* * *
The Dyfenril ducal estate wasn’t needlessly extravagant or oversized like the Noart count’s residence.
But it was a stately and elegant mansion, steeped in the air of many long years.
“Woof! Woof!”
Fire, who had been napping in the garden, barked cheerfully when he saw , then yawned once and lay back down.
“Woof! Woof!”
...Thankfully, Zahid didn’t ask to translate.
Co to think of it, it had been ages since I ca to the Dyfenril ducal estate. Not since I barged in nine years ago and shoved an engagent ring on his finger.
“It’s changed a lot...”
I looked around, quietly impressed.
Back when Elizabeth was controlling the estate, there had been a strange oppressive energy.
Since it wasn’t even her house, Elizabeth had made no effort to manage the ducal estate.
But now, it was bright and orderly.
“Do you like it?”
Zahid cleared his throat and asked, and I nodded without hesitation.
“I really like the pursuit of sustainable elegance. To be honest, the Noart count’s estate is a money pit—just the upkeep costs are astronomical. All those flashy, gaudy things aren’t really my style.”
At my sincere answer, Zahid looked genuinely pleased.
“Co on.”
He gently took my hand and led through the estate.
After proudly showing around for a while, he walked up the stairs and said,
“This is... your floor.”
“Huh? Did you an ‘your room’?”
“No. I ant your floor. Every room on this floor is yours.”
I blinked and opened the nearest door.
Inside were clothes, accessories, books, and simple amusents.
The next room, and the next, and the next were all the sa.
“I bought them one by one over ti.”
Zahid spoke sheepishly.
“It’s a lot, I know. But I picked each and every one myself.”
I looked down quietly at the items he’d chosen.
I rembered this from Fire’s mories.
When he couldn’t bear his longing for , he’d buy things ant for —just to fill the montary emptiness.
“Of course, I figured you might be sick of these kinds of grand gestures. The Noart family’s always been excessive when it cos to this stuff.”
Zahid spoke softly, looking at .
“Still... there were days I couldn’t endure unless I did sothing like this.”
Just how many of those “days” had there been, to fill an entire floor of the ducal estate?
“After everything ended, I started sorting it out again with my own hands. I wanted to show you all of it, perfectly.”
Zahid scratched his cheek as if embarrassed.
“When I saw you hurt and a ss, I kept thinking about how I held you too suddenly in a place that wasn’t ideal...”
So where had all that reckless ‘grab her any chance you get’ attitude gone? One sight of a little blood and he was totally deflated.
“But when I’m alone with you, I don’t trust myself to hold back... So after visiting you in the infirmary, I just spent all my ti here. I’d already gotten rid of every narrow and dark space long ago, so there wasn’t much else to fix.”
“Oh...”
“I made it through a wait with no end in sight. So waiting until you recovered felt like nothing.”
Suddenly, I bit my lower lip in guilt.
He’d waited for like that, and I’d run off without knowing anything, going on an outing with Linna.
So he chased after —only to find receiving a confession from another man...
“From a long ti ago, there’s only ever been you on my path. Of course, on your path, there can be others who catch your eye. But when everything’s over... please co ho with .”
Now that I thought about it, Zahid hadn’t said that just once or twice.
Maybe... he had been waiting desperately for this very mont for a long, long ti.
The mont where we held hands and entered his estate together.
I held his hand and said,
“You must’ve been hurt, Zahid.”
“Honestly, saying I wasn’t would be a lie.”
He slowly replied as he brushed my hair.
He didn’t go into detail, but I could tell he’d been quietly upset for a long ti.
When he got the /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ letter in the morning saying I was going out with Linna, when he chased after , when he saw with that strange old classmate, when he realized I hadn’t rembered anything...
As I guiltily fidgeted with my fingers, he added in a low voice,
“But now... I just feel sorry.”
“...Huh?”
I furrowed my brows, suspicious.
“Wait—did you just say you’re sorry? Not that I should be sorry, but that you are?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry.”
Zahid smiled faintly and held my hand tighter.
“Because I forgot sothing even more important, for even longer.”
Oh. So this was what people ant by walking in soone else’s shoes.
Holding onto a promise alone, staying at the agreed-upon place, waiting in solitude...
That had all been before.
“I didn’t know... that it could be so suffocatingly painful, so lonely, so bitter, and at the sa ti hurt so much it feels like you’ll die.”
“Well, to be fair, I didn’t feel quite that bad.”
“This is one of those tis where you’re just supposed to say you did.”
“I don’t really want social advice from the people around —especially not you.”
“Then go get advice from that muscle-headed rowing team captain.”
“You an the guy who, after seeing the first love he quietly cherished for so long, couldn’t even get a shy confession out?”
“You didn’t even get confessed to—why are you speaking so specifically?”
Before we knew it, we were bickering again, then looked at each other and laughed.
“This is nice.”
Zahid said, kissing on the cheek.
“Bickering over nothing like this.”
“Yeah. Definitely better than bickering to the death.”
The fact that wasn’t just a taphor but literal reality was horrifying in retrospect.
Zahid gently led again, this ti to another location.
When we stopped in front of the biggest room at the end of the corridor, my eyes widened.
“This is...”
It was only my second ti coming here, but I hadn’t forgotten.
A massive door at the very end of the hallway, tightly closed.
As if drawn in, I opened the door and stepped inside.
A room empty for its size, dim sunlight filtering in through a small window. And the huge Dyfenril crest on the wall, needlessly overbearing...
“I remodeled everything else... but I left this room the sa.”
“...Ah.”
This was the room where I had suddenly proposed to him—when he was just a sickly, broken child.
“I just... I thought about that day so often, I didn’t want to change it.”
Zahid scooped up in his arms. He set down in the chair where that young version of him had once barely sat through pain.
He lowered himself to match my eye level and said quietly,
“Rosie.”
I had a feeling I knew what he was going to do, so I bit my lip and tried not to laugh.
“I want to get engaged to you again. Even if we were technically broken off.”
“I want to stay engaged to you. That’s why I never accepted the annulnt letter.”
I thought of the proposal from nine years ago—how it had gone exactly the opposite way.
Zahid slowly continued, gazing into my eyes with sincerity.
“Because I like you. I really like you. I love you, Rosie Noart... so, so much.”
“Because I like you. I really like you. I love you, Zahid.”
“You were right. I ended up liking you too much.”
“You’ll end up loving . I’m sure I’m right.”
As I sank into those old mories, he solemnly took my hand.
“I don’t have anything like divine power to give you...”
And gently, he slid a ring onto my finger.
“This was sothing that rich older sister suddenly gave one day... but I really wanted to give it to you.”
“It doesn’t have any special functions besides auto-resizing, but I still wanted to buy it for you.”
“Just accept it without pressure. I’m a rich younger man now, rember?”
“You said I was rich, didn’t you? So don’t feel pressured.”
I bead and nodded.
I really wanted to interrupt—but every word Zahid spoke was sothing I’d said in the past.
So my lips closed on their own.
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