“…I must have done it…?”

“But you’ve already forgotten about it?”

Erica couldn’t help but laugh hollowly, but Roderick didn’t laugh.

“I was working without time to think.”

“Anyway, thank you.”

Whatever grudges existed between them, she was the one putting him to work now, so she should express gratitude. Erica always hated being indebted to others more than others being indebted to her, and she always kept accounts straight.

As Erica grabbed an empty bag and returned to where she had been cutting herbs, she suddenly recalled her childhood.

‘Well, he was always quick with his hands since childhood.’

When harvesting in the lord’s fields, each household received a quota. Then the parents of each household divided the quota among their children.

Erica was slow-handed for a farmer’s daughter. So she repeatedly failed to meet her quota on time. Then Roderick would give her some of his share—the memory suddenly came flooding back.

‘I shouldn’t have remembered that.’

Erica wiped her tingling nose with her sleeve while massaging her stiff neck, and started sorting and cutting herbs again.

At that moment, Roderick, after putting down a full bag and picking up an empty one, deliberately passed by where the children were gathered picking berries on his way to where St. Gabriel’s grass grew thickly.

“My fingers are all red.”

“…Like blood.”

“No. Smell it. It’s sweet.”

“Really? Oh? Dad?”

“Thank you. This thanks is for Elodie.”

A large hand patted Elodie’s round head once before moving away.

It was good they came as a group of four. With many hands, they met their target amount before lunchtime. Thanks to that, they could enjoy lunch leisurely.

Before tasting the lunch Erica had packed, the four headed to a nearby stream. The adults’ hands were bluish-green, and the children’s hands were bright red.

“Ah, cold!”

When Elodie cried out in surprise, Erica thought Eric had played a prank by splashing water as he often did to her. She turned around to scold him but was dumbfounded.

Elodie had simply exclaimed that the stream water was cold, and Eric was calmly washing his hands with an unexpectedly mature expression she had never seen before.

“You need to wash every nook and cranny like this. Otherwise, it hurts, my mom said.”

He even helped Elodie wash her hands.

It was annoying to see the mischievous boy who always played pranks in front of her turn into a different person in front of his peer, but it also felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

There were no kindergartens here. There weren’t many peers to play with in the alleys. Having kept him by her side for four years, she had been extremely worried.

How to develop his social skills?

But seeing him do more than just take care of himself in front of his peer, her worries disappeared.

Leaving the children to wash themselves, Erica also washed her hands and face. She ignored Roderick, who deliberately came to wash beside her. But this comment was impossible to ignore.

“Eric after Roderick?”

She couldn’t just stand by and watch him drink an entire cauldron of kimchi soup¹it means “you’re getting ahead of yourself” or “don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” that no one had even made for him—suggesting that he had named his son after himself.

“It’s Eric after Erica, you know?”

She firmly refuted, and though he fell silent, Erica’s mind remained noisy. The similar scene from long ago kept flashing before her eyes.

Finally, she rose after barely washing. As Erica turned to climb up to the grassy area, her waist was suddenly grabbed, and she staggered.

“Whoa!”

Her body spun around, and Roderick’s face appeared and disappeared. He had buried his face in her apron after lifting it.

Unbelievable.

Erica glared indignantly at the man who was using her apron to wipe his face without permission, and reached behind her back.

Soon, a sharply honed axe blade was raised into the autumn sunlight, gleaming blue.

This is what she should have done that day.

Erica placed the hand axe blade against Roderick’s nape and warned him.

“Let go before I cut your neck.”

Brazenly, Roderick did not release the apron. He even leisurely wiped his nape where the axe blade touched, then said something unexpected.

“I’ve been wondering since we met at the market.”

“Stop talking nonsense and let go right now.”

“Isn’t that the hand axe I gave you?”

Whoosh!

Erica threw the hand axe into the bushes like someone who had accidentally caught a snake. Roderick calmly retrieved it and returned it to Erica’s waist, who couldn’t move because he had already given the apron to the children.

“Did you know that was specially ordered from the most renowned forge in the royal city just for you?”

He whispered something she wasn’t curious about, his lips close to her ear.

“Looking back now, I was really unromantic. A man bringing a hand axe as a gift when proposing.”

Erica turned her head toward Roderick. As soon as their eyes met, less than half a span apart, the slight playfulness faded from his face.

She moved her lips, almost touching his, whispering loud enough for Roderick to hear clearly but not the children.

“What’s wrong with a hand axe as a gift? It wasn’t a sincere proposal anyway.”

Roderick made the expression he always made when Erica pointed out his false heart. An expression of injustice and frustration.

Of course, that too must be an act.

* * *

The four of them spread a blanket under a tree where sunlight filtered through the yellow and red leaves, and sat together.

Today’s lunch was sandwiches.

They were sandwiches made with wheat bread baked by Roderick—substituting for Erica who had no time these days as she made medicine day and night—topped with mashed boiled eggs that Erica’s hens had laid fresh this morning.

“Wow, this is potato!”

Thinking one sandwich each wouldn’t be enough, they had also brought sandwiches filled with boiled mashed potato salad, which excited the glutton Eric.

‘But does she not like potatoes?’

For some reason, Elodie looked happy when she took a potato salad sandwich but became gloomy just before taking a bite.

Erica thought she’d never seen someone who didn’t like potatoes, but watching carefully, it turned out that wasn’t the case. What Elodie carefully picked out with her fingers was peas. Seeing this, Roderick began to calmly scold the child.

“Elodie, it’s impolite to throw away food that Erica made by sacrificing her morning sleep.”

“But……”

The child’s face fell as she looked down at the peas.

“Then I’ll eat them!”

Eric suddenly stood up, grabbed the peas Elodie was holding, and put them in his mouth. Then, without even chewing, he gulped them down in one go and said,

“My mom’s peas are sweet.”

In reality, his mom’s peas were just dried peas bought cheaply at the market, soaked in water overnight, and boiled in the morning, but…

‘That’s right, son! Thank you.’

Erica patted his bottom, and Eric proudly stood with his shoulders back and chest out.

Where on earth did he learn that posture?

“Eric eats everything without being picky. That’s amazing. So cute.”

Roderick spoke to Eric under the guise of praise. He even patted the child’s back. Erica’s gaze turned sharp.

‘I can’t grab his collar and warn him in front of the children.’

Erica, who had only warned him with her eyes, pretended to continue praising Eric while naturally pulling the child onto her lap. To prevent Roderick from making another move.

“My son eats everything without being picky.”

My son. Not your son.

“He eats carrots well and pumpkin well.”

“Carrots taste best when they’re thin like hair, and for pumpkin, the seeds taste best.”

Son, that means carrots are barely edible only when finely chopped to the point you can’t taste them, and pumpkin doesn’t taste good no matter what, so the seeds taste better.

Anyway, as long as he ate without being picky, it was fine. Eric started taking another big bite of his potato salad sandwich with carrots and peas, and Elodie, who had been silently staring at the three of them, shifted her gaze to her sandwich.

Again, her fingers moved toward the sandwich instead of her mouth. Erica wondered if she was going to remove more vegetables she didn’t want to eat and give them to Eric.

But Elodie took out a pea, held it up for everyone to see, and put it in her mouth. Then, squeezing her eyes shut, she gulped and swallowed it.

“Elodie ate it too.”

The child looked alternately at Roderick and Erica as if asking for praise. Roderick carefully observed Erica’s expression before speaking.

“Very well done.”

Erica’s brow furrowed at such bland praise.

‘Is that all the praise you can give? Watch how I do it.’

Just as Elodie had eaten peas out of competitive spirit with her peer, Erica was ignited with a strange parenting competitiveness and showered praise on someone else’s daughter.

“Elodie is amazing too. Eating something you don’t like with such patience. How was it? Not as bad as you thought, right?”

The child nodded vigorously, and a bright smile bloomed on her flushed cheeks. It was a smile that made Erica happy too.

‘Oh well, how could you be at fault?’

Erica gently stroked Elodie’s head, just as she would do with Eric. The child’s cheeks flushed even more.

As soon as Eric finished two sandwiches, he began wandering around searching through the grass.

He had something important to do: picking wildflowers.

‘Mom likes all bell-shaped flowers. But what does Elodie like?’

He could have just asked her directly, but the child didn’t think that far and picked every flower he saw.

“…What are you doing?”

When Elodie, who had followed out of curiosity, asked, Eric held out a handful of flowers he had collected.

“Here, a gift.”

Elodie tilted her head at the unexpected mention of a gift.