The small room with just a bed and wardrobe was a place Ines knew well.

It was her mother Llewellyn’s room, where she always went on days when she was punished by her father.

“Father is so scary…”

Ines whimpered, sniffling as her back, which had been struck with a whip, hurt terribly. On days like this when she felt wronged, she would always go find Llewellyn in the annex and seek comfort in her embrace.

At such times, Llewellyn would apply medicine to the wounds on her young daughter’s back while offering words of comfort.

“Now that mama has put medicine on it, you’ll be alright.”

Hearing Llewellyn’s comforting voice seemed to calm her heart a bit, and Ines wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

“I don’t want to live here. Can’t we just leave and live somewhere else? I don’t need to be a duke’s daughter. I’ll be happy living anywhere as long as I have mama.”

This was something Ines would say to Llewellyn until she was blue in the face. Ines felt suffocated in the duke’s mansion. She hated her disapproving father, her brother who always bullied her, and the cold duchess who was distant towards her.

Whenever Ines suggested they run away together, Llewellyn would comfort her.

“We can’t do that, Ines. Even if I can’t, you need to live here.”

“I don’t want to… I just want to leave and live with mama. I hate it here where I can’t even spend time with mama and keep getting scolded by father…”

Llewellyn held the sniffling little girl tightly. Ines’s whimpering subsided as she breathed in the warm, comforting scent.

“Still, you need to stay here, Ines. Mama wants you to live happily here.”

Ines, who had been nuzzling her face against Llewellyn’s embrace, looked up. The gentle smile directed at her was the face of her mother that she knew. But…

“But mama.”

Ines, who had finally noticed something strange, asked.

“Why aren’t you stuttering today?”

“Because this is a dream.”

“A dream?”

At Ines’s question, Llewellyn smiled broadly and gently stroked her cheek.

“Mama is fine, so take your time coming to find me. I want you to be happy there.”

“Mama…?”

“Goodbye, my beloved daughter.”

With those final words, Llewellyn kissed her cheek.

At that moment, Ines’s eyes slowly opened. It was a different space from what she had just seen. It was also a familiar space that she knew well.

‘It was… a dream.’

With this brief realization, a tear that had been gathering at her eye rolled down.

Where she was now wasn’t the annex where she had spent time with Llewellyn in her childhood. She slowly closed her eyes as if assessing the situation.

Several minutes passed before she could accept that what she had just seen was a dream and not reality.

‘Llewellyn is… gone now.’

Llewellyn was no longer alive in this world. A few more tears welled up at the feeling that she had said the farewell in her dream that she hadn’t been able to say in reality.

Suddenly remembering something, Ines placed her hand on her belly. Her stomach, which should have been swollen, was flat.

“The baby…”

The baby was gone. When had she given birth? Had she heard the baby’s cry? Strangely, she couldn’t remember anything. Just then, as Ines was looking around for the baby.

“Ines.”

Her eyes met with Carlos, who was sitting at the head of the bed.

“Carlos, the child…”

Her dry voice cracked. Watching Ines search for the baby, Carlos first redirected the conversation.

“…Ines. Lie down and rest more for now. You need more rest.”

“Where is the child?”

But Ines kept repeating like a parrot, asking where the child was. At this, Carlos’s expression darkened momentarily. His eyes sank as he lowered his gaze.

“The child…”

He spoke softly, barely parting his lips.

“The child is dead.”

“…”

“Because it was born earlier than expected… So…”

Carlos clenched his fist. In the end, the child had breathed its last. It happened less than a day after he had begged the doctor to save it. In the end, Ines never got to hold her living child even once.

Weighed down by heavy guilt, he couldn’t meet Ines’s eyes until the end. Because it felt like it was all his fault. She would surely despair at hearing the child was dead. Would she wail and blame him like when Llewellyn died? If she collapsed again this time…

Just as Carlos was squeezing his eyes shut, waiting for Ines’s next words.

“…I see.”

Ines’s reaction was quite different from what he had expected. Unlike his expectation that she would curse him with resentful words and wail, Ines was surprisingly calm.

“The child is dead…”

It wasn’t the appearance of a mother who had learned of her child’s death. She was too indifferent, as if hearing about something that had happened to someone else.

Finding this behavior of Ines unfamiliar, Carlos carefully called her name.

“Ines…?”

He was somehow afraid. He couldn’t tell whether he should consider this situation fortunate or be worried.

What words should he say? While Carlos was staring at Ines with confused eyes, she spoke.

“I want to see the child one last time.”

“…Yes, of course.”

At Ines’s request to see the baby, Carlos quickly got up from his seat and called for someone. Soon after, Carlos, holding the baby wrapped in white swaddling, carefully handed it to Ines.

Receiving the baby, Ines looked at its face for a long while. Then, stroking the baby’s face with her finger, she murmured.

“…It looks like you.”

“Yes…”

As she said, the child resembled Carlos. Anyone who saw it would say the same. Carlos, who had been moving his lips silently at her words, spoke up.

“…I’m sorry, Ines.”

“…”

“I’m sorry… that I couldn’t protect them.”

He apologized for not being able to protect Llewellyn.

“I’m sorry for… for not believing your words… for saying those things.”

He also apologized for doubting Ines, pushing her, and not trusting her. There were so many things he needed to ask forgiveness for that he didn’t know where or how to begin.

Ines, who had been silently listening to Carlos’s words, spoke up.

It wasn’t the kind of response like ‘I forgive you’ or ‘I can’t accept your apology.’

“Please arrange the funeral for the child along with my mother’s. Please take care of the funeral procedures yourself.”

Though it wasn’t the answer he wanted, it was a conversation they needed to have. Carlos nodded.

“I’ll make sure they’re given proper rites.”

Hearing this, Ines hugged the child with all her might. And she buried her face against the baby for a moment, as if trying to remember its final scent.

After some time had passed like this, Ines handed the baby back to Carlos.

“I leave it to you, Carlos.”

Ines gave Carlos a faint smile. Carlos’s eyes widened, not having expected her to smile at him when he thought he would hear resentment.

It was the first time since marrying Ines. That she had given him such a smile.

However, Carlos found her smile more unsettling than joyful. He had a feeling something was wrong, but he too found it difficult to make normal judgments due to the grief of losing the child. Perhaps he was dazed for a moment in his confusion. He belatedly came to his senses at Ines’s next words.

“Could you leave now? I’m a bit tired…”

“Ah. Right. Of course you’re tired. The doctor said you should rest for a while.”

Carlos said this as he stood up.

“If you need anything, please call anytime.”

“Yes.”

With those words, Carlos left the room. And as the sound of the door closing was heard, Ines’s face hardened. She stared into empty space for a long while with an unreadable expression.

There was one thing that caught her eye as she meaninglessly scanned the room. It was the surgical tools left behind by the doctor.

Ines slowly reached out and touched the tools one by one. They all looked sharp and dangerous.

After examining the tools with an ambiguous gaze for a while, someone entered with a knock. It was someone whose face Ines knew well. The doctor’s assistant, was it?

“Your Majesty the Queen. If I may, the doctor left some items behind, could I take them for a moment?”

The assistant’s voice was careful as they asked Ines’s permission.

“Go ahead.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

The assistant entered with muffled footsteps and quickly began organizing the scattered surgical tools. Their hands moved busily organizing the tools, trying not to disturb the queen’s rest. After some time had passed like this.

“That’s strange. Where did the scalpel go…?”

For some reason, the surgical knife was nowhere to be seen. As the assistant rummaged around the bedroom, Ines quietly murmured.

“How long are you going to keep organizing?”

“Ah, I’m sorry. You must be tired… I’m almost done.”

At Ines’s words, the assistant hurriedly stuffed the tools into one place. They thought it would be better to leave the room first and organize properly later.

“Then rest well, Your Majesty.”

The assistant, having finished their work in an instant, paid their respects to the queen and left the room.

Without ever finding the knife.