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“Yelena!”

Kaywhin ran towards his wife without stopping.

“Kay…”

She spotted him and seemed to recognize him, but she promptly lost consciousness and slumped to the ground.

Immediately after, Sidrion appeared after using a small vehicle to track their coordinates.

“Kaywhin.”

Kaywhin didn’t even spare a glance at his friend who had called his name.

He held his immobile wife in his arms and stayed still, as if he had frozen.

“Duke.”

“…”

“Excuse me, Your Excellency. Hey.”

“…”

“Hey! Get a grip! Are you just going to stay like that? Shouldn’t you take your wife somewhere safe?”

It took that last sentence for Kaywhin to just barely return to his senses.

He blinked and let out the breath he was holding deep in his lungs, only just realizing that he had stopped breathing.

“…Thanks. Take us to the castle.”

“…All right.”

Sidrion transported them to the castle in an instant.

The castle’s doctor examined Yelena and reassured, “She’s okay. Her neck may be bruised for a few days, but other than that, everything is fine.”

“There’s no contusion either?”

“No, there is not. It seems she fainted from relief, so she should wake up very soon.”

As if to give credibility to the doctor’s evaluation, Yelena’s complexion didn’t look too bad, despite her state of unconsciousness.

“Good work.”

Kaywhin remained after the doctor left.

His wife laid in bed peacefully, as if asleep.

Kaywhin gazed at her and then lowered his head.

He was foolish.

He realized how ignorant, arrogant, and idiotic he was.

Kaywhin grasped his wife’s hand. It held no strength, but it was warm.

As if trying to feel its warmth, Kaywhin placed her hand on his cheek and closed his eyes.

When he was young, he once saw a bird as he was walking through the castle corridors.

The bird had flown in from an open window. Kaywhin broke off a small piece of the cookie he was holding. The bird pecked busily at the cookie with its small beak.

The young Kaywhin stared at the bird for a long time. And then he went to his father and told him that he wanted to raise a bird.

Kaywhin’s father stared at the boy and said, “Give me five reasons why you must raise a bird.”

Nothing particularly sparked Kaywhin’s desire to raise a bird. He had just found the bird pecking at his cookie cute.

Of course, he couldn’t come up with five valid reasons for wanting to raise a bird, much less five reasons that his father would approve of.

“The bird… is cute…”

“Don’t give me such an emotional reason. Give me an objective and valid reason that’s persuasive.”

“…”

“You don’t have one? That’s right, you don’t need to raise a bird, but you want to. You must be punished for desiring unnecessary things. Emma, bring me the rod.”

That day, Kaywhin was beaten until he couldn’t stand.

And he learned.

If there isn’t a valid reason that is persuasive to others for something, then he doesn’t need it.

And if he doesn’t need it, then he mustn’t be greedy for it.

What he learned that day, that he wasn’t allowed to be ambitious, stuck with him and was reinforced throughout his adolescence.

Without realizing, he held it to his heart like a formula.

And so, he mistook it to be true.

“Kaywhin.”

There was no objective reason to persuade himself with.

This person, this voice.

“What happened? How long was I unconscious?”

He decided on his own that he didn’t need this gaze nor this warmth.

“Yelena.”

But sometimes, people don’t have a reason for needing someone.

“You might not remember, but you had asked me. If you were someone I needed.”

Even if you can’t give a reason, it just feels like you wouldn’t be able to bear not having that person by your side.

“I’ll give you my answer now.”

“Um…”

“Yes.”

“…”

“You are someone I need, my wife.”

He could be greedy.

Just the fact that she is who she is was all the reason he never wanted to let her go.

“I need you, Yelena.”

“…”

“So please don’t get hurt. Please continue staying by my side.”

Kaywhin locked eyes with his wife.

He felt an odd sense of fullness just from staring into her eyes.

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