“What are you doing!”

People from neighboring cabins opened their doors and peered this way. Train attendants ran over trying to stop Rihanel, but he ignored them and continued throwing his body at the door.

Finally, when the door broke and he met eyes with Janet whose hair was grabbed by Tailey.

The thread of reason that Rihanel had been desperately holding snapped.

He immediately threw his body toward Tailey.

“Ugh!”

Tailey, who was grabbed by the collar and hit the wall by the window, let out a groan. When he squeezed his eyes shut and opened them, he met Rihanel’s fiercely glowing eyes.

Tailey felt an instinctive threat to his life.

“Ahhhhh!”

Tailey screamed frantically and raised the knife in his hand then stabbed down. Stab, when he pierced near Rihanel’s shoulder, he painfully furrowed his brows.

“Rihanel!”

Janet let out a shrill scream. When strength left Rihanel’s hands, Tailey pushed him away and escaped.

“What are you doing!”

Janet raised her voice with a face full of anger. How dare she show anger to her uncle without any courtesy — it was nothing short of insubordination. Surely that girl was also looking down on him.

“This is all because of you!”

Tailey who had lost focus in his eyes swung the knife. Janet’s arm was grazed by the knife.

“Ah……!”

Janet unconsciously furrowed her brows. Blood seeped through her clothing. But Tailey didn’t care and raised his hand holding the knife again.

“Ugh!”

The knife didn’t reach her. Because Rihanel tightly embraced Tailey and pulled him back.

Just then the train swayed. Thud, Rihanel’s back hit the window. Tailey dropped the knife in his hand. Janet lost her balance and sat down in place.

The train was passing over a high viaduct connecting valleys. The fierce wind of the gorge swept through the cabin.

“Let go of this! This……”

Tailey who was rolling his eyes like a madman trying to pick up the knife again saw something enter his vision.

A piece of paper blown up by the strong wind.

It was the agreement with Janet’s seal on it.

“Uh……”

Tailey made a deflated sound.

The paper that had been spinning quickly inside the cabin escaped out the window.

“No, no!”

Tailey roughly shook off Rihanel’s arms. It was strength he could never normally produce. He reached out his hand to catch the paper.

If only he had this, he could start over.

He could use that b*tch Janet Wilton as a stepping stone to make the name Tailey Wilton known to the world again.

Everyone would acknowledge his injustice, say they were sorry for misunderstanding, come looking to invest again……

His desperately outstretched hand reached the paper.

“I got it……!”

Just like that, Tailey’s body tumbled out of the train.

He fell down in an instant.

The train continued to run. Buried in the fierce wind, even his screams couldn’t be heard.

“Ah……”

Janet let out a small groan watching Tailey fall. Her heart beat rapidly. She couldn’t believe what had happened before her eyes.

However, what was more important now was Rihanel. She raised her body from her position.

“……Janet, are you okay?”

Rihanel leaning against the window asked Janet. Approaching him urgently, Janet got angry.

“Are you crazy? Did you decide to die?”

At those words, Rihanel chuckled while frowning.

“I didn’t come here wanting to hear that from you.”

He seemed to be enduring pain. Janet pulled Rihanel’s jacket aside with trembling hands. Fortunately, the shoulder wound wasn’t as deep as she thought.

“Thank goodness……”

Strength left her body that had been tense. Rihanel asked while pretending to have a relaxed expression.

“……Really, were you going to wait until I came?”

“Of course. I have things I want to say to you, Rihanel……”

“Don’t wait. Seriously. No matter how long you wait…… I won’t go. ……I won’t care either.”

Rihanel narrowed his brows in pain. The shoulder wound seemed to hurt a lot.

Even so, did he have to throw such words of rejection right now? Janet felt disappointed and anxious.

“Do you want to say such things now?”

“……Yes.”

“First, after treating your shoulder, let’s talk again……”

Suddenly, Janet looked down with an eerie feeling.

Drip, drip. Red blood was falling and pooling on the floor.

“……”

Janet blankly followed the blood with her gaze.

The place where red blood was flowing was around his stomach area. Rihanel’s white shirt hidden by his jacket was completely stained red.

“No way……”

That can’t be. Janet slowly shook her head.

Glass that had sharply protruded from the window frame was penetrating through Rihanel’s body.

Rihanel breathed roughly. Even so, he raised the corners of his mouth as if trying to reassure Janet.

“Don’t make that expression. I’m…… fine.”

“Wh-why is this…… why……”

Janet’s voice trembled. Her hand hovered around Rihanel’s stomach without being able to touch it.

Then she hurriedly took out a handkerchief from her pocket. It was the handkerchief with red flower vines embroidered that she had made for him.

While avoiding the glass from being deeply embedded, Janet stopped the bleeding from the wound. Her hands were shaking so she couldn’t tell if she was doing it properly.

Meanwhile, Rihanel asked nonchalantly. Though seeing him forcefully squeeze out words with difficulty, he wasn’t nonchalant at all.

“Janet…… that handkerchief, ha…… just, can’t you give it to me?”

“Don’t, don’t talk.”

“Still…… hm?”

“It was originally yours! I made it to give to you.”

That’s not what’s important right now. She could make a hundred more of such handkerchiefs. What was so special about it, Rihanel smiled brightly.

“Really? ……That’s nice.”

“What’s so……!”

The moment she was about to retort, great dizziness covered Janet.

Swoosh, Rihanel’s eyes closed.

“Rihanel……?”

He didn’t answer Janet’s faint call.

His body went limp.

“Nel…… Rihanel.”

There was no movement even at her voice calling him.

“Is there a doctor!”

“Please help here!”

The attendants and people who couldn’t enter due to Tailey’s knife rampage but had been watching the situation shouted. In the center of that, Janet blinked blankly.

Don’t wait……

If he really wanted that, he shouldn’t have boarded this train. He should have ignored whether she collapsed from exhaustion waiting or not.

After boarding the train like this. After acting like his own life didn’t matter. After smiling so brightly when she said the handkerchief was his……

Was he now trying to run far away to a place she couldn’t reach?

She who had turned pale sat fixed in place looking at Rihanel’s closed eyes.

It felt like her entire heart had been torn out.

***

The train stopped urgently on tracks near a hospital. With the large glass still embedded in his stomach, Rihanel was moved to the hospital.

In the carriage heading to the hospital, Janet repeatedly checked whether Rihanel was breathing.

Breathing that seemed about to break continued faintly. It was like a small candle placed before a stormy sea.

As if that flame would go out if she moved, she looked at Rihanel while tightly biting her lips.

Rihanel’s face had no color. It was natural since blood was still not stopping and had soaked several towels.

“It’s okay, it’s okay……”

Muttering words she didn’t know whether she was saying to Rihanel or herself, Janet continued to stop the bleeding from Rihanel’s wound.

Fortunately, the carriage quickly arrived at the hospital. Several doctors surrounded the quite large wound to examine Rihanel’s condition. Preparations for major surgery were completed in the operating room.

Janet watched that scene anxiously. She felt like she should do something, but she felt like going crazy because there was nothing she could do.

Janet took out a small thread ring like it was a talisman, gripped it tightly in her hand, and prayed.

Surely he would be fine. When the surgery ended, Rihanel would get up with a relaxed smile as if asking when that happened. He had to.

However, the doctor who would be in charge of his surgery didn’t have a good expression.

“It’s miraculous that he’s alive right now. We’ll do our best with the surgery, but…… it seems already too late. He’s lost too much blood.”

“No. If blood…… if blood is needed, please use my blood. That would work, right?”

“It’s not that amount. You could go into shock too, madam. Besides, blood transfusion is still a method whose safety hasn’t been verified.”

In Bendar, blood transfusion wasn’t a recommended method. Not only was connecting arteries and veins extremely difficult, but fatal side effects of unknown cause occurred with high frequency.

“There are countless cases of people who received blood dying. What would you do if that happened because of your blood?”

“Then what if we leave him like this?”

“……”

The doctor avoided Janet’s eyes with an uncomfortable face. Of course, even if left like this, the duke would die just the same. But……

“If he passes away like this, you would have watched a tragic death, but if he passes away after receiving blood, you would have contributed to it. How would you handle that guilt?”

“I’ve lived every day in guilt anyway. I’m not afraid of that.”

Not believing in thread-like hope and giving up. Being unable to do anything out of fear and regretting that time only later.

Those things are what I’m afraid of.