# 13
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At that moment, I heard several urgent footsteps. Soon Merlin and two men who appeared to be doctors appeared.
“Merlin!”
“Ma’am, you’ve been waiting for a while!”
Merlin ran to Evelyn with an umbrella. One of the doctors behind her asked Evelyn,
“Is this the patient?”
"Yes, it looks like he was stabbed in the arm. I'm not sure how long he's been here, but he was out in the rain and his body temperature likely dropped dramatically."
"Thank you for informing us. We'll take care of the treatment, so you can go home, ma'am."
The doctors didn't seem to recognize Fenris' face. His face was a mess, and honestly, unless they were high-ranking nobles, they wouldn't have many chances to see him in person.
Evelyn nodded.
When Fenris disappeared from her sight, she felt the tension slowly ease.
Merlin noticed that Evelyn looked worried and said,
“Ma’am, you should be comfortable. We’ve done what we can, so let’s hurry back.”
Evelyn took her eyes away from Fenris and replied
“Yes...”
* * *
Returning to the palace, Evelin changed out of her wet clothes and drank a warm cup of cocoa.
“Oh, that was really scary.”
She was feeling dizzy with tension, worried that something would happen to Fenris.
She never wanted to get involved with Fenris, but it's not like she was okay with him dying in front of her. She just didn't want to feel guilty.
However, I felt much better about how she handled it. Fenris has been saved, and he will never know that she was the one who helped him.
Suddenly, an idea came to Evelin's mind.
“…the handkerchief.”
But she shook her head.
It was unnecessary worry. As she wrapped the handkerchief around his arm, there was no way he could recognize her from that.
'More importantly, what kind of fight did Fenris have with Noserton to end up so bloody? Even in the struggle for the throne, princes enjoy their dignity. Noston wouldn't have sent someone to stab Fenris just to make fun of him falling off the horse, would he?'
As Evelin clicked her tongue inwardly, she saw a carriage stop outside the window. It was the carriage carrying Differin.
Evelyn sat at the desk in her bedroom, got up and went downstairs.
Unlike before, Evelin would now often go to greet Devrin when he returned home.
Likewise, when their eyes met, he would offer a simple greeting and practice some social skills.
They hadn't become particularly close, but since they were a nominal couple and related to the family name in this grand palace, it was best that they at least greet each other.
When she reached the first floor, she saw Devrin shaking rainwater out of his hair.
"I had returned."
Evelyn approached him with a bright smile. Devrin took a look at Evelin and said
“It's raining hard today.”
“Yes, I went out today and was caught by sudden rain.”
Dyffrin's eyebrows arched slightly.
“You went out?”
She would sometimes walk outside the palace when the weather was nice, but she didn't feel the need to inform Dyffryn of her daily activities, so it seemed to him that her going out seemed quite unusual.
“I received a message saying new fabric had arrived at the dress shop, so I went to sew a dress.”
Devrin nodded. While he was doing this, a light leaf fluttered in his hair.
'Didn't he use an umbrella?'
His hair was completely wet, as were his shoulders.
Knowing his indifferent personality, it made sense, but still in such heavy rain…
Evelin thought that Devrin's personality was really strange, so she reached out her hand to remove the paper from his hair.
Since he was so tall, Evelin had to stand on her toes a little.
“There she is.”
She succeeded in grabbing the paper stuck in his hair.
Devrin suddenly grabbed Evelin's wrist suddenly.
“Huh…?”
Devrin pulled her hand, which held the paper, close to his face, as if he were about to kiss the back of her hand.
But then, completely unexpected words came out of his mouth.
“The smell of blood.”
His eyes darkened and flashed for a moment.
“Are you injured somewhere?”
Evelin quickly pulled her hand out of his grip and hid it behind her back.
'How could he smell blood?'
Earlier, when she wrapped the handkerchief around Fenris' arm, it got some blood on it, but she had washed it well long ago.
Evelin put the hand she was hiding behind her to her nose and snorted. There was no smell at all.
‘…. What is this abnormal sense of smell?
Evelin glanced at him.
She didn't want to talk about what happened today, but for some reason, Devrin was looking at her with a rather frightening look, so she felt like she should explain even briefly.
“This is not my blood. Earlier, I helped an injured person and some of his blood fell on me.”
Dyfferin's expression was clearly unimpressed.
“Did you help someone who was injured?”
“I was about to get into the carriage, when I found a man lying in disarray in the corner of the alley. I couldn’t pretend not to see him, so I helped him.”
Evelin did not mention the fact that the man was the second prince of the empire. Since no one knew him, it seemed natural that she wouldn't recognize him either.
A frown blossomed on Dyffrin's face as if he had eaten something bitter, and then he spoke.
“Next time, don't get involved in such things. You might get involved in unpleasant things as well. Especially...”
“Privately..?”
"If the other person is a man, even more so. Men tend to interpret unintended kindness as they please."
Although he was a man himf, he had a lot to say.
Evelin didn't particularly agree with Dyffrin's warnings, but because she thought she would never encounter a bloodied and collapsed person again, she answered obediently.
“Understood. I will be more careful in the future.”
As she was trying to go up to the second floor, Dyffrin's voice came again.
“Evelyn.”
Evelin turned her head questioningly.
"Did you eat dinner?"
“Yes, I had it.”
The clock was already past eight. Evelyn had long since eaten her dinner.
"Understood."
He seemed to be showing his annoyance by the way he took off his gloves.
'Is it possible that he wanted to ask me to have dinner with him?'
Since the plague had subsided, Dyffryn had been coming home late again, so they had not dined together for a while.
Now that Evelin thought about it, he went home earlier than usual today.
Dyffrin took off his gloves and outer coat. He was about to go upstairs. When he noticed Evelin staring at him, he paused for a moment.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Evelyn shook her head with a smile.
"nothing."
***
Defrin went to the bathroom attached to his room to shower, then made his way to the dining room downstairs.
When he got down, someone was already sitting at the table.
"Why did you take so long to shower? I've been waiting for a while."
It was Evelyn who spoke quietly.
Devrin looked at Evelin, who was sitting at the dining table, with a somewhat strange expression.
After reading his clear expression, she answered on her own.
“I was getting hungry as time went by, so I wanted to have a simple snack as well.”
In front of Evelin, oatmeal cookies and lemon tea were placed. Devrin looked silently at the desserts, then sat down at the dining table.
“Eat.”
As Evelyn urged, Devrin picked up the spoon.
She glanced at him as he started his meal with a biscuit in her mouth.
At first, Evelyn was going to let Dyffrin eat his dinner alone, but for some reason he seemed to want to share the meal with her, so she ended up going to the dining room, using her hunger as an excuse.
But she now realizes that her conclusion that Defrin wanted to have dinner with her was wrong
If he really wanted to spend time with her, he wouldn't have been quietly eating soup like this.
Evelyn watched Devrin quietly eat dinner. I was bored so I decided to start a conversation.
“Why do you come home so late these days?”
Although Defrin did not like to talk during meals, he usually gave at least a simple response when asked about something.
“There were works at the Imperial Palace.”
“What kind of business?”
Defrin seemed reluctant to speak, as if he was hiding an important secret.
“Is it business you can't tell me about?”
Evelin asked again, her eyes sparkling with curiosity, hoping to hear something interesting.
“There has been a great dispute between Crown Prince Noserton and Prince Fenris recently.”
Evelyn was relieved that Dyfferin had opened up and shared what had happened with her, rather than closing in like an oyster.
However, Evelyn paused for a moment when Devryn mentioned Fenris' name.
She didn't consider him very important yet, but then she remembered that Dyffryn was one of Prince Noserton's strongest supporters.
Noston and Dyffryn were distant cousins. As proof, they both shared the same royal blonde hair and blue eyes.
Therefore, it was natural for Dyffryn's relationship with Fenris to be tense.
In the original story, when Fenris became involved with Evelyn, Dyffryn began to hate him even more. It was not out of jealousy, but because he thought that Fenris was looking down on him by interfering with his wife.
“I see...”
Evelyn responded briefly, then fell silent. Talking about Dyffryn and Fenris was, after all, an uncomfortable topic for her.
There was silence again.
At the end of the meal, Devrin called out to Evelin in a low voice.
“Evelyn.”
Evelin was surprised that her name was suddenly mentioned, so she answered hesitantly,
“Yes?”
He met her gaze slowly.
“Is there anything you would like?”
Evelin's hand stopped in the air as she was about to pick up a piece of biscuit.