Janet added as if making an excuse. Rihanel looked at the vast river stretching to the side and said,

“There’s no name. That lake, I mean.”

So even if he tried to recall it now, it would just be a fragment he wouldn’t know how to remember.

That lake was a place rarely visited by anyone other than Rihanel to begin with. Even if Rihanel forgot a place without even a name, nothing much would change.

But once again, Janet shook his resolve.

“Why don’t you give it a name? It was a lake you liked, after all.”

“……I suppose so.”

Rihanel smiled faintly.

The boat moved quietly along the slow current without rowing. The way it flowed in a predetermined direction regardless of their will somehow felt similar to their lives.

If they just let go and settled like this. Then where would they dock at the end?

He would despise this woman until the end, but if they had to live together for life… Should he let go a little, to make things less uncomfortable for each other?

Guilt covered the slight excitement again.

Sometimes, he wanted to cover everything up and pretend not to know.

Just as he had done today.

***

Rihanel had started his boat a little later than the others.

While waiting, a certain marquis approached him. It was about a newly discovered mine, and since he had been keeping an eye on it too, he started the conversation to check the information.

During that time, people boarded their boats and departed, but he didn’t feel any urgency.

His boat would depart soon anyway. What difference would a slightly delayed start make? Janet could surely wait that much.

However, when he arrived a little later, Janet was nowhere to be seen.

More than half the boats had already found their partners and departed. But no one boarded Rihanel’s boat. With a sudden sense of unease, Rihanel got off the boat and walked to the waiting area where the tables were gathered.

And there he encountered her.

The servant who had come to attend to Janet today.

“She, she boarded someone else’s boat!”

“What did you say?”

It felt like his blood ran cold. Boarding someone else’s boat? What nonsense… The face of a man that flashed in his mind made his mood even worse.

“Describe it.”

“Well, I saw from a distance… I think they were wearing sky-blue clothes……”

There seemed to be no point in asking further. Rihanel turned back and strode quickly to his boat.

Fortunately, the answer was easy to find.

Though not in a welcome way at all.

“Duke.”

Rihanel stopped rowing when he heard someone calling him from somewhere. Turning around, he saw a man beckoning to him from a distance.

It was Theo Randipel.

He seemed to be alone, without a partner.

No, he thought so at first but then spotted a woman lying down covered with a blanket. With that peculiar brown hair, there was no mistaking who it was.

Rihanel felt absolutely sick. It was as if someone had twisted his internal organs. He felt like vomiting everything out.

When Theo Randipel’s eyes met Rihanel’s, he immediately headed somewhere. Rihanel followed him, moving his boat.

They stopped at a secluded part of the riverbank.

Rihanel immediately went to Theo’s boat and picked up Janet. The deeply sleeping woman didn’t wake up despite his rough handling.

“Janet……”

“Janet?”

Theo stopped speaking. Noticing the sharp meaning in the questioning tone, he corrected himself.

“Lady Reynes seems to have been very tired. She fell asleep as soon as she boarded the boat.”

“Then you should have called me without departing.”

“That wasn’t possible. When we didn’t depart despite having a lady on board, other boats were glancing our way. The best option was to depart first to avoid attention and then wait for you.”

“So why did Janet get on your boat… Never mind.”

He didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t know what reason would come out. Hearing it would only make his already foul mood worse.

“I think she mistook the boats. Looking at it now, your clothes and mine are similar in color… That seems to be why. She probably saw only the clothes and boarded in her tired state.”

What kind of woman looks only at clothes to find her partner? And she fell asleep as soon as she boarded? Wondering if something was wrong like last time, Rihanel quickly checked Janet’s complexion.

“Her pulse, body temperature, and complexion are all normal. But whether from lack of sleep or perhaps having taken a sleeping pill, she’s unconscious. It’s best to let her sleep soundly without waking her. Ah, I have a medical license.”

Theo, who had been explaining smoothly, added this when he noticed Rihanel’s suspicious gaze.

A count’s son becoming a doctor too? It was clear he was quite a greedy fellow. Or perhaps he was immersed in some fantasy about wanting to enrich people’s lives with his own hands.

But regardless, it was fortunate to have someone who could diagnose Janet’s current condition.

“Fine.”

Rihanel immediately boarded his boat and carefully laid Janet down.

“Ah, she seems to have scratched the inside of her wrist a bit.”

At those words, Rihanel lifted Janet’s wrist. Being careful not to touch the inside, the outer part of the wrist…

In that moment, briefly, Rihanel glimpsed Janet’s memory. It was nothing special. Just a memory from her young days, very young days, of a girl learning how to kick a ball from a boy.

That brief memory.

“……Hmm.”

Rihanel hummed shortly and removed his hand. There was a scratch on the outer part of her wrist. And blood was faintly seeping through the already hardened wound.

“……That’s not the inside.”

“……! I apologize. I must have been mistaken.”

Rihanel picked up the blanket covering her and threw it back onto Theo’s boat. Janet curled up as if feeling cold.

Such a high-maintenance woman.

Rihanel took off his jacket and covered Janet with it. When he lightly pressed between her eyebrows with his thumb, her furrowed brow relaxed.

Rihanel rowed away without even looking back at Theo Randipel. He hated having Janet in his line of sight.

‘Was she very tired?’

She hadn’t seemed so. Did he fail to notice, or did this woman hide it well?

Or else.

Perhaps all those words about being tired, or seeing only the clothes, were all damned lies.

In truth, did she want to go boating with Theo Randipel? So with the convenient excuse of a mistake, she quickly boarded that boat…

No, that can’t be it.

Rihanel looked at Janet after setting down the oars. The woman sleeping with a peaceful face looked truly harmless, as if she knew nothing.

Deciding to postpone both speculations about her actions and the emotions that would follow, Rihanel silently waited for Janet to wake up.

***

“So, Sir Randipel… took another woman on board instead of Miss Becky, whom he was supposed to ride with?”

“Yeees, I couldn’t see her face properly because of the bonnet. But given the circumstances…”

The woman speaking lowered her voice and looked around. Then she continued in a whisper.

“I think it was the duchess of Reynes. That arsonist, Janet Wilton.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because the duke hurriedly chased after Sir Randipel’s boat.”

“My goodness… That woman, she really can’t break old habits.”

The two women burst into laughter. As their laughter subsided, one of them spoke in a still amused tone.

“Should we tell Marchioness Monder about this?”

They didn’t have the courage to spread this uncertain but interesting circumstance as a rumor themselves. But they were confident that Panianna, who clearly hated Janet, would satisfy their expectations.

Not knowing that Panianna was actually involved in this matter, they found the future developments merely interesting.

Their laughter grew more secretive.

***

“Did you tamper with the tea that the lady was supposed to drink yesterday?”

Beji was dumbfounded by the head maid Elma’s sudden question.

The morning after accompanying the duke and duchess on their boat ride. She had been unexpectedly summoned by the head maid.

She was already having a chaotic day because the duchess had fallen asleep and suddenly disappeared, and now what was this about changing tea?

“What do you mean by tampering with the tea…?”

“I mean, did you mix something else in it? Or replace it entirely?”

“No! I just brought what was prepared. The blend of lemon balm and mint.”

Beji waved her hands in denial. Elma sighed deeply and said,

“I heard that the lady suddenly collapsed yesterday. The master suspects she might have consumed a sleeping drug or hallucinogen.”

“What?”

Beji couldn’t understand what the head maid was saying.

Certainly, she too had found it strange when Janet suddenly became drowsy. But when told there was a precedent, she had simply thought the woman must be physically weak!

Beji hastily protested.

“No, no, when setting up the refreshments, I double-checked the tea leaves… There was definitely nothing strange!”

“Did you leave your post at any point afterward?”

“Yes, of course…”

She had. She had left her post.

When Panianna greeted Beji, she had briefly left her post at that time.

The head maid frowned, noticing that Beji had recalled a specific moment.

“So you did.”

“I, I just took my eyes off it for a moment.”

“Beji, even if you didn’t do anything harmful to the tea yourself, the fact that you didn’t know it happened while you were away is a problem in itself.”

Beji couldn’t argue with that. But she also felt wronged. She shook her head vigorously.