In addition, Seira was hungry and her body began to throb here and there. She had been stuck in the underground training room all day without even a spoonful of food, wielding a sword, and even suffering an accidental injury due to a backflow of her power.

It was quite ridiculous now that she realized it wasn’t just the palm of her hand that got injured. Even if she knew what to do, there was no other way. Seira had no choice but to wait for her body to recover by itself.

“Duchess…”

Aven returned to the room with a box full of medical supplies and a brown bag filled with something having a savory scent.

“I saw no sign of you eating,” he commented.

“Yes. Somehow it just happened.”

“Even if it’s troublesome for you at times, you must make sure to eat.”

He brought the tart from the bag and put it in her mouth, and then kneeled on the floor beside her bed.

“Show me your hand,” he told her.

Chewing at the delicious tart filled with sweet and sour jam, Seira handed out her hand. She watched him carefully treat her wound, as if he was treating the most precious and vulnerable person in the world.

His deep, dark eyes narrowed each time the cotton rubbed against her sore skin. She felt guilty as he bit his lips as if he was in more pain than her.

“It’s all right, really.”

“The Duchess always says it’s okay.”

Even if it sounds like a rebuke the first time spoken, when he spoke too softly, Seira just couldn’t refute it.

In the end, she ended up choosing a change of topic.

“Yesterday, did you have a good date?”

As soon as she said it, Seira immediately regretted asking.

‘I had been so determined not to ask!’ she rebuked herself internally.

Didn’t she decide to pretend she knew nothing so as not to burden Aven? She felt pathetic – why was she being so selfish and kept on asking without considering his side?

“Duchess.”

“No, you don’t have to answer. From now on, if I ask you things like this, please just ignore it.”

Seira rambled on as she was unable to make eye contact with him.

“It was a mistake, really.”

“…”

After a long silence, Aven rose to his feet. Seira sat motionless with embarrassment tied to the corner of her eyes. Then, a low voice fell on the top of her head.

“Do you want me to comb your hair?”

“…what?”

“I think it’s better not to use your hands until the morning. So please let me stay by your side tonight.”

Seira looked up at him. He wasn’t disappointed or angry, nor was he happy or excited as well, but was just as the same as usual. So, even as it was reassuring for him to act that way, Seira still felt her heart break.

“Yes, please,” she said in a whisper as she fiddled with the bag containing the tart.

Aven proceeded to bring some towels from the bathroom, and then sat next to her. He said, “You can lean on this comfortably.”

Seira noted as he leaned her against his arms and dried her hair, his hands were incredibly soft.

The texture of the cloth rubbing tickled a bit. The temperature of his hand, which occasionally grazed her forehead, cheeks, and neck, made her chest hot.

‘If he got married, he’d be such a good partner.’

Even if it was hard to do better than what he was doing to her now, she thought she’d still smile and often tell herself that she loved him.

‘There’s no other man quite like Aven.’

She closed her eyes, swallowing a deep regret. It would have been nice to become a family.

With Aven’s gentle hands combing through her hair, Seira fell asleep in an instant.

* * *

“Duchess.”

Aven tried calling out to her quietly, but there was no answer. She left herself comfortably to his care, and he looked down at her sleeping face.

“Are you already asleep? You promised to punish me…”

She probably didn’t even know what she looked like right now. It was very difficult not to be distracted by her chest that rose and fell, or her smooth stretched thighs that were exposed through her thin nightgown.

No, actually, he didn’t need that much. The mere sight of Seira’s white feet and thin ankles, which could fit in one hand, made him struggle with impulses and desires as if he was in a rut phase.

‘You’re not like an animal,’ he rebuked himself.

He was mad to deny himself to be called as such when he would literally heat up just by staying in the same space as her.

Carefully tucking over her stray hair away from her cheek, Aven recalled what had happened before he arrived at D-Arc.

He was determined to move swiftly and retaliate against Tellon and Jeff’s inhumane plans. It was very unlikely that Baron Jeff would help them even after he learned the truth, but it was Askan that could be compromised even just with a mere 1% chance.

‘Above all, I can’t get caught.’

Seira valued those who belonged to Askan’s care more than her own life.