Daniel leaned against the wide-open door and gazed with a complicated look at Eileen, surrounded by the midwife and maids. Tenderly cradling her belly, swollen to bursting at full term, Eileen never lost her smile even on her gaunt face.

A child conceived in a single night.

Daniel wanted a child more than anyone, but not from a woman he did not love.

“You came?”

Smiling faintly on her pale face, Eileen welcomed Daniel. Though they were husband and wife, he was a husband as hard to see as plucking a star from the sky. Even so, Eileen never once complained, not until now.

She seemed content, like that burning first night alone granted her every wish. Since a child was conceived that night, perhaps that was even true.

Besides, even Daniel, however little affection he held for Eileen, came running at the news that the baby might be born. For Eileen, nothing could be better than that.

“Will you stay beside me?”

Daniel nodded reflexively. Eileen smiled brightly, the happiest face in the world.

“Thank you.”

Daniel still stood far away from Eileen, but she was beside herself with joy over even that. Today of all days, Daniel found it hard to watch her.

A wife who poured endless affection on him.

His wife Eileen stayed constant even though she knew he held another person in his heart.

But he could not repay that love. For his dying wife, he considered maintaining a legal marriage until now to be the full extent of his duty.

Still, Daniel could not completely ignore Eileen, who meant to burn all her remaining life giving birth to his child. At the moment of birth, or at least the moment of her last breath, it was a husband’s duty to stay by her side. So the instant he heard the baby seemed about to come, he rushed over.

But seeing Eileen so happy, he regretted it. It felt like he was raising her hopes for nothing when he could not accept her heart.

He could have told himself easily that this much was fine as a gift for her final journey, but Daniel thought even that kind of expectation was discourteous. Eileen loved him with everything she had, and he did not want to commit the rudeness of deceiving her. Nothing was more shameless than giving hope without love.

“Daniel…”

Eileen hesitantly held out her hand.

Daniel slowly approached and took her hand. Though he pushed her away ceaselessly until now, today he found it hard to refuse. It was a hand Eileen extended after gathering her last courage, Eileen who always yielded and sacrificed so as not to burden him. He knew how much consideration for him it took to extend it.

But before their clasped hands warmed with each other’s warmth, an attendant sent from the royal palace burst in.

“Your Excellency, Her Highness urgently requests you. You must go to the palace at once.”

“…Is she very unwell?”

“Yes. She asks that you come at once.”

When Daniel looked at Eileen with a troubled face, she struggled to lift the corners of her mouth. Watching Eileen force a smile out of consideration for him even at a moment like this, he felt one side of his heart sting.

“…How long do you think it will be until the baby comes?”

“The contractions are about thirty minutes apart, so I believe it will be a while longer, but I cannot say for certain. Sometimes the baby comes all of a sudden even then.”

Daniel bit his lip hard.

His choice was always Irene, never Eileen. He fell for her at first sight, and not for a single moment since did he stop loving her. Though he married her twin sister Eileen for political reasons, that feeling never changed.

But right now, Eileen came first.

It had to be so.

Yet at the thought of staying to see the baby born, he grew anxious that the time Irene must endure would be far too long.

“Go on.”

“…”

“I’ll hold on well until you come back.”

“…Is that even possible?”

“I don’t know. It’s my first time.”

Eileen smiled faintly again. Daniel nearly shouted, demanding how she could laugh at a time like this. He knew she said it out of consideration for him, but he could not understand Eileen, so ruthlessly selfless even now. Even so, he could not help his heart lifting at her words.

“…Then I’ll only check how she is and come back.”

To Daniel, who finally decided to go to Irene, Eileen showed her usual radiant smile.

So that his heart would not be heavy as he left.

“I won’t be long.”

Peck.

Hesitating, unlike himself, Daniel lightly kissed Eileen’s forehead and hurried out of the room.

‘You don’t know that this is the first time you kissed me sincerely…’

Eileen watched Daniel’s back with bitterness.

It hurt less when he did not consider her at all.

* * *

The moment he arrived at the palace, sorrow, gloom, and grief came crashing in.

Fear that something might be wrong with Irene made Daniel’s heart pound violently.

So violently that Eileen, suffering through labor pains, vanished completely from his mind.

“Where is Irene?”

When he flung the door open and entered, Michael, holding Irene’s hand, turned his head. Realizing his blunder, Daniel stopped and quickly bowed.

“Greetings to Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

Fortunately, not the slightest trace of displeasure showed on Michael’s face. Instead, he welcomed Daniel warmly.

“Irene has been waiting for you desperately. Come in.”

When Daniel sat in the seat Michael gave up, Irene groped for his hand. Soon coming to her senses, she grumbled with tearful eyes and a resentful gaze.

“I told you not to go. I told you to stay beside me!”

“I’m sorry.”

For Irene, suffering the backlash of using magic, the most effective painkiller was Daniel, a member of the dragon race.

Though everyone knew pain followed the use of magic, no one told the archmage Irene not to use it. They simply pushed Daniel, her sister’s husband, into Irene’s bedchamber.

That both Daniel and Irene were married, each with a spouse of their own, was no important matter. What mattered more was what gain could be taken from a single use of Irene’s magic.

“How is the duchess?”

Michael asked after Eileen’s wellbeing. Only then remembering Eileen, Daniel spoke while glancing at Irene.

“Her contractions are coming a little faster. I must go back.”

“If I knew that, I would not have called you. I’m sorry. Go to your wife now.”

When Michael tried to nudge Daniel’s shoulder away, Irene reacted sharply.

“No! What am I supposed to do without Daniel? I feel like I’m dying of pain!”

“The high priests worked hard for you. Isn’t the pain mostly gone by now?”

“You’re always like this. Even married to me, you take my sister’s side. My sister? Pitiable, sure. Even to other people she looks pitiful to death, so how pitiful must she look to you, the archangel?”

“Irene!”

Michael smoothed his creased brow with his fingers. He tried not to show he was offended, but there was no way not to tell he was angry.

Treating Eileen as a pitiable person and mocking him as an archangel were among the things Michael hated most. In a flash of temper, Irene crossed the line.

Irene flinched and glanced at Michael.

“No… you know the magic I used this time was too difficult. I scraped my mana down to the very bottom, so I’m already struggling, and the side effects are hitting harder than any other time…”

“That’s why the high priests of the temple dropped everything and all rushed over. For you alone.”

“But…”

“Your sister is about to give birth. Did you really have to summon Duke Lawrence? Just for today, you could have sent him to your sister.”

“…”

Michael struck the heart of the matter in a soft, measured voice. Irene hated how small she became whenever Michael did this.

That was why she needed Daniel all the more. Daniel’s devotion, accepting everything she did, always filled her completely.

Knock, knock, knock.

“What is it?”

“The duchess has sent a gift to Her Highness.”

“A gift?”

“It’s finally here.”

Before Michael could move, Irene took the gift first. Daniel frowned.

What gift could someone lost in the agony of labor have sent?

“Did you arrange this with Eileen beforehand?”

“No, well, not exactly… Hmm, Daniel, go now. My sister must be waiting.”

Daniel was curious about the gift, but Irene did not seem to plan on showing it. Clutching the gift Eileen sent to her chest, she burrowed into the blankets.

Michael shook his head and urged Daniel on.

“Go on. Don’t earn her resentment for nothing.”

“Yes. Then, excuse me.”

After leaving the palace, Daniel rode his horse like a madman.

An ominous foreboding stormed through his chest, and he whipped the reins harder. Without knowing why, his fear swelled larger and larger.

* * *

Though surrounded by three midwives and about twenty maids, Eileen felt lonely, like she was left alone in an empty room.

When was he ever with her? Since he learned she was ‘Eileen’, the distance between them never narrowed even slightly.

Even so, she was happy.

Because, whatever anyone said, she was his legal wife. Because as his only family, she could hear news of him first in an emergency. Because she could personally look after everything, the bed he slept in, the clothes he wore, the food he ate. Because, in any case, she could guard the home he returned to for rest.

Eileen slowly rubbed her hugely swollen belly with her hand.

Now it was time to pay the price for the past year.

“My lady, everything is ready.”

“Okay.”

With the midwives’ help, Eileen entered the birthing room prepared deepest within the bedchamber. Before the door closed, she searched out the few traces of Daniel and buried them firmly in her memory. It was bitter that her last memory of him was his back as he ran toward Irene, but she decided to be grateful that he came.

“Everyone, leave now.”

“Pardon? My lady, what do you mean?”

“The baby still needs a while, doesn’t it? I want to be alone. Just for a moment, okay?”

The midwives exchanged glances and reluctantly nodded. It was not as if she were sending them far. They only needed to wait in the next room a moment before coming back in.

“The contractions are twenty minutes apart now, so we will return in fifteen minutes.”

Just as the midwives were about to leave the room, Eileen spoke in a trembling voice.

“…Thank you for everything until now.”

“My lady, why say such a thing?”

Startled, the midwives showed their unease, but Eileen only smiled.

Once she was truly alone, a tear dropped from Eileen’s eye. It would be a lie to say no regret remained.

In the chaos where lies bred lies, she struggled to convey her sincerity. How foolish that was.

She never especially envied Irene, but being loved by Daniel she did envy. What was different?

Even among twins, they were especially alike, nearly impossible to tell apart.

“You came?”

The edge of the curtain in the corner swayed lightly.

Eileen greeted Sena, who appeared like the wind and bowed her head. That was the reason she sent out all the midwives and maids.

“When we were little, weren’t we close too? At least return my greeting.”

“…”

Irene’s shadow, who treated secrecy like life itself. And now a reaper comes to collect the price in Irene’s place.

Eileen looked at Sena with wistful eyes, then turned her head away.

“Begin.”

* * *

The closer he drew to home, the more unknown anxiety and impatience gnawed at Daniel bit by bit. When he finally arrived, he realized what it was that ate away at him all this time.

A thick shadow of death hung low. Wailing filled with the sorrow of sending off the dead.

He could not fail to know that something went terribly wrong. Daniel ran in, calling the name of the first person that came to mind.

“Eileen!”

With an ominous feeling, he bounded up the stairs and opened Eileen’s bedchamber, and the unpleasant stench of blood stabbed his nose.

“W-What happened here?”

“Sob, the bleeding would not stop, and in the end…”

So much blood, too much to believe it came from Eileen’s small body, formed a river.

Splash, splash.

The blood Eileen shed stuck thickly to the soles of his feet.

Was this room always so wide?

From the door to the bed where Eileen lay, it was far, so terribly far. When he finally reached her side, she lay with her pale face turned away from Daniel, her life force already spent.

On his oath, it was a face he was seeing for the first time.

Eileen always smiled when she looked at me… She smiled when it was hard, smiled when she was sad, smiled even when she was angry… Even when lonely, even in anguish, even in pain, she smiled…

Daniel’s trembling hand touched Eileen’s face.

Was she always this cold?

“…You can make this kind of expression too? Are you angry that I’m late? Is that it? Open your eyes, please…”

Her eyes, shut tight, seemingly refusing to ever look at him again, felt cruel. She looked so peaceful regardless of him that it felt like his heart was splitting apart.

Suddenly, the meanness of himself, who blamed only her, struck him hard in the solar plexus. Guilt rolled in like rough waves, and Daniel knelt before Eileen for the first time.

Even with his face so close that their foreheads touched, she showed hardly any reaction. With a trembling hand, he gently pushed up the corners of her mouth, hoping he might see that gentle smile again.

“Smile, okay? Please…”

She no longer smiled.