She didn’t need to look to know.

She could smell the familiar scent brushing past her nose and hear the faint trace of wind clinging to him from outside. She could also hear his hurried, uneven breathing.

There was only one person it could be.

“…Delphius.”

She didn’t bother turning her gaze toward him. Instead, she stared blankly into the air before lowering her eyes to her hand.

Had it not been for him, the ornament she held would have already been shattered across the floor.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

With a rough breath, his grip tightened, forcing her hand open. Even after the ornament slipped from her grasp, he didn’t release her wrist.

“Why are you breaking things in the middle of the night?”

It was only then that Ilenia lowered her gaze.

Scattered across the floor were the remains of everything that had once filled the room. Objects that had been intact just moments ago were now reduced to rubble.

She had deliberately thrown them onto the bare floor to avoid the carpet, which had only made the destruction worse.

Her eyes lingered on the shards near her feet before she suddenly realized, she was barefoot.

Dark, sticky blood had begun to seep between her dust-stained toes.

No wonder every step felt like her skin was being torn.

The soles of her feet were probably no better.

“…What on earth—”

It was only then that Delphius saw it, and his expression hardened immediately.

Without saying a word, he lifted her into his arms.

In a few quick strides, he reached the bed and gently laid her on it.

Rather than calling for help in the middle of the night, he knelt before her and took on the role of servant himself.

He raised one knee and placed her foot on it, pressing a dry cloth firmly against her bleeding wounds.

“Didn’t you like them?”

“……”

“If you were going to break things, you could have stopped at that. Why injure yourself like a fool?”

His fingers brushed lightly against her slender toes.

Despite her having destroyed everything with her own hands, he treated her as if she might break easily.

Carefully. Gentle.

As though she were something fragile.

Ilenia watched him in silence.

Even after witnessing her near-mad outburst, he asked nothing.

He showed nothing.

As if it were nothing out of the ordinary.

As if he would never let her see how he truly felt.

That distance —

— made him feel unbearably distant.

“…What were you thinking?”

She needed to know.

After everything—after losing her mind like that—what he had thought when he looked at her.

“How did I seem to you… when I was acting like a madwoman?”

“What are you—”

His hands paused, just as he was about to wrap the cloth around her wounds.

“…Have your memories returned?”

At his question, Ilenia let out a dry, brittle laugh.

“Memories… you say.”

Could she even call it that?

Something she had pushed away, buried deep—because she couldn’t bear it. Something she had locked away, unable to face—running from it like a coward.

“…Did I look pitiful to you?”

“……”

“The fact that I lost my child… I couldn’t even accept something that simple. In the end, I lost my mind.”

“Ilenia.”

“And even that didn’t last. Not even that much was granted to me. It would have been better if my useless sanity had never returned.”

A hollow laugh slipped from her lips.

Her mind was becoming clearer with every passing moment, but her heart was not.

Each word she spoke seemed to tear open something inside her, and tears welled up as if seeping from a festering wound.

“…You must be disappointed, aren’t you? After choosing so carefully, your wife turned out to be insane.”

“It doesn’t matter. And who would dare say something like that to you in the first place?”

“…Is that so…”

Ilenia murmured faintly. Perhaps, on the surface, that was true. She had become someone of high standing after marrying him.

“It was an accident. I’ve told you again and again—no matter who had been there, it couldn’t have been prevented.”

“An accident…”

“Even the physician couldn’t determine the cause or name the illness. Even if we had been there, it would have been a disaster we couldn’t stop.”

“…Yes. An accident.”

As she nodded, her hair slipped forward, brushing softly across his line of sight.

“But what do you call a mother who wasn’t there when her child was suffering? What do you call the selfishness of someone who left her own flesh and blood—just to preserve herself?”

“…Ilenia.”

“Why didn’t you stop me when I lost my mind? Why didn’t you tell me to wake up—that I already had a child? Why… why didn’t you—”

Her fists struck his shoulder.

There was no strength behind them—mere weak blows—but she continued, stubbornly hitting him again and again.

“You thought… if I just carried another child and gave birth, everything would go back to how it was… didn’t you?”

Even amidst her madness, there were moments when she felt that something was not quite right.

The milk had already started to come in.

She thought it was simply a natural change that came with pregnancy, but it felt far too early.

But that wasn’t it.

Her mind had been denying the truth —

— while her body continued to produce milk.

Even when there was no longer a child to feed.

Again and again…

Endlessly.

“You were wrong.”

Her gaze burned with fury as it fixed on him.

“You killed our child twice, Delphius.”

“Our poor baby… you killed them twice.”

Her voice trembled.

“Once when I forgot… and once when you let me forget.”

Delphius pulled Ilenia into a tight embrace.

Her movements grew rough, as if protesting that she didn’t want it—but he paid no mind. He simply held her closer, gently patting her back.

“…I’m sorry.”

“—Hic…!”

“It’s all my fault.”

At last, her hands gave way.

She gripped his collar tightly and wept for a long time.

A dream is just that: a dream.

No matter how far she ran, reality would never change.

And that was true for Ilenia, too.

***

Even after Ilenia had cried herself to sleep, Delphius remained by her side, watching her for a long time.

It was as if he was guarding her, waiting to see if she would wake up crying again or simply vanish.

Slowly, his gaze lowered.

Beneath the hem of her negligée, her calves were faintly visible.

Clean bandages had been carefully wrapped around the wounds the physician had treated.

“…When did she come back to her senses?”

The butler, who had entered alongside the physician and remained by Delphius’s side, lowered his gaze.

“I cannot say for certain… but according to the one who first found her, she was standing blankly in the corridor.”

“The corridor? What were the others doing?”

“It was quite late at night… They assumed she would sleep through until morning. Even loud noises rarely wake them at such an hour.”

Delphius cast him a brief glance—wordless, but enough to signal him to continue.

“She did turn her head a few times, as though hearing something… but soon returned to her usual composure and headed back to the bedroom. No one anticipated that anything unusual would occur.”

Up until that point, it had been an ordinary report.

But it didn’t end there.

The butler turned the object over in his pocket.

The moment he handed it to the Duke of Lukehardt, unrest would surely spread throughout the estate.

The consequences might not be as simple as a shortage of staff.

Nevertheless, the butler’s course of action had already been decided.

Bearing the weight of years of loyalty, he lowered his head.

“…There is one more thing.”

He reached into his pocket and held it out to Delphius.

“This was found in the madam’s possession.”

The moment the object settled in his large palm, Delphius recognized it immediately.

He had never forgotten it. Not even once.

It was their first child, his and Ilenia’s.

Everything about the baby had been small, unfamiliar and wondrous.

The child always carried the faint scent of milk.

When he held the baby in his arms, he could smell Ilenia, too.

He loved that.

Their tiny fingernails and toenails were proof that they were human, too.

There were the long lashes that rested over eyes that rarely stayed open.

He loved the way those small hands would curl tightly around his finger whenever he reached out to them.

Every detail was still vividly etched in his memory.

This—

—was something that child had once used: A tiny mitten that had once covered those fluttering little hands.

It was so small that it took careful focus just to see it clearly.

Even before the child was born, he had watched Ilenia struggle with it, holding onto it and working on it again and again.

“…I’m certain I told you to throw everything away.”

“Yes. On the day you gave the order, we burned it all.”

The day she finally forgot about her lost child, Delphius ordered that everything connected to her be removed from the estate.

It was as if the child had never existed.

As if their first child had never been born.

He erased every trace.

“…Then why is this in my hand?”

“…We are still questioning the servants.”

“So there’s still a rat left in this house.”

As he carefully traced the small mitten with his fingers, his hand slowly tightened into a fist.

“Find them.”

His voice dropped, cold and absolute.

“No matter what it takes.”

“And the one responsible—bring them to me.”