The bandages wound around various parts of his body caught his eye next, one by one. The places where he had taken deep slash wounds during his escape.

Judging by how the smaller wounds had closed, some time had clearly passed.

‘Did this woman treat me?’

Then what was this situation?

Even with undergarments on, it was essentially the same as being bare. And they were pressed together without a gap between them.

Haven had no experience being this close to a woman, and the discomfort was unavoidable.

“Mmm……”

Ella stirred, rubbing her eyes as she came back to herself.

Haven reflexively put more distance between them and moved back.

“You’re finally awake!”

Ella seemed to have forgotten entirely what she looked like. She reached out and pressed her hand to his forehead.

Watching Haven’s face flush red, she spoke with a worried expression.

“Your face is a little red. You might still have some fever.”

“……”

“How does your body feel?”

“……”

“Does anything hurt?”

The questions kept coming, and Haven found himself at a complete loss for words.

He covered his mouth with his hand, trying to hide the thirst that kept rising to his lips, and turned his head away. His heartbeat, which refused to settle, drummed against his eardrums again and again.

‘Why is this happening?’

He had never had any interest in this sort of thing. The reaction from his own body felt foreign even to him.

“Is your stomach upset? Do you feel like you might be sick?”

The unfamiliar curves of a woman’s body kept flickering at the edge of his vision. The prominent line of his throat moved in a sharp, restless swallow.

Haven simply squeezed his eyes shut.

“F, first, you should put some clothes on……”

Only then did Ella’s gaze drop to herself.

“Ah…… so that was it.”

She murmured it plainly to herself and picked up the clothes she had set aside.

She pulled a thin bliaut on first, then layered the off-white novice priest’s robe over it and secured the red tassel sash at her waist.

Haven didn’t open his eyes until Ella was fully dressed as a priest.

“All done.”

“……”

“Oh, and these are clothes for you. What you were wearing before was beyond saving, so I burned them.”

Haven took the clothes from her, turned his back, and worked himself into the white fabric.

It was nothing more than a worn prayer robe from the Holy Knight Order, unremarkable in itself, but on him it gave off a sacred, refined air.

He looked distinguished enough to sit in the high priest’s seat at the Bailia Grand Temple without seeming out of place.

A faint smile spread at the corners of Ella’s mouth.

‘So clothes really do make the man.’

Even a worn prayer robe looked like something a high priest would wear on him. That said it all.

Haven looked more noble than even the high priest of Capuasia, famous for his beauty. At least in Ella’s eyes.

Even after they were both dressed, Haven still couldn’t bring himself to look directly at her.

She spoke first again.

“Are you comfortable?”

“I’m…… fine.”

The curve of his ear, visible through the silver hair, was red.

Ella laughed inwardly at Haven’s slightly awkward manner.

‘Quite endearing.’

He was still nothing more than a beast that hadn’t yet opened its eyes.

Right now he couldn’t even hold her gaze and was fumbling, but Ella knew exactly how those eyes would change the moment his desire ignited.

She could have taken a slow, patient approach to winning him over, but there wasn’t enough time for that.

‘I need to keep him here for at least a little while longer.’

Given his rate of recovery, he would be on his feet within days.

What if Haven, defying her expectations, escaped the Empire just like that?

It was unlikely, but Ella was running a dangerous plan and couldn’t afford to dismiss any possibility.

If keeping him here until their bond was solid meant using only one method……

Ella decided to go with the direct approach.

“I know where you came from.”

With his identity exposed, Haven sprang to his feet. The speed with which he moved was hard to believe for someone so gravely injured.

“And I know you’re a prisoner who escaped from the camp.”

“……!”

Haven’s eyes sharpened in an instant.

Even without a sword, she knew that the sword energy radiating from those hands alone could kill several people in a single strike. Even injured, dealing with one woman was nothing to him.

Even so, Ella showed not a flicker of unease.

“You don’t need to be on edge. If I were going to report you, I would already have. If that had been my intention from the start, I would have just let you die.”

She looked up at him and continued in a calm, even tone.

“I wouldn’t have spent the whole night holding you to keep you alive either.”

Haven’s eyes wavered. The killing intent that had stirred within them vanished in an instant.

“I brought it up to tell you not to leave the forest for a while. The number of border knights patrolling near the forest has noticeably increased. They can’t enter this far without holy power, so this is the safest place.”

Ella ignored Haven’s confusion and rose to her feet.

She had kept him alive and tied his feet to this place for now. The next step was drawing out his affection.

“Wait here just a moment.”

In this forest where she was the only one who could help him, even a Sword Master known as a war demon would have no choice.

No matter how formidable a person was, as long as he was human, he would get hungry.

“You haven’t eaten anything in days. Let me go make you something to eat.”

Starting with feeding him well, then.

***

Because she had prepared food in advance for when Haven woke, Ella was able to bring it out quickly.

“I made it in a hurry, so I can’t promise it tastes good.”

She couldn’t feed someone who had been starving for so long something rough like meat. The medical texts said to start with something gentle.

So she had settled on soup or stew, the kind made by pouring hot water over dried ingredients.

“Here.”

Ella handed him a wooden bowl of clear broth and the rye bread she had brought that day.

Haven stared at it but didn’t take it.

“Why? Oh!”

Reading his suspicion, Ella deliberately scooped up a large spoonful and put it in her own mouth. She tore off a piece of bread, dipped it in the soup, and ate that too.

Not bad, actually.

She added her verdict with a shrug of her shoulders.

“See? No poison. Go ahead and eat.”

Even so, he refused to the very end.

Watching Haven stubbornly keep his mouth shut, Ella couldn’t help but sigh.

‘He must not be hungry enough yet.’

She didn’t press further.

She set the cooled bowl of soup on the ground, pulled on her hooded cape, and stood up.

“I have to go now. There’s a small event at the temple, so I probably won’t be able to come for two days. But make sure you take the medicine I’m leaving. It’ll help you recover faster.”

She set a small medicine bottle at his feet and murmured as if to herself.

“It would have been a lot easier on my mind if I could have watched you eat something before I left……”

“……”

“If you feel like eating at any point, look in that basket over there.”

With that, Ella turned and walked away without looking back.

On her way back to the temple, she thought hard.

‘Will two days be enough?’

There was no other option available to him anyway.

The Hooly Forest was full of life, but there was nothing in it that a human could fill their stomach with.

And even if there were, his body wasn’t well enough to venture outside yet.

He couldn’t have been getting proper meals at the prison camp, so he had to be running on empty physically. Holding out any longer than this would be impossible.

“I hope that basket is empty when I get back.”

***

Two days passed, and night came.

The moment Ella arrived at the cave, she checked the basket first, under the pretense of refilling it with fresh food.

Of course. What had been packed full was completely empty.

The corners of her mouth curved softly.

‘I knew he couldn’t hold out.’

That night, Haven didn’t refuse the food Ella offered him.

He even answered her questions here and there.

Seeing the gradual effect of her efforts, Ella felt a quiet satisfaction she hadn’t expected.

“You’ve come.”

By the third day, she was greeted first.

As simple exchanges passed between them, Ella sensed that much of Haven’s wariness had dissolved.

‘Is this what it feels like to be a trainer taming a wild animal?’

Watching him change little by little wasn’t unpleasant.

Four more days after that, the Haven she had seen in Marian’s memories began to emerge.

“You may call me Haven.”

When she heard his name from him directly, Ella nearly let out a cheer.