Chapter 134

Keith seemed to have cooled down a little, but the air was still icy. His words snapped like sparks. I pushed the cookies Blake had left toward him. When it comes to comforting someone, nothing works like something sweet.

“Have you been well?”

Even to my own ears, the question sounded awkward and shameless. Keith must have read the embarrassment on my face, because he glanced at me sideways and let out a small laugh.

“You do know you were in the wrong.”
“…I know.”
“…Seeing you look guilty is satisfying, but also irritating. Stop looking at me like that.”
“How am I looking at you?”
“Stop watching my mood. Just sit there like normal.”
“….”
“And being so calm just makes me mad again.”

I didn’t know what he wanted from me. The elders in the village had always said that when someone’s like this, the best thing to do is leave them alone. So I just sat blinking quietly. Keith laid his head on the table.

“Why her…”
“…Huh?”
“You had us. Why did it have to be that woman?”

It was still hard to explain. Words were useless. Maybe he knew I couldn’t explain, because he didn’t wait for an answer.

“Anyway… I’ve been fine.”

He leaned back against the chair. For the first time, I really looked at him.

Four years had passed, and Keith hadn’t changed much. His sharp features still gave him that dazzling look. He was a little thinner, maybe a little sharper around the edges. His expressive face had even formed faint wrinkles near his eyes. His hair was a bit longer, bright golden as always, and his violet eyes were exactly the same.

My first accomplice.
My savior.
The one who never abandoned me.

Keith was kind.

Whether it was because he already knew about me, or because he was Enoch’s cousin, he had picked me up and decided to take responsibility. I owed him more than I could repay, and yet I still clung to him, spoiled, knowing he would forgive me.

And that was one more reason I envied Enoch.

“I’ve been working, cleaning up messes too…”
“Blake?”
“Yeah, that bastard. He’s been trying to scam Enoch out of money, claiming your old things were valuable. When Enoch cut him off, he came crawling to me.”

Keith’s face twisted, like he was debating if it was okay to speak badly of Blake in front of me.

“Enoch is here?”

I had heard the Hains merchant group had more business overseas than in Yulia. Meeting Keith after four years already felt like a miracle. He’d once told me Enoch only stayed here for a single month a year.

“He moved his base here. He still travels abroad sometimes, but most of the time he’s in Redamas now.”
“…Why?”
“Why? You really ask why, now? Forget it.”

I froze, my lips parting without sound. Keith shook his head.

“No… never mind. It’s not my place to say. Let’s go.”

Keith stood up. I quickly followed.

“I should tell Laila—”
“She’ll find you if you’re late. That woman has her ways.”

I sent Bii flying from my arms and hurried after Keith. He pretended to walk ahead, but kept looking back with a sulky expression, waiting for me.

“You’re not hurt anywhere?”
“No.”
“Nothing aches?”
“No.”
“Marie’s necklace?”
“It’s here. I’ve worn it every single day.”

Keith gave me a look of disapproval. I knew he would for a while.

“At least now we can hold a proper funeral.”

On the way, Keith filled me in.

As expected, Linus had been taken in by the Lindquist viscount. But since they were officially estranged, they couldn’t help him openly. They only kept him alive so he wouldn’t starve.

I had imagined Linus would strap on a prosthetic arm and leg and demand a sword again. But instead, he had lost his will to live and lay in bed like a dead man.

“They say he cries every day, begging to be killed.”

“…The man who once seemed impossible to kill…”
“Guess he can’t stand the gap between the perfect man in his head and the wreck he really is.”
“Because he can’t move?”
“That too. But mostly because lying in bed, all he can do is remember. Over and over.”
“…I’d think he’d be self-absorbed.”
“He sang love songs every day—‘my love, my love’—and then he found out his true self was just a man crawling in the dirt to survive. No wonder he doesn’t want to live. Too ashamed.”

Keith chuckled.

“If Lindquist wanted, he could give him prosthetics, let him walk again. But Linus himself won’t try. Don’t feel guilty about cutting off more than his arm.”
“I don’t.”

If he could still walk, he’d be chasing me. Linus was not someone you could afford to spare.

“…Good. That’s a relief.”

Once, I had thought Linus and Jang Hyunji truly loved each other. They had done horrible things to me, but I had almost admired how deeply they seemed tied together. That ruthless man had been weak only toward her, seemed even devoted.

But in the end, it had only ever been “seemed.”

“Do you know where your father went?”
“I just heard his business collapsed.”
“He went to Dagrave.”

Keith laughed, and I couldn’t help but laugh too. He had refused to live there when Grandmother was alive.

“He tried living quietly in the countryside, but it didn’t work out. He sold the estate and left. No one knows where. But he’s alive. By the way, Enoch bought your grandmother’s house back.”
“Father went alone? What about Grace?”
“That woman…”

Keith glanced at me cautiously.

“Your father abandoned her.”
“He abandoned Grace?”
“She was left alone in the mansion when the bank took it…”
“She died?”
“Not dead. …Locked in a mental hospital.”
“…Who pays for her?”
“Marquis Ingram. She’s still the mother of his child.”

That surprised me.

The curse that sealed their magic should have worn off in three years. As long as they hadn’t sided with Linus, that would have been enough. I never meant to drive them insane. Keith seemed unsettled too.

I forced my tone flat.
“Pity for the child, but it doesn’t erase what she did.”
“…That’s true.”

Keith was the son of a doctor from Dagrave. He knew—everyone was someone’s child. Having one didn’t excuse crimes.

Keith asked how I had lived these four years with Laila. What had I done all that time?

“…Cooking.”
“You? Cooking?”
“Housework too.”
“You? The girl who couldn’t fold clothes?”
“I’m good now. I even do laundry.”
“That’s what four years taught you…?”

I insisted I hadn’t done much, but Keith looked at me like I’d achieved something amazing.

“I even helped with farm work.”
“You?”
“…Keith, now you’re annoying me.”

I knew I was guilty, so I endured most of his needling. But there was a limit. He smirked.

“The girl who said she never sewed a button, doing farm work?”
“That was only when my hands didn’t work. I knew how.”
“Fine, let’s say that’s true. Still, instead of running off to live in comfort, you two escaped and put yourself through farm work?”
“Laila didn’t make me. I chose it.”
“Still, she had you farming.”
“I got paid.”

Compared to Laila’s brutal training, farm work was nothing.

Now, I could do many things on my own. I was used to being alone. I could fight, reconcile, know what I liked and disliked. I no longer begged for love or crumbled without approval.

But still…

I was terrified of Enoch.

I didn’t need to ask where Keith was taking me. It was obvious—straight to Enoch. My steps grew heavy.

“Enoch… he must be furious.”
“Hard to say.”

Keith gave me a sly smile.

“You made me angry. He’ll be worse.”
“…I’m me, and Enoch’s Enoch. If I had just written one letter in those two years, would you have been this angry?”
“No. I would’ve let it go.”

I looked at him with a pang in my chest. Too easy, both of them…

We soon arrived at the Hains Merchant Guild headquarters. The workers had already gone, and the building was dark. Keith held my hand and strode inside, straight to the living quarters.

At the door, he turned to me. His look made my heart tremble.

“Are you scared?”

I nodded.

He lifted my hand, studying it quietly. Then he sighed.

“I’ve imagined a thousand times what it would be like… if it had just been the three of us.”

“…What?”
“Nothing. Forget it. Go in.”

Keith pushed the door open.