Alessia sprang to her feet, the wet towel landing on the floor—although she didn’t have the time to care about it.

“Why are you getting up?”

Once she came to her senses, she immediately saw her surroundings clearly.

The Kaon Ferdinand in front of her was real.

How? Why? Why was he…?

There were so many things she wanted to ask.

Kaon naturally picked up the towel and began to fold it, the sight distracting her from her thoughts. As if that wasn’t enough, he put it in a bowl of water that she had no idea had even been there and wrung it out peacefully.

“The towel… Did you do it?”

“No,” he denied, almost too quickly, then added, “The maid must have prepared it. I went on an inspection, so I’ve only just arrived.”

“You went on an inspection?” she asked straight away.

Alessia had thought that morning hadn’t come yet, but if Kaon had already gone on an inspection, that meant it was already evening.

She was the only mage left in Ferdinand now that the one from the Tower left as soon as his contract period ended and before the new year.

He lightly pressed down on her shoulders the moment she tried forcing herself to stand and check the time. It was obvious that he had only used a fraction of his strength to do it, weak as she was at the moment.

“Nothing bad happened. Our knights are not so incompetent, you know.”

Alessia bit her lip fiercely, feeling terrible for not taking care of her body properly.

If Ingelos ever requested that she return early, she was hoping that Ferdinand would step up and oppose it.

It was so pathetic that she couldn’t even solidify her position by showing a perfect appearance. Perhaps her cousins were right after all when they said that she lacked instinctive, innate abilities.

The building sense of shame, which she had been trying to ignore the entire time, quickly enveloped her.

“Why are you trying so hard?”

The wet towel was put back on her forehead. She glanced up and saw Kaon, his expression in the darkness complicated.

“You don’t have to go that far. It won’t make that much difference if you don’t work so hard.”

“…”

Alessia silently wondered why he was asking her those questions. Wasn’t it better for him if she worked hard? Did he even need to understand her reasoning?

Besides, the explanation was simple. She had to look good. That way, she could buy some time until she could permanently escape her loathsome family.

And also…

‘Because you need me.’

The people of Ferdinand had been the first to give thanks to her, to her who had been treated as an incompetent fool all her life. Here, Alessia realized for the first time that someone might want her around. Her days were not spent meaninglessly, and she was able to live without being afraid of being hurt again.

Kaon Ferdinand would never know how great of a change that was.

“It’s not like the people will know about everything you do,” he added.

“…But I know about it,” she replied firmly. “I know, and that’s all I need.”

Alessia always worked hard. She’d always tried to do her best, unwilling to give up even after being sarcastically told to die. She’d put in the effort to control her mana, to study for days and days in order to fit in even just for a little bit, to read books silently so as not to be beaten up.

Even if no one knew that she was trying so hard, at least she did. Because of that, she was ashamed of her incompetence, but not of herself.

“Since I always work hard, I thought it would be nice to be of any help…”

Alessia always lived hard. I always tried to live somehow. He didn’t give in even after dozens of sarcasm telling him to die.

Efforts to generate magical powers, efforts to study Gore for days and days in order to fit into the world of wizards even a little bit, efforts to read random magic books while getting beaten up for not messing around… .

Even if no one knew about her hard work, she knew it herself. So even though I was ashamed of my incompetence, I wasn’t ashamed.

“Since I work hard at everything, I thought it would be nice if I could be of any help…”

And… honestly, there was now one more person who knew about what she was doing.

‘Kaon Ferdinand, you said that you knew…’

She closed her eyes, suppressing her desire to be recognized.

***

The chaos of winter passed and the gentle breeze of spring blew through the open windows, caressing Kaon’s cheeks.

Leonida had called him to her office for the first time in a while.