* * *

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!”

<Nice to see you!>

Fire, who had been napping in the garden, barked cheerfully when he saw me, then yawned once and lay back down.

“Woof! Woof!”

<Have fun!>

...Thankfully, Zahid didn’t ask me to translate.

Come to think of it, it had been ages since I came to the Dyfenril ducal estate. Not since I barged in nine years ago and shoved an engagement 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.

“Come on.”

He gently took my hand and led me through the estate.

After proudly showing me around for a while, he walked up the stairs and said,

“This is... your floor.”

“Huh? Did you mean ‘your room’?”

“No. I meant your floor. Every room on this floor is yours.”

I blinked and opened the nearest door.

Inside were clothes, accessories, books, and simple amusements.

The next room, and the next, and the next were all the same.

“I bought them one by one over time.”

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 remembered this from Fire’s memories.

When he couldn’t bear his longing for me, he’d buy things meant for me—just to fill the momentary emptiness.

“Of course, I figured you might be sick of these kinds of grand gestures. The Noart family’s always been excessive when it comes to this stuff.”

Zahid spoke softly, looking at me.

“Still... there were days I couldn’t endure unless I did something 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 mess, 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 time 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 me like that, and I’d run off without knowing anything, going on an outing with Linna.

So he chased after me—only to find me receiving a confession from another man...

“From a long time 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 come home with me.”

Now that I thought about it, Zahid hadn’t said that just once or twice.

Maybe... he had been waiting desperately for this very moment for a long, long time.

The moment 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 time.

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 me, when he saw me with that strange old classmate, when he realized I hadn’t remembered 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 something even more important, for even longer.”

Oh. So this was what people meant by walking in someone else’s shoes.

Holding onto a promise alone, staying at the agreed-upon place, waiting in solitude...

That had all been me before.

“I didn’t know... that it could be so suffocatingly painful, so lonely, so bitter, and at the same time 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 times where you’re just supposed to say you did.”

“I don’t really want social advice from the people around me—especially not you.”

“Then go get advice from that muscle-headed rowing team captain.”

“You mean 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 me on the cheek.

“Bickering over nothing like this.”

“Yeah. Definitely better than bickering to the death.”

The fact that wasn’t just a metaphor but literal reality was horrifying in retrospect.

Zahid gently led me again, this time 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 time 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 same.”

“...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 me up in his arms. He set me 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 annulment 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 me. I’m sure I’m right.”

As I sank into those old memories, 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 something that rich older sister suddenly gave me 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, remember?”

“You said I was rich, didn’t you? So don’t feel pressured.”

I beamed and nodded.

I really wanted to interrupt—but every word Zahid spoke was something I’d said in the past.

So my lips closed on their own.