6. An Inseparable Relationship

What kind of relationship we have, he asks.

“Huh.”

Adeline’s reddened ear was fully exposed by the hand sweeping back her hair.

Her shoulders hunched even more at his hot breath.

“What? Th-that……”

“You said we were on respectful terms. Go ahead and tell me…… please.”

Adeline’s distant mind gradually returned.

The man pressed against her was no longer the threatening duke. He was just a man who had lost his memory.

Adeline had no idea what kind of relationship she should tell him about, so she decided to shift the responsibility.

“You should remember it yourself.”

‘Our relationship? Heirs of hostile families, perhaps.’

Adeline muttered her true feelings that she couldn’t possibly speak aloud.

On the surface, she put on a sad face like a tragic heroine.

“If I have to tell you myself when you’ve forgotten me…… that would be too miserable.”

‘How can I tell you I’m the person who almost died at your hands?’

Adeline’s inner thoughts and actual words didn’t match.

Her quiet voice with lingering echoes and downcast eyes created a pitiful atmosphere. Just as Adeline wanted.

She thought herself too shameless, but what could she do? This was all for survival.

‘Besides, I saved your life.’

If not for the reader’s comment Adeline had seen in her previous life, the duke would have died a lonely, violent death here.

Of course, Adeline had saved the duke to survive herself, but regardless, the duke was alive thanks to her.

But the duke, unaware of Adeline’s dark intentions, showed bewilderment in his eyes.

As if things weren’t going as he wanted.

“Still…… it might help my memory return if you tell me something.”

The duke openly displayed his confusion at Adeline’s statement.

“Do you need words? You and I are in an inseparable relationship.”

She meant it sincerely.

Before he lost his memory, they were from hostile families. And after losing his memory, they were deeply entangled as people who would save each other’s lives.

Moreover.

‘For me, it’s more helpful if that memory doesn’t return.’

But unable to say that outright, Adeline just smiled faintly while making ambiguous statements.

In truth, if this battle of nerves continued, she would be the one in trouble.

So she quickly changed the subject.

“Oh my, your shoulder is bleeding……”

Perhaps because the unhealed wound had been in water too long.

Bright red bloody water was slowly spreading from his shoulder, across his chest, and down to his abs.

The bloody water, turning pink as it diluted in water further down, emphasized the scars etched into his abs.

‘This looks like a burn mark……”

Adeline unconsciously placed her hand on a fresh cut on his sculpted abs.

Seeing how he had been threatened by someone, she thought his life hadn’t been smooth, but…

‘You’ve lived a life as tumultuous as mine.’

Her life on the verge of death at her fiancé’s hands, and the duke who nearly died from a poisoned arrow—they were in the same boat.

An emotion, whether pity or something else, suddenly welled up.

Her hand moved little by little. The duke’s face grew increasingly red at Adeline’s unceasing touch.

Unable to bear the embarrassment any longer, he cleared his throat.

“Ahem……”

At the sound of his throat clearing, Adeline’s gaze, which had been traveling downward endlessly, turned upward again.

“Ah!”

Adeline, coming to her senses, escaped from the duke’s embrace as if fleeing.

“We need to stop the bleeding. Um, hurry up and finish washing!”

Adeline shouted into the air and disappeared from the bathroom in an instant.

And the bathroom she had dashed out of was enveloped in silence as if nothing had happened.

“Haah…… that woman.”

The duke sighed, throwing off the large towel wrapped around his head as if it bothered him.

What kind of relationship could they possibly have for her to stare so intently at his naked body without any hesitation?

The duke looked down at his body, not covered by a single thread.

The places where the woman’s hands had touched seemed to burn hot.

Feeling something becoming stiff, the duke shook his head.

Fearing he would be completely entangled with that small woman.

He poured cold water over his head to cool down the rising heat.

⁕⁕⁕

The duke barely finished showering, but his right arm couldn’t move freely due to the shoulder injury.

There was a limit to how thoroughly he could dry himself alone.

He didn’t know how familiar Adeline was with his naked body, but as someone without memories, he couldn’t step outside the bathroom soaking wet.

So he had just managed to put on pants with great difficulty.

Drip, drip, water droplets he couldn’t wipe off fell from his body, leaving a trail.

Thinking he would soak the carpet at this rate, Adeline grabbed a towel and rushed to him.

“You should ask me to dry you. Your pants are all wet.”

Adeline held up the towel and shook the moisture from the duke’s hair.

His build was so large that Adeline had to stand on tiptoe to barely reach his head.

“There. Change those wet pants again.”

Adeline, thinking she had removed all the moisture, lowered her gaze to his pants.

“It’s fine! I deliberately wore them like this because it’s cool!…… please.”

The duke waved his hands, thinking this woman might naturally undress his pants too.

A mischievous smile spread across Adeline’s lips at his flustered appearance.

“I wasn’t planning to help you change your pants?”

Adeline pulled the duke, who was blankly staring into space, and walked to the sofa.

“Come here and sit down. I’ll bandage you again.”

Adeline patted the sofa seat next to her, gesturing.

The duke, watching Adeline change the bandage with now-familiar hands, casually asked.

“Are you really not going to tell me?”

“You should remember it yourself.”

Is it bothering you that much?

The duke seemed to be continuously guessing about their relationship.

“I can’t remember anything at all, are we such a special relationship?”

To the duke’s question, Adeline answered as if it were obvious.

She had become even more shameless, as if she no longer felt any pangs of conscience.

“Of course. We’re quite close.”

Adeline continued speaking, fully aware that the duke was misunderstanding.

“We’ve known each other well for a long time.”

The ill-fated connection between their families that had been entangled even before Adeline and Casis were born.

“We’ve watched each other. And we have deep feelings for each other enough to be together like this.”

Adeline had been watching the duke since the moment she realized she was the lady of Marquis Credion family who would die at her fiancé’s hands.

Because she believed he would someday become her savior.

“It must be fate. We’re too important to each other.”

A fate where they must save each other.

And.

‘I’ve already saved you.’

“I really have no one but you, Mel.”

Adeline deliberately emphasized her words, hoping her sincerity would be conveyed.

‘So you must save me too, don’t forget.’

Adeline hadn’t lied, but she hadn’t stated the clear facts either.

She was just being vague and ambiguous, but the man’s misunderstanding deepened.

“There. All done.”

Adeline, who had perfectly wrapped the bandage, picked up the shirt she had taken out.

“I’ll do that myself.”

If he asked for help changing clothes twice, he’d have to take another cold bath.

The duke, who snatched the shirt from Adeline’s hand and put it on himself, was puzzled.

“Why is this clothes so……”

The clothes Adeline had prepared were too small, far too small.

It was because she had hurriedly pulled out an old shirt that had been stored in an old wardrobe that was originally in this villa.

‘Why doesn’t it fit him?’

She thought it would naturally be the duke’s clothes since the villa belonged to the Torpeo ducal family.

But it seems the duke hadn’t visited this villa for much longer than Adeline had thought.

She had brought clothes that looked like they might fit, but the duke’s build was much more robust than expected.

“Well…… the clothes all shrunk when I washed them.”

How could there be no clothes that fit the duke if this was where he originally lived?

Adeline cleverly came up with an excuse.

“Hahaha, let’s go buy new clothes tomorrow!”

“You did the laundry yourself? How could clothes shrink this much……”

She needed to divert the duke’s gaze as he tried to look down and examine the shirt carefully.

Thinking her lie might be exposed if he looked closely, Adeline hurriedly grabbed both of the duke’s cheeks to make him look at her.

“Not ‘you’ but ‘Del’! How much longer will you hurt me?”

“Oh. Right. Del……”

The duke blinked at having his face suddenly grabbed. Adeline then put on an expression as if deeply hurt.

“Let’s go to sleep now.”

The duke nodded obediently at Adeline’s gloomy expression.

“Alright…… please. Del.”

Adeline took the shirt away. Then she immediately laid the duke down on the bed and left the bedroom.

That was close.

After leaving the bedroom, Adeline looked at the crumpled shirt in her hand.

‘Good acting.’

Adeline was proud of herself.

She hid all the remaining clothes in the wardrobe in places where they wouldn’t be noticed.

⁕⁕⁕

Adeline was pacing the corridor around the bedroom.

She had left him in the bedroom, eager to get away, but an unforeseen problem arose.

The house had been empty for so long that there was only one tidied bedroom.

In this hot summer.

The only room with cool air flowing through was the bedroom where the duke was now.

While staying with the duke, Adeline had been taking short naps at the edge of the bed or using the sofa as a bed.

Today was no different. Unable to bear the heat, Adeline slightly opened the door to check the situation inside the bedroom.

The bedroom was always quiet, as the duke had no bad sleeping habits, befitting a duke.

As she quietly moved inside, a small groan was heard.

“Mel, are you still awake?”

The duke gave no answer to her question.

Adeline rushed to him urgently as the groans became clearer as she approached.

“Ugh……”

The duke, whom she approached, was covered in cold sweat.

“Are you in pain? Try to wake up.”

Adeline tried to shake the duke, who was painfully furrowing his brow, to wake him.

“Why are you sweating so much again…… I’ll get a wet towel.”

She was about to run to get something to wipe Adeline, who was again drenched in sweat.

The hem of her skirt was caught as she tried to turn around.

“No…… Don’t go. Please…… Please don’t go.”

Adeline couldn’t leave at the voice that barely managed to plead.

She sat back down on the edge of the bed where the duke was lying.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

It was when she was wiping the sweat from his forehead with her hand in urgency.

“Don’t leave me alone. Mother.”

The duke, who spoke again, tightly grabbed even Adeline’s wrist that was wiping his sweat.

Caught by him, Adeline couldn’t move.

In the end, Adeline gave up and lay down obliquely beside the duke.