‘Ah, I see.’

His brief confusion gave way to immediate understanding.

Lysiana had lost her memories. Perhaps even the memory of having disliked her husband.

With nothing to remember, she would need something to lean on.

Even if that something was a husband she had once disliked.

‘She’s anxious about where things stand between us.’

“If that’s the case, then I’ll apologize.”

Lysiana spoke in a scattered rush.

“I know it won’t mean much without the memories to back it up, but….”

“You don’t need to apologize.”

“When my memories come back, I’ll apologize properly then. So….”

“Stop crying. I have no intention of divorcing you.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Really, truly?”

“Yes. Truly.”

Thear echoed her words back like a parrot and moved closer to her.

He turned his weeping wife to face him and knelt on one knee before her, and she quietly met his eyes.

“What made you think that?”

“Because there’s no reason to be staying here when there’s a grand main estate in the capital. No matter who I asked, no one gave me a proper explanation for why I was here.”

That was only natural.

Thear was not the kind of fool who went around sharing important family matters with mere servants, so they wouldn’t have known the exact reason either.

And the reason he had sent Lysiana here was solely for her safety.

‘What did they say, and how did she twist it?’

It seemed he would need to question the servants again.

“I don’t know what you heard or from whom, but whatever it was, it was all nonsense.”

Sniff. Lysiana gave a small nod and sniffled.

The sight of her, helpless as a small child, stirred a fierce protective instinct in Thear. His wife, small and delicate, and now ill on top of it all.

“But….”

Lysiana started to say something and stopped again.

“If something is weighing on you, let it out now. And stop crying.”

Thear hesitated, then reached a hand toward her face.

He gently wiped her wet cheek, and Lysiana blinked slowly.

His wife did not pull away from his touch. She accepted his hand quietly, the way a puppy leans into a gentle hand.

This fact nudged at something deep inside Thear.

Probably the thing called ‘conscience.’

“You won’t get annoyed no matter what I ask?”

“Of course not.”

“…And no divorce.”

“Stop bringing up that word. I will never have cause to put it in my mouth for as long as I live.”

Thear said it firmly. Whether his answer put her at ease or not, Lysiana’s tears stopped.

In their place, she pushed out her lips in a pout.

“Then what do you think of me?”

“Pardon?”

Thear asked back, dumbly. What did he think of her?

‘Naturally….’

“Answer me. You said I could ask anything.”

“…I think of you as my wife.”

Thear hesitated, then answered reluctantly.

“My family. Someone I am responsible for and must provide for.”

At his answer, Lysiana’s expression grew even more sulky.

‘Now what kind of expression is that?’

She looked dissatisfied about something.

Thear, discovering for the first time that Lysiana’s face could show such a range of emotions, felt thoroughly thrown off.

“You’re lying.”

“Pardon?”

“You feel sorry for me because I’ve lost my memory, so you’re just saying what sounds right.”

“…”

Thear found himself unable to produce a proper response.

His brows, twisted in bewilderment, sat at uneven heights, and his mouth hung half open and refused to close.

‘Where is this absurd logic coming from?’

He opened and closed his mouth like a fish searching for food, and finally managed to squeeze out his voice.

“How did you arrive at that conclusion?”

“Because if you had truly treated me as a wife and respected me, the servants would have been more deferential toward me.”

What was she talking about now?

He couldn’t get a read on Lysiana’s thinking at all.

Thear’s brow furrowed slightly with mild frustration.

“Explain it so I can understand.”

“The maids weren’t kind to me.”

Lysiana began to cry again. With the raw, heaving grief of someone finally letting out every sorrow they had held in.

“The entire time I was here, not once did anyone ask me whether I preferred clear soup or thick soup.”

“Soup?”

“And the stew was always lukewarm, and the bread was slightly stale.”

Thear stared blankly at her small, chattering lips.

‘Had this woman ever talked this much before?’

No. Had she ever been this talkative to begin with?

How had she held all of this in until now?

……Such were the stray thoughts drifting through his mind.

“I wanted beef cooked with almost no pink left, but the cook never once prepared it that way. Even after I sent word through the maid several times!”

But he did not let a single word she said pass by carelessly.

“Is that so?”

“And then the moment you arrived, they flipped like a coin and changed their whole attitude…. If I had truly been a respected mistress of the house, none of this would have happened.”

Instead, he was taking in each of her complaints one by one, turning them over carefully, the way one records entries in a ledger.

“Was there anything else?”

“The morning wash water was too cold, or the bath water was too hot. When I mentioned it, they said that was how I had always liked it. I don’t like it that way at all.”

“And, more?”

“The medicine was so bitter, and I asked them to bring something to cleanse my palate along with it, but they kept saying they forgot, every single day….”

“Yes. And?”

Without realizing it, Thear had begun to run his fingers through Lysiana’s hair.

He brushed aside the few strands scattered across her flushed, round forehead as she poured out her grievances, tucking them behind her ear, and let his fingertips graze the curve of her ear.

Lysiana showed no discomfort at his touch.

She simply went on listing her complaints, one after another. Occasionally sniffling like a child.

“I wanted to go for a walk, but they said there was no coat here for me. So I couldn’t go out for a proper walk at all.”

“I told them it gets cold here and to make sure to pack enough coats.”

At last, Lysiana’s stream of complaints came to an end.

Thear had to work to hold back the anger rising from somewhere deep inside him.

Because if Lysiana saw his furious expression right now, she might start crying again.

“I will make sure this is dealt with.”

“…You promise?”

“Of course. And as for the walk….”

Thear had been about to say he would take her out right then and there, but stopped himself. The image of Lysiana swaying unsteadily came back to him.

“I’ve been cooped up in this room and I’m going stir-crazy.”

Lysiana nudged him timidly. In the end, Thear had no choice but to nod.

“Let’s see what the weather is like tomorrow and go out together. I’ll escort you.”

“…”

Thear answered, but Lysiana’s expression remained troubled.

“Is something else on your mind?”

“I feel anxious because I don’t know what kind of relationship we had.”

Lysiana confessed with a downcast look.

“I don’t know anything about how you treated me, or how I treated you.”

“…”

“I have no choice but to depend on you, and I’m afraid you might not like me….”

That was why she had been anxious all this time, she said.

Not knowing what she would do if she were abandoned without her memories, she had been frightened, she said.

Lysiana confessed her honest feelings.

Thear had been quietly watching her lashes, damp with tears, and asked in return.

“What can I do to make you feel less anxious?”

“Please spend as much time with me as you can.”

“I will.”

There was nothing in particular to do during their stay at the villa anyway. At most, he would wait for news from Bennet and take the opportunity to look over the estate here for the first time in a while.

Even if he had been busy, setting aside part of his day for an ailing wife was not such a difficult thing.

In fact, it was what Thear wanted.

“From now on, if there is anything you want to know, ask me. Don’t listen to what anyone else says. Understood?”

Thear carefully rubbed her tear-soaked lashes with the tip of his thumb and soothed her quietly.

“Stop crying now.”

He made every effort to keep his voice as gentle as possible.

He also, reluctantly, let go of the hand he had been holding without realizing it, the hand he had likely not released since the moment she confessed her anxiety.

In its place, he moved on impulse and pressed a brief kiss to Lysiana’s forehead.

It was so light it barely made contact. In truth, his lips may not have touched her at all.

And yet Lysiana wore the flushed expression of someone who had just received a deep kiss.

‘Ah.’

He was done for.

Thear understood.

His wife, stripped of her memories, was in a dangerously vulnerable state.

The sensation of her slender fingertips fidgeting, reluctant to let go of his hand as it pulled away.

The warmth that flared across her forehead the moment his lips drew near.

His own reflection caught in her clear, tear-wet eyes as they blinked up at him.

Every single one of those things was unbearably endearing.

Lysiana, right now, was acting like a woman falling in love with him.

Exactly as though she believed they were a couple who had always exchanged deep affection.

Exactly the way Thear had always longed for her to be.