was excellent at this sort of thing.

No, this isn’t right.

Rudis shook her head vigorously. This wasn’t the way she wanted things. She wanted to build up from the beginning step by step, not intentionally divert attention to muddle through the start.

Even if no one understood, this was Rudis’s own conviction. Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t upset.

In the end, carrying all the gifts and items she had prepared for possible quests, Rudis headed to the tavern. When she opened the door, Xenon, who had been waiting at the tavern at Rudis’s request, approached her.

“Why, didn’t it go well?”

It shows, doesn’t it. When she nodded with a thoroughly dejected face, Xenon wrapped one hand around the back of Rudis’s head and pulled her into an embrace. It was a natural action born from the time they had spent together.

Xenon’s embrace was warm. The moment she buried her face in his broad chest, the emotions she had been holding back burst out all at once. Tears poured down her face. Telling Xenon to wait at the tavern had been a very good decision.

If she had thought Xenon was watching, she might have cried right there on the spot. She had expected it to be difficult from the start, but being ignored actually hurt. Maybe it was a natural reaction.

Even so, she had vaguely hoped. That even if she had to build up from scratch in this place, it wouldn’t be too difficult.

“It’s okay. It’s the first time. Take it slow. You just need to do things your way.”

Xenon’s words could have sounded like ordinary comfort. But those words carried a strange conviction and belief. Xenon always maintained a playful and sly attitude, but at least when it came to Rudis, he was a straight and solid person without a shred of doubt.

She remembered Xenon as a boy. The small child who had pleaded with a trembling voice to be saved. The moment when she had wanted to save him even while losing her divine authority. And the day he had rescued her in the forest of the beast-people.

That child who had been so small had grown up and was now holding her in his arms, comforting her. He had become someone she could rely on more than anyone.

When she slowly lifted her tear-stained face, Xenon chuckled.

“You’re even sniffling.”

Xenon’s fingertips gently rubbed the tip of Rudis’s nose. At the playful action, Rudis naturally scrunched up her face.

“How about it, my proposal is still valid. Want to go out to the plaza and kiss right now?”

“No thanks.”

At that sly smile, Rudis made a fed-up expression again. Anyway, Xenon was just Xenon. Always making her feel good.

“Right. I guess that won’t work?”

“You call that a suggestion!”

When she sniffled and snapped at him, Xenon chuckled and leaned his body closer.

“I think so too. A kiss wouldn’t be enough to draw attention.”

“…”

“We’d need to do something bolder.”

“What?!”

What on earth is this person thinking! Even knowing it was a joke, Rudis reflexively shrank back, flustered by the obvious trick. But at that moment, her body was suddenly lifted.

“What are you doing!”

Hoisted over Xenon’s shoulder like a sack, Rudis panicked and struggled.

But Xenon held her securely and said calmly.

“We need to practice. If we’re going to show everyone properly.”

* * *

The tavern after Rudis left.

Xenon slowly lit a cigarette. The smoke exhaled with a shallow sigh scattered into the morning sunlight. The village visible through the window seemed quiet, but to Xenon’s eyes, it didn’t look entirely peaceful.

“Hah…”

He exhaled lowly. Watching the cigarette end burn shorter and shorter didn’t improve his mood at all.

“You saw it too?”

At those words, Jackson, who had been standing in the shadows, quietly nodded.

“Yes.”

From when Rudis stepped into the plaza, the gazes of the villagers gathering like they were watching her. How they ignored Rudis’s greetings and acted like she was invisible. Everything was uncomfortably clear to see.

Xenon flicked his cigarette ash in heavy silence.

According to his prior instructions, guild members had been hidden throughout the village. They had tried to blend in naturally, spread rumors, and create public opinion in a favorable direction. But contrary to expectations, nothing worked.

“…More closed-off than expected.”

Xenon’s eyes narrowed. Calling it closed-off wasn’t enough. This was complete silent solidarity. Like they had predetermined the answer, every single person without exception shared hostility toward Rudis.

Someone had quietly created this flow and was maintaining it.

Whoever it was, this wouldn’t end simply.

Xenon’s red eyes glinted sharply.

Xenon drew deeply on his cigarette, then exhaled the smoke in a long stream as he reached his conclusion.

“Close the general store first.”

As soon as those words fell, Jackson immediately turned to move. But Xenon didn’t stop there.

“Make it so no one can buy food.”

This time Jackson’s expression hardened slightly.

It wasn’t simply closing the doors, but cutting off the village’s supply of daily necessities entirely.

“…Yes.”

With a quiet answer, Jackson quickly disappeared into the shadows.

Xenon took one last deep drag of his cigarette and exhaled the smoke in a long stream. The burnt cigarette ash scattered in the wind.

“Rudis went out herself and they still act like that?”

Then he’d have to make them come looking.

If necessary, to the point where these villagers would want to sell their souls to the witch.

* * *

It must be Kaires today.

On the way back after spending the night at the tavern, Rudis walked while lost in thought. She didn’t know the details, but the four men had definitely reached some agreement.

One person per day. They each spent a day with her like they had arranged an order. Iska, Noah, and Xenon’s turns had passed, so now only Kaires remained.

Living together with not just one person but four men. It could have become a terrible battlefield, but they were all managing to get along quietly. Of course, each was fiercely trying to imprint their existence in their own way. She was grateful that they were staying together without fighting.

Rudis decided to spend each of these days preciously. With all her heart and soul.

And she arrived at the farm entrance.

Confirming Rudis’s guess, Kaires was waiting. Under the winter sunlight, showing off his appearance with perfect composure without a single flaw. But more than Kaires’s always radiant face, something else caught Rudis’s attention.

What’s that?

Rudis’s head tilted automatically at something in Kaires’s hand.

She felt like she has seen that somewhere… That’s?

‘A flower that blooms commonly on the streets’?

That flower she had received as a reward while doing quests related to Kaires. She had thought “what kind of thing is this” and thrown it in storage, then eventually discarded it when there was no reason to keep collecting them. That very flower she had seen countless times and forgotten countless times.

Rudis’s eyes sharpened.

Even though the misunderstanding about Kaires had been cleared up now, her memories of this flower weren’t particularly pleasant.

It had been like a forced reward given for quests she had worked hard to complete. The flower language Rudis had assigned to that flower was ‘take this and get lost.’

“Kaires, what’s that?”

At Rudis’s pointed tone, Kaires looked down at the flower for a moment, then answered without wavering.

“The thing you liked most.”

And after a brief silence, he added.

“…Wasn’t it?”

At Kaires’s words, a memory suddenly flashed by.

So long ago, when she had lived at the temple with Noah. The small garden she had visited whenever she had time.

It wasn’t a fancy or special space, but she had liked the open view from where the wind blew. Watching seeds that had flown from somewhere bloom into nothing-special wildflowers and sway in the wind before finding their place again.

Hoping she could be the same way.

Kaires had remembered a moment she herself had forgotten. For a very long time.

Rudis couldn’t say anything for a while. Then she quietly accepted the flower.

“I like it. Very much.”

Now. Carefully touching the flower with her fingertips, Rudis smiled softly. Then she slowly raised her head to look at Kaires and asked.

“This flower, where did you get it?”

At the time, it had been a flower you could see commonly anywhere, but she had never seen it in Breilin. Even though its name was ‘flower that blooms commonly on the streets,’ she had no memory of seeing this flower here. Except for the ones Kaires, the lord, had given her.

Then Kaires answered briefly.

“There’s something I want to show you.”