Chapter 13 

At that moment, several urgent footsteps were heard. Soon, Merrilyn and two men who appeared to be doctors came into view.

“Merrilyn!”

“My lady, you’ve been waiting for a while!”

Merrilyn ran to Evelyn with an umbrella. One of the doctors behind her asked Evelyn,

“Is this the patient?”

“Yes, it looks like he was stabbed in the arm. I’m not sure how long he’s been here, but he’s been out in the rain and his body temperature has likely dropped significantly.”

“Thank you for informing us. We’ll take care of the treatment, so you may return home, my lady.”

The doctors didn’t seem to recognize Fenris’s face. His face was a mess, and honestly, unless they were high-ranking nobles, they wouldn’t have many chances to see him in person.

Evelyn nodded.

As Fenris disappeared from her sight, she felt the tension slowly easing.

Merrilyn, noticing Evelyn looking dazed, said, 

“My lady, you must be chilled. We’ve done what we can, so let’s hurry back.”

Evelyn took her eyes off Fenris and replied, 

“Yes…”

* * *

Back at the mansion, Evelyn changed out of her wet clothes and drank a warm cup of cocoa.

‘Phew, that was really frightening.’

She was dizzy with anxiety, worried that something might happen to Fenris.

She just didn’t want to get involved with Fenris, not that she was okay with him dying in front of her. She wanted no part of that guilt.

Still, she felt pretty good about how she handled things. Fenris was saved, but he wouldn’t know it was her who helped him.

Suddenly, a thought crossed Evelyn’s mind.

‘…The handkerchief.’

But then she shook her head.

It was an unnecessary worry. While she had wrapped the handkerchief around his arm, there was no way he could have recognized her from that.

‘More importantly, what kind of fight did Fenris have with Nosellerton to end up so bloodied? Even in a fight for the throne, the princes have their dignity. Nosellerton couldn’t have just sent someone to stab Fenris just for mocking his fall from the horse, could he?’

As Evelyn clicked her tongue internally, she saw a carriage stop outside the window. It was the carriage carrying Dyffrin.

Sitting at the desk in her bedroom, Evelyn got up and went downstairs.

Unlike before, Evelyn would now often go greet Dyffrin when he returned home.

Likewise, when their eyes met, he would offer a simple greeting, exercising some social skills.

They hadn’t become particularly close, but since they were nominally a married couple and bound by the name of family in this large mansion, it was better to at least greet each other.

When she reached the first floor, she saw Dyffrin shaking off the rainwater from his hair.

“You’re back.”

Evelyn approached him with a bright smile. Dyffrin glanced at Evelyn and said, 

“It’s raining heavily today.”

“Yes, I went out today and was caught off guard by the sudden rain.”

Dyffrin’s eyebrows slightly arched.

“Went out?”

Sometimes she would take a light walk outside the mansion when the weather was nice, but she didn’t feel the need to report her daily activities to Dyffrin, so it seemed quite unfamiliar to him that she had gone out.

“I received a letter saying that new fabrics had arrived at the dress shop, so I went to have a dress made.”

Dyffrin nodded. As he did, a leaf lightly fluttered on his hair.

‘Did he not use an umbrella?’

His hair was quite wet, and so were his shoulders.

Knowing his indifferent personality, it made sense, but still, in such heavy rain…

Thinking that Dyffrin’s personality was indeed peculiar, Evelyn reached out to remove the leaf from his hair.

Since he was quite tall, Evelyn had to rise up on her toes a little.

‘There.’

She successfully grabbed the leaf stuck in his hair.

Suddenly, Dyffrin abruptly grabbed Evelyn’s wrist.

‘Huh…?’

Dyffrin pulled her hand, the one holding the leaf, close to his face, as if he were about to kiss the back of her hand.

But then, a completely unexpected statement came out of his mouth.

“The smell of blood.”

His eyes darkened and flashed for a moment.

“Did you get hurt somewhere?”

Evelyn quickly withdrew her hand from his grip and hid it behind her back.

‘How did he smell the blood?’

Earlier, when wrapping the handkerchief around Fenris’ arm, some blood had gotten on her, but she had thoroughly washed it off long ago.

Evelyn cautiously brought her hand, which she had kept behind her, to her nose and sniffed. There was no scent at all.

‘…What kind of nonsensical sense of smell is this?’

Evelyn glanced at him.

She didn’t want to talk about what happened today, but for some reason, Dyffrin was looking at her with a rather intimidating gaze, so she felt she should explain even briefly.

“It’s not my blood. Earlier, I helped someone who was injured, and some of their blood got on me.”

Dyffrin’s expression was visibly unimpressed.

“You helped an injured person?”

“I was about to get on the carriage, and there was a man lying in a mess in a corner of the alley. I couldn’t just pretend not to see, so I helped with the bleeding.”

Evelyn omitted the fact that the man was the empire’s second prince. Since no one recognized him, it seemed natural that she didn’t recognize him either.

Dyffrin scrunched up his face as if he had tasted something bitter, then spoke.

“Next time, don’t get involved in those kinds of things. You could get caught up in unpleasant matters as well. And especially…”

‘Especially? ‘

“If the other person is a man, even more so. Men tend to interpret kindness without any intention as they please.”

Even though he was a man himself, he sure had a lot to say.

Evelyn didn’t particularly agree with Dyffrin’s cautions, but thinking she likely wouldn’t come across a bloodied, collapsed person again, she obediently replied.

“Understood. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

As she tried to go up to the second floor, Dyffrin’s voice came again.

“Evelyn.”

Evelyn turned her head questioningly.

“Have you had dinner?”

“Yes, I have.”

The clock hands had already passed 8 o’clock. Evelyn had eaten her dinner long ago.

“I see.”

There seemed to be a touch of irritation in the way he removed his gloves.

‘Could it be he was going to ask me to have dinner with him?’

Since the plague had subsided, Dyffrin had been returning home late again, so they hadn’t dined together for a while.

Now that Evelyn thought about it, he had returned home earlier than usual today.

Dyffrin took off his gloves and outer coat, about to head upstairs. When he noticed Evelyn staring at him, he stopped for a moment.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Evelyn shook her head with a smile.

“It’s nothing.”

***

Dyffrin went to the bathroom attached to his room to bathe, then made his way to the dining room downstairs.

When he came down, someone was already seated at the table.

“……”

“Why did you take so long to bathe? I’ve been waiting for a while.”

The one who spoke softly was Evelyn.

Dyffrin looked at Evelyn, who was sitting at the dining table, with a somewhat strange expression.

Reading his obvious expression, she answered on her own.

“I got hungry as time passed, so I wanted to have a simple snack as well.”

In front of Evelyn were oat cookies and lemon tea. Dyffrin silently looked over the desserts, then took a seat at the dining table.

“Go ahead and eat.”

As Evelyn urged, Dyffrin picked up a spoon.

She glanced at him as he started his meal with a cookie in her mouth.

At first, Evelyn was going to let Dyffrin have his dinner alone, but for some reason it seemed like he wanted to have the meal with her, so she ended up coming to the dining room, citing her own hunger as an excuse.

But now she realized it was just her mistaken impression that Dyffrin wanted to dine with her.

If he had truly wanted to spend time with her, he wouldn’t have been quietly scooping up the stew like that.

Evelyn quietly observed the dining Dyffrin. Bored, she decided to strike up a conversation.

“Why have you been coming home so late these days?”

Although Dyffrin didn’t particularly like to converse during meals, he usually gave at least a minimal response when asked something.

“There was business at the imperial palace.”

“What kind of business?”

“….”

Dyffrin seemed hesitant to speak, as if he were harboring an important secret.

“Was it a kind of business that you can’t tell me?” 

Evelyn asked again, her eyes sparkling with curiosity, hoping to hear something interesting.

“There has been a major dispute between Crown Prince Nosellerton and Prince Fenris recently.”

Evelyn was relieved that Dyffrin opened up and shared what had happened, rather than clamming up like a clam.

However, Evelyn paused momentarily when Dyffrin mentioned Fenris’ name.

She hadn’t considered it very important until now, but then she remembered that Dyffrin was one of Prince Nosellerton’s most powerful supporters.

Nosellerton and Dyffrin were distant cousins. As evidence, both of them shared the same royal blond hair and azure eyes.

Therefore, it was natural for Dyffrin to have a strained relationship with Fenris.

In the original story, as Fenris got entangled with Evelyn, Dyffrin grew to dislike him even more. It wasn’t out of jealousy, but because he thought Fenris was looking down on him by interfering with his wife.

“I see…” 

Evelyn responded briefly and then fell silent. Talking about Dyffrin and Fenris was, after all, an uncomfortable topic for her.

Silence fell again.

Towards the end of the meal, Dyffrin called out to Evelyn in a low voice.

“Evelyn.”

Surprised by the sudden mention of her name, Evelyn responded hesitantly, 

“Yes?”

He slowly met her gaze.

“Is there anything you’d like?”

Evelyn, about to pick up a cookie, paused mid-air.