At first, she thought it might be an auditory hallucination brought on by tension and cold.

Ryan Thornton is Ryan Wilgrave?

‘The only thing they have in common is their first name!’

The only other similarity was that they both belonged to the 57th Infantry Battalion.

Besides that, what could her Ryan possibly have in common with everyone’s Ryan? For starters, they looked different!

Eloise truly tried to recall, after a very long time, the portrait of Ryan Wilgrave that would still be hanging at her bedside.

He had soft blonde hair and kind yet determined blue eyes.

‘The eye color is the same, but…’

The hair color is different.

But simultaneously, she remembered articles from different newspapers. They said he frequently changed his hair color because he was assigned many secret missions.

‘Um…?’

Once she started thinking about it, other information began flooding into Eloise’s mind.

Height, appearance, gait, manner of speaking, speech habits, and so on.

For someone with such tremendous achievements, information about him was always inconsistent. When a soldier from the 57th Infantry Battalion wrote a memoir claiming to have worked by his side, another newspaper would counter that he hadn’t actually seen the real Ryan Wilgrave, and would publish completely different descriptions of Ryan’s appearance and personality.

“Who among them is lying?”

When Eloise would glare at newspapers full of stories about Ryan Wilgrave with an utterly serious expression, Mr. Surberton would burst into laughter and say:

“They could all be lies. Or they could all be truths.”

So in the end, Eloise chose to believe the image of Ryan Wilgrave that seemed most credible to her.

The portrait at her bedside was exactly that. The image of Ryan Wilgrave composed of characteristics she had carefully selected from countless pieces of information.

In Eloise’s imagination, Ryan Wilgrave was the perfect person.

An unparalleled hero who earned everyone’s respect and trust through his talents, yet whose overflowing abilities provoked envy and jealousy from the ignorant.

Always kind and gentle to everyone, but burning within him was an unbreakable will, and she believed the sharpness he harbored inside would only be directed toward enemies.

The man Eloise imagined was the very embodiment of the most ideal soldier.

Perhaps that’s why she had been so disappointed when she first met Ryan Thornton.

He possessed none of the military virtues she admired.

Of course, she had embarrassed herself in front of him many times, but from their first meeting, he treated her like a pervert with suspicious thoughts, and when she visited him on an errand, he treated her like a pestering fly.

Their opinions of each other had changed as they prepared for the summer gathering together, but even so, she had never once thought that Ryan Thornton could be Ryan Wilgrave.

From the beginning, he was a different person.

Not someone who fit into Eloise’s imagination, but a being who had lived the life of Ryan Thornton.

Perhaps that’s why they had never gotten along easily, and their relationship had creaked like mismatched gears.

But in the end, that was good. Hadn’t he become more precious to her than the Ryan Wilgrave she had freely imagined—this man who never moved according to her thoughts, who had his own world and always clashed with hers?

“She doesn’t seem to have any idea. That’s why she answers everything we ask so readily, don’t you think?”

Sinclair’s cold voice snapped Eloise back to reality. This was no time to be shocked and bewildered.

Desperately clenching her chattering teeth, Eloise listened intently to the voices coming through the window.

“I had trouble because what that woman said was subtly different… but after checking, it’s certain that Ryan Thornton is Colonel Wilgrave. Fortunately, we sent someone to Camborne in a hurry. Otherwise, we would have been wasting our time believing only what Eloise said.”

At Sinclair’s words, Eloise held her breath.

When Sinclair had questioned her about Ryan, she had unconsciously given vague or slightly different explanations several times due to the strangely persistent attitude.

And now she learned they had sent someone to Camborne to verify it.

The people who attended the summer gathering would have told them everything about Ryan Thornton without any suspicion. That means…

“But what about Eloise Surberton? Do you think she suspects anything about us?”

When her name was mentioned, Eloise unconsciously covered her mouth with her hand. Otherwise, she might have made a sound.

“Well… she hasn’t shown any unusual behavior so far. Of course, lately she stays out for long periods when she goes out, but it seems she’s just managing that old house she inherited. And she doesn’t seem to have much expectation from the Army Headquarters.”

At Sinclair’s answer, Eloise exhaled very slowly.

‘She hasn’t noticed what I’ve been doing yet.’

It had been worth moving around without being seen by the maids. Just as she was feeling relieved, the man asked Sinclair again.

“So what are you going to do with Eloise Surberton now?”

To that question, Sinclair replied lightly, as if it were hardly worth worrying about:

“For now, I’ll keep her staying in this house, and if necessary, I’ll take care of her.”

Click.

With a very small sound, the door closed.

After listening at the closed door for a long time and checking the corridor for any movement, Eloise confirmed there was no sound and collapsed to the floor.

The warmth of the room enveloped her body, but she began to tremble more violently than when she was outside.

Eloise clutched her trembling arms and looked around. Only the light from the fireplace, where embers still remained burning faintly, illuminated the dark room.

Despite how cozy it appeared, Eloise looked around the room with eyes full of tension.

Until she left this room, it had been comfortable enough to stay in, despite the excessive kindness of people making her uncomfortable. Now it had become the most anxiety-inducing place.

What if someone in the next room was listening to her?

Or perhaps there was a hole somewhere in the wall through which someone was watching her?

What if someone had seen her going somewhere and reported it to Sinclair?

Once begun, her suspicions and wariness grew uncontrollably in an instant.

The room that should have been a place of rest suddenly felt like a prison. As she was about to become confused again by that sense of terror, Eloise pinched the back of her hand hard.

“…!”

Although she pinched with all her might, the pain was greater than expected, bringing tears to her eyes. As her attention shifted to the stinging back of her hand, the thoughts that had been pushing her into fear retreated momentarily.

“Phew…”

Thanks to this, Eloise could catch her breath. Realizing she was still sitting on the floor, she got up and headed for the sofa.

Plopping down with a thud, she organized what she had heard.

First, Lady Sinclair was monitoring the movements of the Albion and Gilian armies. And although she couldn’t hear clearly, she was communicating with someone about it. And…

‘Ryan Wilgrave is in Gilia, and they were trying to somehow get him killed there.’

And that Ryan Wilgrave is said to be Ryan Thornton.

She had only eavesdropped on the night conversation for about an hour, but during that time, the world she had been facing seemed completely turned upside down.

‘I need to leave this house first.’

She had felt uncomfortable from the moment she entered, but now they were actually trying to keep her here for surveillance and confinement.

‘Fortunately, they haven’t discovered what I’ve been doing so far.’

She remembered Sinclair’s voice speaking mockingly. That sneering voice, with no trace of her usual kindness.

Eloise stood up. Then she opened the wardrobe.

The luggage she had brought from Baron Fairfax’s house was not small. She had packed quite a lot of clothes and items since she didn’t know how long she would stay in the capital.

‘I can’t take everything!’

If she did, they would surely notice she was trying to leave.

Eloise closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again.

The next day.

“Oh my, Eloise? Are you going for a walk?”

Sinclair encountered Eloise leaving with a very small handbag, without even thinking about what might be inside it.