Grandma Greta was the only apothecary and midwife among the four villages in this forest. Her abilities were so exceptional that rumors once circulated that she was a mage living in hiding.

‘As it turned out, those weren’t just rumors….’

Because of this, Grandma Greta was the only outsider the mountain villagers would bow to.

Though Erica’s reason for bowing to her was because she was the only person in the village who owned books.

Even flower viewing has its season. No matter how Alps-like the scenery was, it gets boring after years of looking at it. For Erica, who had lived decades accustomed to stimulation, intellectual stimulation was what she craved most.

At first, she just borrowed books from Grandma Greta, but before she knew it, she found herself lending her hands to the grandmother.

‘Isn’t this too high a price for borrowing books? My major was business, not medicine.’

Eventually, from age twelve, she formally took on the role of assistant. After learning herbal medicine and midwifery by watching over the grandmother’s shoulder, when the grandmother passed away, it naturally became her profession.

‘And here I thought I’d live a quiet life.’

The mortality rate became lower than during Grandma Greta’s time. Well, that’s because the new midwife was a modern person who understood concepts of hygiene and infection.

In the cabin’s bedroom, brutal tools like forceps and iron hooks were neatly arranged. The smell of alcohol began to permeate, and kettles of hot water came and went without rest.

“I can see the baby’s head! Push!”

“Hnn…”

“More, more, more!”

Though it was a difficult birth, thankfully the baby was born safely. After the aftercare and carefully explaining to the forest keeper what the premature mother and eight-month baby needed to be careful about, the sun was already tilting far to the west when they came out.

Roderick frowned as soon as they came into the light, but it wasn’t because of the sun.

“Erica, there’s blood on your cheek.”

“Oh, really?”

It must not have been visible in the dark cabin. Erica rewashed her hands and face at the stream, which she had hastily cleaned at the cabin.

Roderick stood beside her, rolling up his sleeves and bending over the stream. He too was covered in sweat from carrying out dirty cloths and going back home to fetch medicine bottles that Erica had forgotten.

Ripples formed on their two faces reflected side by side in the crystal-clear stream. There were two faces, but one ripple.

At some point, Erica forgot about washing and found herself stealing glances at Roderick.

Water overflowed from his cupped large hands, trickling down the grooves of his forearms. Roderick roughly splashed it on his face before it could disappear from his hands, enough to make his hair wet and gleaming.

The water that ran down his prominently stretched neck tendons soaked his white shirt. When Roderick’s chest showed through the now semi-transparent fabric, Erica lifted her gaze as if she’d seen something she shouldn’t have.

Their eyes met then. Roderick, seemingly unaware of what Erica had been thinking, wiped the water from his sharp jawline with his forearm and smiled as clear as water. At that moment, the sunlight filtering sparsely through the thick leaves felt unusually hot.

“Here.”

Erica held up the clean edge of her apron to Roderick, who was looking for something to dry himself with.

It might have been a somewhat transparent gesture, but did this boy know or not?

He didn’t hesitate to lift the apron’s edge and lower his head. Erica stared at the man burying his face in her skirt and reached out her hand.

It was just as she unconsciously touched his hair where sunlight had shattered upon it that Roderick raised his head. His questioning eyes turned to her suspended fingertips.

“…You’ve grown so tall.”

When she made this hasty excuse, Roderick chuckled and straightened his back.

“My height isn’t there, it’s here.”

Then he pulled up her hand that had been stupidly held around his chest level. The slight trembling she felt in the hand holding her wrist might have been imagination, or might not have been.

“Really… you’ve grown so much.”

As she pretended to measure his height by placing her hand edge at the top of his head, the fingers wrapped around her wrist seemed to loosen, then traveled up her palm.

Ticklish. Though the delicate friction was happening at her hand, somehow the place where her heart beat felt ticklish.

Their palms overlapped and finally their fingers intertwined. Throughout this, Roderick maintained eye contact with her, his cool gaze softening into a smile.

“We used to be at similar heights. Right?”

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Erica’s hand was now buried in his.

They looked at each other silently with their hands clasped. Their eyes were full of words they couldn’t speak.

“Ah…”

Only when a small gust of wind made her skirt flutter widely did Roderick let go of her hand. Then he swept back his wet black hair that had fallen over his forehead, slicking it back as if he had applied pomade.

It felt strange. She was happy that her childhood friend, who had seemed to become sickly again with an unknown illness before leaving, had returned as a healthy and strong adult, but she wasn’t entirely happy.

You came back as a man from a place where I wasn’t.

Along with a subtle anxiety, she even felt disappointed. For some reason, she even felt incredibly small.

This was already Erica’s second life. Though she tried hard to ignore it, Erica was not unfamiliar with the name of this strange emotion.

Having helped deliver the baby while skipping lunch, it was natural to be hungry.

On their way back to the village, the two satisfied their hunger by picking and eating berries along the forest path. When they added to that a piece of cheese the forest keeper had given as payment, which they cut with a pocket knife, naturally…

“This would be perfect with wine.”

How could they not think of alcohol?

“Looks like your wish came true?”

Roderick lifted and shook a bottle from the basket. It was wine the forest keeper had given to Roderick for his help.

But drinking from a bottle while walking through the forest in broad daylight was something only the village drunk would do.

“Never mind. We can drink properly when we get back.”

“True. We should hurry before all the alcohol runs out.”

Though they said this, neither quickened their pace.

“By the way, I’m really glad you’re healthy now.”

Roderick had been particularly small and weak because he was born premature. However, as he grew, he seemed to surpass other boys in build and strength, but then collapsed not long after his fifteenth birthday.

“It seems to be a heart condition.”

That was Grandma Greta’s diagnosis.

“But how did you recover?”

If he still had heart disease, he couldn’t possibly be a swordsman, so he must have fully recovered, right? Working as the villagers’ healer naturally made her curious.

“Um… well, it just got better on its own after I left this village.”

“That makes sense.”

A bitter smile spread across Erica’s face.

“How is your mother?”

This was something she had wanted to ask since yesterday. Because there had been many people around Roderick, she was only now asking this important question.

“Mother lived comfortably and passed away last spring.”

“Ah, she was always frail.”

May she rest in peace in God’s embrace. Erica prayed for the woman’s peaceful rest.

“Mother often talked about you.”

“Really?”

Even when they lived in the village, Roderick’s mother had been particularly fond of her son’s only friend.

“She wondered how you were doing. Of course, I wondered too.”

“I’m doing fine. Living boringly without incident.”

Did I say something wrong? The conversation stopped abruptly. During the awkward silence, only footsteps continued.

“Erica.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you want to go to the Royal Capital?”

“Me? I prefer living quietly here, like I’m here but not here.”

“…Really?”

Another awkward silence. She thought this might have been an answer that could cause misunderstanding.

“It’s not that I like this village. It’s just… too bothersome.”

“Ah… That’s so like you.”

After another moment of silence, Roderick was the first to speak.

“Are you seeing anyone?”

“How could I be? If I were, there would be just one birch tree planted.”

“Ah. Right.”

There were three trees planted in front of Erica’s house.

“Have you decided who you’ll dance with tonight among those men?”

“No one.”

“Then…”

“Actually, I’m getting engaged soon.”

“……”

“He’s a blacksmith from the neighboring village. There have been secret marriage talks, and he’s supposed to come to the village today. Father plans to announce it during the festival.”

She wasn’t sure if he still thought that way. If he were firm about it, wouldn’t he avoid sending his soon-to-be-engaged daughter alone with another man?

Lost in her thoughts, Erica suddenly realized something. There was only one set of footsteps on the forest path. When Erica stopped walking, even that disappeared.

Somehow afraid to look back, Roderick asked.

“Do you love him?”

“How could I?”

This time, Erica, who had planned to just go with the flow of life, had simply decided to marry anyone.

Actually, she didn’t want to marry anyone, but when she said she would live unmarried, her mother threw such a fit that she decided to do it once just to avoid the hassle.

‘Once I’ve been through it once, they’ll leave me alone.’

Footsteps were heard again. As Roderick’s presence drew closer, Erica started walking again.

“By the way…”

Feeling awkward, Erica picked up any topic she could.

“You achieved your dream, didn’t you?”

When they were young, Roderick used to say while swinging his wooden sword.