Chapter 028

I noticed Evan furrowing one eyebrow as he looked at me.

His silent gaze, which seemed to say “really?” only made me more determined to enjoy my meal. I dipped my bread in the stew and ate with gusto.

Watching me intently, Evan subtly handed me his bread.

Perhaps it was because the only light illuminating our faces was the campfire in front of us. Evan’s expression, who was eating next to me, also seemed to relax little by little as I quickly emptied my bowl.

“Ah, I’m full.”

I said, feeling a pleasant warmth spread through me after finishing a bowl of stew and two pieces of bread.

“Please wait a moment.”

Evan, having also finished his meal, stood up and disappeared for a moment.

Before long, he returned with something bulky in his arms, just like before.

This time, he brought a thick, warm-looking fur blanket.

He opened the carriage door and nodded toward it, saying, “It’s chilly at night, so go inside and sleep.”

“And you?”

“I’m fine outside.”

Evan firmly shook his head and plopped down near the carriage.

I sat down on the ground and watched Evan, who had closed his eyes, before draping the blanket over his shoulders.

Feeling the weight of the blanket on his shoulders, he opened his eyes and looked at me as if asking what I was doing.

As I carefully wrapped the large blanket around him, I spoke up.

“You said it gets cold at night.”

“I don’t need it. Take it back…”

“Then let’s sleep in the carriage together. It’s spacious anyway.”

As I stood my ground, ready to take him to the carriage right away, Evan finally accepted the blanket quietly.

It seemed that he really didn’t want to be near me.

I didn’t feel very good for some reason.

“Well then, I’ll go to sleep. You sleep well too.”

“…Understood.”

Evan, looking at the blanket I had wrapped around him with a bewildered expression, nodded awkwardly.

Leaving him behind, I entered the carriage, covered myself with the blanket, and gently closed my eyes.

Perhaps because my body was exhausted from the carriage ride, I soon felt drowsiness wash over me.

Buzz—

The sound of insects chirping came through the window.

‘What time is it…?’

Having fallen asleep in the carriage, I looked around to check the time.

But all I could see, even when I opened my eyes, was darkness.

And the walls surrounding me on all sides.

The moment I realized that, my heart began to race and pound wildly.

“Gasp…”

Since ‘that accident,’ I have unconsciously avoided dark, enclosed spaces.

I shook my head vigorously to dispel the sounds of explosions and people screaming that echoed in my mind.

But the more I tried, the worse my condition became.

Clutching my chest, I desperately tried to open the carriage door.

“P-please, help me!”

“What’s wrong!”

Fortunately, Evan, who was nearby, noticed me and quickly got up and came over.

“Ugh, it’s… so dark, and everything is blocked.”

I gasped heavily, nearly clinging to his clothing.

The nightmare from my childhood that had suddenly overwhelmed me continued to constrict my breathing.

“Ugh…”

“Milady. Milady! Please, pull yourself together.”

A strong hand supported my weak, drooping body.

I faintly heard a curse muttered above me.

Through my trembling vision, I could see Evan’s face, clearly flustered and unsure of what to do.

“Ah…”

I stared blankly up at Evan’s face while still clinging to him.

His brow was deeply furrowed, his lips trembling, and his gaze fixed on me. For a moment, it felt as if I had returned to the day I died, his expression so identical.

“Milady! Where does it hurt?”

His voice conveyed an anxious emotion that reached me directly.

But for some reason, as I continued to listen to him, my body gradually began to calm down.

“This won’t do. We need to get someone who knows medicine right now.”

“I’m fine, just let me stay like this for a moment.”

I barely managed to stop Evan, who seemed ready to wake everyone at the campsite.

“Are you really feeling better?”

Evan, watching me take deep breaths as I started to calm down, asked in a heavy tone.

I gathered all my strength and nodded.

I was now sitting between Evan’s legs, facing the same direction as him.

I could feel his solid chest against my back.

To be honest, his embrace was dozens of times more comfortable and reassuring than the carriage seat.

When I lowered my gaze a bit, I saw Evan’s hand awkwardly resting on the ground.

Suddenly, I impulsively asked him, remembering the expression I had seen just moments ago.

“By the way… Have we met before?”

“……”

In fact, this was a question I wanted to ask Evan, who had saved me back then.

But seeing the desperate look he had just shown me, I found myself speaking without thinking.

After a few moments of silence in response to my question, he finally answered in a very quiet voice.

“How could a guy who’s spent his whole life on the battlefield possibly know a noble lady like you?”

His calm voice resonated softly in my ear.

Not being able to see his face behind me made me feel a bit frustrated.

After a few more minutes of silence passed, he asked me a question.

“Earlier… why did you act like that?”

I stared blankly at the nearby campfire before opening my mouth.

“I suddenly recalled a bad memory from my childhood. There was an accident.”

Eleven years ago, there was a large festival held for the countries in a friendly relationship with the Empire to promote unity. The festival took place in the Cloyts Kingdom, which was the most powerful at the time.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that high-ranking nobles and their families from all over the world visited the kingdom.

I also went there with my family.

At that time, I was eleven years old, and I went out to the center of the festivities with my oldest brother, who was the most protective of me, but we ended up caught in a terrorist attack.

Right after a huge explosion, amid people fleeing in terror, I got separated from my brother.

“Dahlia!”

“Brother!”

My brother was only two years older than me.

He tried desperately to hold onto me, but being just a child himself, he was swept away in the crowd.

“Left alone like that, I unfortunately got caught by the criminal group that carried out the terrorist attack. Um, and after that…”

Actually, that’s all I remember.

When I came to my senses, the group that had carried out the attack had already fled.

“I later heard that I was held by the terrorist group for about a week.”

Fortunately or unfortunately, I had lost my memory of the entire week I was held captive and was rescued without any recollection of it.

However, my parents couldn’t fully rejoice even after finding their missing child.

That was because my brother, who was supposed to be with me, couldn’t be found anywhere.

No matter how many people were mobilized, they couldn’t locate my brother, who had been swept away in the crowd.

From then on, as the days passed, discussions about my brother became taboo in our home.

‘I can hardly remember what my brother looked like now.’

The image of my brother gently patting my head long ago remained only as a fragmented memory.

“In any case, although I don’t remember it well, since the accident, I would often faint whenever I went to narrow and dark places. I used to hate it so much that I tried to find and eliminate the cause by recovering my lost memories, but it didn’t work out.”

After finishing my story, I felt the atmosphere had grown heavy, and I wondered if I had shared too much.

Then, breaking the silence, Evan spoke in a low voice.

“It might be better that you don’t remember.”

“Why?”

“Erasing your own memories means… it was something you didn’t want to remember.”

After finishing his words, he muttered softly that it was rather fortunate.