Clodine wiped away the rest of her tears with her sleeve.

Until then, she had been leaning against Ahazan’s chest, half lying in his arms but now she straightened herself and sat upright.

“When I think about you getting hurt… or dying… I feel like I can’t breathe.”

Unlike Ahazan, who had stared straight into her eyes while speaking, Clodine didn’t even look at his face.

More precisely, she didn’t seem to have the luxury to.

She hurriedly gathered up her torn and dirtied outer skirt, then grabbed hold of the relatively clean hem of her underdress with both her hands and her teethand tore it apart with all her strength.

Tending to Ahazan’s wounds and confessing her heart to him, she couldn’t bring herself to decide which mattered more.

Not now.

When the underdress had been reduced to large, shapeless strips of cloth, she looked over Ahazan’s armor, searching and continued speaking.

“If you don’t look at me… then no matter what kind of person I become… it won’t mean anything.”

First, she helped him sit up, leaning his upper body carefully against a large rock beside them.

Ahazan moved as she guided him, distracted, his stiff expression fixed entirely on her face.

Clodine, unconcerned with his reaction, gave a small nod, as if she had finally figured out what to do and began dismantling his armor piece by piece, starting from the shoulder guard.

“If you don’t call my name… then I don’t even want to be ‘Clodine’ anymore.”

Clodine had always cherished her name, the one her late mother had given her.

Her full name was Renia Clodine Ramier.

But instead of using Renia, the honorable name inherited from her grandmother, she had always chosen Clodine, the name her mother had given her, as her true name.

Ahazan didn’t dare interrupt.

He didn’t even breathe too loudly, afraid that a single word might make her stop.

As he listened, everything felt unreal.

For a fleeting moment, he even wondered,if they had both died, and were now in heaven together.

Even the relentless pain in his arm, the one clinging to him like a curse, felt welcome,

if only it meant that this moment, her confession, was real.

“And if you don’t touch me…”

Only after removing his armor

did Clodine finally see his wound.

A jagged shard had pierced deep into his left shoulder, a cruel injury that had drawn so much blood.

The wound was worse than she had imagined.

Her hands trembled and the rest of her words caught in her throat.

Before she could continue, Ahazan’s right hand shot out, grabbing hers.

He forced her gaze to meet his, relentlessly, as if dragging her back from that wound.

“If you don’t touch me?”

As if nothing else mattered, not even the loss of an arm, Ahazan urged her on with desperate intensity.

He was still bleeding, yet his entire focus was on her.

Only her.

Clodine glanced once more at his wound, then, hurriedly spoke the words he wanted.

The words she herself had longed to say.

“Then even if I’m alive… it would be no different from being a ghost.”

After hearing that, Ahazan looked at her in silence.

His expression was strange.

He wasn’t smiling, yet he looked happier than when he smiled.

He wasn’t crying, yet he looked as though he might break into tears.

It was an expression beyond definition.

“Ahazan, we need to stop the bleeding first, so let go of my hand—”

As Clodine tried to pull her hand free, frustrated by the blood that wouldn’t stop flowing, he only tightened his grip.

Then, with sudden force, he pulled her toward him.

Losing her balance, she fell straight into his arms.

His blood-soaked arm wrapped tightly around her waist, binding her to him, as he spoke.

“That means… you love me too.”

His voice carried too many emotions, too overwhelming to stop.

Clodine couldn’t bring herself to silence him.

She knew, better than anyone, that feelings like these had to be let out.

His arms tightened around her even more.

“You’re saying… you love me again.”

As if he couldn’t believe it, as if he needed to convince himself, Ahazan repeated it.

The words ‘again… me’, struck her strangely.

A little painful.

A little unsettling.

But she didn’t have time to dwell on it.

“No one else… but me. You love me like before… don’t you, Clodine?”

Faced with such a direct question, Clodine felt her face burn.

Her hands curled tightly in front of her chest.

‘I love you, Ahazan.’

The only time she had ever said those words aloud was on the day of his coronation.

Of course, she had confessed her feelings many times before but she had always spoken like a noble.

Indirectly.

Carefully.

‘But if he asks me like this…’

‘Still… today, I promised I’d be honest.’

Those two thoughts clashed inside her mind, fiercely.

And then.

A voice, unbearably sweet, one she wished she could hear every day, fell softly above her.

“I love you.”

And the moment she lifted her head, meeting his eyes, the next words came to her, as if they had been waiting all along.

“I… love you, Clodine.”

With lips as soft as his words, Ahazan pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“I really love you… so much.”

Then his lips moved to hers.

He wanted to be gentle but the longing was far too overwhelming.

And so the kiss deepened, growing rich and intense despite himself.

Within that kiss, there was no longer even the slightest room for doubt.

His feelings, had grown too large to deny.

Clodine felt it completely, through his gaze, his words, his touch, his very skin.

And as if answering him, she wrapped her arms around his neck.

The moment she realized that what she had thought was a fall into despair had instead brought them here, crashing together, into something that could only be called heaven.

***

Among the rocky terrain, scattered with large boulders, there were narrow gaps just enough for two people to hide.

After hastily stopping the bleeding with strips of her torn underdress, Ahazan immediately led her away, searching for a place to take shelter.

“If the knights don’t find us before sunset, we’ll have to spend the night here.”

The horse had run wildly, twice as fast as usual, through uncharted paths, until they arrived here.

Only now did she learn, that even the horse they had chased down together had been a prized steed from Perseion.

According to Ahazan, the moment Clodine had said she wanted to learn how to ride,

he had immediately sent someone to Perseion to find her a horse as a gift.

Horses from Perseion were unlike any other, far more intelligent, far swifter, and incredibly rare.

And yet, even after giving her such a gift, Ahazan had never once mentioned it.

“That explains how you managed to keep up with me.”

“And it also means… the knights won’t find us easily.”

Ahazan laid down large, clean leaves he had gathered outside, layering them carefully across the rocky ground.

Even though his injured arm clearly hindered him, he continued working, as if it didn’t matter.

Fresh blood began to seep from his shoulder again.

“Ahazan…! It’s bleeding again! You’re injured—how can you keep moving like that…!”

He glanced at the blood-soaked cloth of her torn underdress, now even redder than before and let out a small laugh.

“What, and leave you sitting on bare stone?”

Clodine stared at him, as if she truly didn’t understand why that mattered.

He smiled more brightly, teasing her.

“Someone who loves me, no less.”

Seeing him joke like that, she felt relieved he seemed in less pain.

And yet, her face flushed bright red.

“I-it’s fine… just sit down already.”

How could he say things like that so easily and yet she was the one flustered by something so small?

Ahazan chuckled quietly, looking down at her as she hurriedly sat on the makeshift cushion of leaves, as if he found her unbearably adorable.

Though the sun still shone brightly, the air had grown noticeably cooler.

The slanting light of the sun, would soon dip below the horizon.

They didn’t know how long they’d be stuck here.

Once night fell, finding food would become difficult.

And though he had been ignoring it, the pain in his shoulder was only getting worse.

If they were going to do anything, it had to be now.

Ahazan sat beside her in the cold, damp crevice, then folded a red cloth thickly and draped it over her shoulders.

It was the cloth that had bound them together when they fell from the horse earlier.

Now that his armor was gone, only thin clothing remained.

He had been wearing it himself but now gave it to her instead.

Realizing he had noticed her trembling from the cold, Clodine immediately refused.

“No. You’ve lost too much blood—you need to stay warm, Ahazan.”

“That’s not it. I’m going to step out for a bit. It’ll just get in your way, so you keep it.”

He offered the excuse lightly just so she wouldn’t feel guilty.

Before she could even respond,

he moved to leave the rocky shelter.

“In that condition, where do you think you’re going? If we need something, I’ll go get it.”

Clodine rushed after him, grabbing his arm.

Ahazan answered casually.

“Then could you catch us a rabbit for dinner?”

“…A—a rabbit?!”

Clodine blinked in shock, almost hiccuping at the unexpected request.

She was someone who couldn’t even bring herself to kill a small insect.

Ahazan laughed softly, as if he had expected that reaction.

“If you can’t, then stay here and wait quietly.”

He glanced up at the sky, measuring the sun’s position, then gently cupped her cheek.

“I’ll be back.”

Watching his broad, steadfast figure walk away, Clodine clenched her hands. She couldn’t just sit still. Not this time. For him, she had to do something.