At Kyle’s added explanation, her gaze shifted with visible unease.

The situation was only now becoming clear to her.

Two unmarried people who had met only twice, sitting side by side on a bed, having a serious conversation about contraceptives.

Shiloh bit her lip.

Just then her eyes met Kyle’s, and she pulled her lips into a casual smile.

“My mother is open-minded. No prejudices, very straightforward…… it’s her way of preparing me for any situation, you could say.”

Shiloh rambled on without being asked.

“Are you on the conservative side yourself?”

“I don’t think I’m the uptight type……”

She murmured, picking at her fingertips.

In truth Shiloh was quite conservative, but she didn’t want to come across as stiff in front of a business partner.

“I see.”

“Not wildly liberal or anything…… somewhere in the middle, I think.”

“Middle is good. For anything.”

The awkward smile that had appeared on Shiloh’s face quickly vanished.

‘Why does everything I say keep sounding stranger?’

Shiloh twisted her lower lip in a wave of self-reproach.

Saying ‘that’s not what I meant’ would only make her seem stranger, so she stole glances at Kyle and tried to think of an excuse to get him out quickly.

First, she needed to put that mortifying contraceptive back in the medicine box.

“Then I’ll be going……”

“Hand that here.”

Too embarrassed to look at his face, Shiloh reached her hand out to the side to ask for the medicine.

At that moment,

Something dangling caught on her index and middle fingers.

The sensation was solid and warm.

‘What did I just touch?’

It wasn’t the feel of a medicine vial.

It was unmistakably the warmth of a person, and then it was gone.

Her heart lurched with a bad feeling.

‘……’

Her eyes slid slowly to the side.

“……”

Shiloh froze with her mouth wide open.

Only then did she realize she had made a mistake without knowing that Kyle had already stood up to leave the room.

Which meant what she had just bumped into was……

The thing between his legs……

“I’m so sorry! It was an accident……”

Shiloh quickly pulled her hand away and moved back.

“These things happen. Then I’ll be on my way.”

Kyle walked to the door and opened it with a flushed face, as if nothing had happened.

Shiloh jumped up and followed after him.

She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them, then descended the wooden stairs in a half-daze.

Thoughts raced through her head, from ‘why on earth did that happen’ to ‘will he think I’m a pervert’ to ‘is there a magic spell that reverses time.’

Perhaps she had lost her grip on herself too completely.

Shiloh tripped over her own feet near the bottom of the stairs and lurched forward.

“Oh!”

The moment she felt her body tipping forward and lifting into the air, Kyle, who had been ahead of her, turned around.

His eyes went wide and he reached out for her urgently.

Shiloh pitched forward and grabbed his neck tight.

“……”

Kyle staggered briefly under her weight, then spread his feet slightly to steady himself.

His large hands pulled Shiloh’s neck and back toward him and held her in a protective embrace.

She felt his warmth and his unsteady breathing.

She had been pressing her face into his neck, and she lifted her half-closed eyes to look up at him.

“Are you all right?”

“……”

Kyle bowed his head and looked at Shiloh, who was breathing in shallow gasps against his chest.

Prettily curling lashes.

Eyes with a loose, strange focus.

Cheeks like a peach.

Lips slightly parted.

The fingers holding her twitched.

Kyle flinched and straightened himself, his expression hardening, and dropped her arms from around his neck one by one.

“……”

Shiloh startled at his stiffened expression and stepped back.

“I’m sorry. I think my head is completely scattered today.”

Shiloh stole a glance at Kyle and smoothed her disheveled bangs and clothes.

“It happens.”

“I’m really sorry……”

She pressed both hands over her mouth, shifting anxiously.

“Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t on purpose.”

He replied flatly, only the back of his neck still red.

“Thank you for understanding.”

But Kyle never once met Shiloh’s eyes to the end.

In the end, Shiloh had to say her farewell to his back.

“Take care on your way home.”

Jingle. jingle.

Listening to the bell ring after Kyle disappeared, Shiloh blinked her vacant eyes.

Outside the window, darkness had already settled.

‘What am I going to do about my image?’

She cupped her flushed cheeks in both hands and stamped her feet.

But she stopped herself shortly after, sighed, and shook her head.

“He said he’s not interested in other people. Lucky he’s the easygoing type……”

Shiloh squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed.

What mattered was the business.

In that sense, it had been a perfect day overall.

Except for the deeply mortifying ending.

Examining the pouch full of a considerable sum of money, Shiloh suddenly felt that he had recognized her abilities far beyond what she deserved.

Come to think of it, if she hadn’t met him, her lack of a baker’s license would have been discovered, and her debt would have been snowballing. And now she had received a large investment at a low interest rate on top of that……

‘Is this what they mean by light at the end of the tunnel?’

She felt a deep sense of responsibility to repay the trust of someone who had willingly handed over a large sum of money believing in her.

“He doesn’t seem like a bad person.”

Shiloh murmured quietly.

*

Even after arriving at the palace, Kyle’s face was as flushed as someone who had drunk champagne, all on account of the unfortunate incident with Shiloh.

He was walking down the corridor toward his chambers when Lemiere’s urgent voice came from behind him.

“Your Majesty. Something terrible has happened.”

Kyle turned immediately and saw Lemiere approaching out of breath. His expression hardened.

“What is it?”

“Count Ferrendo has reportedly been attacked by an assassin in the early hours at Obscurem Manor.”

Kyle’s face went ashen and he strode down the corridor.

Lemiere followed urgently behind.

Clatter clatter.

Inside the carriage racing at full speed, Kyle bowed his head and clenched his fist.

“Please be safe……”

He pressed his forehead against his closed fist and shut his eyes.

Kyle headed immediately to the estate on the outskirts of the capital, ‘Obscurem,’ which had formerly been the territory of Lucas, his uncle by name only, now imprisoned on charges of treason. Kyle had entrusted the ownerless estate to his trusted confidant, Ferrendo.

Ferrendo was a comrade who had shared the hardships of the battlefield with him.

Kyle, who did not open his heart easily to people, had a special bond with the few comrades who had endured extreme circumstances alongside him in war.

The attack had occurred not long after Lucas had been sentenced to beheading in the courtroom.

It could have been an assassin sent by Lucas’s associates, but it was also possible that a knight who had served under Lucas had carried out the attack. Lucas had a well-established reputation for protecting and supporting his own people, including his knights. It may have been an expression of resistance to his execution.

‘It’s because of me.’

Confusion and self-reproach swept through him like a storm.

Kyle squeezed his eyes shut with a contorted expression.

*

“If the blade had gone even slightly deeper into the neck, it would have been fatal. The surgery went well, and from here it’s a matter of time.”

Kyle’s face was dark as he listened to the attending physician’s report.

“You heard him? Time is the cure, Your Majesty.”

Ferrendo said lightly and waved the physician out.

“……”

Ferrendo lay in bed with bandages wound tightly around his neck.

Kyle looked at him with a pained expression, then sighed and rubbed his face roughly.

“Why did you come all the way here when you’re so busy, Your Majesty? I can’t even get up to greet you properly……”

Ferrendo smiled sheepishly.

Kyle scowled and snapped.

“You’re really making me out to be a villain. I’m the one who sent you here, and you’re asking me why I came?”

“That’s not what I meant…… ow……”

Ferrendo grimaced as tension entered his neck without meaning to.

Kyle spoke in a subdued voice.

“I’m reconsidering the execution……”

He was worried that pressing ahead with Lucas’s beheading would put Ferrendo’s life in further danger.

But this time Ferrendo sighed as if exasperated.

“Your Majesty, does it make any sense to reverse a verdict? The man committed treason without a shred of remorse. You have your dignity too. And the Empire has its order.”

“……”

“Don’t go soft on my account. If you do, I’ll start doing as I please too, Your Majesty.”

Kyle narrowed his brow and stared at him, then looked away.

The tightness and turmoil inside him kept pushing tears to the surface.

Kyle decided to step outside before he showed an even worse state.

The moment he opened the door, he came face to face with a girl who looked about five years old.