Seeing that expression, something boiled up in his chest again. He unconsciously clenched his teeth tightly.

Anger? Rage? Frustration? He didn’t know the identity of this red emotion himself.

So, Janet.

“Why on earth do you have these wounds?”

A low question. No answer returns.

So, Rihanel never saw what happened to Janet inside that storage shed.

The memory cut off in front of the storage shed door. Even though it was Janet’s memory, he couldn’t see her. As if being turned away, told not to enter, that he would not be allowed in, Rihanel couldn’t break through that door.

Since he couldn’t see Janet’s actions or expressions, he couldn’t know anything more. Based on the situation, he could only guess that the storage shed door had malfunctioned and closed, and this weakened woman had collapsed inside.

If the door closed, she should have called out to someone.

Why did she go into that storage shed when the perfectly fine orphanage building was available?

No, if she was this unwell from the beginning, she shouldn’t have come out with him this morning…

“…Damn it.”

Rihanel distorted his face and sprang up from his seat. He closed his eyes and took deep, trembling breaths to suppress his anger. He felt like screaming.

Despite being this angry, he couldn’t bring himself to blame Janet any further.

Because he knew.

At least today’s Janet Wilton shouldn’t be blamed.

What he thought was consideration, leaving her among people, had turned out to be like throwing her to a pack of hyenas.

In Rihanel’s opinion, the person who hated and despised Janet the most was himself. So he thought she would be more comfortable without him.

But was one person who hated her so much better than being in the midst of a pack of hyenas clinging to her sins? Was that why she had grabbed the hem of his clothes then?

He wanted to ask Janet.

When she woke up, he would have to talk to her properly. After treating her wounds, then after that.

Rihanel suppressed his emotions and picked up the bandages and scissors. He wrapped the bandage around Janet’s knee and cut the end with scissors to tie it.

The other leg too, both hands too. He was silently finishing this task and cutting the bandage on one hand with scissors when,

“…What are you doing?”

Rihanel looked up. The woman was looking at him with her golden eyes wide open. Seeing those eyes that had seemed like they would never open again now directed at him, he finally felt relieved.

But looking closely, Janet wasn’t looking at Rihanel. To be precise, her gaze was directed at the scissors in his hand.

He put down the now useless scissors on the bedside table and said,

“Ah, these are for your wounds…”

“Ah… yes, give them to me.”

Janet, with a hoarse voice, tried to get up from the bed. What are you asking for? Rihanel was surprised and made her lie down again.

“What are you doing?”

But Janet looked at Rihanel as if he was the strange one. With eyes that still lacked strength, but as always, firmly held her own thoughts.

When Rihanel looked at Janet seriously, her eyes soon moved past him to the bedside table.

“Shouldn’t I inflict wounds on myself?”

“What…?”

A stupid sound escaped him without his realizing it. Rihanel turned his body following Janet’s gaze.

The scissors placed on the bedside table. Janet was looking at them.

Only then did Rihanel understand the situation.

She thought he was going to demand that she injure herself with the scissors, that’s why she spoke like that.

“What…”

I want to tell you you’re talking nonsense. You think I would hold scissors to someone who’s collapsed and tell them to hurt themselves? Do I look like that much of garbage in your eyes?

He wanted to yell at her like that.

But he bit his lip and swallowed his words. His dry lips pressed together, turning red. His gaze, trembling so much it almost seemed to shake, looked downward.

The doctor said she collapsed due to mental pressure. He didn’t want to get angry at a woman who had just woken up.

“No. Let’s call it even with this.”

Rihanel tightened the loosened bandage on Janet’s hand and tied it in a knot. Janet looked at him curiously as he did this silently, then opened her mouth.

“Is the charity event over?”

“Yes. A long time ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I didn’t intend to leave the place forever. I just felt tired and wanted to rest, but I didn’t expect the door to close…”

“…Stop.”

He wanted to shut her mouth.

If I was going to hear such words there, you should have really left. You should have just returned to the capital since you didn’t want to be here anyway.

People, even family, thought you had returned.

And so did I.

I thought you had returned too.

“I know. It sounds like an excuse? I’m sorry.”

“That’s not it.”

I don’t know where to begin. Since he couldn’t reveal that he had glimpsed her memories, he couldn’t say anything more.

So Rihanel kept his gaze on Janet’s hand and asked,

“Did… nothing happen while I was at the orphanage building, and before you left that place?”

If you tell me what happened, then I could at least pretend to understand your actions.

I might even be able to get angry under the pretext that you sullied the name of the ducal house.

As if I had seen that scene with my own eyes, as if I had felt these cursed emotions after seeing it.

Rihanel kept his gaze down, waiting for Janet’s answer.

But.

“Nothing happened.”

At the resolute answer, Rihanel raised his head. Janet was looking straight at Rihanel without avoiding his gaze.

“Nothing at all?”

“Yes. Nothing that Rihanel would need to worry about.”

Rihanel was at a loss for words. At Janet’s response suggesting there truly was nothing worth telling him, he even doubted whether what he had just seen was really Janet’s memory.

Then, a more direct question.

Rihanel picked up Janet’s hand and asked,

“Why do you have these wounds?”

“I wonder. Perhaps I got scraped when I collapsed…”

Wonder? Janet spoke as if talking about someone else. It’s no different from what the doctor said earlier. Do you really not know? Or are you pretending?

“Janet…. So.”

Suppressing the red emotions rising again, Rihanel asked in the calmest voice possible,

“Why were you in that dirty storage shed?”

In his gaze, waves that seemed about to flood the land rippled. Warning, yet expectant.

Rihanel still harbored a thin hope that Janet would tell him the truth. But Janet just quietly looked into his eyes.

Again, those eyes. That upright and unpleasant gaze that seemed to rummage through his innermost feelings.

And then.

“Just because.”

“…Just because.”

“Yes.”

Indescribably complex emotions flashed across Rihanel’s gaze as he looked at Janet.

With a strand of disappointment and a strand of resignation draped over his slightly reddened eyes, he dropped his head and silently burst into a bitter laugh.

Ah, how deflating.

Yes, this woman doesn’t want to talk.

This woman, Janet Wilton, never tells Rihanel the truth.

When he was Nel, and now that he’s Rihanel.

“…Fine. Don’t tell me.”

A firmly closed door never opens. No matter how much he knocks, this woman won’t open the door.

He felt the urge to ruthlessly break down that door. So that this woman would have nowhere to hide her body. So that she would hide nothing, and transparently show both past and future.

“From now on, I’ll try not to make you worry…”

“I said, you don’t have to talk.”

A voice like scratching a low throat cut off Janet’s words.

Without even trying to understand how she was looking at him, Rihanel rose from his seat as if escaping.

If he heard any more of those wall-like answers, he felt like he might shake the shoulders of this woman who had just woken up and press her for answers.

“We’ll leave for the capital tomorrow.”

He closed the door with a bang and went outside without waiting for Janet’s response.

And in that place where Rihanel had left.

Janet stared blankly at the firmly closed door for a long time.

Looking at closed doors was something she had been accustomed to for five years. Yet, despite that, what kind of expectation was she holding while looking at that door?

Not understanding herself, Janet closed her eyes.

“Huu….”

Even taking a deep breath didn’t ease the tightness in her chest.

Rihanel’s voice asking if anything had happened was so gentle that she almost told him everything for a moment. She almost spilled everything like a child tattling to a parent.

But just before opening her mouth, she thought about why Rihanel had asked that question, and what answer he wanted to hear.

And the conclusion she reached was that she couldn’t say anything.

That soft-hearted man probably hadn’t wanted her to collapse in the storage shed. So he must have bandaged her out of unnecessary guilt.

But it was also Rihanel who had brought her to the site of Philodis.

Wouldn’t he have known what would happen when he left her among those people? Didn’t he want that too? Maybe he really wanted to see if such a scene would unfold?

For things unseen and uncertain, one always had to assume the worst scenario.

So she had no intention of telling Rihanel anything.

‘Yes. Because Rihanel doesn’t know anything.’

Rather than showing weakness to him. Rather than revealing that she was no longer the shining Janet Wilton, that she was broken.

It was better not to say anything at all.