‘When I longed for you so desperately, you never once appeared. Why now? Do you know what it took for me to fold away all those feelings?’

Estelle was in turmoil.

What had changed him? Could she truly believe this new version of Kaian? Or was he merely pretending to be gentle, harboring some hidden scheme of his own?

No matter how much she thought about it, she could find no answer.

Chirp!

A clear, crystalline birdsong rang beside her ear.

Following the sound, she turned her head—and there it was. A bird with impossibly clean pink feathers hovered in the air.

“I followed it because it was pretty. It had a color you like, Mommy.”

“You know the pink jewel you always treasure? The bird’s feathers were exactly that color—”

It was the very same bird Aeir had described the day he lost his way alone in the forest.

Looking closer, not only its feathers but even its tiny eyes were translucent pink.

‘Her Late Highness the Imperial Consort.’

It was an absurd thought—yet at the sight of the bird, Serena’s face rose unbidden in Estelle’s mind.

The bird that had been circling Estelle suddenly changed direction and flew toward the forest of Aren.

Ordinarily, she would not have spared even a glance at the surrounding scenery, heading straight for the trading company instead.

But today was different.

For some reason, she felt as though she absolutely had to follow that bird.

***

Before she could think any deeper, Estelle’s feet were already carrying her into the forest’s edge.

The bird fluttered slowly at her eye level—yet it flew at a pace she could keep up with.

Flit.

A branch brushed by the bird’s wings trembled, and a few leaves that hadn’t managed to fall last winter finally let go and drifted down. Startled, butterflies lost their bearings, wandering in helpless circles before settling again atop wildflowers.

The forest, steeped in early spring sunlight, bloomed with beauty in every corner—

but Estelle’s gaze followed only the pink bird.

How long had she been running through the woods, wrapped in that sweet spring scent?

‘Was there a place like this here?’

Estelle came to a stop in front of a neat little cabin beside a small pond.

An unfamiliar curiosity stirred within her. She reached toward the door—

and then—

“Why are you here.”

A familiar voice halted her in place.

“And how did you even find this place.”

The owner of that heated voice was Kaian.

He seized Estelle’s wrist and yanked her closer with a rough hand. The force was so sudden that she couldn’t even think to resist before she was trapped in his grasp.

In the blink of an eye, they were close enough that their lashes trembled, stirred by each other’s breath.

Chiiirp!

The cry of the bird that had led Estelle here faded into the distance.

But she had no room to care.

All her senses were already ensnared by Kaian.

His gaze burned like a raging flame, as though he might devour her at any moment. That face—demanding answers, brimming with fury—was one she had faced countless times before leaving the capital.

“I wondered why there was nothing left. So this is how you’ve been siphoning things away, little by little?”

“What are you—”

“So you came to Aren for this from the very beginning.”

What had angered him to this extent?

Estelle had no idea.

His sudden appearance in this forest was startling enough—but this situation, in which he accused her as though she had stolen something significant, made even less sense.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. If you’re going to accuse me, at least explain what it is you think I’ve done!”

“Ha. You’re as detestable as ever. You must have found it amusing—watching me nearly fall for your act of lost memories, unaware that you were still desecrating my mother!”

She had thought she had grown used to bearing his hatred.

Yet faced with that vivid hostility, Estelle found herself speechless. A fresh wave of injustice surged up in an instant, gripping her throat so tightly she could barely breathe.

“If your son managed to find this place alone last time, I can only imagine how often you’ve come and gone here—with him in tow.”

At Kaian’s furious words, Aeir was dragged into it.

The restraint that had held Estelle’s emotions in check shattered completely.

“What wrong has the child committed?”

He should never have brought the child into this.

How desperately had she struggled alone to protect Aeir—who had withered under Kaian’s indifference and contempt in their previous life?

Back then, he had loathed even sharing the same Imperial Palace as the boy.

So this time, she had simply raised the child quietly, far away from him.

“You speak as though you know everything. Are you not ashamed?”

Estelle’s voice fell low and cold.

That frigid, noble tone carried such chill it seemed frost might bloom across the forest at any moment.

“You appeared out of nowhere in a village that had been living peacefully, carelessly stirred up a child’s heart—and now you accuse me of theft I never committed.”

Since the incident at Lake Shavennen, not a single day had passed in which she was free from guilt toward Serena.

No matter how violently Kaian’s anger—born of misunderstanding—surged, she had accepted it. Because of the curse of silence, she could not even defend herself.

Serena had fallen into the Duke of Astria’s scheme—and Estelle bore responsibility for that as well.

But she could no longer stand by while that tide of fury swept over innocent Aeir.

“You may not care to know, but this is my first time here today. I didn’t even know there was a cabin in this forest—let alone what was inside it.”

Once her emotions broke free, they poured out in a fierce torrent, impossible to restrain.

Perhaps because four years had passed since she had last been forcibly injected with emotion-suppressing drugs by the Duke, there was nothing left to dam them.

“It seems you have a habit of deciding on an answer before even looking at the full picture. Have you ever once tried to see things from another perspective?”

Estelle wrenched her wrist free from Kaian’s grip.

“What you know—what you think—may not be the whole truth!”

All the sorrow of those days welled up within her—those desperate moments spent wishing that somewhere beyond the shadows he could not see, he would cast aside his misunderstandings and discover the truth.

Was that why?

Her vision blurred, and she felt hot tears gathering in her eyes.

Clenching back the grief that threatened to spill from the corners of her lashes, Estelle turned away.

No matter what happened, she refused to crumble in front of him.

“Don’t come any closer!”

“Wait—”

“If you’ve already decided to despise me no matter what, then stop tearing into me and Aeir whenever it suits you.”

“……”

“No—just don’t come looking for us at all. Then I won’t ever have to appear before you first.”

Even as she spoke them, those long-buried emotions clawed at her heart.

Plop.
Drip, drip.

As though the sky understood her turmoil, dark clouds gathered without warning, and heavy raindrops began to fall.

The early spring rain was cold enough to steal away lingering warmth.

The downpour strengthened, soaking her through.

In a way, it was fortunate.

It hid the endless tears streaming down her face.

Desperate to escape Kaian’s sight as quickly as possible, Estelle hurried away without hesitation, rain or no rain.

***

No matter how cold the rain was as it struck his skin, Kaian had no room to notice it either.

When he had seen Estelle about to step into the cabin, he had been overtaken by betrayal and fury.

Because he had believed she had known of this place first—
and erased the traces of his mother.

If that were true, then even her pretense of lost memories had been a lie meant to deceive him.

The thought that he had nearly fallen for her cunning tricks again—
that he had even worried for her, if only for a moment—made him despise himself.

And yet—

In Estelle’s eyes, as she insisted upon her innocence, there burned a desperate resentment.

It was the first time.

Since the incident at Lake Shavennen, her gaze had always been hollow, as though she were incapable of feeling.

When he had demanded she speak about what happened—when he had pressed her in anger, or even softened, coaxing and pleading—she had done nothing but remain silent, pretending ignorance.

That indifference had only fueled his rage.

But now—

There was an entirely different heat in her.

“What you know—what you think—may not be the whole truth!”

Moreover, at the very moment Estelle turned away from him in fury, something glinted at the corner of her eye and fell.

It couldn’t be.

But what if that unknown shimmer had been a tear?

Seized by the unfamiliar doubt, he took a step toward her—

but only that far.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Her resolute refusal rooted him in place, and in that instant, a violent downpour began to fall.

Of course.

The Estelle he knew would never shed tears over such accusations.

That was how it had always been.

And yet, even after she had left first, Kaian found himself unable to move.

Even if the tears had been nothing more than a trick of the rain, the way her eyes had seemed to spill over with grievance—her voice trembling as though releasing long-suppressed sorrow—lingered stubbornly in his mind.

He had never seen her like that before.

That emotional, unguarded version of her felt utterly foreign.

Perhaps—

as she had said—

he might have overlooked something.

Foolishly.

As though bewitched.

After standing there for a long while, Kaian found himself chasing after Estelle without even realizing it.